The Texture Challenge -- Project Quilting Season 8

This week's challenge for Project Quilting is TEXTURE.

In the interest of personal calmness and minimizing stress, I've decided not to participate by making a piece.  It's an interesting challenge but right now I can't devote the time to it that I would like.

That being said, I realized on my walk late yesterday afternoon that I am participating to the extent that I'm observing "texture" and contemplating how I might achieve it in my quilting. 

I'm a nature enthusiast -- I peruse nature through birding and walking and a bit of photography.

So I'm going to share some photos from my "nature" gallery that were taken specifically for inspiration.

This is the bark of our native sycamore tree -- they are common along streams and in wet areas.

It's a stunning tree in the winter as it sheds the outer layers of bark to reveal smooth white to pale green layers of new bark.  Look at all this texture -- just waiting to appliqued!?!

These fan shaped fungi are common in mature woodlots and while the colors are typically subtle, I always think it would be fun to depict them with layered Dresden-plate style fans.  This one was particularly striking with the white outer borders.

The witch hazel shrub by my back porch never fails to enchant me -- it will be blooming soon!  One of it's charms is that it blooms while it's snowing and leafless here.  Ruth McDowell has actually pieced witch hazel  -- you can find pictures of it HERE on her website!  It's stunning!!

This field was filled with the webs of orb web spiders and they glowed in the early morning light because they were covered in dew.  There were literally hundreds of the webs and it was fascinating to see.  I've used the inspiration of these webs for a quilting design several times.

Last spring during a visit to Northwest Ohio, we walked through a marsh with a thriving population of leopard frogs.  These were the common frogs of my childhood but I seldom see them in my part of the state these days.  What I love about this photo is the blades of grass cutting across my view.  What do you think -- piece a frog with an oozing muddy background fabric and then slice it to inserts blades of grass?

Finally, I found this photo I took while camping with my family last August.  It's one of the hackberry butterflies that was hanging out in our campsite.  The shades of gray of the gravel is such a good background for this creature.  Will it inspire a pictorial rendering or perhaps a color scheme?

And then there is this beauty -- I stumbled onto this "still life" last fall while walking in the local park -- it's so lovely.  The colors, the arrangement -- perfect!!  It could have been "staged" by someone but if it was, I'm grateful that they shared their artistry!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's experiments with textures when the voting begins on Sunday (2/5) over at Persimon Dreams! 

Hoping you have a stitchable weekend!!

Mary