Works in Progress Wednesday

I'm still workin'!  Here's what's up right now.  I have completed this custom order via my Etsy shop!  I'm so thrilled to have completed it.

It's a bit bigger than 2x3 feet.  I added the tabs yesterday.  This is for Kate's new home, far away from the prairie.  I hope she just loves it!!

border, binding, tabs.

It was a big project!  So there you go - I finished Mandy's AND Kate's.  I haven't done much at all on Jesica's quilt except for plan things in my head.  That counts.  I just don't have photos to prove it.  : )

I put together a kit for Emma to make the Snips n Snails quilt from the Summer issue of A Needle Pulling Thread magazine.

Okay... I have to show this again for the WIP wednesday gang.  ; )

I'm on the cover!  It's starting to sink in now... WOW!

Emma is the woman I met in the fabric store, magazine in hand, trying to gather the fabrics for this quilt I designed.  We met by "accident" or serendipity, more like it!  She's making this quilt to send off to Australia later in the year!  Isn't that cool?  Even stranger... she had no idea this was me, or that I was even in the same city as her.  When I met her in the store, I thought she bought it because she reads my blog.  Totally not.  She just liked the quilt.  I told her, "so you are a real fan!?".  She was as thrilled to meet me.  It was quite funny.  If i see her again, I'll ask her for her autograph.  hehe

Our mail is up and running after 2 weeks!! WOOHOO!  I hopped online and ordered the fabrics that I used for this quilt.  They are all 70's solids and I just love the way they look together!  I'll have some kits ready as soon as that box arrives.  The kit includes assorted buttons and embroidery floss as well.

'coppertone summer' colors picked by the editor of ANPT

Then I headed straight out and mailed these postcards to various places around the planet.  I love postcard swapping so much!  I can't wait to see what shows up in my mailbox.  i love snail mail.

off to New York, Ontario, California, Dublin, and Saskatchewan : )

I am about to rework this piece as a commission from the last show.  It sold before the exhibit but I thought I would display it anyhow.  I figured it was a good one.  The person who bought it knows I'm reworking it and that's okay.  I was sure to ask first, because, well... you know.  It's art, and everyone wants an original.  But each time I make something, it's never identical, and I learn more about what works and what doesn't.  I look forward to this, it was a lot of stitching that was quite loose and free.  I really enjoyed it.

barbed wire & dandelions

Other than that, things will go slow for the summer.  All the kids are home and one has some homeschooling to do to catch up before September.  Thank you everyone for your input to Tips on Tuesdays.  I will be taking the summer off from that particular posting.   There were a couple requests for thread painting to be covered.  Hang tight!  I will be doing that and it will be quite thorough hopefully, as it's part of a group blog effort.  More on that later...it's a surprise.

See you all tomorrow!  To see what other bloggers are up to, go to Lee's at Freshly Pieced, and Esther's Blog too!

~Monika

Tuesday Off Topic

Spring on the Prairie III (detail) 2011 by Monika Kinner-Whalen, a photo by My Sweet Prairie on Flickr.

Hello! I've been busy busy and unable to get a Tips on Tuesdays post done for this week. It was a well lit day for me to get all my photography done before putting my eight new art pieces under glass in their frames.

I'm done! I have uploaded my 4 favorite shots of each piece into my flickr online photo album. To see them all, simply click on the photo in this post, and it will take you to my flickr set. From there, simply click "older" over and over to see everything I've just uploaded. ; ) That 'newer/older' button should be near the top corner of the photo when you go there.

easy?
You'll know you're done when you see my old stuff from Gardenscape.

p.s. All pieces are for sale and will be in A Needle Pulling Thread Magazine next year.

Have a great day!
~Monika
...who REALLY feels like she's accomplished great things!!

Monday Auditions

This weekend was pretty productive.  I managed to finish all eight pieces and cut twenty four mats.  I tried to photograph them at high resolution before putting them under glass, but it was one of those days where there was sunshine, a giant cloud, sunshine, a giant cloud, sunshine... you get the idea.

This time around, I got a variety of frames and a variety of matting colors.  I got to mix and match to get the best look for each piece. Here are some snapshots of how I audition the mats and frames.

"Boundless", with pale stained wood and matching double matting

"Spring on the Prairie" with a barn wood frame and double matting

I really love that barn wood frame.  It has just a hint of denim blue in it's grain that looks so good with that dark storm and those blue knots in the field.  Honestly, I think all my pieces looked so good in that one!  It was pricey though, so I only bought one.  I'm choosing to put Spring on the Prairie in it because there's something so real and loose about it that worked well with the country frame.  It has a very natural feel overall.  It's also very texturous, which the art is also.  : )

"Poles Along Highway 7" looks so fresh in this blonde wood & double mat

I particularly like how the wood of the frame corresponds with the wood of the power poles.  And the bright white outer mat makes the clouds shine.  It gives that quirky composition a more contemporary feel.

"Linen Moon" looks s good with sage matting and a coffee colored frame

The moon will go on last!  I still have to do that.  I ended up adding some single stitch lines in that sage color just below the canola field.  It really helped to soften the landscape and give it more depth.  It also blends well with the outer matting.  You can click to see them closer.  I thought I would want more blue surrounding this one, but when I auditioned it, it just made the whole piece very silly.

Well there you go!  Hopefully it will be more sunny for me to take the rest of the photos tomorrow.  See you then!  : )

~Monika

Moving Right Along...

Happy Weekend!  Look what I did on Friday!  It's not finished, but I thought since the Highway 7 photo was such an interesting one, I would make it again to frame for this show & sale.  They original version of this is a medium sized quilted wallhanging.  I'm about to finish a much larger one on commission.  This one here is 6 by 8 inches, and will be matted and framed under glass.

cheese cloth clouds

This is really great.  I found this type of cloud to work really well.  It curves just like the landscape below.  I love how the colors work so well together - the bright green and the greyish blue.  I believe that's actually a flax field in the distance.  What do you think?  I suppose it could be the shadow of a cloud.  On my original wall hanging, people think it's a lake.  : )

the photo and the fibre art, work in progress

I'm going to have to stop soon and spend some days just finishing eveything, mounting them, signing them, cutting the matting, and framing.  Gosh.  And then there's the yardwork!  It's a good thing that 3/4 of my garden is perennial.  Look!  The strawberries are finally blooming!

Have a lovely lovely weekend everyone.  The weather is good and the gas prices are down.  YESSSS.  Beach time!

~Monika

Works in Progress Wednesday

What do mustache trimmers and door stoppers have in common?  You will have to go back to yesterday's post and read the comments to find out!  Wow.  I learned a lot from all you great Tips on Tuesdays participants!  Thank you all.

Okay, down to business!  What have I been working on?  Believe it or not, I feel like I"m not accomplishing much, though I've been working working working since last Thursday.  I finished 'Deep Summer" for the Spring Show & Sale at the end of the month.  This piece is based on a photo I took last summer.

I finished the binding on the wonky owl quilt (the one with the tornado quilting).

I actually finished the piece for Kate!!  The art is done, I still have to make a border and put a backing on it.  I had a great time doing this one yesterday!  I used a seamstress' french curve to mark the lines I stitched for the power lines.  Here is a third of it, minus the beads for insulators.  The piece measures about 24 x 36 so far.  It's also based on a photo I took last year.

I have nearly all the embellishing complete on Mandy's wallhanging!!!  I said I wouldn't do this, but here is a look-see...  detail of the tree boughs.

It's full of french knots in a variety of greens, extended out to look like buds & small branches.  There are big glass beads stitched on too.  I spent hours and hours stitching lots and lots to pretty it up like she was dreaming about.

Jesica, if you are reading this, I haven't put a stitch on your quilt.  :(  But it's all waiting in my head.  I'll phone you soon.  : )

And I worked a bit on this one... it is based on a photo I took last year as well.  It's 6x8" and is for the Spring Art Show and Sale as well.  There is some marking where the poles will be stitched.  SO far, so good!  I love it, though I was surprised to have 6 shades of grey, and not the right one for this piece.  !?  I made it work.

Is there more?  Nope... I think that's it.  Pretty good hey?  If anyone is interested in joining a quilted postcard swap group, we would love some 'new life'.  You can click on the PostCardCottage link in the left sidebar for more information.  (I adopted the yahoo group from the former moderator.)

Head on over to Lee's at Freshly Pieced to see what other quilters in blogland are up to!  : )

Have a great day!
~Monika

Works in Progress Wednesday

Okay... I said I was taking a week off, and I took a day off.  Can you blame me?  I'm addicted.  So here's what's up this week.  With Mother's day coming up quick, I'm working to complete that tree.  I had Mandy come over this morning and she and I planned an arrangement of beading and chunky french knots.  I want her getting this soon.  So I have a lot of hand stitching to do know which I will thoroughly enjoy!!  I am so in the mood for that.

I haven't worked on Kate's highway poles, but that will come soon enough.  Their possession date for a new home away from the prairies has not yet arrived, so I'm not feeling panic.

Jesica's stitching will be planned out, but not complete to until after the end of the month.  I have an art exhibit to produce by the end of this month, and (yikes) who am I kidding!?  Deadlines press.

I took off to a sewing retreat on Sunday.  I spent the whole day in a vaulted cedar room overlooking a lake with the windows open.  (See last post for details.)  It was awesome!  I specifically took no existing projects with me.  I figured the art was too messy with all the yards & beads & threads.  I didn't have a plan for a quilt, so I just took along all the solid precuts I had in my stash and made a big quilt top.  I even did all the piecing with Fiona (my Kenmore ogre who is really a princess).  She did a marvelous job!

I also put together some single log cabin blocks for a baby quilt top.  It has five shades of pink if you look really close.

But wait!  There's more.  Remember the wonky owl quilt?  It looked like an earthquake.  I wasn't happy with the quilting and i didn't show you because it was too much.  Well I decided ripping out the stitches would take about 5 days... so I jsut kept going.  It looks like a dozen tornadoes.  It's a natural disaster quilt.  lol  I kept thinking, 'it's okay.  Anno is very unconventional.  She'll like it!  She'll laugh.  Laughing is good.'  She saw it last night and loved it.  So all I have left to do it hand stitch the binding before our six children go on a playdate tomorrow.  : )  Then she heads home which is out of province.

spirals upon intersecting circles...  tornadoes!

Finally - I'm threadpainting and handstitching some postcards for the spring swap at PostCard Cottage.  Join if you like!  The link is on the sidebar.  I can't show you a lot, but I'll give you this, which is turning out pretty and quite enjoyable to do.

All righty then!  Head over to Lee's at Freshly Pieced to see what other quilters are up to!  : )

~Monika

Works in Progress Wednesday

Hello!  The birthday give-aways are only half through, but I'm taking today to catch up on posting what I'm working on.  Well I have to show you some more details to Mandy's Magical Tree.  Come look at the sparkle in the sky!

Those little beads are all stitched on, in a SWOOSH behind the two stars that were made from the tops of her boys' booties.  ; )  I also fished the edges of this wall hanging in a pillow-case finish.  I like it because it didn't add more bling to this piece.

I LIKE IT!  : )

I put the border on Jesica's quilt and it's awating some stitches.  I have yet to think about what I'm doing with that.  hmmm.  Maybe some hand embroidery.

I made the binding for the wonky owl quilt.  I actually finished quilting it about half way, and I realize that I've completely ruined the look of it.  Now what?  I had better sharpen that seam ripper.  It's bad.  I mean it's horrible.  The stitches are great and smooth and even, but it just overpowers the clean lines of the quilt.  Ugh.  Good thing Anno isn't due until November!!  :(

And I put in all the little fence posts onto Kate's piece.  Now I'm planning for the poles to be couched on.

The FUNNY thing is, a woman at guild asked me about my Telephone Poles piece.  She said, "There are no telephone poles along Highway 7.  Those are power lines."  HAHA  (Ooops!)  I smiled and told her, "Then I'll have to change the name of that piece like I did with The Wheat Field.  I renamed that one, The Oat Field".  Hehehe!  That generated some laughter!  To my defense, my parents weren't farmers.  We only had chickens, vegetables, raspberries, and a half acre of wild gophers.  I thought all golden fields were wheat.  Oh well.  You live and you learn, right?  So with my summer study of skies, I will also study fields and learn to identify rye, oats, barley, wheat, etc... 

Well there you have it.  Thanks for stopping by.  Head on over to Lee's at Freshly Pieced to see what other quilt bloggers are up to.  Check out all my posts for the week!  Draws for all the give-aways will be posted on Saturday.  More to come! 

Have a great week,
~Monika

I Can't Believe My Ears!

Oh what a fabulous day!!  It's really spring.  We can finally leave all the windows open and hear the huge variety of birds singing outside in the trees.  I don't know about you, but hearing birds chirp puts me in such good spirits!  Speaking of trees, I will now show you the whole front of Mandy's wall hanging.  I really think the tree is done.  I have just started a very pretty splash of dark seed beads up in that sky and it's like throwing magic into the air.  (Beads not in the photo yet...)

holding my breath... Mandy hasn't seen a full shot of this yet!

In case you are confused about the images, the setting sun represents father (fabric from a wrap), the silk moon is mother (from a mei tei carrier), and the two stars are the boys (from a pair or woven booties).  The sky is made of two baby carries.  The lightest leaves are also from a stretchy wrap.  It's been SLOOOOW going on my part, but I think it's turning out really good.  This one had a lot of contemplation time.   

I really made some progress on Kate's wall hanging yesterday.  It has a lot of detailing that I'm so very happy with.  I like to pull viewers in.  So here is the large remake of "Telephone Poles on Highway 7", minus the telephone poles.  ; )

original on the wall, photo on the laptop, commission on the table

after hours of stitching... work in progress.

the details

And as I'm working away, I had a great idea for Jesica's quilt.  The centre is a gradation of colored half square triangles alternating with white ones.  The lower left is black, which moves like a rainbow until the top right corner is white.  It will be bordered with wide white.  Then I'll do another border of a single row of HSTs so that the color scheme is reversed.  This way it will balance the whole look of the quilt.  In the wide white border, I'll free motion stitch some symbols that remind Jesica of her grandmother.  I may just do that in white.  But that's a ways off right now.  I have time to think about it. 

And to all you who comment/follow on my blog... PROMISE me you'll come back on Sunday.  I have a very special surprise for YOU.  : )

~Monika
still listening to the birds sing.

Works in Progress Wednesday

Yesterday, I wrote out what I'm going to say for Monday's presentation at the afternoon guild meeting.  (yay!).  Now to put a slide show together and gather some show and tell items.  p.s. Thanks everyone who offered moral support around public speaking.  ; )

Secondly, I learned my lesson.  See that pic?  There's Pretty Penny (the Janome)... skipping stitches.  There's Fiona (my Kenmore) trying to prove she can do it better.  Either way, I'm not happy.  And there's the phone book.  I called Andrea to ask advice.  "Why can I threadpaint / free motion stitch on canvas without any problems at all, and yet without resetting anything, I cannot free motion a quilt without skipping stitches!?"  She went through the checklist with me and suggest I use that built in convertible needle plate.  I never do, and never have.  So I tried.  B I N G O !  I can't even make it skip now!  Sheesh.  I guess that canvas is low and stable enough that there are no issues and the special needle plate isn't needed.  Dang high-end machines.  lol

It's all good.  I worked a while on this sky.  It's painted cloth with more layers on top.  The clouds are free motion stitched with white thread, and the sky is filled with horizontal waves of blue.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  This is for "K" who is having the Telephone Poles on Highway 7 redone as a larger wall hanging.  (I didn't ask if I could use their names, but they did give me permission to blog my progress.

I've also been reworking the Canola Fields for a woman named "J".  She called a little late after the show and the piece had been sold.  She sounded so disappointed.  So I offered to to this for her.  I have to say, I love hand stitching!  Right now I'm at approximately 600 french knots.  This piece is a little bigger, and I am guessing there will be nearly a thousand when I'm done.  (Yeah!!!!)  My hopes are that if it's actually done by the weekend, I can bring it to guild.  After the last exhibit, I have nothing left to show!

I spent all of Sunday reorganizing my stash and cleaning my room.

But wait, there's more!  I was on my way out the door to go biking with the kids when the phone rang.  It was "the lady from the newspaper".  She's interviewing me on Wednesday.  I'll tell you all about it after it happens.  Can I just say that I'm no longer too nervous about presenting to guild?  (gasp!).  She's coming to my house and is looking forward to seeing my work which she labeled, "exquisite"!!  : )  Wow.  Do I feel blessed.  Of course, I don't have much to show to her after it's all sold, so I got to work on this one which was ready to thread paint.  Oooh I love it!  I spent a couple hours on it so far.

It's a deep, deep field with light and shadows that I had done the background for last week.  It's done now with the exception of the edging, some hand stitched fence posts in the distance & embroidered flowers in the foreground.  !! 

~Monika