Summer Smile

My brother sends out cool fruit label images to us nearly every day...it's so fun and quirky of him. I particularly loved this one, and wanted to pass it on to you all....
I've been a bit preoccupied around the ol' homestead, adjusting to my dear husband's recent retirement...but I'll be more communicative soon. Meanwhile, summer smiles to all...

Marne's Landscape....Embroidery Finished

Marne was the mom next door at Michillinda during my childhood, so I have known her my whole life. She and her husband had 8 children, most of whom are a lot older than me, but the last two were my age and we played together all summer as kids.

Here she is with her daughter Molly (who was an absolute goddess to me when she was a teen and I was a little girl; Molly, you are still a goddess!), taken a few weeks ago on her porch. Marne is sharp as a tack, still walks every day; I want to be like her when I am 95! Of course, decades of playing killer tennis helped her stay that way, I am convinced. We'd better hit those treadmills, gals!
Marne herself has spent each and every one of her 95 summers in her cottage at Michillinda...her children are the ones who commissioned this landscape to present to her on her 95th birthday next month. Needless to say, this was an extra meaningful project for me.

Marne's cottage is the closest one shown..you can mostly just see her porch. She would be there knitting these incredible cable sweaters on size 1 needles when I was a kid; now they've got WiFi on that porch!
I added just a smidge of embroidery to the landscape...it didn't really need it, and I hope it isn't distracting.
I'll be stretching this over foam core to finish it. Will show the details of that this week.

Meanwhile, it is back to making the floral alphabet. I do plan on making the letters available for sale on an Etsy shop...later in the fall. I will definitely keep you posted!

Nice Matters....and the Landscape is Sewn Down

I am loving how this blogging award has encouraged us to celebrate our online friendships! Thank you so much to Susan, Pat, Annie, and Debra for thinking of me...I send it straight back to you, and with love. There are millions of blogs out there...it is kind of like a universe of stars, but all of my blogging friends make up my home galaxy.
This morning in particular I would like to send this award out to my two Judys...well, one is really a Judith....Judy Harper is my friend in Austin who loves crazy quilting and is transforming the possibilities of needlepoint with her c.q. experiments and designs...we have so much fun writing to each other about all kinds of things, and I so appreciate her perspective and humor and support...
Judith in England is fairly new to crazy quilting (but is a natural) and is also a fabulous gardener...her gardening blog is here, and I am an constant reader! How I wish I could go with her on one of those long walks through the English countryside that she describes so well....
Thank you all who take the time to comment on my entries so that I know you are there...and for those of you who don't, I am glad you are there, too!

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So on we go to the landscape project. It is all sewn down now...so the 3-D effect that some of you commented on is quite gone. Now it is up to the use of perspective to make my landscape have depth. My uncle was really good at that in his cottage paintings; he has done most of the work for me.

Here is the little landscape under the machine needle. I switched my sewing table around into the corner, and what a difference it makes! I should have thought of this years ago.

The basic ingredients....size 60 Microtex needles (to keep hole size in the printed silk to a minimum), clear smoke monofilament thread, and the 505 Spray and Fix for spot tweaking while sewing. Also, I forgot to mention that I had interfaced the muslin foundation before I laid out the landscape. That helped the zigzag go very smoothly.

Here it is from the back....

...and from the front. Marty asked about the cottages....I scanned a photocopy of my uncle's painting, then used that jpeg to print onto the silk satin that I ran through my little home Epson printer. Pretty simple...now that I know to up the saturation levels in both the jpeg and the printer settings.

I am quite happy with how this is going! Now comes the hand embroidery, where I will have to be keenly aware of the scale of the elements I add. This whole thing is about tricking the eye with visual cues, so I don't want to break the spell...

Landscape Laid Out

It measures 10 1/2" by 16". The lay-out is collaged into place, held together with fair amounts of 505 Spray and Fix, a temporary fabric adhesive. This is a fine product because it adds no stiffness to the finished piece, and I can move pieces around to tweak my lay-out as I go, unlike with fusible web. I only use tiny little blasts out of the can at a time, so the fumes are not an issue.
The next step will be to sew all my edges down with clear thread in a narrow zig-zag....then I get "dessert", which of course is the embroidery.

I tried to use the nap on the velvet so it would catch a little light...that is a mid-afternoon sun on the big lake, so there would be lots of shade mixed with bright patches of sun there on the bank in front of the cottages.
I know this place so intimately that it would really bug me if I didn't get it right!
Here's hoping the next step goes smoothly...will attack it in the morning when I am fresh. Afternoons are for the garden, and harvesting blackberries...

Landscape Commission Underway

It has been awhile since I made a little landscape. (There have been tons of them in the past.) If you want to see some of them, look here, especially as the ones in the link are various takes over the years on Lake Michigan, the subject of my current project.

Except this one is going to be a little different....I am using a silk print of part of a painting my Uncle Hall did of Michillinda, where the old family cottage is, back in 1982. I am also adding a photo transfer of the sky and water, plus the usual collage of hand-dyed fabrics. So getting these three different "elements", or styles, to integrate and read well is the challenge.

Here is H's painting. He captured this place like no one else ever could!

Of course, the sky and lake go on first, as they are the farthest in the background. I've got the cottages on here just to see how they fit....That top band of sky is by Mickey Lawler of SkyDyes. These are fused down with Mistyfuse, which I like because it is so lightweight; it will be easy to embroider through later. Skies must be flat and horizons must be straight, always, always, always.

First I had to reprint the cottages to make them bigger....now I'm just starting to pick out my fabrics here....but you can start to see where this is going....it is picky work at the beginning, but it becomes super fun about halfway through, when the hand-embroidery comes into play. Lots of little grasses.....

Center Block, Floral 9 Patch

Finally I've been able to work on the center block of this quilt...which by the way, is going to change its name from "Floral 9 Patch" soon! It is going to get larger, too....so no, it won't be hung in the bathroom after all. Hopefully it will go to Chicago or Houston or someplace fun like that.

Anyway, I had envisioned all the seams in the center being worked with white threads and fibers, attempting to set up a contrast to the outer blocks. I don't think is quite finished yet....there is that fabulous butterfly to bead and otherwise enhance, but most of what I wanted to accomplish is done.

I never thought I would be putting so much time into this project, but that's what happens when the flowers are blooming outside. I have a concomitant need to work with flowers with my stitching....

It was gray skies this morning when I took this, but you can still see the inspiration for my little sewing adventures...

But I need to take a break from this quilt, now that I am at a good stopping point, and do a little landscape commission. It is hard to change gears but once I do it will be fun...landscapes are always a treat to do.....