Progress-- Sort Of

This was one of the "quick fire" 15 minute small pieces from the Pamela Allen class. We each got the little printed face/head and had to "finish the picture" in some way. When I got this home I pulled off everything except the background and the dog. I found the dress and shoes on some printed commercial fabric and added the pink with green dots to make the space work and give the house something to sit on top of.

The velvet fish now has some gold stretchy cord giving it some definition. I added the little bouncey fringe (which I dye painted) and a fussy cut bunch of radishes from some commercial fabric. I still want to attach the lemon but haven't yet. I removed all the Pamela style primitive needle work as it just isn't "ME" and instead sewed everything down with invisible thread and a zigzag stitch on the machine. Cuz that IS me.


This has all been topstiched with invisible zigzag and now I'm doing a straight topstitch--sort of like big quilting in the violet purple pearl cotton #8. Some of the lines of the center fabric have been extended to the quilt edge with velveteen in a mossy green. Some new branches and flowers have been added along with the addition of flower centers cut from some commercial printed fabric.

All the flowers have been cut from my small collection of Wunder Under'ed fabrics and ironed down onto the dotted surface. Now that I have learned the most important lesson from Pamela Allen--to define the background into a recognizable surface (interior, exterior, landscape etc) I realize this will never amount to anything as the flat background will be a negative to the viewer. The dotted fabric doesn't "say" anything. No depth of perspective. The small square in the lower left is auditioning as a possible "table" or surface on which the vase can comfortably sit (it will stretch across the entire bottom if chosen and I will have to heat up the WU and try and lift those flowers on the lower right off the surface and on top of the "table").

What I had hoped to be working on right now. A large butterfly. I may replace the lower third fabric. It calls too much attention to itself. And the fabric (a long sleeve wrap top) that I got at Goodwill IS the perfect color, print etc for the butterfly ( you get a peek in the upper right corner). Nothing else is working well and will eventually be replaced.

What I have done today: walked one mile alone, walked one mile with dog, watched dog sleep so husband could weed back flower beds ( I was wanting to keep dog out of the crate since it's so hot here today but if he's out of the crate, he follows us around and won't sleep--so I watched cooking shows and dog got bored and went to sleep), made husband's lunch, continued to watch dog, baked husband some chocolate chip cookies since he "needs" dessert, forgot to turn off oven when finished (even hotter in here), started this post, called by husband to help give dog a bath, cleaned bathroom after bath, cleaned up wetting accident in spare bedroom (husband can not remember that puppies need to go outside to pee after every exciting thing--which includes a bath), now watching puppy so husband can take a shower. I think husband and puppy are going for a ride in the car so I will have 20 minutes to myself. Oh boy!

They are bringing back dinner. Happy dance!