Thursday, October 24, 2013

A New Beginning

I've been AWOL for the past couple of weeks. Been on the road again. Right before I left I began working on a new confetti piece. This photo shows the first days work. Mind you I already had a lot of these little pieces of fabric already cut out.





A bit more added. I work on these pieces on top of my cutting table. I'm used to working on the design wall and it's hard for me to see how the design is progressing. 






I finally covered all the space and felt that the piece was complete. In order to move the top to the design wall I pressed the pieces with a hot iron. You can see in the photo above that I had adhered Misty Fuse to the top of the fabric. This enabled me to attach a lot of the small confetti pieces before adding the tulle.

There are always pieces that do not touch the fuse so those are caught by the tulle. I then heavily pinned the tulle to the backing, batting and top fabric.

Now I can stand back and look at the piece. I'm not happy here and can't quite decide what the problem is. So I decide to take a breather and wait until the next day to come back and look with new eyes.





 New eyes told me that the bottom right flowers was not pleasing. It looked too much like a blob instead of a combination of colors that the other two share. So I fixed that, I'm happier but there is still something.

You know the rule of threes, right. Well those two little flowers at the bottom just needed another tone to make it complete. Remember here is more to come.














Now it's time for quilting the top.














Today I had time to place the butterflies that I've been working on as I travel. They aren't thread painted yet but that shouldn't take long. Then I will attach them to the quilted top then face the piece and another one is finished.


October has been almost non existent in my studio and I've really missed working. September was very productive for me and I feel that I'm on a roll, however, I'm leaving again on Tuesday.

Houston here I come. Even if I weren't on a roll, going to this fabulous show would surely get me moving. I hope you will follow me on face book  at https://www.facebook.com/MarilynWallFiberArtist during the Houston Festival. I won't have my computer but plan to post often on my Face Book page using my Ipad. 

This post is linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com


Friday, October 11, 2013

An Apology to The Warm Co and Steam A Steam


 I'm at the coast this week having a wonderful relaxing visit with friends. I decided this was a good time for me to issue an apology to the Warm Co.

I recently received a new package of Steam A Seam made by The Warm Company. I ordered the new and improved product because I noticed that the packaging was not like the package I THOUGHT was their new product. That's because it wasn't.

A month or so ago I wrote a rant about the new Steam A Seam lite. Because I use a product needing a sticky back in one of my classes I have been investigating this type of product that is available on the market. While browsing the internet I noticed that the bags of Steam A Steam that were posted did not look like the bag that I had so much trouble with. Upon further investigating of the package I realized that the product was made by Pellon. In defense of myself I did not purchase that product. During one of my classes the facilitator shopped for Steam A Seam. This product was brought back for our use. The name was similar but different. Since Steam A Seam had redesigned their product I didn't pay that much attention. It diffidently was not Steam A Seam. I only realized this when I went on line to look up the new Steam A Seam.

I ordered the new product and find it to be as good if not better for my use. The paper covering the fusible releases better than the old product. So my apologies to Steam A Steam and Warm & Co. From now on I promise to know what I'm talking about before I open my mouth or post a rant.


This post is linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com

Friday, October 4, 2013

Connor and the Watering Can

Another busy week in the study. I am really stoked. The main project for this week has been thread painting on my piece titled Connor and the Watering Can.

The last two days have been devoted to painting the hat. Yes two days. This is a slow process but I am loving it. As I look at that this photo I can see that I need to do some more work on the hat bill. It's amazing to me how I can see things wrong in a photo that I can't see when I'm looking at the piece in my studio.

I have always been a big advocate of taking photos of my work as it progresses. Looking at this photo just reinforces that view.

Can you see the problem that I see?

All that is left to thread paint on Connor is his arm and feet. Can't wait to see this part finished.  Hopefully I can get the majority of it done tomorrow.

While I've gotten a lot done this week I've been frustrated because things like Doctor's appointment, grocery shopping, cooking, etc., etc. have cut down on the time that I wanted to spend quilting.

I do have a face pattern ready as well as an enlargement of the new piece that I want to do. I have a new confetti piece almost ready to quilt. I'm saving photos of it until I have it finished. 






Last week I showed a practice patch of thread painting water drops. This photo shows them almost finished. I am saving a little detail for the finished process.

It's been another great week in the studio.

this post is linked to www.ninamariesayre.blogspot.com