Summing Up

It's been A Week.  Actually, it's been eleven days since I posted  at length...and a very full 11 days it was.

To whit:

• Sept. 22 I worked my usual Tuesday at The Shop;
• Sept. 24-26, it being "Creative Stitches" 2015 in Calgary, I filled in at The Shop;
• Sept. 27 I made two pies for our church's annual Fall Supper;

  

  Saskatoon and Rhubarb, respectively!

• Sept. 29 I worked my usual Tuesday at The Shop -- sorting and counting and putting away inventory that hadn't sold in Calgary.
• Sept. 30 I finished quilting "Edging into Spring" and sent it off to EB, who's speedy turn-around assessment took my breath away.

Plain Vanilla
September Socks from Stash
(before wash-and-block!)
Yarn: Paton's Kroy Socks
4-ply in "Winter Eclipse"

Somewhere in that time I mowed my lawns (front and back), fertilized and watered the front (fall fertilizer); planted spring-blooming bulbs by the south wall at the back (tulips, daffs and some croci); cut back some of my perennials to prep for winter; harvested my green-now-turning-red tomatoes; finished my September Socks From Stash challenge socks; cast on a comfort/healing/prayer shawl for a friend who's very ill; jogged several kilometres; sang at church; kept up my e-mail correspondence to the SAQA Western Canada Region and beyond; painted the 'person door' to my garage that had been repaired in the spring; kept MOB up to date; sent out the 20th packet for MOB II: Making My Mark; ate some, slept some, cuddled the cat some, enjoyed my roses...

So.

RE: September's Master Class submission, "Edging into Spring" (Theme: Lost Edges):

Here's a photo of the quilted-but-as-yet-unfaced piece:

Edging Toward Spring - 18.75" W x 15" L (unfinished)

I really like the trees!  (Thanks again, arlee!) but was less happy with the fact that the hitherto 'lost' edges of the hills were now (having been fused and stitched down) far less...um...lost.

And I was uncertain about the grass.  Did it need more stitching?  How to do it without its looking over-done or cliche or stilted?

E.B. came forward with her usual wonderful helpfulness:

A very nice job!  That mould and dirt dyed fabric* is so nice for the tree stems - really makes it.  

Yes you did make  the hill edges a little more distinct with the stitching.  It is hard to find a way to stitch to keep the edge very soft...what I have done in the past when I was using silk organza to create a soft effect was to take one strand of embroidery floss in as close a color as I could to the fabric and take tiny little hand stitches along the edge.  With a small piece it wouldn't take you long... (emphasis mine)

[Here she inserted example from her own work.]

Re your foreground...I like the grass...you could just have a few more clumps - very similar but a little bigger to give a sense of depth...don't make them too orderly!

Totally agree with you, you don't need leaves and buds!  There's plenty there to look at.  Nice color scheme, great sense of place....very nicely done!

*Note to arlee: please forgive her description...E.B. really thinks your fabric is pretty special!

I'm not sure I'm going to add "a few more clumps" to the grass...I'm letting it 'sit' for a while on my design wall.  Any feedback from you, my Gentle Readers, is appreciated!

Meanwhile, I've added an outer border (plain) and pieced the back for the Magic Tiles quilt...which is now about 55" x 57"...

Pieced backing hanging over the ironing board

and I cast on my October Socks (from Stash).  This month's theme: use a variegated, self-striping or hand-painted sock yarn...

Yarn: Opal 4 fache / 4-ply, "Le Petit Prince" colour#7764
Pattern: "The Desert Planet Tatooine" by  Heidi Nick

I pieced my October "Block of the Month" from my "Zen" collection which, despite all the pieces, was the easiest thus far in this series. Fewer bias edges at last!

"Jefferson City"

And... today I ordered more mats, picked up some nice, thin batting and some new landscape fabric (fat quarters)...Prep starts this weekend, and creation starts Monday...I have at least a half-dozen 'minis' to make for "my" galleries, and another as a commission.

Good thing the weather is cooling and most of the yard work is done!

This week Nina Marie asks about reading material.  For fiction, I enjoy (murder) mysteries that require me to use a few of my own "leetle grey cells" (Hercule Poirot/Agatha Christie)...and right now, I'm enjoying a trio from Simon Brett's Fethering series that features "Jude" and "Carole Seddon", as unlikely a pair of sleuthing friends-and-neighbours as you'd come across.  Not as meaty as Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, Peter Robinson, Louise Penny or Deborah Crombie, mind you, but substantive enough and good for a slightly tired, idea-addled brain that wants to enjoy its end-of-day bed-time reading.

What about you?  Do you read to inspire your creativity?  Or to take a break from it all?

I'm linking up with Nina Marie's Off-the-Wall Friday to find out more...

P.S. If you're looking for some original artwork...check out the 2015 SAQA Benefit Auction.  My piece is on the block through October 3... :-)

Waiting for the Line Painter

A rainy day today, so one of the things I did was to begin assembling "It's Still About the Sky", in light of EB's recent feedback.

She wrote:

I love the title "It's all about the sky" that you've chosen - fits it very very well...the road leads us right into the sky...

And talking of sky..the  fabric is very nice but I wonder if you have something a bit more dramatic?  something Really Stunning?

Also the yellow center line is very slightly off at the bottom...needs to be a bit more towards the center...(as it is in your sketches).

Otherwise...you've used perspective well to give a great sense of depth...also size...both positive and negative spaced becoming smaller...it would be good if you could soften the yellow going back into the distance...also the road color...go out on the road and look again!! see what happened to those hues as they recede from you...you'll notice, when you really look, that the colors don't remain the same.  and you can make these adjustments with felt tips, or a little thinned acrylic...or anything like that...

Overall a great sense of distance!!   (emphasis mine)

Okay...so she misread the title...

But...wanting me to make the sky more dramatic?!  You've got to be kidding, right?

I commented thus:

Make the sky more dramatic?! You need to spend some time on the prairies, Elizabeth (grin). Some days here it's completely cloudless. I could do a thunderstorm but that would change the mood altogether so...maybe another day! I will adjust the centre line...and there are two other lines to add that aren't in the blocked piece. I may find it will be best to leave them out but I'm going to have to play with them first. Thanks for the tip about softening the colours of the line and road...I was just concerned about getting it sliced on the right angle to make it recede (grin).

And she agreed that perhaps she did need to travel to the Prairies (presumably Canadian but other prairie will do)...

So I focused today on getting the background together and fusing the fields and trees in place.

The pavement lines?  Those are going to be tougher.  I only showed her the yellow centre lines; there are also white ones down the sides that delineate the shoulders.  Studying the photo, I can see that they don't necessarily fade out or change colour in the distance; rather, they could be said to disappear altogether...whether uphill (as in the photo) or not (as in my piece)...

 As for 'other things'...

My August "Block of the Month" was finished last week, despite all of its darned bias edges...

"Boys' Nonsense"

Now...did I show you July's?

"Wild Geese"

Or June's?

"Union Square"

Or May's?

"Windblown Square"

Now you're all caught up there, too.  :-)

And as for the knitting...

P loved her socks, and they fit perfectly!  (Here they are on my feet.)

Pattern: "Angular Velocity"
by Rich Ensor

And the August ones...are going slowly...

The challenge this month?  "Knit socks in a pattern and/or colour to reflect your favourite holiday."  Now, I'm not the sort of person who does 'seasonal' decorating...and my Christmas decorations are decidedly simple.  But...it is a favourite holiday so here are my 'Christmassy' socks... er...sock (only just cast on the second; these likely won't be finished for month-end...)

Pattern: "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"
by "knittymelissa"
Yarn: Schachenmayr Nomotta 4 fatig (4 ply) in red and cream

Linking up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday...and retiring with a good book...in order to let the Line Painters come in and finish my roadwork...

All for now!  ;-)

Hooped?

Not sure.  With the back-up sewing machine, definitely.  This morning I was taking it out for a spin, so to speak, and had just finished various stitching samples.  I was pretty satisfied, having also figured out how to change the foot, where the feed dog controls were, etc.

I was now ready to see what kind of seam it could sew, before moving on to free-motion experiments.

Did I tell you that this machine had been given me by my friend B, who'd had it given to her?  B's DH takes care of much of her machine maintenance -- except for the computerized stuff -- so he'd tweaked this Pfaff 1222-E.  One of the tweaks was to replace the presser foot lever, which was missing, with a long bolt and a nut to hold it in place.  It worked fine -- that is, until the socket in which the bolt had been riding disintegrated...

What's left of the socket on the wall of the machine

Replacement "lever" and the other 1/2 of the socket

There's no gluing it back together, either.  If I want to keep the machine as my back-up (to the Husqvarna Lily 555 currently in the shop) I'm going to have to have it properly seen to as well.

So...

Blessedly I have a back-up for my back-up: I may be able to borrow an older Husqvarna from my friend J.  I did this a couple of years ago and it worked well.  I've left J a message and am hopeful...

Meanwhile, I'm blessed to have other things to do in the Sewdio...

Backing up a bit...before the sewing machines went to heck in a hand-basket, I finished my April "Zen" BOM (over a week ago now!)

"Triangle Squares"

I enjoyed this one rather more than its predecessors, and was pleased with most of my 'points'.  I had to give it a good zap of "Best Press" (R) because as is typical when using assorted fabrics, some of them are flimsier than one would like...but their colours are right!

On Thursday I received EB's feedback on my "Colour" sketches and selections -- and this fired me up yesterday to go in search of that field and fence for more photos.  EB wrote:

Color scheme looks good, - but if you notice she [Referring to Sharon Lynn Williams' painting] really doesn't have much green in there....she has a complementary scheme of red/orange versus the blues  and I think it's the orange blue combination that really makes it.......

Red brown is a difficult accent color because brown is a neutral - being a mix of all three primaries, so it will be hard to get it to stand out.  In the above photo, the very saturated red is the one that stands out - so that's the fabric you should use in those accent areas - which usually are not large, but pull your eye  to the focal point - the center of interest.

And now for the key comment (the one that really 'spoke' to me:

you could go with either sketch but I think if you go for a landscape, it will be easier for you to be adventurous with the color!!!  If you decide to choose the fence, crop right down in close to the fence and imagine the boards having LOTS of different colors in them - not brown!

Thus my search for the fencing yesterday...and I found it...and took many photos...and got back and printed several off...and tried to express in another painting session how I felt and what I wanted to demonstrate.

I was out on my back stoop (it was sunny and warm, even if a tad breezy), painting, pacing and muttering to myself.  (Good thing my neighbours were out for the day!)  And this is what my 'gut' spoke:

No matter how I looked at it, the piece must be dominated by the sky and the land. "The Fence is Man's Mark on the Land".

Next up: audition exact fabrics to use and block out the piece (deadline: April 20).  Dunno where I'll put the 'orange'...if anywhere...

And YES, there is knitting...

The Wedding Shawl is now into it's 17th pattern repeat (of 25)...and I am about to turn the heel on this pretty April sock - #1 in this month's Socks from Stash challenge on Ravelry...

Yarn: Spirit Trail Fiberworks - Colour #414 (discontinued)
Pattern: Show-off Stranded Socks by Anne Campbell
(a free Ravelry download)

 The purple perfectly matches the one jolly-jump-up pansy bravely blooming in my plot east of the garage.  :-)

Linking this up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  Let your imagine take you away...and have a great rest of the weekend!