knitting Paradise

I belong to a wonderful knitting and crochet group called

Knitting Paradise.

http://www.knittingparadise.com

I hope you will drop by and check us out. Shirley

Sunday, August 31, 2008

I have decided to put some pictures of my work in progress - as the scene develops.

The first one (above) shows the general layout - note I used a mottled background for the forest. I then added fir trees and other trees and branches. I thread painted the fir trees.
For the second picture I added some thread painted trees in the background and then took some variegated thread to make the brightly colored leaves. It is starting to look like a forest but I still have lots to do before I put in the bushes in front of the trees, as well as colored leaves on the ground and possibly a touch of snow. I always do my landscapes from far away, and work forward - I never know exactly what I will add - that is the fun of it for me. S

Tutorial -FOREST IN AUTUMN -


It seems I will have to be more careful of my spelling! Sorry for the errors.

It is dull and cool today. My little grand daughter is coming to spend the day
with us and as usual we are excited about her coming. I save all my binding for
when she is here - it is not my favorite thing to do and so I find I get my new
pieces finished - I have three to do so it is helpful to set aside her visiting time to
get them finished.

I am still working on my Forest and once it is finished I hope to finish working on my Big Sky Round robin- I am adding quite a lot of embroidery to the piece. The center block was
crazy patch and the ladies did a great job of adding borders for me. I love it -
For someone who is retired I seem to have so much on my plate - (self inflicted) - however, I love what I do and it keeps me young!

MT. RUNDLE - Banff, AlbertaGoo



Good morning! I woke up to hear about the hurricane heading towards New Orleans.
I feel so badly for all of those who are being affected by another terrible storm.
It is a helpless feeling when you know there is nothing you can do to help!

Here is one of my favorite wall hangings - MT. RUNDLE, Banff, Alberta - I made this a couple of year's ago for a good friend and I have so many memories of having picnics
with my family in this exact spot. If you are ever in Banff, make sure you visit the
Vermilion Lakes where you get a beautiful view of this mountain. They are just outside the Banff town, and many people aren't aware it is even there.

This landscape just 'came' together - I started in the morning and time flew - before I knew it it was
finishes. I used acrylic paints, thread painting, metallic and rayon threads.
It is one of my pieces that I am completely happy with - S/

Saturday, August 30, 2008

"HORSE COUNTRY" -Home Place



I finished this wall hanging in early August -- It represents the foothills with the Rocky Mountains in the distance. This area is full of horse ranches - and
I imagine it must be wonderful to take a ride in the morning, with the
Rockies in the distance -- I enjoyed doing this scene as it represents the
area around Calgary. I hope you like it.

"Quiet Morning"



Thread painted wall hanging which I taught in my learningfa (fiberarts) group
recently. I was happy to give it as one of the draw prizes at the Western Retreat in June and my new friend Mel won it.

It is part of my on going thread painting workshop - from my Group. I am also
teaching it in the Valerie Hearder group within the next little while.

THREE SISTERS, Canmore, Alberta




We took a drive up to Canmore last week, as I wanted to get my 'fix' from
the Sugar Pine Quilt Shoppe - (they have the most wonderful fabric suitable
for landscapes- cut into fq's) as my Birthday money was burning a hole in
my pocket! I buy fq's and f8ths as I use so many bits and pieces in my
landscapes. On the way home I took a picture of the "Three Sisters" -
they are so beautiful and among my favorites of all the Canadian Rockies.
It is only an hour from here and we stop at Tim Horton's either at Cochrane or at
Canmore for a donut and coffee- I always take my camera on these trips. I will post pictures of
scenes I have taken of this area of the world from time to time.
Good Morning!

Well I finally figured out how to get my pictures in - I think it was that this is a new blog and I think my pictures were too big. A couple are here now so I think the problems are solved.

It is a dull, windy day here in Alberta - it is a shame as it is the last long weekend
of this year- The leaves are beginning to turn gold - our summer was so short this year! Soon our Province will be covered in Gold -- (we don't get the bright reds and oranges that they do in Ontario,Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces and points south), but our autumns are glorious anyway. I love it when we drive up to Canmore or Banff and see the bright yellow larches below the tree line of the rockies- We get a
little bit of red. Soon we will see snow on the peaks. It is so beautiful. I
Love this part of the world!

----
I have a couple of projects coming up - I will be teaching on my Learningfa (fiberarts) group - we are going to do the 'Poppies & wildflowers'- I have the classes all prepared in emails with pictures which will show the students step by step how to
make this wall hanging. Judith from Cdnquiltswappers is going to teach us how to do
a Jean quilt at the end of the month too. She has been such a help with the traditional quilting as I am not a traditional quilter, although once in a very long while I get the urge! We just finished organzing and teaching a Sampler quilt - the ladies from the group sent in blocks with detailed instructions and the quilts have been just beautiful. I will put in a picture of one of them.

I am going to teach a class on Valerie Hearder's Landscape group in the next while - I will be teaching 'Quiet Morning' which I taught on my group- I will post a picture of the wall hanging. It was a door prize for the Western Retreat this past June and
my new friend Mel won it.

Well that should do it for now. Take care everyone!

'POPPIES & WILDFLOWERS - June 2008




I saw a picture in our local newspaper of a field of wild lilies and other wildflowers.
I had so much fun doing this one and was happy with the results.

CLIFF DWELLING

Friday, August 29, 2008

Cliff Dwellers

This wall hanging was made from a beautiful hand dyed fabric I did last winter.
It spoke to me of the Southwest (we spent 8 years in Arizona). I loved the southwest and especially the work of Ted DeGrazia a well known Arizona artist. I have done a lot of southwestern themes in my work. This is one of my favorites.
Here I am again -- I have been working all day on a new wall hanging - a forest scene and I am having lots of fun with it. It is just started so I can't really post a picture yet. I am however
going to post pictures of my last 3 pieces that I have made in the last month or two - I took pictures and wrote up tutorials for each one as I hope to teach at least one or two on my learningfa group.

My Learningfa group is doing exciting work - the girls are working on a sampler quilt that Judith (Cdnquiltswappers) and I organized - Judith - the quilts they have made are wonderful.

Well, it is getting late - I will post the pictures tomorrow.

Goodnight everyone.

WELCOME TO MY BLOG

I hope you will visit this site often -- I hope to show some of my original fiber art
landscapes, and once in awhile a pieced quilt!

I will now try to figure out how this works, and how I add pictures of my work. Bear with me. Thanks to Debbie - my dear friend for encouraging me to start my own blog. I never would have done this without you!

I hope to post each day, but first I have to figure the ins and outs of how it works.

Shirley