“The Way Home”
Ellen
I pieced a concentric series of red and white stripes in a hexagon to suggest movement toward my quilt and the idea of homecoming. The idea of offsetting the center of the hexagon to coincide with the "o" in home occurred to me suddenly after I had planned out the hexagon and seemed to give my piece much more dynamism. I am pleased with how the machine-quilted stars added a note of joy--my husband says that they look like they are dancing. (He never says stuff like that!)
“Born in the USA”
Lisa
When I heard Annick's challenge of "Mother Country" with red and white and a touch of blue (if desired), I knew almost immediately what I wanted to do. I was inspired by my home state of NY and by my father who came to the United States as a sailor arriving in New York harbor during WW II. The red and white of the piece represents my father's "Mother Country" of Denmark, the Statue of Liberty is in my home state. I used a photograph of the statue and drew the design freehand onto the white fabric. I then added a fusible to the white and cut out the pieces, arranging them on the red background. The effect was exactly what I was going for and I'm very happy with the piece.
"Muther Country"
This is my humorous twist on "Mother Country" and I titled my piece "Muther Country." The piece is an original drawing and was machine stitched with hand stitchery and machine quilting. It's an animated retelling of an actual event. One evening, while living in a little town outside of Ft. Worth out in rural Texas, my daughter came home and found me on the front porch with my knitting and a rifle across my lap. Of course, I was rocking and waiting for the flower uprooting vermin armadillo to show itself after destructing my flowerbeds for days! It's a tale, not so tall, that my daughter loves to share when she describes me. Truth be told, that same armadillo scared the bejeezes out of me a few nights later when I propped a flashlight on my shoulder all the while balancing the gun to take aim. He must've heard me, because he stood up on his hind legs and hissed at me with his nasty teeth bared and claws up. Freaked out, I panicked and ran. Yup, he won that battle. Lucky me, my hubby came home and won the war a few more dead flowers, and few days later. ;)
