Never Say Never!

For the past nine months I have been participating in a closed Yahoo group "Fast Friday Fabric Challenge". This is a group of fiber artists and art quilters who are issued a challenge once a month to create a quilt in a little over a week. Different techniques/themes are chosen to allow members to stretch their artistic talents. Although the group is currently closed to new members, you can see some of the projects in the public blog:

http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/

This little quiltlet (9" x 12") was for the May 2007 challenge. We were tasked to use only one fabric!

Before this challenge was issued I was reading Lesley Riley's book Quilted Memories. She covers a number of techniques including subtracting color with bleach. I read and mentally thought "Nah, not for me."

Then came the challenge. I read about black being a mixture of colors. The result can be "surprising" according to Leslie. So when I was at Quilters Market and saw a black batik that looked solid except for some barely discernable brown I decided to buy some yardage. Still hadn't decided what to to but when I saw "Bab-O Gel with Bleach" at the dollar store I figured, "why not?"

Leslie said the bleaching process would take 2-8 minutes. Per her instructions, I clipped about an inch square to test. No results. Hm. I experimented further and put a length in a cookie pan. Covered with gel. It took about two hours, but the result was a lovely tan batik.

I decided my piece would be a process piece. One of my goals for this year is to really learn to do machine quilting. Earlier this month I took a class from Robbi Joy Elkow where she recommended practicing on two pieces of felt. I grabbed a couple pieces of felt, tore off a section of fabric, used small squares of fusible to secure the fabric to the felt, threaded some varigated thread, and started quilting.

The result is a process piece that was a great learning experience.

-- Joanna