Mixed Media

February 25, 2015 Brrrrr yet again...

I thought I would post a sneak preview of a mixed media piece my daughter and I are working on.  It is a landscape quilt around a felted piece.  I did the landscape with quilting fabrics and my daughter needle felted the house.  The foreground tree and the children are appliqued.  I have yet to quilt it, but that is tomorrow's project.

To make it, I first drew the house on the quilt batting.  I then used a quilt as you go technique to attach the snow and trees.  The snow was made from several white and slightly off white fabrics.  I tried to keep the sky consistently blue within a limited range of colour. The actual house, on which the landscape is based, has large trees surrounding it and in the afternoon the shadows reaching toward the house are dramatic. In the waning sunshine at the end of the day the shadows always appear blue or purplish.  I think the windows should cast a yellowish haze, for warmth, but my daughter thought otherwise.  I may have to change that.  My sensibility says that purple and yellow and blues go wonderfully together and will give warmth and cohesion to the picture.  I may have to compromise with just a few yellow glows in the windows.

You can felt through the quilt batting or through the fabric.  This makes for crisp edges and a house that pops every so slightly out of the background.  In the end we plan on wood framing this piece but probably without glass.  There is a story to tell about this landscape, but because it is going to be a gift I will save the story until it is given.  If you are looking for felt roving in wonderful colours, Pondering Rock Farm in Rosseau, Ontario, owned by Heather Darlington is the place to go.  She dyes her own wool and you can meet and greet the sheep that so generously donate their fleece to be turned into roving. I love visiting and purchasing her terrific colours.  If I only had more time....

Here is the landscape - remember it is not yet quilted or bound and the pieces are still waiting to be appliqued.

Another Day

February 25, 2015

The cold weather has persisted but we have had fun getting together and sewing.  I invited my friend Susan, who isn't a fan of sewing, by text, to join a couple of us who were meeting for an afternoon of stitching.  Unfortunately auto correct intervened and the text I sent asked her to come for a day of "seeing", not "sewing".  Susan came with her snowshoes prepared to hike and "see" and was surprised that our sewing machines were set up and ready to go.  Undaunted and being a good sport, she went ahead and learned to make a landscape. Nice job Susan.

Our friend Joan was determined to make a landscape not unlike Starry Night.  It is in the planning stages, but in gorgeous tones of grey which Joan purchased in the Huntsville quilt store.  Stay tuned. We hope to get together and get her ideas into production soon. The mentor landscape is below.

We have had several days of landscaping during this intense cold spell (coldest February on record in Ontario, Canada).  Mary made a beautiful northern lights piece.  To get your fabrics to look more like watercolour or to mute them somewhat she used steam a seam to place a piece of sheer fabric or crinoline, over top of the piece of fabric in the landscape that she wanted to tone down.  She also used crinoline, overquilted with green thread, to show the northern lights.  I used crinoline in the canoe picture in the previous post to show mist. Mary's northern lights is not complete yet, but you get the idea. Once quilted and bound it will be beautiful.

Lastly, we had a great new student attend our class today.  Already a sewer she mostly completed quite a large landscape today.  She particularly loved playing with the quilting and threads. 

Georgian Bay, complete with a gnarly wind blown tree.  Well done.

Framing landscapes

February 12, 2015

-37 with wind chill here in Muskoka...and it is windy. Even the dog wants to be snuggled up inside.

No better time than a chilly day to hunker down and return to the blog.  My ankle is on the mend after over two months of physio and I am finally able to get outside and snowshoe.  Over the past weeks I have been doing an online sketching course which has been helpful for my landscapes.  I am learning more about colour as well.

I am enjoying looking at ways that people hang their landscapes.  Lately I am really loving framed pieces with or without glass., which is a personal preference.  Framed pieces without glass are  more likely to get dusty, but a good vacuum will deal with that.  Below is a gorgeous handmade frame on a landscape made by my friend Joan.  Her husband made this.  The landscape is held firmly in place with two sided tape.  The black binding doubles as a "mat". I love the way the wood frame wraps around the landscape.

I recently made a landscape  that I felt would be better if it was not as long as I had made it.  No problem.  I cut off about 9" at the end and was left with a piece about 9 x 5.  I hated to throw it out because it was so lovely and beachy.  I ended up framing it in a white Ikea frame. Looks great.

The one above I planned on framing before I even started it. It was for my daughter, as a shower gift for her new home.  She is a great lover of paddling.  My son in law is not a great fan of fabric on the walls.  Framing this landscape elevated it to the level of art worthy of their walls! Again, Ikea frames are great. On this one, I purchased a mat to just make it a bit more art like.