The devil is in the detail

Week 22

What a tragic!  I just couldn't accept not getting this weeks challenge done.  So now I'm going to be tired in the morning. Blow.

I am still exploring the colours and line of the bamboo.  I was struck by the contrast of the yellow and green and the horizontal and vertical line in one lone stem.

  

I couldn't find the colour I wanted so dyed a piece of cotton folding it so that the colour would take in lines.  I then took two pieces of fabric of the same colour and sewed a thin cord between the layers to represent the horizontal lines.  I stitched the vertical lines through all the layers as the quilting.

This random use of lines could be used in blocks to make a quilt.  You could use different colour

combinations and get quite good effects.  I must try it in a drawing program.

Week 21

Another view of the bamboo.  When I looked closely there were so many variations of colour in the main stems, from almost white through to black brown.

In an effort to replicate the striations I attempted a little dyeing with various levels of success.  So, I used some of my hand dyed fabric and some commercial ones.  I then used a little white fabric paint to get some highlights.  The white fabric gave me the most grief. 

As the colours of the fabric were the focal point I have kept the quilting to the background, outlines and some shadows.

Week 20

 

I have decided to move onto the grove of bamboo that surrounds the Pagoda.  Bamboo is so common and used for so many things it's beauty is often overlooked.  Although this is not the case with Chinese art where the bamboo is often the centre of attention.

 

This week I decided to look at the beauty of the leaves and used one small section of this photo as my inspiration.

There are so many colours when you look into the grove and this kind of misty light the deeper you go.

I printed the photo onto fabric and then outlined this with stitching to define the lines.  Then I printed the image again this time onto a sheer fabric.  This I placed out the first image slightly out of alignment to give the background that misty look.

Again I outlined the background shapes and then the colours in those in the foreground so that the leaves would stand out in front of the Bamboo.  I framed the image against a batik fabric to make it stand out and accentuate the raw edges of the sheer fabric.

week 19 again

Well I have managed to get it finished,  but it changed!  I found once I had appliqued those stars that there was too much open space.  I think I should have made those original stars larger.  So, I needle turned smaller stars between the reverse applique stars.

 

I don't know if it's because I'm tired or because I did some of the quilting in a metallic thread but I just can't seem to get a good straight on shot of this piece.  I have tried with two different cameras without much success.

The hand stitching took most of the day and I like needle turn applique far better than the reverse technique.  But both have their place and you can get differences in heights.  But working on shapes that are so small and trying to get sharp corners is a pain.  I think I will go back and quilt the triangles in the corners caused by putting this on point.

Week 19

The last design from that screen.  There are lots of other screens to look at in the future.  I was looking at my photos of the Pagoda and realised that the flower design was used in lots of places but not the star.  So this weeks design is a salute to the stars.
I started by wanting to show just the recessed star and did this using reverse applique, or I think that is what it is.  I haven't done any before so this might be something else!  After drafting the design I printed it out onto a fine interfacing and then tacked this into position.  I had drawn the cutting lines as a square in the middle so that I would keep all the turn allowances the same on each piece.

Now, will I get it finished before the dead line?  This is all hand work but I will try.  It is 5:30pm and all the gang is coming to dinner so I will have to get through that.