My heart says yes … Swoon-Along

Are you joining in with Katy over at Monkey Do ?? 

She's hosting a Swoon-Along

I really really want to …

do you?

Charley Harper Quiltalong - tick!

So, where had we left off with the old Charley Harper Quiltalong embroidery?







I think I’d just finished doing the little fish and was going on to the prawny thing …

 






So, this weekend I started at the prawny thing … You know I love the prawny thing.







All defining embroidery done, just a few blotches and some reeds to go …

… all hail the reeds … 

I especially like that I trusted my gut feeling about not using black for the reeds - I love the black in the print, but I think stitching some light reflectiveness in nudges it comfortably from print to textile ... 



I used three strands of a really high gloss satiny grey twisted with three strands of flat olive green.  I think it gives it a nice reedy sheen … I’d been dying to use that satiny thread, but it’s oh so slippy! 

I also added in the dark coral blotches on the old muskie’s head …

 

Here’s a really low res reminder of the original print:

… et voila! … 






… pressed and neat … quite yum … 


I’m really happy with how it turned out … I didn’t want to overdo it and kill that stark Charley Harper graphic style, but I think I brought in just enough texture with the embroidery.  


I also thoroughly enjoyed the process.  The design, the applique, the pressing, the raw edge machine sewing, the embroidering.  All of it.  


I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do with it yet, but it was such a great pick-up
put-down project, I may start another and just let them build slowly into a collection of Charley Harper panels … 


… I do really really want to do this one! 

… but have other projects to finish first …

What projects are you itching to get started on, but having to delay for finishing-other-stuff reasons?

Charley Harper Quiltalong - the tale of the prawny thing -

As some of you might know, I’ve embarked on a little Charley Harper fun over on flickr 

This quiltalong has been organised by the uber talented Ethne over at flaming stitches - thank you so much Ethne ... this is the best fun!

I chose this wonderful print as my inspiration:

Muskellunge

Last year I went to an a-ma-zing Charley Harper exhibition (you can see some of the prints here) at Castor and Pollux, a wonderful gallery/shop here on the seafront in Brighton. 

I’ve always been a fan, but to see them in real life, oh my!  The colours!  The lines!  Swooooooon!

In the back of my mind was the intention to do something stitchy with his designs - I’d seen tapestry patterns but I’m not really in the mood for tapestry these days, so I just put the whole project on the backburner … until now.

Now, here comes the problem.  The largest image I could find online of the muskies was tiny.


Let's have another look at the print …. see that prawny thing on the left?  Yeah, small isn’t it?!





Blown up, you can see it’s even more difficult to work out those clean, sharp, Charley Harper lines …  What to do?








Well, I knew that Castor and Pollux also sold the amazing £120 coffee table tombstone of a book, “Charley Harper, an illustrated life”,  (There’s a more affordable £35 version too, but I needed big!)

... so I set off with my camera and a smile …  


I’m a regular exhibition goer there, so I was hoping that they’d kind of know I’m a good sort, and ignore any madness  …



me: “Hi, can I ask a really big favour?  I’m doing a Charley Harper embroidery and I really need to take a close up pic of the prawny thing in my favourite print … could I? Please??”

mr castor&pollux: “Err … yes, well, at least you asked!  Go ahead”


Ta-da:




That’s a bit better!  The joy of Charley Harper is the simplicity of shapes that he used to create these works of delight.  I couldn’t see any of that claw or leg brilliance on my silly pixelated mess.

I also picked up a few more details … like the yellow lines and the red blotches  on the muskie himself … (not that it shows here, but the diamonds are yellow too)





and some sweet detail on the little fishies …




RESULT!


So, by way of thank you to them, and a little pressie for me, (it's still 10 days till payday, so I forfeited the roast chicken for Sunday lunch here!) I bought the exhibition poster, which I’d always meant to get last year - it was only £5. (Click pic if you can’t resist and want one too!)





… and now the little prawny thing is cut, fused and ready to applique and embroider, along with the other creatures!








Yay!  Let the detailing commence!

Have you ever had to wait to really get started on a project?  Waiting for one key fabric, sewing thread, machine needle(!) ??

Lily’s Quilts - Quiltalong - A Dresden Platter of Deliciousness

 

You all know Lynne at Lily’s Quilts, right?  My quilting crush on her started when she made this beautiful Penguin Books quilt for her very very lucky sister:
 

Then, there was this little beauty on the DQS10 swap on flickr (not just for the beauty of the quilt, which I absolutely adore, but also for the hours of hilarity in the discussion groups … you had to be there)



… and then most recently, Lynne made the fab Hexagon Park quilt for Moda Bake Shop, using Aneela Hoey’s fab Sherbet Pips:



Well, now that Lynne is practically quilting royalty the upside is that we have a wonderful QuiltAlong to take part in … see her post here and the Lily’s Quilts flickr group here

I’m s-o-o-o-o-o-o-o excited about this!

• I’ve been dying to try a dresden plate for yonks
  
• Each block is QAYG (Quilt as You Go) which I’ve also always wanted to do!
  
• It’s the dreaded circle piecing & there’ll be plenty of people to hold my hand. 
  
• Oh, and did you see that concentric circle quilting?  Yup, we’ll be doing that too!

I’m actually only going to do one block, as a mini quilt/cushion [pillow] cover or summat like that … but that’s just because I really don’t have the time to commit to a whole quilt at the moment …

I’ve also always wanted to do a colour wheel, so here are my fabric choices:  YAY!


Just what I need!  A little colour to take my mind off a stinking head cold and a generally grotty demeanour …

So, if you want to get involved pop on over to Lynne's blog or Lily’s Quilts on Flickr and come join in the fun!


ooooh ... and don't forget you have til midnight Tuesday (UK time) to enter my giveaway for some Flea Market Fancy  !!