--- Design and complete a small work based on a still life.  Subject matter is your choice. You may work very straightforwardly and realistically, or you may interpret your still life in a more abstract manner.  Don’t forget to pay attention to form if you choose to work more abstractly.
 --- Crop your composition so at least three sides of your still life extend to the border or edge of your quilt.   You may count cropping a shadow as one of the sides that have been cropped (shadows are part of your composition).
 --- Give attention to light and shadow, so you can make the objects in your still life look dimensional. Shade objects and create cast shadows using whatever method you would like.

 

A. Carole Grant
British Columbia, Canada

Dinner at Nine
10.25 x 11.50”

Commercial cottons
Monochromatic using blue.

Betty Donahue
Wethersfield, CT

Threads and Stuff
22-3/4 x 12-3/4”
Cotton

I used a picture that I took of the arrangement as a pattern.Fused and machine appliqued.  Quilted with invisible thread.  The pin heads were punched out of fabric backed with fusible web

Brenda Jennings
Columbus, Ohio

Still Life with Pots   
16" x 19.5”  

Commercial cottons; Fused and machine applique; thread painting; free-motion quilted.

 

Cherie Brown
Del Mar, California

Still Life
10”x14”

Hand dyed cottons; raffia (basket is woven using raffia and torn strips of fabric).

Cathy Lewis
Pawtucket, RI

Dreaming of Summer
8 x 11”
batting *foam*, iron on vinyl for mug, silk flower, plaid napkin

Cynthia Ann Morgan
Boulder, CO

Sunflowers
10" x12"
commercial cotton, fused appliqué

I didn't think I would have time to participate in this month’s challenge...but in the middle of the night I remembered I had started a still life of sunflowers in a vase some time ago. I immediately got up, found it and cropped it within an inch of it's life. A little thread painting for shadows and some quilting the next day and it was done.

Carol Schlegel
Cincinnati, Ohio

My Bowl
8.5" by 11"
cotton fabric (mostly scraps) and small bits of foil to highlight the sun on the bowl

I was inspired by the sunlight on the bowl while it sat on my desk.  Took a picture and then attempted myfirst raw edge applique. I'm pleased with the finished piece.

Karen Asherman
Saratoga Springs, NY

Basket
10.5" x 8"
Value study of a small, rounded basket using a single fabric.

Lisa A Albanese
Seattle, WA

Carrot Soup
 8-1/2" x 11”
scrap quilting cottons, wool yarn

That hardest part was thinking of a subject. For a previous painting class I had set up the still life - carrot soup was on the menu that night. I used a crop photo to work from. I did a blue background to complement the orange carrots. I used pastels for shadows - which would have been better had the background been lighter. Yarn for the leaf tops couched down at random. Quilting on the carrots to add some dimension

 

Linda Cline
San Leandro, CA

Vases
15 x 10”
Cotton fabrics, fused
 
Choosing fabrics for this still life was great fun.  I completed the vases one at a time and chose fabrics as I went. I had no idea what the color scheme would be until I was done.

 

Laura West Kong
Loma Linda, CA

A penny for a spool of thread I
9.5"x9.5"
printed and solid commercial cotton fabric, fusible web, cotton batting, rayon and cotton thread,
variegated cotton crochet yarn

I love my thread collection just as much as my fabric stash and my buckets of beads! This two-sided
miniature quilt celebrates the importance of thread to quilters everywhere.

Marilyn Rose
Ridgeland, MS

Maters and Peppers  
10.5" x 7.5"
commercial fabrics, tulle overlay

This was the cropped still life challenge, and I set up my veggies on my bed, took the digital pic, posterized it and then used commercial fabrics to create the veggies. The shadows are dark organza fused into position. Everything was covered with a layer of tulle and stabilized with simple machine quilting.

Rhonda Blasingame
Jackson, MS

Justa Cuppa
8.5" x 11"
The fates conspired to allow me to combine several things I wanted to work with this month. I revisited fabric collage, a technique I love, worked with existing shading and color shifts by fussy cutting pieces from a commercial tie-dyed looking fabric, and I finally got to do a framed piece. There are over 25 separate pieces of fabric in the cup and saucer, fussy cut for color and layered. A piece of purple tulle over the front and then outline quilted around the cup, saucer and shadow, Pillowcase backing and then the whole thing is mounted on a fabric covered backing and put in a frame, no glass.  The green backing/mat is a piece of fabric wonder-undered onto the cardboard that came with the frame.

Roberta Ranney
Springfield, MO

Breakfast Table Still Life
8" X 10”
cotton fabrics, Shiva Paintstiks

One side of my piece is my straightforward still life and the other is an abstract version.  

Sue Andrus
Towanda, PA
 
Vase Still Life 
8" x 11"

        
This challenge showed me that I could do something I had never thought
          I could do. Start to finish, it was done in 4 hours. I took a photo
          of a favorite cranberry glass vase sitting on a windowsill with snow
          outside as the background (the first "big snow"  of the year-
          2"- rare in PA). I then "squashed" and cropped the photo
          in the computer, then "posterized" it to give me the pattern
          for the piece. The vase was accented with sparkle paint, pastels, and
          an overlay of iridescent tulle. Quilting in the background was done
          in a pale blue variegated thread to give the texture of the drifting
          snow outdoors.
        


        
        


          Sally
            K. Field

        Hampden, Maine
 
        

            Time to Mend

          7 1/4" x 6 7/8" 

            cottons, tissue lame, wrong side of satin

          cotton/rayon/metallic thread 

          

          This is definitely the smallest quilt I've ever done! Also this was
          the most difficult challenge so far for me to do. I have quite limited
          experience with drawing; I chose some difficult fabrics to work with;
          this was my first attempt at building a picture with Wonder-Undered
          pieces onto a pattern; and my first cropping. The edges are finished
        with satin stitch. 
        
 
        


          Tobi K. Hoffman

        Ashland, MA 

        

            Still Life with Flowers

          18 1/4" x 15"

            Cottons, lightweight cloth from Belize, lace doily, Angelina film
        and fiber
        
The three-dimensional effect that I was aiming for actually comes
          across better in a photo than in the original!

        
        


            Valerie Paige Stiles

        San Diego, CA
        
Picnic Guests

  18" square. 

          Obviously there are some non-still lives
          on my still life piece. The large cast shadows are done with 
          black tulle and the tiny ones on the ants' legs are done with fabric
        paint. The apple and orange are stuffed (overdone trapunto), so some
        of the shadows created by them are real. The rest of the shading and
          highlighting are done with acrylic paints. The apple is made from
          three fabrics pieced together; white, yellowish and red, and then
          appliquéd
          using red satin stitch to serve as the skin.
     
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 -
         5 - 6 -
      7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12