Going to Seed......continued

This is what I did to the pieces of wool to get a subtle, gradated look. I simply used some fabric paint and a sponge. I applied a darker shade of colour at what would be closest to the center and worked out to a lighter shade. I did this before cutting any of it into the final shapes.

Below, are some closeup shots to show details of the stitching. In order to keep the piece looking slightly darker and deeper at the center, I used progressively darker threads from center out with all of those tiny seed stitches.  Yes, it was a LOT of hand stitching but together with the paint, it definitely gave it the desired effect.

 those little raised, wool circles are about a 1/4" across in size and were cut using a paper holepunch

I created templates from paper wherever I needed to be able to apply elements, to ensure they all ended up in the same spot on each of the pieces.

Only the background and binding on this quilt is machine stitched, everything else is done entirely by hand...............sure is a good thing I enjoy hand stitching  :-)

"Going to Seed" - a few details

 "Going to Seed" is the quilt I designed and created to enter into this year's Grand National Quilt show. The show has a different theme each time and this year, it was "Local Colour" instead of depicting a local landmark, landscape or culture, I decided to"USE" local colour

This is the Artist Statement accompanying the piece:

We often overlook the beauty of a bloom as it fades-- no longer fresh, vibrant and full of energy-- but nurture that which has “Gone to Seed” to be rewarded with new emerging and exciting possibilities. The transformation is complete. This quilt is made up almost entirely of “local colour”, unwanted and discarded items, their beauty and usefulness gone, banished to the thrift store.

It all pretty much began with a few cotton remnants and a wool coat I found at a rummage sale. A few more cast off garments went into the mix along with some discarded belts and costume jewelry.

I dyed the fabric to create that inky night sky background, the rest of the colour pallete was dictated by the things I found, a terrific apple green jacket, a deep plum skirt, as well as a light blue, cream and tan plaid one.

here you can see what the elements actually are

and a look at the quilting in the background.

next time I'll show you what I did to that wonderful wool coat to get that gradated look along with a few more details.
 
It's Friday so I am linking up to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Fridays   featuring lots of inspiring artists to visit.

Grand National Quilt show 2013

Yesterday, the Grand National Quilt show "Local Colour" held it's opening reception at Homer Watson Gallery in Kitchener, ON. This is one of the few shows that I enter and was delighted to have been able to attend.

this photo was snagged from the Homer Watson Gallery's Facebook page

Have you ever worked on a piece for so long that you are no longer seeing the visual impact you once thought the work had?  That happened to me on this one, after spending hours and hours with this right under my nose, meticulously hand stitching wool to cotton, I suddenly was no longer certain it had visual appeal. Well, when I walked into the Gallery and with fresh eyes, saw this piece so beautifully displayed, I realized that it did indeed have the impact and presence I was striving for.

This piece is titled "Going to Seed". The Grand National Quilt show attracts works from some of the very best Canadian textile artists right across the country, it is a fabulous feeling to see your work hang among them so I am especially thrilled that Going to Seed received an honourable mention.

The show runs until June 23rd, if you are in the region, I hope you will take it in.....there are 3 rooms whose walls are filled with incredibly inspiring works.

Over the next few posts I will show how this piece evolved, it is made up almost entirely from items garnered at rummage sales and thrift shops. Until then, here are a couple of detail shots

Janome MC 9900 in Action

On Saturday I popped into Al's Vacuum & Sewing Centre in Sarnia, Ontario. I was hoping I'd get a chance to see the new machine, Angela and Mike were in the shop, both were extremely helpful and more than willing to show me what it could do. I excitedly explained that I had actually created a few of the built in designs and asked if it would be possible to see one of them stitched out. Before I knew it, Angela had fabric in a hoop and ready to go, with just a few touches on the screen, I was watching my design emerge in thread.

here you see the pincushion design in progress

stitched out, roughly 6" across

and here, the MC9900 is stitching the little vintage toy sewing machine design, you can see it displayed on the machine's screen.

Al's will host an event in early May with Janome Educator, Linda Pidzamecky, I plan to attend to learn more about this machine. So far it looks fabulous, VERY user friendly and in addition to the embroidery function, I already see many of the familiar features that I love about my MC6600.

I have decided to build a small scrappy "sewing" themed quilt around one of the embroideries, here is a peek at what I am designing.

Doodles to Stitches

I am excited, I mean really, really EXCITED!!!!  The new MC 9900 has just been released by Janome....... just why does this excite me so? 

Well because this machine has some pretty fabulous embroidery designs built right in.....including 5 of mine!!!!!! yup, that's right, the doodles pictured below are among the designs available on the Janome MC 9900.  I can hardly wait to see this machine in action.

I gave my original doodle/designs some serious tweaking before sending them off to Janome......just to make them a bit more "stitch" friendly. If you happen to see any of these stitched out, I would LOVE it if you would send me a photo. Can't wait to see how they will be incorporated into your projects.

you can see a couple of them stitched here

Saving an Applique Layout

While tidying up last week, I came across an envelope that contained a bunch of extra bits leftover from an earlier applique project. I got a little sidetracked, created a bowl and began arranging these pieces.

So what do you do if you want to remember exactly how you arranged something? I knew that I could just take a photo, but that would not guarantee that I could get everything back into the same spot.

I decided to lay a piece of Mylar (similar to stencil or template plastic) and used a Sharpie marker to trace the elements. I made a few notations for placement of colour and pattern. Now I have a copy of the design layout ready for easy transfer to a background fabric. This is will also work perfectly for times when you might want to make multiples of the same block.

 Linking to Nina Marie's Off The Wall Fridays ...lots of wonderful creativity going on over there

The Winner is.......

The winner of the Jennifer Chiaverini book The Giving Quilt and pins is commenter  #3 Joyful Quilter  Congratulations, I will be in contact to get your snail mail address and get your copy into the mail asap
Thank you to everyone who entered, and a special thank you to Plume for supplying the prize.