Eel update

The applique part is done.  This is going to be a large throw pillow (22") so the quilting should be fun.  Will be adding lots of texture to the eel and following the swirlies on the background.

Sea Applique

I was admiring the amazing photography of Brooke Peterson

You really must go to Waterdog Photograpy and give it a look.

She is our niece, and she graciously gave me permission to reproduce some of her photographs as applique.  This link takes you to a variation of the photo that I chose. 

 I had a hard time getting the cleaner shrimp's face right and had to ask for extra pictures from different angles to figure it out. 

 Making it from the stash.  Which means my eel will end up chartreuse instead of it's real color.

I had a "perfect" background color, but it wasn't big enough.  Settling on this. 

 Back-basting needle turn is the best technique for these tiny pieces in my opinion.  But nearly impossible (or at least highly frustrating) on dark fabric.  I decided to do this on some thin cotton.  This allowed me to easily position fabrics to "fussy cut" details.  

 I was careful to stitch only to the other batiks and not the backing.  The outer edges are needle turned, but only basted with big, purple stitches.  I will press and starch the heck out of this, then remove the basting and stitch it down with silk thread to the dark background. 

This cleaner shrimp is roughly 9”. 31 pieces. 13 fabrics. 8 hours

Rug Hooking

 I spent my crafty time in November, December and January working on this hooked rug.  It was a class by my friend Kim at Nampa Farm Girl Creates.  She also does custom dyed wool.  These are all her hand-dyed fabrics with the exceptions of the pinks.

 There are also other fibers and techniques which are somewhat easier to see before the background was added.  The dark blue buds are a fuzzy acrylic yarn.  The dark stems are either nubby hand spun wool, or some upcycled wool from second-hand wool jackets.  The lower stem has crochet cotton over strips of wool. And the pink centers of the blue proddy flowers is a multi-color yarn.

 My original plan for the background was the upcycled dark green.  Then I was going to do black.  In the end, I went with a custom-dyed very dark purple with some variation in color to give the background more movement.  It was the right decision.  I also borrowed a page from my quilting experience and alternated widths on the background to add some interest.

My plan is to add a dark purple batik for the back and make this a large pillow.

And just when I swore I was going to quit being a hooker, I decided to re-visit this rug that I started 10-15 years ago to use up some cheap blue cotton that I didn't like anymore but couldn't bear to throw away.  I can't say that I really love this technique, but have enough time invested to justify a finish.

But I did pull out an old quilt project last night.  I've been following the temperature quilt-along at Twittletails and decided to finish mine from 2016.  I was done through week 30 and cut out 6 more weeks last night.