The first step was to figure out how to place seam lines that would integrate the deer into the whole. I did this by tracing the print to freezer paper and aligning it with the full sized freezer paper pattern on the wall. Then I could plot out the seam lines to be able to cut and sew it to fit into the scene. I wanted to fracture the panel and make some changes in the placement of the deer.

Luckily, the freezer paper allowed enough of the print to show through so that I could trace the basic outline of the deer!

I started the piecing with the bottom of the tree area, so that I would have a base on which to add the deer.

It has not been without drama though. After several day’s work, I was not happy with some aspects. I decided that the tree needed to be lower, more behind the deer allowing me to add more branches to the top of the tree to balance the composition.

I reworked parts and now I have the problem of fitting already pieced elements into a revised whole, but it will work out, I’m sure. I ordered more fabric from two different sources, as I found some sky and some coordinating foreground prints that might work in. The first arrived yesterday and the second is due any day now. It’s a little difficult to plan without the fabric here so I am working on the parts where I feel safe, knowing I may have to tweak later. This has enough challenges to keep it interesting for me!

To be continued……….

My work is machine pieced, in this case I will be using straight seams.
Transferring the original picture to tracing paper, figuring out where the
seam lines will go and dividing those into sewable sections comes next. I have to leave space at the bottom for the deer.

The finished piece needs to be 32 X 78� , so my working pattern will be
about 36 x 85� since I know that my intensive machine quilting will take up several inches in the end.

When I am satisfied, the lines are transferred to overhead projection film and projected in the mirror image to freezer paper on the wall in the finished size, which will be cut apart to become the working templates.

Freezer paper has a plastic side which will temporarily stick to fabric when pressed with a hot iron.

When these templates are ironed to the wrong side of the fabrics, cut with a quarter inch seam allowance and sewn, it will look like the original layout.

I have a pretty good stash of commercial prints and hand dyes suitable for nature inspired work. One of the first things I do when starting a new work is to pull any fabrics that I think have possibilities of working into the piece.

My studio has good natural light from windows and overhead fixtures so I keep my fabric behind bamboo and canvas roll – up blinds to combat fading.

Much of what I choose will never make it in and more will be added later, but this is a starting place. The fabrics are all 100% cotton, mostly commercial prints, though I do sometimes use hand dyes. I use a lot of batik fabric because I love the variations of colors within a piece that lends itself well to the nature inspired work that I do.

Behind the cutting table, you can see the blinds in the down position.

When I was teaching in Springfield, Mo., I found this wonderful panel.

(Winter Whispers by Michelle Mara, Wilmington Prints)

The scale seemed right and since my specialty is working with commercial prints, and even though I didn’t know if I would be accepted into Seasonal Palette I just had to buy two panels just in case! I needed two panels so that I could accommodate the seam allowances and still have things line up. I would want to fracture the scene, maybe rearrange the figures and integrate them into the piecing.

Deer often frequent the area of our farm pond and I thought they would bring life to the composition.

This week has been good! I finished two pieces.

“Cloudy With A Chance Of Rain” 31 x 24″

You may remember this one without the borders. I think they give it a little more presence and help the binding to blend in better.

The sky fabric is a hand dye painted piece that really depicts a Kansas summer storm rolling in. The horse is a figment of my imagination but the shed is real! It was a lucky day when I found that batik for the rusty roof!!

This was made for the”It’s All Kansas” exhibit at The Topeka Art Guild Gallery and needs to be delivered today for a show running through Oct and Nov.

The next one is not due for a week or so but now I don’t have to worry about it. It was made for the “Inspirations” exhibit in Topeka, that collaborative exhibit of artwork inspired by local photographers. Here I was inspired by two photos by Tammy Patterson, both with cows and turbines and the hand dyed Shibouri fabric used for the sky. Tammy and I have paired up for this annual exhibit since it began three years ago and have won the People’s Choice” awards both previous years, first with “Colorado Kids” and last year with “Majesty”. She is an amazing photographer! Those can be seen on my website in the Gallery.

“Prairie Power” 27 x 30″
If you followed the making of this one you may remember that I had bound it in black and was not happy with that. You can see that by following the link above. Changing it to blend with the scene is better, I think.

I keep forgetting – I meant to post this sooner. After the KVQG meeting last month, Denise S., The Curious Kansas Quilter followed me home to photograph my studio for an upcoming guild program on studio spaces. If you follow the link you can  see some of the pictures that she took.

Sunday afternoon I drove down to Bella Vista, AR to do a program for the Calico Cutups Quilt Guild on Monday. Everything went very well and I enjoyed seeing that beautiful area again and meeting some great new friends! Monday was a loooong day, as I hit the road right after the meeting and didn’t get home til  8:15 – about 4 hours driving time with only one short break for gas, food, etc. Tues was spent getting everything sorted out from the trip and getting the Silent Auction piece sent off to Houston.  Good to be home!!

As much as I hate doing it, I am making good progress getting the books caught up. There is always such a feeling of satisfaction, mixed with chagrin at having let it slide once again.

I’m disappointed at not being able to see very much of the equestrian events in the Olympics this year. Well that is not a surprise as they don’t usually cover it very well, but it does leave me plenty of time to work on those books!

This is McLain Ward of the US Team, I believe.  My internet coverage timed out before the event finished so I don’t know how it ended. How unsatisfying!

The highest I personally have jumped a horse is 3.5 ft and it felt like flying. I can only imagine how this must feel!

When I shopped on Friday in two different shops, I found three possibilities for the sky binding on the Turbine piece one of which just might work! I have sticker shock at the current prices of fabric and am glad to have a huge stash to rely on most of the time. Neither shop had the fabric that I was looking for for the Ks scene so I ordered that online.  The shipping was more than the fabric which was pretty expensive already – as much for a half yard as what I paid for a whole yard when I started on this crazy quilting path!

My favorite summer Olympic event is Equestrian and it is sadly overlooked by the TV coverage. We don’t get the sports channel that is carrying it so I’m getting some on-line but my service is not of a level that makes that very satisfactory. I can get news and action clips that are better than nothing though. I also like Gymnastics and that IS well covered so I have been enjoying that this year. How about that team gold for the ladies!!

On the sewing front, I am at a standstill. I finished the Kansas scene, but I’m thinking that I might add some borders.

I need some more fabric if I do that though, so I’ve set it aside for now.

For the Turbine piece, I wanted to bind it in fabrics to match the sky and the prairie, but I have only a tiny piece of the sky fabric left and it is a one of a kind hand dyed shibouri. So I went for the black but it is too confining; it sort of fights the feel of the wide open spaces of the prairie.

Right now the binding is sewn to the front but only pinned on the back. I thought I would live with it awhile and try to like it, but it is not working.

Friday I am meeting friends for our annual trip to a fabric store and lunch out. I will look for fabrics suitable for these two projects, so everything is on hold now for a few days.

Meanwhile I will work on the books and listen to the Olympics.

The Mary Elmusa workshop was fun. Mary brought lots of things to try.

We explored various techniques for printing on cloth including painting, sun printing, stamping, stenciling, silk screening, mono printing,  gelatin printing and resists. The green one in the foreground has Elmer’s Glue resist that can be washed out in two weeks to leave a white pattern. I don’t know if these are something I would want to try to use in my own work, but here is what I did in the workshop.

There wasn’t time to overprint which some of these certainly need!

Meanwhile I have been working on the Bignonia, here’s how it looked a few days ago. I did try to post earlier in the week but the server was down.

And when I started this morning:

It is 30 degrees ! this morning, but clear after rain yesterday. When I packed for this trip I did put in a light jacket and two sweaters with the thought that the evenings might be a bit chilly. I may wear them all today!

The workshop started yesterday with most of the day spent watching Ruth McDowell do her magic on everyone’s potential pictures for their projects. She doesn’t do it all but gets a nice start with a few section lines and some of the other lines that will become seams. I always learn some new thought processes as she talks and demos. She makes it look easy having done over 500 of these quilts. I came with my pattern already prepared and I probably will not make any changes.

The shop we are working in has an amazing array of fabric and they let us run a tab for the duration, but do not tally it til the end so we don’t know how painful that might be but I have a pretty good pile started. I do have to think about my luggage weight for the return flight though!

This Cormorant was a photo that I took the last day we were driving up. Del re sized it for me and sent it back. It is a little fuzzy but I had the camera set a very low resolution hoping that it would be small enough for the blog . Not!

So far this is about 29″ wide by about 33″ high. I only had a half yard of the green batik, 18″ of width so not enough to do the final piece at 29+”. I tried different ways to cut it, but nothing works. I like the simplicity of few fabrics here so decided I needed to try to find more of this fabric. It was from my stash, so who knows how old it is or where I got it!

Since I had to go to KC Wednesday we planned a stop at Sarah’s in Lawrence and sure enough, she had it! That is probably where I got it in the first place as I usually buy half yards of batik unless I know I need more, and Sarah’s always has such a good selection. I got a yard and the new piece seems a little darker but it was almost the end of the bolt and it will work.

I have been working on preparing the journaling materials about “December Dawn” for Seasonal Palette which need to be in by the first of June. Yesterday I worked most of the day on that and I’m hoping to finish up today.

Since the last progress update, I decided that the cows should have white faces after making one with a black face that disappeared! The middle cow, though needed to have a black face. Not a whole lot of progress to show, but there are a lot of seams! I’m loving the sky and the batik grass.

When I went outside in the morning I discovered that something had snipped the flower heads off of my newly planted zinnias! Who would do that?