The Thread Society - Self Portrait

Well it's done. I'm not loving it and prefer the original sketch version. My daughter and I both agree that it needs more oomph but we are not sure what.

I may revisit it in a few months once I am more proficient at thread painting and beading.

What I do know for sure is I used the wrong weight of stabiliser.

The good part was I used my New Home sewing machine for the first time in years which was fun. Turns out that one of the parts was in backwards and that was why it would not sew properly. Now it's doing great.

Textile Corner - Learning FA - simple landscape - an update

I was planning on getting the top section completely finished today but my sewing machine is not co-operating. I'm currently working on the trees and should finish the foreground "bushy bits" tomorrow.

I was a bit concerned because I have used up all my stiffer backing and am not sure I will get to a store till later this week. Shirley suggested using interfacing and I found a large piece of medium weight in one of my drawers. Works quite well. I think I need to switch to a narrower needle.

How does "A Visit to The Lake" sound as a title? I've got some thoughts running through my head regarding additions AFTER the basic piece has been done :)

Some of the other members of the class have already submitted their pieces. I've been enjoying looking at the different interpretations of the same subject.

Tornado Alley - an update

We live in what is known as "tornado alley". Yesterday was fairly active for an extended period of time with the origination point being Arkansas. While we ourselves are safe and no damage incurred there was touch downs just south of us that caused death, injury and varying degrees of damage to property.

This type of weather always makes me feel a wee bit anxious (got caught outside in some years ago) so once everything settled down a bit I got a good chunk of the simple landscape piece put together for the Learning FA on-line class :)

Enjoy your Easter week-end everyone and any other celebrations you may be participating in.

Textile Corner - "4 Seasons" Challenge - an update

I'm thread painting the tree ....... finally. It's proving to be a whole lot more fun than I thought it would. I'm currently putting on color one and am planning on doing a couple more colors before adding the snow. By the time it is done there will be a lot more twiggy bits.

When I turned the piece over I got a nice surprise. A white on white thread tree. It doesn't photograph well but I may develop the look further in another project :)

Textile Corner - Catching up

We've been out of town hence the no posting for the past few days. We went to visit grandma in Ohio.

I have some unexpected projects coming up that have the potential to be time consuming.

1. Committee member for a charity/volunteer day in April. I'm helping to organize the quilting event. (If I ever find out who told them I can sew well I'll "smack 'em" :) )

2. My kids are supposed to be going on a 3 day pioneer trek (if they meet all the requirements) and I found out last night it's to be in "period" costume. How am I going to break that piece of "delightful" news to my teenage son. Mmmmmm.

3. Earth Day postcard exchange. I forgot I'd signed up for it and fortunately so had a number of others :)

Some other things I need to get moving along with.

1. Beginner landscape wall hanging - haven't started it yet.

2. 4 seasons challenge - I'm having angst about doing the thread painting but I just need to "bite the bullet" so to speak and get the first one finished some time within the next couple of weeks.

3. "How Many Times Round the Block?" Scottie wall hanging. I bought the rick-rack last week so just need to attach it.

4. "I Love Snowmen" - I finally got back to that over the past few days and have almost completed another snowman. They are not very big individually, approx. 4-5", but because of all the changes in color they take a long time (for me) to sew up. So far I've put in about 12-15 hours since Thursday on the current one. A few more cross stitches and the back stitching and it will be done. That will leave 31/2 to finish.

5. "Rose Splendor" - I'm at the metallic threads stage and they are giving me grief. Aaaargh !!! I have to keep reminding myself - "this is a gift, this is a gift, keep going with it , it will soon be done."

Textile Corner - A productive day

The main "creative" event for me today has got to be the fact that I finally worked out how to thread paint with my Singer machine. Woohoo. :)

I must have missed the directions in my manual the last few times I've read through it but today it popped right out at me. So all I do is take off the presser foot , attach the feed dog cover, insert the hooped fabric (fiddly) and have at it. I don't have a feed dog cover but a piece of index card works up to a point.

It will take a while to become proficient but at least I can now do clumps of grass. Just in time for a couple of on-line landscape classes I am taking. That's not including the 4 season challenge.

I've signed up for a color wheel postcard experiment which will be every month for the rest of the year. I got my "Primary Colors" postcards made this morning and they are ready to mail out.

I also got some mini "quilties" finished up this morning. They just needed the edges done.

There been a discussion about old cutting mats on one of the groups I read. I had an AHA moment when one of the ladies said to use it under your sewing machine. I've been looking for something to put under mine because it sticks to the paint on my table. Works great :) Now I just have to work out a small extension for the side to hold my fabric when I'm sewing. (What can I say. We Scots can be cheap and if I can work out a way to use something I've got instead of dropping a bunch of money for an attachment that works fine for me !!!!)

Textile Corner - 4 Seasons challenge - step 3

The scene with the distant hills added, snow on the roof and a couple of variations for the dirt road.

The next steps will be to add the middle distance trees, foreground snow and shadows. Then I'll leave it for a day or two before attaching everything together. (That's my thinking at the moment. Knowing the way my brain works it may change somewhat :) )

One change I am thinking about making is to move the bridge slightly more off center and add a few more small trees to the right hand side.

Textile Corner - 4 Seasons Challenge - step 2

The initial layout with just the very basic shapes. When I was cutting out the main tree I realised that the back of the fabric would work well for the middle distance trees. The "cloudy" effect of the sky fabric makes the main tree "pop" out more than if I had used a plain fabric (I think).

I have some fabric in my box that has a crackly wood effect to it. I like it for the covered bridge even though it's not quite the color I was going for. I may darken it down a little bit with some colored pencils. I would like to add some lines in to make it look more like the wood boards in the original picture.

Round our part of the county a lot of the trees look very grey in the winter time but I've opted for a more brown look so that the picture will not look too anemic.

Textile Corner - 4 seasons challenge - step 1

(Well wouldn't you know it I can now do more than one picture per posting AND move them round on the page. Woohoo, my new blog learning moment for today!)

Some of us are participating in a 4 seasons challenge at LearningFA. Our wonderful teacher, Shirley, gave us some pictures to choose from.

After waaaaaay to much thinking about it I have opted for the covered bridge. So far I have trolled around the internet looking at other pictures, mainly in Canada, and surprise, surprise actually found one that looked fairly close to the painting. This was just to give me some color ideas though we are only supposed to go with the black and white one for reference. I've opted to go with the weather worn grey affect for the bridge.

Since I have never really done much in the way of thread painting before I re-read almost every piece of information Shirley had available plus a few other resources on the web. That gave me an AHA moment related to sketching, water color painting and thread sketching.

I decided to trace the basic elements of the picture so that I can determine what I really need to use fabric for and what areas I have to delve into for thread painting. We have been advised to simplify our pictures so a lot of the fiddly little tree branches will probably not show up in my finished pictures. Shirley suggested I take out the bridge "advertising" pieces.

I have some of my fabric picked out for the various seasons but came to the realisation that I am short of tree and covered bridge "types". Oh well that means a trip or two to the fabric stores and what quilter loves doing that (sigh).

I've decided to start with a winter scene and this week will spend my time cutting out the trees, bridge and try a variety of sky colors. I haven't decided how I'm going to do the snow shadows yet. Who knows, if the snow is deep enough, maybe a skiier will show up :)