Grass Stains on a Gown

Seems like the past couple of weeks it has been one thing after another distracting me from working on Lady Melinda.  It hasn't been anything major - just distractions.  I've had art classes.  We've had company.  I spent a couple of days folding fabric and tidying up the studio.  I worked on some Christmas ornaments and those are time consuming.  Evelyn has been gopher hunting and a couple of days were devoted (attention wise) to learning about gophers and what to do about them (we got a pretty mean trap).  I spent a couple of days working on bindings and attaching them to UFO's.  Still need to hand stitch them down.  One night, owls showed up after dark and serenaded us for a couple of hours - just way too cool.  They were Great Horned Owls and I had to read about them the next day.   Of course, we had the election, yesterday, so I voted and then cruised the internet looking at the returns instead of doing what I should be doing.  Then on another day, I got it into my head that I wanted to try making polyclay dolls so I spent several hours researching how to do it and ordering some books and supplies.

Like I need more projects.

I will let you know what I think of the books.  I really want to try my hand at it but with Husband underfoot all the time (he works at home), I am not sure when I will get around to it.  I don't think it is fair to him to drop another hobby on his head.  He has been enormously patient but he must have a limit, somewhere.  The dolls might finally help him find it.  :)

But to get back to Lady Melinda, another reason I haven't moved forward is because I'd reached a point where I knew it was going to get dicey.  I decided I didn't like this pennant:

I shopped in my stash and decided I wanted to go with these fabrics, instead:

You might not be able to tell, but I also decided to go with a three-D effect on the staff and the flag.  The reason some of the edges are funky is because the fabric is just pinned on the quilt.  I think I may wait until it is quilted to attach it. 

But here is the big problem.  I wanted to paint the background to add a light sunrise/sunset feel to it and I was afraid it would run and ruin it.  With good reason.  Here are a few photos, in progress:

 The photo, above, is before the paint dried.  The ones following show less yellow and were taken after the paint dried:

 I should have made the light horizontal instead of diagonal.  The dramatic effect of looking like some saintly halo appealed to me, originally, but a horizontal sunrise/sunset would be more reasonable - more like this:

Compared to our Oklahoma sunrises, this one looks washed out:

It looks pale above the torso because that is where the head will be stitched/painted.  I am not sure if I will just paint in the hair or try to incorporate yarn or wool. 

 

I am happy with how it looks, over all.  Still, I made some mistakes.  I put wax resist on the edges of the fabric that I didn't want the paint to cross, but forgot that there was muslin attached to the back of it that I hadn't yet cut away.  Long story short, the muslin acted as a wick and there are paint stains several places on the dress. 

A large green stain is right in the middle!

I guess it could claim it was a grass stain if I wanted to make a narrative about it - but I am not sure why she'd have a grass stain on the hip, lower thigh and knee.  I sure don't want to have to write a story about it to accompany the quilt.
 
She also has a "grass stain" on the cape and belly:

To convince someone that those grass stains were part of the story being told by the quilt just leads in a direction I don't want to go with this. 

I am not horribly worried about it. I'll soak it in water and get some of it out.   Moreover, it is pale enough that I think I can cover it up and it won't be particularly noticeable when I get it quilted, anyway.  More troublesome is a spot on the sky that has stubbornly resisted taking paint.  It is on the left side of the pennant, near the tip:

I think it is where the fabric was originally folded but no amount of pressing and stretching has helped.  It keeps coming back and I have painted it and re-painted it.  When it is all said and done, I'll probably go back with colored pencils and hide it so, again, I am not too worried about it.

Next step, after trying to get out the stains (which will take a day or so to allow to dry, afterwards) is to heat set it.  Then, I will do my best to draw in the face and arm with water soluble marker. 

Pray for me. 

I'll also draw in quilting marks on the dress and cloak. 

After that, I'll square it up, put in double layers of batting (poly on top) and hit it with the longarm. 

Still have a long way to go. 

Happy Quilting, Penny, Evelyn and Pearl

Unemployed

I worked on another ornament, last night and for awhile this afternoon.  It turned out a lot better than the first one.  The learning curve is steep but not high.

 I also made some decorated stick pins. 

 

 Evelyn is just so pretty, I think...

 

 

 

 

 Oh, those feet!!

This was the first day of the season that I wore a sweatshirt.  Even though I have out my autumn lap quilts, most of the past few days have been too chilly to be comfortable out on the patio for more than a few minutes with my first cup of coffee.  Daylight Savings ending will go a long way towards opening up that little bit of time between waking up and Husband having to start work - hopefully, the weather will stay warm enough to have a few more days/weeks of coffee with him on the patio.  Not really counting on it, though - the seasons change quickly, this time of year. 

I spent several hours out in the barn a couple of days ago, folding fabric.  My tall workbench is perfect for that sort of thing and I used my 6 X 24 inch ruler to fold them a uniform size.  I also moved most of my fabric from my sewing room to the barn, leaving primarily fat quarters and fabric directly related to projects I'm working on.

I was sitting at the computer, today, when it occurred to me that I don't have a job.  I don't work.   Okay, so I haven't worked in a year but this was the first time that I self identified myself as a housewife/homemaker/bum.  For years, I have snuck in a little time here and there to work on a quilt.  It always was shoe horned in between going to work, sleeping, and preparing to go to work.  These days, however, I get up in the morning and make curtains.  Or think about working on an ornament "in the morning."  Suddenly, my time is my own.    I am not having to grab bits and pieces of life.  I am losing the dread that I am going to have to go back to practice law.  I'm not saying I won't get a job at some point (I like having pocket money) but I sure am not motivated to do it, right now. 

Happy Quilting, Penny, Evelyn and Pearl

Affair of the Heart

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that my art professor had us draw a draped fabric as an assignment.  He told me he was happy with mine but when we went back to the next class, he apparently wasn't happy with many of them.  He decided we were going to do some drawing exercises, then try again.  He'll give us the best of the two grades.  I actually got a good grade and a nice comment on the first one so it is downhill from here, baby!

Anyhoo, last week he pinned up a different drapery and told us to sketch the outline, then draw horizontal lines across it that curved with the folds of the fabric.  It was an extremely frustrating exercise and my fingers were killing me from using small muscles I normally just ignore.  Towards the end of class (it is 3.5 hours), I felt like I was starting to "get" it but it was far from complete. 

This week, he let us continue to work on it.  He left the classroom and after about thirty minutes, Angry Girl (who I mentioned in a post about a month ago) stood up and loudly crumpled up her large paper.  Then she stomped over to trash (VERY dramatically) and violently crammed it in.  She then stomped over to her easel, shoved over the drawing board, grabbed her purse and stomped out in a huff.

Well, then. 

The rest of us just looked at each other.  There were a few shaken heads but none of us said a word.  Just went right back to drawing. 

This is what I came up with:

It was actually kind of fun.

Last weekend, I went to the Affair of the Heart, a monstrously huge arts and craft show in Oklahoma City down at the fairgrounds.  It was as big as a small city - six buildings filled with craft vendors.  I am glad I am not subject to panic attacks because the wave of people and complete sensory overload would have set one off.  I had fun - went with my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law and we ate breakfast at Cracker Barrel before we went to the show.   I ended up getting some candles, soap and a pattern to make ornaments. 

Here is my first rough ornament attempt:

 Like I said - rough.

It is not a stitched, ornament.  You use pins and my hands, between art class and pinning the ornament, ache.  If you want to see how they are SUPPOSED to look, check out this site! (she sells them)

I also stitched on a label and binding on grandson's baby quilt.  I haven't handstitched down the binding, yet, but it is coming along.  When I finish it, I will start a new one! 

I stopped off after art class, today to get a flu shot.  I don't always get one but someone pointed out that with a newborn, I don't want to take chances.  McB is due in February and the last thing I would want to do is show up and hack on the poor darling. 

February will be here before we know it.  Amazing.

We've had some gorgeous sunrises, lately.

We got an inch and a quarter of rain a few days ago.  The clouds make for an interesting sunrise.  I can count on the fingers of both hands how many overcast days we've had since June.  HEAVEN!

On the 24th, my art quilt group, (We are) The Baker's Dozen, revealed our latest project, with the theme of "Symbol."  I was not in the mood for anything heavy so I went with the symbol for Aries, my zodiac sign.   I decided to quilt/paint an elfin looking creature with ram horns.  Amazingly (pathetically?), that decision was made without benefit of hard drugs.  Actually, I wanted to try to quilt a face on a smaller project before tackling it on Lady Melinda.  So this was my excuse. 

Here are a few photos of Aries, in progress:

 The back:

She looks a bit like a female Michael Jackson and I forgot to quilt in eyebrows.  That may actually have been good.  My sketches that included eyebrows made her look mean. 

 I'm not really happy with the hair or the eyes but I had fun doing it.  I was pleased with the mouth. 

Evelyn has discovered a gopher and I suspect she is going to tear up the yard trying to catch it.  She was buried up to her shoulders, last I checked.  Husband is beside himself but I figure there is no way to stop her because she is a sneak from way back.  An elegant sneak, but a sneak all the same.

I discovered a new app for my IPhone that charts the moon, stars and planets.  It is so cool that I keep going outside and comparing the 3-D screen to the sky.  

I am such a nerd.

Happy Quilting, Penny, Evelyn and Pearl