A serendipitous little landscape

I start teaching a new landscape class at the end of the month so I am trying something a little different this time. There is no particular sample done for people to use as inspiration. Normally, I teach the techniques using a set pattern I have drawn and had enlarged. Because I usually have at least ONE very timid student, there WILL be a little basic pattern, should I not be able to encourage someone to at least TRY to make her own pattern. BUT, I am also going to talk in general terms about what makes a good landscape picture- centre of interest, point of view, Rule of Thirds etc. With this info, I HOPE I can encourage some people to just start from scratch. Also, I want to present the idea of serendipity in making landscape quilts. You may remember my recent "If Monet Grew Hydrangeas"? It began as a piece of my own hand dyed fabric that screamed "Look at the hydrangeas in here!!" the end result- the aforementioned Hydrangea quilt( to date, unquilted as I am not sure it is finished just yet!)

Well, I was looking at my commercial fabric stash and found an ombré stripe which shouted  "Landscape" at me ( my world is VERY noisy!) I saw sky and foreground in the lovely, subtle stripes. It made me think of a misty morning- or evening- on a still, cloudy seashore with waves just lapping onto a deserted beach  and dry sandy dunes in the foreground with a derelict slat fence, tufts of sere and wispy grasses and a scatter of rounded, bleached beach pebbles.  Here is what I have so far...

Not spectacular but promising, I think.

Now, the trick here is that you need a base fabric that has a story to tell. This is where the serendipity comes in. It depends on the quilt shop and on the eye of the beholder. I WANT to give the students a little time to shop the shelves and see if there IS any "talking fabric" . Otherwise, we shall proceed to step two and work on some gentle arm twisting to get them to try to design something themselves. I am torn because there are two techniques I want to teach them- turned edge and fused appliqué. Maybe I will start by demo-ing those, THEN let them loose to shop the shelves. I think that has just made up my mind- teach technique first, serendipity next! We are nothing , if not adaptable:-)

As it is Wednesday evening already, I will send this off to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com and hope you will check out other postings there.

A Serendipitous Occurrence

While I was trying to do some closeup photos of Iris Siberica buds in a stiff breeze this afternoon, look who dropped in for a visit! Scrunched down on my haunches, a VERY uncomfy position for a woman of advanced years and tottering in the breeze, I snapped this lovely fellow with the zoom on my wee camera. I was SURE it would be no good , but look how well it came out! Isn't he lovely! He was VERY shy and did not stick around for me , but I did catch him and wanted to share him with all y'all (practising my "Southern" for next week!)

LOVE him! Love those tight little iris buds too. It was a glorious day today. Enjoy!