"Foraging by Moonlight"

My Fyber Cafe challenge 2013, "A River Runs Through It" is finished. It was a labor of love, 3 months or more of details, and design decisions.

The sky and Moon are my hand dyed fabrics, the grove of birch trees are a pre-printed fabric, fussy cut into tree trunks. The moon and 3 largest trees are trapunto with an extra layer of batting, added after the thread painting. The background layers are Bali batiks in dark teal. Ferns, leaves, foliage and rocks were fussy cut, and placed to add depth, and a base to the trees and an edge to the river. The river was an assortment of turquoise, selected by the planner, as a color guide, layers of hand dyed cheese cloth, and white cheese cloth were layered, to make white water accents to the river. The river was stitched with turquoise rayon threads, and over stitched with a clear holographic thread to add shimmer. The salmon were fussy cut prints. I did not want to use fussy cut deer, I wanted them to look more painterly, so I added acrylic paints over the print, to get more of a handmade look. The foreground was cut from a print of rocks, flowers and logs, with a few small snails and butterfly. It was quiet dark so I added more foliage, and added silk ribbon embroidery to add texture and color. I added an extra section of the foreground as a 3-D layer, off the bottom edge of the wall hanging, to give an extra layer of depth. At the top I used pipe cleaners, inserted into the 2 largest birch trees to extend them over the top edge. They were anchored for extra strength by pieces of painted, melted Tyvek, cut into ragged leaf clusters. The edge is a turned under facing, and the same fabric as the batik backing fabric, and sleeve. The bobbin thread is matching color to the machine stitched rayon quilting. All of the 14 sections will be displayed together, with the river running through all the pieces. See the Fyber Cafe blog, the link is on the side panel. You can see some of them on display at the Elkton Butterfly Gardens, June 29th in Elkton, Oregon, at an event to benefit, the Elkton Charter School Music Program. The Pyrenees Winery will display all the pieces in August, at the winery in Myrtle Creek, Oregon.

"River" Details

Here are some closeup photos of my "River Runs Through It" challenge piece for the Fyber Cafe group. Our deadline was Tuesday, and we got 10 out of 15 finished, so that's pretty good. I'll post the finished pieces soon. I was trying at the last minute to get on my binding, label and silk ribbon embroidery. The embroidery is at the bottom, in the flowers, lots of french knots, leaves and stem stitch. The top of the birch trees have two pieces extending above the edge of the piece, they have pipe cleaners in them. I added the painted/melted Tyvek as leaves to help anchor the birch tree extensions. It added a lot of texture. The 3 biggest birch trees are done with trapunto, extra batting behind them, to help them stand out, into the foreground. The hand dyed fabric for the moon, was quilted in a "pebbles" pattern of circles to give texture. The river has hand dyed cheesecloth in green, and plain white, and is quilted in turquoise rayon thread, and clear shiny holographic thread.

Adding Detail to the River

The "River" piece has been undergoing a lot of details, ferns and rocks at the base of the trees, and along the river. The beautiful teal blue for the base of the water, with strips of the other batiks added for ripples, was a start on making the river come alive. I added turquoise & light green hand dyed cheesecloth, and white cheesecloth for texture, and a few rocks in the middle of the water. I used the cheesecloth to blend the rocks on the river edge to the water, and to make the downward fall of the center "Falls." Stitching in rayon thread will add more detail to the water and clear glass beads will add sparkle. A foreground was added with a larger size print of forest floor plants and branches, a few fall leaves and wild flowers added contrast. I think I will add silk ribbon embroidery flowers. I also added more greenery, because the bottom was very dark brown in color. The next part of the project was to add some deer, a buck and doe, I did not want to just add a pre-made print. I decided to paint over the existing fabric to create a texture, and more hand made feeling to the deer. I still wanted him to look like he is highlighted by the moon, I think it worked out ok. You can see the difference in the photo, before and after painting, stitching will add more outline and detail. I also added two salmon to the river, and tucked them under the cheesecloth, one jumping up the falls, and the other in the lower part of the river. The entire picture is coming together, I have a few more ideas I want to try, some 3-D Tyvek leaves, the embroidery, an uneven top edge, so I'll see what my imagination brings up next.

The Begining of a River

Our newest challenge for the Fyber Cafe group is themed "A River runs Through It" We have each been given a section, 14" wide with a section of river, that flows continuously from section to section. I began mine with layers of my hand dyed fabric for a night sky, and a full moon, then Bali batiks for dark layers of landscaped hills in the background. Scraps of the river fabric curved gently across the piece, and then I added grey and white birch tree fabric. I added trees to the right side for balance, and almost stopped here, because I really liked the graphic quality. But it needed more to blend the trees and river, and I wanted to add rocks and ferns, and stuff in the foreground. It is a good start, and I'll fussy cut fabrics and add details as I go along.