Bear - Day 4

A few more hours.

Before I started today I removed the right side of the bear's head. I hadn't fused it because I knew the ruff wasn't right at the time.

I worked up to the ear. I hesitated but then I added one more colour here to be used very sparingly, Brilliant yellow .

After placing a few directional markers indicating changes in the fur direction, I started at the lower leg and worked up.

Bear - Day 3

My work table is too far from my design wall so I've been working with my piece on the table. I'm doing a 'colour/shade' section at a time.
I'm using a lab stool.
I'd forgotten the joy of an hour on that instrument of torture......So I take lots of breaks.

Here's one hour

Here's the second. That's enough for today.

Bear - Day 2

I finished cutting a few more pieces from FQs and after working for about 3 hours, I quit when I started running out of colours. I replaced the colours I had used, ready for tomorrow. I'm only preparing strips of about 6 inches each time. I don't want to be left with a lot of unused fused cloth.
I'm heat fusing the whole at the end of each session. There is no point in thinking I MAY move a few pieces. I could go nuts that way.
I return the bear to the design wall to photograph regularly. Its easy to forget where you are.

So here's the end of Day 2

BEAR - Preparation

Day 1?
No. I'm not mentally prepared to tackle this yet.


I'm still sorting through the ideas and impressions that I took away from the workshop yesterday.
I slept like a log......and today I have the energy of a log.
I found myself getting confused and frustrated yesterday searching through my fabrics. It was too easy to reject what I had and stroll out into the store (I only bought 2 FQ), so I decided to organize this process.

From this enlargement it's easier to see there were  6+ different fabrics used in this small chest area of the bear.

The picture shows how I divided the photo, roughly, into 4 different colour value areas, each requiring slightly different fabrics. (I showed hubby this morning and after looking at what took me 6+ hrs yesterday, he laughed softly, patted me on the shoulder and walked away, shaking his head.)

I knew before I could continue I had to get organized.

Voila!
I wanted to have a large selection in front of me and ready to work with.
Each pan is supposed to hold a different value.
We'll see how long that lasts.
There are still 10+more FQ to apply the 'steam a seam' to, and then slice into those "painterly" sized pieces. 

Guess What I Did? - Collage

I attended a collage workshop.
OMG
 I took a course!

I want to do more using a collage method but am still at a loss for the hows and the whys. Some things just take longer to sink in I guess and I am a very 'hands on' learner.

Our Favourite Little Quilt Shop in Kitchener, Creative Sisters was offering yet another go round focusing on the works of Laura Heines. So I enrolled!

One lady was there to finish a piece she started last time. She was uncertain trying to finish it on her own. I certainly understand that one.

A few had precut their fabric. I have to assume they had a fair understanding of the method.

They either finished, or can easily do it at home in a few hours.

Then there were the others, myself included, who really had no clue how to start.
There were a couple who did nothing but cut fabric. ?

Here are couple of Owls. One was constructed by a lady from London and the other, a woman from Holland! (She's a frequent visitor to the area, with relatives in town.)

A lovely lady beside me was rather overwhelmed, half way through the day, with the amount of cutting that needed to be done. She also realized she had more appropriate materials at home.

And me, EVER THE REBEL, chose to start a totally different piece.
My own photo (from the internet) of a bear.

The style I wanted to do actually has its own name, Painterly, describing thousands of paint strokes?
Yes, that translates into thousands of pieces of fabric.
This is as far as I got in 6? hours.

Stay tuned for this one. Hopefully it won't take too long.

Who like Cats?

Most children do.
This cute comfort quilt sat on my frame for a few days. I finally decided to simply cover it with cat voices.

Meow. Miou. Rowr. Purr. Mew.  Lots of words in a few languages.
I threw in a few mice and birds.
And added labels for ten different cats, wild and not so wild.

(Shhh..... all our pets think they are ferocious hunters.)

Forest Violets - Final

Final? Not 100% sure.
I could just keep going with the blossoms for days...... but I don't want to compete with the violets. After all, that's what attracted me to the original watercolour.

Here's the original painting again. It WAS a journey, but what fun along the way.

(oh yeah....quilting. That can wait.)

FV - Day 8

It's all about the trees.

FV - Day 7

Slow off the mark today, but I filled a lot of 'holes' this afternoon. Is it done? Who knows.
At this point I need to seriously address the trees.
And the quilting.
The trees themselves have a lot more branch material to add. And leaves.

Here's one of the ideas I've been toying with.

FV - Day 6

Almost finished.....(wait for it)........the BACKGROUND.
Yep, that's what this is all about.
I figure I've cut well over 1000 pieces. There are 130 in this picture. (I counted them.)

I've lost count how many times I've sat down and cut up material. At least I wised up and brought the cutting upstairs where it's warmer and sunnier and I can enjoy a hot cup of coffee while I snip.
About half way through all this I remembered my son had gifted me a new pair of scissors, left handed. I had a pair in my youth courtesy my mother who was also left handed, but when the scissor manufacturers smartened up and came out with neutral rounded handles we all switched to the less expensive compromise.

However, left handed scissors have the blades reversed. I found I had to relearn how to cut with them.
By the way, the cutting takes about an hour, the placing and iron setting takes about 5 minutes.

So I have the left side where I want it for now. The violets too, are good now. There is just the upper right corner that needs addressing and then I can turn to the star of the show...? The trees of course!

(Well I may quilt the whole pieces BEFORE I start in on the trees........😀)

FV - Day 5

Thought I don't think they're quite done, I'm happy with how the violets are shaping up.
I worked on a few other areas this afternoon but found I was getting 'colour confused'....so it's time to quit for today.

FV - Day 4

Time for the Violets.

And we may as well throw in the tree trunks.

FV - Day 3

I shifted to dark green this morning after finding a lovely FQ of my painted material. Using about half was enough for today, but it helped restore the balance in what I am seeing. I'm still thinking background.  

I'm fusing this all immediately because I realize I could go nuts constantly moving pieces. Since I know some of it is going to covered with something else, it becomes a moot point.

I'm also thinking I'm at the point when I need to mock up some trees to help guide the placement of my limited painted cloth.

Forest Violets - Day 2

I'm in this one for the long haul.
I made the decision that I would not take the confetti and netting route on this piece. It was tempting as it can be SOOO quick, but I decided to take a slower, true collage approach. Consequently every piece will be cut or shaped manually.

As there is a lot of filler and blending still to be added at this time, I chose to use simple Heat and Bond over the more expensive Steam a Seam product. I'll use that later.

So what you can see......if you CAN see the difference, took about 3 hours of cutting and tweezer placing, and then I ironed it down.

Found another hour.

Forest Violets - Colour Block

Here we go.
Piece is colour blocked.
I used a piece of fusible interfacing as an underlay. Some of the larger pieces are fusied to that.
Some had a light applique fusible applied to them and the smaller pieces are attached with a school grade glue stick. Equal opportunities here!
I'm starting out at 36" sq. We'll see how that works.

Time Out - Domestic Stuff

Breakfast stuff that is.
I DO like to cook but I'm not very adventuresome. Hubby does most of the cooking but the COMFORT FOOD falls to me. Recipes that are sacrosanct from our (MY?) youth.

Breakfast stuff.
Roughly every three weeks I need to restock the larder with breakfast. And of course we have different wants. Oatmeal raisin cookies for hubby.....👨

and granola with cranberries for me 😇

I usually do them the same day. It ends up taking about 2+ hours.
 
Same stuff.. summer and winter.
Now back to work!

New Year, New Work

I found a sliver of time this week. The scheduled workshop has been postponed as most of the members are down with the flu. So I turned this morning to an Art Piece that caught my eye and imagination a few months ago.

Something about this just struck a cord. Today I dove in.
I'm a bit hampered by the self impose moratorium on fabric buying but a hunt through my stash this morning gave me a good start.

The only colour I'm not happy with is the violet. Most Of my fabrics are too pink. I'll look one more time but I just may have to SPEND money.

4:00 PM - I spent money.

Tweaking the Landscape samples

Finishing each one took over an hour. In the summer piece, the plaid annoyed me the whole time. This piece would not stand alone as a landscape but the addition of a focal point, tree or animal would conceal it enough. The colours were good but the plaid a little too aggressive.

Autumn is so satisfying on many levels. There is so much colour it's difficult to go wrong. Variegated threads work very well here adding the colour burst in the forests, even in the evergreens.

Winter is winter, stark and empty. With a minimal finish, its crying out for a orchard tree or some other object. The sky is half finished in two different threads. The left side in mono filament and the right a closely matched pale blue. Either one fits.