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Wednesday 9 March 2011

Works in Progress Wednesday

I have the backdrops of two more pieces put together!  I feel really good about this.  I feel even better about the fact that I have already made my plan for how I will finish & display them FIRST.  There is nothing worse than making something you are proud of and then finding that nothing fits.  So I've made my little pieces to fit the double matting I've already purchased... for the frames I've already purchased.  These 5x7 inch pieces (in my opinion) will be best under glass.  I need double matting to keep the glass off the art.  Here's one of my favorite photographs.  It's from last summer when I stood by the highway in a ditch to get this awesome shot of an oat field.


And here's how I work - totally paperless.  It's always a good day when I find the perfect color-matches in my stash. 


That one is all ready to be free motion stitched and hand embroidered.  I'm going to have fun with the oats!  : )  They are so whispy.

This next one is from my other favorite photograph.  I took a series of prairie pics one day that all contained posts or fences.  I thought it was so interesting to notice how the flowers & grasses don't care about the man-made barriers.  : )  It was such a contrast, and so I set the contrast high on all the photos too. 


The colors match really good here too.  I'll couched some thick dyed wool into those trees.  All the grasses are being thread painted.  And yup!  Those little blue flowers in the foreground will be french knots.  ; )


Here's another one I want to make some day.  LOOK how tightly wound that fence post is!  It's trying so hard to be a fence. but it's not really doing a great job at all.  lol  And those flowers are all just loose and happy and flourishing.  Again, I set this one in very high contrast.  I love it!  This one will be a big piece I think.



I told you so.  : )  I told you I'd take off flying once I had my machine working smoothly.  Here's what I started while you were checking out yesterday's "Tips on Tuesdays".  Remember the Rosehips Under Glass post? 


I started threadpainting it... and if it works, I have a very cool surprise coming up for you to see...


: )  I hope you enjoyed today's post.
Have a great day!
~Monika
Sewing in Saskatoon

16 comments:

Margaret said...

Your thread-painting skills are exquisite!

beth said...

love your stitches!

Flo @ Butterfly Quilting said...

These are all beautiful! You are so talented, and such an inspiration?

Michelle in Saskatoon said...

of course I enjoyed your post, it is really interesting to see a landscape develop in thread

www.randomthoughtsdoordi.com said...

I am still in awe of your talent!

Becky said...

WOW! I can't wait to see how the oat field turns out! We have wheat fields here... miles and miles of them, which are similar! I might have to dig around and find a picture to post on my blog today for you (and everyone else). Aren't they totally cool! Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks they're beautiful!

elle said...

ah,sky, fences, grains, grasses and a few coloured petals! We are blessed!

Christie describeHappy said...

Oh my goodness, just one of those works would put my in awe.. but to see so many in progress at once. It's incredible!! I really can't get enough of your thread painting! I am such a sucker for the lines and textures you incorporate. Oh, and I like how you talked about the contrast between fences and flowers for example. See... so much to be in awe of!! Happy sewing!

Kimberly White said...

What beautiful work you do!

PinkZipper said...

What wonderful work. I especially like the oat fields. I've never seen anything like it.

CityHouseStudio said...

It's so fun to see what you're up to!
Beautiful projects!
Michelle

Live a Colorful Life said...

Really beautiful work. I'm completely impressed!

Unknown said...

Hello, Monika. Your work is beautiful. (There has to be a better word.But it's really SO beyond beautiful!) may I ask if you are completely self taught, or did you take any types of classes? The reason I ask: I think I'd like to try my hand at thread painting and such. (Because of serious back problems, I've discovered that the loom weaving that I've tried is too hard on my body. So, I've wanted to learn another art or 'craft'. (Again, 'craft' doesn't do it justice.) Any advice, however small, would be greatly appreciated. (Don't worry about competition: I won't retire for possibly another 12 years. I know it will take me that long to do much with what I hope to learn...as I have barely enough energy to get through my work days.)

Thank you, again, Monika!

Kind regards, Angie

Unknown said...

P.S. No matter how long I attempt your type of art, I know that nothing I could produce would ever be as beautiful as your work...even if I worked the rest of my days. My mind's eye is still in it's infancy.

monika@mysweetprairie.ca said...

Hi Angela! Oh thanks so much. I really appreciate you care in your request too. ; ) I did just figure it out on my own. I haven't had any classes or teachers. But I didn't invent it, so you can find books on the topic. It's basically the same process as free motion machine quilting, with the feed dogs dropped and the darning foot in use (see photo in this post). Just start practicing on little page-sized pieces. I used heavy duty interfacing as a stabilizer so my work doesn't pucker from heavy stitching. Move your piece around so that the needle/thread on your machine acts like a pen full of ink. So as you move the fabric, you leave a line or trail of color. Imagine it that way. So ti's the opposite of coloring - instead of moving the pen on the art surface, you will move the art under the pen's surface. You can draw, sketch, or fill in. You'll figure out soon how to move the piece and also what speed works best to stitch at.

Though we call it free motion or thread painting, it's quite popular in the UK as "machine embroidery".

~Monika

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for the information, Monika! I have two acquaintances who are master seamstresses. Maybe I could get them to help me some, now that I know more about how it's done. One of the first things I should do, I'm sure, is take some photography classes. (I'm a complete idiot where photography is concerned...including having no eye for good subjects inanimate or not.)

Your posts are some of the best parts of my days! Thank you, again, for sharing so generously.

Angela

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