A week of decisions

I thought I had the brownstones figured out, but no matter what fabrics I tried nothing seemed to work. This is the stage when the buildings just look like a big blob of fabric. I know that adding different fabrics for the various buildings and windows that make up the row of brownstones will help, but I pretty much spent the week stuck. I have certainly been down this road before….the struggle with picking the right fabrics.

I played with the photo on my iPad to see if any inspiration would come from that. I think I arrived at what might work. Of course the solution requires me to buy some more fabric!! I mainly have blue purples in my stash. The solution would require more red purples. I do have some red purples, but they are too dark. So I ordered some lava batiks from 1000 bolts and one nut. Plus I went to the local quilt store and she is ordering a red purple batik for me. So now I wait. We are going away for a few days so I won't feel bad about not working on the quilt. I think meanwhile I will clean up the sewing room again and pick some fabrics for the next set of buildings. 

So what do I think the solution is? Using both red and blue purples for this set of buildings. The roof lines of the buildings will be blue purple and the lower part of the buildings will be red purple with blue purple features like windows and stairs. I know from a color class with Elizabeth Barton that it's more dynamic to mix warm purples (red purples) with cool purples (blue purples). Since my favorite color is blue it's not surprising that my stash is filled with the cool purples rather than the warm ones.  I hope this is the solution. It will certainly bridge the blues of the skyscrapers with the darker plum purples below the brownstones. At the very least I will have a lot more red purples in my stash for future quilts. I might have to make some of the brownstones blue purple with red purple windows. I won't know until I get the new fabrics and start to cut them. 

Any thoughts? Linking to Nina-Marie. 

http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Thanks for reading.

Chris

Halloween Postcard for Wellspring

I just finished a postcard for Shirley, the owner of the yahoo group Learning Fiber Arts.  She just found out her son has cancer.  The group is making postcards to send to her.  She will donate them to Wellspring so they can raise money for Carma House, a center of support for cancer patients and their families.   Over the years Shirley has donated many of her art works to Wellspring.  I am glad to help the center as well.

 

Chris

Working on Postcards Again

I am busy working on some postcards for an exchange again. Since I am fascinated by lightning I decided to to a postcard showing a desert lightning storm. I enjoyed using silver metallic thread to do the lightning bolt.

I always get a bit nervous during a thunderstorm since our house has been hit by lightning two times. I usually unplug my sewing machine and the computer. I would hate to have either one of those damaged. The last time we were hit (about 5 years ago) my daughter and I smelled something strange after the strike. I thought maybe we had fire in one of our walls. We called the fire company and were told to get out of the house. I did not think there was any immediate danger and I ran around the house grabbing all of my valuable quilts. My daughter grabbed the cat and the hamster. Turns out the smell was a melted VCR and not a fire in our walls.

Chris

Another Postcard Swap

This morning I mailed my postcards for the swap in the Val Hearder Landscape group. One of my postcards is going to Ireland, one is going to Canada, one is going to the USA, and one is going to Canada. This is quite the international group.

I decided to create a sunrise at the Jersey shore for my landscape. The fabric I used for the sky I painted last summer when I took a class at Quilt University on painting fabric for landscapes. I used Setacolor transparent paints. The water fabrics were just purples from my stash that I cut with my rotary cutter and then sewed to the sky fabric with a straight stitch. The grasses were just some black fabric from my stash fused to the foreground . I then fused the scene to some peltex and did the stitching. I used all free motion to do the stitching since this is a skill I need to work on. I hope the recipients like the cards as much as I liked doing them. The ladies at the post office sure made a big fuss over them!

Chris

“Beat the Winter Blues” PC Swap

I had to make another postcard for a swap in one of my yahoo groups. I decided to create the side of a red barn with daffodils blooming beside it.

I love seeing daffodils blooming in the spring especially after such a long, cold winter like the one we just had or are still having. Seeing the yellow of the daffodils just makes me happy. Also I have always loved the intensity of a bright red barn. I thought both of these could chase away the winter blues.

I tried to make sure that I did some thread painting since that is a skill that I need to improve. I think it came out pretty good, but I am never sure how much I should do for these swaps. Sometimes I feel that I should have done more although this card took about 5 hours from beginning to end since I don’t work really fast.

Now that I look at it I realize that the window is pretty low and very close to the ground. Oh well…too late now! This is a barn for hobbits.

Chris

My First Fabric Card!!

I was in a Christmas card exchange in one of my yahoo groups and I had a hard time coming up with an idea for the card. I spent a lot of time thinking about what to do during a 2 week period. I was worried that what I would make would be too simple. The people in the group are really talented and I did not want to disappoint the person that I was exchanging with. In the end I decided to make a winter scene and try out some thread painting. Now just so you are aware of it, I have done very little thread painting or free motion quilting. That lack of experience did not stop me and I went forward with my idea.

I fused on the larger trees and the cabin in the woods. I thread painted branches and other trees and grasses. I think it came out pretty good, but there are some things I would stitch differently if I could do it over. I guess that is the good thing about a card. It gives you the chance to try out something and improve your skills, but it is not too big. How do you think I did?

When my husband saw it he said, "That's a nice little quilt!" That made me feel better about sending it. My husband rarely makes comments about what I am working on. So that is something when he makes a comment.

I have more projects to work on today. My husband put my new Sew Perfect sewing table together and we put my machine in it last night so I am all ready to go this morning. The table is my Christmas present. I guess Christmas came early for me this year. It is going to be wonderful to be able to quilt and not kill my neck and shoulders.
Chris