44 random challenges were allocated, but only 33 members managed to complete it. Consequently, some allocated photos have 2,3, or 4 challenge quilts. Quilts have been cropped and squared up for the gallery, though judging was done on the basis of photos submitted.
1 Cow
1a Janet Ryan – One Green BottleMy thought process... Cow, milk, bottles,milk crate, milk crate with bottles, flowers. Green grass, green bottle.
And there was one green bottle hanging on the wall.
1b Mary Arvidson-Belle Looks at GarlandsI was struck by the green pasture, the garland, and the cow's gentle eyes in my photo. I researched images of cow eyes and found them movingly human. I experimented with using digitally altered photos of cow and human eyes on a background of blocks cut from an old quilt painted green. It didn't work. I decided to go completely abstract. My quilt depicts threequarters of Belle's eye, complete with eye lashes. In one quarter are abstract garlands. Concept is better than execution!
1c Anne Groufsky – A Pastoral ChristmasI focussed on the triangular Christmas wreath that decorated the cow.
1d Christine Herbert – Mrs Highland CowThis 13 inch cow piece is another step into art quilting. Highland Cow (Mr) was the AQ brown challenge and he needed a companion, so adding flowers/Christmas baubles helped create Mrs Highland Cow.
The background is about learning how to create depth and design in landscape quilts.
The thread painting adds depth, detail and movement to an otherwise flat 2d image.
2 Parrot
2a Sally Jenkins- An Eye in the SkyWhen I saw the photo supplied,I immediately thought of the colours being used by the Impressionist movement in their art.I wanted to capture a bit of the style of the serendipity way these artists created their work using the colours of the macaw.
2b Margaret-Rogerson – Party TimeThis was an ideal opportunity to try something fun, so I took inspiration from Ellen Giggenbach’s New Zealand birds to make a party time macaw.
3 Bridge
3a Barbara Hilford – Child’s PlayThe suspension tower is the strongest element of the scene......is it really strong or could it collapse like a child's set of building blocks?
3b Lorna Newsome – Two WondersThe image I received reminded me of the less than 24hr visit I had to San Francisco in 2016.
In that short time I crossed the man-made wonder of the Golden Gate bridge atop a double-decker bus on my way to see the natural wonders of the tallest trees in the world - the coastal redwoods, Sequoia sempervirens.
I aimed to give the impression of the bridge chains passing either side as the strait is crossed and the tall straight trees beyond.
4 Cathedral
4a Elisabeth Sodermann – War in EuropeIn an interview on television there was a child asking her mother in Ukraine ""Why has the snow turned black"?
4b Judith-Herbert – Abstract Impression of Onion DomesI have recently purchased the book by Jean Wells called 'Intuitive Colour and Design' encouraging me to step out of the box and explore new ideas of expressing colour and design in an abstract way. So I have used some of her ideas like making the background a frame, taking the shapes and colour palette from the challenge photo, and assembling them in a random way. I also tried for the first time to give the quilt a contemporary feel by facing it rather than binding it.
4c Larraine-Williams – Almost ImprovThis project was a real challenge for me as I tend towards realism rather than abstract. "Artful Improv" by Cindy Grisdela inspired me to use the given photo as a starting point for this almost improv piece.
5 Computer part
5a Robyn van Reenen – Mother Nature tops Mother BoardAfter a day battling with my laptop I was excited to receive the challenge details and think about something much more appealing. Imagine my horror on seeing my subject - "computer parts"!
What to do?
I've long been fascinated by images from Chernobyl as the plants and forest, unhindered by radioactivity, reclaim the zone. Technology is so very dependent on finite resources. Will new developments keep pace with endless demands or ultimately will nature prevail? Mother Nature tops Mother Board.
5b Rachel Ratten – PathwayThis is part of one of 17 quilts I am preparing for my solo show at the Ashburton Public Art Gallery in May 2023.
I decided to kill two birds with one stone...utilise the random photo as a starting point for one of the pieces in the collection... I actually had to make a square quilt anyway [all pieces in my body of work are square], and the colour scheme/shapes in the 'computer parts' allowed me to stay true to what I am trying to achieve.
6 Door
6a Mary-Jane Sneyd – Roche de SalutreMy open doorway beautifully frames the Roche de Salutre; a view based on photos taken when we lived in France. The Roche de Salutre is one of the biggest prehistoric sites in Europe and has a magnificent view from the top.
6b Lynette Murray-Knuth- Doorway to a Taranaki LandmarkThrough the door to the “Three Sisters” Taranaki. This photograph was taken on the way to Taupo for the quilt show, this year.
My aim was to make this look like a imperfect painting.
6c Heather McOnie – Through the Open DoorThis quilt was inspired by memories of my trip to Santorini in the '90's. Dwellings nestled into the steep rock face, clean lines in white and blue, softened by the pinks and reds of the Bougainvillea vines. Wooden doors opening on to narrow, meandering paved pathways, framing magnificent views of the Aegean Sea. Just beautiful...
6d Mary Metcalf-ArchesThe fabulous rusty door with the arched roof is represented by my rusty red applique arches. The minimally pieced background of various fabrics reflects the white washed plaster wall and the fine pencil-like quilting lines on the double batting conjures up the vertical narrow wooden panels of the door. The bright pink bougainvillea flowers are sketchily drawn and the white buttons and yellow stitching echo the flowers' stamins. The free-form green foliage balances the flower design.
7 Flamingoes
7a Julia Arden – Flamingoes DeconstructedThe black tip of the beak, the yellow beak and the pink and orange plumage provided inspiration for a tessellated geometric block.
7b Bridget Gill-Waiting for the ParadeThe photo presented two main features, with distinctive form and shapes, the stick like legs, oval bodies and curved necks, all of these I interpreted into the shape of the hats along with the texture and colour, beauty that deserves to be on parade.
7c SonyaPrchal – Flamboyant FlamingoPhoto manipulated on the iPad in Sketch Master, Effect - Watercolour 1. Printed onto Jacquard Printable cotton. The flamingo feathers are thread sketched on the surface by machine. Hand embroidered grasses and long quilting stitched with two Charlotte Scott’s variegated hand dyed pearl 8 thread. Free motion quilted around the flamingo with Wonderfil Invasafil. Twisted five different colours of yarn and zig-zagged it onto edge to finish.
7d Paula Cole – ContemplationFlamingos are social creatures who have a long life span of 20-30 years or more. The birds have slender legs, long, graceful necks, large wings, and short tails. During periods of rest they are able to stand on one leg with their necks tucked into their feathers to relax the neck muscles.
8 Glass struts
8a Catherine McDonald – Christmas TreeI was inspired by the lines and angles in the photo. As I played with placement the tree came to the fore
The connecting elements in each corner then reminded me of ornaments hanging from a tree
8b Kathy Petrie -Random CelebrationI was inspired by the diamond shapes the struts made. At end end of winter life can feel a little dull so I felt a celebration is in order. I loved the idea of the diamonds erupting and growing bigger as they fly up, like fireworks. And chose a black background as fireworks need the dark for best effects.
9 Guitar
9a Mary Napper – Sweet musicI have never had the opportunity to try and create music from a string instrument. The photo I received was perfect, it involved lines and provided me with the opportunity to imagine the music I could create.
Rusting with number 8 wire and nails gave me my strings and frets whilst my imagination created the msuic.
9b Alice Jones – AcousticThe Random Challenge pushed me to work in an abstract manner, rather than in my preferred method of representational images. I used colours within the photo, brown, black, and orange, but added blues for contrast. I loosely copied the shape of the guitar but abstracted other shapes and repeated them in the applique and quilting. I concentrated on principles and elements of design including shape, line, pattern, repetition, and balance. I am pleased at the result of this design exercise.
9c Nita Harding – Ten Guitars"Beneath the stars my ten guitars will play a song for you" - a few bars from one of the most well-known guitar songs, as for me, guitars mean music. Composer Gordon Mills, sung by Engelbert Humperdinck and many others.
10 Railway lines
10a Jill Bowman- Back on TrackMost of us are able to adapt to changes in our lives - particularly those that are planned, like my retirement - with only minor adjustments. However, major, unplanned changes, like my son's skiing accident which resulted in a TBI, require much more significant adjustments to get back on track.
10b Veronica Spittal- Your ChoiceThe photo reminded me of different pathways on a journey. Each track represents a different climate change RCP (representative concentration) pathway as predicted by the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) over three time periods (2020, 2050, 2100). The pathway we end up on depends on the amount of green house gas released into the atmosphere. This ultimately depends on the choices we all make in our day to day lives. In Europe this summer the tracks twisted because of excessive heat.
10c Maria Higginson – Tree Lines Fence LinesContinuing with the Colour Challenge 'Brown' - Railway tracks reminds me of my younger days with special trips travelling by train along side farm fences and pine tree plantations going to Lyttelton, Christchurch.
10d Cynthia-Johnston – Return to NatureThe railway lines are symbolic of humanity's profound impact on the planet. We have altered the landscape, imposed our built structures and poisoned both land and water. Pioneer plants are those that colonise barren environments first -- like the little grasses in the photo. When we have finally destroyed ourselves and our planet the plants will take back the world.
11 Night sky
11a Alison Laurence – NightfallThe original photograph evokes a feeling of calm serenity with the soft colours of a dusk landscape, watery reflections of trees and a starry night.
My interpretation highlights a twilight moon and a soft landscape in the dusk. The dark blue horizontal strip overlay depicts the deep blue water with trees and their reflections. The vertical blue strip and diamonds represent stars in the night sky.
11b Christine-Macdonald – Cosmic DawnMy first thought on seeing the “sky” photo was of cosmos. The hand dyed fabric was everything I wanted for my ‘cosmic dawn’ background. In that piece of fabric, I imagined the colours of swirling cosmic clouds. The background was quilted first in a linear style which allowed me to make directional and thread colour changes. My irises,” Irwell Cosmic Dawn” are styled simply with a few painted highlights. These were appliqued using the raw edge technique and detailed with simple stitching.
11c Yvonne-Moore – Random ElementsI saw the striking features of this photo as the purple, the glow, & the dark horizon line one third up. I have used Kaffe Fassett fabrics in a variety of gorgeous colours set off with some homespuns. And tried one of his well known block settings in a colourwash arrangement. I saw the horizon line as a border & a great space for a running feather. The glow is a flame design, the water is ripples & the sky is stars. In this photo I saw air, earth, fire & water hence it's title "Random Elements".
