Yorklands - Day 14

The upper right hand  corner is complete. After adding 17 more branches over the thirteen previously applied the density and colour is pretty close to what I want.

There are 3 different colours of green used here plus a darker green in the bobbin.

Tomorrow? more foliage.

Yorklands - Day 13

I knew this day would come. It was all so easy.
I decided  there was too much blue. The 'blue' snow was competing with the water so I took it off and replaced it with a mottled grey. this is easier to work with.

And after closely examining the foreground (for the umpteenth time)........I decided it's all rock walls.
That said..........I started taking off the cheesecloth. All salvageable.

Nuff!

I had a nap.
Much better.
I spent the afternoon build two stone walls.

Yorklands - Day 12 -

I decided last night to move this piece to my Long Arm. After today, I'm not sure this wasn't premature. I thought it would allow me to work on more than one section at once without have to pin and protect what wasn't sewn.

The big draw back is I can't see the whole.
Made more branches for this one corner.

Yorklands - Day 11 - Deep Shade

I've spent a long time in my head deciding how to tackle this issue. In the end I went with black organza. Opaque material was too there, netting and cheesecloth required too much material but the organza was easy to shape and remained thin and translucent with many layers.

Over that I placed 13 'branches'. Yep, all in one spot. This is going take a little time.

Yorklands - Day 10 - 3 Cedars

While these three trees are so prominent, they are, strictly speaking, background and will have a lot of other things put over top.
That said, they have such wonderful bark I enjoyed spending 3 hrs placing individual strands of thread before anchoring all under netting.

Yorklands - Day 9 - Ground work

At this point I"m pleased with the results. While I still have some questions as to what I'm looking at in the original photo, the backgrounds are all in place. There is a lot of diddly finishing that could be done but I'll leave it for now.
The mind numbing FUN begins with the construction and placement of trees, branches, bare vines and tangles of underbrush begins. I know this will be slow while I work through some technique ideas.

Yorklands - Day 8 - Stonework

Yorklands - Day 7 - Lower River

This is the last of the 'background'.
The rock walls are next, then the foliage.

Yorklands - Day 6 - Sky and Water

It was necessary at this point to finish the sky and the water, so it was time to add the batting and the backing. With all the anticipated tree/branches etc it would have been impossible to get at either to quilt them properly.

The sky was straightforward but the water required a good hard look at the original photo. The water in the foreground is not exiting from a stream but from a large pool whose left hand side is shaded by both reeds and branches. The reeds give it the colour as they are the edge of the pool and responsible for the shadow there. The branches are well forward from the edge of the water.

There is more stitching to add to the water, more colours even though most of it will disappear.

Yorklands - Day 5

There isn't too much more to add to the background.
After anchoring all the grass and filler, I worked on the centre back adding bare trees, mounding juniper and few old scraggly evergreen.

 

Yorklands - Day 4

The grasses are almost finished. The addition of cheesecloth and now an over lay of netting has them in position for tacking. A lot of sewing isn't necessary because most areas will have tree branches over top.

Yorklands - Day 3

Small details are important to me. I had an idea for the grass and tried it today. Cut threads ironed onto fusible web then fused to the background.

The first batch was thread only. As the placement moved forward thicker thread and thin yarns were added.

It is time consuming but I think it works.

And yes most of it will be covered or partially concealed.

The Yorklands - Day 2

The vegetation on either side of the stream is very dense even if it is limited and close and combined of loose and open evergreens. This can only be done with layer after layer of netted stitching.
There is a bit of colour blocking but its really a guide for me to remember colour. Rather than trying to direct stitching to specific position I decide was going to spend a few days just stitching all sorts of evergreen boughs.
They can be trimmed and placed. Before that there are the open reaches of reed grasses. That too can be netted work.
And don't forget cheesecloth. Perfect here for blending a softening.

The Yorklands

There is a property not far from my house that has worn many hats and passed through many hands. Between the Federal and Provincial governments it has ended up at the mercy of the developers. It's a large parcel with a rich history written by nature as well as man.

An environmentally conscience group in Guelph has been trying to have a part of it set aside for education purposes, an uphill battle. One of my neighbours is heavily committed. Her sister captured this photo that speaks to the process of nature trying to recover.

 

As all my March and April workshops and trunk show commitments were cancelled because of the Covid-19 virus  and perhaps the fact (my son so candidly pointed out) that I am in the group for whom the virus seems to be most lethal....old, I, like most of us, are home with lots of time on our hands.
I was entranced when I saw the photo and with my friend's permission it is my project for Spring. Our self isolation to suppress the virus is the only thing that keeps me out of the garden so this is a pretty stimulating substituent.

I've studied it for a couple of weeks now, taking it apart trying to understand what I see; the melting snow, the rising streams of water, the dead grasses, the extensive stone work and all the wild grape in the trees. So much going on. Where to start.

Background of course, but in this case the water in the foreground is also background. It anchors the perspective from back to front and is the feature that everything else is around, in, under, on or leaning over.
That's today's work.

Winter Solstice - Final

Nice to finish this just as Spring is nudging Winter aside. 36x20

Winter Solstice - Day 8

It was hard to put the ink to the cloth but today I just dove in. After it all dried I was very happy with the results.
Now for the stitching and quilting.

(Inktense pencils and blocks)

Knot Bag

Last week was pretty much a loss for working. I spent a lot of time cleaning for my turn of hosting our local SAQA pod. The up side is my spring cleaning is done.
The down side is we were all together when it was announced the InternationalConference being held in Toronto, in Canada for the first time, was cancelled out of concern for the novel Covid -19 virus. There were tears and a lot of disappointed participants.

A few days later my small fibre art's group met.
We had a good turnout and decided to try holding daytime meeting as the rule. I for one really like that. I'm not too keen at going out after supper anymore. I have a comfy couch that calls to me every evening after supper.

So over the week and weekend I worked on this piece. Using a 'boro' technique taken from the Sashiko process of repairing and layering clothing, we decided to make a small Knot bag.

Here's mine. Made entirely from hubby's sand-washed shirts, some day I'll remember that tight weaves are not fun for hand stitching.
I used it this morning for a quick trip out to buy more embroidery thread for my Spanish lady.

Winter Solstice Day 7

I started replacing the trees yesterday.
I had tea dyed a piece of 'birch' fabric and had decided it was to dark. After using something else I realized I didn't like it at all so this morning I went back to the discarded fabric.

With a little ink/paint I brought the trunks closer to my idea.