Color Affection Continues

I am making progress on my Color Affection - I had wanted to take pictures after I finished the second color but was so excited to see what the third color would look like - I kept knitting and forgot to get the picture!

I am please with the colors and now that my "garden" is back on the porch maybe I will make better progress on this piece.  I also have a pair of socks that I can't wait to start.

Starting to Quilt Marsh Isle

I am moving out of the hate phase of the love/hate relationship I general go through with a new quilt.  I always see a certain image in my mind and then struggle to get the fabric and thread to recreate what I envision.

Having decided to separate the log into bark and bare wood pieces has added to my struggles - of course I had not designed in any seam allowances and will need to cover awkward places were they didn't go back together well with strategically placed cattails and extra pieces of bark.

I have added my egret - who is actually a Great Egret and not a Snowy Egret as last reported.  Great Egret's have black feet and yellow beaks and Snowy Egret's have yellow feet and black beaks.

And I finally started machine quilting the piece - and had to pullout about an hours worth of work - the tension was terrible.  So the quilt has stalled for a bit.  I hope to spend some more time on the quilting this week and move back into at least the like phase.  I am once again linking up to Nina Marie Sayer's Off the Wall Friday and would love to have comments on my progress.

My bird tree continues to attract a wide variety of species - I think this Red-bellied Woodpecker has a nest in the tree as she has been seen going in and out of the hole in the tree numerous time over the past few days.

This Osprey brings his dinner by nearly every evening.

And these guys were just part of the flock of Turkey Vultures hanging around -

not every bird will inspire a quilt!

Background Nearly Done

I had hoped to get a little further on my Marsh Isle piece this week - but spent time working on samples for several new classes I will be teaching this summer and as Spring has finally arrived in the Lowcountry, I started working in the yard and on my plant pots.  Because of the deer in my area, most of my plants are in pots (the only way they survive) and every Spring I have a major effort in moving them to the porches and decks from underneath the back deck where the are protected from the winter weather. We had a very mild winter overall (although March was 11 degrees cooler than normal) and more plants than every made it through the winter.  I think last year I counted over 60 pots and I probably have more this year.

I did continue painting the background pieces I needed for the quilt.  The first cut at the pond water is too blue and too light.

With many more layers and the addition of black and brown paint I think I am pretty happy with it although it shows more blue in the picture than in real life.  I will be added a little chartreuse green for algae before it is quilted. I also painted the cattails and separated the log into bark and bare wood pieces.  The black spot in the log will disappear when I get to the construction phase.

The bird is only a sketch at this time - I was trying to get the size and placement.  I think it will be a Snowy Egret like the one who visited us this afternoon.

I thought about using a Little Blue Heron which starts out white and during its first year changes to a blue/grey color, but think I need the focal point of an all white bird.

Last week we also had this guy in the tree.   Pretty awesome.  I think another quilt will be required.

Once again I am linking to Nina Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Friday.   Having a deadline every week has really helped this piece move along.

Color Affection

After having seen numerous Color Affection shawls created this past year, I finally succumbed to the temptation and started mine this past week.

I had the two grey yarns in my stash.  They were given to my by my sister after one of her many trips to Chile.  The cherry is a skein of Madelinetosh.

I hope I have enough - lately I finish my projects with inches to spare (or worse with inches to short and I have to find a scrap of yarn that will work color and weight wise to finish).

A Log for My Marsh Isle Quilt

This week I worked on the log for my quilt of the marsh pond in my backyard.  The log started as a very tall tree on the edge of our property that had been dead for sometime when we moved here in 2005.  My husband was quite worried that if it fell the wrong way it would take out the fence, the deck and even part of the house. He spent several days measuring and calculating and finally decided that the house would survive even if the fence and deck didn't.

Several years ago we had a severe storm come through and as he watched, the tree swayed back and forth in the wind until it went just a bit to far -  and down it went. It landed just about perfectly along the edge of our marsh pond (away from the fence, the deck and the house).  Since then it has been a perfect place for the water birds to perch while they scout the pond for fish and frogs.  The turtles also like to sun themselves on it.

The first picture is the first layer of paint. It is much too light.

I added more paint and for the bark area, I used a sponge.  For the area where the bark is peeled off I dragged a fan brush across the surface to create wood grain lines. 

Originally I planed to have the log be one piece - but now I think I will cut the bark out, thread sketch it, and then use an additional layer of batting under it to create more dimension.  It will add some issues in construction, but I think I have figured out how to cover the additional seam with the cattails I am working on next.

I am linking this to Nina-Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Fridays as a way to keep me focused on finishing this piece!

Hitchhiker

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was one of my favorite books as teenager (do not do the math!) and when I saw the scarf on Ravelry I knew I had to make one.

The pattern by Martina Behm was easy to follow and was a quick knit.

I added a bead at every point to add a little sparkle and as everyone knows the answer to the universe is 42 - which is is the number of points my scarf has.  Now if someone could just come up with the question.

The View from My Studio

I have been working on a quilt  that captures a bit of the view from my studio. When I look up from my sewing machine I often see an osprey sitting in a dead tree across the marsh

or egrets in the pond below.

The quilt I am working on uses the pond for the inspiration.  I have sewn the upper part of the background using hand painted fabrics using a variation of braids.  It took longer than I thought it would to finish (it always does) and I am now ready to begin the foreground which will include a log, cattails, an egret and a bit of the pond.

I want to enter this in an upcoming show with a deadline not to far in the future so to keep me on target I am going to link my progress to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday posts.