Greetings to everyone! I have been busy in my art room. You might recognize some of these blocks hanging around Karen’s Place on one of the design walls. As I am unpacking some of my art stuff these blocks are appearing all over the place. Now is the time to finish some of these small pieces. Hanging here is a combination of original painted blocks and digital prints. Looking at this picture I feel as if I am still being productive while living in my pajamas.
This is one of my new creations titled “Road Trip to Doggone Valley”. It is one of a series of designs about rescue dogs and their many destinations. My first creation in this series was a design called “My Doggone Tree Farm”.
This art quilt was painted during one of my painted ladies classes. We did three different truck pictures thinking we would group them in one art quilt. But just like a lot of my art projects I changed mind along the way and was happier with them as separate works. Mine had trucks and dogs as these subject matter. It became apparent these art pieces would be about rescue dogs. After watching several ads about how dogs are carted all over the country to their new homes, using many forms of travel. Basically they travel by car, truck, plane and maybe even boats to reach their destination. I could do something cool with that.
My first thought was where could these rescue dogs go? To the mountains, or maybe the ocean or a wonderful farm. Then I remembered a sketch that I had done while driving from Ketchum to Mackay over trail creek summit. The mountains were so impressive on that drive and I quickly sketched them in my sketch book. This was probably 5 yrs or so ago. Here is a picture of my original quick sketch.
Then I searched for the other elements, including the truck with dogs in the back. Originally the truck picture had a yellow lab. in the bed so I drew him in. You can see I used my own artist interpretation by adding the water, trees and sign.
Then I transferred this image to the fabric and painted it. Along the way I realized that the yellow lab looked kind of lonely and I painted a black lab to be added to the back of the truck using heat and bond after the whole picture was painted. Through this art experience I realized that doggie rescue isn’t about one dog but many. The doggone valley sign was the last thing added to the design. There is my connection to this great doggie rescue theme.
Next I thought a tree border would make it better. I have painted many tree borders over the years. I usually paint the borders after the picture has been completely painted and the first border has been sewn to the block. This way I can fine tune it for balance and color before I add it to the art quilt. From experience you have to make sure the tree border doesn’t over power the original art picture. Here is a picture of how I started the border with brown vertical lines and then added the green of the trees and blue sky.
I assembled the the pieces and sandwiched the quilt top together with the back and fusible fleece. Now it is ready to quilt!
I already knew that I would quilt farm land furrows in the background to give this design more texture. Here is a close up of this quilting design. Lots of time as I paint the block I am already looking for my quilting lines. It is one of the wonderful things I love about making art quilts.
I am very happy how this small 18″ x !6″ art quilt came together. Who knows maybe this design will turn into a larger creation. Lastly I thought you would enjoy my newest picture of fall along our river.
