Snow Geese

This morning mother nature treated us to a rare sight ... a flock of snow geese bobbing in the waves.
Through the years we've occasionally seen these regal fowl flying along the shoreline in their migration north.
This is the first time we've ever seen them in the water. There is a strong wind from the northwest. I guess they got tired of flying headlong into it and decided to paddle north for a bit.
I kept waiting to take a photo of them taking off the water, but they just kept paddling.

Quilting Trees

Finally, I've gotten to the machine quilting for the mountain lake piece. The pine trees are done in three steps.
The first quilting is done on the foremost trees and the top edges of the dark green forest with a lively variegated mix of greens. I dropped down from those top edges to add spots of brightness here and there.
The second round of quilting filled in the dark green forest with a variegated thread that is a blend of greens that nearly matches the fabric.
The third round of stitching is done on the trees up in the mountains with a variegated blend of muted green, gold, and rust colors.
I stitched varying sizes of zig-zag patterns since these are pine tree forests of the Rocky Mountain National Park. All the top threads are King Tut by Superior Threads and bobbin thread is Bottom Line ... also by S.T's. The free-motion quilting is done on a Brother Nouvelle 1500S. I very much want to love this machine, but the overly sensitive tension settings drives me nuts. Do any of you have this model? Do you have any tricks to maintaining an even tension? Both the top and bobbin tensions change while I'm stitching ... aargh!

Tomorrow I tackle the mountains and sky.

"Flower Power" for Susan

I was the fourth contributor to Susan of Spokane's "Flower Power" themed Exquisite Corpse piece. My work blends into the edge of Arlee's section, but hardly into Susan's. Aargh! I wish I had been more attentive to that edge. It's now up to Susan to meld our work together.
I used my "ortwork" collage technique. I constructed it separately from Susan's whole piece. It consists of silk flowers, "bits & pieces", and roving collaged over a hand-painted background fabric plus a thin layer of batting. Tulle netting and free-motion quilting holds it all together. A bit more quilting secures it to Susan's large piece.
I have had the experience of being among such an array of wild flowers on a sunny blue skied day and have definitely felt their "power" ... I just collapsed and didn't want to leave.

Go here to see Susan's photos of the whole piece on Flicker.
Go here to read Susan's reveal and description of the whole piece as well as posts about the whole Exquisite Corpse Project.

Goodies in the Postbox

A very small box from Susan in Spokane arrived in my postbox about a week ago. It was stuffed full of marvelous art making materials.
There are wonderful hand stamped papers and fabric, a length of fun yarn, a hank of roving, fine copper mesh pieces, interesting beads and a pair of beautiful wooden earrings.

Susan is a fellow corpse-mistress and a contributor to my Exquisite Corpse piece (center section on the right side).
Soon photos of individual parts and my thoughts about the whole piece will be posted. I'm thinking some of those goodies from Susan will end up on the finished piece.

Adding to the Flock

By the end of the day, Tuesday, there were six birds from my pattern adding to the flock at large. Five are pictured here ... the sixth one flew home with its maker, Helen.
My husband's two cousins and their wives were visiting the cottage for a few days. My friend, Helen, came to spend the day playing in the studio with us.
Just before Helen left I took this photo of her and the cousin's wives birds. My bird had not progressed very far during the day due my hostess duties and helping each of them with unfamiliar machines as well as some of the steps involved in creating their birds. Poor thing had no feet, wings, nor eyes.
By the end of the day he got his cow bird wings to become the MaCowCowa bird. He found his roosting place on the ledge above the wood-burning stove in the living room.
My husband and I created the tile mosaic in 1999 to make a fire proof barrier for the heat generated by the chimney. Elvis is peering out of the top of Big Red, the lighthouse.

If you'd like to add to the flock at large in the world, the pattern and instructions are downloadable PDF files that you can print. They are found here (pattern)and here (instructions). To see a lot of other birds and more instruction photos click on the "Birds" label at the end of this post. If you make a bird, please share it with me.