Strange Fruit

My tiny art quilt group (two plus me) had another group challenge using a project from the Summer 2005 Quilting Arts. Layered (again) with stitching. I used a grey and orangey rust dotted fabric to begin and then "printed" five circles onto the fabric using white paint and the bottom of a plastic pot/saucer. Then I added squares of cross stitch base and frayed the edges and tied them between the circles with embroidery floss. Then I did a running stitch around the white circle with white perle cotton and inside the circles with rust perle cotton. Next I stretched the yellow webbed bag from the Thanksgiving turkey over all and stitched it down as best I could--it kept wanting to draw back up on itself. Lastly I added the control/circuit panel from a tape cassette player and twirled the cut grey wires in and out of the turkey webbing. A good hot press with the steam iron and spray starch ( ON THE BACK!) and Bob's your uncle it was done.

I hope this is the last layered item we do for a while. I hope QA stops doing them also. Surface design can be lots more than loading stuff on the top like a huge stuffed baked potato with butter, sour cream, cheese, bacon, chili, more cheese--anyway you get the idea. You wouldn't have it for dinner every night.

The "Strange Fruit" of the title was an art piece I saw at a party yesterday. A fruit basket filled with altered plastic fruit. An apple studded with cherries. An orange with strawberries coming out of the sides. A peach embedded on the end of a banana. Now the insertion of the one fruit into another was done VERY nicely. You couldn't tell how it was done. There were lemons, limes, pears studded with purple plums etc . The hostess/owner of this art felt the "thing" was creepy. Environmental alarmist. Why she bought it is a question I would have liked to ask. Made me think of all the contour drawings being done this week. What fun to do one of these "Strange Fruits".