Well.
For me, today, TRTH was very nearly paved with good InkTensions!
It began very innocently. I worked on "Sentinels, putting in the power lines and fence wire, and most of the prairie grasses poking through the snow. Then, checking in with the original photograph, I noticed the shadows:
See? There are shadows cast by the front pole and the fence posts. If you look closely, you'll notice they're...um...blue. Not quite as blue as the sky, but definitely blue. Hmmm.
How to include them?
I said to myself, I said, "Self, why not quilt the shapes in the snow and colour them in ever-so-lightly with your blue InkTense pencil?"
I tried a wee bit on a scrap of the white fabric left from the snow piecing. I wet it after colouring, and knew I'd have to do it very lightly and gently.
Oy vey.
It wasn't horrible, really -- it just didn't go with the stark lines in my piece -- all rough edges and angles, and there were these soft, slightly runny shadows.
What to do? Some of 'em had started to dry -- meaning they would be there permanently!
I washed it -- soaked it, really, in a tub of hot water with Synthrapol...to see if it would fade the stuff. It did, but not enough to make me happy.
I figured, what do I have to lose? I'm going to have to cover up those "shadows". So I threw it in the drier and had a think.
While I thought, I cut out some more green 3 1/2" squares and made some more four-patches for Easy Street (somehow, I was short on these and didn't have enough to make the last 3 blocks).
When that was done, I scoured the stack of fabric I'd used for "Sentinels" in the first place, and decided "Okay; if it's going to be a primitive interpretation, then why not have shadows as blue as the sky?" I found some of the sky fabric, and fused Steam-a-Seam 2 onto it. Then I proceed to cut out shadow shapes and stick them onto the piece. So far they're only stuck there; I haven't done the final pressing to secure them. And there are shadowy shapes below the grasses next to the fence on the far right that I don't quite know how to include, so they're not there (yet). However, I did take this photo:
And y'know? I rather like it. As Peggy wrote today on her "Playing with Texture" blog, there's value in a photograph. Even standing back from the piece in my sewing room, I wasn't sure. But the photo gives me hope. There's still a bit more prairie grass to stitch in, so I won't do the final straightening-up and binding till that's done, but it's just about finished.
Lesson learned: sometimes a sample isn't really a sample; it's just an excuse for one. Never let your hurry to do something get in the way of a proper trial!
And to think I nearly blew it.
P.S. Linking this up to The Needle and Thread Network for WIP Wednesday...
