Saturday, June 19, 2010

"It's the Berries"

Does that phrase ring a bell with any of you? It's slang from the twenties, (no, I'm not that old)
that is right up there with "It's the bee's knees" It means that it's a good thing and that's what I named this quilt made for my small quilt group's challenge, "Common Object, Uncommon View".

I think that this challenge has given me the most grief of all the many challenges we have done. I have been thinking about it for along time and have taken lots of pictures, but nothing clicked. So I decided to go with a simple color change. Remember to click on each picture for a bigger view.



I took this picture last summer. I'm not sure what kind of berry it is, but I thought it was a pleasing design. I took it into Photoshop Elements and changed it into four different colorways and used the Posterize filter on each of them.


Then I printed each one on fabric and put them together with the black fabric shown above. I stitched around each berry several times with black Jeans thread, a very heavy thread, to give it definition, then sewed a seed bead on each blossom end.




On the black blocks, I used the corresponding colored jeans thread and the same color seed bead. Now that I see the close-up, I see that I have to erase some of the white chalk pencil that is still showing.



The quilt measures about 19" x 28" and a narrow black binding will finish it off. It's not due until September, but I wanted to get it out of the way. I might do a second one and have an idea or two. We'll see.

5 comments:

ann said...

Hi Norma,
That berry looks very familiar, but I also can't name it. I think the color change is enough. Thread work really makes the quilt. Due in September and done in June. How is that possible. It certainly is not in my book.
Enjoy the Journey,
ann

RoxaneLessa said...

Very cool, I love interesting plants too and often use them in my work!

Marti said...

Norma, this is really great! Simple but effective. I am trying to work out a piece with a blueberry/bee/honey theme, but it is really still in my head. I am thinking I might try your technique using photoshop.

Debbie Bates said...

Hi Norma, Nicely done! I like the photo-play, stitchwork and delicate beading. What about a tiny zinger of color inside of a black binding (like red or apple green?). Happy Sewing,
Debbie
http://stitchtress.wordpress.com

Anonymous said...

Love this! I think I actually like the black blocks the best :).