Not a Bear...............

I started to get a little nervous about timing so I'm working full out to finish the quilt.

The final line of embroidery blocks is almost done and the upper border is in sight!
Whew.
I'm gonna make the deadline.
Until it's done.................................😁

Grizzly in the Salmon Stream - Day 4

The under coat is complete.
The muzzle/mouth I made off the body of the work so I could finish the water behind the head. I was concerned it's not attach to rest of the stabilizer. It might separate from the rest as it was needle punched over the water and all the cheesecloth. So I machine stitched it in place.

The water along the bottom edge is complete and the bottom edges of the bear have been expanded to the full pattern size.,

The final coat will differentiate the limbs and finish the shadow, but for now, I'm going to leave this guy here and switch to the Polar Bear.

Grizzly in the Salmon Stream - Day 3

The first? layer of the water is in place. This is all cheescloth.

I'll live with this until I finish felting the bear.

Grizzly in the Salmon Stream

I wanted to work on this fellow today........ because he's already haunting my sleep.
There are so many ways to portray water. The issue is to use the method and materials that fit the tone of the piece.

I started out with my tried and true embroidery hoop stitches, looking to make swirls and splash.

It just didn't seen to have enough 'meat'.

I found a great transition using shredded cheesecloth. By taking small pieces, about 3 inches square, and distorting it diagonally, it gave a an unstructured fill.

This will need to be anchored under netting. No surprise there. It allows me to stick in even more unstable materials.

This worked out very well.
There are two colours of cheesecloth here. One pure white, out of the package and the other muddied with grey? blue?

Bears and Bears

I'm so happy I got as much done on our retreat as I did.
There's always the temptation to just sit on the dock with a tall cold drink. This year the weather didn't encourage that so we all were busy most of the days.

The Polar Bear is by far, the easier piece so I accomplished much more in the one day I worked on him.

The Grizzly too, went together well. My next step, (I had put it off to just take the needling supplies with me) is to create and add the water as the edge of the bear. I can't finish the edges till I've determine the 'how' of the water. There is still lots in my head there.

The faces are what takes the most time. I think they're almost finished.

So that's how I spent my summer vacation!

Home Again, Home Again

Even though the weather was a tad cool, and it poured one day, (it's hard to beat the sound of rain at a cottage by the lake), we had a wonderful and very productive time.
We finished the final fussing on our group offering for the guild show next month.

I didn't bring my sewing machine, but the other ladies worked on their quilts and assembled a few pieces for donation.

Quiet and serene.....................when we weren't all laughing, eating like royalty and having a great time.

Same place, same time................ next year. 😃

Felted Bears - Plans and Prep

Next week I'm off to a retreat with a small group of lovely women. We meet regularly throughout the years and have challenged and pushed each other to try new things.

This year, I'm not taking a sewing machine. I plan to needle felt.
I have two projects in mind, (just in case I meet road blocks ie. brain dead moments). I expect to switch between the two pieces.

They are both bears. One is a Polar Bear.
I've washed the white fleece I bought earlier this month and prep ed the background so that is ready to go.

The other is a Grizzly.
I came across this wonderful shot posted by the National Geographic Society. What drama here. The bear himself won't present too many issues. Finishing the water will. I've already worked through a number of solutions. But that's a while from now.

I'll take lots of pictures but you've have to wait till next weekend to see how it went.

2 Quilts Done

If the quilting took an hour, the paper removal took two. But it is a cheap and dirty way of exactly replicating a pattern without drawing or marking the quilt.
As this was a pale grey background I didn't want to mar it. I spent an additional hour after the quilt came off the frame with a pair of tweezers, getting the last little bits of paper. Normally they wouldn't show and with use and washing they disintegrate, but as this was a pale quilt and I used brown newsprint, the tiniest fibres showed.

This may or may not find it's way into our up coming quilt show. Then it will be re purposed as a wedding gift. 😄

The owner of this quilt also happens to be the chairwoman of our guild Outreach program, so I can pass off to her, this evening, a quilt intended for the hospital program. Mustn't waste a full bobbin!

Custom Quilting - Border Triangles

Here are the last two patterns for this quilt.

See you when it's finished.

Custom quilting

We have a quilt show in September and I"m getting a bit nervous. I fear people are going to present me with quilts to finish with a really tight deadline. It's not so bad if they want something simple or an overall design. It's the truly custom work that takes planning time.
I spent over an hour last night with a friend whose quilt is actually a wedding gift, but may make it into the show first.
Like a lot of people, she knew what she didn't want. That's a start.

It is a lovely quilt, with a lot of negative space.

After playing around with a few designs we settled on a four armed organic shape for the 16 inch blocks. The borders will be variation on that theme.

 

This is derived from a leafed feather pattern.

Sized to fit one quarter of the block.

I wanted to start with a perfect circle so the best fitting template was........... the cookie box.

Then the shape was massaged with french curves.

The final 'quarter' was replicated buy running four pattern blanks through my sewing machine.

Then they were placed and taped into position and the joining centre was finalized.
.

The finished pattern was transferred to clear plastic so my friend could visualize how the stitching would be in position on the block.

So now I wait until she gives me the final approval.