Fabric cards, Portrait and Landscape Quilt

As I told you last week, I have a few things on the go at the moment. Often I have the ideas but I can't start on the final product because I don't have the supplies. I have an idea for a painting but I don't have the canvas in the house yet so it's on the back burner for now.

I have been receiving some of my fabric cards back and have been tacking them on my design wall to work out a suitable composition. Below is a photo of some of them and I'm sure the composition will change depending on the colour, orientation and style of the cards that come back to me.

I also just finished the latest baby portrait. This one is of my niece's first child, Aria Elizabeth.

And here is a glimpse of a section of the landscape quilt that I was able to get done this week. Not much is recognisable as yet but the red are the two minor canoes in the composition.

So far I am happy with my colour choices and am already forming plans as to how to add stitching for the details in the rocks and grasses as well as the water when the quilt top is finished.

Summer Landscape Quilt

I finally decided on a plan for a landscape quilt to complete my "Seasons" series. This one will be the summer one and I've decided to choose a photo from last year's canoe trip. This wall quilt will not be quite as big as the others. It measures 42"X31" and will have approximately a 3 inch border around the whole thing. I've been spending the last couple of weeks working out the pattern and deciding on fabric to use in it. I will be using mainly cottons but also some silk that I hand dyed myself and also a bit of organza.

I did a drawing and a small painting of my subject to get a
feel of how I want the quilt to look. The two canoes on the
right will be the focal point so when I designed the
pattern, most of the seam lines point to those canoes to
bring the eye to that spot.

You can see that even on the pattern the two central canoes
are prominent.

The fabrics that I have chosen for this quilt also have reds
included because I decided to make the canoes red instead
of the white that they actually were.

I'm hoping to be able to start sewing today, however, I have a few other projects on the go as well, so we will see. I'll give you periodic updates on the progress.

Inspiration in my Neighbourhood

I've been reading another book by Danny Gregory titled "An Illustrated Journey". It is full of sketches from other artists, designers, and illustrators. These artists have shared segments of their illustrated travel journals. They don't go anywhere without their sketch books. Although most of these artists are sketching foreign places, I was inspired to sketch my neighbourhood. There are several really old homes with some history on my street and in the area. We tend to overlook the beauty close to us and so I sat down and sketched two of the homes on my street.

The first is my next door neighbour's home which is called Elm Bank. Elm Bank is comprised of not one but two homes and is designated as a heritage property and is therefore protected. The original home was built for John Grubb in 1836. John arrived in Canada in 1831 and acquired the property along the West branch of the Humber River where he established two farms, "Elm Bank" and "Brae Burn". Grubb subdivided his land to form a village around the intersection of Albion Road and Islington Avenue. This village was first called St. Andrew and later renamed Thistletown.

Elm Bank

The above home is presently in very bad condition. The owners actually have plastic draped over the roof and the whole house is looking pretty dilapidated. This one sits across the street from Elm Bank and is purported to sit on the foundations of the barn associated with Elm Bank. This house is also listed on the City of Toronto Inventory of Heritage Properties.

Inspiration on the Gentle Island

I am on vacation in Prince Edward Island and there is inspiration everywhere here. From the rolling farmland, the fishing villages, the pristine golf courses to the dunes lining the ocean. It often takes me a while to relax enough to sketch. Sunday was our first day here and we had a relaxing afternoon so I was able to do some sketches. We've been golfing the last few days, two rounds a day so no sketching time but today the ladies only golfed 18 holes in the morning and spent the afternoon relaxing . I was able to produce another sketch during this relax time.

Algonquin Inspiration 2

This week, I am recalling all the hand-made fabric cards I have made and sent to people. So if you have any sitting around at home that you no longer want, feel free to send them back to me. If you would like to keep them, all the better, but if you don't, I am planning to put the names of those I sent them to on the backs and then I am going to sew them all together into a wall quilt. I'll be working on the quilt this winter so you have lots of time to get them back to me. When it's done I'll post a photo of it. Thanks for your help with this.
Now.....

....as promised, here are the rest of my Algonquin cards.

"Pen Lake Campsite"                               Pen Lake, Algonquin

"Boulders on Pen Lake"                          Pen Lake, Algonquin

"Pen Lake Campsite Pine"  Pen Lake, Algonquin

"Pen Lake Campsite 2"   Pen Lake, Algonquin

"Pen Lake Falls"                             Clydgale Lake, Algonquin

"Tree Stump"                                         Pen Lake, Algonquin

"Portage into Clydegale"                 Galeairy Lake, Algonquin

"Clydegale Lake Campsite"  Clydegale Lake, Algonquin

Algonquin Inspiration

A couple of weeks ago, I went on our second annual Women's Canoe Trip in Algonquin Provincial Park. We spend 4 days and 3 nights in the interior taking a different route than last year so the scenery was also different...as different as rocks, trees, and water can be. On this trip we saw more rapids and waterfalls than last year and did less river travel. I had brought along my sketching gear but found that I could not relax enough to sketch. I did do a couple of sketches but ended up taking a lot of photos as well. So when I arrived home I set out to sketch from my photos. Last year I made a card as a memento of our trip for each participant. So this year I wanted to do the same. I've been working feverishly to try to get them done. The scenery is so inspiring to me that I think I will be using my photos to create several paintings and also possibly some fabric creations.
Below are half of the sketches I've completed. They were drawn on watercolour paper with a permanent ink pen and then painted with watercolour pencils. Check back next week when I'll post the rest.

"Island Campsite"                           Galeairy Lake, Algonquin

"Tall Pine"                                     Galeairy Lake, Algonquin

"Water Bucket"     Galeairy Lake, Algonquin

"Portage at Rock Lake Dam"               Rock Lake, Algonquin

"Misty Morning"                           Clydegale Lake, Algonquin

"Lily Pads"                                             Pen Lake, Algonquin

"After First Portage"                      Galeairy Lake, Algonquin

Inspired by the Aluminum Pop Can

Have you noticed that the aluminum with which pop cans are made of, at least in Canada, has become quite thin. While it is in the pop can shape, it is very strong and durable. However when you cut a pop can up such that you cut the top and bottom off, you are left with the middle of the can which is not much thicker than aluminum foil. You can cut it with a regular pair of scissors. I love the gloss on the outside of the can and even some of the graphics. Take the Coke cans. It's a pretty iconic can and instantly recognizable.

I thought it would be interesting to use this metal in my art to give it some glitz and colour and maybe bring up some fun memories for people. In experimenting with the aluminum I used both the front (coloured advertising side) and the back (the silver aluminum inside of the can) on some fabric cards. Due to the fact that the edges of the cut metal can be sharp I had to be very careful working with it and when putting it onto my art the edges had to be covered so as not to cut people handling the cards. I've also found that you can sew the aluminum with a sewing machine if you have a heavy duty needle so I usually zigzag it down as a way to cover the sharp edges.


Some examples of cans I have used, whole cans and a couple that
I cut the tops and bottoms off of.

This card was made with the apple juice can aluminum.

This card was made with the back side or inside of the aluminum can.