EBMC February III - Feed Those Birds!

"NOW for your next one!! Bigger!" she said.

"Instead of stippling, just [go] with a horizontal line...", she said.

So I sandwiched a piece of white fabric about 22" W x 18" L and using white thread, free-motion quilted horizontal lines, then trimmed the edges:

That was Wednesday.  I admit I was a bit uncertain at first, but after a while on my design wall, it's grown on me.

"Keep the feeder very simple as you have...it doesn't have to be slap bang in the middle...in fact, probably better slightly off-centre," she said.

Before stitching, I decided to rehearse with charcoal on a large sketch pad, in a frame the size of the trimmed background (20" W x 17" L):

So far, so good.  In fact, the drawing was easier to do than I expected, given the size (large for me).

I took a regular mechanical pencil, lightly sketched the placement of birds and feeder on the white quilted background and then went to the sewing machine, again with black thread top and bottom:

Alas...I got the feeder a bit too far left.  With only 3 birds, there was a gaping white space on the right and lower left of the piece.

Solution?  Add two more birds (middle right and lower left) -- first in pencil; then in stitch.

BUT...d'you see it?  Take a closer look:

The lower left bird's not too bad, but that one on the middle right is decidedly UG-LEEEE!

Can this piece be saved?  Or will it be filed away as "just a sample"?

I could get rid of the offending bird altogether:

But...that a) puts the feeder closer to the centre (again) and b) leaves four birds -- an even number which, I believe, is not favoured artistically by Those Who Know...

I could leave a hint of that offending bird that is, well, less offensive:

This one's rather fun, I think.  It's as if Offending Bird is coming late to the party. "Save some for me!"

Let me know what you'd do, eh?

As it is, I'm leaving the next quilted background for tomorrow...and linking this to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  I'm grabbing a cuppa while I read the other posts and take up my hand quilting.  Join me?

Took Longer Than Expected

-- the latest miniature, that is -- due in large part to getting to know the quirks of The Loaner.  I've discovered, however, that J's machine is quite capable of free motion if it likes the combination of threads you've chosen, and if you remember whether or not the feed dogs are up or down when you begin (unlike my Lily, The Loaner gets grumpy if you try to FMQ with them up).

I found the best combination of thread for quilting in this machine was Superior's Bottom Line in the bobbin and King Tut in the top.  Other brands of thread on top were either tolerated (Sulky Blendables) or rejected out of hand -- as demonstrated by breaking over and over and over again (Mettler 60-wt Stick-+Stopfgarn, designed for embroidery, and which I've used very successfully for FM thread "painting" on my own machine).

In addition to working on a borrowed machine, the other thing this mini had going on was some needle-felted acrylic felt for the hills -- with thread painting on top, and a touch of Fabrico (R) marker on the bottom edge to imitate reflections in the water.

Sky, Hills, Slough - detail

Finally, the bovines in this scene clearly reflect my rather 'primitive' style...

Roan - detail

Centre Bovine - detail

May I present the first miniature from my sewdio for 2014?

You Lookin' at US?!

Fussy, Fussy

It all began with this photo:

Bell Tower, St. Monica's Anglican Church
Mirror, Alberta - est. 1895

I love this old church, but have yet to see the inside of it, as it's been under restoration for almost as long as I've lived here.  It's no longer a functioning church; it was given over to Mirror  by the Diocese of Calgary some years ago as a historical building.  The hope is that when it's fully restored it will be a point of interest for tourists and perhaps serve as an unconsecrated wedding chapel.  The asbestos insulation has been replaced, and the rotting foundational logs replaced (under that lovely white facade, it's a 118-year-old log building!).  What remains to be done is the shoring-up of bowing walls, the replacement of the siding, and the restoration of the chimney -- including the re-creation of some of the old bricks which have broken.

I took this photo not long after I moved here -- sometime in the late autumn or early winter of 2008-2009, and decided it might make a good miniature.

Well.

Fussy, fussy.  I used my own hand-dyed fabric for the sky, and then traced bits and pieces of the building onto fusible web (in reverse, of course, to get them to come out the right way 'round)...and then trace the tree (in reverse) and did the same.  It took me a little over 2 hours yesterday to come up with this:

The 'sawed-off' edges are the edge of the original photo and also where the matt will begin!

Today I added some thread painting and quilting:

I was undecided, until I put my "Ls" around it...and it works reasonably well.  There's still a bit more quilting to do -- though I am not adding all the random branches attached to that tree!  (Artistic license!)

This miniature has taken me far longer than the others, but if it doesn't sell at the show, maybe I'll just frame it and keep it!  :-)