"GOOD MORNING"

"GOOD MORNING"

36" X 28"

Original Copyrighted design

Raw edged fused applique

Machine Quilted

Framed on stretcher bars.

THE JOURNEY

Thank you all once again for taking this journey with me.   It was a fun one and full of fall colors.  I enjoyed the process and am happy with the results.    Now...what will be next?

FUSIBLE

Sometimes life just does not want to cooperate with your artistic endeavors and this week has been that way for me.  Many distractions, some good some not so good, but all keeping me out of the studio.   It happens, there is nothing you can do about it but wait until "the dust settles" and move on.   Today I finally have time to begin again.

I selected all the fabrics I will use for this rooster and then decided to work on the head first even though it is one of the last things to go on.   I think it will motivate me, knowing it is finished, as it is what gives this guy life. 

Then I traced all the parts to the head from my drawing to my fusible...of course they are are the reverse side of the drawing so that once fused onto the fabric they will face the right direction.

As you can see, there are many parts...most of them are shadows or light.  Now to put them all together and find out what he looks like and what personality he has.

SANDHILL CRANE

Fused together the sandhill crane that will sit in the foreground on my new piece I am working on.
This will be the last addition....and then I will quilt it and finish it.

CRANES & SHADOWS

When I returned to the studio today, I was not happy with the scene.  Seemed the shadows were becoming secondary to the pond and two cranes and that was not my purpose.  So decided to put three cranes and their shadows on the hillside....and leave the larger crane in the foreground and eliminate the other one.  Well move the large one around a bit so it does not look like the tree is growing out of its head but it will be somewhere in this area.   I am much happier with it now and will quilt these three down and then construct the larger crane with detail on him.  I may have to make him a bit taller now as well.  Now I am much happier with this piece and the mood of it.

SAND HILL CRANES

I have finished all the quilting on this piece for all the additions.  Whew!  That took me a long time.   So now....you will see that I have added a pair of Sand Hill Cranes.  We have many of them here and I hear them every day and see them fly over the house.  I just need to go down our road a bit and I can see them out in the fields.  So I had to interpret them in a piece.

I am using my tissue paper drawing to place them in the scene moving them around in different locations until I like the placement.  Right now this is looking pretty good to me.

BEGINNING

 Of course you always begin with your fabric selection.  I chose to keep this sky more neutral but added in some blue just so it reads as a sky.

Once the fabric is selected I cut pieces of it dependent on how much I need to fill the area that is sky and then iron fusible on the back, trim it, tear off the paper on the fusible and stack them to I can cut them in strips all together.

 Now I have a pile of strips to use on my sky.

I add them in one at a time.  Since this landscape will have a hill on the right I make sure to place those strips closer together to make the happen.  I made a good start today.

 Here is my sunflower quilt where I used large chunks for the sky in order to create a stormy windy day.

I also chose to create the field these flowers are near in large furrows of plowed fired.  You can use whatever you feel to convey the message you are attempting to send.

I am happy to start again....spring brings so many new outdoor jobs that it is much more difficult to spend time in the studio until it is all finished and I am close now.   Hope you all follow me on this journey.

QUILTING BEGINS

I have been spending as much time as I can quilting these two horses and their harnesses.  Am starting with the black thread as so much of the harness is black and I like to outline a lot in black.
It is good to have many of those smaller pieces sewn down so they do not begin to come off with all the handling that goes on during the sewing process.   Coming along though....lots to do yet.

HORSE NO. 2

Work continues on my horses.  Horse No. 2 on the left is going to take a while as he has so much more of his harness showing.  It is a challenge making all the hooks, buckles, straps, etc for these but at the same time sort of fun when it all comes together.  Definitely much have a lot of patience for this though and the quilting will also take time.  I am happy with the progress made and hope it continues to move along as well as it has so far.

NORTHERN SAW-WHET OWL

 As most of you know I always start with a sketch on tissue paper.  I like to place it where I plan on using it to make sure the size is right and the pose and the position.

 I cut a thin piece of background fabric to place all the feathers on.

 The eyes and tiny and require a lot of patience to cut out.

 I use the tissue to place all the eye parts.

 He looks very wierd here but you must have faith that once all this comes together and he gets a
haircut....or should I say a feather cut...he will look oh so much better.

 Better but still pretty crazy.

The feather trim helped a lot...see what did I tell you.   Now the tail feathers which are furthest back go on.

 Then the wing feathers are constructed and placed on.  Chest feathers are added and he is done.

Saw Whet Owls are very small....maybe around 7 or 8 inches.  So he sits up on this little tree like a tree top ornament.  Now to quilt him which will make his feathers come alive.

BIRCH TREES

Some birch trees added ....more will come .  Must have a lot of patience making trees....it is repetitious but relaxing at the same time. 

...AND MORE ADDITIONS

Two were not enough....had to add one more to add depth as well as movement.
Now I will let it set a bit and see if more is needed or if I am happy with this as is.

PLACEMENT

Still working on the placement of the next few objects in this scene.   You will have to wait to see where these are moved to  but they will be in this general location.    I can also see some of the colors need to be changed as well when testing the layout like this.

CRAB APPLE TREE

I  have been working all day yesterday and most of the day today on this crab apple tree.  It's bark is quilted then I added the left over apples from last summer.  Still not happy with it....will continue to work on it until satisfied and then add bird sketch and see how it looks but it is heading in the right direction.

One Boat Two Boats

Well finally I have been able to continue on with the journey of this new piece.  Two fishing boats have been added......I need to quilt these now as they are in the background of one other boat.  Hopefully that will happen today.  There still is some tweaking to go on the buildings and the area around the buildings but I will wait to see how much will actually show.  No matter how I sketch it out previously,  I usually always change the composition as I go along when in the reality of the construction.

Wagon

A snowy day helps you get more finished then expected!   7PM now…time to close up shop.

Construction of Hummingbird

I have discovered that Hummingbirds are not the easiest birds to construct.  It has been a slow and easy progression but….it is getting there little by little.  That is why I have not posted a lot.  However the second one should go a lot faster after working out all the kinks on the first one.  I do this all on a teflon sheet and will peel it off when complete.

 In the meantime it continues to be quite cold here in November.  That garage roof is normally black but has a heavy coating of frost on it this morning.

Here in the studio it is definitely a "dogs life"!

Lily Pads

Work continues on my Lakes edge piece.  Every year when we go up to Minocqua Wi. I take photos of these areas of the lake.   Just so beautiful in the mornings when the lily pads open.  

I am not finished yet and this photo shows me some weak areas.   But I am pleased with it so far. 

What do you think?

Progress on the store is continuing.  We are having our closeout sale now and it is meaning a lot of hours and work as well as bookkeeping.  However today we are closed and I am enjoying some time in the studio.  So nice to escape the pressure and sadness saying goodbye to customers we will never see again.   However....it will be so nice when finished and I can really concentrate on my art.

Thank you for continuing to visit my blog even if I am unable to post each day.

Unquilted Boreal

Being stuck upstairs with all pets may have it good points.  The workman came today to put in the kitchen floor, the last step to our project.  So I brought everyone upstairs with me so they would not be underfoot while he went between the kitchen and living room where the boxes of flooring are located.   This allowed me to begin working on my Boreal Owl at 7:30AM.  It is now 3:30 PM and I am finished with the construction of his face and wing.    He will now go under the needle to add all the detail.  I chose to use a fabric paint for the small white dots on his head.  It was an important detail and I could not find any fabric that was suitable.  I am really happy with how he looks inside the nesting hole in a tree.  Tomorrow I will begin quilting him.   Now I will take a walk and stretch a bit.  

I worked on the hole as well.  I think it looks more a part of the tree now.  I may add a bit at the bottom of the hole plus there is a bit of foreground quilting that is still to come.

A Bit of This & That!

 I feel badly that I have not had time to post anything for the last few days but we got the call from our builder that he was going to tarp our roof since it did not look like good 40 degree weather would be here for a while.  Then they came in and began the work on the ceiling. 

 Here is how it looked to begin with.  I still can not believe someone along the way painted it orange!

 Of course everything had to be put in the dining room while this is being done.

 After three days this is what it looks like now.  We had the pot lights put in as long as we had the ceiling open.

 I had to keep the "kids" our of there while the workmen were here but they had no problem adjusting.

 I actually fit in a few hours to begin work on my background for my snowy owl.

 Here it is ready to be quilted.

Zoey continues to adjust to her new surroundings and now that birds are slowing returning she really enjoys her bed next to the window next to Watson's especially because........

They are now buddies and play together !   It will be three weeks that Zoey was adopted this Sunday.  I am thrilled how well she is doing and she even likes the dogs and rubs against Ozzie when he is around.