Landscape Quilting in progress

 

My second landscape quilting project.  Most people, when they think of landscape quilting, think of strips of fabric sewn onto a background piece to resemble great swaths of countryside.  That isn't the landscape quilting that I was introduced to and I prefer something with much greater detail. I think it is rather like one's taste in art; I have never been drawn to modern art or interpretative art, but I love art that is completely realistic.  I love the use of the artist's brush to make details that are so true-to-life, better even than photography because they have been rendered by hand.  

I have tried to reproduce in fabric what one man did with his paintbrush. He called it All in the Family, a scene of birds coming to a feeder and bird house in winter, against a background of a house with wood siding and holly branches. 

The artist is William Mangum and I discovered him through a zigsaw puzzle that I did. 

file:///home/chronos/u-5c38bd7175b50a50d3345622b01465c5e43fcc0e/MyFiles/bird%20feeder/All%20In%20The%20Family%20-%20Limited%20Edition%20-%20William%20Mangum%20Fine%20Art.mhtml

And this is my effort so far. I have cut all the fabric pieces and sewn them onto a background fabric that is a mottled grey. The sewing is free-motion quilting through three layers, the background fabric, a light quilt batting, and another fabric for the backing. The stitching is done with invisible thread on the top and a thread to match the backing in the bobbin.

The completed wall-hanging is 13 by 24 inches, about the same size as the original painting.

I only had access to chickadees for my birds, so all of them are the same type of birds. I don't have the variety that Mangum had in his painting.  If I find fabric with other birds that are the right size, I can always sew them on top of the birds there now.

A close up of the project, perhaps you can see the free-motion stitches

What is left to do now is to bind the quilt.  I will use the same fabric as the one used for the window top left.  The binding will be a narrow 3/8" binding, I won't do a double binding as I want the image to be the prime focus.  After that, I am going to do shading with oil and wax pastels in order to simulate the shadows that are in the painting.  

Perhaps this will never be finished!  I have been working on it for over a month now, I always see something new that should be done.  But I have thoroughly enjoyed the whole exercise. I don't think I have been so engrossed in anything for a long time; two hours at the sewing machine flies by and I look forward to more of these landscape quilts in the future. 

I will post a picture of the finished wall hanging once the binding is on and the shading is complete.

Winter Sowing 2021

 I have sowed 47 bottles so far.  Here's hoping for success.  I watched a youtube video from Getting Clean on the Prairies  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWENZMdym9s).  She lives in a zone 3A in Saskatchewan and her weather seems pretty similar to ours here in central/northern Ontario.

Last year was the first year she tried winter sowing and she met with 75% success.  I will be thrilled if I meet with that much success, even 50% would make me happy.

The patio table with bottles now covered with snow

The picnic table now taking the overflow

My husband says it looks like a dinner set out for a feast and all the guests disappeared and winter came in.  Perhaps some alien from space would find this and wonder what everyone was drinking. 

So I have sowed seeds for pansies, snapdragons, hollyhocks, lupins, lavatera, marigolds, shasta daisies, poppies, alyssum, foxgloves, calendula, gernaiums, petunias, columbine, amaranth dread locks, cosmos, larkspur, rudbeckia, forget-me-nots, nigella, nicotiana, canterbury bells, bachelors buttons, bells of Ireland, blackeyed susans, and sunflower cherry rose.  And one container with leeks.  That is the only vegetable so far, but I will also winter sow a few varieties of lettuce, and tomatoes can be started this way in mid March.  

Fingers crossed.  At least no one can see our back yard unless they have a pair of magnifying glasses. So I don't look as foolish as I feel about this.