The Outdoor Studio, that is.
Friday morning I put away all my outdoor furniture, because by Friday afternoon, it looked like this:
We had more snow Saturday and Sunday. Today the skies remain overcast, and there's the odd flake in the air.
To escape the grey, and the flakes (in the weather and elsewhere...), I moved into my sewdio to create a piece I've been thinking about. I may make a larger one, but for now I experimented with the approach (abstract) in a size that's just right for the 2017 SAQA Trunk Show.
I call it "Autumn Colours", and it's based on these photos of my back yard, taken two days before the snowfall...
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| View of the East side of my house, with the empty lot next door in the foreground. Trees with coloured leaves are on my property. |
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| View from the East side of my garage, looking North. |
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| The changing colours of a Mountain Ash (Rowan) |
I dug out a piece of hand-dyed "sky" fabric; sure enough, it was just the right size. Then I went through my fabrics -- mainly batiks -- and set to work cutting strips and auditioning them on the background:
When I had the arrangement I liked, I fused the strips, sandwiched the piece and stitched it all with invisible thread. I've always used that stuff with caution because my Husqvarna Lily 555 is Miss Fuss-pot when it comes to anything she deems is a 'fancy' thread. This time out, though, because I was doing straight-line sewing with my walking foot, Miss F.P. cooperated beautifully.
Here's the finished piece...
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| Autumn Colours (C) 2016 approx. 7" W x 10" long Hand-dyed & commercial fabrics, fused applique, machine quilting |
The paperwork's been submitted to SAQA online; all I need to do now is tack down that facing, apply a label and ship it off -- to arrive at Trunk Show HQ by mid-January.
Up next? More embroidery on the Christmas stocking, more knitting for gifts of all kinds, and construction of the Annual Christmas Boxer Shorts...
Some of which I can do while catching up with everyone over on Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday. This week she's returned to sewing with renewed energy -- and she too is working on a colourful abstract. That's definitely the way to ward off the flakes! ;-)
See you "off the wall"! (And Happy Thanksgiving to any Canucks reading this. May you have a blessed holiday!)
