Birch Trees

I have another miniature piece finished. Needing a quick name, I've called it Birch Trees. Yes, very original, I know, but something else might pop into my head. I'm open to suggestions. In creating art, I find that coming up with an appropriate name,is  the hardest thing to do. I don't want something corny.

The trees and rocks are hand appliqued in place. Check HERE in a post from a few years ago (scroll down) to find out how I created the rocks for using in my pieces. The daisies were first hand stitched onto Aqua Magic water soluble fabric, spritzed with water and left to dry then stitched on the background fabric. The lupines were free motion stitched onto purple organza. French knots were used for the dandelions and tiny forget me knots.

Below is the piece before adding the extra flowers. 

Chiffon

A few days ago I purchased several pieces of chiffon at Fabricville. They had a sale of buy one, get two free. Not one to pass up a bargain . . . ! I bought several colours as I liked the patterns and figured they might be useful for foliage and flowers. I hadn't stitched much chiffon before with free motion and I wasn't disappointed as it worked the same as organza. It was also easy to burn with the stencil cutter. Now I have a wider range of colours to use for making foliage and flowers. I thought I had three pieces of green but when I got home the limy green I really wanted wasn't there. It had stripes like the pink in the corner of the photo. Guess I have to take another trip to the store. This time I'll make sure the bolts are left on the table before someone quickly puts them back. I usually check to see that I have the fabrics I want but this time I didn't! 

• Chiffon Applique. Ruth O'Leary Textile Art
• Beads made from Chiffon & Threads. Carolyn Saxby Mixed Media Textile Art
• Textile Art - Chiffon. Klare Poelchau
• Chiffon is Blooming in January. Diana Trout
• Craft Projects using Chiffon

Enjoy!

Planning . . .

My husband caught me on camera a few days ago as I was planning my presentation for the Cabot Quilt Guild in February. I have been asked to talk a bit about the various stitching techniques I use in my framed textile art pieces. For example, how I create the foliage and flowers using organza and threads. I will also touch on the making of my Fantastic Fabrics which is a workshop I have taught in the past and will be offering again this winter.

In November, I did a power point talk at the Eastern Edge Quilt Guild, about some of my art work with a focus on making clapboard from cotton. I think there will eventually be a workshop on this technique as well.

On the wall behind me, there is a wall hanging with row houses. This was an experimental piece. The finished one has more houses and is part of the art collection of the Newfoundland Government. The colourful stars is called "It's Not Going Up In Here" - was completed in 2001, after taking a workshop with Libby Lehman, Houston, Texas. The Christmas Tree in the corner is cross stitch on sparkly linen. It hangs there all year. It reminds me of why I don't do cross stitch any more. I did more frog stitches in that piece, it's a wonder it ever got done (that was years ago). Oh, the frog stitch? Rip it, rip it, rip it!!!

More Inspiration

Here are photos from several walks along the way. Note the vivid colours in the flowers and the multitude of greens. I'm not familiar with the foliage in the second photo but would appreciate finding out about it. Inspiration for sure!
Enjoy

Plants

We are still travelling and I am still taking lots of photos. You never know when one of them will inspire a new idea or project!

Daisies and Dandelion

A few posts ago, I wrote about a piece of wall art that I had completed as a donation to the Cabot Quilt Guild for the Mother's Day weekend quilt show. It is part of a silent auction. Well, here is the completed piece. It is framed 8" x 10".

The sky is hand dyed satin (this fabric gives a lovely lustre to the sky). The green hills / grass are strips of commercial fabric that have been stitched with the sewing machine. The tree trunk and branches are thread painted and sewn onto the background. The foliage is stitched on by machine to give a 3-D affect. The daisies were hand stitched and then added to the picture (again, the flowers are in 3-D). The dandelions are French knots. Most of my landscapes have dandelions somewhere in them (unless they are winter scenes). When I was a child, I would pick these flowers as a present for my mother. She would accept them with a smile.

Latest Work

I just finished another piece of wall art. It's a donation for a silent auction later in May. At this time, I'm just showing a small corner of the piece. The 'rock' is silk that was printed from my computer. Refer HERE for information on printing onto fabric. The daisies were embroidered individually and hand stitched in place. The orange flowers are French knots. In the completed landscape there is a hand dyed sky, hills and a large tree with foliage. The skeleton tree was thread painted onto organza. Foliage was added after it was placed on the background.

Work in Progress - Foliage

Today I've been adding foliage to the mini art pieces I posted about yesterday. However, I still have to stitch everything down as my applique pins are holding the pieces together. Stitching will be done with free motion embroidery. Flowers will be added by hand.

Work in Progress - Windows

Last Sunday I showed you the 'clapboard' pieces for my miniature art pieces. Now I have some of the windows in various stages of completion. The basket of colourful fabrics are some of the ones used for window trims. I still have some machine stitching left to do. The foilage, rocks, and flowers will be the last to be added.

Back Garden 05 - Work In Progress

Yesterday was a marathon day for working on this piece. This morning I put some of the last hand embroidery stitches in place. I have to do a bit more machine stitching on some foilage and it will be finished - well, the framing still has to be done!  Here's a bit of yesterdays progress. I wanted to add poppies to the garden. In the summer, it is loaded with them along the fence and over into the corner. They migrated from the garden behind this one. I decided to take a short cut in the top photo by making the poppies from red silk with French knots for the centers. But they did not look right so back to the sewing machine. I experimented with free motion stitching on red organza. I'm pleased with the outcome. I'm not looking for photo realistic flowers but representations of them. The daisies were all hand done on a wash away interfacing and hand stitched in place. I've used daisies like these in a number of my landscapes. The fence is from white cotton that I painted over with white paint. I found that the fabric before painting is transparent and that wouldn't do for a 'wooden' fence.

Work in Progress # 4

I have most of the building construction completed except for some surface additions. Most of my time today was spent stitching trees. The first photo was an experiment. In the second photo, the same tree skeleton was used with various bits of organza foliage put in place. It worked out well and I may use it. However, I like the tree still in the hoop. I added some foliage before cutting it out. Extra bits of foliage will be added to the back and front to give dimension.

You can see more trees in the last photo. They are not in a permanent placement yet and extra foliage will be added when stitched to the background.

Work in Progress # 3

Update photos:
Check out here for more details on making the foliage. I spent a lot of time making the green stuff but it works great to give a realistic look to the work.

Making greenery for the art piece.

Work in Progress: # 7

I spent the whole day working on the textile piece which I call 'View From The Rooms'. The last building (pictured here) was 'constructed' this morning. This isn't a very clear photo but it will give you an idea what it's like. I'm hoping to stretch and lace the piece unto a backing tomorrow so that it can be framed next week.

I have a lot of the foliage done as I needed a variety of shades. I'm quite pleased with the overall affect of the trees. The foliage won't go astray as I will used it in some smaller pieces.

Work in Progress: # 6

This was stitch night but I stayed home to work on my textile piece. I have a deadline to have it ready for the member's exhibit at the Devon House Gallery early June.

I just finished putting all the pieces together. It was a challenge getting the foliage stitched and assembled. I think I've used all my stick pins keeping the pieces in place. In the morning I have to carefully take it off the design wall and start to stitch it in place.

Work in Progress: # 5 Chimneys

I have made a little bit of progress with the picture. Yesterday I made a few chimneys. I didn't realize just how many chimneys are in the older part of the city. Often a downtown house will have several instead of one. In the second photo I removed some of the background foliage as I wasn't satisfied with it and make some more using different shades of thread. There are still lots of stickpins visible in the photos.

Work in Progress: #3

Time for another update on my textile piece. This has been a partly frustrating afternoon. I'm about to do the same house for the third time (not shown). The windows are giving me a bit of difficulty! I think part of the problem is I have some time restrictions on getting this completed. The old saying of 'more haste, less pace' is true sometimes.
The houses in front are just pinned in place. There are no chimneys (lots of those in the older part of the city) or light poles. Tomorrow will be spent making lots more foliage for the foreground.

Work in Progress: More Buildings

This is an update on my building construction for my large textile piece. I have lots of foliage done but I expect more will have to be made. This is still some of the background houses. I started on the foreground over the weekend.

Ideas for exploration! Visit these sites for small house construction projects:

Stitch has a mini house quilt to make.
House and Trees Wall Hanging by All People Quilt
Housing Projects from Quilt Ville
Free Embroidery pattern: Snow City but this could be easily stitched for any season. Just kick start your imagination!

Work in Progress: Making Foliage

I spent most of the day working in my studio as I needed to make foliage for the background of my textile piece. I hooped some green organza, set the sewing machine on free-motion zigzag 2.0 and proceeded to free-motion small segments to represent tree foliage.  The bobbin had a mid green and the top thread was a darker shade. To get a variation in colour, small torn bits of green tulle were trapped and stitched onto the organza.
When the stitching was finished, I placed a piece of glass on my table and used a burning tool to cut the pieces out. I also turned on the overhead fan and opened the window.
I use various shades of green organza and will sometimes double it depending on the colour I want.
Since I'm not ready to show more of my piece, feast your eyes on the stunning landscapes of the following textile artists:

Scottish artist Moy Mackay
Abstract landscapes by Regina Grewe
Fiber artist, Jane A. Evans
Gilda Baron, author of The Art of Embroidered Flowers
Landscape quilts of Valerie Hearder
Landscapes by British artist, Wendy Dolan