Getting Back To It

For reasons I won't bore you with, I've not sat at the sewing machine since the beginning of the month when I whipped out that gift padfolio. Certainly no art quilting going on, until yesterday. To say there hasn't been a bit of quilt intimidation going on would be disingenuous, but there's been more than that - again, won't bore you. Just feeling some thankfulness that a fog lifted and I was actually eager to sit down with the shibori piece again.

I'd stopped after quilting the bottom section, pondering what sort of lines to add to the top and in what colors to make that section look like foliage. I'd hit upon the idea of contour stitching, and yesterday I was willing to give it a go. Because in the past I've gotten lost following along the natural patterning of some of my hand-dyed pieces, I took the time to really study what was going on in there and where the various divisions should be. I penciled the outline of each section as I went, the echoing lines not marked but stitched by eye. This made things much less overwhelming.

I soon discovered that I did not have to choose between the various threads I'd been auditioning, because each section called for its own slight variation (the colors in the above photo are the closest although still showing more blue than is in the blue/green section). Two different variegated greens, two different variegated red/yellows, a solid cinnamon and a final variegated incorporating the previous colors. So far so good.

Several people have said they do not see the trees and bushes that I do in that top section of hand-dyed, which is fine. That is what I feel my strength is, pulling out these images mostly with thread so that others can more easily see it. Can you see that far bank of foliage emerging now? Apologies for the very blurry picture. Probably not worthwhile to click on it for a closer look but do check out the larger versions of the others.