Half an Orange Popsicle

I made it half-way through the orange popsicle today before I had to put everything away.  The window guys are coming in the morning to replace the 3 windows in the living room (where I do all my sewing) and the 3 in our bedroom (where we seem to stash everything when company is coming).  I hope to get back to this project later in the week.  Meanwhile...it'll be small, contained handwork for a couple days.

If you've stopped by from the Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing Day...I hope you'll take the time to check the 4 posts prior to this that went through the 3 day's of progress from this round of efforts.  M.

The Merlot Experiment

Yeah, sure...I could go buy some dye.  But I really wanted to know if the Merlot that stains my favorite clothing might have a beneficial effect on my quilt.

Turns out that after heating with the iron, Merlot turns rather brown.... but still the effect I was going for (click to enlarge).  Still plan to add shadowing, etc with quilt stitches, so not overwhelmed with the need to make exactly right now.

Here's a section from the right side.  It exemplifies my mixed need for detail and abstract.  I hand appliqued the stool top, but used a great batik for section to it's right.

Popsicles Details

This is the morning's progress.

I am finding that I am pulled between a desire to add interesting detail, and the logic to take advantage of the batik to add variation.   I also realized that of the 3 prints that I have of the painting, some lack detail and others were cropped.  I didn't realize until late this morning that the blob in my pattern on the left corner was a pirate.  Getting the red staining to match up b/w the different fabrics has also been a challenge.  This is actually the 3rd version of the right side of this section.

I was going to leave out the square with the writing....but I have decided to embroider secret meaning into all the places where there is text in the cartoon.  This square will have a secret message to my daughters.  (The bottom speech bubble will have the quilt name, date & signature.  The right bubble has a secret message for the artist.)

I need to move away from the detail and on to the big section in the interest of space and time.  My living room looks like a fabric store barfed all over it.

Friday Progress Report

I didn't actually accomplish as much as I had set out to do.  I did get the lower left corner of the popsicle quilt pieced together and added the next sectio b/w the popsicle and the stick.  But then my cat thought it would be a good idea to coach me through a nap.  How could I turn down a fuzzy nap partner?

Harley Dude offered to take me out for lunch.  How could I possibly say no?  But when I returned, I was totally out of the mood to crawl around on the floor working on the popsicles...So I started working on some flower buds, using back-basting technique.

Tomorrow is going to be rainy...perhaps I'll get more done.

Popsicle Progress

Here's what 10 hours of progress looks like.  The original bits and pieces were put together in larger sections, and a fair bit of hand applique done (Sarge's hat & eyes, a crazy section b/w the popsicles that was just too weird to try to piece & Beetle's face.  The hat will be too..after some other sections are joined.)  Instead of the detailed tissue templates, I spent much of today tracing shapes directly on the light colored fabrics.

In the negative category, I found that I didn't have enough variation in my blues and yellows as I'd hoped.  The shadow under the popsicle is less defined than I'd planned.  Also, the blues under the celaphane wrapper seem too dark.  I may have to try a bleach experiment to see if I can effectively fade those a bit.  Update:  The bleach removed all of the blue on the batiks and all that remains is the faint design in either tan, brown or purple.  All other colors went away. Sure glad I tried that on scraps.  

On the plus side, the variable width strip pieces of raspberry (some of them pieced w/ multiple colors) worked pretty well for the popsicle.  I'm happy with the colors and it makes the melty splotches believable.  I sorted the rest of the fabrics and still love the combos I picked out for the popsicles.  The upper (half-eaten one) will be a bit more red than the lower left one, and I like the red splotchy fabric even better than the one I used on the bottom. Also, the cartoon sections went faster than expected.  It helps that I quit trying to include all the details and let the batik patterns carry some of the variability.

I have some time Saturday morning to work on this quilt again.  I hope I can get a lot done then and Sunday, as it will have to be packed away for a couple more weeks until I have a chunk of time to work on it again.

Momsicles Popsicles.

This is it.  I'm finally pulling out Momsicles Popsicles from the hiding place that it went to then end of June.  To catch you all up.  My cousin-in-law Terrece Beesley is an amazing watercolor artist who gave me permission to make a quilt from one of her paintings.   You can actually buy this original painting or a print of it at this website.  

I spent much of June fussy cutting little pieces to represent the colored funnies that are the background of the painting.  I must admit that I can't wait to actually make the popsicle sections, but that will be the reward for all the time spent on the background.  I could have, of course, made it far more abstract...but that's not really me now is it?  I feel so obligated to make an accurate representation.  I have to admit, that stepping away from it in a photo like this does make it feel worthwhile.
     I'm posting it here to be accountable.  I have committed to making this #1 priority for the next 3 days.  If I promise to post progress...I must make some.

Popsicle Cartoon Piecing

My Tuesday progress was piecing the lower, right corner of Momsicle Popsicle. The top of Sarge's hat and his eyes will be appliqued on later.

Because the lines enlarged to nearly 1/4" I had to figure out how to get the pieces to match up right.

My solution was to trace the pattern piece onto tissue paper

Trim 1/4" seam allowance

Then I made temporary "tape" out of the sticky section of a Post-it notepad. 

And used those to hold the tissue pattern pieces in place.

I used different colors of tissue paper to indicate what I'm going to put together as a unit.  (The pink tissue section is the photo is the lower edge of the unit...I still need to fill in the upper part.)

Popsicle Cartoons

     I am completely obsessed with Terrece's Watercolors.  I sent the links to my co-workers and they couldn't stop oooing and ahhhhing.  By the end of the day I'd decided to make the popsicle painting into a quilt, and spent spare moments imagining my extensive raspberry batik stash as popsicles.   Good thing the boss was gone, or she'd wonder why I looked so happy all day.
     I spent some time on-line looking for cartoon fabric for the background.  After much searching, I found one that is called "Dysfunctional Family" which is amusing in it's own right.
     I had decided that I wanted to make this a lap-quilt size rather than an art quilt.  After all, the original is art for the wall...this will be something to snuggle under while admiring the artists amazing work.  60x70 seems to best match the original proportions. So I set about cropping and enlarging sections of the background to get a sense of scale.  [sound of screeching tires here] Whoa.  The cartoon faces will be 4" tall.  This means that the cartoon fabric is not going to work.  I'm currently thinking that the solution will be a variation of a crazy-quilt strip. I need to go buy some pastel batiks.
    And as I was dozing off to sleep last night...it occurred to me to use the speech bubbles to embroider the quilt signature info (name, date) in pale thread.
    I love it when a plan comes together.

Terrece Beesley

OK...I had an AMAZING birthday...and I have this really great applique project that I worked on today, that I plan to tell you about, plus share tutorials and patterns.

But I'm going to explode if I can't tell someone about my BIG NEWS. I just got copyright permission and the artist's blessings to make a quilt based on one of Terrece Beesley's amazing watercolor paintings.  Here's a nibble.  You'll have to go to her website and drool over her paintings.

I was originally thinking Ice Cream Melting. But Oranges and Pomegranates is the original that I would be inclined to buy.  The nibble is a tiny bit of Momsicles Popsicles (oh man...she has a print available of that too...cool!!!)
There are a couple others that are on her Facebook page.  Summer Solstice or Go Fish????  Help!  I get to make one.  Which should it be?