Now that I am back from my recent trip it is thrilling to be back in my studio working on a new art quilt called “These are the grains of our lives.” In one of my previous posts I mentioned the pictures that I have taken of grains in old wood logs. As you can see the orginal pictures was taken of wood knots and then blown up to about 16″ x 24″ to use as the initial pattern. I always print out my pattern pictures in greyscale because it gives me a good look at the shadows of the subject. Then I transfered the design to my fabric using the lightbox. You will notice that I didn’t draw it exactly like the orignal but moved it around to give it a different look. Then I painted the preliminary background till it was filled. My next thought was to make the knot holes three dimentional. So I cut them out of my painted fabric. As I was cutting one of our old friends came in and couldn’t believe that I would cut up my painted design. Anyway staying the course so I didn’t chicken out I cut all of the knot holes out. Next I ironed on black fusible interfacing to the back so that it would stablize the holes and surrounding area. I used black cotton fabric to face the holes so they had a finished edge. Just a side not, I have found that if I use a clear plastic foot it is easier to sew the curves and angles. My foot is made to use for a narrow satin stitch but it is great to do straight stich around curves too. Then I inserted a piece of thick poly batting in between the painted fabric and the interfacing and free motion stiched the edges of the holes to add dimention. It was time to add more texture to the knot holes so I used shredded yarns that I stiched over with a free motion stitch. These knot holes will be attached from behind after the rest of the painted fabric is quilted. My next idea was to make leaves from dyed fabric that one of my other art friends gave me a couple of years ago. The dyed pieces were kind of ugly but great when cut in smaller shapes. My plan was to make the leaves look like they just fell on the logs. So to do that I used iron on stablizer on the back of the top leaf fabric and then heat n bond on the back of he liner fabric. Before they were ironed together I put thin wire in between the layer so that the edges could be bent up and shaped. They were ironed and fused together and then stitched to add texture. By the way before they were stitched I took a sharpee pen and put little dots where the wire was inserted so as to not hit it with the needle. This made a great texture pattern on top of the leaves. After laying the preliminary leaves on the painted fabric I felt it needed to be darker in some of the wood grain area and I went back and added more paint and did some ink work to give it depth. You can now see how far I have come since my first pencil mark on the plain white fabric. It is always a thrill when aan art quilt design starts to come together and I am very happy with this art quilt so far. As I decide just how many leaves to attach and what in the heck am I going to do with the borders or maybe no borders, I am learning to let the art design develope as it goes along. This is key to stretching your artistic abilities. Rarely does the outcome look like my original thought but most of the time it is much better. I like how my husband explains to others about my art quilts “She paints the watercolors on the fabric, lets it run and then makes it into something.” There is alot of truth in that because the more I let it do its own thing the better I like the results……So in your next art project let your creative talent run away with you so to speak and watch what what happens….magic!!!!