I figured with the next project QUILTING challenge due at NOON tomorrow I had better put up my little ‘story’ about my last challenge piece…

There is a very long story to go with this piece.

When I saw the challenge, a few ideas ran through my mind (crazy quilt, jean quilt, etc.) but then I thought - converge a painting! I have a painting in my living room I wanted to do first but it turns out it's painted on some sort of board...can't sew that. Since I was very limited on time I finally decided to give in and cut up my "Monet."

SIDEBAR:  My “Monet” story – In 1996 I was in 8th grade and a member of my middle school Odyssey of the Mind Team. Part of the challenge for the skit we had to create was to paint one of the paintings from the list and incorporate it into our play. I chose to paint Water Lilies, by Claude Moneten.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Claude_Monet_ -_Water_Lilies.JPG. We then had to cut my painting in half and we glued it to these cardboard box contraptions so that when I 'fell through it at the museum', the boxes would flip into the new scene. Anyway, this was one of those things I could never get rid of but didn't really know what to do with it. We didn't have a corner to put it in so it was actually hanging on the wall going downstairs to our basement (which you can only see if you go to the basement).    You can see it two pieces a little more clearly in this picture. I then cut the painting into many strips of different widths. The back of my quilt was made from an old salt or flour sack that I purchased at a garage sale a few years back… I pulled out my trusty WHITE (my first very own sewing machine) to do this crazy stitching – I had to get through paint, gesso, canvas and glue – TWO layers of it – I knew this wasn’t going to be easy.  To top it off, the morning I started to sew this my horoscope told me “You will have mechanical problems” – SERIOUSLY!  It was definitely not the easiest sewing – I rethreaded many, many, MANY times – but I got through it! I moved each strip either up or down between half and inch to two inches to create a blended convergence similar to that shown in the Ricky Tims Convergence Book.      FINALLY, FINALLY I managed to get all the strips sewn together!Next, I repurposed the frame from a bulletin board and mounted the quilt/painting to it.   Now it’s time to start with the embellishing portion of the challenge.  I figured the best option would be to embellish the lily pads and flowers – I had some felted sweaters that would do the job!           I found this fantastic scrap of felted sweater in my bin – it has those ruffles that created a fun dimensional element to my lily pad with minimal effort!

I layered some other fun lacy fabric from an old shirt of mine and buttons from the sweaters as well to add to the recycled clothing. Close up of the big white flower.   Close up of the three pink flowers.  I also found some perfect butterfly earrings that I used to fly near the lily pad flower.

The completed project!

Approximate Dimensions: 30 x 37
Creator: Kim Lapacek
Location: Poynette, WI

***Keep an eye on the flickr site to see the new challenge projects as the come in – hot off the machine!  http://www.flickr.com/groups/1401824@N21/