Not generally my bag, but.....

Look at it! It is undoubtedly pretty but normally not the sort of thing I do. I was asked to do something for Christmas for a class , so I did this. It is  GREAT little project for brushing up one's machine quilting technique! I quilted all round all of those little bits with Invisible thread so it is nice and textured but not gaudy with all sorts of thread colours. I am beading it a bit and , as you see, binding it. The binding will be 1/2 inch but still needs turning. I have plans for the four corners too so watch this space. I will post the finished product before sending it to the shop for display.

The whole piece. Obviously a printed panel- by Robert Kaufman.

A little closeup so you can see the quilting and the beads.

Then, There is the Gloriosa, waiting patiently in the wings . It is almost finished except for e few minor touches and then , ready to layer and quilt. I THINK I am happy with it. We'll see.

Not a very nice picture as it is mixed up with the pieces under it but you get the idea. It is coming along well .I will do a bit more on the big centre and then layer it. By next week, I hope it is all done.

I am REALLY hoping to get this done by this time next week so stay tuned, watch this space. I am posting to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com I have already visited the site. There are some LOVELY posts there this week! Drop in .

Glorious Persistence

I admire persistence! Sometimes it can drive one mad but in the end, I DO admire it! Several years ago my Mum brought me a straggly little plant from the driveway of a friend's house in NS . It was a Gloriosa Daisy and it grew and proliferated EVERYWHERE! I liked it but I have a LOT of composites in the garden and was not sure , seeing how wildly this grew, that I needed yet another. Eventually, I yanked it all out and chucked it- I THOUGHT! Well, Lo and Behold, this year, ONE single Gloriosa daisy grew in the gravel of our driveway. It bloomed - gloriously, as is its wont and so, I left it there with a mass of yellow Rudbekia and kept photographing it.

Here are a couple of pics of my glorious Gloriosa. The bottom one is the photo I am working from .

Lovely photo of the total chaos that is our dining room! Did I ever claim to be a housekeeper when I am working?

And here is what I am doing with them. I am further along now but this gives an idea of progress to date. I am going to post this WIP to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com Not sure if I will be finished this by next week as I have a diversion to tackle in the meantime , but stay tuned. Hope you are all enjoying the superb fall weather we are having here in sunny Burlington just now. 

SAQA Auction 2013

Well, whoda thunk?? Sales are going really well on the auction site and my little Chiaroscura piece fetched $350.00 for SAQA! Still lots of nice things left if you are inclined to collect art! Check out the site!

Might be the end of my Red Period???

Here I am again, and with another red quilt on the go. Gotta stop sometime. However, these two pictures I got at Jellicoe TN on my birthday morning two years ago are just so pretty. HAD to do SOMETHING with them.

Here's where I started. There were so few leaves left on these bushes but every one was bedecked with long skinny frost crystals. It was a nippy morning but by the end of the day, along the NY Thruway, it was so snowy , we had to stop over in an hotel for the night.

And here is where I am with this piece at the moment. I am resting my neck and back as I am, true to form , making life tough on myself, I have been quilting intensively and am nowhere near finished. I want to do all of the quilting , foreground AND background, before I switch to my beloved silver thread for the frost crystals. Stay tooned!

I have not included a closeup yet but will post that soon so you can see how mad I really am. I use Bottom Line, Superior's lovely fine bobbin thread and to date, have filled my bobbin three times!! This gives you a rough idea of the composition anyway.

I intend to post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com. Last time I looked , there were no posts yet but there will be , so drop by! BTW, for those who are interested, it is 27" x 22.5" before I finish it. It will be a tad smaller eventually.

Now I am blushing!!

Goodness me! I am just home from Cambridge ON , having collected my little Bluebells quilt as the show is over now. Imagine my surprise when I was handed the quilt all nicely wrapped AND a big shiny foil gift bag for winning Viewers' Choice!!! How very nice! I thought of sending a thank you to McDougall Cottage, but I realize it is the VIEWERS whom I should thank! Not sure how many of them follow my blog, but for those who do, Thank You so much! I do not do this for prizes or recognition but this feedback IS very nice and VERY much appreciated. Thanks so much, Folks! In case you do not recall which quilt I am on about , here it is....

The "wee " quilt and the big purple rosettes!

And the big purple rosettes all by themselves.

Part of the prize in the shiny gift bag was a little jug of THE best Maple Syrup I have EVER tasted. Deevine. I shall have to dole it out ever so delicately, being a diabetic woman myself :-( I am pretty strong in the self discipline department though so I will be careful . DH will help me too. Anyway, lovely day today, a gorgeous ride in the countryside and we discovered the graves of two of DH's rellies whose death dates we did not have. Good day all round!

2013 SAQA Benefit Auction

For you folks who have not seen this or heard of it, you might enjoy checking out the SAQA  2013 Benefit Auction. There are a ZILLION wonderful little 12"x 12" mini art quilts there which will be auctioned off , starting on 09 September. I tried to make a link for you but cannot seem to manage it so, just Google it and you will find it.

Here is my contribution-

There are soo many gorgeous pieces. A few people have actually made "dream collections"- i.e.- six pieces you would LOVE to be able to afford to own. Check out the site and if you want to bid, the bidding on the first group begins on 09 September. Instructions for the bidding and an explanation of the auction's purpose and lots of extra info are on the website. Enjoy!

Berberis, Bedazzled, Bedecked and Bedizened

SAQA has a travelling trunk show scheduled for next year- for the next THREE years, actually, and they are asking members to donate tiny mini art quilts to be part of that travelling show. I scratched my head for a long time but finally came up with an idea. You remember the red pictures I am working on? And, do you recall the lovely frosted Berberis leaves from the rest stop in Jellicoe, KY?

Here it is , in case you forgot!

Someone said, when I suggested I wanted to quilt this, that the frost would be hard to do. I agreed and decided to experiment, so, working within the 7" x 10" parameters of the SAQA request, I tried it.
Here is the result....

Here is the little quilt in its entirety- all 10 x 7  inches of it!

And here are a couple of detail shots so you can see what I did...

The frosty twigs

Gnarly, frosty twigs

And the frost bedizened ruby leaves.

I used bits of hand dyed and commercial fabrics for the berberis itself and a little piece of hand dye for the background. To do the frosty collar on the red leaves, I cut a piece of very pale grey commercial "batik" backed with Steam a Seam Lite. In fact, contrary to my normal practice, I used Steam a Seam Lite throughout. Then, I stitched with variegated cotton ( Sulky) all round the twigs and the leaves and then .... I switched to Superior's gorgeous metallic silver for the frost. On some of the darker twigs, I used a pale blue metallic thread. I "gilded the lily" a tad using my trusty Prismacolor" pencil crayons for just  a bit more "oomph" on the twig shadows. Now, of course, I need to "fix" the pencil crayon with my  Krylon acrylic fixative spray.

This is only Monday, Labour Day, but I am preparing this post for the next edition of the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com which will be tomorrow afternoon. Check it out. There seem to be some interesting new contributors these days. Maybe they are just returnees, but they are new to me.

Berberis Berries and stuff

I am well on the way to finishing the Berberis Berries and I THINK I am a nappy camper?? I have gotten to the background quilting part and, although I am happy with the quilting, am not sure about the thread colour. The background fabric, while a very pretty and appropriate hand dye for this piece, is a bear to work with, thread colour wise! Anyway, you be the judge. I have included a few closeups to show you what I am aiming for.

Here is the whole piece to date. It has been quilted , all but the background. Some background, however, has been done.

I like this twig. Happy with it!

A bit of detail on the berries themselves.

Some detail of the background quilting.

Bit more background. I am hoping to do some intensive quilting like I did on the Honeysuckle berries so that the fruit itself really pops out. 

Now then, here is a little extra! I made this little landscape sample for the shop where I sometimes teach. I was asked to do a winter landscape. Cold enough for ya?

Well, it is a change from red!!The quilting does not show up here but I used Superior's Silver metallic thread to quilt the really bright parts of the snowy foreground.

Now, I shall post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com . I have not looked there this week yet but hope there will be lots of interesting things. This IS, however, the last week before school starts so LOTS for Mums to be doing besides fooling around with quilts and crochet! Check it out anyway, It is always intriguing to see what folks are up to. Enjoy!

Making good progress now!

Well, I missed Needle and Thread Network last week so I hope I am in time this week. I have finished the Honeysuckle piece except for facing and sleeve and have almost finished the top for the Berberis Berries. On top of that, I have a little shop sample top ready to border and quilt now. The woman is a dynamo!! I am full of energy for some reason ;-D

Here is the picture I am working from -

I LOVE this picture! The berries are like little earring bobs. Quite exquisite! 

Here is what I have done to date. I have a bit of tidying to to, a few more twigs to define and some of the little background berries to tone down . BTW, it is about 17" x32" right now.

I may also add more oomph to a few of the highlights. Stay tuned!  The photo in the middle is next! Pray for me please!!

Now then, I HOPE to post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com . Check it out. It is getting exciting as there seem to be some new folks all of a sudden! Very nice!

Great plan, if I do say so!

I have begun to quilt the Honeysuckle berries and I MUST say, I am a genius!! (Hah!) Anyway, I really want the berries to stand out as they do on the bush in the fall. That's why the Waxwings have such easy pickings :-) I have quilted all of the leaves, branches and twigs , and, of course, the berries. The berries themselves have minimal quilting because I really wanted them to stand up above the rest of the shapes. SO.... What to do with the background??? Well, brilliant idea! In the original photo, there are a zillion tiny twigs everywhere in the background. I only appliqued a few , but here is my plan. Intensively quilt the background spaces with fairly straight line quilting to suggest branches in HOPES of flattening the background, thus allowing the leaves to stand out somewhat and to REALLY let the berries shine. Here is the result. Judge for yourself whether it worked....

Here is the whole piece, so far. I am not sure in this pic if you can tell where the background IS quilted!

Hopefully, you get the idea here

These are all basically the same part of the quilt but ..

Some shots show better than others

LOVE the red shiny berries! I am working on a Berberis piece now , also great fruits- also RED! ( and SHINY!)

I HOPE to JUST squeak in under the wire with this for theneedleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com . I am a bit late this week but there are LOTS of other , more organized people who HAVE posted! Enjoy.

OOPS! Missed for this week :-(

In love with red!

OK, here is the full shot but I wanted to put it under the closeup. NO GO, so here it is where IT wants to be !

Once upon a long time ago, I was not overly fond of red. I still do not love red flowers in our garden but, of late, I have become mellow and more interested in red, even wearing it happily now! Go figure!!

I am nearing the end of the construction of my Honeysuckle berry piece, almost ready to layer it!

Lots still to do before layering but it IS getting there and I am pretty well pleased at this point.

And here we are, late but here- with the highlights added. Bit dark, but you get the idea!

I am happy enough that I am now looking at other photos I have taken of red leaves and red berries , thinking of a little Red collection! What do you think???

This is smaller than I really intended but I think it would be a challenge to do. If I can find the full shot, I shall post it. SAQA wants little 7"x10" pieces for a touring trunk show and this is a possibility? We'll see!

LOVE this. I photographed it early on a very frosty morning on the way home from TN in the carpark of the rest stop at Jellico, KY!

And this is an all time favourite - Berberis berries in our driveway . They are like little earrings!

I am going to try some , or all of these and make a grouping with the Honeysuckle berry piece.

You know what is going to happen? I will be lying in bed tonight, WIDE awake, going over these photos in my head and trying to decide on how big they should be and how I will get the frosty sparkle on those two Berberis leaf pieces. Do YOU do that? I DO have that spectacularly lovely metallic thread, silver variegated, by Superior threads. Hmm! That could work with some nice thread painting and maybe some crystal organza overlays. Do NOT hold your collective breath. I WILL do something with these, but want to finish Honeysuckle first. Right now, I will post this and then figure out a way to escape the inconsiderate picnickers in the park behind us! Why do people have to make so much ghastly noise in the lovely outdoors? We have POUNDING, throbbing "music" invading our privacy right now. Maybe a nice drive for an Iced Capp in the country would be a good idea??? Enjoy the rest of your weekend :-)

Now I plan to post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com . It is summer time but people are STILL being creative. Drop in and enjoy.

New work! Try again :-(

Well, here goes round two. I wrote a nice little post last night, tried to post to TNTN and lost the whole thing!! Grrr!!So, here we go again, girls.

I have started a new piece at last- YAY!! Remember the foot square one I donated to the SAQA Benefit Auction?

My honeysuckle berries.

Well, I hated giving this one away. My poor old DH is still devastated so I decided to do a larger version. I am using the same photo but instead of cropping it to a small square section, I am using most of the picture.

The whole photo . 

I am not using quite all of it but most. The next problem after making a larger version of my pattern was to be sure I had enough hand dyed fabric to do the job. Apart from enough background colour to do the trick, I found I was ok. I would have chosen a less intense colour for the background but did not have anything and , being lazy, chose this darker piece but I think now that I like it. It is nicely mottled.

This is a fuzzy sort of photo but you get the idea. Very early in the process!

And here are the fabrics and the picture I am working from.

I will post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com . To correct a little booboo, it was I who was fortunate enough to win the Christmas panel, not someone called Carol :-) so thank you, Sew Sisters! Check out TNTN and enjoy!

It DOES make a difference!!!

Wow! A week of experimenting and I believe , at last, we have liftoff! We have learned the following-

1- Lights make a HUGE difference- we have 250 W and 500 W blue photofloods and having photographed all the quilts using the smaller bulbs, we now have to redo a LOT of them! Just TOO dull and lifeless - stay tuned for photographic evidence!

2- We DO know now how to get a clean white ( or black) background for quilt photos. It works like a charm and DH should be VERY pleased with himself. I am :-)

3- Paper for printing makes an ENORMOUS difference ! I had my pics printed at Costco and they did them on matte paper- great , except that our pics were too dull and dark. I just found Satin Finish paper at Staples and bought a package of 100 sheets. GORGEOUS!! Now, I cannot afford to print all of my pics myself but for ones I want to be VERY clear and nice, I will always use satin paper now. Gloss is just TOO much. Matte is lovely if the colours are bright and right.

I have made up a sheet for each quilt , full of all the pertinent info- name, address , telephone number, title, materials used, techniques, date and notes for Artist's Statements. I also have ( or will have) a full shot of the quilt as well as several detail shots per quilt. Just bought a small binder and will have the sheets and pictures all organized alphabetically by title soon ( finished my teaching career as a Librarian !)

Now, for the evidence...

You remember this one! This is straight off the camera at the exposure indicated as correct by the camera.

Now , here are the three shots he took , first at normal reading, then at +1/3 and lastly, at +2/3 stops.

These shots have been edited for size and white background ONLY! No other editing.

The original exposure

At + 1/3 stop

And at +2/3 stop.

I have chosen the middle ground, the plus 1/3 stop. The + 2/3 is just washed out. 

We plan now to go back over the pile of quilts and redo the ones I feel are most important to me . It will take time but if it is worth doing at all, it is worth doing well! When I make my quilts, I choose my colours carefully and aim for "singing colours" - even the subtle ones! I want a glowing, jewel-like effect always and when I have a picture of my quilt, I want that singing colour too. The larger, brighter (500 W) bulbs have made a HUGE difference! We intend to buy a couple more pairs - just in case. Soon, we will be unable to buy them at all as they are incandescent tungsten bulbs.  They certainly DO generate a LOT of heat in this warm weather, but we must suffer for our art, no?

I see that this week is the 100th posting on TNTN and I will post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com in hopes that someone may find all of this rambling yammer useful. One of these days, I WILL get back to some actual quilt making. This little project was a gotta do for this summer though and it is almost done now ! Yay!!