Boreal Forest - in last stages

Lots of texture

and lots of detail

Oh, I have missed this blog so much ... but I have been working on my pieces as able !!! It is all good. A little more detail in the foreground and I believe I will be content ...

~ Thank you so much to my blogging friends for staying in touch and keeping me tuned in, wishing everyone a great upcoming holiday season ~

Many, many best wishes,

Boreal Forest - In Progress

So, I have the background trees on the far side of the pond stitched and you can see some of the details in the pictures that follow.

I hope that you can see the shadows of the far trees left unstitches to provide some depth!

I will add grasses to the foreground and some soft detail in the sky.

Hoping that you have a good rest of the week and a great weekend ahead!

New Boreal Forest Work

Good Morning and I hope you are having a great weekend ~

Since my last piece about Boreal Forests ... I have learned so much about this amazing forest biome ... so this next piece will try to capture the bauty of this fragile eco-system of which we can depend upon to help our planet!

This is (so far) watercolur and acrylic on muslin and will be stitched to highlight the painting.

I just want to say thank you to everyone who has checked in on me over the summer and sent messages just to say 'hi" ... that was wonderful and I thank you!

~ wishing you a wonderful week ahead ~

this day remembered

it is a beautiful day where I am today ... much as it was 10 years ago

... difficult to remember and impossible to forget what one was doing that day

our friends and family members living in Gander ~ worked around the clock to receive so many stranded passengers ~ and have so many stories to tell

and my dear husband stuck in Halifax pitching in to help off-load passengers, crews and cargo ...

~ and all I could think about was how many husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, and childrens lives would never be the same ~

Northern Lights over Boreal Forest ~ completed

a few details

Well, this piece has been completed and will be part of a small exhibit of ~ forests ~ at the Burlington Art Centre.

I learned a lot with this particular piece and will start a second in the series soon.

Sometimes, though the vision that I start with doesn't always translate into the finished piece ~ not that it is a bad thing.

I will work again with a different composition but the same subject matter of the Boreal Forest.

This is acrylic on wool with some hand stitch and lots of free motion.

Northern Lights over Boreal Forest

Just the first start ~
and detail




Ok, so I have always been fascinated by the Boreal forests ~ like a green scarf around the northen shoulders of the continent. Also, I have memories of seeing the Northern Lights when I was much younger and living further north ~ it is like nothing you have ever seen. The light and colour is so different from the normal evening light with green and purple streaks across the sky.

Colours cover the sky and dance in a captivating show!

I am hoping to finish the piece this week and will post the finish soon.

This is acrylic on wool with free-motion stiching. I have enjoyed painting the fabric as much as designing and stitching

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

this bunny is in stitches

Good evening ... and I hope that a wonderful weekend is in store!

Apparently, this piece turned into a bunny somewhere along the way, it is watercolour on cotton muslin and some acrylic on sheers ~ with hand stitching.

It was only when a family member said ~ "it looks like a bunny", that it took on new life.

Wishing you Happy Easter and Happy Spring!

Unravelled - ready

Hello again, and I hope all is well ... I have been working busily on this piece "unravelled" which will be part of the Brott Music Festival here in Ontario, and one of the featured composers is Ravel.

So, inspired by Bolero ... this is what came about.

It was thought that he suffered from Alzheimer's or some form of frontal dementia and late in his life offered himself for experimental surgery to try to help ~ he died not too long after that.

It seems that things can become unravelled and confused at times ...

This is vintage fabrics and sheers, nylon netting and cotton 12w quilting threads - hand stitched.

Unravelled

hi and hope this finds everyone well ... been offline for a bit!

first, I wanted to pass along an update on my butterfly project ~ it did not get juried in but that is perfectly fine, as I know you just never know what the jurors are looking for ...

this is a newly started piece called "unravelled", it is inspired by Ravel's Bolero and his struggles at the end of his life. it is only just pinned yet but will have stitching started very soon.

this butterfly is finished

I guess really only nature knows how long it truly takes to make a butterfly but this is my version. The final layer has been added to liken an early 19th century corset ~ a couple of my friends have already picked up on that!

I will let you know if it gets juried in to the show I have made entry to ~ for showing in the spring into summer.

Truthfully, that is not the important part ~ I had a great deal of fun, enjoyment and learning from completing this piece and hope that you like it, too!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend ~

One World One Heart ~ draw time!

First, it is so important to say how amazing this whole event has been, I have visited so many blogs and so many places over the last couple of weeks and have met so many wonderful people ~ so thank you Lisa many times over.

Judy, I will send a message and you can send me your mailing address. I will hopefully have your package in the mail over the weekend!

A New Layer

A new layer has been designed and applied, although still needing to be stitched. I am hoping you can see more of the form through this sheer ~ I have stitched the sheer as well but I am thinking it is as hard to tell as it was to do.

This has been a lot of fun and a great design experience, and that with the next post it will be finished. So, wish me no stray stitches that I have to take out.

~ have a wonderful weekend ~

One World One Heart 2011

Hello and a very warm welcome to "brushes and cloth".

First, thank you to Lisa Swifka of "A Whimsical Bohemian" for creating and hostng what seems like a huge undertaking to me.

I have quiet corner of the world, so please feel free to look around and stay a while ... I do love to create with paint, canvas, textile, wool and just about anything else. And I do love to hear from vistors and welcome thoughts and ideas.

For the "One World One Heart Giveaway, the winner will recieve the hand knit scarf pictured below.

Please leave a comment on this post to be eligible for the give-away. The winner will be announced on February 18.

I wish you a great time wandering through this event and the wonderful world of blogs ... enjoy!

Very best wishes,

Barbara

the butterfly and my machine

Since I have been working on my hand-stitched version ~ a few have asked for me to post the machine stitched butterfly that came along as a side and experimental piece.
So, this is all the same base fabrics and threads but has been free motioned with out reserve! It was a lot of fun to work on ~ so now more learning in free-motion work is ahead, I am sure.

Have a wonderful weekend and week ahead!

next stage of the butterfly project

This is where this is going ~ I have finished the perimeter in soft cream and white varigated, 12 wt. cotton Sulky, the extremities could suggest paths and wanderings. The next and final stage is a sheer layer but I am still (of course) working on the sketches and on paper cut-outs before I actually use the fabric.

Now that I can see the end stages of this work ~ my mind has been straying to my next piece ~ I am thinking landscape ...

Wishing you all a great and happy week

January's Full Wolf Moon

Of course, last night was too cloudy with flurries to see the full moon but this is from my front porch this morning when I awoke. January's full moon is known as the Wolf Moon ! From the Algonquin, it speaks of cold and deep snows when wolf packs howled hungrily ... it has also be known as the "Moon after Yule" in pairing with December's "Moon before Yule".

Without a doubt, I love full moons perhaps some day ... I shall see a "blue moon"!

Very best wishes,

Barbara

Butterfly project

Well, it has a temporary name ... and here are some of photos as to how it is going. This batch of photos turned out much better than the last in terms of the light ~ so the colours are so much more acurately depicted. The last detail photo above shows the final point of this piece ~ the female form. This is for a juried show and the ideas are still coming together but it will be a statement and contrast of the female image and self image. I am still avoiding the sewing-machine but I do have a sister piece completed by myself and my daughter with all free-motion, when I take my next batch of photgraphs ... I will include it. ~wishing you well ~

new work ~ progress

Hello ~ on this snowy evening, the winds are up and the snow is blowing, who knows what it will look like in the morning. Beautiful, I am sure ...

I am so excited about where this is going, it is a slow process but I love every twist and turn and stitch. My debate was if I should take it to my machine or keep working by hand ... for now I am keeping my hand to my work. I find I have more control by hand ... so I worked on a similiar piece strictly by machine ... I love it too but they have different personalities.

This piece will have a final sheer vintage fabric over the top that will let the image peek through, it may not be that far away!

A Shiny, Happy New Year

A very Happy New Year and I wish everyone all that is bright in 2011. It has a been a rollercoaster type couple of weeks mixed in with all sorts of things ... celebrations, laughs, family and friends ... tossed in with some unwanted flu symptoms. It never fails me ...

So, now my fibre to-do list is being re-vamped and I am anxious to show you where my new piece is going. So, to everyone a happy and satisfying creative year!

Happy 2011 ~ Barbara