Thursday, July 10, 2014

EGA Challenging, getting under way

I have a treasured large pad of heavy vellum that I used to make the detail to size tracing for my final piece. I chose the beach scene. I plan to frame it over stretcher bars so I extended the sides to cover the sides of the bars.  So the inner border is the top and the outer border includes the sides.
At the International Quilt Festival I shopped for the project, looking for texture to add to all three images I have in mind. I found hand dyed cheesecloth and some lovely loosely woven cotton that will unravel nicely.
Each of these cards has two different fibers. 
I found some subtle hand dyed cottons for backgrounds.
A bundle of silk remnants. I buy one each year just for fun. I saw some leaves and bark in this one.
And I got to work.  On a piece of old sheet I drew my outlines.  For the sky I used a plain cotton but I colored it on the wrong side with crayons. Just a hint of color comes through.  The water is layers of tulle and netting.
The sand is pleated rust dyed fabric I made a few years ago.  I sewed the seams across and basted it around both the inner and outer borders.  Next, begin to embroider the water.  I'm going to leave the sky unstitched.

I'm still debating on how to do the figure. Applique? Satin stitch? (My recent side trip into monograms has me leaning in that direction.)  fused fabric?

4 comments:

Southpaw Stitcher said...

I remember that rust-dyed fabric and had been wondering how you would use it. You are incredibly creative!

Aurelia Eglantine said...

What a great start!!! The sky is lovely - the crayon tinting (which is something I'd like to try someday!) adds a watercolour feel, the ocean waves are so lovely and vibrant and the sand has great texture from the dye spots and the way you stitched it down. Can't wait to see where you go with this!

Aurelia Eglantine said...
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Aurelia Eglantine said...

Sorry for the double post! Oops :) But I just wanted to add that your shopping finds are really great too, especially those pretty silk remnants!