Piecing the Applique

Once I got the basics set on the piece, it is helping me keep my eye straight on the design.  It was now time to put the applique pieces on the peacock's body to give it the background color to stand out from the background and the frame.  I appliqued the colored areas using dupioni silk.  I love the idea of really rocking the colors, and that worked out so well on the Lotus Paisley Box Lid that its something I wanted to repeat.  I found a lot of inspiration for this in the Tenmakers of Cairo video where they demonstrate their technique for applique - brilliant https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39zkCcQqWp0 .  I enjoy doing needle turn applique and those tiny pins make it so much easier than regular ones. 

Once the applique was in, I finished the border as far as I could and I could really see where it was going. 

The Lotus Paisley Box is Done

The Lotus Paisley panel seemed like it took forever.  Try as I might I never seemed to get any real traction on it so it was always a struggle and a chore.  Some projects are like that.  I love the idea and the colors and all that, but when it came to the actual doing of it...  well... Phillip even made a lovely screw-tensioned stretcher frame just the right size to hold in my lap.  I worked it all in silk - even the background appliques so the colors would really glow.   The gold highlights are my first foray into working with gold thread. 

But once it was finished I was able to put it away for a while and when I came  back to it I was really pleased with the results. 

 And I'm still working with that box idea from last year.  The Regency box is proving to be so very damaged it may have gone too far to save.  So while I work on with that one miniscule area at a time, I put some energy into the nicer one from the second hand shop.  I even made a tray to set into it to hold all my scattered oddments.  Once the needlework for the top was done I did a woodburned line drawing of lotuses around the sides of the little tray. The Turkish Iznik tile on the lid of the small pocket conceals a really powerful magnet and acts as a working pin cushion.  I love the way it all turned out and I'm thinking that I will get a lot of use from it.

And, hopefully, my next tambour project will be a little easier.

Finding My Voice

Its been a while since I posted anything - and indeed its take a while to get my head around the larger world of quilting and fiber arts.  I have certainly bee overwhelmed by the complexity of it all and how much there is to see and experience.  I think the major challenge was asking myself where my own voice was int he midst of it all.  And while I certainly haven't found all of that, I have found some small corner of it that I enjoy and can relate to. I have made a beginning at finding some few skills and a comfort zone.  I find that I am heavily influenced by all the embroidery I have done.  Karen talks about a quilt being something you can wrap yourself in - or wrap a child in for comfort.  And I get that; I really do.  I see the ladies int eh quilt guild turning out blanket sized quilts so casually and I really admire that.  But when I sit down to think about what I really want to do myself my brain automatically defaults to what I can hold in my hand and manage with a needle.

  It was only a matter of time before I found applique and wonderfully intricate small things.  My first discovery was Shelley Swanland and her technique called Cathedral Windows.  Its base on an old technique form the 30's but way more updated and versatile - a way of layering and folding fabric that gives color layers and tactile possibilities that are really exciting.  So after a test piece or two I found her little flower "twilt" (that I donated to the AAQI) and a framework she did for a large centerpiece that was just too intriguing not to try.  So it started out as something to do for that frame.  A piece for my daughter to celebrate her new apartment.  A hamsa hand for good luck and prosperity.  Well... simple is how it always starts, isn't it.  I found colors that felt like her and the it just had to have more - like shisha mirrors and embroidery - and then tassels - and after that bells on the bottom.  And finally I got around to that frame.  Fro something only 14 inches wide it certainly has a lot to say for itself.

Well - are we there yet? No, not quite.  After a grand and glorious project like this the only logical question is "What next?"  And with such an open question of course the Universe by way of the Interwebz will, of course, be quick to oblige.  I saw an odd posting of a detail from a quilt that someone had taken at a quilt show.  So sad she didn't have the name of the artist but it gave me a good idea.  And with a few adjustments (of course) it became a dragonfly that I used as a front panel for a carryall for my cousin.  She's going to be traveling here and there - doing readings, giving lectures, being out on weekends - she needed something special to carry her things in - something really uniquely her - and she loves dragonflies.  Then not to leave anything out I gave it flowers from that first flower pattern.  And of course the mirrors in the flower centers - and of course all kinds of embroidery.  This caused Phillip to describe it as"yet another Cistine Chapel project" and yes - he's right.  I mounted it it as the front flap on a bag with lots of pockets inside and out.  made out of sturdy faux suede upholstery fabric so it will go the extra mile and not fray or break. 

But once its done - and shipped - and she has it - and she was so pleased with it that she got all teary eyed - I am once again faced with the question "What next?"  Since I've given my first 3 away, maybe its time to make one for me.  and lately I've been looking at lots of pictures of peacocks...   well....

Each time I do one of these smaller projects I learn things and get more certain of what I'm doing.  I feel less at sea and more in control.  Those larger projects are getting designed and drawn up.  I have them tucked in my sketch book and I'm saving back fabric for them as I find it.  They will come in time.  But for right now I'm being all happy with my little tempests in teapots.  And we shall see what kind of tempest that peacok will provide