Red River close ups

Here are a couple more close up photos. Below is a close up of the red chenille river.

I don't usually like a lot of pink but I do like it here.

This turned out pretty much the way I had envisioned it and I'm happy.
Here is the link to the inspiration photo I based this on: http://laughingdogarts.blogspot.com/2010/01/inspiration-photo.html

Be sure and view today's earlier post.  It has the entire quilt pictured.

Finished Red River of Truth

Crossing the Red River of Truth
Finally finished it. I put a lot of hand work into this one, even couching all those fibers down by hand, all the bead and sequin work is by hand. The main background is machine stitched.

Angel leading the lost souls across the River.

Close up of a light area.

This whole quilt measures 46"x38".

Be well.

Red River progress

It doesn't look all that different but I thought I'd post the progress on The Red River. I have stitched on lots of sequins and beads and tiny rhinestones, plenty of fibers couched on. I have just applied some glue and will iron on some metallic foil after it dries. I'm thinking of trying some little pearls on it too, on the light side. We'll see. Hopefully you can see the sequins brightness by clicking on the photo to enlarge it.

Listening to Pandora radio today, my station I named Dave Matthews Band, it's now playing some Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Be well.

Inspiration photo

This is the photo that I took inspiration from to begin the Red Road/River colorwash piece. Not sure where I found the photo, I didn't take it myself, so I can't give credit where credit is due. I'm not planning on selling this piece, so I guess no one is going to come after me.

Today is raining again. I'm in the studio listening to Guy Clark right now.

Be well

Progress

This is what the Red River looks like today. I have the dark and light sides stitched to the center red chenille piece with lots of fibers couched down on it. I will be continuing to couch and will also add beads to it eventually. I like to let these things develop on their own so will wait to see what else happens to it. Still liking this one!
Be well.

Red Chenille

Did you see the previous post? When I finished fusing the right, light half of this colorwash piece, I pinned it up on my design wall. I already had this unfinished piece up there

so I just pinned the fused piece on top of it. I so much liked the way the red faux chenille piece looked next to the line of red color wash, that I decided I must put red faux chenille in the middle of the colorwash piece. So I did. I had some left over pieces from the red chenille thing (I still haven't finished it nor have I named it) that filled in nicely.

Above you can see the two fused pieces with some faux red chenille between them. Yes! I love these serendipitous happenings! Further progress will be shown tomorrow. So please come back!

Be well.

Red River beginnings

Happy New Year! It has been raining solid for the past two days although I did get a reasonably dry walk in this morning with Rocky. He tried to get me to take him out again this afternoon but I said no.

Lately I have been working on this rather large project. It is approximately 45" X 35". Creating these color wash pieces is enjoyable but haven't made one in a couple of years. I like to leave all the one inch pieces with raw edges so I build it on a piece of fusible interfacing on top of a piece of cotton batting. After I have all the pieces in place I iron it and then can pick the whole thing up and take it to the sewing machine with no pins. Almost no pins, I do stick a few in there because the interfacing is only fusible on one side, so the batting isn't fused. Oh, and take my advice, don't iron this with your cutting mat underneath.

The camera is a good tool to use in viewing the quality of the wash of color. You can see the difference in the above photo, which I deemed was not blended well enough, and the one below, which is what I changed it to.

After I was satisfied with the placement of the colors to the right of the red strip, I cut the piece in half, following the line of the red strip. I ironed it and was able to move it to my design wall, out of the way. Before it was fused I was afraid that Charlie cat would jump up on the table and scatter fabric bits everywhere. He's a good cat, and never did jump up there. It is a high library table, I guess that helped deter him.

In my next post, I will show further development of this piece.
Be well.