Rhonda Blasingame
Jackson, Mississippi, USA

Black cotton, commercial musical print and blue suede. Machine appliqued and quilted.

A great deal of my work involves musical references, and being a native of MS sort of engenders a natural love of Delta Blues and Elvis. I am "of an age" to have been affected by news of The King's death, and my first thought when I heard the title of the challenge was 'of course the sky is blue, that's where Elvis lives now.' The design itself was full-blown in my head within minutes of reading about the challenge and all I had to do was get it down on fabric.

Sherry Boram
Pendleton, Indiana, USA

The blue sky is perfect for viewing the magic that is all around us. Just look for it; it is always there.

Kona cotton handpainted by the artist; commercial hand dyed blue fabric, and photo transfers. Embellished with couched pearl cotton, beads and sequins. Machine quilted with multicolored threads.

Barbara Campbell
Pine Brook, New Jersey, USA

I was taken by a friend’s artistic rendition of a stormy sea and a lighthouse shining through the dark blue sky. He gave me permission to reproduce a likeness of his image in fabric and thus, A Beacon of Light was born. I enjoy making machine appliquéd landscape quilts and love the challenge of searching for just the right fabric to simulate reality.

I believe this image struck me because of the symbolism in having a light shine through the darkness in my life as in many others. As I was making this quilt, another friend was undergoing treatment for cancer and looking for the light at the end of a very dark and tumultuous path. Blue skies indicate hope and positive outlooks to me.

Techniques and Materials: Beaded, Hand and Machine Quilted on Silk, Embroidered Tulle and Harris Tweed.

Statement: It has always intrigued me how well complementary colours are used in nature and so the natural choice for me was the complement between the Blue Sky and Orange Sun, simple.

"Storm"
"Why is the Sky Blue? Look; sometimes it isn't blue,sometimes it hasa lot of colors, sometimes it has a mood."
22" w x 22"h

"Storm" was inspired by an incoming storm viewed from a beach in Alaska. It was difficult to see where the sky ended and the ocean began. It was hard to determine whether I was walking on the beach, or in the ocean. The sky, sea and beach merged into one powerful force. As I looked, I could see bits of color here and there, sparkling with shafts of light and the wetness from the sea and sky. The shapes were fluid, ever changing, twisting in the storm. The sky was gray, blue, magenta, green and a scary yellow green. Mother nature has many moods.

This piece is created from one piece of hand marbled fabric, with quilting and stitching used to illustrate the power of nature. This is not the placid blue sky one hopes for, but the turmoil created by stormy weather, with the colors of the sky mixed and swirling around.

My inspiration began with a vintage rhinestone brooch for sale on Ebay. I knew that it had to be a moon. A moon shining in a dark blue sky. Living on the coast of Virginia gives me many opportunities to see storms passing over the rivers and Chesapeake Bay. The clouds always are full of color and resemble an artist's paint palette. Often the clouds look too heavy to even be in the sky.

Techniques include machine piecing, fusing, and embellishing with vintage jewelry, beads, ribbons, tulle netting and hematite stars. Fabrics include commercial fabrics, hand marbled fabrics, and wool. I
thoroughly enjoyed my first challenge and look forward to the next one!

Method: Fusible mosaic applique of photo transfer clouds, pieced circle of the “woods.” Heavily quilted.

I entered the Why is the Sky Blue challenge because I am passionate about
the color blue. Later I thought about the emotional meaning of "blue" i.e. a somber, sad emotion, instead of my usual happy reaction to the color. I also started taking pictures of the sky in my yard. Then this past summer, a car accident took the lives of my friend, her daughter, and two of the
daughter's friends. A year ago, another young person died in a car accident. These college age people are the same age as my children, and I've known them all their lives. My quilt then evolved in my mind and became a memorial quilt in memory and honor of these friends. So my answer to the question, "Why is the Sky Blue?" ...is "So we can see what's in the clouds." In memory of friends who left us too soon,
who are now "in the clouds." Pat, Nancy, Lindi, Paige, and Dan.

I wanted to capture the idea of our friends being"up there" and "watching over us" and that we can look up in longing and remembrance. The center sky is actually the sky as seen in my yard, with a fringe of trees surrounding it. The brown and green strips represent the endless forest that surrounds us all here in Northern Minnesota. The outer area is dark blue, for the lakes, and for eternity. Lie on the ground; look at the sky. What do you
see in the clouds?

Because Red, Yellow & Green Were Taken
30" x 15" - © 2005 - $395.00

detail

Life inspires the language of my work, the exploration of human experience and nature. I am particularly drawn to quotes and concepts as inspiration. Bold colors, clean lines, uncomplicated shapes and textured surfaces identify my pieces. As a medium, fibre provides a variety of ex-istences which can be unendingly manipulated to interpret concept.

Because Red, Yellow & Green Were Taken is composed of fabric fragments randomly pinned in place and heavily textured with thread. It is based on the exhibit theme of why is the sky blue and incorporates my current goal of working with what I already have in the studio. The sky is an evolving and colorful entity. It's most commonly admired form is an even, cloudless blue. For an artist, this is perhaps the most boring state of sky. There is no challenge in recreating it.

Why is the sky blue ??? Is it ?? Maybe in heaven there are other colours. I made two parts, a cold and a warm part, and guardian angels all over the place. A family needs a lot of them, and up to now my family has been lucky, hope it stays like that.

I started this quilt the day that I heard that a good quilting friend lost her battle against cancer. For me she is one of the guardian angels...

I dyed the fabric myself, then discharge it with discharge paste using a silkscreen. Stamped on it with a flower stamp from India (bought in the UK), added flowers cut out of 'sheer' material. Added eyes made with photo-transfer and beads

Mary Beth Frezon Goodman
Brainard, New York, USA

I'm always watching the sky. It is our constant companion. It is ever-changing and many-colored once you get to know it. Go look for yourself and then keep looking.

The sky can be so many lovely shades of blue, from baby pale to midnight deep; I had to include them all, and then spark them with a touch of golden orange.

The cloud just floated in, and had to be capturedwith beads. One thing led to another.

"The Sky is Blue..." is my first art quilt, aside from two quiltlets. I have been a traditional quilter for many years and was ready to move to art quilts when this challenge started. Taking an idea out of my head and putting it onto fabric was a terrifying step.

Mother Earth was influenced by Native American legends, but is found around the world. She is strong; she demands your attention; she is bigger than life. She reflects the earth and no specific ethnicity. I painted the sky; the heron is photo transfer; Mother Earth is raw edge pieced from batiks and handdyes.

"The Sky is Blue Because it reflects
Mother Earth's Eyes"
42x45"
detail

"Why the Sky is Blue in Las Vegas"
27” x 22” x 4"
detail

photo transfer and construction
Photo by Carol Bruce
Some Fabrication by Robert Pugh

Ann Louise Mullard-Pugh
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Why the Sky is Blue in Las Vegas?

It is a little known fact that the spectacular sunsets we have here in Las Vegas are staged for the benefit of the tourists. The various magicians/illusionists that work here take turns conjuring up the beautiful show almost every night. Of course, they then go off to work at their showrooms and leave the stagehands to paint the sky blue before morning.

There are rumors that the amateur magicians do something similar in the mornings sometimes, but they clean up their own illusions. Since I am never up at that hour, I cannot verify that as being factual.

Gerry O'Neill
Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA

The sky is One with life, the world, the universe.

Life becomes world, world becomes sky, sky becomes universe. There is no green, no brown, no purple, no pink. There is no blue. There is only Unity. Everything else is an artifact of perception

Cathy Ortelle
Cotati, Sonoma Co., California, USA

"Skye", the blue-eyed kitty cat, was amed afterthe beautiful blue skies of Sonoma County. The catbelongs to the daughter of a friend of mine and shenamed it right before this challenge was announced. So, when I was searching for subject matter for thisc hallenge, the cat popped into my mind. The piece is fused using hand-dyed silks for the sky, meadow and flowers. A mohair fabric is used to emulate thecat's striped coat. Machine quilted.

Too Busy to ask the Question
36" x 27"

Barb Pozek
Kimberling City, MO, USA

As a child, I spent a lot of my time exploring, playing and pondering in my free time. I find all children in the US having less time to do any of these things between the over scheduling in their free time and the entertainment opportunities available to them. There's no time where they are quiet and still enough in their lives to have the chance to ponder even the most basic questions in Life, such as "Why is the sky Blue?" I struggle, as a parent, to keep some family time at home and we often walk to the lake and explore. This quilt was based on a photo of my daughter there.

"The Sky Is Blue
26-1/2"w x 25-1/2"h

Diana Simpson
Eagle River, Alaska, ,USA

When I first heard of the challenge "Why is the Sky Blue", it automatically told me that it is because yellow and blue make green. I hand painted the sunrays.

I had to research why the sky was blue once again. I knew the really simple version that you tell your kids, but I wanted to know more. So after research- ing several science websites, I finally found out all I wanted to know. All those technical words found their way into the quilting of this piece. I also added some statements expressing my gratitude that there is a sky (atmosphere) that
allows us to live here on Earth.

cathryn stone
Devonport, Tas, Australia

Making my quilt for this challenge was a very emotional experience for me. The text was written during a time of significant personal difficulties, and also in the world outside. The war in Iraq, race riots in Paris and Sydney and, in my own life, diagnosis of a progressively debilitating disease.

I wanted the quilting to be lots of positive words like compassion, inspire, create, friendship, tolerance etc. I agonised for quite a while about how to do them. My idea was for the words (actions) to not take centre stage, but to be in the background of everything we do. Then carrying on from that, for there to be a ripple effect flowing out from those actions. So I decided to use echo quilting to achieve that effect. Working on the quilt was not easy on an emotional level, but I am glad I was able to get my feeling out of my head and into the fabric.