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Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Hawaiian Flamingos an impressionist quilt

It may be small but it represents a lot. ( 10" X 12.5")
My friend Sonja in Hawaii, is an artist who also teaches painting on fabric, and got the great idea to send me some scraps. Tiny pieces, odd pieces, strings that tied the sweet soap she included
all that in a little bento box with two ti leaves!
I pressed all of it, even the little strings holding the soap, and arranged it to make myself see a landscape.
I have found if I think about a certain thing in nature while making an abstract work, it comes out looking like it, in this case, tropics.

It took some play to best use all the fabric, sew this to that, then the next one to the union, then those three to another... then I saw a little dot of random color on the peach fabric, and cut a flamingo... then another... and...
then it was time to over-quilt it.

I used cotton threads this time, variegated on the sand, added in a little piece of blue left over for a small eddy in the sand, zig zagged some legs on.





see the palm tree quilted in? The pink blob looked like a feather so that's how I quilted it. I put the tiny bit of green scrap left over for a leaf as that area seemed to want some green. Look how tiny the red strip is when pieced in... finishing about 1/4"
I just put the applique's down and stitch over. I do not like fusible, I do like texture in an art piece. I would turn edges in a bed quilt or one to enter in competitions. I love the rough immediacy of these.
Look how the little eye shows up from the splatter. I also like the tan thread I was going to just baste them on with until I saw how painterly they looked with it.
note the french knots in the sand
I like repetition in quilting lines

thank you Sonja for providing a wonderful prompt for me, I needed to lose myself in a project, and to stretch my imagination, to use my thread and machine, to remember how to play.

I painted with fabric that Sonja painted.
Spirals, waves, pebbles, feathers... layers... can't you just smell the ocean?

linking to these parties
design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
lovelaughquilt.mondays
Pink Saturday!
sewcanshe Saturdays
off the wall Fridays
can I get a whoop whoop Fridays 
tgiffriday
myquiltinfatuation Thursday
Esther's blog Wednesdays 
Let's be social Wednesdays 
 Free motion by the River Tuesdays    

21 comments:

  1. it's beautiful and they look like real !!!

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  2. Love it! I am so amazed how creative a true artist can be with such small things.

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  3. Hi LeeAnna!
    What a lovely creative surprise! And I love the contrast to what you must be seeing outside! This post should inspire more people!

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  4. What a delightful little bit of Hawaii on what must be a cold day in Colorado! Nice way to celebrate the kind gesture of one quilting friend sharing with another.

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  5. Lovely! While it's not Hawaii, we'll be on vacay to Mexico in about 3 weeks! This just made me look forward to it even more. xoxo

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  6. As I sit here watching the snowflakes drift down, your improv flamingo piece floats a warm zephyr through my mind. Lovely.
    Pat

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  7. That looks great! You're so creative. The quilting is beautiful - especially in the sand and flamingoes.

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  8. Fabulous! It must have been so much fun to get that little package and use it.

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  9. Those two small leaves came from my allspice tree, was hoping it would lend a fragrant note to the "fabric bento". You did a fine collage with what some people think of as landfill. Folks like us here love to see the possibilities in things, make and share. Glad you enjoyed the Prompt! love the mingos!!

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  10. That is so lovely, LeeAnna! I really enjoyed seeing all the details up close. I'm glad you were inspired by the pretty bunch of scraps!

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  11. I can definitely sense the water!

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  12. Thanks for the link to Sonja's blog. I enjoy a stroll through her work. LOVE what your did with her painted fabric scraps!! The eddy in the sand and the flamingo dipping its head in it is my favorite part of this beautiful little quilt.

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  13. That is amazing!!! That you can create something that beautiful with all those small scraps !! You are such a talented artist!

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  14. Hi LeeAnna, it's a really great art quilt. What fun to play with painted scraps that you didn't have to paint :-)

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  15. Lovely! I like that you imagined what you wanted to look like. Great concept for creativity.

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  16. A lovely art quilt. I love all the details, those french knots in the sand, your flamingos zigzagged legs!

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  17. LeeAnna, you are TRULY not afraid of color! That's gorgeous and delicious!

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