Finally! The first post of 2018!

2018 got off to a rough start, but I'm back!  Finally over the flu and back in Fort Worth.  And, maybe, finally back at work.

The monthly NTAQ meeting, as always, was inspirational and thoroughly enjoyable.  Our challenge for January was to create a fiber piece inspired by this piece by Georges Braque, a 20th century Parisian painter:  

Georges Braque, "The Echo," 1960

 The six members attending the meeting had wildly different interpretations of the piece.  Wendy (bottom center) focussed on a small portion of the painting (the area around the red triangle on the bottom right), several members played with the stylized branch near the top of the painting, and some (me, upper right) just grabbed some fabrics and started slashing and sewing.

Here is my piece.  It is 15"w x 19"h.  And, honestly, it's pretty dreadful.  I just slashed, sewed, slashed, sewed and slashed until I ran out of time.  But the last two months have been personally dreadful (I'm going to sum it up by saying it featured two funerals and the flu) and I was happy to have something to show at the meeting.  And, I have to say, it felt good to sew.

I might like it better if I cropped most of it away and made it into a post card sized piece.:

I think what I like best are the twiggy white lines on the black that runs across the bottom of the piece. If I cropped it further, they might be even more of a focal point:

Or I could slash it even more:

Ah, the magic of photoshop.  I like this best so far.  I may need to get out the rotary cutter....

There were other wonderful things shown at the meeting.  Bethany had been busy ice dyeing folded fabric.  She got some fabulous results:

 Wendy made a piece using shot cottons:

Jaye showed a gorgeous hand painted, hand stitched century plant quilt:

Michelle showed this cool piece.  The background is the wrong side of an upholstery fabric, the woven section and the scattered gold flecks are made of twist ties.

The group decided to do a 30 Day challenge.  One small creative effort per day.  Once I decide what I'm doing, I'll post my daily effort on Instagram.  

I have been in the studio a bit during the last couple of weeks.  Working for an hour or two when I had the energy.  Piecing this:

The little Cleveland Browns pennants were a Christmas gift from my brother.  I thought they enhanced the quilt.  Complimentary colors, and all of that.