Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Take a Peak at a New Project...

This piece was started while we were the Artist's in Residence in Paducah, KY.  I layed out all the fabrics, pinned them in place, put it up on the wall to contemplate the overall look.  After making a couple of minor changes I basted everything in place and then......I was stuck.  Admission, sometimes my "vision" of how I want a piece to look gets in MY way.  We traveled to Denver next, I pulled it out a couple of times, then we traveled home...still no stitching, then on the eve of flying to market I pulled it out.
Something just clicked, out came my stash of miscellaneous fibers, my trusty needle felting tool and things flew including us to Portland, OR.  On the plane I added embroidery on the texture portion while dear daughter stitched the facing on the quilted mat that I was going to mount it on.
                                                                                    
Well the plane trip just wasn't long enough to finish all the embroidery I had envisioned and we needed to put together our booth.  Honestly I have never hung anything not finished before, but I really liked where the piece is headed so rather than rush it and not be happy with the outcome it was time to just call "uncle". 

Come back and check on my progress.  I promise to post photo's as I add more stitching and fibers....and a surprise or two...or three.

Monday, June 3, 2013

Sliced Southwestern Sunset!

Dear "old" daughter (she celebrated a birthday 2 weeks ago, but wasn't home long enough to enjoy it) loves to work with bits of fabric.  Guess at my age it's a challenge to see and handle those small pieces so I tease her unmercifully that they are her "crack quilts"....got to be on something to work with those "specks" of color.  Though I have to admit each time she finishes one they are wonderful.
The shading she gets by using these small morsals of our hand-dyed Kona cotton is fantastic.  Movement in the fabric really adds to the effect once she "slices and dices". 

In this close-up you can see how some "bits" jump to another color area and really add to the overall effect.

Sorry to be so short today, but we have company coming in from Scandanavia, prep work for our local guild show and Chicago to get done.  Dye studio here I come...at least it's a tad cooler today.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you come back again.