Progress on the Leaf Art Quilt

Wow, it was Christmas when I last posted about this project. I have been continually working on it when I could and now I have finished the main design of the leaves on the quilt top. I've put the quilt batting behind it and added a backing fabric and quilted around the leaves and added the veins to them. Now I'm ready to quilt the background. I had to distance myself from it for a few days while I mulled over what design I would quilt into the background.

As I looked at the fabric, I found the background to be too light and plain so I knew I needed to liven it up a bit but not make it too overpowering. I still want the leaves to "jump off the page" so to speak.
As I was investigating different patterns for free-motion quilting, I came across the patterns I used to make the fabric cards with leaves on them. Good thing I didn't throw those away. I decided that they would make a wonderful quilted background that would tie the whole piece together.

I decided to use the three colours of thread I used on the leaves themselves, a burgundy, ochre and brown.

I didn't want to start right out on my finished piece in case it looked horrible so I found a piece of fabric that resembled the background fabric and did a test drive on it.

I thought it looked pretty good. Not too overpowering and still interesting. Ok, time to start on the actual quilt. I photocopied my pattern pieces on sheets of photocopy paper which was used on once side. (That way, I didn't feel like I was wasting paper).  I then pinned the pattern to my quilt where I wanted to stitch the design.

Using this pattern I free-motion stitched right through the paper, changing the thread colour three times for interest. Once the whole pattern was stitched, I tore the paper free leaving just the stitching.

You can't really tell that the pattern is leaves but you get the feeling that it's leaves. I am in the process of filling the whole background with this stitching. It's quite time-consuming but I'm liking how it's turning out.

Inspired by Road Trash

We've all heard people say that artists are different. I never thought that of myself; I feel like I'm pretty normal and people who don't know me would never be able to tell I was an artist. I don't have purple or green hair. My clothes are not bizarre looking. I'm not spaced out or have my head somewhere else.

Yesterday I had to do some errands, and because it had warmed up outside from -25C, I walked to do them. I have told you before that my eyes are scouring the ground when I walk on my own. On the road just up from my driveway, I saw a piece of something that excited me. I didn't pick it up because by the time my brain had registered what it was, I was already a few paces past it.

You're going to laugh. I got so excited when I finally realized what it was, that the whole time I was doing my errands, I couldn't stop thinking about it and what I could do with it! I started to worry that I would lose my opportunity and someone else would pick it up! So I started to move a little faster. On my way home I took a different route and acknowledged that if I didn't go home the same way I left, I would not walk past where I saw this item laying on the road so I corrected my route and tried to remember where I saw it.

I was almost home and I started thinking,"Oh no, I don't see it! Did I pass it already?! Did someone actually pick it up?!" To my relief, there it was, just ahead of me, still lying where I had seen it earlier. Phew!

Well, I have to tell you, I came to the realization that I'm a little weird too. Who gets excited about a piece of trash on the road?  And who worries that a normal person would pick up what they thought was trash anyway? And who would even think it was worthy to include in an art piece? I guess only an artist................

So, I guess you are wondering what this fantastic piece of trash is? Have a look and see if you get as excited as me. Then let me know if you did or didn't. I want to know if I'm truly eccentric!..........

This is how I saw it when I found it. Doesn't look like
much, does it? Yet I got excited!

When I got  it in the house I washed it off and it looked even better!

Look at all the colours and interesting things on it.
This is the front.

This is the back. It is also really interesting.

Now I had to decide which side I wanted to use. Not easy, I love both sides!

This is what I did with it.

These things are called circuit boards and I'm pretty sure they are in a lot of things we use: computers, cell phones, TV's, radios. So if you ever come across one, you know you can always unload it on this crazy artist!

Inspired by a Charitable Cause

The Canadian Chapter of Studio Art Quilts Association (SAQA) that I am a member of posted a request in January on Facebook for fibre artists to create part of a quilt that will be travelling across Canada in the Relay for Hope Run raising money for HIV/Aids. The idea was to make a panel for each Province and Territory and put them all together into one quilt. We could choose which Province or Territory we wanted to create and since Ontario was already taken I chose the Yukon Territory. The next day I received an email to let me know that they had looked at my work on my blog and were impressed so they accepted me as one of the artists.

I will have until April/May to complete it and send it to them to put together with the other panels. So today I worked on an idea for my Yukon Panel. Below is the first draft of my idea. Each panel will be 28" X 28" and have the initials of the Province or Territory in the lower right of the panel.

My panel will have mountains, snow, a dog sled, raven and the northern lights on it. I still have to figure out how I will do it exactly but I am getting some ideas percolating in my mind. I will be challenging to do this project.

Also below are a couple of drawings I did while I was away in Europe. The time I spent there was very busy so I didn't have large sections of time to create.

Drawing done while relaxing in our hotel.

A sketch of our plane while we waited to board for our trip home.