Monday, October 28, 2019

Hawaiian Bay

Before my hiatus, I had started piecing a landscape quilt, which had only gotten this far. And I wasn't thrilled with it.



The initial idea was to use that stripey fabric, which I'd had for a long time, for water, and to incorporate the sky fabric I had painted a couple of years ago.




The sailboat, printed on fabric and using a photo I'd taken in Maine, was auditioned before actually cutting it out. It was really too large for the scene. (I've since figured out how to change the size in my photo program, but that was after the quilt was finished.)



The sand, flower and grass fabrics looked okay but nothing was "popping" (except maybe those sunflowers). The whole thing looked kind of drab to me. So I put it aside.







After the 3+ month hiatus I pulled it out of storage, and ended up taking all the foreground fabrics off and putting them back in my stash.



Then I took a good, hard look at what was left. On a whim, I pulled out my scrap box and added one little orange batik strip. And suddenly, we were off to the races.


It morphed into this pieced scene...


...but even as it did, that painted sun kept nagging at me. It was really pretty ugly (sorry for the oxymoron!).

Fusing a bright-yellow batik piece over the sun took care of that problem. Much better. Then a heron, a sailboat, and some shells were added.

















Quilting was fairly quick, using both free motion and machine regulated stitching.






Binding was made, using the faux-piped method (it's on YouTube). Here are some closeups of the interior (click to enlarge):



















Seed beads were hand-sewn to the centers of the "flowers."
And the finished quilt...


So, landscapes are done for 2019; I'm working on Christmas presents now! One of them has me really excited but I can't share it until after Christmas. Someone in the family might see it too early!

Enjoy the upcoming holidays, wherever you are and whatever you celebrate. Peace and love to all.

Linda

4 comments:

  1. Sometimes a time out is just what a project needs! I love the colours in this one. Seeing your sky reminded me that I need to play around with some more shaving cream dyeing and see what sort of effects I can come up with.

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    1. Thank you, I honestly thought this whole project was going to end up in the scrap drawer, something that's only happened to me twice before (so that's three too-many times so far, lol). I love that it made you want to do some dyeing. Today I helped a friend work a puzzle and was so inspired by the colors in it that I took the box home to pull fabrics from my stash. We just never know where inspiration is going to come from! Thanks again.

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  2. Seasons Greetings Linda. I'm glad to see you're back from an injury. I've not been posting since July for reasons I listed on my blog.
    I always love visiting your post.

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    1. Oh my gosh, Rhonda, you have been hit with so many changes, no wonder sewing has gone out the window for the time being! I'm so sorry your mom is ill. Sending good thoughts & vibes your way. I hope things will sort out soon and that 2020 will end up being a much more peaceful year. All the best to you and your family. Please take care of yourself. Thanks so much for taking time out to stop by my blog.

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