Got the quilt top done and am now quilting away. Here's a close up so you can see how the bicycle track was finally done and how it looks on the snowy background.
I just had reason to revisit this piece and thought I'd post it for all to enjoy. This is a detail of a quilt done entirely on the embellisher (dry felting machine). There is no thread at all. This is a flexible way to work and nothing visually breaks up the blending as thread sometimes does.
I've been experimenting with the bike track to run through the snow in Christmas Morning. I did several sketches of the tires on my husband's bikes. Then I tried three different approaches with felt, paint transfer, stitching and burning to create a fairly realistic image. Here are a couple of samples. I chose the surface I liked best (the upper one) and have decided to do much less burning away of the felt. I'm also going to add a couple of tiny bits of color just to spice it up. It's really important to do a lot of experimentation to be sure that many approaches are considered. These two are fair but not 100% what I want. Should have it by the end of the day!
Yesterday we were in Carlsbad, California, for the opening of an exhibit of art quilts by Southern California SAQA members. I was happy to have my quilt, Harmattan I, the first in the Violent Winds series, juried in and to see so many friends and their great work as well! Stop by this month if you are in the area. It also feels wonderful to be back in the art groove after almost two months of traveling, being under the weather and then a massive computer disaster - pix of work over the last 7 months lost forever. Tan, rested and FOCUSED!!
In a most unseasonable manner I am working on a piece about winter called Christmas Morning. I have just gotten the ground fabric designed to be as varied and reflective as snow - something with which we are NOT intimately familiar here in Southern California near the beach! The photo doesn't really capture the sparkliness of the whites, but it does glisten.
