Gaggle of Geese Design

My inspiration for this piece was a photograph on the cover of a local magazine that I saw in Smithers, British Columbia several years ago. I was on a fishing trip and the cover picture showed several geese walking across a road. I loved that image and always wanted to do my take on it.

I wanted to use my own geese images and drawings for the piece, so I pulled out photos I have taken of geese, and public domain images of geese I found on the Internet, and started to make several sketches of geese in different postures. They are not hard to draw, in fact, I see them as similar to a bowling pin. These are a couple of my sketched geese:



The next step was positioning them. I wanted it to look like they were in a group walking together, with some of them a little smaller than the others because they were further away.  I took my sketches and made copies of them at different size reductions. That way I had a variety of geese sizes to try out at different positions.





I tried several different arrangements of the geese to come up with one that suited what I had in mind. I then worked on a setting for the geese.  This was my drawing for the original idea I had, which was geese walking across a farmer's field. That did not pan out, and I'll talk about that in a future post.

Nevertheless, the layout of the geese in this sketch was what I ultimately used in my design.

I think my next post will be on the process I used to make the geese. Thank you for visiting my blog!

Gaggle of Geese

"Gaggle of Geese" by Eileen Wintemute

This is an art quilt I recently completed for a challenge put on by the Flying Geese Quilters Guild. The theme of the challenge was "All Creatures Great and Small". The quilt measures about 32" wide by 44" high. It is machine pieced (raw edge), machine appliqued, and machine quilted. I also used colored pencil to blend some of the colors.

In the next few posts I'm going to show some of the steps taken to make this art quilt.  Thanks for visiting my blog!

A couple more thoughts on beading....

I thought I would show my beading box. You see it below. It is a MacBook Air box.



The top of the box is lined with a black foam material, which makes a nice backdrop for beading, and it prevents things from sliding all over. It also contains the beads that inevitably escape the hoop (more about this below). I use the entire box to store a beading project, but when I am sewing beads on, I transfer what I need to the lid and away I go.

The embroidery hoop has a batting like fabric stretched on it and it sits in the lid as you see here. The beads I am working with are put in the hoop. The triangular metal plate is used to scoop and move the beads around.

I use beading thread that blends with either the bead or the background fabric. I choose the color that I think is least likely to be seen. The plastic baggies hold the large volume of beads that I am using. I scoop a few out at a time and put them in the hoop.

I also have scissors to cut the thread, a needle threader, a thimble to push the needle through the fabric, and tweezers. I use the tweezers to remove threads if I change my mind about how I have sewn on beads. The needle I use can't be seen here, but I like a long, straw needle for beading. Longer needles are easier to hold on to. I have chronic tendonitis in my wrist and it is easier on the wrist to hold on to a longer needle.

I can sit with this on my lap, watch TV with the hubby, and stitch beads on to my hearts delight. I transfer all these contents to the box bottom when I'm done, and put the lid on. It's a nice system for me.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Beaded Birds

 




 A few years ago I made some small stuffed birds out of wool and denim fabrics.  I intended them to be ornaments for a tree, but I thought they looked a little drab after getting them done, so they've sat in a bin for a few years.


I recently decided that what these birds needed was some bling. So I pulled out my beads and started sewing them on.

This is what the new jazzed up birds look like:








I don't know about you, but I like the "blinged" birds much better. I took off the tree hangar and intend to just set them on a box or something. Maybe a box like this:












Here's the bird on the box:



I would paint the box, of course!  Now to finish beading the rest of them.....

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Angling Memories - Mixed Media

 Angling Memories



Here is a mixed media painting that I recently completed. It started from a watercolor wash that I didn't know what to do with.  On top of the wash I did some ink sketching, glued on some papers, and stamped. I used a fly photo from a magazine and a river scene from a calendar.  After I glued papers on, I did some over-painting, including adding some gold paint highlights.

I  tried to use a lot of imagery that I associate with fly fishing, and I have decided to call it "Angling Memories".

Thanks for visiting my blog!