Beach Scene Progress

I spent a lot of time this weekend working on the beach scene. It doesn't seam like much got accomplished, but it was a lot of work. I finished all the figures, and even got the larger ones glued in place. The entire surf area, from the foam, wet sand to the 1st white wave line, got completed, as well as the rest of the beach. I filled in all the holes in the sand, and continued it as far left as it goes, and got it all glued. That took a lot of time, the gluing is tedious and detailed, but it is all stable now. The whole paper design with the fabric pinned on top, was moved to the right, so the left side could be unfolded, and worked on. My design wall is only so wide, but it can be continued onto the back of the door. I finished the girl wading, in a hot pink patterned swimsuit, and flaming red hair. She will definitely stand out.

Next is the ocean fabric choices. I hand dyed a long piece of light blue turquoise sky, the texture I scrunched into it is not very distinct. It may not be long enough though, I may have to do some creative piecing. If you don't count the sky I am at least half way done, and the ocean doesn't have the detail, that I just worked on. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Beach Scene Figures

5 whole days to cook, bake, quilt, create and relax with a good book. That is one of the advantages to driving a school bus, you get time off, on all of the school holidays. I have been working on my beach scene, creatively fusing the smaller 5 figures and the sand castle. They have many fewer pieces then the main figures in the foreground, but still took time to do. Mostly I just sat and thought, value is very important here, and shadows, and I wanted the kids' swim clothes to be colorful, there is so much plain sand and water, I need the figures to draw the attention.

In the two boys skimming, the balance and body language is very important, and since I have not decided on the colors of the ocean and water, I needed to worry about value. The boys running with the soccer ball, are all about action, they are in the wet part of the beach and will have reflections in the water. Probably Angelina fibers as well, to show the wet sand. There will be a lot of cheesecloth texture at the surf line and shells and driftwood pieces too.

The boy at the far left, has a sister to the left of him, that part of the pattern has been folded under, as my design board is only so wide. There is also a kayaker and a dog swimming to the left. I am going to work on the surf line next and choose colors/fabrics for the ocean. This has become quiet a challenge, there are so many layers and details. My goal is to have this ready for the Seattle Show(Pacific NorthWest) in August.

5000th View

Thank you everyone who looks at my blog. Over two and a half years, I've had 5000 visitors, and made 150 posts. I try to make it interesting, not only showing you my finished projects, but also some of the techniques, hints and helpful tips on creating them. The most viewed post was "How to Thread Paint a Dragonfly" my step by step photos were detailed, and appreciated by everyone I talked to. My art quilting has been growing in complexity, vision and color, and my newest piece will be posted soon. I am happy with it, as it is totally abstract, my comfort zone is pictorial, and all the feedback is great. I can't wait to show you the finished piece. I have 650 listings in my quilt records, about 100 of them unfinished projects, but I keep track of them all, so I can stay on track. Some of the listings are pillows, purses, postcards, journal pages, place mats, and various other quilted items, not many large quilts. I don't let anything leave the house without a photo. I have been quilting since 1973, when I took a textile class in high school and then made a hand sewn and quilted twin quilt for the final project.

My First Quilt, "Orange Julius"

Since moving to Roseburg, 21 years ago, I took quilting seriously, joined the Umpqua Valley Quilters' Guild, and became the President for two years, after doing all the other jobs first. I became interested in art quilting early on, as I loved applique and liked to design my own flower patterns. I taught classes for many years, mostly beginning quilting, but then taught more advanced classes as well. I joined Fyber Cafe, a textile arts group, when it was being formed, and have made many more wonderful friends. I am blog master for them too, at Fybercafe.blogspot.com Now my focus is on art quilting, embellishing, fabric painting, Photoshop & printing my photos on fabric and using them in my quilts. I love applique, but arthritis is doing it's thing with my hands, and I can't hand sew or bead much any more. It's a good thing I can machine quilt and machine applique so well, but I still think I need more beads on some of my work. So thank you for looking at my writing, my photos and my quilts, I'll try to keep it interesting as we move along to the next 10,000 page views.

"Peggy's Leaves" Quilting

I finished quilting Peggy's Leaves quilt, she made it with her hand dyed fabric from our workshops. I used various colors of rayon thread to put veins in the leaves, then a variegated primary colors rayon in the background with a small wandering leaf pattern. I added a fern pattern around the border.

Polyester-Marble wrapping

I tried a technique that I found on the blog andthenwesetitonfire.blogspot.com You wrap in a shibori technique, polyester or chiffon/synthetic fabrics around marbles, buttons, or rocks. Then boil it for 15-30 minutes, and then put in ice water to cool, unwrapped the texture from the tying stays permanently in the fabric. This really looked cool on their blog, check out their site for great pics and more detailed how to. I started with an assortment of chiffon scarves, tied the first one with large flat marbles, and boiled, etc...

Several of the large glass marbles did break when I unwrapped the scarf. So I used regular marbles for the next one, they tied up like a bunch of grapes. It was a narrow scarf with a marble pattern on it and I tied both ends. I was very disappointed with the results. The first scarf, all that happened was the dye came out and I lost all the pattern. No texture at all. The second one I boiled longer and let cool and dry completely before I unwrapped it. It had more texture and a white ring where the dye came out, but not at all like the blog site. The only trouble shooting I can do is try tying them tighter, boil the full 30 minutes, or try a different fabric.