Back now - Hopefully!!

Yep dark days....survived to tell about it. THEN I get sick....yes....AGAIN!!  But now I'm back for what I hope is a good long time!!!

Time has not be totally wasted however. I've started on a new project that I am quite pleased with.  I was inspired by a couple of techniques a friend shared with me.  I modified them a bit, combined them and found that I really like the results.  The origianl idea is to use this technique for my individual manhole cover projects but I wanted to try it out first to see if it would turn out like I envisioned.  So, I had a series of little quiltlets that I had done for a class. Why not try it out with those and see what happened???

So here is my Fig Study series as I begin to complete them with these techniques. I was so excited and having so much fun that I didn't take photos of each step (drat!!) on the first one but I'm trying to do that on the second one. I do have one confession.....it was difficult making that first brush stroke with the paint onto the fabric!  But I'm glad I did!

First is the branch with little figs growing on it. It startes with the original quiltlet.

Fig - Branch (quiltlet)



Then I stitched it to the canvas (didn't get this photo).  Next I mixed acrylic paints to get the color I wanted and then painted the canvas.  Also extended the branch and the tip of the leaf. (I did later adjust the color on the leaf tip....looks much better later on.)

Fig - Branch (stitched on painted canvas)

Next I painted with acrylics to add an additional branch and leaves.  All branches and leaves wrap around the canvas on the sides as well.

Fig - Branch (completed)

One last step.  I added shading with pen and ink on the fabric as well as the painted leaves and branches. Just making little dots with the pen and ink. Here are a few detailed photos.

Fig - Branch (details of pen and ink shading)



So, that's what I've been up to lately. I just stitched the next quiltlet onto canvas and when that one is completed I'll post the photos of the steps on that one.