Barns

I decided to give the moon a rest while I decided on the quilting.

Today's "fun" is the barn.

I think what attracted me to this is the fluid nature of both the snow and the lines of the barn. Very few straight edges. I can't help but think OLD when I look at this.

After drawing it out to the size I want, I cut it out and auditioned in on the raw fabric.

Now I'm thinking I will have to abandon this fabric for this piece. There are too many distracting lines. These were caused by the permanent wrinkles in the plastic sheet I put over my work table.. I won't throw the cloth out as there will be a use for it, but I either have to repaint this background or change the background all together.

Sigh!
More decisions.

2:30 PM - NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER SURRENDER!  ( from my favourite movie EVER!)

I went back and flipped the background fabric, then cut out the barn cartoon from the intended fabric.
THIS I can work with!

I love the implied roofs!
Sigh!

Colours of the Rock

My Fibre Arts Group were over last night so I spent today finishing the mounting of our Jelly Bean House project. In Canada, Newfoundland is often referred to as The Rock so we elected to give our large wall hanging a more elegant name:

Colours of the Rock.

All I had left to do was slip stitch a back to the canvas support, add a hanging sleeve and introduce a ridged pole at the top. This is a heavy wall hanging with all the finished pieces and the canvas backing. Since we can't know whether it will be displayed on a rod or simply "pinned" to a backdrop, the rod is insurance that it will remain straight.

It occurred to me today as I was finishing this, I needed to "store" it until May 1. I really didn't want to fold it for almost 2 months. It would be very difficult to remove creases and some would fall across the pieces. So..........I hung it in my dining room.

Thanks Nellie, Ann, Anne, Ruth, Mary, Naomi, Lorelei, Dana and  Judy.
We will enjoy it very much!! LOL

If you live in the Guelph area COME TO THE SHOW. Royal City Quilters Guild.
(and girls if you want to come and admire your work some more, call me ,bring over some hand work and we'll have Tea!)

Jelly Bean House - Final

What a perfect way to come down from a sugar high after Hallowe'en. Jelly Beans!!

This is finished. The features are all glued. fused and stitched to the red siding. I added the beading to the house number and made a door handle from sequins, beads and bugles. I still have back some topiary in pots but I'm thinking now, I don't want to spoil the clean lines of this house.
I finished it with an envelope style binding just turning the edges under. The ridged stabilizer had to be trimmed away to do this but it is still right to the edge at the top and bottom, the roof and the stairs.

This will be part of a collage of 10 visions of this wonderful and endangered feature of St John's Newfoundland. I guess I should try to get there soon. ( I'll wait for the good weather)
When my group has assembled the entire project, probably mid-March, I'll post the completed piece.
Final size 10" x 29"

Jelly Bean - 3D Architectural detail

Since I decided to work to this goal, I had to make a trip to my fabric store to by the some of the stiff poly material used to give body to purses. Tad pricey @ $16 /yd. but it will do the trick.
UNFORTUNATELY I spent a lot more than I expected because I found my upholstery GIMP, that I had used to make the tree in my Winter Solstice piece. Hurrah. (Watch for more trees in the future.)

After doing penance for spending ( I bought other stuff too,) by working my front flower bed and making a trip to the landfill with the garden waste, I finally got down to the studio.
( I also started my fruit cake for 2015)

Using the pencil drawings I was able to transfer the shapes and dimensions to the poly sheet by simply inserting a pin at the corners in the picture. It left a mark clear enough so I could draw the lines with my disappearing pen. A "exacto" knife worked best to cut out the pieces. This material is about 1mm thick. When each is coated with material and stacked it should give a nice 3D touch.

The window has 3 layers while the door and front porch actually have 5. There are more but I'll treat the steps as a separate entity.

 

I used the heavy "heat and bond" to attach the material and fold it around the pieces of poly. The last or outer piece folded over the outside edge to hide and bind all the pieces together. Rather finicky work. I resorted to using a fabric cement to turn under the top and bottom edge points.

 

Rather than cut the red background siding, a piece of "sky" and "glass" material will give a realistic touch.

The Cat and the Wisteria

This little piece started out as an exercise in architecture, a practice piece for a future project.
I found this picture, rather stark of a door in Tuscany? Italy? Mexico? Who knows. It certainly wasn't here and it looked WARM.

 

There was so much going on with the wood. But the walls, a little plain?
I thought I may as well enlarge it and add a flowering vine. Wisteria!

 

The door was fun with shades of grey thread. But the secret ingredient for the wood colour was simple crayon. This is an art piece. It won't be washed. And a little discoloring for the walls. I thought it looked pretty good. And the CAT. That WAS inspired.

I started on Wisteria. It was perfect. This shouldn't take too long?

 

It took almost a month.  I swear 5 gazillion French knots. But it was worth it. Just looking at it makes me feel warm. At lest while I sit in front of the fireplace. Framing and binding to finish.

 

Yeah there are 5 gazillion knots!

 

Alison's House

I thought I'd go back and include a few pieces that were constructed while I was incommunicado with the rest of the world. It was lonely working in a vacuum because I wanted to share my frustrations with geometry.
Geometry and Art Quilts? How do they relate.? HA!
My sister asked me to make a hanging of her daughter's new eclectic house as a Christmas present. It used to be a restaurant and had a kitschy accent. A waterwheel. No river..no water within 10km, but a waterwheel.

 



Once you get past THAT, you realize they have a beautiful fieldstone house. It was irresistible.
My niece sent along a few photos to work from.

Laying out the whole scene is necessary to get the perspective right even if you don't use the whole thing. I've learned to add at least 2 inches all around anything I make so when trimming time comes there is enough to work from..

Now that pesky little water wheel didn't just happen.. It may be a perfect circle but its on an angle. There aren't many drawing tools or for that matter quilting tools to help. By trial and error I came up with an oval that fit the size and angle I wanted.

 

And because the wheel is made of wood it had to be squared off and cut up into little pieces.

                                                                                 Twice.!

(It was really rather fun working with tweezers and tiny pieces.)

 

The stone work and the siding were a matter of choosing appropriately patterned material that made putting in the accents an enjoyable task. I did take some liberties with the garden aspect. Mowed the lawn and put in some flowers.

 

I'm hoping I can visit my niece and her family in her charming new home. I think I'll take my camera and see what else this old piece of Canadianna has to offer.

I posted this picture of her home on another board and an American woman, who vacations in her area says she knows exactly where the house is and passes it every summer. Small world Alison!.