A POPPY AND TWO BUDS

By the end of the day yesterday, I had accomplished this.   Two buds with stems and leaves...most of it quilted.  Tomorrow I will work on the next poppy...there are two fully bloomed poppies still coming.   Feeling good about the mood and the feel of it.

HORSES BEGIN

 Began working on the horses today...I know this will be a task to make them pop out of the scene.  The beginnings look rather poor....but must have faith.

By the end of the afternoon.....things are beginning to loo a little more optimistic. 

THE HICKORY TREE

 THE HICKORY TREE

17 3/4" X 26 3/4"

Original Design

Raw Edged Fused Applique

Machine Quilted

Couched Yarn Binding

This quilt will be for sale in my Etsy Shoppe.....you can go there by clicking on it in my sidebar.
I will post the journey of this piece tomorrow.

"PUFFIN"

 "PUFFIN"

Measures 19" X 15 1/2"

Original Design

Rawedged fused applique

Machine Quilted
Available on Etsy

The journey with this piece was one of joy and fun.  Loved working with this closeup of the face of this adorable bird.  The small size was fun to do and add into my inventory on Etsy.
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.  Below is how we traveled through the steps of this piece.  Thank you for following and I hope you continue to do so.

THE JOURNEY

"Peace" unfinished

 Yesterday we lost a very good friend named Todd.  He was a kind and generous man and died way too young in his early 50's.  He had cancer.  He left behind his wife and 4 children.

So in honor of him I will title this piece "Peace".  I am happy with it ....still need to add the binding and the sleeve and label to the back...but wanted to show you some detail shots as well.

I will try to finish it completely tomorrow and post the true finished piece then.

Moving Into The Water

 I am slowly moving into the water now.  The shoreline is pretty much finished on the land  and now need to work on the pier soon and then all the reeds and lily pads.

Put in two red twig dogwoods not in the inspiration photo but what is found on the shoreline on this lake.  Need to tone down the leaves on the one on the right but am not concerned about it yet.  Will first see how it plays with the other elements that are yet to come.   Great progress in four hours time.

Next will be some lighter colored reeds and then the pier and the rowboat parked behind it.  This will be difficult as I must get the angles right or it will not work.  It is when you do have to use your math skills and think about angles etc.  In my case that is where I need to mentally prepare myself first and wake up the other side of my brain!

Hope you all are enjoying this so far!  Can you smell the water yet?

Furthest From The Shoreline

Well I just spent 3 hours at the machine quilting needles on these pine trees.   I need to get up and walk around and try to refocus my eyes!!!  However, all the furthest from the shoreline trees and shrubs are finished.  Now I will move into the edge of the shoreline and do the small shrubs, grasses and maybe even the pier.

I purposely left the lighter colored pine more open as I did not want to hide the house totally which it is in reality.  I am pretty satisfied with it so far and feel good that what comes next will enhance quite a bit.

Free Motion Quilting

 I am still working on quilting this long needle pine.  Yesterday got away from me a bit as I had a full day of running around and visiting my mother.    Hopefully today I will finish it.

In the meantime had to take this early morning shot of a cardinal who actually woke me up with his beautiful melody.  Seems even with this below zero weather he is thinking spring!

"Buck & Jack"

 "BUCK & JACK"

29" X 19"

Original Design

Rawedged fused applique

Domestic Machine Quilted

By

Barbara Strobel Lardon

Dec. 2013

Hope you enjoyed the journey I took when creating this piece.  I love the old fashioned small farm and farmers.  I feel it is going to soon disappear from our landscape so I hope to immortalize my memories in these farm scene quilts that I so enjoy making.  My cousins had an uncle who lived on a farm and I was lucky as a young girl to go out there and spend time.  I personally love horses so loved working on them and having them added into this textile art piece.  The farm had two work horses whose names I have forgotten but I like to think they could have been Buck and Jack.  I have since had a great fondness for the working horse whether it be just the old farm horse or the beautiful Belgians and Clydesdales.

NOTE:  This fiber art piece has SOLD and is going to a private collector in Canada.

Farm under the Needle

Besides Christmas preparations for both my Mom's Christmas and Ours I have been quilting the
Farm.  There are a lot of thread changes and it is slow going but I am getting there.  Just have to take an hour here and an hour there when I can.

It is now snowless here and dark and dreary with some rain.  However they are talking about snow on either Wed. Thurs. or Friday this week.  So perhaps there still is a chance of a white Christmas!