I am finally getting the feeling of accomplishment. I finally have finished and mounted a few small pieces, and got photos this morning.
My UFO from a previous post in now finished! I got the quilting done, and edged it with a variegated yarn in soft colors of the border. I then mounted it to a stretched canvas that I painted in a soft, muddy green with metallic gold. It's new name is "Gilded Ohio Stars".
Wow, was this a task!! Another note to self– Be sure there is at least as much canvas showing around the piece as there is wood in the frame– I trimmed the sides of this to fit it onto a canvas I had on hand. (A flat tire kept me from getting to Michaels to get a bigger one last Friday) I liked the way it looked in photos I took before stitching it on, so after getting 4 pieces ready to mount, sat down to begin the stitching…. Not fun on the edges!! The wood frame is wider than the canvas border, so I had to slide my needle between the wood and canvas on the back to get the stitches on the edges. It took forever, but is finally done. I will add picture wire to the back, so it can be hung as it is, or be framed. The canvas size is 12"x24".
Here is a detail shot- remember the "pooching" of the triangle areas?? With dense quilting, the excess fabric was "sucked up". Quite a difference from the way it looked in the photo below.
Definitely looks much different from the original UFO I began with.
This little piece was the only one I finished in my class with Rosalie Dace. It was made from little trimmings of the larger rocky piece I was working on, and has been waiting a long time to be mounted. The big one is still in the unfinished state it was in this photo. My original thought was to mount this to a light colored background, but I was convinced to try something darker, and we found this piece of hand dye was perfect. The little quilt is 5"x7" mounted on an 8"x10" canvas covered with the fabric.
The detail shot shows some of the beading I did along with some hand stitching. I usually avoid hand stitching, but Rosalie convinced me that some would be a good thing on this, and I really like it!
The next photos are of a couple very simple uses of some of my newest sunprints. I usually use them as part of larger pieces, or "mat" them with quilted borders, but decided to go really simple.
For these, I fused the prints onto batting and backing, and quilted details of the prints. After quilting, I bound the edges of the prints with black and gold yarn over a brown variegated one. This one is a 6 1/2" x8" rectangle on an 11"x14" canvas covered with an ivory with metallic, gold flecks fabric. I added a black border to the photo to give the impression of a frame.
The lacy Maple leaves are from a little tree that was at my son's house. When Ken and I were keeping up with the lawn, etc. I noticed it buried in a batch of Sumac. Well, my son decided to clear the brush, and didn't see the Maple- I got these leaves after a couple days on the brush pile- a bit curled and dry,but after soaking in water, I was able to press some of them. I have not seen any other Maples in the area with these lacy leaves, so I will have to take great care to be sure I don't let any of these blow away.
This print is 8" square, and I placed the leaves and flowers in a design on point, so decided to see if it would look OK mounted this way. Definitely a different look. This print is from the same panel of fabric as the first one, but this area didn't have the metallic gold on it. I also used the Rudbeckia leaves instead of the Maples. For the flowers,I had to cut them apart and cut down the cone in their centers. By using only parts of the flowers, I could get the prints to look like the flowers do with their drooping petals in the garden.
Well, this is what is done so far for today…. I just realized that "mud" is really prevalent in this group. I do have some prints in blues and pinks, etc. ready to bind and mount. Not sure why I'm doing the mud and rock colors first??
Well, Back to work…. I have to be ready for my first art show of this year, this coming weekend in Norwich, NY. Colorscape Chenango Arts fest. Not looking forward to lugging the tent, etc. and so far rain is in the forecast- yuck!
