WINTER'S SUNFLOWER

Winter's Sunflower

32 1/2" X 16 1/2"

Available here

Winter's Sunflower was a lot of fun to work on.  I loved using this color palette of subtle yet striking color against the white background.  I took the photo myself of this sunflower and then added a Marsh Grass bird to sit on top because his coloring was perfect for this piece.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did making it. 

THE JOURNEY

 

HUMMERS

 "Hummers"

35" X 27 1/2"

An original design art quilt 

Raw edged fused applique

Machine Quilted

Bound in the traditional manner.

Finished "Hummers" last night.   I am happy with the outcome.  It was fun to work on….took my out of my comfort colors a bit but it was fun to work with a different palette.
I love the Hummingbird….it is mysterious in ways since it moves about so quickly  and you sometimes just catch it with the corner of your eye.   So what better subject matter to capture in flight forever.

Hope you enjoy this piece as much as I did creating it.   It is available for purchase in my
Etsy Shoppe:    https://www.etsy.com/shop/BSLArtQuilts

NOTE:  This quilt has sold and is going into a private collection.

Fuchsia Construction

 I have all my drawings finished....took quite a while....did some while watching the Packer Game.  It helps me to not feel guilty about not working for 3 hours!  Once finished on tracing paper, I like to roughly lay then out on my background to see if I have enough for my composition.
In this case I needed two more fuchsia flowers so I did those before proceeding.

 Once I have all my "parts" I start with one and number each petal, leaf, bud, etc. and then trace the reverse side, singling out each one,  with fusible paper.   All of my fabric selections have been made in advance so I fuse each piece onto the fabric that I have selected for that particular petal or leaf.

 You can see above that these are all the darker fuchsia colored pieces.  Now they have to be cut out individually and then the fusible paper is peeled off leaving the heat set glue on the back of each piece.

 Once that is finished I use my tracing paper drawing again.  This time to place each piece where it belongs.  Once it is lined up correctly I fuse it down to my teflon sheet.  The teflon sheet allows you to construct the entire flower on your ironing surface.  Once it is finished and cooled you can peel it off and place it on your background and refuse it there.

 The flower continues to grow.  Always remember, the quilting will add a lot of texture and detail to this flower but that comes later.

 Now the fuchsia is finished and ready to place on the background.

 I start another one immediately.  Once you are "in the groove" it is good to keep working.  Things will move along much smoother and the second one will go together a lot faster because of it.

Here are the first two on the background.   These two took me from 9AM until 4PM to construct so it is not as fast as it may look on here.  I did take a few breaks to do laundry and grab a bite to eat in between though. It is good to rest your brain and move around a little and stretch when working in the studio most of the day.

Hope you are enjoying the process.   Stay tuned as there are lots of fuchsia to come along with leaves and stems and then two beautiful ruby throated hummingbirds!

Barred Owl

 "Barred Owl"

21 inches by 15 inches

Rawedged fused applique

Couched Yarn binding

Machine Quilted

First Quilt of 2013

 I finished the binding this morning and the quilting yesterday.  Woo Hoo!   I am very happy with this owl and the piece overall.  Since I do not physically plan out my quilts other then the main character, I always hope that what is in my head transforms successfully into the piece.

 I added more quilting to the downy type white feathers and left that darker ones more simple.

 I couched yard on as my binding.  I learned this technique from my good friend, Nellie Durand.  If you are interested in learning this you can go here:  Couching Yarn
I do not use it on every quilt but on this one I like how ti added to the naturalness and texture in the piece.

Here is the back.  I am showing this just to show the amount of quilting on this one.  I am a firm believer that the art is on the front!  I am always mystified at the judging that is done on the backs of art quilts.  I get it on a bed quilt and yes I do think that your back should be neatly done without anything horrible going on with tension, loose threads, birdnests and things like that but
that is it.  I think my backs are nicely done over all .  I refuse to bury my threads and instead choose to take several very small stitches to end a line of stitching. This results in a perfect top and maybe if quilting in a thick or dense area, a tiny knot will appear, at times, on the back.   I do not think it matters.  

"Hootlet"

 "Hootlet"

17 inches X 26 inches

Rawedged fused applique

Machine Quilted

 This was quite the journey making this short eared owl known as a short eared Hootlet in Scotland.

 They like to make their nests low to the ground in grasses so my guess is he was guarding his territory.  I wanted to be sure his stare translated into that intense warning he was giving my brother, the photographer.

I am particularly happy with my bark on this stump.  It took lots of different scraps of greys and browns but I was happy with the results.

Hope you enjoyed this journery constructing this piece with me and watching "Hootlet" come alive.

"On The Farm With Natalie"

       "On The Farm With Natalie"

34" X 20"

Rawedged Fused Applique, Machine Quilted

An Original Design by Barbara Strobel Lardon Interpreted

From Photograph by Natalie Rowe

This quilt was a pleasure to work on.  I enjoyed all of it and it is going home to Natalie, the woman who owns and raises these chckens.  Thank you Natalie for sharing your photo with me and permitting me to create this art quilt for you.

Cockadoodle

 "Cockadoodle"

25 inches X 29 inches

Designed, Raw-edged Fused Appliqued

and Machine Quilted by

Barbara Strobel Lardon

Copyright 2012
Sold to Private Collector

I have been working on this off and on for the past week finishing all the quilting and then fusing on the binding, labeling and adding the sleeve.  

I added the barn and a few fir trees to add depth to the piece.

 I love doing birds feet.  Not sure why, but I do.

Each feather is individually quilted with the exception of the breast which is a solid piece quilted with feathers.

I added barbed wire to the post since that is seen on most farms around here.

 Tail feathers were also individually quilted and are in shades of blue green and black.

I had lots of fun working on this piece.  When you are enjoying the journey it is very hard not to be in the studio everyday working on it.  I had to continually break away from this piece due to my schedule and also the Quilt Expo but ....it was all worth it in the end.  At the end of the month this one will be entered along with my frog into my guilds show.  I hope everyone enjoys seeing them there.

I did attend the Madison Quilt Expo which had my quilt "Honorable Mention?" in it.

Not a winner but I was filmed by the committee explaining my inspiration and technique in making this piece so that was unexpected and thrilling!   I will share it when they publish it.

Tomorrow I will post some to the great quilts that were at the Expo.

Crow

 

This morning I decided to try once again to capture a closeup of a crow.

Actually there were two on the lines.  As I approached one flew off and the other was close to following him so I had to take the shot early and too far away.

Spring Has Sprung!

I looked out my upstairs window this morning (we have an upper porch there) and saw this.

It is something I have never seen in my life.   A migration of robins and cedar waxwings all in our crab apple trees eating the leftover apples.  I have seen the Waxwings come back in a big group but never with all the robins and I have never seen the robins in a huge flock like this.  I usually spot one at a time in spring!

 

I am still amazed because there were so many of them and they were in other trees as well waiting their turn.  Spring is definitely here even though there is still lots of snow on the ground.