Hoffman Challenge 2016

It’s that time of year again. Quilt Challenge Season!

This year’s Hoffman Challenge started out rough but over time became a culmination of different aspect of myself.

Normally I have a million ideas for a quilt the minute I see the fabric, but with this year’s Challenge I was at a complete loss. The Fabric was butterflies with geometric shapes. The Fabric had an urban, almost grunge feel and try as I might nothing was coming to me. Could I make a quilt that looks like butterfly nets or maybe something that looked like graffiti? None of the ideas that ran though my brain wanted to stick, but serendipity found me in the most unlikely place; under the ocean.

A little reference from my world.

My parents are drivers and they are always telling the stories of their adventures. Also, I am a Reef keeper with a 125 gallon aquarium and I wanted to do something that represent my drawn to the ocean and the mysterious depths within. Ideas were starting to form in my brain but they were foggy and without true form.

The second spark of brilliance came from a trip to the movie store. My collection of DVD’s that I like to play when I am quilting were getting a little old and they had the Hayao Miyazaki collection on sale. “LIGHT BULB!” I am fascinated by the Japanese art of Manga/Anime. The way their drawings are simplistic with negative space and bold edge lines instead of shadows reflected how I viewed the 2016 Challenge fabric. This is what I wanted my quilt to look like!

I started drawing concepts left and right till at last I decided that I wanted the quilt to look like it came right out of manga book and was slowly coming to life with shimmering movements and subtle textures. "A Coral Ballet!"

Now pictures say a thousand words and I recommend looking at my picture gallery.

Construction:

I used raw edge applique along with traditional piecing(background). The butterfly wings of both the opal and onyx versions of the challenge fabric were individually cut and sewing in to represent shadows and light for mermaid’s scales and for some hidden sea creatures and small details like the mermaid’s eyes and shimmer on the ocean surface. I used Aurifil thread create the bold lines commonly present in manga style drawings. Hoffman digital Bali watercolors were predominantly used to give the quilt a painted look.

My favorite subtle feature of this quilt is the bead work. I spent three weeks sewing on seed beads and various natural stones to give the appearance of sediment in the water and shine to the aquatic creatures.

This was a labor of love and I can only hope that the Curators love it too!

Wish Me luck!