Inspiration photos

 

It's been a busy week so not much to show quilt wise. So will share a couple of photos that I took recently.

I had to say goodbye to my Collie dog Abby this past week hwho was to the point that she couldn't walk and was in pain so I hope she is now running with glee through a field of grass and dandelions. She was a sweet girl.

 

The good news is that a relationship I have been in for way to many years has finally ended and he has moved out! Yippee! I can now unfurl my wings and enjoy my house and do what I want. It feels great!

 

I am now the lawn mower and weed wacker and have learned that dandelions grow faster than the speed of light - pretty things that they are.

I hope you enjoy the holiday week end - here it's supposed to be very hot and humid which I hate but I will leave you with this "cooling" photo of a glacier someone posted on Twitter that Really caught my eye.

 

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The agony of defeat

You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run.

Kenny Rodgers

 

************!!!!!!!!

I blanked out the words I expressed after sewing this project together

after weeks of working on this ********* thing. I obviously didn't add enough for a seam allowance on the trees. This is for a challenge I was going to participate in that requires making a row quilt that is 40" X 12" and pattern of the project to give away of the area where I live.

My thought was to do this landscape and make 4 of them, each in the different seasons of Vermont colors.

Sewn together in theory they would make the 40 inches.

Includes a barn and a little house. Separately they aren't bad but trying to get the pattern to come out measuring 40" after sewing together is not working. I suppose I could add a half inch or so to the trees but then I have to go thru changing the pattern which is a process since I don't do these in a computer program plus, I've been working on this way to long and am beginning to hate it so it's going to be banished to the shelf. Time to walk away and move on.

 

I think a lot of people participating in the row challenge have EQ, the quilt computer designing program. EQ wouldn't be worth it for me because I do mostly applique although I think they do have an applique feature.

Do you have EQ? How do you like it? How is the applique feature? Do you draw your own designs with it?

 

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Late Afternoon Sun Lake Champlain

There is a blog hop this week at tweety loves quilting called Art with Fabric and since that is what I do, of course I wanted in. She asks we pick a favorite "traditional artist" 

(by "traditional" I mean anything that a non-quilter will label as art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, architecture from all countries and all time periods) and make an art quilt inspired by that artist.

My all time favorite landscape artist is Lawren Harris of the Canadian group of Seven - his use of light and shadow is a beautiful thing to behold. He also does landscapes of woods and lakes which are both near and dear to my heart. 

This is the inspiration photo called Afternoon Sun, North Shore Lake Superior.

It was pained in 1924.

And this is mine called Late Afternoon Sun, Lake Champlain South End.

In the master's piece I am drawn to the way he has the light coming in from left and illuminating

the rocks and other elements.

 I had a hell of a time trying to get the light right. I used fabric paint and you can see above, first it was to light, then I added more, then more, then some purple, then more white. With paint I like to go gradual because you really can't erase it.

My first instinct was to have the light continue over the mountains on the left side like a wash but luckily didn't get to far before I realized it didn't look right. Then looking at Lawren's (yes, we are on a first name basis now) painting, his light on the islands and land masses is on the right. Sort of a reflection of sorts. I used to much paint and inktense pencil's on the land masses on the right because it started to get all bubbly but I was able to iron it out. Thread painting trees on them also helped.

I do love how these dead trees came out. What a difference just a little bit of shading with my beloved Inktense pencils makes!

check out the other art quilters today that are participating in the blog hop

Friday, May 13th, 2016

• Jennifer (http://www.inquiringquilter.com)
• Nina-Marie (http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/)
• Joan (http://www.moosestashquilting.blogspot.com/)

Refillable starch brush for applique'

If you do appliqué with freezer paper you probablly use starch to get a nice crisp turn that stays. This can be done either by spraying on from the can which is the lazy easy way that I have always done. This method results in getting way more starch on than you need, gets both the paper and the fabric way to wet causing the paper to bend and get wonky. Now, I know a lot of people with more patience than I , spray the starch into a bowl and paint it on the edges with with a paintbrush. This is really what you should do.

 

The other day I came across this watercolor paint brush that I bought when I had a short interest in watercolor. You put water in the pen, then just dip in the watercolor paint. What if I put starch in it?

 

The top comes off like this and you fill the blue part.

The problem is, I only had spray starch in a can and while it did spray in the hole really well, it comes out all foam. Pretty messy.

 

Eventually I got enough in there that wasn't foam to work.

And work it does! Squeeze the blue part and it comes out like you are using a marker or pen.

 

I've used it for 3 days and it hasn't clogged but I don't know if it will after awhile but I think I like this and it is easy and quick. Also if I used spray starch in a jug it probably would be so much easier to fill as that seems to be the only drawback so far.

 

So Here is what to look for in the store

I think I bought mine in Micheals for about 8 bucks.

 

Next week on Friday I will be posting about my "late afternoon sun on the lake" art quilt for a blog hop called

Art with fabric. Check it out here, there are art quilters each doing a quilt inspired by a traditional artist of their choice all week starting on Monday. I am doing Lawren Harris of th Canadian group of seven.

You may remember the beginnings of it.

 

 

Stay tuned next week for the finish!

 

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