Another Quilting Gallery Show & Contest

This weeks theme is wall hangings. My "Bear Lake" is one of 67 entries from 9 countries, 4 provinces, and 22 states.

"Bear Lake" 45"x 34"

Viewers get to vote for 6 favorites this time. I rarely find choosing my favorites easy so it's nice to get so many choices. Go here to vote for the ones you like before Monday at 6pm.

I find it amusing that so very many people have pinned the tutorial I wrote when I made those shrubby trees in the foreground.

In fact, 49 people have visited my blog just today to read that post. Over the years I've used a number of different ways to make trees. The technique I came up for creating these is easy and most effective.

To read the story behind this quilt go here.

Trillium Patch

My little trillium patch is complete ...

The stamen are embroidered. I used several shades of yellow floss in the 6-ply strand to stitch a variation of the bullion knot. I opted for irregularity in those stitches to reflect reality of perspective and nature. Also, the trillium leaves have been highlighted with oil stick pastels as well as shaded around the edges with a dark blue water color pencil.

Now to decide on the finishing. I'm excited by this idea ...

This afternoon I'll be playing with the placement of the trillium piece over the yardage of batik that has the effect of discharged leaves. I'll consider making my own discharged leaf fabric if I change my mind about the scale of this one. Right now my thought is those large "dead" leaves in the border complement the focus piece and add to the story. After all, old dried leaves are what I saw most on my recent woodland hike ...

Trillium

I'm liking this piece a lot!

However there were moments I considered scrapping it ... which means eventually cutting the woodland floor background into pieces for something else. My problem was that every color of tulle I placed over it to hold the sprouting plants in place "killed" the woodland floor hues. The whole piece just "died."

The solution was to choose the tulle color that enhanced the new growth parts ... that one is the bright yellowish green one...

It was pinned to cover the whole top. I stitched/quilted around the greenery then trimmed the tulle away from the woodland floor sections.

Well, most of it. I see that some more needs to be cut away. Do you see how the color is lost in the upper left corner in the above photo? Think I'll be trimming that away. Pieces of white tulle were placed over the blossoms, then the excess trimmed away after free-motion stitching around the petals. That stitching also anchors the calyx pieces which are loose on the surface. Some new growth pieces float on the surface as well.

Now I'm really excited about this piece. Next the yellow stamen will get embroidered and I have an idea about framing to pursue.

Sprouts on the Woodland Floor

I very much liked the foundation of scraps for this wild flower piece.

I have a lot of colors of tulle to select one to hold all these bits and pieces together ... and I debuted them all.

The grayed lavender is the one that worked best to my eye.
I quilted around the outside edges and just enough organic style lines through the center area to keep all those bits in place. Then I added newly sprouted plants along with real leaf skeletons and more scraps of fabric.

I have a huge bag of silk plant leaves. I kept digging until I found ones with the right hue, sheen, and veining. Very rarely do I use any "whole" leaves. You can see where one of the leaves for my plants was cut from that large one on the right.

Can you guess what the flowers will be from my leaf formations?

A Bit of Earth

I've had in mind for sometime to create small art quilts featuring spring flowers. A week ago after a picnic I took photos on a trail walk along the Clinch River ...

The coming of spring here in east Tennessee has been late. There were no new leaves on the trees and just a few sprouts of early wild plants.

Yesterday afternoon I got a start on creating the foundation for the first quilt. On the left is the first step of covering the batting with pieces from my scrap bag ... I think of it as "under painting"...

A second layer of thread and yarn scraps, plus scraps of tulle netting have been added. Now to do just enough quilting to hold it together, then I'll continue to build the picture. I still haven't decided which flowers will be growing through my woodland bed.

Just a reminder about the contest at the Quilting Gallery. Go here if you haven't yet checked it out.  Voting for 4 favorite quilts from the 37 entries and entering the fat quarter give-away deadline is 6:00 p.m. (EDT). Have fun and good luck!