Summer is Half Over

I've been AWOL for a bit with visiting relatives and summer stuff.
And I will probably not post for the next little while as I've found myself backed into a deadline corner that needs attention, now.

Our guild quilt show is 6 weeks from now and I have almost half a queen quilt left to hand quilt, so I need to put that first for now. When it's done, I'll be able to turn my full attentions back to working on.....what I bought.

I invited a neighbour to travel with today. (She was supposed to be the voice of reason.) She ended up buying some luscious wool as well.
We traveled back to Chassagne Farm in Puslinch, just half an hour from my house (too close if you ask me)   www.chassagne.ca

I was so pumped by the finish on both my bears that I wanted to make an immediate jump to the Polar Bear. I had been wrestling with whether to render him in collage or wool. On a whim I contacted the owner of the farm, Carol Precious and yes, she had a few white fleeces. So off we went.

With two raw smelly unwashed glorious fleeces in my possession, I now, reluctantly put them aside until I finish the quilt. I hope sooner than later, to get to these beautiful bags of wool.

Sinchie Wall hanging

Just a few things to tie up here. The right side needs to be hemmed.
In all it looks great the efforts of my 10 quilting friends.
This is our group entry into our September Quilt show.

Pardon my camera strap!

Summer Afternoon - Day 6 - Final

I didn't miss a day, I just didn't find the time to post.

This piece changed directions a few times and I believe that's because I put it aside for other things.
I intend to use this for a sample or teaching purposes so there are a number of techniques included.

I decided yesterday it was a little dull but I thought adding fully finished birds might be to heavy.
Instead I took a page from a sketch book and only partial finished 3 birds. The parts finished, the heads are unmistakable.
Leaving them unfinished keeps the view light and still encourages looking deeper into the foliage.

The birds were added using the same method as the maple leaves, stitching over an outline on paper.
The black heads were added, then some light grey outlining of feathers. The last addition was some of the white, just enough to exclaim 'Chickadees'.
Maple leaves were added here and there to finish the quilting and to balance the amount of stitching.
Hummmmmmmmmmm.......I may add more..................

Painted cloth - July

It took me a few days to get back to this cloth.

The first was a 'leftover' from last year's workshop with natural dyes. White cotton treated with milk (protein additive) then layered with onion skins, tied and boiled with alum. A no-brainer there.

These following were the second go around from earlier in the week.
They each received another pass with dilute paint and then once they dried, they were dipped in a very dilute black paint solution, laid flat and crumpled until they dried completely.

They are all interesting but not all will make the cut for Night Sky.
They are each paired, first paint job then today's.
The last one I'll keep for other purposes.

Summer Afternoon - Day 4

Its not as though I work all day on this.
Since the heat broke yesterday evening, there's time spent in garden, weeding of course, and catching up with the neighbours, these are important too.

The stitching fill for this is not intended to be total. I'm leaving gaps. It softens the look.
One more session should finish it.

I stopped today...... because the bobbin ran out.
As good a reason as any.
Now for a book, on the chaise, in the garden.

Summer Afternoon - Day 3

Finally found some time this afternoon and started in on finishing the trees themselves.

After stitching the branch pattern in the upper left corner, I worked for about 2 hours 'drawing' leaves.
I don't usually use variegated threads on these pieces but today it fit.

A cooling summer storm has finally started to roll through town, so that enough work with the machinery today. I'll enjoy the rain for now.

Squirrel - Final

A hour of fussy cutting liberated this frisky guy. For a little insurance I coloured the cut edges with the wet ink pencils. Sometimes the white bating peeks through.
Adding more fur in the appropriate colour anchored this fellow securely.
A small piece of 'branch' grounds him.

Early Morning Painting

Really early morning stuff.
Nothing on my agenda today so I finally took myself outside at 6:30 AM to paint in the cool still air. The weather has been too hot during the day to consider but I'd gradually moved things out of storage so I could act at a moments whim and replenish my fabrics.

I have a goal in mind.
Northern lights.
Yes, I can abstractly cut fabric and suggest the impression but I think I should be able to get paint to do a reasonable job.  Its the fading off into nothing, and they way the colours cross without blending that is still just out of reach.
If I used opaque paint then the lightness would disappear, so I need to play, play play with the transparent pigments.

First 4 off the line.

Playing with 'barely there' I added salt to force the paint to move and hung it up to control the direction.

The drama created by the pigment movement is astounding, and the wetter the fabric the better the action.

Each is different but reminiscent of sky or water.
A quick hot iron set the paint so these pieces are ready for phase two.
We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Pesky Squirrels

I needed to be down stairs with the laundry. I decided it was a good time for a quick thread sketched squirrel.
After drawing the pose onto a piece of semi rigid stabilizer, I coloured it using watercolour pencils. A quick brush wash and the colours blended. Now the white background is partially concealed.

I added a piece of batting behind. This was all done using quilting weigh thread only.

 

Why it's so Hard to work in the Studio

No apologies.
I'd rather spend time with my Flowers.
Enjoy.

Summer Afternoon -Day 2

On those days when I'm in and out, I find it hard to shift gears and do a lot of work.

I had thought about a bit of detail last night.
I really liked the diminutive deer I had placed in the Deer Park piece. I liked the way it gave a real sense of size and perspective.
On this piece I didn't want the Deer to stand out,....

just be there, as part of the woods.     

Using freezer paper and the same template as before, I cut out a single Doe in the purple organza and tucked her under a few of the layers of other colours.

How to anchor this?
I decided NOT to stitch around it as it would draw the eye. In the end I placed a hint of a tree over top. The Deer can't go anywhere and it now its part of the forest.
As Deer should be.
Maybe I'll add more.

Summer Afternoon

To keep myself busy while I decide on a another large project, I spent about 3 hr this afternoon putting together a forest scene using organza. I love the way the layers change their colours and intensities.

I had been thinking about the onion dyed pieces of silk, a piece of which I used in the Cave Bear. I though it would be a nice colour background for this one.

To maximize its colour I laid it directly on white batting, and then started layering about 10 different colours of organza ranging from lime green through to purple and black.

I used some slivers of cotton for the tree trunks.
A layer of netting and pins and it ready to finish.

SAQA Fibre Content 2018 Art Show

I'm thrilled to say I've had 2 pieces accepted into this show in Burlington Ontario in September.
The kicker is they will go from there onto a 2 year tour.
Kind of hard to wrap my head around that.
😊
Here are the two pieces, not new but I hung onto them for a reason.

Forest Violets 2018

Deer Park 2017

Challenge piece

One of the reasons I joined SAQA was to be pushed out of my comfort zone, so this first challenge coming from the local Pod was to make a 12x12 piece based on Summer,
I sat out in my garden every morning before the heat drove me back in. I did my garden work at dawn in full Summer, looking for some inspiration. Looked at leaves, flowers, grass.
Blah!
Nothing intrigued me........except the HEAT.
I had considered doing some pieces with forest fires before; I painted a lot of suitable fabric, but the fire disasters in Canada and the US last summer and this, discouraged me. I wasn't ready to turn them into art.
So rethinking Heat,  I thought about what heat is......part of EMS, the electro-magnetic spectrum. This includes, beside visible light, infra red, untraviolent. microwaves etc.
That spoke to the science teacher in me.

What colour?
Red of course but with visible waves.

I started with some of last year's fabric,

and after stitching a lot of wavy patterns, (mostly hidden by the time I was finished) over laid the whole thing with red cheesecloth then confetti and netting and stitched to capture the confetti.

Then I added "particle" tracks in different colours in widths of Satin stitch and finished with bright white photons!

HA!
Love Science and the mystery of Quantum Physics.
Enjoy