Original (altered) Image

This is the original image I started with after squaring it up with Photoshop. The background will remain the color of the felt (green), the heavy black lines will be black embroidery, and the rest of the spaces will be embroidered with colored silk thread. (See former post)

Colors for the Primitive Embroidery Piece

Vero, in answer to your question, these are the colors of silk thread that I've chosen to use on my Primitive piece. I will leave the green background as is and fill in the design spaces with the colors. I may do a "mock up" on paper, first, to see which way I want to go. The lines will be heavily embroidered over with black silk thread. As you can see, the thread is Splendor's 12 ply silk. The thread easily separates into 4 ply strands which is how I use the silk. I love the feel of pulling silk thread through wool felt - very satisfying.

Primitive without Embroidery Paper

I tore off the embroidery paper, and because I hadn't knotted the thread, some of the treads pulled out. If I were to do this again, I would use a thinner paper such as tissue paper. I would also use only one strand of thread instead of three as I intend to embroider over the outlines.

New Project

My new project is an embroidery on light green felt. The design is from a book on primitive art. I attached a piece of embroidery paper to freezer paper and ran it through my printer to come up with a design I could outline on my piece of felt. Now, I'll tear away the embroidery paper and begin the actual embroidery.

February TIF Challenge Finished

I've finished the stitching on my TIF February Challenge piece. I hand stitched the running stitch around all the pieces. I'm not happy with the way it looks -it needs something more, but I don't know what. I might try images printed on organza to add on. I'll see how it goes.

February TIF Challenge Ready for Stitching

I've pinned my fabric together and it's ready for stitching. This little quilt is for the Take It Further Challenge for February. The concept is "What am I old enough to remember." I chose metal roller skates. The piece measures about ten inches square. I will use batting and another fabric to make this a "real" quilt. I will also leave raw edges on all the pieces. Scroll down to see my "Thoughts on Roller Skating" post.

Quilting Arts Magazine "Go Green" Challenge

The challenge was to recycle materials to make a mini-quilt five inches square. I use a piece of raw canvas for the drying cloth to place just-painted Lutradur monoprints on. The paint is usually quite thick and a lot soaks through to the canvas. I cut out a 5" piece of this canvas, embellished it with beads, silk floss, and other threads leftover from finished projects. I used a scrap of white wool felt instead of regular batting and backed the quilt with a scrap piece of gold lame'. If the editor of the magazine likes my quilt, it might end up in the magazine (with others, of course)!

Fabrics for February TIFC

I'm going to make a mini-art quilt for the February Challenge. These are the fabrics/colors I will start out with. From top to bottom the blue stripes are upholstery fabric, the next two are batiks, the next red is cotton, the dark blue on left is a Japanese cotton, and the bottom light blue is Japanese rayon chirimen crepe. I still have to figure out how to create the roller skate. I'm thinking appliqué.

Thoughts on Roller Skating

I wonder how many pairs of shoes I ruined with my roller skates. The skates had these clamps that tightened onto the sole of the shoe. We used our skate key (which we carried on a ribbon around our necks) to tighten the clamps. The sidewalks where I grew up (the Mission District of San Francisco) were rough concrete; the asphalt streets were smoother, so we skated out in the street. A few blocks from my house was a small industrial area with train tracks, trains, and large buildings for businesses selling all kinds of large equipment. The brand new sidewalks in front of the buildings were smooth - almost as smooth as glass. This area was our favorite place to skate. We didn't have need pads or wear helmets then, so I had many scrapes on my knees and elbows. I still have a skate key in with my mementos. I like to think it is the same one I had as a youngster growing up on the streets and sidewalks of San Francisco.

TIF Challenge for February

Sharon has posted a wonderful challenge for February. The concept is "What are we old enough to remember." There are so many things I remember: Shirley Temple dolls and paper dolls, my Schwinn bicycle, coloring books and Crayola crayons, my grandmother's summer cottage on the Pacific coast just south of San Francisco, driving there in my grandfather's Buick - passing the pig farms while holding our noses, reading fairy tales and the Book of Knowledge, street cars, and finally, the item I've chosen to work with: roller skates.

Photos are the Challenge colors.