Ocean Complete

I've got the ocean fabrics selected and in place, lots of different fabrics blended together, and lines of wave foam in white to give movement. All the white will be covered in white cheesecloth for texture, and free motion stitching for motion. I've finished some other details too. The kayaker, and the golden lab with the tennis ball.

I was waiting, until the water was finished, so I could make sure I had contrast and they showed up against the waves. I also added some reflections in the water, to the girl and boy on the left, and I'm adding shadows and reflections to the other figures as well. I still have to add the hills on the right horizon, and a few final details, then I'll be ready to quilt. Yea! Progress!

Ocean Waves

I have been working on my beach scene again, I have to get it done. Choosing ocean fabric was not easy as I have quiet an assortment of blue water fabric. I pulled out the appropriate fabrics, and arranged them by value and color, from gray blue, to clear blue and a bit of blue green. Trying to work out a value placement, the lighter grayer blues in the distance, changing to blue green at the left, and then the brighter blues closer to the shore. These values seam to be working out, but I want to put it back on my design wall to really look at it.

I am working on my dining room table right now, to have the length and be able to reach it all. I am doing raw edge applique, so a little dab of glue stick with a toothpick, along all the edges, is holding everything in place. The black dots are LOTS of straight pins, until I get the glue in place. All the white areas of foam will have cheesecloth bunched on it, with free motion stitching to create lots of texture. Bits of angelina fibers will add sparkle and reflections and clear glass beads will look like bubbles. It will look very different when it is done.

The sky is a long piece of hand dyed blue that I made specially for this project, it has bits of purple in it too, and wasn't quiet long enough, so I needed to piece it, wisps of blue are feathered along the join to camouflage it. I will probably add more of the wisps for contrast and texture in the sky, although, does the sky NEED texture?

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.

Getting Sandy

After straightening up my fabric stash I could finally get to my "Sand" fabrics to work on the beach scene. Before I go further with the figures I had to work on the background, I can already see I am going to have contrast issues with the skin tones and the sand. Maybe the quilting outlines in rayon will give me enough of a contrast and help the figures stand out more. It looks really awesome, the fabrics blend together well, I will still be adding shadows on the sand, to the figures, and blending into the water will be a challenge. The sand castle will have to have contrast or you won't see it at all. I also worry about the black and white border collie being too stark, and drawing your eye to it. But I think it is a good start, I will probably be adding contrast and shadows to the sand, and giving it more depth, maybe with tulle overlays or organza. I also have hand dyed cheesecloth for sea weed, and real sea shells to embellish with.

Beach Boy

I have worked on a second figure for the beach scene, the little boy with the sand bucket. He had a baseball style shirt which I really liked and a bright green plastic bucket. It took me 3 days, off and on again, to work on him. I used the fusible web technique to bond the back of the pieces, this will create sharp edges for the figures. The raw edge applique technique, which I usually do, makes "eyelashes" of little loose fibers when it is sewn. It is good for organic things like trees, but I want a crisp edge with people, especially on the faces. It is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together with all the little pieces, and trying to leave a little bit for seam allowances where they tuck under one another. The boy & bucket has 54 pieces, and is 9" tall and 8" wide. The other figures will be much simpler, they are farther away and less detailed, some will only be 6 or 8 pieces.

Fun in the Sun

I have designed a beach scene for a quilt, using several photos I took at Bastendorf beach and several other places. One of the books I read on making patterns for quilted people was inspiring. I had always made quilts of people I knew, I had to get the right photo/pose and want to do that person. But the book put the notion in my head, that it wasn't who you knew, but to tell a story with the body language. I took a lot of photos of kids playing at the beach, two teens skim boarding, boys running, and a girl in the water, also a cute little girl in a turquoise jumper. At another trip to the beach we passed a little boy with a bucket bending down to play with the sand. I added several other small touches, a kayaker, a dog swimming with a ball, and my friend kite flying. I created a small beach scene with all the figures, trying very hard to get the perspective right, as the figures moved further down the beach. I added a friend's dog "Tarza" to the main group of figures around a sand castle. I made sketches and enlarged them on the computer, and flipped a few of them left to right. I had the copy shop make a larger print of the finished drawing so the detail on the figures wouldn't be too small to work with. It looks like a fun scene, with every one playing in the water and sand. I started to work on the one figure of the turquoise girl with "Wonder Under" fusible interfacing. Finding contrast with the background beachy sand will be a challenge and to find a good water print I like. This will be a longer term project as I do one figure at a time, and search for background fabrics.