Art Quilt Top Completed

After many months of piecing and sewing, I have completed my art quilt top. I really like how it turned out. Having said that, it still needs some details which will be done with the sewing machine and other embellishments as required.

Today I squared it and sandwiched it with batting and backing fabric. Then I pinned it in preparation for quilting.

Inspired by Another Trip to the Back Country

This past weekend I spent 4 days in the back country of Massasauga Provincial Park. In the last 6 years I have done some sort of back country trip each year. It is where I fill my soul and my inspiration well. It is where I fellowship with other women and take in the beauty of God's creation. I look forward to this trip each year and am never disappointed. Even when the weather isn't cooperating, I feel inspired and filled.

This year the weather was perfect. Rain during the night and sunshine during the day. I was able to take many photos and do a little sketching.

This was my first sketch and it was done on a left over strip of watercolour paper about 5cm X 18 cm. I sketched it while we rested on a peninsula overlooking the bay.

This was a sketch of a pine cone on a similar strip of watercolour paper. Pine cones are such interesting seed containers.

This was sketched in my 3.5 X 5.5 inch sketchbook while lounging on an island along our paddle route. The foreground is what grew on the island and the background is the view of more islands. This area is well-known for its many, many islands. One can become very lost among them if one is not careful. Because of the high water levels this year, we noted that many small islands were under water. A lot of the vegetation was dying due to drowning.

These were some sketches of our campsite done on old book pages that I glued together for a sturdier support and then painted with white gesso. I used a Uniball pen which is one of my favourite sketching tools now.

Art Quilt Progress

I think we have become way too dependent on technology and by we, I mean me. I didn't think I was but alas, when the internet isn't working....its not good! Last week my internet was non-existent. I thought, " Oh, no problem. I can still get my emails on my phone" Well, that didn't work at home either. I could only get my emails if I took my phone somewhere with good wifi. I wasn't so worried about not getting emails but not being able to send was so frustrating. What was worse is, they couldn't come to fix it until this past Monday! Don't they know we need our internet?!

As well as not sending and receiving emails, I couldn't blog either. So sorry about that. Hence, I am blogging today. I haven't sent an update on my Art Quilt in a while so here it is. I have been working steadily but the section I am doing has the smallest pieces and I just feel like after hours of work, it doesn't look like anything was done.

I now have only a small section in the upper left corner to finish and then the quilt top will be done. After that  comes the job of quilting, detailing and embellishing. That part will go much quicker than the quilt top. I still haven't settled on a title but I'm sure it will come to me.