with the quiet light of the moon

 Sometimes I drive my son to school in the morning.  It's dark.  Really, really dark-

 except for the quiet light of moon. 

When full, it's our favorite; silvery and grayish.

Quilted black silk, painted fabric with raw edge applique.

8" x  8"

Illuminate!

The Fire Within by Sue Pelland

 “You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world.”
― Oprah Winfrey

I missed the "Element" challenge, and had thought about doing fire....so when the word Illuminate was revealed, FIRE was all I could think about!

Cottons fused with Mistyfuse on black ground, quilted with Sulky Holoshimmer that broke every three minutes....UGH!

THE FIRE WITHIN, 12" x 12"  Sue Pelland

THE FIRE WITHIN DETAIL

Fireflies and the Poker Game

The word "Illumination" made me think of fireflies. Since my other three challenge pieces have been on the fantasy side, I decided to continue with this theme and have "Chip" and "Munk" (I know, not very original) be my main characters again.  They are enjoying a game of poker in their tree.

Chip and Munk captured some fireflies in a jar to provide their evening light. They have a competative game of poker going on in their humble abode.

This is Chip and he is made out of thread...lots and lots of thread.  I think he is going to win the hand as he has a pair of aces!

Out of the Darkness

As the moon illuminates the night, reading illuminates the mind and the spirit. What could be better than reading by the light of the moon!

Since all my sewing time and energy is consumed these days with meeting competition deadlines, I decided to go a different route with this theme and use acrylics on stretched canvas.

This piece will eventually be donated to the New Orleans Public Library's literacy program "Turn the Page".

Illuminate

Knowledge springs from the pages of books illuminating the mind.  

Created paper cloth for the pages of the book using instructions from 

“Stitch Alchemy” by Kelli Perkins.  Thread painting in the background.  

Seven inches square.

Illuminate

As soon as I read the word, I knew I wanted to use foil. The button in the center is antique. The background is hand painted-I don't remember what I used-the problem with using stuff in the stash. The gold thread is couched down by machine.

Illumination

I call this piece Illumination.  It is 12 inches square, acrylics and molding paste on canvas panel.  I painted numerous layers on the background, then applied molding paste through a hand cut stencil, then finished off with several more layers of paint.  There are a lot of subtle metallic colors that are difficult to see in the photo.