Finishing up some and working on new piece

Well I’m busy and seem to have flowers on the brain. I’ve finished three small pieces with blue flowers, now I am starting a red lily. It is a fused piece with appliqué stems. Next up is to cut the batting and backing, then baste and ready to quilt!
Here’s the last blue flowered on and then the red lily.

You can see more creative work at Off the Wall Fridays

A Lily

This week I made a lily that has thread painting in the center and some fabric paint to highlight the center making it a bit darker than the original color of the fabric. I seem to be making something once a week and drawing the work out so I can do it in the mornings.

There are more creative pieces to see at Off the Wall Fridays

Bloodroot

I thought I would make a small bloodroot quilt/wall hanging. It is fused then quilted all over with various quilting in the different areas. I have a little bit of hesitation in making work with raw edges but I think I’ll get over it, maybe 😂

You can see other nice work at Off the Wall Fridays

Down on the farm

several years ago I stayed at a B&B in Connecticut. This was a scene from my window and I’ve always loved it. It’s a small piece 10 x 10 or so. I fused the buildings, thread painted the tree and did some felted and embroidery for the sheep 

There are more interesting and fun pieces at Off the Wall Fridays

Thread painting a tree

This week I started a new thread painting of a tree and it’s roots. I’m working on the forest floor right now and only have my second layer finished. I will move onto several other colors to complete it and will probably be finished in a couple of days. Working on things like this keeps me happy and fulfills my creative muse.

You can see more great work at Off The Wall Fridays
There’s the tree with the forest floor finished, well, not quite finished. I did work on it a bit more and added a couple of more colors to the floor, added some leaves to the tree that’s behind and the small one to the right.

Starting the quilting

So now I’ve been quilting it! I’ve used a variegated thread on the flower petals and color coordinated on the parts I’ve quilted so far. I started using a foot for quilting but ended up taking the foot off and following the brown design that way. It’s a little different but I got used to it.

You can see many creative quilts/work at http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/ off the wall Friday’s

And a week later....

I actually have been working on the Statler Fountain. I do a lot of my work in my head, I am sure others do too, then I execute the ideas I come up with. So far I am happy with the progress too.

The next two weeks I have to go back to the real job again, writing 80+ letters of acceptance or regret to the artists in or not in the exhibit in the fall. (I haven't told my printer yet, but she is new and can handle the job) I still need to find two sponsors for two categories of awards - once that is done I can relax for a couple of weeks. It should be the end of August by then - time flies when you are having fun :)

I am going to get my self a new bicycle. I tried it again after trying to bike about 10 years ago and now that I have been walking on my treadmill, I can so flat or gently rising surfaces - so why am I not? Tried one of my sons old bikes and had a blast, but it doesn't fit me right, so now I get my own again.

Don't forget to go see the wonderful work of other folks on Off The Wall Fridays!

And a fun surprise.......

This is not the first time I have posted this piece. It was made for my son and daughter-in-law for

a wedding present last October. Well, I entered it into the Daughters of the American Revolution National Fiber Arts Contest and won 3rd place! WOOT! WOOT!
Just sharing the news and tooting my horn :)

You can see more great work at Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, even though it is not Friday anymore.

The Statler Fountain progress

After a week of off and on thinking and working on it I am at the window stage. I need to put definition on the windows, but am not sure if this is what I want yet. I did a lot of stitching to bring out her details and the fountain details. I had to fight with myself to not overdo it too. My reminder is that there will be embroidery on it as well as some stitching here and there to create the building that she is standing in front of.

I will add Angelina for the water, but that is not really decided on yet either.
Ah, decisions, decisions........
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This one is it!

After lots of fiddling around with different ideas, that I tried, I think thisway worked and I am finally pleased with it.

So now it is on to making the second smaller center and doing more stitching, etc. I see with this picture that my buds are all the same height, so that will change.

I like taking photos of my work and then be able to evaluate them from the camera's eye instead of my own, which is partial and works up really close.

Check out more at Off The Wall Friday!

The Doll is done, now onto the next piece!

I did some fabric painting, actually ink, yesterday and today. Did I end up with tons of stuff? No, just two pieces. Here they are -
I used Dyna-flow inks and water to see what happened. The blue one, I let dry overnight, but the green I pressed between parchment paper when wet. It made some cool designs in it too.





And then of course, the Hollyhock Doll is finished with some changes.


I took off the buds and added antique buttons . Voila!

This is made with/by: dyed fabric, freezer paper screened stems, inked buds, embroidered stems, wool felted doll head and body, silk dress and leaves and then quilted a little with heavy thread on a canvas panel.

It has a story on the back too. It says:

Hollyhock Dolls

(Alcea)

Nana May taught me how to make Hollyhock Dolls.

I spent endless hours playing with them and imagining

all kinds of wonderful things that happened in their lives.

When I see hollyhocks now, it reminds me of Nana May,

and I treasure the impact she has made in my life.

Check out more great work by talented gals at  Nina-Maries Off the Wall Fridays.

Hollyhock Doll almost done!

So after a week of working on the barn and getting that done for the winter. :)

I'm a bit sore, but very happy about the whole process.

I started the week doing catch up stuff. Here and there I found a little time to do a little more to this piece. I have one more button to put on it, then do some quilting, not much and then add the doll and frame the whole thing.
I'm loving how cute she has turned out and all her sisters on the stems too. All in all I am quite pleased.

Go see more fabulous work at Nina-marie's Off The Wall Friday.