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.

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.