Summer - Day 11

I spent most of the morning correcting a machine error.
I attached the major trees using a blind hem stitch. My new machine gave me a much tighter stitching pattern The result was the trees looked pinched along the outer edges. I ignored it for a while. I was trying to avoid dressing these edges. I had done it in the past and though effective it was a very time and labour intensive task.

After deciding I had no alternative, I used that as an opportune time to mount the whole piece to the batting and backing. While the resulting mass of material was very heavy and awkward, it accomplished the two goals.

The piece is evenly anchored to the backing and the edges of the trees no longer have that artificial look.
Compare yesterday to today.

Summer - Day 10

This was not really a full day. I spent the morning receiving some new furniture. That meant cleaning and rearranging other furniture and art. That takes a lot of energy. There is so much emotion involved. LOL ( Hubby and I don't always agree on position and order etc, let alone art!)

To salvage the day I did 3 things.
I measured and readied batting and canvas backing. It's time.
I have read that a number of artist forgo batting. If its not being entered into a quilt show it's not necessary. I chose to add it because of the size of the piece. The edges need stabilzing and it needs a little heft to hold it steady.

The second thing I did was to add some branches with embroidery thread. These will have leaves dedicated to them. I thread the full 6 strands through the boles of a few trees as they would erupt from the bark.

The third task was to turn the trees from cloth to bark. I felt it was necessary to add more intense black, more so than the initial painting has created. On a birch tree the black markings on most of the trees are associated with branch growth and loss or damage. In some areas I used paint to darken the grey but in a number of spots I used a simple black marker. When you want black.........

I included a picture of the before (yesterday) and after (today) to show how much it changes the flavour of the scene.

Summer - Day 9

When you start these pieces, you really have no idea how it will go. Part of the work is always exciting and part of it is just plain work, a test of perseverance. 4 hours of steady sewing and I made it out the other side..

I added small pieces of brown and grey-green cheesecloth as a base and then layered it with 5 different fabrics. In this case I used white netting to maintain the bright colours and then cut away absolutely anything that I could.

Now I can add the finishing touches.

Summer - Day 8

I got the day correct this time!!

Finding time to work on this piece while juggling the rest of your life isn't always conducive to a lot of progress.
I was out at 8 AM to have my hair trimmed. It's a 2 hour round trip and I drive 50 miles to a woman I love.. Women do these things.
When I returned I found an email link to a Show and Sale in TO this summer. My step daughter is putting a lot of pressure on me to participate in this. She has just finished revamping my business cards and creating a Post Card? as well.
Working my way through the application took around an hour. I was asked for samples of my work. How do you choose?

By the time I finished I needed coffee. Two cups and a sandwich later ( stress makes me eat ......well almost everything makes me eat!) I finally headed down to my space.

There is a lot yet to be done and because my head wasn't clear, I immediately got lost in detail. That's dangerous?...and can lead to unnecessary work, work that will be covered or even wrong.
What did I do?
Well I had had an idea last night in bed so I threaded some "branch" twine on a big needle and slipped a  yard of the material under the tree fabric. This is definitely more secure than butting it up to the edge.
In a few places I clipped a few stitches ( the point of using blind hem stitch ) and inserted narrow pieces of a fabric under the larger trunks, as small branches.

Then I made 3 tree/shrubs. And stopped.
The foreground is my next hurdle, but as I was coming up for more coffee I mentally solved the colour issue. Tomorrow I get out my dyed cheese cloth to tame that yellow foreground.

Here are the three trees. Can you find them in the whole piece?

Summer - Day 7

Not much time today.
This afternoon I found a few minutes to play around. In the mid ground I put it two young trees using twine. There will be more. 

It only takes a slight shift in the colour to add a lot of depth and texture with a few pieces.