Building And Adding Trees

Still working on that fall in New England quilt. I have been building and adding trees, and other foliage. I started with some small trees, ironing the trunks to parchment paper.

Using pinking shears, I cut leaves, and added them to the trunks, using several shades of fabric.

These were then peeled off the parchment, and ironed on to the quilt. You can see that I have also added grasses and flowers using my stamps and various fabric paints.

More foliage was added on the other side of the road. The purple is supposed to represent asters, a flower I look forward to every fall.

More small trees were added across the river, using this same technique.

Then I began to add large trees in the foreground. I built these directly on the quilt, a choice I would soon regret.

These are the large trees finished. I am not happy with them at all. I wanted the feeling of being on the road with the trees looming up beside the driver, and this does not come across. I also wanted the foliage to be much more lacy, showing more of the hills behind them. No matter how many times I peeled up the fusible and recut, and rearranged, I could not make the trees do this. They wanted to be thick. Maybe if I had gone with more branches and fewer leaves, the lacy effect would have been achieved. Finally, I think the pinking shears give the leaves too much of a kitschy look.

At this point, having procrastinated before starting, I am pretty much out of time for any more adjustments, and I need to step back, and finish this as is. I'm sure that someone else, not having my expectations, will enjoy this piece. And I have learned a lot that I can incorporate into future landscapes.    

Right now I am waiting for a little touch-up paint to dry. Then I will start stitching the parts that need to be sewn before the quilt is layered. This part should be fun. I love playing with threads!

More Work In Progress

Building blue roses.

A New Bag

Way back in January (why does that seem so long ago?), I showed a bag made for First Daughter. Recently one of my Monday morning quilting buddies decided we should do a project together, and she chose the Bow Tucks Tote pattern from Quilts Illustrated.  This was designed by Penny Sturges, like the bag I made for First Daughter. The fabrics I chose were shown here, and here is the finished product.

For the closure, I didn't have a large button or toggle in a good color. Instead I took a corner of the lining that I cut off while boxing the bottom of the bag, and stitched a smaller button on to it. It seems to do the job, and looks kind of cool.

The inside is roomy, with lots of pockets for phones, notebooks, pens, drawing supplies, etc.

I am very happy with the bag, and highly recommend the pattern. It is easy to follow, and allows a lot of room for creative use of fabric.

One thing that I did change was to use a different fusible batting, because I have had problems with the one called for in the pattern. As it turned out, I liked the one I chose even less. It was too stiff and thick, and left lots of bits of itself around. The remainder actually went into the trash, which doesn't often happen to leftovers around here. Now I am wondering if my issue with fusible batting is really an iron issue. Do you think maybe I need a hotter, or steamier, iron? Have you had some experience with fusible batting not sticking?

Ginny seems to be doing very well the last couple of days, so we may be out of the woods with her GI stasis (knock on wood). Yesterday, we had a little kale competition here.

Ginny (on the left) pulled the kale right out of Weasley's month, and ran into the cage with it. I had to give him a new piece.

Sometimes when she steals a treat from him, she runs around the whole house, and loses the treat along the way!