Underground

This was a very challenging color palette for me, and I have to say that I really enjoyed it.  It reminded me of why these are called "challenges!"  Like most of you, I looked at a lot of pictures of volcanoes and of Hawaii in general, seeking inspiration.  But I didn't come across anything that lit the spark, if you know what I mean.

Eventually, I found myself thinking of volcanoes (how could I not, with what has been going on in the news over the past month) and thinking about what is going on underground before a volcano pushes up out of the earth and erupts.  Well, I didn't go do research, or anything --but I found myself remembering how I'd been interested in the cut-away views of things when I was in school, and that formed the seed for this.

My challenge to myself in these Colorplay challenges is to head toward the abstract.  Playing with batiks and the underground layers idea led to this.  In some ways, I'm somewhat embarrassed about presenting it here: it's so simple.  In fact, I tried adding hand stitching, which I ripped out because I didn't like it and it just didn't suit.  I considered other embellishments -- but really, what I like about this is how it emphasizes the patterns of the fabrics.  So, simple as it is, this is my response to the challenge.

And, once again, I'm photographing black and bright colors so the stitching detail doesn't show much.  Here's a detail shot to show the quilting: 

Thanks, Kristin, for this challenging challenge!

***Now that I've posted this, I've gone and looked at the other challenge pieces -- and I'm amazed at how many of us went for linear designs.  I think this may be our most similar bunch of pieces yet, and that is quite unexpected to me.