Stitching for Melfort

Creative time!  There's about 2 weeks until the show in Melfort.  There will be crewel yarn embroideries, tea sets, prairie threadpaintings, vessels, and a few collaborations as well between me and potter Ken Wilkinson.

I can't wait to have the show up.  I'm stitching away.  I have all the scenes picked out and all the backgrounds prepped with the right colours of fabric and I'm ready to go.  I'm matching up colours between his pottery and my stitching.  I have a handful of photos printed out because my laptop is just too dark even on the brightest setting.  (p.s.  Dollarama has cheap Polaroid photo paper packs for your printer.)

my photos ready to inspire

This is all I really start with - two pieces of fabric.  One is for sky, one is for land.  It's that simple.

great sky find - thank you Dahn!  : )

I love batiks and hand dyes because they are so natural looking.  Some I buy.  Dye.  Some I barter for.  I love having huge pieces of dyed fabric and looking for that little tiny section that is just PERFECT for the piece.  Like the threads I use, finding that special piece of colour on a large cloth is like treasure hunting.

I keep my photo nearby and start drawing in the landscape with thread.  This is one I nearly finished this weekend.  It's ready for hand work now.

little peek of a work in progress - still bare bones

My studio is one huge mess between Gardenscape and classes.  I had managed to misplace a Bison.  Ha!  You know it's bad when...  How does one misplace a Bison!?
Well, truthfully, it was a little cloth shape of a bison for a small art quilt.  I found it though!  I'm putting this together for a friend who gifted me teacups and bison yarn.  I don't make art quilts, but I think I kind of enjoy it. : )

Neat, hey?  I'll do the binding in a solid charcoal colour.  It's based on a photo I took of a herd south of the city.  I kind of like this lone one.  Still needs to be stitched in place.

Well folks, back to work.  Enjoy this beautiful WINDY. noisy spring.  xo