It's been an unseasonably warm fall here, so the leaves are only beginning to turn when they ought to have fallen off completely by this time.

Not that I'm complaining, mind - but I was hoping to get some "fall colour" shots for you.  Instead, hear are some "early fall colour" pics I took last weekend when we were out and about...  some of them will certainly be inspiration for future quilts!






I took about 20 pictures of these ruins for instance...


And about 50 different angles of this church, which definitely feels like a series in the making.



Taking this pic was taking my life in my hands - literally - I'm allergic to bees and wasps, and those red vines were full of them. But that's what a zoom lens is for. Avoiding bees!



Hope you're having a great weekend.

This week I'll have a couple of finishes, some weird and wacky, and another giveaway. 

Should be fun!    :)

I live in an area that is "gentrifying", which is probably a fairly terrifying thing for the working poor who live here, as a neighbourhood that gentrifies never works out well for them. :(




The advantages for a family like ours though, is that the neighourhood is affordable, there are lots of amenities at our doorstep while still having a "family" feel, and there are all kinds of funky/cool things going on here. Real estate agents call our neighbourhood "vibrant" . I must say, it's a lot of fun to live here.


You can't throw a stick without hitting an art gallery or a bistro and unusual home-grown clothing stores abound, but it's still quite mixed use.  There are some quite well off folks in the neighbourhood, lots of middle class people, working poor and some down and outer's all living quite happily together.

There's a women's shelter around the corner from the organic butcher, which is across the street from a park; where most Saturdays people from the neighbourhood play live music and kids play in the leaves, while other folks walk their dogs, or stop in at the neighbourhood coffee shop for a cuppa.





Next to the butcher is a wool shop where most days a group of ladies are knitting in their circle, which is beside an Indian take-away, which abuts an art gallery, which is beside a large applicance repair shop which is next to a high-end pet supply store.



Within walking distance, there's an assisted living centre, a library, a retirement home, several very upscale restaurants,



a diner, a run-down bodega that has just about everything, a shop that specializes in eyebrows only (which never seems to have an empty chair!); a second-hand goods shop, a tea shop, a charity shop, an adult puppet theatre that puts on shows four nights a week (no, I'm not kidding!);



two vets, a beach, a bird sanctuary, three big box stores, four shops that sell funky clothing made by the proprietors, and a consignment shop that sells designer-only clothing.  And did I mention a bistro, pub, bar or high-end restaurant every few feet?



I think it's because four companies have their film studios a stone's throw from our neighbourhood that it's so artsy and mixed use. Perhaps as a result of this funky/cool vibe, one of the really fun things that happen here is Guerilla Art.  It's everywhere, and as is the nature of it, constantly changing.

This was a recent installation.  What do you think the artist was trying to say?

Charley Harper time!

A few/several months ago, I was participating in a Charley Harper QAL of sorts - hosted by Ethne at Flaming Stitches. She had gotten permission from the estate of Charley Harper for us to either copy directly or be inspired by his work.





I made two pieces - one inspired by and one a copy, and said at the time, I had one more to make.  Well, here it is!

I made it in the same manner as the others, except that this time, after I fused the fabric, I drew the reverse image directly on the paper backing, and cut them out, rather than make a pattern and trace it.  Why waste the step?



For the corn cob, I cut out strips of already fused fabric and then further cut them into little square-ish shapes, and then placed them by hand, using a tweezer.


After I had placed all the bits on my pieced background, I ironed them down (with a sheet of paper between the cloth and the bits) and when it had cooled, pinned it to my batting and backing.


And then I quilted the dog out of it.

So here are the other two:



This one's the direct copy:


This one's inspired by:


And this one is a blend of the two.  All three will be framed and will hang in our bedroom.

So, yesterday, I showed you my latest piece, drying happily - I was quite pleased with it and was looking forward to working with the piece when it was rinsed and dried.



I mean, it looks so ... full of potential, right? 

Well, as is my usual form, I experiment first, and look for directions later if my experiment didn't work out. 

It didn't work out. *heh*



See, after I happily painted it, I thought "I wonder how you set the colour? I mean, if you heat it, the soy wax will melt all over the place, not to mention ' Hi honey. Sorry about the house being burned to the ground.  See, I put this wax filled thing in the microwave and...."  lol

So, I let it sit for 24 hours and hoped for the best. Broke up the soy wax and rinsed the rest off under hot water.  And that was the sad, sad result.

*lets take a moment to mourn*

So, then I called the store where I bought the materials and they told me you have to roll it up in paper and steam it - over a pot of boiling water or with a clothes steamer.

I guess I'll do that NEXT time. 

*heh*

As you can see, I started out with some silk twill, a stretcher frame and some silk pins. Unsurprisingly, I began by stretching a piece of silk twill over the frame, pinned it down with the silk pins, and then used:  

Soy wax and a tjanting tool, with which I drew my design on the silk.  The soy wax can be seen in the picture above as all of the gray areas.  I'm sorry I didn't think to take pictures as I went along, but you'd be surprised how a tool full of molten hot wax flushed thoughts of photography from my mind! ;)




and when the soy wax was dry, I used these fabric paints, diluted with base extender, to fill in my doodles.

It's drying now, let's see how it turns out tomorrow after it's been rinsed and set...

So you may remember that I was working on this piece a couple of weeks ago.  First, I hand-painted my fabrics (a post on how to achieve this result is coming soon), but I was struggling with the leaf issue -  I wanted it to look leaf-blown, but couldn't decide which leaf worked best...


I made a couple of different styles in a couple of different fabrics...



But finally decided that the "November-ness" of "November" was best expressed by no leaves at all.



Just a cold, Northern wind...


Oh, and the winner of two charm packs of Tula Pink's Neptune is:

Hiyacinth, who said "Terrific Tula Pink designs. They're so intriguing! "  Congratulations Hiyacinth, email me your address and I'll send them along to you.

I'll be doing another giveaway very soon, so stay tuned...