A Home for Sadie

This week will be a different sort of week for Frances Quilts

For the last few months, I have been working sporadically on a quilt that I started two years ago. I wanted to wait until it was finished before I showed you the process

I finished it this weekend so now I can share the whole story.

The inspiration started with this picture of a Saddle-Billed Stork I took it when we were in Mozambique in June 2019…..

As soon as we returned home, I enlarged the photo and did the fiber collage…..

But she needed a background, and I couldn’t decide what to do. I knew that I wanted to do something pretty fancy but was so confused about what it would be!!

I painted a background.……

but I knew that it needed something else.

I played with thread painting, hoping to attain a meadow appearance…….

…….but there was no way to get to what I envisioned.

Last summer, I worked through the process of making thread lace, using the technique on my Botero flower garden quilt……..

Back in January, I played around with making thread ~~lace~~ grass, and was pleased with how it looked…..

Then my crazy Spring hit and here we are in August. One thing became patently obvious…..

IT IS TIME TO FINISH THIS QUILT!!!!

So……a full two years after I started this quilt, I am ready to show you the results!!

Over the next three days, I am going to show the process of making the thread grass. On day four, we will look at dyeing and using cheesecloth.

Day five will be dedicated to thread-painting the top and day 6 will talk about the quilting process.

SO…..it will be a FUN week…..get ready for a wild ride!!

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Best laid plans???

As I mentioned a couple of weeks back, I had planned to return from my quilt retreat week and then get stuck into my next project big time. I even got the fabric pulled and the studio ready to start!!

Well you know what they say about plans…..

…..they often don’t go quite the way that we wanted!!!

There was the baby quilt to finish and because I was having so much fun with machine quilting, I went ahead and quilted a charity quilt that had been on my “to-do” list for almost a year!!

I ended up spending a portion of the week cleaning out a flower bed that had become completely overgrown with Black-Eyed Susans……

The first few years I had thought….”oh look, it is filling in so nicely” but after 3 years of not having time to clean them out it turned into “NOOOO….they are taking over!!!”

But, it does look nice now……..

And, I even rescued a couple of gorgeous plants that were being overshadowed by the out-of-control growth!!

And, as another distraction, I had to spend 2.5 days working on a project for a client….sigh!! I hate it when work gets in the way of fun!!

But, on Thursday I was determined to not leave the studio until I had at least ONE piece of fabric in place for my Stork collage quilt!!

I had already drawn out the design and enlarged it to the size that I wanted, but when I put it on the wall, it looked too small (approximately 18×24) There wouldn’t be enough space to really work the fabrics to achieve the look that I was going for……

So I went back down to my computer and printed it out again….this time using a 4×4 printing format rather than 3×3. This looks much better……

And, you may be wondering about my makeshift design wall?

This is the first Collage quilt that I made since my studio was enlarged and I realized that the cutting table was TOO far away from the design wall and that I wouldn’t be efficient in my design work.

So, I pulled out the “portable” design wall that I built several years back and placed it on an easel, pulling it right up to the cutting table.

It makes things a bit crowded but it will be easier to work….

And, as you can see, I did get ONE piece of fabric in place…..

Here’s to a better collaging week to come!!!

Hemingway applies to quilters??

I accidentally posted this early this week and now it doesn’t seem to be showing up properly on the CORRECT day, so here it is again…….

My husband Michael LOVES to read the works of Ernest Hemingway and has often talked about his practice of preparing for the next day’s work. He would always write the first sentence of the chapter that he was writing on the next day……ie….he “primed” the pump so that he was READY when he sat at the typewriter.

During this creative season, I have talked often about feeling overwhelmed with projects…”works in progress” as well as “want to do”, and “have to do” projects. And, often the hardest part is deciding which to do first!!

As I am writing this, I am heading to a week-long quilting retreat and have picked a simple scrap project to work on while there. That way I can enjoy the sewing process while still able to enjoy the conversations and women that I will share the time with.

However, in following Heminway’s suggestion, I have already made preparations for my next project which will be started when I return!!

And the project is…..

……May I have the envelope, please!!!………

The SADDLE-BILL STORK from Mozambique!!