Clam Cove III – heading in a new direction

I have begun painting on my latest project to define the details.

I haven’t followed the original plan to add fabric shapes to define the scene since there are so many small detailed shapes. So I will continue on this different path that the project is taking me, and see what I can do with it. It’s progressing slowly, because I have only been working on it 20 or 30 minutes at a time when I can fit it into my schedule.

I plan to define the trees in the background next and will add some highlights to the water. Although it may get put on hold a week or so since the Fast Friday Fabric Challenge will be announced late tonight.

Clam Cove III

I am trying out a new technique I adapted from an article in the Aug/Sep 08 issue of Quilting Arts magazine.

I have returned again to my Clam Cove photo. I traced parts of the photo onto lightweight interfacing, and layered it behind a front fabric with batting. I used the tracing on the interfacing to add free-motion stitching. Most of this has been stitched twice, because my first choice of thread color matched the fabric too much and was rather weak looking. The photo is a detail of the piece in progress.

My intention was to go back with lighter and darker fabrics to emphasize the image more. Now I think I will try paints instead, perhaps with fabric accents.

Sea Glass III

My Fast Friday Group has chosen to focus on composition and color, instead of picking a theme or topic each month, and is encouraging us to work in a series as we complete our monthly challenges.

I have decided to continue my Sea Glass series which I began a couple of months ago. I don’t know if there are a dozen in me, but I will wait and see where it takes me. I have also been thinking about doing a series based on the succulent plants in my garden. Maybe I will work on two series, and pick which one fits the challenge better each month.

This month our challenge was to work in a complementary color scheme with a vertical, horizontal or diagonal format.

Sea Glass III (9½ x 13) uses green and red as complementary colors. Green is one of the more common colors of sea glass (consider what colors beer and wine bottles commonly come in). Red is one of the least common. I’ve taken some artistic license and included some light pink. I’m guessing pink is more rare than red sea glass in the real world.

My original idea for a diagonal composition wasn’t working the way I had intended, and so I played with shapes until this spiral emerged. Does the small curve at the bottom help make this a diagonal composition? Perhaps this would qualify more as a circular composition.

Clam Cove II – Finished Again

There was a suggestion on the Fast Friday Blog to add some darks to the water area to help with the balance of this piece. I decided to act on the suggestion add just a bit of dark to the water area.

I’m not sure about how this affected the balance, but I think it has added some dimension to the middle section and unified it more with the rest of the piece.

Learning to Machine Quilt

I was a featured artist at the Piecemakers Quilt Guild show in May, and gave a short talk to a few groups of people that weekend. I was surprised and pleased to get an email today from Chris Crawford who came to here me speak. She says I gave her the inspiration to try some new things. Take a look at Chris’s blog to see some of her early attempts at free-motion quilting. It’s looking great Chris.

I did a lot of hand quilting, and some quilting with the feed dogs down for about 10 years before I got brave enough to try free-motion quilting. My problem was that I didn’t think I could ever make my quilting look as good as the expert examples in books and magazines, and I imagined that it would be very difficult. And then one day I saw a quilter demo a free-motion feather design. She made it look so easy, I decided I would try it on a small sample and see what I could do.

My first attempt at free-motion was on a small piece of fabric about eight years ago. I quilted a free hand feather design and then filled in the empty space with stipple quilting.

The first bits of stippling were very jerky, but the time I finished stippling the whole piece, I had the rhythm down and it was becoming easier.
I finished it as an 11 x 16 doll quilt for my then one year old daughter.

The progress I made on the first piece made me realize that I could do free-motion work, and that I could get better with practice. I decided it was good enough that I could tackle a larger piece, so I put together the blocks from the Piecemakers’ Block of the Month drawing that I had one into a 46 x 75 quilt, and free-motion quilted an allover pattern.
This is a well used quilt, as it is the perfect size to make just my side of the bed a few degrees warmer.

Completed Abstract Project

Clam Cove II (15" x 10½")
A few more minor changes to this piece this weekend, and then completed the quilting today. I have been reminded again how important contrast is to the success of a piece. I seem to be learning this lesson over and over again.

Progress on Abstracting a Photo

My initial attempt at this piece didn’t excite me. Too many small pieces, no defined focal point, and not enough contrast. Adding some abstracted trees and a dark line near the horizon helped with the contrast, but didn’t relate to the rest of the piece.

I’ve added some dark neutrals to the bottom to create a foreground. Now I think I have enough contrast, and it seems to relate to the top shapes. I may put it up on the wall to think about for a day or two.
Names often stump me. Any ideas?