The Old Summer Kitchen

In the last post I ranted about the frustrations of putting together the latest piece--"The Old Summer Kitchen".  It has been a b---h!  Most of the techniques have been used before, but probably not all in the same piece. My usual work is much more abstract than realism.  My physical limitations have forced me to utilize a small bedroom as a studio rather than the entire finished basement I could previously access. But the basic construction of the piece was completed today, and all that's left is FMQ'g and thread painting.

Like many prairie families, my husband's parents had a summer camp.  They bought raw land with a sandy lake front, in 1942, and slowly developed it as  a haven for, first, their children and later grandchildren, great-grand children, and even a great-great grandchild.  After the privy, the first building was a kitchen.  The windows were screened and had only shutters.  This gave a protected area for the small children.  I remember my MIL cooking meals for more than 20 people,  on a wood stove with no running water,  in this very small space--probably only 10 by 15 feet.

Eventually there was a one room sleeping cabin to replace the tents, and later electricity and finally running water--but still with a very primitive system.  In the 1980's a bear got into the kitchen, and defecated in the wood stove.  Since the building had been built around the stove, and it couldn't be removed, a new summer kitchen had to be built, and this one was moved aside and relegated to a storage shed.

Sadly, the property recently had to be sold.

Here is the basic piece with most of the background fused.  Then the two birch trees on the right were added, and more fabric painting done

The building itself was assembled separately.  The fabric is mostly either hand-dyed or hand painted.  The sky is my last precious piece of "Fossil Fern"

And here is the building applied to the background.  This is only the basic construction.  There is still quite a bit of "tweaking" to do.

I plan to link this with http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.ca/.