Week 48

I have returned to the fall colors for one more week although I'll probably change the color scheme next week; after all, we'll be into December by then and Winter colors should prevail. 

I must admit, however, that I feel quite comfortable with autumn colors, the colors of the earth.  I confess to having a plethora of them in my stash, so it's only reasonable that I use them from time to time.  And what better time than the fall changing of the seasons?  This piece is done with all commercial fabrics.  The background color on the left did not photograph well; it really is a mossy green or deep avocado green, but it looks gray in the photo.  The gold fabric is a marbled fabric I have that is predominantly white on one end and it gets darker into the golds until it is   almost all brown at the opposite end.  Thus, Week 48 is done and I head, crashing,  into Week 49!

Week 47, Back to Fall

Here it is Week 47, and here in Oklahoma we have finally seen some fall colors on the trees.  We're running about 2-2 1/2 weeks behind our normal seasonal change.  We usually see colors around mid to late October; this is the week of Thanksgiving!  So the colors spoke to me again, and I created this piece:

The sky and grass area are commercial fabrics, with some fussy cut leaves in the foreground.  I used dyed cheesecloth for the "leaf" color (which I felted in using my embellisher, or felting machine) on the trees.  I may yet add some additional items in the piece, but it is done enough to count as one of my weeks' entries. 

Week 46

I have veered away from my fall color jag, and moved onto rusted fabric. This piece uses fabric I rusted (the background fabric has writing on it naturally) which is placed onto black fabric.  I then added a rectangle of black fabric with decorative stitching.  The smaller rectangles are hand stitched (BTW, it is very difficult to hand stitch thru rusted fabric; glad I didn't do more hand stitching, my fingers wouldn't have lasted much longer!) onto that. 

The white written fabric is cut using pinking sheers and I used scrap book copper brads to hold down the squares.    The whole piece is glued to stabilizer.  

Week 45

Here we are at Week 45 and I am still working with fall colors.  In fact, they are the same fabrics as last week, in a different configuration. 

I added some decorative stitching to each of the pieces which are glued onto my stabilizer.  I would also quilt in the ditch if I decide to use this piece in a larger quilt.  And maybe add some decorative free motion stitching within some of the blocks.  We have only seven more weeks of the year, only seven more seven inch pieces to complete!  This year has gone by fast! 

Life Cycle

I have just completed a new work, titled "Live Cycle".  It is the result of a local fiber group challenge, the theme of which was "Time Flies" where we had to use three different techniques in the finished piece, and it had to measure larger than 16 inches and smaller than 36, with any combination within those parameters.  My piece measures 32 x 36.  It consists of three panels, each of which can stand on its own, but together they create the life cycle of a sunflower. 

I used painted and heated Tyvek, with beading,  as the centers of the sunflowers in the first panel.  The second panel has French Knots (for hand embroidery) in the center of the sunflower, with beads on top of the knots, and in the centers of the 3-D white flowers at the bottom I have used Angelina with stitching on top.  The last panel has silver foiling in the sky using Bonash powder, which gives the impression of stars in the sky.  I used raw-edge applique throughout the entire piece and free motion stitching.  There are several 3-D effects in each panel and Broderie Perse (sp?).  Panels one and three measure 11.5 x 32 and the middle panel measures 13 x 32 inches respectively. 

I wanted to make sure the different techniques used did not overpower the piece as a whole, and separating the work into three panels, with only one or two techniques used in each panel helped me overcome that problem. 

I was unsure exactly how to execute some of the techniques within the piece, so I made a sample piece, 12 x 12 to kind of work out the logistics with in the piece.  I donated this work to the Spiva Art Gallery (in Joplin, MO) auction to raise money for the gallery.  It sold, WOOHOO. 

While doing this piece I discovered that it was very difficult to bead the painted Tyvek.  I had attached the front fabric to a heavy stabilizer and trying to push a needle through the stabilizer as well as the Tyvek took a toll on my fingers!  So in the Life Cycle piece I omitted the stabilizer and beaded the Tyvek before I added it to the fabric.  Much easier!  Sometimes making a practice piece helps work out potential problems, and this was one of those times.