Farmer's Field

I took a walk along the road beside this field. The sky was blue but off in the distance I could see clouds. Within ten minutes, dark thunder clouds appeared and I felt a few drops of rain. I just made it back to the motor home when the rain came down in buckets! However, it passed over quickly and the sun came out again. I managed to get these photos just in time. Each of these scenes has the potential of a thread painting and/or applique. Think about it. How would you begin? What fabrics would you use? How large or small would it be? . . . the field could be: strip pieced, thread painted, hand embroidered, a single piece of hand dyed fabric. Would you paint the sky, use dyed cotton, transfer paint, water colour pencils/crayons? For my sky, I'd use a piece of hand dyed satin. I just love the shiny sheen from the satin. Don't stick to traditional cottons but explore other fabrics. Some might work out but you'll never know unless you experiment. These are just a few ideas to get you thinking about small landscapes.

The black birds at the bottom were awesome. One minute the field was dotted with black and then they just swarmed up into the sky. My mother, who is 90, calls these the 'dirty weather birds'.
Enjoy!