"Balance" - Fiber Art and Haiku - July 30, 2011

"Balance" - Fiber Art and Haiku -  July 30, 2011

Look at how you stand...
Life is full of challenges...
Maintain your balance...

    I designed and made this fiber  art piece to go with  a haiku about balance.  I used cotton fabric, fancy yarn and shells on this piece.

(un)balanced

Balance - yin and yang
Competing priorities
Pushing and pulling



This may be my favorite piece so far. It is "8.5 x 11" like my other pieces, but is not square - the quilting distorted the dimensions and so I left it that way.

July - Balance

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw our word for July was "The Ape Who Guards the Balance" (Amelia Peabody, anyone?)  A bit of research told me that the book title refers to Thoth, the ancient Egyptian deity who weighed the hearts of the deceased to determine their fates.

Using an ancient Egyptian god in a Japanese poetic form wasn't going to fly, nor did I want to make anything death themed, but those scales stuck with me.  Then I thought of juggling the things I have to do and the things I want to do.  I googled juggler images and turned up an Egyptian tomb painting of female jugglers.  Still ignoring the obvious sign from god to make an Egyptian sort of quilt, I came up with this one.

The juggler is based on the tomb painting (which is in the public domain), but the face and eye were modernized.  I drew the scales while looking at various scale images, and scanned a real skeleton key to trace.  They key bit came from a book-on-tape I was listening to at the time, can't think what now.  The line was "the key is balance".

Techniques include fused applique, stitched down with monofilament, machine quilting, and hand embroidery (the chains holding the scales).  The haiku is written with a Liquid Gold pen.


trying to juggle
too many balls in the night
balance is the key

July Haiku Art - Balance

What balance means to me these days is the attempt to put the mind and body into a balanced or integrated state as we do through Yoga practice.

My quilt incorporates the words: "Shanti" which means peace and "So Hum" .  So Hum is a mantra that we use for focus while doing deep breathing.

The Haiku

close your eyes breathe in

jasmine scented air swirling

find your center - stay

 

Shanti 2

 

Balance

My found haiku reads:

they float through the air
dance on the tips of their toes
The dancers take joy

Steam-A-Cheese

This is my first project for the Haiku Art Quilters, and I hope it is OK. I made a small quilt, only 5"x7", and it represents my dilemma. Do I stop to make meals, or do I continue to quilt? Ironed cheese, anyone?

Cooking and quilting,

I'm often torn between them.

Where is the balance?

Ann In Fallbrook,CA

balanced diet

Haiku -


A balanced diet -
Coffee, chocolate, chips and wine

Any arguments?

This bit of sillyness is made on handdyed background. The cake is velvet and metalic knit with beads as nuts. The wine is layered and painted with shadows. The chips are two layers of organza and one of tulle all bonded with misty fuse then heated with the heat gun for shaping. What a fun one this was!

YIN AND YANG

My Haiku for July : Balance

Perfect harmony

Masculine and Feminine

The Yin and the Yang

I simply drew a couple of Zentangle type symbols for my journal this month. Too many challenges at the moment, LOL.

Cherie

JULY PROMPT: BALANCE

It's time again for the word prompt...this months word given to us by Carole is...Balance. There are so many ways you can go with this one. I can't wait to see what turns up .

Remember the form is 5-7-5 syllables (for this first year at least). If you can do it in the week, great...if not, post when you can...it's never too late!

Cherie

"Stream" haiku and Fiber Art - June 30, 2011

"Stream" haiku and Fiber Art  - June 30, 2011

It runs through the land...
Gurgling in the sunlight...
Cool and refreshing...

June Haiku Art: Waterfalls

I love the June prompt word:  Waterways.  Having grown up on the Great Lakes and steeped in the history and lore of the St. Lawrence Seaway I immediately thought of Niagara Falls.  And a more recent Falls discovery - Minnehaha Falls.

I am currently working on a couple of water related quilt art projects and did not want to start another one right now.  So I turned to another art form and designed and made Waterfall earrings.

Waterfalls    the Haiku

cascading splendor

mists rising torrents swirling

mighty falls thunder

 

and the Art

Waterfalls

 

 

Sterling Silver and Swarovski Crystals

Waters of home

I grew up in south Florida, on the shore of Lake Okeechobee, so that's what jumped into my head when I thought of "waterways."

Lake Okeechobee
Altered by the hands of man
Fragile, beautiful





One shot with flash, one without. Combined, you get an idea of what the piece actually looks like! Color is truer on the darker/no flash shot, but you can see the couching (new technique this month) around the lake better on the lighter/with flash shot.

I really like how this one turned out.

June - Waterways

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw June's word was watersheds - the small tributaries that flow into larger ones, and finally into the bays and oceans.

The image here was made several years ago with UltraFractal 4.  The fractal was printed onto fabric and then machine quilted.  It's surprisingly hard to quilt a fractal image, as many parts of it have no real boundaries, and it's easy to get lost or trapped, despite prior planning.

But what about the yellow bits?  Sunlight reflecting on the waters?  Sandbars?  Pollution?  You choose.

waterways of life

creeks and streams feeding rivers
flowing to the sea

Orcas at Play... June Waterways.

Haiku:
Waterways flowing
Friend and foe, rage and calm
An Orca pod plays

 I went through the usual... writing down what the word brought to mind... especially since Kathy used the word 'ocean'...then focused on what had to be the most pleasant day trip of a lifetime. Hence my 'Orca's at Play'. On that trip, at one time I counted 25 dorsel fins above the water... then to hear the sound below the water as they communicated... well, what can I say, except 'AWESOME'!
I hope you enjoy my experience through this small vignette....

I used painted Steam-a-seam for the water, with a bit of color above and below. In keeping with my purpose so to speak, I again journalled and used a small bit of fabric.
Here is what the painted Steam-a-seam looked like before I cut ouit the piece I wanted.

I look forward to your comments...

May

I did the figure for a Pamela Allen class and then wrote the "soft" haiku about children. Then I finished this piece. It's done with raw-edged machine applique (my first) and a bit of machine quilting.

Children soft and smooth
Life's confusions hard and rough
What about children

Linda Jacks

Haiku housekeeping

Load your photo, then

click on it and select "large."

Wow! It sure looks great!

Sikanni River

crystal clear sky blue
Sikanni River flows by
pristine wilderness

I did this piece for another challenge, but since I'm so limited for time thought I'd submit my Haiku and the work that inspired it.
I hope I will become a more active participant :)
Rhoda

geysers and rainbows

Small water droplets

become clouds and rainbows

as geysers perform.

This little quilt is 10x14". It is raw edge appliqued, The geyser is organza shredded and angelina fibers - unironed. The sky is hand dyed. This was fun and quick and a strange take on waterways - but thats what came to mind - Go figure!!!!

Sheers series #7: Waterfall

From over the edge

cascading, plummeting down

pooling crystal clear

This is #7 in my ongoing series of work entirely in sheers. The background is a watercolor print sheer. The waterfall is distressed (using a needle) organza with pieces of cellophane behind it to create the 'rainbow' effect. Micro glitter adds the sparkle of the water spray.

It measures 11"x15"

Thanks for another good challenge Kathy

Cherie

June theme: waterways

For June, let's think waterways -- oceans, rivers, canals.

Since I got to choose the prompt, I made my haiku in advance.  It features a photo I took of a ship going through the locks in the Panama Canal.  The found haiku reads:

it's the same old talk
same old view of the canal
some work at the docks

Clouds- May "Soft" Haiku

"Clouds" -  May "Soft" Haiku

Soar Above the clouds...
Shimmering in the sunlight...
Floating through the sky....

Dandy-lion

"Soft"
Dandelion puffs
Explode softly in my yard
Hard to get rid of!

The new technique this month was trapunto, for the dandelion leaves. A couple of them wound up a bit overstuffed, once I stitched the veins, so I resorted to snipping the back and pulling out some of the stuffing on the biggest leaf.

I also bought some rayon embroidery thread to use for the dandelion puff. Shiny and pretty - and not too much of a pain to deal with!

Soft

Soft was very hard for me.  Apparently I don't often view my world through a soft filter.  I first thought of cat fur for soft, and then spring colors, which led to this.

Techniques used in this piece include fusing, machine applique and quilting, watercolor crayons and ink for the words, and the use of colored pencils to darken the petals and to lighten the water when I discovered that the thread work wasn't going to fix what turned out to be poor choices of fabrics.

a sudden wind gust
sends showers of soft petals
to drown in a pond

A Soft Day In Ireland

The Irish are used to a lot of rain.  Sometimes it rains hard; sometimes it's more like a misty blanket covering the earth.  They call this a "soft day".

 

steady gentle rain

Irish hills shrouded in mist

another soft day

Sheer Series #4 - FOG

Stealing silently
through the night, fog mists gather
softly caressing

I printed the image of the eagle in flight on organza using Digital Grounds, then appliqued it to the 2nd (middle) layer of organza and trimmed. The back layer is a "woodsy" print chiffon, Middle layer is striped/woodsy print organza and front/top layer is a grayed purple organza to create the misty, foggy appearance.

This picture is hanging on the wall, but it looks great hanging in the window, back-lit. I just couldn't get a decent picture...my camera insisted on focusing on the trees outside...LOL I will try again later when it's not so bright out.

Another fun haiku challenge.
Comments appreciated
Cherie