Progress on all fronts

I haven't had as much time in the workroom as I'd like but I have made progress on all three pieces in the last few days. Like Honey from the Rock has more of its purple added and I rectified a few areas where shadows weren't quite right. I still have a couple more places like that to fix, and a lot more stitching to add.

Like Honey from the Rock 18in x 12in

Rites of Passage is assembled, and I began stitching it today. I'm actually finding this one a bit of a challenge to get just the right colours. I want to brighten the colours, so the scene looks a little alien, but not so much that it stops looking like a real place.

Rites of Passage 6in x 6in

Mistrise has had wadding added and I've started stitching. This one will have a lot less intensive stitching than the other two, and it's quite hard to remember that I'm doing something a lot more like traditional machine quilting and a lot less like embroidery! I don't want to lose the ethereal effect in the clouds, so I don't want to have to stitch them heavily to balance heavy stitching on the hills. The stitching isn't that clear in the photograph - I've only done a little on the nearer hills so far.

Mistrise 18in x 12in

More painting

Hooray, the painting on Valley Mist is just about finished! Once I heat-set today's painting, I can wash out the masking medium and see what I actually have. It's tricky, because the paint goes on over the mask quite happily but, in an ideal world, doesn't adhere to the fabric. However, the masking medium dries clear, so it means you aren't quite sure exactly how thorough your coverage of the fabric has been, until you discover paint where you didn't want it!


All I did today was add the darkest tone, which is the foreground. I lightened that tone a little and used the resulting dark-medium tone to paint in some shadows on the other hills. I think I might need a little more of that before I start stitching. There are also a couple of areas that got masked that shouldn't have, so they will need painting once the medium comes out.

I'm really enjoying the process of this, but it doesn't help that the deadline for finished work is Jun 2!

Winnie the Pooh

There is one reason why I might be heard humming the hums of Pooh*, and that reason is that I am busy. If I'm busy in a run-off-my-feet kind of way, I might be overheard humming, "the more it SNOWS, tiddley-pom, the more it GOES, tiddley pom, the more it GOES, tiddley pom, on snowing...". But when you hear me murmuring, "I could spend a happy morning being Pooh. For it doesn't seem to matter, if I don't get any fatter (and I don't get any fatter) what I do," it's a sign of much contented activity.

Which is a roundabout way of saying I have had a very happy day by myself, getting on with many different things.

Today I finally got to paint another layer on Valley Mist. Actually, it was two layers of darks. One more masking and I can paint the final darkest shades, and then wash out the masking medium to see what I have. I hope it's worth all the work! I know I'll have to add some little details at the end, before I can stitch it.

Valley Mist 18 1/2in x 13 1/2in

*If you have no idea what I am talking about, you have clearly had a deprived childhood and it's way past time to rediscover your inner child by reading A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young and Now We are Six.

Valley Mist

I finally found a chunk of time to paint this afternoon. Painting is always a challenge for me because it needs significant uninterrupted time that coincides with my energy levels. The stars were finally in alignment today!

First task was painting the next stage of this misty valleys piece, which has been sitting, masked for painting, for over a week. It's still a bit hard to show where it's going, but I am very excited about progress so far.

You'll remember I painted masking medium over the light bits that I wanted to stay light? I also drew in some guidelines with white chalk pencil, because sometimes when you're painting, it's hard to work out where you meant to paint! I found the chalk pencil seemed to be acting as a resist too, so that might be interesting when it all comes out. Perhaps I'll have unexpected white lines!

Basically, this time I painted between the lines, varying the amount of paint and water so that the coverage is uneven. I had the nasty experience of getting a piece too wet and causing the Setacolor resist to get sloppy, so I am careful not to let things get too wet now.

Valley Mist

As I mentioned, I work very slowly. One reason for that is that I work on several different pieces at once. Some go nowhere, get flung aside, resurrected later... If you're looking for a linear process, this is not the place to be! Another reason is that I often paint fabric before I stitch it. Inevitably, time passes in waiting for paint or masking medium to dry.

One project I am working on fairly consistently at present is inspired by a photo of mist rising from a series of valleys. It's a painted piece, which will have stitch added later on. So far it looks like this:


I applied Setacolor masking medium with a cheap sponge onto off-white quilter's muslin. When that was dry, I wet the whole surface and painted a wash of runny Setacolour transparent paints over everything.

Now I've masked the light areas again, this time using a folded piece of cardboard as the applicator, to give fairly solid coverage. When I get a chunk of time, I'll paint in some medium values. The masked areas should stay light, but painting fabric is never entirely predictable!