Work-in-Progress: Looks Like Ashe County

I was going through some bins in the sewing room last week, and came across a project from a Pamela Allen online class some years ago.  Pamela is always trying to stretch her students and impart some instruction on different types of art, and art history.  This particular piece began as an attempt to do an "abstract" piece.   I think it was from the Four Quilts class, where we interpreted our theme four different ways.

My theme was "Mountains."

Looks Like Ashe County, Jeanne McBrayer, 2014

As I recall, this did not win the teacher's approval as a good example of an abstract composition.  However, I liked the fabrics and colors, and the symbolic representation of the mountains, Christmas trees, rivers, fields, and trails.  It reminds me very much of Laurel Springs in Ashe County, North Carolina, where we have a cabin.  The fabrics include hand-dyes, hand-painted, sun printed, stamped, and commercial fabrics.

Typically, the pieces from Pamela's classes are cut freehand with scissors, applied with glue stick to a fabric backing, and then embroidered around the edge to secure the pieces to both background and a piece of batting.

This project had been in the bin with pins and glue-stick holding the appliques together.  In the interest of getting it done,  I used a zigzag stitch and a turquoise poly thread to get all the parts sewn on.

Now, I need to decide what to do.  I am thinking of making this into a tote bag, in which case it will not need additional quilting, or have a traditional binding.  If it becomes a wall-hanging, I will add a backing fabric and do some more machine quilting.

Now to some other photos of our Anything Art bee meeting last week.  The day's topic was hand-stitching.  We called on our member Peg Henderson of Raleigh to show some of her work and demo a few stitches that she likes.

Here is an undersea piece with hand-dyed fabric, cheesecloth, and various embellishments.

This unusual piece features some of Peg's unique fiber stitching.

She did some samples for us, showing how you can change the appearance of stitches like French knots, lazy daisy, and Y-stitch for different effects.

Here is another sample with running stitch used to make a basket-like effect.

Since we are featuring hand stitching, here is another piece of mine that I have never shown on the blog since it was finished.

It is a small piece mounted on black gallery-mounted canvas.  The photo is crooked but the quilt is not.

I started the background in a class with Larkin Van Horn at the Capital Quilters Guild in Raleigh.  She provided the words printed on Extravorganza, a sheer fabric you can run through your printer.

I decided mine looked like an undersea scene, so after quilting, I added some fiber seaweed, beads, and some real shells from my collection.  I think I also did some painting on the background with Lumiere paints, which gives it a little bit of a gleam.

And to wrap up today's post, here is a beautiful dish of treasures from Roberta's house.

She has made bangles, hearts, and hand-painted buttons.  That heart with the royal blue center now belongs to me!  A nice gift to remember a special day.