Good Morning, Capri!

 

Created for Project Quilting 13.2 In Silhouette challenge.

I saw this challenge and thought I'd made the perfect quilt a couple of weeks ago. A Tree for Me  would have fit perfectly for this challenge. I walked into my kitchen and told my husband he could take the quilt down from above the sink and I'd photo it and be done. He was willing, but I knew that was cheating. The quilt was On the Road Again which I had created for the Season 7 I need a Vacation challenge. 

Time to quit whining and come up with something new. I thought maybe a tall flower on a long skinny quilt would look good in the grouping I'm planning for the wall at the end of the hallway. I scouted lots of flower pictures and clip art, but nothing felt right. Maybe I could find a picture to use. Looking through my photos I found some pretty cool pics I took as we crossed the Mackinac Bridge. Maybe. Then I came across this one. 

It features my granddaughter, Capri, and Freedom and Froto, the bottle babies Capri and her sister Pip raised. Capri is our crazy animal girl and this picture is really her.  I would name the quilt Good Morning, Capri! 

The photo needed some work. The goat on top was jumping onto her back from the tree stump, but I thought having the goat standing on her back would make a better silhouette. The goat on the ground needed to move over so he looked like he was going to give Capri a kiss. And Capri is faced toward the camera, so she had no face in silhouette. I tried drawing her one, but I have finally learned that I am an artist, but that doesn't mean I can draw. Capri was playing basketball out of state, so I sent her Dad a message and asked him to get me a straight on profile shot of her. 

Perfect! I cropped out her head, made it the right size and it was just what I wanted. A piece of hand dyed fabric became the sunrise. I thought a tree would be a nice add, because I'm into trees and there are pretty good tree silhouettes in the original picture, but anything I tried just took away from the main focus, so I stopped there.

Created by Diane Lapacek in rural Poynette, Wisconsin.

12" x 16"

New Day of Hope

Created for Project Quilting 10.1 Hope Springs Eternal Challenge.

As I pondered the Hope Springs Eternal challenge, 2 themes kept running through my head.  Sunrise and Spring Flowers. Thursday morning I still hadn't made a decision when I saw this view from my deck.

I took it as a sign. Decision made.  Every new day signals a new beginning and new hope. Note the swimming pool in the lower left? I'm hoping for lots of fun swimming there with my grandkids this coming summer. And the other little structure down in the lower right? The orchard goats are hoping to use that as a shelter on their summer vacation at our house.

Enough rambling. Back to the challenge. I found a sunrise fabric that I dyed a couple of years back, added an appliqued sun and black for the horizon. I quilted some rays from the rising sun, then created a tree using fibers.

Created by Diane Lapacek near Poynette, WI. 28"x12".