Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Cottage CQ...Beach Grasses, Continued

I'm so appreciative of your comments and am glad you are enjoying following along. Thanks!

Two days of making teeny tiny detached chain stitches and straight stitches using sewing machine thread have resulted in the left hand beach grass section being completed.

But first I put a row of ribbon across the top of the section like the row on the right side.

Very fine silk pins are good for this. I stitched the ruffles in place with little detached chains, taking the pins out as I went along.
Pat Winter dyed this "woodlands" ribbon for me and its colors are just perfect. She not only is a great stitcher, but her dyeing work is superb, too. And she is quite familiar with the colors surrounding Lake Michigan!

This beach photograph was taken from much farther away than the one on the right (see previous post), so to stay true to scale, I had to make everything much finer.
Looking at the quilt as a whole, I don't think this will actually "read" as a completely different vantage point, however. But that's o.k.
Things are confusing enough without that!

I developed the center grassy section a little more, too.

That's more of Pat's ribbon along the bottom. Isn't it perfect?
I deliberately made this little triangular area line up with the roof peak of the cottage....

Here's the middle of the quilt so you can see that.
It was just my attempt to subtly line things up compositionally...these two points directly line up with the sun overhead too, though you can't see that in this picture. I was trying to structure a little order in amidst the randomness of the piecing in the trees.

Next I want do something with the large printed tree sections that so far have nothing on them. I can't just leave them "bare".....

13 comments :

Summerset said...

The ribbon is perfect! It is coming along nicely.

Dionne said...

Your work is beautiful!

Judy S. said...

Looking great, Allie. The grasses are terrific! Very realistic!

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Two days of stitching with sewing machine thread? I feel faint!!

Debra Dixon said...

and I thought I took on tedious projects. . . .

Vicki W said...

That hand-dyed ribbon is perfect and your grasses are so well though out. Your love of the place is really coming through.

Patricia said...

I cannot believe how gorgeous this is coming along. I love the grasses, they look very real. I am so enjoying following along on this project with you.

Pat
www.patriciarose-apotpourri.blogspot.com
www.patriciarose-apotpourri.com

Anonymous said...

The details are just mind-boggling! I could look at this for days already.

Susan Elliott said...

The center grassy section is a fave...I'm wondering if you are going to extend the wheat colored ribbon seam over to the tree trunk on the left side...see that vertical line running down the left side where you pieced the house...the wheat colored ribbon would break that line...you did it on the right side where the beach kind of blends into the wood floor so it makes me wonder what's gonna happen on the left?

Lisa Boni said...

Looking lovely! This is one of those pieces that I'd love to be able to see in person in order to appreciate all the detail!

Cat said...

Millions of stitches!

Beautiful!

Donna said...

Finally, I can see a pic. Don't know why I've had trouble with the past post. I click the image to enlarge, it grasses look amazing. looks like a painting done in thread.

FredaB said...

Hi Allie

The grasses are so real looking and Pat did a beautiful job with the coloring of the ribbon. Couldn't be better. Would love to see this in person and in fact I think you would have to see it in person to really be able to appreciate it.

Maybe it should go on a walkabout when it is finished.

Hugs

FredaB