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.

Its All About the Details

 Above you will see I added a fence...it is green but you can not see that in this photo....lighting in studio today is bad due to very cloudy day.

 I want to add some fir trees so loosely sketched them on a piece of fused fabric.

Here is the fabric choice I used...sometimes you find fabric that you plan on using on water or a prairie and it works well in many other uses.

 Once cut out I place them on the hilside........and then

 Quilt!   Here is one finished, the other unfinished.   I love YLI Forest 24V 40wt Cotton thread for doing evergreens. It is a variegated thread that is wonderful for needles on pines.

Once the pines were finished I added the foreground trees that go in front of them.    See how this is coming together fast.  Not bad for two days work.  Stay tuned though...more is to come.

Pine Needles

 I had both of my Grandson's for the weekend.  After they left today I went back to the studio to keep working on my pine needles.    I fused the larger part of the each branch, quilt it, outline it and then stitch in the smaller branches in a variegated thread.  When I have all the branches in I begin adding the needles with thread.  It is a tedious process but the results are worth it.

I keep my sketch of the short needle pine close by so I remember the layout of its branches. 

It is below zero today and colder weather is coming tomorrow.   Good weather to stay put in the studio that is for sure! 

Background finished

Okay....the background and inner border is finished.  The long needles on the pine are quilted in.
Now for the foreground.  This will take a bit longer but so far so good.

I love the border fabric and have been waiting since last September to find a use or it.  I bought it at the Quilt Expo in Madison.  Love how it reflects the background.