Gaïa's Garden is coming along

I'm still at it! I've almost finished piecing Gaïa's Garden. It's not really piecing in the conventional sense, but more in the appliqué/collage sense.

Gaïa's Garden

This is Gaïa's Garden so far. I would say that the piecing is about 80% finished.

Gaïa's Garden so far

I finally added the swamp part. There is still work to be done to incorporate it within the rest of the piece but I'm hoping that it won't be too difficult.

The swamp or pond section

I've been stitching down the fabric pieces using Kimono Silk Thread. I love it. The difficult part is to not get carried away since I want to free motion quilt it rather than thread paint it. So as soon as I add the batting, then I'll be able to use what ever type of thread each section calls for.

I also know that parts of the quilt, like the sun, will look much better once it's quilted. I'm really looking forward to the FMQ.

What I learned

• I really over extended myself with all of these pieces for this summer's show. It's going to be great but I hope that I remember not to do this again 😊 (those sound like "famous last words...")
• As much as I've been wanting to make this piece for over a year (since I made Morning has Broken), I'm glad that I'm doing it but I'm now really tired of it. It's not because I don't like it, just because I would rather be doing something else right now. I am really looking forward to just playing for a while.
• Quilt Canada is in 2 weeks, so after I finish this piece by next weekend, I'll be taking a few days off and really taking advantage of having Quilt Canada in Ottawa this year. I'll be sure to blog about my course and lectures there as well as the show itself.

Related links

Remember to come back on
Thursday to link up!

• Making Gaïa's Garden, May 20, 2019
• Free Motion Quilting and Planning, April 20, 2019
• Morning has broken - Art with Fabric Spring 2018, May 21, 2018

June's One Monthly Goal
This is the second time that this project is my OMG. Didn't quite make it for May, but it will be given to the show organisers to hang on the 16th, so it will get done! 😊

Linking parties
I'll be linking this post to a few linking parties. Why not see what's happening out there? Free Motion Mavericks, Oh Scrap!, Wandering Camera, Off The Wall Friday, Monday Making, Design Wall Monday, Moving It Forward, What I Made Monday, Tuesday Colour Linky Party, Midweek Makers, Let's Bee Social, Needle & Thread Thursday, June's One Monthly Goal Link-up and To-Do Tuesday

Hockey Day in Canada Landscape Quilt

Did you know (or care) that Saturday was Hockey Day in Canada? I found out when my husband wished me a Happy Hockey Day! I know that it's a big deal in many places in Canada, with special games and events. I don't personally follow any of it, but I appreciate that people care about our national sport.

The shiny green and blue stripped background fabric is from Paris.

A few weeks ago I decided to play with fabric that my brother got for me from Paris. He found a store that was going out of business and got some lovely samples, remnants and a couple of yards of some great fabric. The fabric is mostly upholstery weight in linen and other fibers. I'm sure I'll be able to incorporate them into art quilt projects eventually.

I chose a piece that had a cool vibe to it - something that might be used for a winter project. I played with the fabric and got very frustrated, so I did what I usually do then, I left it there overnight to get a fresh perspective in the morning. It worked!  I started working with the little bit of winter scene fabric that I have, and then raided my Christmas stash.

From my stash and bag of scraps, I found the little bit of hockey fabric as well as some interesting blue-grey for the ice.

An old fashioned winter scene

The winter scene fabric I bought last summer has an old fashion winter landscape with houses, barns and trees. In my Christmas fabric stash were these wonderful deer and the trees.

To try and get it to work together, I created sections within the piece by using a blue-green fussy cut fabric.

I had a lot of fun with the sky. I found a couple of pieces of an interesting night sky and then found this tulle with stars in my stash. I had used it years ago to decorate my cubicle for a Christmas cubicle decorating contest.

Tulle sky and snowflakes

After free motion quilting the piece, I added some more wooden fabric as the binding and quilted that too.

In my stash I found snowflakes, trees and added a snowman. As I told my daughter, I'm not sure how I feel about the landscape. It was fun to play with and is really a collage. Art quilts don't all have to be serious, do they?


What I learned:

• I didn't plan this piece (what else is new), so I ended up unstitching the long blue-green columns sticking out of the picture to put the wooden border around the piece. 
• As I mentioned, if things are not working out, it's best to just leave the project and come back to it later. So far, it always works!
• When I make a collage type landscape, I feel like I'm cheating, but really trying to pull all of these different elements together is probably more work than creating a landscape from scratch.
• I haven't decided if I pulled it off - if you want to offer me some constructive criticism, I would certainly appreciate it.

So, Happy Hockey Day in Canada! May your favourite team win. :-)

Participating in the following Linky Parties: MOP Mondays, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Oh Scrap!, Fabric Tuesday, Linky Tuesday with Freemotion by the River, Needle and Thread Thursday, Off the Wall Friday, Fabric Frenzy Friday