I’ve been a busy little bee working on the two garden quilts mentioned in an earlier post. My main

focus at this point has been to finish the first one and save the other crazy wild garden for last. It

promises to be fun. The thread painting  on this first garden has taken quite a while, there is so much

detail I’ve logged in a lot of hours already, but I’m liking the way it’s going so far.I

have completed a lot of that, the end is in sight. Just a few more details to wrap up, Oh,there’s the sky

to do, I forgot. That’s more than a little detail I suppose. Well anywho, then I  can get down to quilting

it. So here’s a few updated photos. It’s starting to take shape.

The color is off, but you get an idea of where I’m going. The stalks haven’t not been added yet,

leaving several flowers sort of hanging in the air, but they will have stocks soon, give em an anchor to

the ground.

This is a closer look at some not finished peach flowers on the bottom right and left sides. The color

looks horrendous in this photo, it is really quite pretty in person, but that’s the thing with photos. I’ve

had several absolutely gorgeous quilts that were not photogenic. They looked so different in photos

than in person.

One recent example is a new quilt I just listed on Etsy,” Rain Forest Canopy”. It’s an abstract.

After I had finished the fabric painting and it had dried, I could take a look at it closely, the-big 

unveiling, it exceeded my expectations, it came out super good. There is always an element of surprise

with fabric painting. At a certain point in the process you lose some control and it effects the

outcome, you can surprise yourself. Sometimes there are pieces that turn out especially good, they

exceed your expectations, this was one of those. I loved it!

When you have those special ones come out, you don’t want to squander this art fabric.

You want to use it in the best possible way that highlights it. If you plan applique,  you have to be

careful that you don’t cover too much of the design, it can’t shine through. The way you quilt it too,

you don’t want to quilt in a way that clashes with it or obscures what makes it special. 

So I gave this a lot of thought, long before I ever began to make an art quilt with it. When I had

finished the quilt, I was really happy with the result. I thought the quilting and design fit it. It works

with the fabric rather than against. And the abstract quilting? Just the coolest ever. I did my

abstract thread painting, using thread that has deep rich colors and metal threads add shimmer.

Great, I’m all happy woo who! This is a really good one. Then I took the photos of it. It looked flat, you

couldn’t sense how cool it was from any of the photos.The fabric colors which I loved, don’t show well.

Sometimes quilts just don’t photograph well. Me either, take 100 photos, you won’t get a good one I

guarantee.I’ve had maybe 5 photos taken in my entire life that came out decent.

I’m beginning to wonder is this what I really look like?

 I just recycle the few decent ones. So if you see a photo of a cute 4 year ol

on my avatar that’s me!It’s One of the few. BTW My current avatar is a few years old 5 maybe, it’s not

from 30 years ago.

My husband needed a photo avatar for my phone number on his phone. He took 3 or 4, awful. I’m

thinking I don’t want his work mates to see that,”well that’s some ugly wife ya got there”. No way,

He’s going to have a decent pic of his wife in his phone. I took the phone, reversed the camera for self

shoot. I tried about 30 photos, I’m not exaggerating not a one. Not photogenic.

 

No pictures thanks…

Barb