Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Green Challenge

"Green Can Be Any Color…As Long As You Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse and Restore!" Yes, this is a very long quilt name but I like it.

For my “Green” challenge, I decided to interpret it as recycling. Men’s cotton shirts provided the fabric and the buttons; the batting was left over from an old project; the beads were all from a garage sale necklace; and I used sheets of foil that were so used up that it was hard to get anything off them.

I just sewed the fabric into strips and then zigzagged the seams for very simple quilting. Although the quilt was set horizontally, I wanted a vertical feel to it. I then cut the insets for the bead fringe and faced it. I made a stencil for the large word out of freezer paper. It was at that point that I realized I didn’t want any of the color green in the piece and so I decided to use orange and gold against the brown background. The buttons were an easy addition although I had to cut buttons off more shirts than I had used for the fabric. I stamped the words Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse and Restore with ink and also foiled the words at this point, but it would have worked better had I done it before it was quilted. Some of the words "sunk" into the batting and became somewhat unreadable. Live and learn! The bead fringe was done last and I painted a few of the beads gold to go with the foiling.

For me, this was more of a challenge than the “color” one because it was such (IMO) drab colors, yet I ended up really liking it. I can’t wait for the next word!

Lisa Kay



6 comments:

  1. I really like this and I am glad you didn't put green in it. I like that it is recycled and what a clever way to use those shirt fronts. I cut the buttons off..have a jar full... would have been better off using them the way you have. Very innovative and certainly fits the theme, however it is interpreted.

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  2. Looks like you had a great time making this piece! It is so fun and full of detail. The more I look, the more I see. Great job!

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  3. I love that you put the word Green in red. Makes my mind do a double take. I also love your use of buttons and trim. What fun.

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  4. Good job. I think it works so well because of the change in values. It keeps it alive......so alive and green. And fun. Helen

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  5. I really like this piece....it's inspirational for me.
    Sue

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  6. Love your train of thought and choice of words. Would really like to see this in person, the details beckon me to come closer. I love when a piece of art offers me one visual experience at a distance and another as I move in closer.

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