Welcome Summer!

In honor of the beginning of summer I finished up this cute little scene.

Summer Meadow is 9" X 6.5" .  The background and inspiration for this piece was just a little leftover.  My local guild had a playtime meeting using Intense Drawing Pencils.  One of the members graciously brought her pencil sets and fabric for us to play with.  One of my experiments became the base for this piece.

Unfortunately I forgot to snap a photo of the fabric I painted before I started embellishing on it. But something about the colors and the movement in the paint  just made me think of a meadow and I had to develop it into a finished piece.

Above is a close up of the finished piece.

Embroidery stitches, beading, netting tatting, paint,sheer fabric and gauze.

Layered on painted fabric and backed with 80/20 white batting.

I hope you enjoyed my ode to summer and are inspired to put some finishing touches on your leftovers or experiment pieces. 

Have a great day!

MaryEllen

The bird quilt

There are so many wonderful bird patterns on Pinterest, but this one from Quilt Today was the winner for me.

The Bird Block a free pattern from Quilt Today on Bloglovin' September 26, 2020, and found on Pinterest.

The pattern was clear and easy to work on, and so cute!

Playing with the layout.  

My quilt finished at approximately 52" X 64".

Free motion quilting in light yellow with a leaf pattern done on my domestic machine.

I had lots of fun collecting fabrics for this charming throw. Most of the fabrics for the birds were from the remnant bins or grab bags at various quilt shops.  The backing fabric was my favorite find! This cute fabric from Moda was perfect and tied everything together.

Finished and on display in my family room.

Well I misplaced my embroidery needle so I'm off with my magnet to find it. Hopefully not in my foot!

Have a great day everyone!

MaryEllen

Water Lily

Kayaking is a favorite activity at the lake and this piece is inspired by the wonderful plant life in the backwater areas of beautiful Minnesota.

This piece has taken me a while to finish.  I had lots of starts and stops as the piece just seemed to need time to develop.  I would work on something, finish that idea and then I would  need to step back and wait for inspiration on how to go on.

Step one was hand coloring this wonderful vintage napkin.  I have had a set of these vintage water lily napkins. When I found them they seemed to be a work in progress. Some had the cutwork areas still intact while others had various amounts of the cutwork finished. I used both a finished and unfinished napkin in the final piece. You can see the difference in the above photo (an unfinished napkin)  and the detailed photo below which shows some of the cutwork in place.

 I'm not sure where I picked these napkins up but I've always loved them. The napkins were a cream color and I spent some time playing with changing the color.  I wanted a more sepia/aged look while retaining an organic nature.

Most of the color work was done with Tsukineko Inks.  Different types of accent marks were also used.

I also took some time cutting off the stems and small leaves.

The next step was to stitch the napkin to a backing fabric and then thread paint like crazy. 

 Back

When I finished thread painting the flower I free motion quilted the sides and turned under the edges to make a finished knife edge.

 

I reinforced the edges to give them a crisp fold.  My hope was that the addition of this extra interfacing would help keep the corners extra firm.

I used inks and markers to add shading, and pop to various areas.

And then the embroidery and beadwork began.

The piece is beaded with several types and sizes of beads.

Algae was made with confetti patches.

Stems were made using twists of fabric.

I also added a string of "knotting" along the edges.  

Because I wanted the piece to hang in the on-point perspective I wanted to add the piece to a base.

I experimented with several options before settling on a linen toweling fabric.

I made a quilt sandwich with linen toweling, batting and cotton backing. I free motioned quilted this in a design I hoped would reference wood grain.  To the corners I added dark napkin pieces, these were from a second napkin. After I colored the napkin I needed to cut it into quarters to fit under the top piece.

The binding was done on a curve.  Batting is  80/20. Finished size: 26.25" X  26.25", 80/20 batting.

According to the Department of Natural Resources for Minnesota The White Water Lily (Nymphaea odorata) which grows in mucky low water areas is important to the natural balance as it is an excellent habitat for fish and the seeds are eaten by waterfowl.  Management questions should be addressed to the DNR.

I really love how it all turned out.  I hope you enjoyed hearing about my journey to finish Water Lily.

Have a great day!

MaryEllen