Slow progress

I have finished two of the four practice pieces.  The little black quilt was done entirely by "stitch-in-the-ditch", some free hand and some by regular machine stitching.  Boy, did I ever need practice with that!  There is really nothing that would show in a picture.  The other one was fairly traditional feathers around a center oval, done with white thread on a pink and white fabric.  I have to figure out how to photograph that to best advantage.

In the meantime, I came to realize that I have to have about 9 ATC's ready for an exchange next Sunday.  The theme is "landscapes", so my challenge was to make them as close to realism as I could.  Not easy, especially when working with fibre, the main problem being the very small scale of the pieces. 

I got out all of the fabric scraps I have, with fusible web already applied.  Then I tried to sort them in terms of things like sky, mountains, grass etc.  I ended up with quite a mess on my worktable, and, believe it or not, this is organized!

Since I'm showing pictures, here is the new Ott lite for the studio.  The very first Ott Lite I bought, many years ago was a floor model that I  have had beside my recliner in the living room.  Recently we noticed that it was interfering with the tv.  So when we found this one on sale last weekend we grabbed it.  With this on my work table, I was able to move the other floor model out of the studio and into the living room, and the old one back down to the basement.  This new one has a built in magnifier, and a base with spaces to hold small tools and supplies.  I love it!

Anyway, further to the ATC's.  I have put together 7 of them.  They have been trimmed to size but have yet to be attached to card stock.  They are fused, and each one has some sort of machine stitching on it.  Two are thread painted, three have trees FMQ'g, and for the other two, I used a built in stitch on my machine which is a row of blooming flowers.  I found exactly the right variegated thread for these little flowers--green, turquoise, pink,red, purple and yellow--Superior Thread's Fantastico # 5003.  So far this has taken the best part of two days, and I still have two more cards to make

A Good Day's Work

For the past while, I've been putting together a group of small wall hangings, getting ready to spend some time practicing my FMQ'g, and hopefully, end up with one piece that could perhaps be entered into a judged show.  Sometimes I just get down and dirty with the FMQ'g, and just wing it, sometimes I make guidelines,and then wing it, and sometimes I mark the whole piece.  Most often it is a combination of all of the above.  Today I had four pieces ready to spray baste.

Since DH gets very nervous if I try to tackle the basement stairs, he set up a work area for me out in the garage.  He had a table set up,and covered, had all of my tools available, and took my IV pole out to hang the pieces on before and after they were done.

This set up was also the best we could devise for actually cutting the batting to size.  It turned out to be a bit like solving a jig saw puzzle, but finally they all had a piece of batting and it was time to spray.

Then, one at a time, each was sprayed, very carefully, and, yes, I wear a fine particle respirator when I use basting spray.

This was actually a big job, and I had to sit regularly ( That's why the stool is right beside me)  We have been planning it for over a month.  Afterward, once everything was cleared away, I celebrated by making a batch of blueberry muffins.  So-o-o good! 

Collages

Working in short spurts, I've been able to put together the basic working surface of two collages, and have planned, in my mind, the next steps.There are two critical decisions to make with each one--first, how to back the piece, so as to provide a firm enough working surface, and secondly, how much machine stitching vs hand stitching does each one need.

My long range plan is to mount each one on a stretched canvas.  With enough laborious hand stitching, with mono-filament, This can be achieved with just about any fabric, but if I want to attach beads, a firm, fairly dense attachment process is necessary.  I tried the second (second picture) one with a layer of Warm 'n' Natural batting behind it.  I really don't think this will provide enough firmness to prevent the weight of beading from pulling the piece off the canvas.  The first one, I backed with a layer of strong iron-on interfacing.  I believe this will go a long way towards supporting the beading, but, with both, I think some sort of adhesive will be necessary to secure it to the canvas.

The white section of this piece certainly stands out, and I'll have to address that.  But my plan is to cover it with grey buttons.  Now that I can see how useful a photo can be in evaluating value, I'll be sure to check the results of my work that way.

To address the second concern, I have to go back to why I'm doing this.  Certainly, I need a few hand work projects, but I also believe in letting my pieces talk to me, and the one immediately below says that the large center piece needs to be attached by machine, even if it is later covered with beads.

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).