Showing posts with label fall. Show all posts

Sunday, October 23, 2022

Playing in isolation

Hi, I hope this post finds you well. I'm afraid that I am now officially under isolation - that second bar appeared on the darn Covid test 😒. I don't know how much I'll be able to sew and stitch in the next few day. If I follow the same path as my daughter, I'll be sitting up somewhere with a fuzzy brain and no energy. Not looking forward to that!

Projects in progress

I'm making a runner and another wall hanging based on the Swirling Leaves piece that I made for the Hello Fall Blog Hop in 2020. It's always been one of my son's favourite, so I'm going to make him a runner. The other wall hanging is going to the workplace charity auction that will be held in November or December.

Swirling leaves wall hanging

I have enough neutral background stitched up for the wall hanging. Have I told you that I love improv piecing? I did learn a few lessons so far, so keep reading to find out what!😊

Stitching in progress with lots of trimming

Almost done the background for the wall hanging

Fabric strips pile

Next comes the borders and then the appliquéd leaves. A couple of days ago, on my way back from picking up the mail, I stopped in my neighbours' yards to grab these leaves. They make rather realistic leaf templates, don't you think?😁

Leaves and templates

I'll be digging into my scrap bins of hand-dyed fabrics gifted to me by Elaine Quehl. I'm sure that I'll find the perfect scraps of fabric for the leaves since they are the focus of the pieces!

Slow stitching update

I've been slowly working on my hand-stitched snippet roll which will be loosely based on our fall trip (see Related links below). It's a little more planned than a regular meditation block but once I start stitching, it's just as meditative. It's going to be a long snippet roll, so far about 44" long. It will hang on that antique bobbin which comes from the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum.

Meditative hand-stitched snippet roll

Fall colours in my back yard

I may have gone several hundred miles to take the Agawa Canyon train tour but I could have seen the fall colours in my own back yard. I took these yesterday. The fire bush is living up to its name!

I also love the view from my back yard. The red maple in the school yard seems to be sharing its colour with the sky.

A bit of a sunset from my back yard

It's past time to clean up the yard so I hope that the weather keeps cooperating for at least another couple of weeks.

What I learned

Although I love improv piecing, mostly because I'm accuracy challenged 😊, I did discover that I do have to either:

cut my fabric strips relatively even, or
piece the fabric with a consistent seam.

Turns out that if your fabric cut is uneven and your seam is inconsistent, even I will have to use my seam ripper 😲
So, I started being more careful about my seam allowance and everything is great! I trim the blocks often to ensure that things are even.
After picking leaves to use as templates, it really important to either make the template within a few hours or to place the leaves under some books to keep them flat as they dry. Ask me how I learned that lesson!😉
I even took the time to read my Swirling Leaves post to make sure that I remembered what I learned. I didn't write it down, but it looks like I created the background to fit the leaves placement. I didn't do this for this first quilt, so I'll see if it makes a difference. I'll update you on that when I make the runner, or finish this wall hanging.

Sunday, October 16, 2022

Fall Wonderland

I took an amazing trip with my daughter during the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving. I wanted to celebrate my up-coming retirement with a trip. Taking the Agawa Canyon train has been on my bucket list since I heard about it many, many moons ago.

A memorable train ride

The train to Agawa Canyon departs from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. I've been a few times, usually driving through to get to Lake Superior or to head to the Mid-West. This time we stayed two nights, had an amazing meal and a delightful trip to the Agawa Canyon.

As we were going around bends, I wanted to take a picture of the front of the very long train. You can see from this image that the train compartments are in great shape. Since it was the last weekend of the fall season, my daughter and I were very luck to be able to sit by ourselves and had lots of leg room 😊.

Spotting the front of the train through the window

Here are a couple of photos that I took from the train. I'm not sure why, but the photos are so much more vibrant on my phone. It seems that as soon as I send them elsewhere, they loose their vibrancy. 😒

The view from the train

I love the shadows cast by the train

That's me - proof that I was there enjoying myself

When we got to Agawa Canyon, we had an hour and a half to walk around. The day was sunny with some clouds. It was perfect!

Jeannine managed to take this picture without including all of the tourists!

My favourite photo framed by the red maple leaves

I love this one of Bridal Veil Falls in the background

Swaying pine trees, like in the Group of 7 paintings

A little bit of red to liven up the falls

I think that I love rocky streams as much as water falls!

Water cascading behind the foliage

Fall stream

Here are some of Jeannine's lovely photos.

Sun peaking out of the clouds

What an amazing reflection

One of the locomotives that pull the train

Translating this into textile

I took some fabric scraps with me but didn't do much on the trip except take photos and sketched out some ideas for a meditation stitching project. There isn't much to see at this time, but here are some fabrics and one of my journals that I used to sketch in and write ideas.

Fabric stitched together for the base. The fun starts after that! 😊

Some very rough sketches and words to remember

Book with a woven binding - now a sketch book!

What I learned

As I mentioned, I realised how much more vibrant my pictures are on my phone. I've tried all kinds of things but without success.
I've looked at programs but although they say that they are free, they are not. If I'm going to invest, I guess that I'll have to do some research.
The train trip was wonderful. I'm very glad that I did it, although I have to admit that I thought that it would follow Lake Superior for a while - but it didn't. The train goes much more into the interior of that area. I guess I'll just have to go back!
I didn't bring my stitching on the train - it was too full, but I did make a few sketches. I started a meditation stitching project that will be partly based on my photos and sketches.

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Welcoming Fall on Free Motion Mavericks

I hope that you're having a lovely fall (except those of you on the other side of the world who are enjoying Spring!) The leaves are slowly changing here in Ottawa but all of the rain is pulling them down quickly!

I didn't expect to be writing this post today but Muv is very busy getting ready for her daughter's wedding this weekend. I can't imagine how that must feel. So welcome to week 351 of Free Motion Mavericks. I'm still planning the FMQ design for my son's quilt, so here is a look at fall quilts that I've done through the years.

Fall pageant of wall quilts

Here are some of my fall quilts, beginning with the newer ones. If you're interested in reading more about them, see Related links below for the original blog post.

Swirling Leaves made for the
Welcome Fall Blog Hop, 2020

Lone Tree 2 or "Tired or Overachiever?"

Fall Tree - pattern and course with Elaine Quehl

Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector

Fall Door Hanging, on my studio door

What I learned

Since I'm not ready to free motion quilt (FMQ) the stripe that I'm still designing for my son's quilt, I thought that I would give you a little seasonal eye candy.
I love fall colours even if they are not the colours that I gravitate to.
I just put up my Fall Door Hanging and my Patches wall hanging, so it's timely.
I keep forgetting that for some of my readers who haven't been following me for years, could be seeing these for the first time 😊

Free Motion Mavericks

We had a small intimate party last week with some lovely quilting. Thanks to everyone who linked up. For more eye candy, here is Gail's Flutterfly Star.

Flutterfly Stars for Island Batiks by Quilting Gail

It's now your turn!

Sunday, November 06, 2016

The value of Value

Quilting Arts Magazine

I read an interesting article in the latest Quilting Art magazine (Oct-Nov 2016) about value. Call it serendipity - it came as I was wondering what was wrong with my latest landscape art quilt. Why was my quilt not as amazing as the vision in my mind? I usually create landscape art quilts from photographs, but I knew what I wanted, so I tried creating it using only my memory and imagination. Darn it - it seems that I had a new lesson to learn!

Landscape Art Quilt

Since I've also been reading about the usefulness of working in a series, I thought that this project would be Lone Tree 2.

On the drive home from work in early fall, I saw a very red maple tree in a small clearing. It caught my attention because although it was very red, all of the trees behind it in the forest were green. None of them had started changing yet.

I took out my sketch book, drew a very quick picture and wrote "I'm tired and I want to rest - or Overachiever?" Was that tree looking to go to sleep early or was it an overachiever, trying to beat everyone to the fall pageant?

Red tree foliage made of snippets

At home, I found fabric for a green background, the sky, the foreground and the red for the tree. The background with the lone red tree would take up at least half of the piece. I thought the red tree would stand out against a dark green background. I was also going to thread paint the trees making up the background.

I took out all of my green thread (polyester, cotton and silk), and started free motion quilting (FMQ). I wasn't thrilled with the background but couldn't wait any longer - I had to create the red tree.

I cut the batik fabric I had chosen into very small snippets. I placed them where I wanted the tree foliage and proceeded to FMQ over them. I was surprised by how much fabric it used up! I then created the tree trunk.

Adding limbs to the trees helped!

As I examined the green background I wasn't sure what was wrong. On my way to work the next day, I looked at the forest and noticed that no matter how thick the foliage, there was always tree trunks and branches showing. So I took out my brown, black and grey thread and added some limbs. It really helped!

Lone Tree 2 - what now?

OK - now I had a sky, a red tree with a background and foreground that all seemed to blend in. Now what?

I took out my embroidery floss. I had FMQ some blue flowers in the foreground, so I added some lighter green grass and more blue.

I looked in my bags of scraps and found a bunny, a butterfly and leaves. Getting much better. The white bunny added contrast. Now the viewer sees the tree, wonders off to the bunny, catches a glimpse of flowers and the butterfly and can keep exploring.

Lone Tree 2: I'm tired and I want to rest - or Overachiever?

What I learned:

I thought that the dark green background would be fine because green and red are complimentary and contrasting colours. It would seem that I forgot about the value of colours.
In her article, The Value of Value (Quilting Arts Magazine Oct./Nov. 2016), Grace J. Errea writes "if there is a problem, look for a value solution first."
Read parts of her article in this blog post: Quilts Design: The value of value
She suggests that a successful design should have tints (lighter versions of colours), shades (darker versions of colours) and intermediary values.
The article is very informative and easy to understand. She also uses a Value in Colour Chart that I will make from scraps to remember my value lesson.

Lone Tree 2 behind the burning bush.

Although it was a little late to change the values in my landscape art quilt, adding the appliqued elements, the lighter green embroidered grasses and blue flowers gave my piece some tints to contrast the mostly darker tones and added some visual interest.
Using a photo probably helps to avoid some of these errors because I would be more likely to notice the lack of value in a photo and adjust accordingly.

This post is linked to some great linky parties. Check them out! MOP Monday, Oh Scrap!, Off the Wall Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Slow Sunday Stitching, Finished or Not Friday, Monday Making, Main Crush Monday, Linky Tuesday, Fabric Tuesday, Let's Bee Social, Midweek Makers.

Monday, October 24, 2016

Welcoming Fall

Buck at Omega Park

This post is dedicated to fall in all of its glories.

The leaves are turning and there's lots of red this year! The nights are getting colder and the bucks are checking out the ladies. This is one of the bucks my sister-in-law, niece and I saw at the Omega Park near Ottawa a couple of weeks ago. We didn't approach some of the bucks, but this big guy was more hungry than protective :-)

Fall door hanging

As you may know, I have hangings for my front door for every season - yes, the door is protected from the elements. Here's the fall one on the door now. It's got colourful leaves, flying geese and even a basket with fall goodies. It was great for practicing my free motion quilting (FMQ).

Here is Fall Tree, one of my landscape art quilts featuring a close-up of a tree with changing leaves. This project was a class taken with Elaine Quehl. I finished the quilt last fall after spending a month looking at the way leaves change colours.

Fall Tree by the burning bush

One of my first paper pieced project was Patches, the Pumpkin Patch Protector. He is one of my favourite wall quilts. This is a free project from Martingale, designed by Jaynette Huff. It's much larger than I expected and looks great in the front hallway. Patches comes out each fall, at the same time as my fall door hanging.

Patches the Pumpkin Patch Protector

This last quilt is a new one to my blog. Years ago I gave my friend Sonya all of my Halloween decorations. She sent me this picture while she was decorating her house last week. This is one of the first quilts I made - Halloween Night from the Sept/Oct 2005 magazine of Fran's & Porter's Love of Quilting. It's machine appliquéd and hand-quilted. It was made before I learned to FMQ.

Halloween Night

What I learned:

I was pleasantly surprised to see a picture of one of my earliest wall hangings. I didn't realise that I made this so long ago.
Although orange is not my colour, I do love fall colours - they are so rich.

I hope that you'll have a great fall. They're calling for wet snow (aka slush) tomorrow morning, but it usually doesn't stick around before Halloween. Once November begins though - anything is possible!