Some final steps...

and my PROCESS piece will be ready for quilting.  I added some hand embroidery to represent wheat.

I want to add some dimensional work so I attempted to create cedar branches with stitchery.  I photocopied a branch I picked from a local cedar tree so that I had a sample of how the branch should look.

I free motioned the cedar boughs onto a wash away stabilizer called "Wash 'n Gone".

Now that three boughs are stitched, I need to wash away the stabilizer.  In order to keep the branches from becoming a jumbled mess of thread, I have had to pin each of the needles to a styrofoam board.  I used left over meat trays from the butcher.

I'll add some more embroidery after I see how the boughs look.  Whew! Almost there.

YIKES!!!!! I'm late!!!!

I'm Late

From "Alice in Wonderland"

Music and Lyrics by Sammy Fain and Bob Hilliard

I'm late!

I'm late!

For a very important date!

No time to say "hello", goodbye!

I'm late!

I'm late!!

I'm late!!!

No, no, no, no 

I'm overdue!

I'm really in a stew!

No time to say "goodbye", hello!

I'm late!

I'm late!!

I'm late!!! 

I probably shouldn't be smiling! 

My apologies for my extreme tardiness
but it seems that I have been bogged down by a variety of obligations
 and unexpected circumstances... 

and I'm almost out of gas!!!

I have to admit that I did get a (very) late start 

(my days of punctuality seem to be a thing of the past!)

and after pondering...

 and hemming and hawing a lot, 

I went with an idea that Brigitte had suggested (in jest?!) in an email exchange we had

 after this challenge was announced!

It was really a literal translation of "artistic license".... 

as in that which you might have on the license plate of your automobile!

(I still have to add some brads and perhaps "New York" to the license)

And...

while my piece is late,  

not done,

 and seems to be never-ending,

it was time to reveal what I have to the group.

"I'm Late!" is a  true mixed media work..

watercolor crayon/pencil on canvas

with free-motion stitching

collage,

Transfer Artist Paper (TAP),

hand embroidery,

rubber stamping on painted Lutradur

 and more!

And thanks again to Brigitte for the idea!!!

Aaaaaaand bringing up the rear (literally!)

Just like most of our other Tangled Textilers, I had a really tough time making this theme, "blue", work for me.  Well, truth be told, I did a lot of work on this challenge!

I will leave the gory details about this looooong, draaaawn out process of getting to my final piece to my own blog (but that post isn't written yet!).... suffice to say that there is a story!

After much deliberation, I was inspired by Neil Diamond's song...Forever in Blue Jeans.

And after much embellishment (a rather new technique for me), I was finished....

"Homage to a Clothing Staple or Yes, Neil, Forever in Blue Jeans"

There are some tags from jeans... both retired and still on bodies!

 

Stenciled, painted, embellished word and more tags...

   

The said rear pocket - which is actually at the center of the basic

 log cabin configuration of the quilt- 

that's not to say that the rear is always at the center!!!

   

Some buttons from the fly fronts and 

from the suddenly out-of-commission pair of my overalls (oh that was sad when it happened!)

 

And there is my attempt to honor Neil, himself...

And the straps from said sadly missed overalls.

Now I am totally exhausted. Off to rest up before the next challenge is posted!

Do you ever feel...

that you have some brain cells that have come....

 

???

 And with no time to spare,

you want to give your current project the...

   

???

 I do have a ...

   

 for the dramatic 

 but I am

 seriously FREAKING OUT 

(and there are no labels for that one!!!!)

Brainstorming Blues

In an effort to post more about the process of how I reach my end result, I thought it might be a good idea to begin at the beginning so to speak.  I'm not sure how the rest of you do it, but trying to come up with ideas, for me, usually involves some brainstorming.  For instance,  this theme.....blue.  I thought of adding an "s" making "blues". Of course this led to thinking of music, which led to

Blue suede shoes.  So I googled blue suede shoes to see what images I could find that might be workable.  As it turned out there were quite a number. I could use applique and some FMQ thread painting with a bit of hand embroidery thrown in.

I also discovered that there was a musical group called Blue Delft.  Blue Delft? Isn't that a type of pottery?  more googling....

Ah...yes blue delft.  Now that might work.  I could try some dyeing with resist to create pattern that would resemble this.  Then I remembered that I heard about something called blueware. 

So more research and this is what I found.

Hey wait a minute.... Wedgewood is also blue.  More images for inspiration to seek out.

But is pottery or china the way I want to go?  Perhaps there is another train of thought to take.  There is also the idea of a "blue mood"....hmmmm....or "blue blood"......gonna check that out too.

 

Then of course there is Gainsborough's "The Blue Boy".  So this is the start of my "Blue" piece.  Brainstorming blues so to speak. 

 

Not quite...

My piece has really taken a lot longer than it should have and although I'm revealing, it really isn't finished.

Light and Shade

It is based on a photo by Jorg Reuter which is creative commons here.  Obviously, it is about balancing rocks which we talked about recently, and appears to be a very popular hobby! 
I sketched and sketched and came up with this.

Obviously this is not the right shape for our challenges and then I hit upon including light and shade in the background and widening it. I traced my sketch onto muslin (just the lines and dots, not all the black).
Then I sandwiched it and free machined most of the lines in black thread (That was a lot of lines).
Then I painted the background in acrylic (next time I will use fabric paint as it is very hard to stich through acrylic although the lumiere is so gorgeous....)
I coloured the stones and shells with watercolour pencils and a brush.
Then the time consuming part, which is not finished began.  I wanted to hand stitch all over it as it is so flat and I wanted more texture.

I tend to embroider by thread, lol.  I will start with one thread and when that thread is finished, I go to a different coloured thread and a different area and so on.  Stops me getting bored.
In the first pic, I have basically finished the bottom rock, but I haven't touched the background here.
In the second picture, I have done some work on the lower stone and have done some background stitching.  Still need to do some black back the other way,
On the shell, I have only stitched some highlights and a strand of pink.
I find that I am beginning to like this style, with thread sketching, painting and hand embroidery, only I need to make sure I have more time for the hand stitching, as I always underestimate how long it will take.
Anyhow, even though I am in no way finished this piece, I really like it (wow, first time for everything!) and am going to take my time and enjoy the stitching process whilst I think about the next challenge.
Too much talk, sorry.