IPM - Day 13

You'll have to look really closely to find what I spent at least four hours doing today.
All the background from the olive green up is stitched. That's almost half.
And I decided to finish all five

major trees. Each now has at least 5 passes with different thread and a light crayon treatment to heighten shadow areas.
Now the fun begins bringing this alive.
So it's decision time again.
I was going to machine stitch the series of shrubs at the centre with foliage style stitching. Now I'm considering doing them off the piece, on netting.
There are also about ten small trees to be placed/stitched but I'm undecided whether the foliage should be snippets, stitches or netted foliage.

When I Don't have the Right Fabric....

I paint it.
If I'm going to feature some mature maple leaves I wanted an interesting fabric.
I'm not sure of the exact style yet but, in case I wanted some loose edges I needed to make sure both the front and back of the fabric had colour.

I had dyed some lime green fabric last September. Lime green is not the colour I wanted so I over painted it with a medium "stale" green paint from last year to which I added some black. After dousing the FQ with about 1/4C of this paint I crumpled it up and left it do do its magic.

Turning to the lower edge of the piece, I needed another shade of cheesecloth to alter the sameness of the green fabric on the close slopes. Using one of the pale brown cloths, again from last summer, I folded it loosely into a container and poured the remaining green paint, diluted, complete with black clumps and added some yellow, also diluted. A minute of mixing and this was left to drip dry in the sun.
Voila! My fabric needs are fulfilled.

And on the landscape....

Glorious Poppy

Who can work in a basement studio when this opened in the garden this morning?

IPM - Day 11

Finishing the background will take up to two more days. It's not something I can just push through. It's a bit mind numbing. So while I take breaks from that I need to look forward to the finish.

So here's my inspiration.
On my walk this morning I brought home a small branch.

I broke it up into smaller pieces. I wasn't sure whether to make the leaves full size but these maple leaves are not gigantic....and they work.
Whether to have them lying over the border? and the binding is another question for later. Here's the cropped photo.

Though the finish on the bottom will lighten the dark green, the leaves add some balance.
I will finish the bottom before I star assembling the leaves. OOOOOO I may have to paint some fabric!!

IPM - Day 10

One quarter of the background is complete........except for the left hand tree. I haven't tackled it yet so it provides a good example of the before and after. The smaller trees, while anchored under netting have no stitching. I decided they're too small so they're finished with crayon and seta pens.

Stitching or filling the background is being done with species in mind. Each different fabric is, in my mind, representing a different type of tree so whether or not it really makes a difference in the overall piece........... I know it's different.