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.