Be Still

At last months NC Quilt Symposium I worked on a second painted piece in my class by Hollis Chatelain based upon a photo I took last fall in the NC mountains.

We spent several hiking days in the Blowing Rock area and I took tons of photos. This is one of my favorites.  I call it Be Still because you can only catch these moments if you are still and look for the little things along the trail.

I was ran out of time in the class and had to bring dye home to finish the background - and it wasn't quite the same color blue so it has a bit of a mottled effect.

I added some watercolor pencil work in the thistle.

After that I did a bit of thread sketching both on the thistle and the butterfly.

Then I layered it for quilting using wool batting.  I did an non-square edge treatment to help get rid of some of the blue that just didn't work and started quilting.

I learned lots in the class and I think this is the first class in a long time in which I came home and actually finished the projects started in class!  Can't wait to do some more dye painting.

An Old Plant and a New Quilt

When I was growing up, my grandparents lived in Florida in a magical place - on a lake, in the middle of an orange grove and with lots of places to explore.  My grandfather was a builder and every time they ran out of room - he would build another building.  There was a main house, two cottages, a barn and a bomb shelter built during the height of the cold war.  At the entrance to the main house was a court yard growing all sorts of plants that a Colorado girl like me had only seen inside at home.  Grandmother grew enormous Crotons and Dieffanbacias as well as others that I don't know the names of.

Years ago (more that 30!)  we potted up a few of the Crotons and the Dieffanbacias and I still have some.  They have suffered some through the years - with moves and dry climates - and there was at least once when my Croton was nothing but a stick. Everyone said it was a lost cause but with a little TLC it recovered and now is beautiful.  I think being able to live on the screened in porch in the SC humidity for six months of the year has really helped it flourish.

In May, I attended the NC Quilt Symposium and took a class with Hollis Chatelain.  I have been wanted to take a class from her for ever.  It was wonderful.  We needed to bring a few drawings to use for our painting and I decided that Grandma's Croton was one of them.

When I returned home and rinsed out the extra dye this is what the piece looked like:

I like uneven edges so created a couple of shadow leaves in the background and did an envelope finish.  I used wool batting for the first time and am in love.  I really like how it quilted and how it does not have a memory like cotton.

Next, I quilted the shadow leaves:

Then I quilted the main leaves using a red thread and a variegated yellow/orange.

I was very please how the pieced turned out and now have a croton that will survive even if the plant does not.

I am linking up to Nina Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Friday.  Next week I hope to get back on my Marsh quilt after a long hiatus.

  

Color Affection Continues

I am making progress on my Color Affection - I had wanted to take pictures after I finished the second color but was so excited to see what the third color would look like - I kept knitting and forgot to get the picture!

I am please with the colors and now that my "garden" is back on the porch maybe I will make better progress on this piece.  I also have a pair of socks that I can't wait to start.

Starting to Quilt Marsh Isle

I am moving out of the hate phase of the love/hate relationship I general go through with a new quilt.  I always see a certain image in my mind and then struggle to get the fabric and thread to recreate what I envision.

Having decided to separate the log into bark and bare wood pieces has added to my struggles - of course I had not designed in any seam allowances and will need to cover awkward places were they didn't go back together well with strategically placed cattails and extra pieces of bark.

I have added my egret - who is actually a Great Egret and not a Snowy Egret as last reported.  Great Egret's have black feet and yellow beaks and Snowy Egret's have yellow feet and black beaks.

And I finally started machine quilting the piece - and had to pullout about an hours worth of work - the tension was terrible.  So the quilt has stalled for a bit.  I hope to spend some more time on the quilting this week and move back into at least the like phase.  I am once again linking up to Nina Marie Sayer's Off the Wall Friday and would love to have comments on my progress.

My bird tree continues to attract a wide variety of species - I think this Red-bellied Woodpecker has a nest in the tree as she has been seen going in and out of the hole in the tree numerous time over the past few days.

This Osprey brings his dinner by nearly every evening.

And these guys were just part of the flock of Turkey Vultures hanging around -

not every bird will inspire a quilt!

Background Nearly Done

I had hoped to get a little further on my Marsh Isle piece this week - but spent time working on samples for several new classes I will be teaching this summer and as Spring has finally arrived in the Lowcountry, I started working in the yard and on my plant pots.  Because of the deer in my area, most of my plants are in pots (the only way they survive) and every Spring I have a major effort in moving them to the porches and decks from underneath the back deck where the are protected from the winter weather. We had a very mild winter overall (although March was 11 degrees cooler than normal) and more plants than every made it through the winter.  I think last year I counted over 60 pots and I probably have more this year.

I did continue painting the background pieces I needed for the quilt.  The first cut at the pond water is too blue and too light.

With many more layers and the addition of black and brown paint I think I am pretty happy with it although it shows more blue in the picture than in real life.  I will be added a little chartreuse green for algae before it is quilted. I also painted the cattails and separated the log into bark and bare wood pieces.  The black spot in the log will disappear when I get to the construction phase.

The bird is only a sketch at this time - I was trying to get the size and placement.  I think it will be a Snowy Egret like the one who visited us this afternoon.

I thought about using a Little Blue Heron which starts out white and during its first year changes to a blue/grey color, but think I need the focal point of an all white bird.

Last week we also had this guy in the tree.   Pretty awesome.  I think another quilt will be required.

Once again I am linking to Nina Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Friday.   Having a deadline every week has really helped this piece move along.

Color Affection

After having seen numerous Color Affection shawls created this past year, I finally succumbed to the temptation and started mine this past week.

I had the two grey yarns in my stash.  They were given to my by my sister after one of her many trips to Chile.  The cherry is a skein of Madelinetosh.

I hope I have enough - lately I finish my projects with inches to spare (or worse with inches to short and I have to find a scrap of yarn that will work color and weight wise to finish).

A Log for My Marsh Isle Quilt

This week I worked on the log for my quilt of the marsh pond in my backyard.  The log started as a very tall tree on the edge of our property that had been dead for sometime when we moved here in 2005.  My husband was quite worried that if it fell the wrong way it would take out the fence, the deck and even part of the house. He spent several days measuring and calculating and finally decided that the house would survive even if the fence and deck didn't.

Several years ago we had a severe storm come through and as he watched, the tree swayed back and forth in the wind until it went just a bit to far -  and down it went. It landed just about perfectly along the edge of our marsh pond (away from the fence, the deck and the house).  Since then it has been a perfect place for the water birds to perch while they scout the pond for fish and frogs.  The turtles also like to sun themselves on it.

The first picture is the first layer of paint. It is much too light.

I added more paint and for the bark area, I used a sponge.  For the area where the bark is peeled off I dragged a fan brush across the surface to create wood grain lines. 

Originally I planed to have the log be one piece - but now I think I will cut the bark out, thread sketch it, and then use an additional layer of batting under it to create more dimension.  It will add some issues in construction, but I think I have figured out how to cover the additional seam with the cattails I am working on next.

I am linking this to Nina-Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Fridays as a way to keep me focused on finishing this piece!