My Children are Home from The Fair

The kids relaxing on the carpet to get the kinks out.

After the anxiety of letting them go, (to the CQA Show), it was nice to see the postal person walk up to my front porch with my mailing tube Children.

Enclosed in the return mailing was a summary of the critique from the three judges.

They were well received by all three, commenting favourably on balance, the use of colour to create depth and the "skillful" use of fabric to create a 3D affect.

Alas, my technique left a lot to be desired.
One thing I will take away from this, (from my haste to finish), I vow to HAND STITCH the binidngs.
LOL
Now I need to decide the fate of my two Birch Beauties.
Till next time.

New Cloth - Dried and Pressed

This is the exciting part.
After the colours have shifted and blended in the sun, ironing sets the paint. Often the backside is just as exciting if not more intriguing or usable.
Some cloth is destined to be cut up and incorporated but some takes on the staring role. I never know until it's time to create.

The first three photos are the top side of the 12 pieces I painted today. They are all fat quarters.

The next three photos are the backsides of  some of the above. Choosing which is the "good" side all depends on where the art is going.

Some of these will stand alone as backgrounds or as a feature.

AT LAST - a Paint Day

While all this rain has made for a fabulous garden, I've had to shelve any ideas about painting.
Thought it was a bit breezy this morning I decided to go ahead anyway.

Today was actually a purge day. I've known I needed to do this for a while. The problem with holding this brand of paint was, (Seta Colour Transparent), it's not meant to be held this long, 2 yrs+ actually.
It was starting? to get gloppy, clumpy and slimy.

But I hated to throw it out. So I spent a fun couple of hours....FINGER PAINTING and used up as much as I could.

I went through the colours, by working around the colour wheel and blended 2 or 3 analogous or similar colours on a fat quarter of white cotton. They should dry quickly today.

I was also able to add to my coloured cheesecloth collection. It comes in so handy to add a different shade or soften colours in my landscape work.

A couple of uninteresting pieces I scrunched for texture.

And the "dead soldiers" will head to the garbage. Time to mix fresh paint.

I know I'm a Hand Quilting Novice but.....

Is it normal to use a whole spool, 400 yd. of thread on the first half of the quilt?

Back to the Mundane

All the flurry over the CQA show is past, selected pieces are mailed out west, the garden has been returned to reasonable shape and Father's Day was a nice low key visit with our eldest son.

BUT

You can't suppress that creative urge for long. SO, it was time to catch up on some on going projects.

My Jane Stickle quilt has passed the halfway mark. Some of these blocks stumped me a bit, deciding how to quilt them. But it was nice to get back to it. As I worked I envisioned some of the awesomely small stitches in some of those show quilts. Inspiration !!!!

The Embroidery for another quilt needed a lot of light, so that necessitated me sitting in the garden. Such a hardship.

But OH NO!
I FINALLY succumb to the barrage of ultrasound shots of my grandson.......and started KNITTING.
I found one of my favourite patterns, one I had knit for my two boys thirty odd years ago. While my hands weren't too happy about this change of usage....... (I told them to toughen up and had some aspirin), I dove in with a lovely blue that is the same colour as Daddy's eyes.

CQA 2017

It came..... and I went yesterday with some very good friends and creative buddies.
We were blown away. There were some old favourites, some awesome hand quilting, and lots of jaw dropping pieces. This year's strong presence was the use of heavy embroidery as an embellishment. It certainly added luxury and sumptuousness to pieces.
So here are some. The show runs till Saturday. Get there if you can. Next year it moves to B.C.

BEST IN SHOW

Selvage Art

PROUD AS PUNCH!

 My two pieces above stood up very well. Birch and poplar seemed to be a favourite this year.

Confetti work on a large scale

detail of above

 

This is a sister to the Best of Show at the beginning, done by the same talented and patient woman.

Got a chance to chat with the creator of this one.

Detail of above

 

Blue and White reverse Applique