Finally...

In some things, progress; in others -- finishes!

I have some hand work to do on the facing and label (stitch down on the back), but this collage from Pamela's "About Contrast" class -- Week 2, a two-colour study -- is essentially finished:

Big Sky Country: Autumn at the Slough Redux
(C) 2014

I'd planned to free-motion it but it turns out the fusible I used (the last bit of Steam-a-Seam I could get in a new shop in Red Deer) was too thick/gooey/gummy -- because it wasn't SAS 2 *Lite* -- and even with a metallica #90 needle the stitches skipped and refused to "play nicely".

How did I know it was the fusible causing the problem?

1. Changing the position of the thread from horizontal to vertical didn't help;
2. Changing the needle to a very sharp thin one didn't help;
3. The thread and the bobbin thread were compatible weights;
4. Free-motion worked only on a sandwich sample that didn't have the fusible in it.

So...I put on my walking foot with the metallica needle and straight-stitched the thing.  Trimmed it to finish at 15" W x 14" L with facing.  Not a party piece but I rather like it.  Might even be able to sell it.  :-)  As a reminder, the inspirational photo is this one:

Then I painted the "larger" version of "Gems on the Beach", and wrapped it around its 8" square stretched canvas:

Beach at Noyac (C) 2014
Photo credit: Jane Cochran

And then I put the "sample" of the same piece into it's black mat...all dressed up and ready to go!

Members of Fifteen by Fifteen

In addition to the "finishes", I'm nearly there on the "Sheep Virtues" piece for my friend, B...and have a knitted cowl and hat to tidy up (they've been washed) and photograph...And labels have been made and applied to the two 15 x 15 pieces I am preparing to ship to France for Quilt Expo Beaujolais (deadline: they need to have received them by March 28). (See photo at left. Aren't we a great looking group?!)

I still have to figure out what I'm doing for our current theme, "Contrast", due March 31...I can't go with the collage (above) because it's too small, but perhaps there's hope for the piece with trees...or something new altogether!

We're under a Wind Chill Warning here (down to close to -40 over night, which is pretty much the same think in Fahrenheit or Celsius) so I may be hibernating for a couple of days and will get these -- and the sheep! -- finished.

Meanwhile, because I still can, I'm linking up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday...and then I'm curling up with a hot cuppa and a good book.  'G'night!  :-)

There's a Post Brewing...

...Meanwhile I leave you with

THIS

:-)

Quick Update -- I Quilted It!

Okay, so I did what I said I'd do: I went into the sewdio and quilted the darned thing.  Then I trimmed it to 15 1/2" square (for now):

I tried to put swirls in the sky for cloud movement, and long, tree-like shapes in the rest of it.

Sky detail

Land detail

I think it's calling for a bit of hand stitch before it's finished.

Oh, and a title would be a good idea too.

Somehow, "Playing With Trees" isn't quite right!  ;-)

WIP for a Wintry Wednesday

I'm not fooled by the clear, clean blue sky and the bright sunshine; it's -25 C out there, with a wind chill to -33 C.  I've been out once already this morning -- walked downtown (about 5 blocks) for my hair appointment -- and that's it for today!

It's okay; I have plenty to do inside.  Before the WIPs, though, a "finish" of sorts: the February Block of the Month for the "Four by Four" semi-kitted pieced series I'm working on this year:

"Four by Four" in February: Propeller

"Propeller" seems an odd title for a block in a kit with a Christmas fabric/colour scheme, but there you are.  The background came with the pattern; the rest of the fabrics I collected to go with it -- or not.  The gold was a late discovery (Saturday!) in my stash.  :-)

As for WIPs...not much in the way of photos this week.  I'm still working away on the sheepie sampler for my friend B; I've finished the gusset and am well down the foot on my daughter's sock; I've finished a hat for the charity tree -- except to sew it up at the top, sew in the ends and add buttons; and I've finished a cowl as a birthday gift for my friend C. "Mark on the Body" marches on.   None of these things have had photos taken of them -- at least, not recently.

I am, however, in the last week of Pamela Allen's class, "About Contrast".  This week we can work on whatever we like, using the principles we've studied, as long as we explain our intent with the piece in question.

Typically, I'm still playing with trees.  Here's what I wrote when I posted to the Yahoo group earlier this morning, referring back to the piece about which I posted HERE:

Worked some on my "Lesson 3/Lesson 4" piece yesterday.  As I didn't have enough of the background fabric to enlarge the piece altogether, I decided to cut the building down to size (as it were) and add more trees.  Of course, it's full of fiddly bits now so I was darned if I was going to take it apart to spray baste/fuse everything. So I pinned it.  I am going to stitch the silly thing and see what happens.

My intent with this piece?  No clue!  There is some colour contrast and some size contrast but frankly, not much of either.  You will notice that to re-size the building, I left part of it off (from the inspirational photo) and I've switched the locations of the trees around and added one that's fallen down.  This was the only way I could make the piece "fit" for me, reflect my style and the subject matter I like to work with (trees, old buildings, prairie landscape).  

I don't have much imagination when it comes to creating scenes and I don't like making still life pieces (though I admire those done by others).  I get my inspiration either in photos of the natural world around my home, or by being given whole pictures (visions of a sort) that come to me holus-bolus and dictate how they are to be made.  Go figure.

So here are a few photos of the WIP.  One is a full photo, and two are detail shots. I tried to make the bare trees have some sort of dimensionality by the use of fabric that implies colour/shape.  The piece is still about 18" square but will be trimmed once it is quilted, to about 15" square, I think.

A couple of trees "up close"

Building detail

Linking in to WIP Wednesday over at The Needle and Thread Network...and then going into the sewdio to stitch things down.  That oughta keep me warm, eh?