Out of my element

I am stepping waaaay out my element (namely quilts) to try something of an 'arty' nature. First, I will make it very clear -- I KNOW nothing about art, except I enjoy looking, thinking, watching etc. Occasionally I am struck with an idea, or have a glimmer of a thought, or am tempted by a tingling of an idea. Another guild member and I suggested the idea of an Art Group to the Guild, and it was approved to have an "Ardis Wannabe" group (artist want-to-be). We (Joan and I) put words into a basket and at each meeting, one word is drawn. The project is based on that word. All those who care to participate will produce a finished art piece in ONE month. Yes, ONE month. This is to get our brains flowing, and not stagnated by too many concepts, ideas, possibilities. It has to be DONE the next month. Of course, small is expected, but DONE is best. The only rule was that it had to contain fiber - we didn't say how much. No other rules.

My own project was a lot more clever in my head than the end result. I am being very brave showing my pitiful effort, hoping that in time, I'll get better. I started and restarted about 7 times, changing background, colors, concepte, etc. Whew, getting frustrated is the hardest part and then, it is even MORE difficult to FORCE oneself to try again. I had words printed on fabric for this project, sewn on, but later removed them (so much for my expensive fabric sheets at $3.00 each! I had planned to fuse bright flowers here and there but that was entirely too cutesy.

And no matter how I worked, it ended up looking like a quilted wall hanging, which is totally NOT what I wanted!

This word is "Friends" .. I had some vague idea of layers in each friend's personality, friends in a busy world (background) that larger greyish thing is a manipulated photo (Paintshop Pro) of me (the same as in on my blog profile)with Friends surrounding me, and I also put one of my DH behind me, also manipulated (watch it! LOL) Yes, I am thinking THAT 'manipulated' part was planned! Vertical layout was much better than horizontal.

And it appears I left a black thread on my photo! Well, it IS finished, and I'll try again next month.