Desert Moonrise...

In the new Quilting Arts this month there is an article entitled, "Creating with Silk - Painted & Beaded Trees by Betty Busby. I loved one of the silk paintings she did and decided to try something similar.

Because I don't have any sheer white silk, I did my painting on sheer white muslin and painted with watered down acrylic paint. My focus on this piece was to try a new stitching technique.

Instead of threadpainting and following the contours of the elements in the picture which is what I typically do in my Neocolor pieces, most of my stitching was done with a horizontal orientation - to create strata in the earth and the mountains and layers in the sky. I used a very light stabilizer to back this to avoid puckering while stitching. I will now apply a piece of batik fabric to the back to finish it off.  Not sure what I'm going to make with it yet.  But it will make a nice textile for some use.

With the duration of girl's weekend coming to a close, after church, Sabrina and I are both spending the remainder of the weekend in the studio. She, organizing and packing up her art supplies for her classes next week, and I plan on doing some more painting from some of my "own" photographs this time. I want to try this again. I learned so much from my first go at it.

I do believe I felt a taste of Autumn in the air this morning when I let the corgis out at 6:00 a.m. Not as humid and a bit of breeze. North Carolina weather says it's only going up to about 69 tomorrow.

Come on Fall - I am soooo ready!!

Sunday's Stitches - May 2

Remember the colorful little Neocolor piece I was working on last week? THAT is what I decided to use for my Sunday's Stitches project this week.

Before I started stitching it, I ironed it on the HOTTEST setting for a few minutes to set the color. I couldn't wait to get started on this as it is so colorful and would give me a chance to use some of the yummy thread that I recently purchased from ThreadArt.

Originally I was going to hand stitch this, but I decided to free motion it instead and maybe do some hand beading in the end.

Good choice.

When I painted this piece, I deliberately painted flowers in separate "sections" as I knew I was going to cut this all up and use the different sections for different things. I like doing that - cutting stuff up and then doing something different with the pieces.

One section has tulips, another has some sun- flowers, one section has a giant sunflower and then I did some Gerbera Daisies. I still have to finish those daisies.

At this point I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with all of these pieces, but I think a few postcards, at least one AECO, and one or two other small things.

I'm always sorry that I didn't make the Neocolor piece bigger. This is the second or third time I've done a Neocolor piece and wished I did it about twice the size.

Neocolors are hands down my favorite medium to work with and I've only scratched the surface with these. It stung a bit when I bought them 'cause they are a bit pricey - I paid over $100 for my set (I think they're around $160 for a set of 84) but they are worth every penny and I love love love them.

As for the free motion, I've got a long way to go - but I can see my stitching getting better every day.

Painting and stitching together - how cool is that. The ultimate form of self expression!

What do you have on your drawing table, sewing table, cutting table, long arm, short arm, or workbench??? And what is YOUR favorite art/sewing/painting supply?



Laugh as much as you breathe and love as long as you live.

Leaves II/IV

You may recognize these leaves as one of the first pieces I painted when I received my Caran d'Ache Neocolors. After free motion stitching, I finally backed it (with hand dyed cotton that I brought around to the front for the binding) and quilted it. I found the perfect tree branch, sanded it and stained it for the hanger and sewed two loops on the back to hang with the branch (which is one of my favorite ways of hanging nature pieces.) There is also a single sleeve across the back for invisible hanging.

I'm so please with how this came out. Neocolors rock!
Gotta do more with those - maybe this weekend.