Blogathon visits Ontario

All week Sew Sisters Quilt Shop  has been holding a Blogathon.  Hosts from each province link up to bloggers in their home province.   All week I have been visiting blogs and 'meeting' new Canadian quilters.   On Saturday it is Ontario's turn.   You can click on the red and blue button on the right to visit with bloggers from sea to sea to sea.

 I live in the Ottawa region where we have lots of wonderful greenbelt, bike trails as well as the Gatineau Park to hike, cross country ski, snow shoe and bike (and where I find lots of inspiration for art quilts).  I must admit that my heart (and inspiration) lies also in the Atlantic Provinces especially Cape Breton and Newfoundland.

 For new visitors, in the last month I have been taking a break from sixteen years of hand stitching and teaching myself to do free motion and machine thread work.  This week I completed a couple of pieces (with some frustrations and foul language).

Tenerife II

 
In this one I used a photo of Tenerife Mountain as viewed from Cabot's Landing Beach in Cape Breton.  I had already completed a painted hand stitched version of this but in this one I layered fabric then machine stitched it all.   In the foreground I added some hand stitched grasses for perspective.  I added a bit of paint to the sky to reflect the pinks in the variegated stitches on the water.

 

Photo Inspiration

Original Painted Hand Stitched Piece

I think it can be helpful to explore themes and inspirations in more than one way.  I often used to  paint a piece on canvas then develop it in fabric. It gave me a familiarity with the theme.  Sometimes after finishing a piece I think that I should have just used a part of the picture or used different techniques or a different size.  I want to try more reworking of these ideas.  I also like to work in a series - trees for example.    

Not that I don't have enough new ideas to work on.   I can't seem to keep up with them.   So I sketch them out and work my way through.   This year I seem to be exploring water.   I was in the middle of a performance with my women's choir earlier this week and an idea came to me right in the middle of a song about dreams and rivers and searching.  I found my mind wandering and designing in my head.   Talk about multi tasking!!   Good thing our part was somewhat repetitious!   So I hurried home afterwards and drew out some sketches......to be continued.

Here is another little piece (3 x 5") that I completed by machine stitching this week.

Machine Stitched Mini

And finally for hand stitching fans, I have not abandoned my first love.  Here I have fussy cut flowers, appliqued them to a background fabric and hand stitched and quilted the piece.  It is not large - about 6 x 9".

Hand stitched floral

Close up of stitching

Trend tex challenge fabric

 
 And a last piece of news that might interest some of you.  A few weeks ago I received my package of fabrics for Quilt Canada 2013's Trend Tex Challenge.  This year's theme is Sunshine and Vines.  I have laid the fabric out on my dining room table to observe and think about and have sketched a few possibilities.  I even worked one theme in a small piece but am not thrilled with it.   I'd better get at it.   For more information  go to Quilt Canada 2013 and look for the Trend Tex Challenge.  There may still be time to order a kit.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave comments or say hello (I love connecting with other fibre artists).