Walking the Line

I've been a bit slow off the mark with the EB Master Class this month.  You guessed it: the topic is "Line".  When EB announced it, I knew exactly which of my finished pieces I wanted to use as a starting point...but then stalled at how to work on it without copying myself!

The work was based on this photo:

By a road near Northbow Lodge
December 2008

Here's the piece I made:

Sentinels (C) 2013

And here's how I began to manipulate it for each of three possible design ideas:

First, I turned the photo of the piece into a 'contour drawing' with my photo editing program:

I traced this onto a piece of 8 1/2 x 11 tracing paper -- just the main lines I could see -- using a Sharpie (R) marker.  I copied this tracing paper image onto plain paper, and enlarged it slightly.  From the enlarged drawing I isolated a section and enlarged that:

"Idea 1"

Second, I found a detail photo of the original piece:

I converted it to 8-bit grey-scale.  I know...not much difference!  ;-)   It was the snow, after all!

From there I converted it into a "contour drawing", isolated a section of that and enlarged it:

"Idea 2"

And then another:

"Idea 3"

I think all three have potential for recreation in fabric and thread, to differing degrees.  I've sent the three 'Ideas' off to EB and await her feedback.

On other fronts, I've been hand-stitching a piece intended for the Spotlight Silent Auction fund-raiser at the SAQA conference in Portland (I have to have it sent off within 10 days), and finished the March block for the "Zen" Block-of-the Month.  The latter was once again an experience that was not particularly relaxing...the flimsy background fabric (provided with the pattern) argued with the less flimsy dark and medium prints, and only a good spritz with "Best Press" made the block lie nicely when it was finished.

Silent auction piece - WIP
Auditioning stitch placement

March "Zen" BOM: "Coxey's Camp"

On the knitting front, my entry for the March challenge in the "Socks From Stash" Ravelry group is going well...I am nearing the toe on the first sock...and the wedding prayer shawl is proceeding apace: by the end of today I'll have finished 7.5 of 25 pattern repeats (each is 24 rows), keeping me on track for the end of May...

Now I think I'll link this up with Nina Marie's Friday post (because I still can!) and take a nap...!

Left-over News

Not news that is left over.  No.  News that is about left-overs -- pieces left over from the Lacombe Art Show and Sale (aka "Encore: Art Sale & Celebration of Creative Expression".)

Of the miniatures, I brought home five.  Of the larger pieces, despite their positive reception, I brought home all but one, and it was the smallest of the group (11" x 14").

Today changed that.

I went over to Stettler (as far east of Mirror as Lacombe is west -- 43 km. or about 26-and-a-bit miles) to take my Husqvarna Lily 555 sewing machine in to the LQS there -- Caroline's Homespun Seasons* -- for a spa treatment after a year of very hard work.

(*This is a Facebook link; there is no up-to-date home page.)

From there I went down the street to the Cabinet of Curiosities gallery and framing shop to see Andrea, who cuts my mats.  I was hoping to get some more made, and I wanted to show her the left-over miniatures so she could see how great her mats looked.

Sentinels (c) 2013

We talked for a long time.  Well over an hour.  The upshot of it all?

• Five of the eight left-over miniatures are now on display in her gallery:
• Prairie Twilight II
• On Forever
• Autumn at the Slough
• Prairie Autumn II
• Can You Hear Me Now?.....and
• She has a client to whom she wants to show "Sentinels" -- a branch office of a utility that's just opening in Stettler, to deal with power lines.  She asked me to send over a photo; I did.  She's meeting with the company 'guy in charge' this week to talk about art for their new office walls...and will include my photo if she thinks it will work...So there's a potential opportunity to show it to him in person after I return from the SAQA Conference...

I have another dozen mats on order, to be picked up mid-May.

And...she invited me to participate in Stettler's Art Walk (June 8-9 outdoors -- I'm already committed to going to Edmonton); and to their fall Art and Craft Fair (end of September, indoors -- part of Alberta's 'Culture Days' -- which I can do.)  

My post-conference schedule now looks like this:

• May 31: finish my first 15x15 challenge piece;
• June 6: SAQA Western Canada Parlour Meeting and deadline for "The Burgess Shale Project" piece (24" x 24");
• June - August: 'self-directed summer school';
• Mid- July: Consider entering "Encore: Art in the Park" in Lacombe.
• June - August: prepare a piece to mount on stretched canvas for "Encore: 10" x 10": The Unknown Artist" event in Lacombe - at the Memorial Centre (same venue as the latest show and sale) September 12-29 -- the Lacombe Culture and Harvest Festival.  These pieces are donations to be auctioned off with proceeds to the Lacombe Arts Endowment Fund.  
• June - August: review inventory and prepare new pieces for sale in Stettler at the end of September.

My short-term work life has exploded -- and it's all wonderful!  (Can you see me grinning?)

Finishes on a Friday

It's been a very full week -- and I've managed to finish some things...or at least, get through Step "A" so I can start Step "B".

First, I finished all the "B" blocks for Easy Street, and decided to pin a few up on my design wall so you could see how electric this quilt is going to be:

Isn't that wild?!  Yes, there's a lot of green...but I'm thinking the overall effect is going to be quite wonderful. Can you identify the blocks versus the setting triangles without going cross-eyed?!  Assembly begins...well...maybe this weekend.

Second, I finished some snow-dyeing... sort of.   I started yesterday with a single tub and two colours -- 'Scarlet' and 'Golden Yellow' (Dharma Trading Co. dyes).

Alas, the results were less than inspiring.   The scarlet 'ate' all the yellow, and very little gradation showed.  There were large gaps of ...not much.

So.  I decided to 'snowverdye' and put the dyed, dried fabric back into the bottom of the tub, covered it with a fresh layer of snow and applied only 'Golden Yellow' dye:

Then I forgot about it. Yep.  Clean forgot, as I was involved in another project this afternoon.  Then I went for my jog.  Then I got on the phone.  Then...oy!  The snow had pretty well melted entirely by the time I rinsed it and put it in the drier.  We shall see...but I think it may be okay.  My Dyeing Angels may have just been looking out for me.  One can only hope!

Third, I finished "Sentinels" yesterday; tonight, during Bonnie's Quilt Cam, I'll be sewing down the facing.  Then all that will be left to do is apply the label and a sleeve.  Here's what it looked like with the facing applied and pressed, pinned to my design wall:

Sentinels (c) 2013 - 16" x 27.5"

Here are a couple of detail shots:

I really like the little puddling of shadow near the fence (right side) and the tufts of prairie grass added to the left side.

The next couple of pieces won't be as large, but I'm gearing up for a larger square piece -- with a 24" square requirement -- "Choia" for the SAQA Western Canada's "Burgess Shale Project".  Like the SAQA Visioning Project, there's a private blog set up for the artists participating to share their work and discuss their process and progress, but I'll be posting a bit about it here too.  It's due by June 6th.  I hear tell that a couple of the participating artists have finished their pieces already (!)...but I never met a deadline I didn't love...  ;-)  Stay tuned!

P.S. Linking this to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday"...check it out and see who's working on what!

Posts and Poles

Fence posts, that is, and power poles.

Spent most of this afternoon working on "Sentinels" -- applying the stone out-cropping, adding some thread painted bush, and the aforementioned P&P.  When I finished I trimmed off the batting as it was getting cumbersome.  Then I had to block it a wee bit.  The sky quilting is denser (more dense?) than the snow quilting, so it nipped in about 1/8 inch on one side.  the blocking seems to have evened this out.  I only hope it will last during the last of the thread painting and on into the facing stage.  In the trimming, I lost a bit of the top of the pole on the far left, but I think in the end that will give the piece interest.

I have to admit I really like the way the fence line shaped up.  It's all little bits of the same fabric as the power poles, all drawn onto the paper side of Steam-a-Seam 2, which I like when I want a bit of a stickiness in order to place a piece onto the background and have it stay there while I'm considering it -- before ironing it into place permanently.

Next I need to stitch down the P&P, add power lines and barbed wire traces, and some more grasses.  There's a large swath at the bottom of the piece that looks very bare right now; that's where the grasses belong.  I checked the proportions against the photograph, and to be precise, that area between the last fence post on the right and the bottom of the piece should be 8.8"...Nine is close enough for me!

And simply for a change of page, I finished another Block B for Easy Street.  Only 3 more to go, and I can start figuring out how it all goes together!

"Mountainscape I", the mock-up for the door quilt, met with approval when displayed yesterday, so now I have to plan the larger piece -- in between getting show pieces ready, that is.  The SAQA "Santa Fe Spotlight" miniature is already on its way to the curator of the auction, but a stack of fabric lies waiting for me to make some more of those, too.  Never a dull moment!

Quilting Snow

This piece seems to be coming together, and it's growing on me -- so much so that I headed to the sewdio 1/2 hour earlier than usual.  I got into the groove by assembling my fourth "B" block from Easy Street, and then I changed to my walking foot to quilt "Sentinels".

I began with some 'ditching' in the long lines between the strips of 'snow', and then added some gentle curves to denote landscape.  (Original photo inspiration HERE.)

NOTE: the 'blue' fabric is really more grey than blue!

Switching to my free-motion foot but leaving the feed dogs up, I moved to the top of the piece and worked on the sky:

NOTE: The fabric colours are more accurate in this photo!

'Twas my C&G tutor, Linda, who encouraged me to quilt my skies and I have to admit, I rather like it!

In the photo above you'll see I've also stitched on the white strip of snow at the top of the scene; I used my FM foot and feed dogs up; the 'fabric' is really a scrap of white batting I've had for ????  how long?

So here's the piece in its present state, with some rock outcroppings pinned on, awaiting applique.  This will be followed by fence posts, power poles, power lines, bush and grasses, but this is enough for today.  I have some reading to catch up on.  :-)

And I'm linking this to "Off the Wall Friday" over at Nina-Marie's blog.

Surrounded by batting, prepped for more applique