Back again!

It's been quite a battle, but I'm back in the studio again, at least for short periods.  I've been able to accomplish small tasks. although not anything to do with the sewing machine, so there are a few things in progress ( and who doesn't have those?)

 I have been able to read, and was somewhat inspired by the Art on the Go article by Leslie Tucker Jenison, in the June/July 2015 issue of Quilting Arts Magazine, .  At the same time I have been following the work on building collages as described in the blog  andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.ca  Collage has always been part of my art, but it's been awhile since I did anything serious in this form.  I was particularly taken with the suggestions that hand work can add to the collage.  For some time I've been looking for hand work projects. First of all to take to stitchery group meetings, and now, when I'm spending a fair bit of time sitting with cold packs etc, some sort of busy work to help pass the time.

So the need to do some serious planning and sorting and auditioning of supplies, served as an incentive to actually try to navigate the basement stairs.  This is a huge mental hurdle for me, but went off without a hitch.  Mind you, it's a slow process,using a cane and moving very carefully, but I did it!

So all the supplies have been gathered, and next step is to start assembling the basic collages.  There are four roughly planned.

Oh, Oh!

Ran into a small set-back with my knee, and won't be able to get into the studio for awhile.  Ah well. one step at a time.

Progress?

The top for the little Hallowe'en quilt is done, and a backing prepared.  It has ended up at about 37" by 43".  I think that, design wise , the borders should have been a little wider, but I ran out of black fabric!

When I selected the green for the stripes, I just grabbed a piece that felt large enough, out of my stash.  It wasn't until I actually picked it up to use, that I realized it had been used to try out some fish printing.  This was several years ago and, yes, I used a real fish,--a Lake Trout. The process resulted in three pieces, long since gone to new homes, but I had totally forgotten this .  If memory serves me, this means that the colour is hand painted, rather than dyed.

The Hallowe'en piece is large enough that I want to spray baste it before quilting it.  Since I'm limited to the upstairs studio for awhile longer, this is a problem,  After discussing it, DH has agreed to set up a spray area outside in the garden for me.  This will take a bit of work, so I'm going to prepare two more pieces, to the spray baste stage, before we go ahead with it.  This means going back to the series of FMQ'g of hand dyed fabrics, that I had started before my surgery.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Getting back into the studio

Slowly, the length of time I can sit with my feet dependent, is increasing, and I can now spend enough time in the studio to actually accomplish something.  I had two projects in mind for this stage of the things, a knitting bag made with hexies, and the small Hallowe'en quilt that I started before going in the hospital.  I wanted straight forward simple projects, as I knew my brain would be fuzzy as long as I was taking pain killers--and Tylenol counts as a pain killer and brain fogger--as I've found out.

The knitting bag is now finished.  Nothing worked out as I had planned, and --I swear--every step of the way had to be ripped out and re-done.  I still don't think the workmanship is up to snuff, but I don't plan to tell anyone.  The hexies were pieced by hand, but everything else was done by machine.

This afternoon I worked on the little Hallowe'en quilt.  All of the Flying Geese blocks had been pieced before I went in the hospital.  Today I pieced them into 5 long strips.  I had thought I had everything planned, but every time I counted them, first in groups of two's, then four's, and finally 8's, the count came out differently.  Finally I gave up and just pieced what I had.  The quilt will be slightly shorter, but does it matter?  Tomorrow I hope to get the top completely pieced, since it is basically done at this point.  Just a couple of borders.  ( I guess I'm living in a fool's paradise.--we'll see how it works out).