What Is It?

I am a new member to the Milwaukee Art Quilters group. The group has 2 challenges each year. I joined the group after the latest challenge began and did not plan to participate.

During our last meeting the due date changed, due to the Labor Day holiday, and another new member and I decided we should participate.

The challenge was to receive an ordinary household object an use it as inspiration in a mixed media quilt.

This is the object I was sent. I had no idea what it was other than a broken spiral. I discovered that it is a mosquito coil. Knowing what it is has helped a lot with inspiration for my subject. It has been a VERY buggy summer here in Wisconsin. The shape is also nice. I purchased another coil and I have been using it as a stamp to discharge and paint my background fabric. I also like the paper it was wrapped in, the graphics are great!

So far the process has been fun. I experimented with "Cascade" gel dishwashing detergent with bleach to discharge the fabric and it worked great. I then rinsed the fabric and soaked it in soda ash to neutralize it before I washed it. Hopefully this is all I needed to do. So far so good.