Posts Tagged ‘work in progress’

Progress

Sunday, January 22nd, 2017

Some progress to report in spite of having a lot of US Nationals Figure Skating to watch on TV.  I usually have the TV on when I sew, just for company, I guess, not to really watch.  But certain shows require actual watching, and skating is one, so it does cut into the productivity!

A lot of the time when I sew these pieced pictorial pieces, I use straight line seams, it is easier;  but these fire scenes seem to require curved seam piecing which is definitely more time consuming! What takes the most time though, is choosing which fabric goes next.  Then the cutting and auditioning and sometimes even sewing before deciding perhaps something else might be better!

Here, I thought I might extend the fire’s glow a little higher,

Or perhaps a darker fabric would be more dramatic!

Dilemmas.

New work

Friday, January 20th, 2017

In spite of good intentions, there continues to be too much time between postings.  That’s not to say things don’t happen, but perhaps not so much happens that you would be interested in!

Like, do you care that I finally got the sales tax filed?  I didn’t think so, but still, it took a lot of time to get the info together and sent.

I completed two small pieces, one a 12 x 12″ bird challenge piece for my local art group that I won’t reveal until after our next meeting on Thursday, and a 6 x 8″ for the auction at the SAQA Convention in the spring.

 

These little pieces will be matted so the edges are only zigzagged.

I started a new fire piece since I needed a new landscape and all of these fabrics were still out on the cutting table from the last ones.

This is after the first working day and so far, I’m liking it.  I intend to post progress shots as I go, we’ll see how that goes!

“Layers Of The FlintHills” Top Finished!

Sunday, April 3rd, 2016

The latest top is DONE!! I sewed the last seam yesterday morning, removed all of the freezer paper and gave it a good pressing. Now it is hanging on the design wall and if I don’t notice something that needs changing I hope to get it layered and ready to start the quilting next week. It’s been a long process, working an hour here and a day there between other obligations, sewing and un sewing, making changes and additions.  It went from this the last time I posted about it

KSlandscape2to this.  I tweaked the greens, added more flowers in the foreground and a distant hill,

Landscape progress

then to this.  Changed the distant hill to a darker shade from the hand dyed sky fabric. It felt like that side was too low, so I added a second distant hill from the different lighter hand dye that was rejected in the previous shot.  Added a pond to the right side as it seemed to need to have the blue repeated.

LayersTopI do believe it is now finished and I know the quilting will add another dimension. Can’t wait to get started!

No Progress!

Friday, February 19th, 2016

It’s been such a busy week, I have not found any time to sew. The fabric I ordered came, but was not what I had envisioned. I am ready to try some summer fabrics to see if that is better! I hope to do something with it today.

Flint Hills Landscape

Thursday, February 11th, 2016

Reviewing my last post, I see I was in the euphoric beginning stages of a new work! The fabric was pulled, (way too much!)

FHFabric450

The process of creating was in full force and I was having a great time making the vision in my head come to life. It’s going to be a Flint Hills landscape with an exposed ridge of rock ledge the focal point. So far, so good.

FHills-1-450

The problem is, the fabrics that look so nice up close, are, from a distance turning to mud and it is all blending way too much. All of a sudden all that “Too much” fabric is not enough as I am not finding the contrast that I need.

FlintH-3-450

Sunday, I placed an order for more fabric and I am now waiting to see if there is anything there that will help.

In the meantime, I’ll work on book keeping.

Stormy Weather Top Done

Thursday, September 17th, 2015

The stormy weather top is finished. I must have tried at least dozen fabrics for the bottom before settling on these.

Weathertop

I was thinking that it should be dark to balance the top, but too dark was just too much. It also needed to have more detail, being closer to the viewer in the scene, but some of the fabrics just had too much detail. Or not enough. When I came to this green one, it seemed to do the job. It was subtly darker than the sunlit fields with just enough detail to add interest. Then I found this stone wall fabric – so Kansas farm land, and it repeats the grays in the buildings.

I prepared the backing and the batting but have not pinned it yet.

Weather

Sunday, September 13th, 2015

You know that rare weather phenomenon where the sky goes almost black, but the sun is still shining and lights the landscape to a bright chartreuse-y green? That’s what I am trying to capture in this new piece. I finally found the right sky fabric and I already had the greens. This progress shot is a couple of days in and I have not yet decided on the foreground fabric.

stormyweather

Comments

Thursday, June 18th, 2015

I LOVE it when I get comments! Thank you!! Your insights gave me things to think about.

Yesterday I went to three more fabric shops with no luck on finding more of the dark print that I used in this. I came home and went on line to view thousands more with still no luck. I still need to check eBay.

The garden is doing great with all this rain. I have been spending an hour or more most evenings picking peas and green beans and then another couple of hours processing and freezing them. Not sure if it is worth it!

The End Is In Sight!

Wednesday, June 17th, 2015

The two main sections were completed and joined together; the only change I needed was to refine the dark background in the middle which had an awkward shape after I changed the background between the cattail leaves.

heron14

I’ve literally looked at thousands of batiks on line for the perfect sky fabric to complete the top. I know which one I want but it is apparently no longer available.  I purchased two possibles in Topeka, this one is too light, the other too dark.

heron15

It needs the extra length to balance the dimensions, but perhaps I need to shift my focus and add it to the bottom instead of the top. What do you think?

heron16

I do believe this is the way to go, however this fabric is not in the main piece and I don’t have enough of any of the ones that I did use to accomplish this border.  I guess I will have to go shopping again, because I like how the dark bottom border grounds the composition and the sky is actually better smaller.

 

Catching Up

Sunday, May 31st, 2015

Yesterday I took the day off and went to an Art Fair in the KC area with friends.The weather was good, the art was especially nice and it was a fun day out and a yummy lunch. Then we visited a couple of galleries for more great art.

Before that, I spent all of Friday working on the Heron while it rained outside. I did some tweaking like adding more of the yellow/orange to the right side to bring in some light and adding to the legs. Sewed a bunch of seams and I needed to cut the cat tail leaves that will go between the sections so I can complete that portion on the left.

heron10-1

Not sure that I like that dark fabric; maybe it needs to be lighter. A nice medium tone would be more realistic but it would get lost against the background.

heron11

Nope. It needs to be dark to balance the other side, but that bit of dark between the leaves needs to go. Adding to the water and sewing more seams helps.

heron12-1OK, better. It’s starting to come together now.