As Promised...

The completed hand pieced hexagon moon...all ready to applique to the background. Though looking at the photo, I need to give it a good press first!



I have gotten a little more painting done on the High Priestess...another day or two and she'll be ready to cut out and prep for applique as well.



And in between, I'm working on binding Sampson and Clyde...and even got Cleopatra loaded for quilting!

The weekend is supposed to be pretty rainy, so it'll be easy to stay in the studio and work.

 

Hand Piecing a Silk Hexagon Moon

Yep, you heard me right...hand piecing.  My High Priestess has a hand pieced silk hexagon moon.  While time consuming, I found it sort of relaxing. I could see how it could become addictive!  But don't worry, it's not likely that you will see entire  hand pieced quilts from me...just bits and pieces from time to time.

Rather than wait for an order of paper hexie templates, I made my own from card stock.  Not something I would recommend...they are quite inexpensive to purchase and a big time saver.  However, wanting to get it done, I made mine.  First I made a plastic template



I used a thick piece of craft acrylic (the kind used for book binding) as it is much sturdier than template plastic and doesn't flex much ...  Accuracy is important!

I fused a lightweight interfacing to my silk and cut it into squares.  Then I traced and cut out all the card stock hexies and pinned the silk to them.



Then the basting began.  Easy and something to do while watching TV. Before long they were all done.



 

I checked them against my drawn pattern for accuracy...you can see where my assistant Bouree was chewing on my paper pattern...



Then I stitched the basted hexies into rows...another good activity while watching TV





All  rows done!



Next job was to sew the rows together...that took a little longer but I love the result.  Next time I'll show you what the finished moon looks like.

Working on Clyde

Almost done



Just the background fill to finish!



Enjoy this beautiful  autumn evening!

A Quilting Day

This morning was my physical therapy, so that shot my morning.   The High Priestess had to be washed today to remove the excess dye and print paste so I decided to finish quilting Sampson while she was in the wash this afternoon.



The color wasn't quite right in that photo, so I put it on one of the guest beds to take advantage of the great light in that room.  Before I could get the shot look who found the quilt.



I tried to shoo him off, but didn't have much luck.



Do you think he'll bind it for me?

 

The High Priestess

Today I started painting her. For this one, I'm using Procion fiber reactive dyes.  I buy them from Dharma.  I thicken them so I can paint small details with no bleeding. To thicken, I use sodium alginate blended with urea and distilled water.  My fabric is Pimatex PFD.  I add the soda ash (dye fixative) right before I use a color...since it starts exhausting as soon as it mixes with the dye.



the skin... I combined 3 colors of dye to get this tone: misty rose with just a tad of peach and chamois added



the hair and eyebrows...the darker color is truffle brown...the lighter is dark brown



the lips and nails...Chinese red



pupils...black #39



irises...turquoise



bodice and skirt...also turquoise





And done for the day...wrapped in vinyl to keep the dyes wet overnight to "batch".



Not a bad day's work!  I think she will look wonderful on Vicki's Twilight gradient that I used to piece the background of this quilt!

 

Next on My Easel

Now that  my fish painting is finished, the next project is up on my easel to be painted. This one is the first of my Tarot/Voodoo series..."The High Priestess".



This quilt will be part painted, part applique and part pieced. Most of the piecing is already done, as is some of the applique. So it's time to get busy painting my High Priestess.  After painting she will be appliqued in place on the pieced background.



I'm going to enjoy this series!  And this first one will be ready in time for the 2013 show schedule.

Cleopatra's Background

I finished the background painting on Cleopatra today.  It was done in two steps...first  layers of color and pattern



And then multiple layers of additional color



The pattern becomes very subtle with the additional layers of color, but you can still see it. It adds lots of depth and some interest too.

Now Cleopatra goes to wait with the others for her turn to be quilted.  And that will complete this fish series!