New Work

It probably seems to you that I'm ignoring my blog and just playing with the grandbaby all day.  I wish! I've actually had a burst of creative energy and been working on lots of things.  This one below is something I started a couple of months ago, and didn't like the way it was heading, so it sat on my design wall for a while until I could figure out what to do with it.  I started out thinking about my construction photos I took several months ago and came up with this design, which when reflecting back is not so great.  I used a lot of dyed fabrics that I laid out and stitched heavily to the background. I put in some buttons under the background, stitched around them and threw the whole thing in the wash.  It shrunk a bit, adding texture, but the colors were bland and the overall design was bad.  I was frustrated because I put so much time into it.

My crit group suggested livening up the colors, as they were all one value.  I don't have a picture of the bright colors I painted it, but bad design continued to be bad design.  At this point I figured WTF, it was ruined anyway, so why not just paint over that wonderful texture, I could always cut it up right?

Well, I think I made the right decision.  I painted over it a couple of times, with the first layer showing through a bit, and the stitching making the piece move a little.  I'm keeping it whole.  I initially wanted to put it on canvas, but this can't be wrapped as it's too thick, and it's an odd size, so I'd have to cut it down to fit a standard canvas, so I'm pillowcasing it.

And in case you thought I forgot about Riley...