Makin' rocks and adding washes


I had hoped to show you a finished piece today, but I grossly underestimated how long it would take me to braid enough embroidery floss to make the mermaid's hair - not to mention, some of the hand quilting I've done hasn't turned out so well, so I need to re-do it. :SIGH:




But I DID make some rocks. I knew I knew how to do it, and I thought if I pulled out By The Sea from last year, just looking at those rocks would remind me how I did it. That didn't work - I pulled them out, petted them, and thought "how pretty", but couldn't remember how I did them, exactly.



Bu then I found and  read my own instructions on how to make them (gee, I'm glad that this is a process blog!), except, this time, I broadened the colours of roving that I used, and put them on a gray silk background, rather than stablizer and pinned 'em all up.


Since I didn't have very much of that grey scrim left, I inserted into my rocks for more texture instead.

Once I had it all pinned down, I needle felted it.



And when I was done, I had this piece of fabric. It was  sooooooooo SOFT, I just wanted to pet it like a bunny. :)  Alas, I needed to cut it up...



...into rock shapes.

Which I put onto some fabric I wouldn't use for much else (a heavy cotton upholstery fabric sample I was gifted by a friend - said friend gave me banker's box full of such samples and they've come in very handy in a lot of applications.

There's a lot of that stuff in the "America Now" series, for instance. Painting them over covers a multitude of sins!)



But back to this piece, my rocks  needed to be on that background, because I wanted to quilt them before I put them on my painted background.

So, we're getting closer!

I have to finish braiding Ms. Mermaid's hair and fix up my hand quilted elements - and though I've added the washes I talked about last week to take my background from early morning to the night I intended, I think I have to add two more washes of purple and blue (and maybe teal) to the sky to further differentiate it from the cliff.

But, we're in the home stretch now! Finished piece on Wednesday or maybe Friday.

Until then...

Photobucket

Kit Lang

6 comments:

  1. I have a lot of gifted upholstery samples too and find myself using them for the darndest things. Let's hope those fabric companies don't discover how handy they are for mixed media and start charging for them.

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  2. Nice rocks -- I can't wait to see how you're going to do the hair...

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  3. That rocks!! haha! Couldn't resist! Don't you love finding little tid bits like that on your own blog! Some day I want to try needle felting! I live in a town with a wool mill, and believe it or not, they don't sell an ounce of wool roving here. I would have to drive 3 hours, to Portland to get it at the outlet store there :(. Maybe I should talk to the "manager" some day...

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  4. It's been fun watching this piece develop....can't wait for the reveal!!

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  5. Smart rocks lady....great effects

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  6. Sometimes we have done so much that we forget what we've done ... very honest and humorous of you !
    Great rocks !

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