BARNS

 I love to travel around the area I live in and take photographs of different  farms and wildlife.  I took this photo of an old wore out barn with many repairs that have been made over the years now also falling apart.  I love the texture in this piece and it will be what I make next.

It all starts with a sketch. 

BACKGROUND

For those of you who are new to my blog, I like to quilt my entire background before beginning the details of the piece.  I relate it to the canvas of a painter and prepare it first before I begin.  Even though much of it will be covered it still saves a lot of time in the end because there is no stopping and starting, or any quilting around the details of the piece which can be difficult and very time consuming.  I choose to do it this way, you do not have to.  We all must find what works for us.  I believe in that in all aspects of my art.

IT ALL STARTS WITH A SKETCH

NEW BEGINNINGS

 I am starting a new piece and am doing a whole cloth background this time.  This is an overdyed piece by Wendy Richardson and I love it so much just the way it is.  So I have made it to the 30 X 30 size I need and have quilted it.

 Now I need some poppies to put on it.  I like to make up the big flowers first because their positioning on the background will be most important and everything else will be worked in around them.  I keep a sketchbook of drawings to go to when I need flowers and I love poppies so always have an abundance to choose from.  Here is one.

I place my sheet of tracing paper over the drawing and redraw and number each petal and the center.  This will be used to trace out these petals on the fusible as well as my guide when putting it all together as most of you have seen me do. 

They will be done in shades of orange.

SKETCH & BACKGROUND

 Remember this sketch from two months ago when we first began our move to our new house?  Well I am ready to start working again and today was my first full day in my new studio.

I finished the basic background today and will now begin to fill in all of the objects starting with the ones furthest in the background.  I am excited to see this come together.  It will be complicated but I have high hopes for it.

Feels so very good to be back working on what I love to do.  Thank you all for all your support during this move and for sticking with me.   Barbara

THE COUNTRY HOUSE

I have been pondering this next piece while working on the last one.  Wanted to go back to doing a landscape but this time a larger one.  This art quilt will measure approximately 40" X 24" when finished.   I had the horses drawn on separate sheet of tissue to use at some point on a project and they work perfectly on this one.  This is going to take a while to complete as there are a lot of details in it but I hope you will have fun watching it come together with me.

PUFFIN

 Was sort of stuck after my last art quilt....nothing coming to mind to inspire me to begin a new piece.  When this happens I always go to the birds.  Birds inspire me and I have thought of doing a Puffin for a long time.  I love how graphic the markings are on this bird.  I have had this in my "Ideas" folder for a while and it appears today is that day to make him into art.
So I made my background and border and quilted them both. 

I had sketched the puffin first so knew how big to make the blue background.  Now I will begin to make this beautiful bird with the happy kind eyes.

Farm Scene Progress

 Over a busy holiday weekend and this morning I have been working on my farm scene.
Here you see the corn has been added……

 Then I have sketched out two plow horses and a young woman handler/farmer.

Hard to see here but this is where they will be places in the scene.  As you can see they are reversed…..

This is going to be a huge challenge for me having never done horses before yet I grew up with horses and know them well so hopefully that will help me to tackle this.
It may take a while so be patient….I will hopefully post the progress as I construct them.

Ghost Image

Okay....here is the owl sketch on top of my stump.....added a couple of reeds, more will or may come but will wait til he is done to decide if it needs more.  Now comes the hard part but as you can see from his face he has built in personality.  I want him to look pudgy and fluffy.  Hope I can pull that off. 

That's Not A Snowy Owl!

Worked on my background and quilted it up.  This background will be pretty fully covered so most of what you see will be somewhat hidden.   Since I made my Snowy Owl too big for this background,  I decided rather then redraw him I will add the Barn Owl to my series and use him on this background.  Anyway, the barn owl is my sister, Bonnie's favorite, and she begged me until I had to give in.  ( Just kidding Bonnie if you are reading this!  :P )

Snowy will have to wait to be my Grand Finale in the series.  That should make him happy.  

It has been frigid here.  Not only cold but high winds making the windchill bringing the temp way down below zero.  I keep thinking March is just around the corner and that usually brings some warmer days plus it is the month we reopen our hot tub!   Can not wait for that.

Sketch

I have been really busy the last few days both at our antique shoppe and also here at home.  I have decided to do one more owl to complete my series.  This will be a juvenile Snowy Owl.  The Snowy Owl is pure white except when it is young in which case it has these dark brown and white feathers.  I love their fluffy white feet with their black talons sticking out.  So this will be the subject of my next piece.  Only problem is .... I drew him too big.  So before I begin he needs to be shrunk down a few sizes. 

Barred Owl Sketch

Finished my sketch of the Barred owl.  He is pretty amazing and when I sketch birds I feel that I gain an intimacy with them.  It forces you to look closely at the details and the  personality that comes through.  This guy does seem to look deeply into you with those black eyes.  I hope I can capture that when I attempt to construct him out of fabric.  That is always the true challenge for me. 

Whooooooooooo!

 My brother, Jeffrey Strobel is a great wildlife photographer.  He took this photo of a short eared owl he  spotted here in Wisconsin.  He gave me permission (this is when you pull the sister card) to use this photo for my next quilt.

 So I sketched him/her out and now I am ready to begin. 

It will be fun to attempt to capture his facial expression which I love.