Embroidered and Embellished

I just completed a wonderful online class through Joggles.com called Scrumptious Surfaces. We began with a picture which we simplified into lines. I enlarged the lines and outlined them in embroidery thread. Then I got to play with stitches to fill in the spaces. I sewed on linen which I have never used before and I learned new stitches along the way.

My design began with the image of a tree with moss growing on it. The heavily embellished areas are the mossy areas.

I used different kinds of threads, yarns, buttons and beads. I created the little circular shapes using chiffon and the netting underneath them that reads darker in the photo is actually netting that I bought in Morocco. They use is as a back scrubber but it looks like fishermen's net. It came in a number of earth tones and I had to have some of each!

I used wooden buttons that I found at yard sales and stone beads that I purchased along the way. The chiffon circles are sewn down with seed beads interspersed.

I loved creating this piece probably because I love handwork and embellishment so much. Each step required a decision and the choices were endless. I am happy with the outcome and would love to find the time to do this again. It was the perfect project for a trip....those early mornings when I couldn't turn my clock around and needed to entertain myself!

The Fritilleria Challenge

The most recent challenge for the Rogue Art Quilters was to create quilts celebrating Jacksonville, Oregon's signature flower...the Gentner Fritillaria. We all began with the same fabric and went in any direction we wanted to. They are being displayed in a local restaurant in Jacksonville.

I already posted mine earlier on this blog.

This one was created by Jill Lee-Jones and I have been told that she has already sold it to someone who saw it at the show. Congratulations, Jill!

Kathy Lang created this piece.

This is by Suzanne McBride.

This quilt is by Kathy Robbins.

Here is Elaine Turcke's quilt.

And Carolyn Wolf's quilt...our wonderful show coordinator.

Since I was out of town, I haven't seen the quilts in person yet so I can't give you detailed descriptions but we are getting wonderful comments from people.

Time out

I thought I would share pictures from my show at US Bank in Ashland. It will be up until mid-May.
A bunch of Dunderhogans hanging out together.

My daughter Shayna is an au pair in Milan and my mother and my son, Jordan and I are visiting her. We are all going to Morocco together for 10 days so I may return with new inspiration for future quilts. Hopefully I will also have something to share when I get back. I can't go anywhere without some needlework project to keep my hands busy.

More soon,

Karen

Radiating Color

The word for the 12 connected group is color and the grand reveal took place on April 1. You can see the rest of them at www.12connected.blogspot.com. For my piece I chose to cut up a lot of different batiks with a serrated rotary cutter. Then I fused the batiks to my black background fabric and free motion quilted over them to hold them in place. I quilted the background fabric and bound the whole piece about a month ago.
It took me until just last week to finish needlepointing the circle using lots of different fibers. I cut away the excess canvas and sewed the circle to the quilt. Then I crocheted two of the needlepoint yarns together to form the edge around the needlepoint. I sewed this yarn on top of the canvas by machine. I really enjoy hand work so the needlepoint was fun to do when I had quiet moments in my day.