Almost Christmas

I have been busy! It seems time keeps flying by, if you blink it will be 4th of July. Our weekend retreat in Bandon, Oregon was fabulous, I hosted 5 art quilters for 2 days and nites. We all worked on our own projects, had potluck for dinner, and went out for lunch. We took a field trip to "Art 101" and "Washed Away" South of town. Everyone was very impressed by the walk-in Sea Cave of textile art, and by the recycled art projects Washed Away makes with found objects from the beach. Also a visit to the Wool shop in Langlois, a few miles further South, gave us a collection of beautiful fibers for the needle felters. I wanted to just play, so I worked on a black background, and free hand cut my beautiful hand dyed fabrics. I made 3 large flowers in pinks/purples, and gold/yellows, with bright lime green leaves. I added spirals and small colored circles in the background to fill in, in a dropping sweep across the black. This is going to be awesome to quilt, and I keep thinking it NEEDS beads too!

Dear Jane on the Kitchen Floor

the top pic is A-1 on the bottom left corner, 1-8, the bottom pic is the right hand half of the blocks.
Below... all my finished "Dear Jane" blocks laid out on the kitchen floor.
At the top left is A-1, with the rows going across 1-13. Some blocks are missing, because they need applique, or they were just too complicated, and I will try them later, when I can really concentrate on each individual block.

My friend Sue came to visit from California, she has been working on the "Dear Jane" blocks too, so we had a chat and show and tell. We went thru my vintage fabric stash and I shared some with her. Her Jane quilt uses older reproductions from the civil war era, and I had some "Smithsonian" repro fabric that I gave her, and some of my vintage stuff for a tumbler pattern she is making with vintage fabrics. Since I had my vintage stuff out, I decided to go ahead and make some more blocks. I drafted about a half dozen more patterns, and started to select fabrics and cut them out. Quiet a few are applique, and needed some piecing first, to have a base for the applique. They ended up in a stack to be a "take along" project, to be finished whenever. I pieced about 8 more blocks, some easy, some not so much. Considering their 4 1/2" size, they are a lot more complicated and detailed then I thought they'd be. But I did not skip any of the tricky ones, I preserved and did them all! I am over half way done!! yeah!! But then I realized I still had 70 more blocks to do! Yikes! All the work I have done and I still have lots more pages in the book. I do love going through my vintage fabric, selecting just the right pieces, and hoping I have enough of a scrap to do the block with. I have come up short several times and had to piece the fabric together, to get a piece big enough to cut out. But this is ok, 'cause they did that back in the "olden days" too. I can see in the photographs where Jane had to piece a scrap together, to make the pattern piece. I also made a couple of blocks with more than one print and one solid. Two matching, close enough prints, make a good block, but I try not to do this unless I have too, or a piece is too good to pass up, and I just don't have enough of it.

Fabric Dyeing Workshop 2011 part II

Dyed cotton yarn, "Sugar and Spice" made into 3 and 5 yard skeins, soaked in soda ash, and drizzled with dye concentrate. Also a large ball of cotton yarn, with the dye just poured on. I should have squeezed it some, to get the dye to penetrate into the ball.


My dye prints and painting drying on the line and on the bushes.


A large queen size sheet from Marnie, that we hung on the fence and splashed leftover dye onto it. We smeared it dripped it, sprayed and made hand prints, we sprayed it with water to make the dyes bleed too.

Some of the dyed fabric I made in a 3 layer "parfait" technique, the sets of 3, on the left, top and bottom, were all in separate dye pots together as a 3 layer batch.

Peggy and I got to have a second visit with Vera, she called and said she had a lot of dye concentrate left and would we like to come down. Several of our pieces needed to be redone or layered with additional dye printing, the colors had washed out, probably cause I did not pretreat with soda ash. Also they just needed "More" color, texture, etc.. they just looked unfinished. So we spent the day adding extra layers of color to pieces we had already worked on, the difference was astounding, a lot of depth and texture created a more unified piece, more interesting to look at, with good color contrast, sometimes we just added highlights or contrasting color to give it "Pop." I could really see the difference that adding more layers made in the pieces, it was worth the extra work! I think I really like the pieces that are more textural, the ones with large prints are difficult for me to work with. I don't know what to use them in or how to cut them up. They are fun to make, but now what to do? An all over pattern or texture is easier for me to envision in something, large abstracts are not my thing.

Fabric Dyeing Workshop 2011 part I

Our group "Fyber Cafe" spent two days dyeing fabric at Vera's, Fun! FUN! FUN! 8 of us gathered, set up tables, mixed dye concentrate and soda ash water. We "did our own thing" mostly dye painting with thickened dyes. Vera had taken a class with national teacher Ann Johnston in Lake Oswego, Oregon, at her home studio. It was a 5 day class, in painting, printing, resists, transparency of dyes, and color interaction. She tried to help us understand some of the principles, but I think we just had to play with the dyes ourselves. Her process involved drying between paint layers and adding additional layers of color, we were too impatient for that. We had to/wanted to, paint several colors, wet on wet, her process was rather controlled and slower on dry fabric. Several of us did manage to create layers of color and texture, we used foam stamps, and different plastic mesh, stencils, and kitchen tools to print patterns.

Beading

I've been working on beading several projects, trying to finish them up. A few beads at a time, my hand cramps up pretty good, after 10 minutes. So I only do a little bit, several times a day. The lighthouse quilt, is taking lots of beads in the water/foam and the sand. Some shells and bits and pieces of other stuff add interest in the rocks, and pebbles. I've added one feather so far and am looking for a few more small ones. Texture is the name of the game here, not sparkle, the clear glass beads are almost unnoticeable but add lots of texture, a pearl, here and there draws your eye. On the quilt "To Nurture and Protect II" lots of colored beads have been added in "swooshes" they sweep across each color layer in various sizes and textures. I'm almost finished, just a few more details, then I think I'll re-felt with the needle felting machine to reattach parts that have come loose. Several pics of the beading are included here.

Hellebore "Lenten Rose"

Finished quilt top, glued together, no stitching yet.
Center seeds in progress
Pen Sketch for pattern
Original photo, "Lenten Rose"

Another photo project, I decided to make a large flower quilt from one of my photos. I picked about a dozen possible pics, closeups mostly, I narrowed that down to four choices, an iris, clematis, poppy and the hellebore. I traced each 8" x 10" photo onto a clear plastic sheet protector, basic lines and details for a pattern. I blew each photo up into a 2 page x 2 page poster. I decided I liked the iris, but it will be a challenge, the clematis was too simple, and the poppy's been done to death by others. The hellebore was my favorite from the start, the bold colors of burgundy and white, with lime green center and peach seeds. The 4 page poster had some pretty small pieces still, so I decided to go larger, a 3 page by 3 page spread. This is a nice size, it takes up my whole desk space for working on, and is still manageable. I think if I do the Iris photo I will go even larger! Finding several shades of white for the shadowing and shaping of the petals was a challenge, some "Fairy Frost" fabric was the answer, and two pale multi color pieces. I have a huge supply of lime green batiks, and lots of burgundy prints, but I did choose regular patterned fabric instead of batik for the burgundy. I used a fusible backing for the fabric pieces as they are intricate, and needed clean edges. After that it was just like doing a jigsaw puzzle, cut out pattern pieces, iron fabric, cut out again and glue in place. It got rather boring, after the creative part was over. I assembled the center seed area separately, and put it over the center. A deep blue batik was chosen for the backing, with lighter spots like rain, the batik green leaves were cut free hand, and veins were glued in for more detail then just thread veins. It will look stunning when quilted!

Dear Jane Blocks

Here is a photo of about 48 Dear Jane blocks that I have made so far, the drive has faded, the creativity got hijacked, my attention wandered! It is a good start, I had to clean my sewing room for some reason and they got put aside. I'll get back to them someday, like many other forgotten projects, I do drag them out occasionally and work on them until my attention gets pulled somewhere else. I am amazed I got as far as I did. I do love the vintage fabrics, that was the most fun of the project, it wasn't creative tho, just work, work, work. A challenge that spurred me on just so far.

Mini Photo Quilts

I never posted the photos of the first mini photo quilts that I made as gifts, for the "Pay it Forward" project. I printed photos on fabric with the computer printer, then thread painted them, with matching rayon threads. Darla got a ferny, mossy, butterfly embellished quilt, cousin Dawn got the purple Iris from my garden, cousin Joy got the Lace Cap Hydrangea, and my sister got the Sunflower, with 3-D petals and beaded center. They are just the perfect size for gifts, 8 x 10, the detail of the thread painting is amazing, and a few beads bring them life and sparkle! I know everyone loved the surprise in the mail!

Sea, Sand and Light

the photo is a little yellow, it is really a soft golden brown, on the sand and borders

I have been working on the final quilting of my photo collage of the Coquille River Lighthouse at Bandon, Oregon. It is surrounded by other photos of beachy stuff, rocks, driftwood, feathers and shells, seaweed, foamy surf, and waving grasses. The machine quilting with rayon thread is very dense, when ever I quilt a photo there is so much detail to outline and thread paint. If a picture is worth a thousand words, it is easily worth a thousand yards of thread too. The thread helps blend the individual photos together. I have added pieces of white cheese cloth and hand dyed green cheesecloth to the seaweed, foam and bushes in front of the lighthouse. This extra texture is wonderful, and it extends from picture to picture, letting the water foam and the foliage blend the areas together. I will add beads to the foam and driftwood, to give texture to the sand, seaweed, and a pearl to the oyster shell. The embellishments will really add another dimension to the photos/quilt.

Artists Trading Cards

I wrote a while ago that I would post photos of some of my Artists Trading Cards, I really enjoyed making them, but need to find someone to trade with.

The Secret to Adobe Photoshop!!!

I finally found the secret to Adobe Photoshop!! I am so jazzed up!! After struggling with layers, trying to understand them, and use them and getting frustrated, it finally came together!! I have been rereading my quilt/photo books, to get help with my "issues" and found a hint of something in the 8th book I reread. I had to reread it 5 times, to finally find the secret, it is "Blending modes." When I had stacked two photos together in a layer, nothing happened, I could fade one with opacity, but that lost the clarity on one of them. Other wise I couldn't do anything, it was very frustrating. So now blending modes, it lets two overlapped photos both be seen at once, and it has different modes for the way they interact! It is so cool, and because I had already been playing with color, learning it's secrets, I was able to blend two photos with a gradient color overlay. I hope the ladies can come to class next week, it will be so much better. I am trying to stay ahead of them, as a teacher it is a challenge, but they are VERY beginners, so it is working out. I also don't think they are doing their homework! ha ha ha, whoever does? So now back to playing with my pictures, this opens up the whole world of photoshop, oh, the tragedy of being self taught. No one to ask, complicated books, that talk over your head, and even more complicated programs, that become obsolete before you know it, I would hate to have to keep up with the changes in version, 7, 8, and 9!

Playing with Adobe Photoshop

I have been putting in some intense time on the computer, trying to learn Adobe Photoshop better, I have version 6, and have been teaching several of the ladies from my art group "Fyber Cafe" how to download their photos and work with them in Photoshop. I was having trouble understanding several areas, picking and choosing colors, and working with layers. I also had a bunch of loose notes, that I transcribed into a note book, and worked on, to figure out what they said to do. If I can't read my writing or remember the shorthand I used 6 months ago, what good were the notes? I am also typing up pages for the ladies, to help them, basic info, and ways to do things, printing, sorting photos, creating files, and moving them around, cropping, correcting exposure. I have found most books on Photoshop too complicated, and they assume a basic knowledge, we the people, don't have. By putting it in my own words, and explaining everything I learn it better, and hope it helps the ladies learn too. I worked with the project/chapter in one book I had, I clicked buttons, and worked the process, and after several tries, I succeeded, but I had no idea WHY I had clicked those buttons, and what they actually did. So I couldn't apply the process to my own work. I finally worked out the process of working with colors better, and worked on layering several pics together, there is still a lot of layering to under stand. I played with the color sliders and colored several of my texture photos, and created collages with them. I will post two of them, I think the circle look like hand painted art!

"Gimme Three Steps"

I finished a small photo quilt for my Mom for her birthday/Mother's day, it is an 8" x 10" photo that I printed on fabric on my computer printer. It is a photo I took at her place of a small wooden step stool, that she had painted purple, and then was so happy that the petunias she planted near, were the exact same color. I thread painted it with free motion quilting, in matching rayon threads, to outline and color in the photo. I added hand dyed greenish cheesecloth to the bottom area, which was boring gravel, and added small green seed beads for texture and sparkle. Each of the flowers also has a purple bead in the center, and it has a purple binding. The name comes from a song by Lynyrd Skynyrd, "Gimme Three Steps"

Suzie C. Demos Buttons

We had Suzie C. at our Fyber Cafe meeting on Tuesday, she is an avid button collector, and a member of Oregon and National Button Societies. She had lots of trays of buttons to show us, and a presentation on celluloid buttons, from the 1880-1940's. We all had lots of fun, and were awed but the variety of buttons she had for display.

Version II, To Nurture & Protect

close up of felted mountains and sky

close up of felting

finished felting yarns onto muslin

Wool and yarn selections

Felted wool sweaters

I've started a new quilt for the Fyber Cafe challenge. It is similar to the previous one, 18" diameter circle of layered bands of color, sky, mountains, greenery, soil/rust, water and polar white. It is all done with needle felting on a muslin background. I cut strips of felted wool, most I had bought at a garage sale, a lady had felted a BUNCH of sweaters! But some I used commercial felt from my crafty days. I added strips of wool tufts, yarns, dyed cheesecloth, NO Angelina. I had gotten a NEW needle felting machine at Fabric Depot, last time I drove to Seattle, it was my first time using it, WOW, it felted beautifully, all the different textures, of yarn and felt. I also had a little bit of shimmery silky white fabric, I tore into strips for the polar areas. I broke at least 5 needles, moving too fast, I am sure glad I thought to get extra needles. I am now adding beads in swoosh bands across each color layer. Each is a mix of different size seed beads, bugles, and larger beads. It adds a lot of sparkle to a natural fiber textural background.

UVQG Show 2011

Here is a pic of my quilt, that I made for Cheryl Malkowski's book, it is called "Maltese Cross" and is 73" square. The color in the photo is a bit off, the fluorescent lighting in the exhibit building. The background is a pretty navy blue Bali batik and the quilting is LIME green feathers. I won a second place ribbon in, "Pieced Bed Quilt, Quilted by Self, Advanced" it is a very large category, so I feel really happy about the 2nd place.

Artist's Trading Cards

I have been making some Artist's Trading Cards (ATC's) to trade with people, if you would like one let me know, or send me one of yours. They are small, 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" rectangles, the size of baseball cards, that artists make and trade with other artists. They have been lots of fun to do. I started out with acrylic paints, colored & patterned tissue paper and pieces torn from magazines. I collaged them on either brown paper bag or watercolor papers. These background were then decorated, painted and embellished with different art work. I stenciled some small birds on a few, and added leaves, nests, sayings etc. Some I added scraps from other painting pieces and stitched them on or couched yarns over them, I added buttons and seed and bugle beads to them. I used a little bit of angelina fibers on a few of them. Each one is different, and has a fun feel to them, I backed them all with manila file folders, signed my name and date, and gave each a title. I love giving them titles, the title is often my favorite part of my quilting too. I love puns, plays on words, distorted quotes, and fun sayings. Often my quilting starts with the title and the creativity flows from it. I am going to take them to the Fyber Cafe meeting on Tuesday, to see if members of my art group would like to trade a few. One thing I really learned was the difference between matte and glossy!!! The acrylic medium I got to use is matte, but it is expensive, I also got a bottle of Mod Podge for decoupage, but it is glossy, it comes in matte too, but I got the glossy. Wow, shiny!! It is hard to photograph the pieces because of the shine, and it takes away a lot of the texture from my dyed cheesecloth. But the matte is kinda dull, but it does work to seal the paint and embellishments, and can be used as a glue, but I think the mod podge can too. I think I'll try to find semi-gloss, or mix the two and see what happens. Will post photographs later. Any one wanting to trade, let me know.

Dear Jane, A Few Blocks

Here is a photo of my "Dear Jane" blocks in progress, I have over 50 of them done. They are in 1920-30's fabrics from my stash, the solid colors are vintage too. I just keep plodding along, finding a new scrap for each block, a few at a time. I did some applique blocks while I was in California, so that got about 8 done. I just don't "Feel" like doing much of anything right now, so I just do another, and another, and another of these things. They are addicting, but I'm not real jazzed up by them either, each one can take up to an hour, cause they sure aren't simple, even though they are small. Some of them are very challenging, and about 5 so far, I don't even want to try. Playing with the vintage fabric has been the most fun, I do love the colors and fun patterns! Only 115 more to do, so I am almost 1/3 of the way done!

Visiting My Vintage Fabric

1930's "Pussy Willow" fabric


I have been visiting my vintage fabric, I have several boxes scattered about my sewing room. Most of it is from the 1920-30 periods, but some may be newer and some older. I can usually tell the 40's stuff, as it is brighter and bolder. The 20's and 30's are more pastel, lighter fabrics, some "Cute" prints, a lot of plaid and work shirting, tiny little prints and calicos, and some fun stuff. Almost all of it has come from garage sales, though some from friends (thanks Margie, Vi and Suzie) I usually get bags of small scraps, tho sometimes I do get yardage. The first bag I ever got was a green garbage bag full of SMALL pieces, they wanted $1, but all I had was 50 cents on me. I started cutting it up into 1 1/2" squares, as that was as big as many pieces were, and as I went along I found larger pieces. I made a complete quilt top from that bag, by adding only muslin. I have done other small projects with the vintage fabric, several wall hangings with 6" block "Dresden Plates." Making the Dear Jane blocks has giving me an opportunity to use my growing stash. It is surprising how much fabric you need to make a 5" block, I think I have enough of a scrap, but it just won't stretch. The seam allowance on the pieces adds a lot of volume. I have lots of vintage solids as well, I have separated them out, and am using them as contrast in the blocks instead of muslin. Unfortunately the dark/light contrast is reversed for many of my blocks, as my prints are lighter and my solids darker. Jane's blocks have darker prints, with off white muslin for the background. But I don't want the solid to be the main pattern of the block, I want it to be the background, this has made it a challenge to select fabrics, as well as the limited supply of a certain print. My favorite fabric so far has been a red print with little white cat faces on it. I couldn't quiet figure out why there were green lines running through it. Then it dawned on me "Pussy Willows" I have scanned it and included it here, it is just so cute!!

P.S. Dear Jane

For all you non-quilters, "Dear Jane" is a quilt book with a beautiful quilt made by Jane Stickle, in 1863. It has 225 blocks, 4 1/2" square, plus a bunch of border triangles. It is apparently going to more challenging then I thought it would be. I have lots of vintage fabric to use, which is perfect for this project, although the original was done with civil war fabrics. It has become a quilting phenomenon, as people try to make all the blocks, groups and clubs have formed to try to make this quilt. I finally got hold of a copy of the book, but alas, it did not come with the CD of templates and patterns to print out. So my drafting is accurate, but I think it was my seam allowance that screwed up the first few blocks I tried. We'll see if I have the stamina to keep going. I tend to get distracted with new projects, but I do come back to "in progress" items and spend time on them too. As long as I am working on finishing something, I don't count it as wasted time, to spend the weekend on an old project and still not get it finished. I am making progress, and I do finish my UFO(unfinshed objects) projects eventually. My New Years Resolution is always to finish several old projects, and to finish any smaller new projects I start, this has done me well in the past years to get a lot of things finished. That's why I don't like to commit to doing anything for other people any more, as I have plenty of my own things to do!!!!!

Dear Jane!

Dear Jane, Are you certifiably crazy, making all those little tiny blocks? I tried several and they all came out too big. I measured accurately, my piece sizes were correct, and my seam allowance was 1/4", so how come the blocks are a half inch too big? That's a lot of difference when you start with such small pieces to begin with. I tried to be a perfectionist, I really did! Most of my points matched, and I trimmed tails, and squared up each section too. I used my collection of vintage fabrics from 1920-1930's and matching solids from the same era. I might have to use some muslin too, but I thought I'd try it with the colored solids first, but contrast is a problem. Everything is so pastel to start with, I had to reverse several blocks with the print and solids to get enough contrast. They look good, but I sure don't want to have to redo them to the correct size. Even if I make two blocks each week, it will take two years to do them all, and I doubt I'll keep up that pace. So this is a long term project, that may get done some day. Like my 1" strips "Log Cabin" blocks, it's almost done, but it has taken me 30 years of quilting and scrap collecting to get this far. But I do have lots of vintage fabrics I would like to use up some day. I put a little "ducky" print in the center of the circle on the A-3 block, cute! It is frustrating to start out with a problem like this, I think I will have to increase my seam allowance just a hair, to get it right, and probably have to redo the blocks right.

"Pay it Forward" Projects

Right after New Years, someone on facebook decided to start a "Pay it Forward" project, the first 5 people to sign up got a handmade goodie from that person, and had to post the challenge on their page, and make handmade stuff for the next 5 people to sign up with them. I managed to get signed up with Sue Cutsogeorge, and Darla Shannon to make me something. I am making stuff for, my friends Tisha, and Darcy, and cousins Dawn and Joy, and my sister's best friend Darla. I'm also making something for my sister Vicky, after all she is my sister. I started making these cute little pouches, got the fabric cut and made a few, but wasn't real happy with them. I will finish them and give them also, but I decided I needed to make something more "Me." I am taking one of my original photographs, printing an 8" x10" image onto fabric, and I'll free motion quilt and embellish all the photos, to make a small wall hanging. Picking out the photos to use for each individual was very special, I asked them for favorite colors and favorite flowers. I've got two almost done and I will take them with me on my trip to Seattle next week. I am not going to post photos yet of the finished pieces, cause I want to give them as gifts first, so I'll post later. Working in the small format of 8" x 10" is fun, just big enough to get good detail, but small enough to be easy to finish, and the embellishment doesn't get carried away, tho I am adding a lot of beads to one of them. Quilters call this size "Journal Pages" from the "Journal Quilt Project" from a few years back, when people signed on to do a page a week for a year. Using a photograph makes it very personal, and fulfilling.

Fiber Play Day

Our textile arts group, "Fyber Cafe" had a fiber fun play day, at Vera's house in Days Creek. Up on top of the valley with a great view of the pastures. Good friends and new ones. We started with types of fibers, silk, wool, merino, alpaca, rayon, angora and mohair. We discussed their properties and felt them all up. Next was trying to use the drop spindles to learn to spin yarn, good luck, most people couldn't get the coordination to pull the wool and pinch off the twist of the yarn. Several ladies tried to use the spinning wheels, and Pat W. caught the hang of it, and Vera was getting along good with the spindle, but everyone else said, "Not for me!" It is like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. We had a nice break for a fabulous potluck lunch. After lunch we played with more fibers to do needle felting, we piled a whole lot of wool, yarns, threads, Angelina fibers and hand dyed cheesecloth onto the table. It was a dazzling mound of colors!!! We used hand held needle felting tools, or individual needles and used felted wool for the background. We started with the wool and added yarns and cheesecloth for texture. We never did play with the chiffons, silkies and polyester fabrics that I had brought. Playing with color and texture was the key to the small felted pieces we did. Nobody really knows what to do with what we made, just samples I guess, but I might add beads and frame one or two of the pieces. Also glasses cases, small purses, and pincushions were discussed. They also might benefit from some free motion quilting to add more detail and texture, and to stabilize everything. Corrienne brought a big bag of "thrums" the end pieces from her weaving, that we all pawed through, going ooh and ahh! Mostly pearl cottons, but also chenille yarns and wool yarns, we took what we wanted and she'll bring the rest to the next meeting for people to go through. A fun time was had by all, thank you for attending and the delicious lunch.

"Summer, Plate Licker"

"Summer, Plate Licker" was my Christmas vacation little project, it is only 8" x 10". The photo was taken by my Dad, Bud Cruger at the Thanksgiving table, when Summer put her nose over the edge of the table looking for goodies. I traced the photo on to clear plastic sheet protector, and scanned it into my computer. I enlarged to 8 x 10, because I don't like making people or animals bigger than life size. It always makes them look too weird. I used raw edge applique to construct the picture with different bits of fabric and quilted/appliqued with matching rayon threads, in rust, tan and white and black. A cool blue/teal background contrasted with the warm colors of Summer. My machine died right then so I haven't gotten the binding on yet. I'll send it to my sister Vicky when I am done, as it is her dog, and my nephew's.

LaBrie's Barn and Sheep"

This quilt is more traditional in construction, I pieced it with 1" to 2" sashing in various bright lime green prints. The photos are printed on treated fabric on my computer. The photo is of the LaBrie Barn on Garden Valley Blvd, in Roseburg, Oregon. Last year I chased around the area with my camera trying to get pics of the new lambs. They like to run to the other side of the field when I approach, it didn't help that I had the radio blaring in the car when I opened the door. We finally figured it out at the 4th field, ha ha ha. I had left over lambs, that I cut out and added with fusible web, they were "outside the box" and added a lot of movement. I call them free range lambs, cause they didn't stay in the photos. I added a little bit of red colored pencil to brighten up the barn a bit and to add color to the wagon and fence post, they were pretty gray, I used a rusty color to warm them up. It is free motion quilted with rayon threads, and clear nylon monofilament to outline the lambs. The border is a wood pattern fabric, like a window frame.