Today (Friday), I decided that I needed a break from work…..after all it is past “Tax Day”, so I planned to hit my studio around Noon. The plan was to work on the Camel thread painting, but I just couldn’t motivate myself in there to work.
I finally realized why….I was scared to work on it because I was afraid that I would mess it up!!!! I was reminded of a post that I had read from Leah Day where she was talking about this exact thing, and her comment was that “it was only a fat quarter of fabric”, so why worry about it. I realized that the same thing applied to me, so with that in mind, I headed AWAY from my desk and TOWARD the machine.
I decided that I would give myself one hour and then re-evaluate. At the end of the hour, I LOVED what I was doing and definitely wanted to keep on going.
Here are some photos of the progress…..
When you last saw it, it looked like this……
My first step was to finish filling in the highlight areas and remove the blue lines. Then I filled the other spaces with simple lines, trying to be careful to get the line directions correct……
I then sketched over the larger areas with a slightly lighter color of thread, and then again with an even lighter shade.…..
The next step was to work on the “basket” in the background. I decided early on that I wasn’t going to worry if it looked like a basket, but just wanted to include a little more texture……
I then added some crossed lines…….
Final step was a bit of shading and also some darker threads around the camel to make him stand out a bit from the background.
I picked two fabrics for the borders, and, voila…..the top is finished…..
It has been a fun piece and I really enjoyed the thread painting. Maybe I will try more of it in the future!!!!
5 thoughts on “One Hump or Two”
Wonderful camel, Frances! I have that same “fear” problem with machine quilting, but I'm finally getting over it.
It looks great! I would love to see an even closer picture of the thread painting if you can get it! I'd love to see how you laid the thread down.
Amazing how many of us share that paralyzing moment: but what if I mess it up?????????? Glad to see that you conquered your fear and just did it!
Congratulations on a fantastic piece. Now that you know you can there will be no stopping you and I hope to see lots more.
He (or she?) looks really great, Frances! It is so much fun, isn't it? You are not alone in being afraid. So many quilters are absolutely paralyzed with fear about trying something new. You should feel really proud of yourself that you were willing to take the risk and jump in. Next time, it will be easier. And each time, easier still.