Nellie"s Needles

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Lake Series, First Lessons Learned

Each lake picture is created intuitively. The tone, mood, time or type of day is determined by the first scraps of fabric laid down. The rest builds from there.
After Lake #1 was quilted, I added oil stick pastel work to blend in edges of the clouds and add crests to waves.
It still needed stronger accents, so I got out my white acrylic paint and crested those waves.
As I was "fixing" this piece the symetry of the receding waves on each side bothered me. To remedy that, I machine embroidered beach grass with a variety of threads on one side. At this point, I stopped fussing with it and got on with Lake #2
One of the first decisions was that the height for the other 99 (?) needed to be increased from 8 1/2 inches to 10-11 inches. This gives more space for the main focus ... the lake. The width of 13 inches works well and will remain the standard dimension for all. So that "fixing" with pastels and paint wouldn't be necessary, I took a bit more care about getting details incorporated in the first step of contruction. I was pretty successful in doing that with Lake #'s 2 and 3. However, I felt a need to accent the the crashing to shore waves with paint in Lake #4.
There was still a bit of blending with oil stick pastels in the first five pieces. On Lake #6 I finally got it. To let the fibers ... fabrics and threads and quilting ... tell the whole story.
I'm on a roll and have completed ten pieces. To view them, click here OR on the album in the sidebar. I tried to remember to take a photo before machine quilting each one. Two got missed because I was so into it and wanted to get that next step done before having to fix dinner, walk the dogs, do the laundry, and stuff like that.

Future photos will be added to the album as I complete the pieces. I'll try to remember to add a note to indicate an addition when my posting is not about this Lake series.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! These are all fabulous!

Anonymous said...

Nellie, there are all great pieces. I appreciate the detail photos of how you go through the process. This is becoming a really strong series.

jenclair said...

Thanks so much for all of the detail and the progress photos, Nellie. A fascinating process. Can't believe you've already finished ten, but you really are on a roll!

Teodo said...

Hi Nellie, On Sunday I cook always something special for lunch.
Today I was reading your fantastic post and writing a comment on "STUDIO SOUTH"
and I forgot lunch when I smelled something was burning...
it was my peppers!
When my husband and my sons came back I told " Ops I was in the USA with Nellie, excuse me".
They said: "Ok! let's go outside and have pizza! after that you can go back to the USA."
Your post is wonderful!
ciao, ciao

p said...

Don't think I didn't see this: 'One of the first decisions was that the height for the other 99 (?)'
I dare ya!!!! :)
This is wonderful, I freak out if someone sees my work that isn't finished, and so far have only been able to do one successful photo series of how I did something. The other time I did it I was convinced that by dint of trying to capture HOW I did it I ruined it.
So, I love the pics and descriptions of your process Nellie. I have to say the grass up close is just fun and amazing to look at...so simple but so intricate.

Joyce said...

Thanks so much for your step-by-step photos. I'd never guess how you make them otherwise. I can see that working on the same subject in a series is a useful thing to do. I totally love the last one. The colors in the water are perfect.

Anonymous said...

I'd just like for those who are interested in my wife's Lake Series, to know that you can't have any of them. They're ALL MINE! Sorry.

Nellie's Needles said...

HA! Lee. I'll let you choose one down the road. Of course if you choose to purchase, you may have as many as you desire. I just don't have a clue where you'd hang them. Well, on to quilting #12.

Terri Stegmiller said...

Totally awesome...all of them. I'm such a beach/ocean person, so they really speak to me.

Anonymous said...

You are really an impressionist quilter, Nellie, it is so artistic what you are creating! And like the impressionist painters, you evoke not the landscape, but the sensation given by that landscape, by the lights and shadows.

Beverly said...

They are all evocative and atmospheric, but #6 espcially speaks to me--

What color oil pastels are you using? If you want to provide more detail about how you use those, I'd love it!

Nellie's Needles said...

Beverly,
White, and light valued blue/blue-green gets used in the water and sky. Gold and silver pastels shade or blend clouds and beach. Soon I'll post about how I use and set the pastels on the quilts.