Connie's Bafa Circle Challenge Work

The Bafa Circle Challenge was sort of the art quilt group's version of a "round robin".  I created a painted block on commercial fabric (fig. 1) and passed it off to Melissa Tweedel, who added two sides to it and a pieced circular wave (fig. 2).  When I received it back to finish it, I decided to cut it up into circles/ovals and half-moon shapes then tried solving the visual problems presented, visually (fig. 3).  I rejected the painted background immediately, concluding that it did not have enough contrast nor did it speak to the central idea of washing up onto the shore.  I decided to add a dark and a light not used in the original block and use squares/rectangles to contrast with the circles for greater effect, funneling the elements like an hourglass to allude to the timelessness of water washing ashore.  Coming Ashore was born (fig. 4).  This was a fused work, no piecing involved.

Connie's Block                                           fig. 1

Melissa's Additions                               fig. 2

Connie's rejected background and design      fig. 3

Coming Ashore       21" x 42" 

                                          fig. 4