Winter Solstice - Final

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

The Garden - Flower centers

Still pouring rain outside.
It looks like the weather channel was right for a change. We 're on our way to 50+ mm of rain, (mind you that's really only a couple of inches, but in winter with the ground frozen.....). Wish we had had this rain midsummer last.

But my Flowers............ they needed more definition that the addition of their centers should provide.
I'm still just playing with the colours but there are some interesting possibilities.

I had been a little lukewarm with the flowers on the background. When I removed them to audition centers I grouped them.

What a difference.

The feel of the meadow full of mixed flowers may not be the way to go.


And I pulled the background and narrowed the field. I'm still thinking about stems and leaves.

The Garden - the Flowers

I'd been thinking about the flowers since I started this piece. Looking for lots of colour I was leaning towards a mix of different flowers. I played around this afternoon with paper cutouts and glue and cloth.....and decided to go with simple Poppies.

They come in so many colours and varieties.

After I played with construction styles, petals sewn or glued together,

I chose a gathered strip of cloth, a line of running stitched to pull up the fabric and a notched a curved cut on the other side.

It sounds straightforward but as I decided to use a fused fabric to add some dimension, it doesn't draw up as nicely or as easily. Here, smaller is better than bigger.

Looks good.
Now to see what other lovely material is hiding in my stash.

The Garden - the ground

Totally different feel here.
The colour of the flowers, leaves and stems are muted by both overshadowing and age.

The space between the two parts is undecided at this point. I'll see how the flowers develop.
Their number and size will determine the spacing (height) of the whole piece.

The Garden

I'm setting my Signora aside for a bit. I decided NOT to machine quilt the face but to hand stitch it. To do that I need to restock my thread and it will be awhile before I venture out to the store.

IN THE MEANTIME

I had fallen for a Klimt picture.
It played on my weakness for Confetti or Crumb work. I had put those techniques aside for the summer...but

As I watched the snow fall this morning I decided I could use a colour boost and caved.

What's not to love about this glowing work.

 I wanted a large mix so I limited the size of the materials

And the colours dance across the background of this piece already.

Signora - Scarf and facial features

Everything is placed and fused and the scarf has all the stitching it needs to maintain the folds as well as keep some texture.

Marking that seasoned flesh was crucial and I'll admit a kind of 'hold your breath' scary.
The face, fingers and arms have the basic lines.....the major sags and folds are lightly marked with a permanent F&P brown quilt label pen. They don't show up at there best here but they are clear enough for me to work with.

Time to add the backing.

Vecchia Signora tra le Viti

This image is another one of those that have haunted me for a long time. My original thoughts were to use the collage process but I couldn't massage it in Photoshop to my liking, or I'm still not wholly comfortable with the process. So my default method is raw applique.

Enlarging it and then tracing a cartoon and a second copy on fusible materials worked very well for the face and arms, but the head scarf was another matter.

For this I cut individual strips on the bias from a light weight poly knit. There is no distinct pattern but I hoped that there was enough interest in the design to give it some lift and texture.

 I fused a sharp fold in the material where it surrounds the face. For now the rest is pinned.
I'm sure I"m going to play with the folds for a while.

Wet Felting - That's More Like It!

A friend had sprinkled some lime green silk thread on the brown wool.
Seems a long time ago.
I liked it
I still like it.

Add a little roughage (sticks...and ginkgo......so cliche I know) and a black? background......

Leaves for the Background

While I do like the empty, woven piece I'm fixated on leaves. I've tried a few things but I haven't been happy.

I sat down a few days ago and wove a piece about 6"x8" and the cut the leaves from that.
They disappeared into the background more than I had hoped so on a whim I backed them with a contrasting felt.

This I like, so far.

Another afternoon I worked up some different colours combinations. It will take me another day to finish this. 

Weaving - Background Concerns

My intent is this weaving exercise is the background.
I will admit I've been waffling a bit wondering if it was too busy and should in fact BE the piece.

As it's almost to size I ran it through a drawing programme and doodled over the background.
The result in my mind is that it will work and I can stop fretting.

 Cropped to get ride of most of the 'fringe' it still looks very busy.

But a scribble of leaves, branches and birch boles gives it a very different feel. I'm happy. I know I'll sleep better.

Weaving - 4 more inches

Coffee, Walk, gardening, weave.
Not a bad routine in June.

But I may leave it here for a few days.
Going on a road trip with the girls to Ottawa where our composite piece is hanging in the CQA Show.

I may never be the same..........
LOL
Wouldn't miss this for the world.

Weaving - Another Day

Coffeed... I walked my route as the sun was coming over the houses. Watered and trimmed the hanging baskets, cleaned and refilled the birdbath, cleaned and refilled the hummingbird feeders.
Finished a third cup of coffee, chatted with my sister, chased hubby out to the store......

and went to weave.
I've started introducing a few new colours, different materials. The top will have a different look, but hopefully the same feel.
Sitting at 40"x 18"
A ratio of 8x5 is an ideal shape.
That just a few more inches....7+ ?

Weaving - Half Way!

Started the day walking, then weeding in the garden.

Depending on what ratio I'm end up with (LxW)..... you could say I'm over half done.  

Weaving - Day - Whatever

 About half way? That depends how long I can keep this up. I do have a size in mind.

I did learn a hard lesson.
I am creating this over a layer of fusible web. I was able to slide my pizza peal under the stabilizer and iron to begin the process of making it permanent.
Then I decide to fully fuse from the backside.

As I unpinned and proceeded to flip onto it's face, the edges gave way.
It really hadn't fused anywhere. There was just too much material for the heat to get through.
I was able to salvage the whole thing but it took me several hours to re weave the edges from the backside.
Lesson learned.

(It's still pretty straight too.)

Weaving - Day 4

Another dull morning threatening rain.
So worked across the rest of the board, and finished around 3.
Then I went out and ripped out the 'for get-me-not'. It was almost done and had reached the point where it was smothering the remainder.

Tomorrow I'll start another pass. This was certainly slower than the first day but I think that's because I was piecing colour on almost every row.
That involved planning for an 'under' location to pin and glue the next colour.

The picture has a 'wrong' feel to it, but that's because I photographed it upside down to the move the strips out of the way.

Time to Start something New.

After finishing all my Bears this Spring, I had a lot of false starts. Now I'm ready to begin using an alternative method for the basis of the piece. Having a few quilts to finish for my friends did help to clear the mind and aided in decisions made...
I dove in this afternoon.

It's going to be landscape, with trees in Autumn. Nothing new there but I wanted something different in the way of a background other than solid fabric or colour blocking covered with confetti. So I'm taking my inspiration from this project from last year, a purse I made using a pattern from Yoko Saito.

The body of the design was built from strips, one inch pieces of materiel.

They were run through a bias tape maker, woven together and then fused and stitched to the facing of the purse.
Same method here, but these will be primarily green.

It's also something I can stop and start at anytime.
I'm thinking this will be a big piece...3'x4'?
It will take some time.
After all it is summer.

Castle Rock - Final

It's a month since I started this at a SAQA workshop at Crieff and while it took a few days to get back to it once I was home, it's done.
Now I have to lay it aside a week for other matters. When I do get back to finishing the quilting, I don't expect the image itself will change at all.

Castle Rock - Day 16

It took the morning to stitch down all the foliage at the bottom. I was going to net it but at the last minute I took it off and stitched the leaves individually.

The trunks were thread painted, and finally this afternoon I started on the canopy of the forest.
Another day should do it.

Castle Rock - Day 15

Even I have a breaking point.
I spent several hours this morning (as well as countless hours before) making fern and bracken fronds. Then.............I hit the wall.
Enough already!

So I took six charm squares I had set aside, cut them all up and literally threw them at the bottom.
All assembled. 😁

What's next?
Before the final quilting I need to thread paint the large trees, the add fine branch work on the horizon....and a little more diddly stuff as I come to it.
See you on the other side.

Castle Rock - Day 13

Little bits and pieces.
Ferns and bracken and moss.
They all take....time and patience.