Drunkards Path

This is what's up on the Design Wall

Click Image to Enlarge:

Drunkard's Path

Also known as:

Solomon's Puzzle

Old Maid's Puzzle

Rob Peter to Pay Paul

Wanderer in the Wilderness

I pulled these blocks out of the drawer

and put them up on the wall for inspiration.

I think I need a HIT of color during these

dreary days of late winter.

I will keep you posted on my progress...

CLICK HERE to view my Drunkard's Path Baby Quilt

CLICK HERE to check out my Mixed Media Class in May 2011

CLICK HERE to view Painted Fabrics

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

Quilting Stormy...

I am working on Stormy today.

Let's see where the day takes us...

Click Images to Enlarge:

Stormy

I chose a medium brown batik for the inner border

Auditioning Final Border Fabrics:

I pulled a variety of light, medium & dark fabrics and arranged them around the edges.

Medium Browns are yummy...

Dark Fabrics...

Dark/Textured Fabrics...

Light Fabrics...

Medium Browns are too blendy with the inner border

Dark Fabrics are well......too dark

I love this fabric......but it just demands too much attention.

I want the horse to be center stage.

I like the light fabric......but I think I can do better

This fabric is light, but warm........the horse is the main focus.

I think we have a winner !

Basted and ready to go under the needle

Backing Fabric & Bobbin Thread

I chose a medium gray thread to blend into the backing fabric.

I plan to use 2 threads for the quilting on the horse.

There are a lot of different fabrics, and I don't plan on changing threads 30 times!

This medium brown thread will work for all of the lighter areas.

The size 75 needle will work nicely for this tiny 60 wt thread.

I warmed up on a quilt sandwich to get the tension adjusted:

I had to decrease the tension to nearly 1

All of the lighter fabrics have been quilted...

Face........Quilted

I am now ready to quilt the darker areas:

I chose a dark brown thread

All of the dark fabrics have been quilted:

Nose & Mouth........Quilted

I am using an off-white thread for the background behind the horse head:

I shadow stitched mane hair into the background fabric

Ready to Quilt the Border:

This golden yellow thread should work nicely

I want the border to be textured, but I don't want the stitches to be center stage and take away from the central horse image...

Border.......Machine Quilted

Next..... a binding treatment

I am calling it a day...

Here is the view as I push myself away from the sewing machine:

Gunnr & Suzy

The best Quilting Dogs I know

Gunnr 3 year old Boxer

Suzy 15 year old Jack Russell Terrier

CLICK HERE to see the first part of this post

CLICK HERE to see the completed Quilt

CLICK HERE for Machine Quilting Tips

CLICK HERE to view my Art Quilts

CLICK HERE to view Chicken Slideshow

CLICK HERE to view Jello Printing

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn

Metal Quilts & Mowing...

Click Images to Enlarge:

I have been playing with metal, embossing tools and alcohol inks

It has been great fun!

My plan is to sew these onto my quilts...

I drew out small leaves, free-hand onto metal sheets.

I plan to cut these out and sew them on a tree.

I just need to make the tree...

I chose this piece of sun dyed fabric as my background

The metal leaves get along nicely with the sun dyed fabric

With a pencil, I sketched out tree branches...

You can click the image once to enlarge,

then click it again to zoom in tighter.

I plan to paint the tree on the sun dyed fabric...

I chose a Lumiere paint and a brown textile paint to mix together to create the tree trunk and branches.

I am happy with the paint color for the tree.

I will finish the tree then add some leaves...

At this point...

I am happy with the colors.

I am just not sure if I need to add more branches, more leaves, is it too bare?

I need to get away from this for awhile...

I think I'll go do some mowing

Climb on.....let's go mow the pasture

Ahhh.....what a great view

Straight ahead, in the distance, is Mary's Peak

Mowing has always been something I enjoy

I find it rather methodical and relaxing...

Mowing gives me time to sit back and think...

Now let's get some mowing done...

Let's head down to the river and take a look at some of the trees growing there...

The trunk is dominant on this tree, the leaves aren't so visible.

I do love the bare look of this tree.

This is an even ratio of trunk and leaves...

I like the balanced feel of this tree.

This tree, growing along the banks of the river, caught my eye...

The sun is shining through the moss hanging from the branches, and illuminating it.

It is soft and beautiful.

The pasture is so happy with its new hair cut...

All of the weeds and blackberries are gone.

This is the view over my shoulder behind the tractor.

We are almost done mowing...

Hard to believe you rode around with me and

we mowed 25 acres together.

That gave me lots of time to think, gave the painted tree lots of time to dry, and now I am headed back to the Thread Shed to take a look at the quilt with fresh eyes...

More to come tomorrow...

CLICK HERE to see more progress on this metal quilt.

CLICK HERE to view my Art Quilts

CLICK HERE to view my Exhibit Quilts

CLICK HERE to view my Slideshows

May Your Bobbin Always Be Full,

LuAnn