Coyote wall hanging 2010

My two coyotes are now attached to my scene. I am not going to post the whole scene right now. (It looks better when it is quilted) but I want to show you how I added the coyotes to the bottom forest.

Coyotes blend into the forest and I think they do here. It would be good if people, when they look at the piece, find the coyotes which are not too noticeable as that is the way you see
them in real life.

I am enjoying doing this wall hanging
it is nice to get back to normal.

I am also busy preparing a new set of thread painting workshops for the Learningfa
group. I have a large number of students signed up and will be starting the classes
in the middle of February. It will be ongoing and I will also be posting information and examples on my blog.

We really have had a tough winter here in Calgary -- it is snowing again and the roads
are treacherous. It is nice that we are retired and don't HAVE to drive anywhere. I t
never used to bother me to drive in winter. We spent 9 years in Arizona and I got away from winter driving - I really prefer to avoid it at all costs - grin!
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There is a wonderful class happening in learningfa right now. A One BLock Wonder quilt and the girls are having so much fun with it. I am looking forward to seeing the results.
It is one of the most fun quilts to do and each quilt is different - they are having so much fun.

Well, I had better finish putting the first narrow border on my wall hanging and cut the outer border. Then the fun part - the free motion quliting. I have 3 small wall hangings to finish binding, and a couple of round robins I want to quilt and finish.

I also want to double check my "Skating on the pond" which will be my next class on learning fa - see header picture. I have the class prepared but want to see if I need to add any more information. These 'chores' should keep me busy for at least a month or two.

Have a happy day! Shirley

Coyotes

Here are the two coyotes I thread painted for a wall hanging I am doing.

I enjoyed doing both of them and hopefully they will add to my scene.

I am also including the original pictures which I copied onto a fabric sheet.
The larger coyote wasn't clear as far as the colors were concerned so I
checked out the smaller one and tried to approximate its colors. I have done many
subjects without the color guideline, but this is much easier and much more true to
life. I will continue working on the wall hanging and will show it to you when it is
finished. Shirley

Coyote

I spent a couple of hours doing a coyote for my latest wall hanging today. I was really happy with the coat but I put the eye too high in the face. tomorrow I will cover where I did the eye and then thread paint an eye a bit closer to the nose, and put a 'cheek' in rather than have the line under the chin so straight. I have another one that I will also thread paint for
the same wall hanging.This one will be for us - I hope you like it. I really enjoy doing the animals from a printed copy of one of my photos or a photo in a magazine or a newspaper.

This one was one of mine , the second smaller one which will be further back was taken
from a photo in our paper. I printed them on the fabric and then placed it on top of
the timtex and thread painted using the photo fabric as the color source. I don't draw animals well (or faces and people) so I usually take photos instead.

The bear above was done the same way. Shirley

Each year .........

the girls in Learningfa who finish class projects - put their name in for a draw for one of
my wall hangings. I do a lot of samples for classes as well as wall hangings for my own
pleasure - This year TERI MARX won my wall hanging "A summer Morning".

Teri finished two of the classes and is an active member of the group so I was
pleased to see her win. CONGRATULATIONS TERI - I hope you enjoy having
this wall hanging in your home.

We will be doing the 2010 draw in December.

MY WORK

In 2000 I made my first hand painted southwest quilt -- I made a total of 5 - sold two and I gave the first one I finished (hand painted and hand quilted) to my oldest Son Rob.

2 weeks before he died he asked me if I would like to have it back and I said yes. I plan on getting it cleaned and will use it on our bed -- it means so much to me that he wanted me to
have it to remember him by. I painted it with acrylic craft paint and textile medium and hand quilted the quilt although it isn't quilted the way I would quilt it now.

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The brown bordered quilt was made with my quilting group in Arizona - I painted the panels and they helped me put it together. It was quilt as you go. The other two pictures
are of the top and one of the side panels of the quilt that I kept. It is much like Rob's. I rarely paint my fabric any more as I enjoy the thread painting so much These are
amazingly, not difficult to look after - although I was worried that the paint would fade - not so, thankfully.

The orange bordered quilt (one of my favorites) was donated to the Crisis shelter in Strathmore in 2002 and they raffled it off - they made 4500.00 for their new shelter -- this quilt paid for their playground and childrens' room which really was exciting for me.