Ready to face the facing :-)

Well, it is done except for finishing the back and labelling.

Not sure which I think is the better colour.

Maybe the top one? Maybe take an average!

This was fun to work on but now I want to dye a dedicated piece for the background of the "real thing". I will pare the sides down and make it long and narrow- like Milkweed! I may even do a diptych or a triptych if I feel REALLY  crazy! Maybe three seasons? We shall see but definitely this one. I learned a LOT on this piece. It may end up being called Glorious Explosion. Right now it is still The Milkweed Project!

1- the metallic organza disintegrates when stitched over too much- heat transfer foil may be better

2- planning circular quilting ahead of time is good- I DID use a Chaco-liner which was a help and disappeared nicely. I was upset about the unevenness of the circles but in the end, I think I like it better than perfection. This is NOT drafting!

3- On the Real one I will be more careful with the placement of the bright patches of light. I had little choice here but when I dye my background, it will be better placed.

And, as I have not done it for a little while- Mr Personality!!!

Two months

                                         On that note- Cheerio for now! Happy quilting :-)

Trial and Error and a quilt show

The Quilt Show opened on Sunday last with a lovely day and a nice, pretty informed crowd. I was pleased apart from the fact that I thought my part of the show looked sparse . This was because-A- I gave them two lots of work with two different subjects so it was hard to mix them , and -B- my work is NOT large so there was lots of space between pieces. No one by myself seemed to mind.

Don't worry! There WERE four walls and more work but this was what you walked in on when you came through the door.

Since I got home, I have been a tired old bag but today, at last, I started work on the quilting of the little Milkweed piece. THAT is the Trial and Error part. I have been auditioning battings and metallic threads-

Unfortunately, it is such a scuzzy day here that the colours don't really show. 

The left hand end is the right batting, Quilter's Dream cotton. 

The threads I am trying are all Superior metallics, variegated gold, a light gold and two different silvers. As well, I tried out a plain medium grey as there are parts of the fluff that are not catching the sunlight so they look flat and grey. I wish you could see the colours better so you could pass judgement. However, I know what I want now and am liking what I am doing and the effect I am getting.

These three are very repetitious.

I gave you three to look at in case someone saw one or another better than the others.

Mostly, I am still at the "tie it all down " stage yet. 

We shall see how it goes from here. As I said before, if this 12" x 12" piece pleases me, I shall keep it for next year's SAQA Auction. It is a good dry run for the big one I want to do after I have done some fresh dyeing. I am VERY short on colour and value choices. Makes it hard to work!

Well, I have not had time to check out the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com yet this week. I will post this and I am anxious to see what everyone has been up to. Maybe if we ALL thought positively, we would get some sunshine back? Try it! 

Milkweed evolving- I HOPE!

I have been trying lots of different things. One thing I thought about was the lovely lens flare on the original photo- so I tried with crystal organza and Misty Fuse to replicate the effect-

The little patches are not fused yet

You can really see that they are loose here

And here they are fused

In the end, I decided that one was a photo and one was a quilt. I could not quite achieve the look I wanted on this small piece so decided to peel the little hexagons off. Thankfully, Misty Fuse lets you do that:-)















Next, I decided it was time to add the Milkweed seeds before I begin stitching. I cut them from hand dyed cotton with EZ Fuse on the back! I am praying HARD that they stay put for me. I will stitch them down - just in case!

With seeds and the original photo

I cannot wait to make this piece full sized. I will make a proper background fabric for that . This one is growing on me though.

And, finally, the piece is ready to stitch- all layered and pinned!

There we are- ready to quilt. 

I am looking forward to quilting this but tomorrow is a BIG day! It is the official opening of the show I am involved in at Homer Watson House Gallery in Kitchener. It runs 2-4 PM tomorrow ( Sunday, 27 April) and all through May , finishing 08 June . The gallery is closed Mondays. Hope you will drop by if you can. It looks like a very interesting little show!!

An oldie but a goody

A VERY elderly photo taken at Rideau Ferry ON, MANY years ago. I took a whole series.

I would bet that I took this photo 45 years ago. It was a slide but DH digitized it and I enlarged it and drew me a pattern! I have been hankering after doing something with it for ...about 44 years! I have decided to make a rough prototype and try out some techniques on it. If I LOVE it, it will be 12" x 12" so I shall put it aside for next year's SAQA Auction. I used the Peony Centre this year. Hope they like it!

In case you forgot, The Peony Centre piece, 12" x 12"

I have already scoured my fabrics ( I need about a whole week of dyeing! VERY short of colour/value choice!) and chose this piece out of the centre of a pretty piece of hand dyed fabric. It is not the right colours but I think I can make this work. For the big, REAL piece I will dye a piece specifically. Also, it will be rectangular like the original photo.

My creative clutter. Cannot be sentimental about pretty pieces of fabric. I found a part I thought could work even though the original is different. I can make a piece more like the original later.

What a mess, eh! Anyway, I have cut out some foil bits to start the shimmery background and am auditioning it behind some pieces cut from various darker pieces to create the milkweed.

The story so far! This has a pretty wide border on it but it will be pruned down to 12" x 12" eventually

Nothing is set in stone just yet. For one thing , the "sun" disk in the middle will be made smaller and I will likely offset the whole composition. Just playing at this stage! I just wanted the background big enough so I could choose the sweet spot for the milkweed. It will end up 12"x12 ".

I will post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com. I have had a busy time lately so have not been posting too much. I follow everyone though . Great work going on.