1) For the fused pieces, I used misty fuse because I wanted to do some thread painting on the trees. It is a lighter fusible than the "paper backed" variety and so it is easier to stitch through and does not gum up your needle. Plus I could work from the front of my design and did not have to reverse all the pieces. It is more time consuming, but I am happy with the results.
2) Drawing the entire block took a while. I worked a rough sketch from a photo Deana took of the lake. I had to eliminate a lot of details, or I would still be cutting, fusing, and stitching. I decided on the size of the block and drew it on freezer paper. Then I drew in the basic shapes and layout. When I was satisfied with the sketch, I traced another one on freezer paper that I could cut part for the individual pieces. The freezer paper pieces were then pressed to the right sides of the selected fabrics.
3) Fabric selection to get the right values for the depth and perspective on the mountains and the shadowed area for the lake---which was frozen was important to me. I used sun painted fabric that I did last week for the sky. Value viewer helped and I even used the wrong side of a couple of pieces.
4) Thread painting the trees to create the texture and branches was new for me. Most of the thread painting that I have done has been on layers of tulle and solvy that were cut out and appliqued on. For this I fused the trees trunk on and then did the stitching for the branches and down the sides and at the base of the trees.
5) Finally, I used prismacolor pencils in a few spots for highlights and shadows that I missed.
Now to decide the layout. I had planned to use one fabric for the border and between the blocks, but I do not have enough of it. I have searched the Internet and asked people and contacted shops in the area, but no luck. So, I have gone to plan B. I will use the planned fabric for setting the blocks together. For the border I will do a shaded braid strip....that's my next step.
Insight: I am so glad I did the Art Quilt Workbook projects. I have used many of them in the blocks for this quilt. Thank you, Mona, for suggesting the group project. Thank you, Elin and Jane, for writing the book. Thank you to my project group for sticking with it.
Insight: Either buy larger amounts of fabric, or have a plan B. There goes my stash busting plan and my budget!
Happy stitching.
1 comment:
Beautiful block.
Thread painting is definitely an interesting technique to learn.
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