LANDSCAPE PIECE FINISHED

What they say is true....persistence pays off......despite the construction issues I had getting this dye-painted Liberty of London Lawn fabric to behave....it's now completed and ready for a new home.

APPROACHING DUSK - 25" x 18"

AVAILABLE HERE

Artist hand dye-painted landscape on Liberty of London cotton, densely thread painted, machine appliqued & quilted. Prepared for hanging. 

LANDSCAPE WALL ART PROGRESS

Overall stitching is now complete......next step is to refine and blend colors more effectively.  It's still somewhat distorted, but better than I expected.....once all the stitching details are completed, I'll block it and see if there is hope

to achieve a finished piece of wall art......

I remind myself to be patient!!

LANDSCAPE QUILT PROGRESSING

It may be wishful thinking but the annoying distortion issues I've had with this Liberty of London "Lawn" fabric are slowly being tamed as stitching continues.  It's not gone, but it is better.  So, I'll proceed....

 Some of the dye painting in the lower level didn't totally cover the pale blue fabric that I started with....spots of the light color were apparent after sewing with a solid green rayon thread.  So I went back and did more spot sewing over some of those areas with a lighter green which turned out too light on the piece....big sigh...

 Never fear, pastel oil sticks are becoming my new best friend.....and while I was altering the lighter green stitching, I smeared some lines here and there to provide more interest and depth to this section.

This photo is a bit shadowy but you'll get the idea.....the stitching has now moved up the quilt introducing some blue/yellow/orange to the sky as it works its way up into the more solid blue section.

Various obligations will probably keep me from adding too much for the next two weeks.....but I'll post results as they happen.  Thanks for hanging out with me.

STITCHING WHEN I CAN

Despite being super busy with our ongoing on again, off again plans to move or refresh our home....

Stitching continues on my landscape scene. Distortion also continues, even after all the stabilizing tricks I've employed. Interestingly, once the center was sewn I was able to move to the lower green section with the programed stitch which for some strange reason is no longer tunneling?!? I'm doing my best to keep it as flat as possible in the hopes that once completed I'd be able to block it to lay square and flat. Fingers crossed.

SLOW GOING

Nearly a week has gone by and I don't have much to show for it except piles of rejected paint samples...do you know how many off white tints/shades there are?  Impossible to choose.

And then there's the carpet samples.....so many factors to weigh - color/weight/loft/no loft/durability/adaptable to stairs and concrete base....geesh!

Next comes the really overwhelming brain teaser.....replace or repair poorly constructed (14 year old deck that was well maintained).  We have 3 large decks that are unsightly and unsafe. Wish we could eliminate the largest open one but given the terrain it has to stay. One estimate for a direction that makes sense for us aging folks would be the less maintenance Trex brand.  Good grief......it's more than the cost of our first house back in 1970!!!

The positive/negative chart we have going to supposedly take the emotion out of the decision to move OR stay and freshen up this house, now leans in one direction.......still leaving the biggest issue of finding a suitable home.  Here in the mountains.....it seems the majority of homes are not one level living....rather 2 and so often 3 are the norm.  That's what we are trying to get away from.  So....enough of this....I'm sharing simply to let you know I'm still here, still creating, but a bit more slowly during this shift in our otherwise fairly predictable lives.

 My last post showed a dye painted - sort of landscape piece.  It was done on Liberty of London's Lawn cotton fabric.  LOVE the feel, but it's so thin and unstable that immediately I realize I'd have problems pursuing the design idea I had.  First things first.....wishing to use a programed stitch on my machine to add texture and lay down lots of thread quickly.....thankfully I tested it first.  The 'Lawn' fabric was spray starched to give it more body and further stabilized with a Pellon non-fusible lightweight interfacing on the back.  I tried every trick I know with machine settings and nothing prevented the tunneling of the fabric....even when I added a layer of batting beneath the Pellon.

Here I stabilized a piece of the fabric with Terial Magic.....a liquid fabric stabilizer that supposed to turn fabric into an almost paper like quality.  I know there are many who rave about this product, but yet again I'm a thumbs down.  It makes a MESS of the iron and one really needs a place to hang the sodden fabric to damp dry without dripping all over.  They say it doesn't mess the iron....oh please.....each time I've used it....my iron requires massive cleaning and this junk tends to get on the piece you are trying to press......even with the use of a  press cloth it's troublesome to use.  

In the end, I gave up my quest to use the programed stitched and went with a straight stitch using variegated thread which seemed to behave better.  Come back and see how this once flat piece is now looking....

Linking to:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday.

THE SETTING SUN

Hooray.....it's finished and better yet, it's already sold!  I've been very inspired by the sunset photos posted on Facebook by my SIL, nephew, and high school pal Doris Kramer Sager.  Using a compliation of their stunning photos, here's my stylized version.

THE SETTING SUN  - 41" X 25" 

Hand & ice-dyed cotton fabrics, commercial cottons, machine appliqued, hand and machine embroidered, oil stick highlights, thread painted & machine quilted.

See what other artists have been working on this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, and Crazy Mom Quilts.

PLUGGING AWAY

OH MY.......this piece is taking forever to finish......therefore my posting has been sparse.....  Lot's of details still to be added but here's an updated peak at its progress.

Finishing will have to wait a bit longer as I'm off to AZ for our 6th annual 'girlfriend art camp', with several buddies.  'The husband' and Sooty our rescue lab will be holding down the fort at home...... Photos of our fiber adventures coming soon.....

Check out what other artists have been up to this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday & Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday.

HUNKERING DOWN

I've challenged myself to create a sunset/ocean/beach theme wall quilt....inspired by the many photos that are constantly being generated by family and friends.

Well.....it's easier said than done when translating those gorgeous scenes into fiber!  I've auditioned every piece of hand dyed fabric I made, wearing a path from the 'fabric closet' to my design wall!  

Progress has been so slow because I keep tweaking the design....which would be easier if I tweaked it before it was stitched.  There's already been many, many of hours 'unsewing' and hemming and hawing. But it's getting there....here's a little sneak peak of a portion of the quilt. Keep in mind it's only about half finished.....lots of details to be added. 

I will go back into hibernation mode and emerge when it's done!!!

See how other artists faired with week with their projects:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts.


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UP TO MY ELBOWS

You are being spared the dozens of audition photos I've taken while struggling to find the right combo of fabrics and positions for my new ongoing project.  It's a sunset, ocean, beach scene....... in case you can't tell.....which I don't blame you..... 

 After wasting some precious indigo fabrics for the sky portion, (thankfully it was only basted), this top section was totally rejected. Why couldn't I see it didn't work before taking up so much time?!?

New fabric options for the sky....again lots of cutting, pinning, basting since what I felt would work were only small pieces.  Seriously, I've worn a path from my fabric closet to the design wall, to the work table and back.  

I'm determined to 'get it right'.......some more progress has been made and I'll be reporting back very soon.

THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE

 This house-warming gift was my obsession; devoting non-stop 8 hour days for a month.  A true labor of love for some very special people in my life who happen to live in San Francisco.

The piece was worked onto a non-fusible light-weight interfacing, featuring many of my ice-dyed cotton fabrics.

Landscape themes that require drawing are not in my wheel house, especially motifs that require perspective. After a lot of trial and error, a paper template was created........

.......... Which was translated into fabric.  The shadowing came from using the right and wrong side of a print fabric and stitching with dark and light thread colors.

 The recipient is bicyclist who travels the bridge to access trails on the Marin Peninsula.  I tried many methods to add this detail and eventually came up with the idea of printing the image onto fabric that matched the sky.

THE BRIDGE -  26" x 34"  

(click on photo for larger image)

The thickness of the layers prevented using a facing as the edge finishing, instead I created a binding by piecing fabrics to match the body of quilt as seen above.

It's Friday....see what other artists have been up to this week:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday, Sarah's Whoop, Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Quilts.

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SPECIAL PROJECT

A peak at a project I'm undertaking.....gulp....with some trepidation since the skill set required for what I have planned in not in my wheel house.  Yet, without facing new challenges, creative growth can be stalled.

I KNOW....this doesn't look like much so far....basically just two pieces of ice-dyed fabric......but never-the-less I'm working hard so if I'm silent for awhile, you'll know why.  I'll either be pulling out my hair or doing small happy dances!

Check back in with me, won't you??

OREGON THEME WALL QUILT

Recently I've made mention of an Oregon theme wall quilt I've been working on.....a wedding gift for my nephew and his lovely bride.  Though this type of quilt is definitely not a style I feel confident about designing, it turned out to be a fun challenge.

It started out simple enough......a foreground, distant mountain, and blue sky.

Next came a river, some trees, rocks, etc.

Eventually, it all came together.  My plan had been to finish the edges with a facing, but given all the layers and stiffness of the dense quilting, a binding became a better choice. To retain the cleanest look possible, I used a single fold binding, pieced to match the adjoining fabric. Careful measuring was required to assure the curved sections matched perfectly....even though this photo doesn't seem as if they will.   

Detail - binding

Detail

"Build A Mountain of Memories Together"

25" x 31"

Cotton fabrics, hand and machine appliqued, hand embroidered, machine quilted.

Follow these links to see what other creative folks have been up to:  Nina-Marie's Off The Wall Friday,  Whoop, Whoop Friday, Crazy Mom Sews.

OREGON THEME

Because I'm trying very hard to pace myself, as my old worn out body tries to heal.....my stitching projects are not zooming out of the studio very quickly as in the past.

However, I am making progress on the Oregon theme wall quilt.  About a dozen more pine trees have been cut to fill the space in front of Mt. Hood and once the hand applique of the tree trunks is complete, I'll begin auditioning fabrics for the branches.

I'm sure there will be more details......but in my new "one day at a time' pace.....all that will come later.  It feels very good to be touching fabric again!!