Trees - Finished!

Last week was a wonderfully productive week and among my accomplishments was the completion of my quilt, Trees. This came together amazingly quickly and I am delighted with the results. If you have been following its construction, you know that it was fused on to muslin and then stitched intensely in  places for effect.

Cour Marly - My Favorite Place

If I had to choose one place in all of Paris that is my favorite, it would have to be the Cour Marly in the Louvre. On every visit to Paris, I must go and sit in the courtyard for a few minutes and just breathe in the magnificence of the setting.  Here is a photo that I took back in 2008.

As you can see, it is a wide expansive couryard, now enclosed, that has the most wonderful natural lighting that, as you can imagine, changes throughout the day. According to the official Louvre website, "The monumental statuary displayed here was carved for the park of the Château de Marly. Most of the works were commissioned by Louis XIV at the end of his reign."

On my most recent trip, while I contemplated, my daughter Jaye wandered, capturing some the Marly's magic in a few photos.

Perspectives on Versailles

We visited Versailles while on our trip to Paris - it is a short train ride from the center of Paris.

When we got there, we found long lines to get through security and as we toured the palace, the crowds were fairly intense.

Here is what the Hall of Mirrors looked like.

 The rooms were magnificent - here is a photo of Napoleon's bed!

But the real magic of Versailles was outside. The crowds dissipate as there is so much acreage and you are able to begin to take in full grandeur and peace of the palace. It seemed that many of the tour busloads simply viewed the palace proper and left. So sad. We had a beautiful day enjoying the gardens and fountains which were being prepared for the summer.

View from Palace Window

Patience and Creating Trees From Fabric

Yesterday was spent working on trees for my latest piece. Ah, the art of patience. Creating a grouping of trees with sunlight bouncing off of the many limbs requires many small pieces of fabric carefully fused together. Tweezers turned out to be a great help! Fortunately, I really like the way my art work is turning out so I am persisting.

As I cut and fused, I had plenty of time to reflect on truths reinforced by working on this project.

• When something feels overwhelming, chunk it! Deciphering how to create the mass of trees was too much. Analyzing one small section at a time provided a path.
• The importance of breathing and stretching. Long hours of detail work need to be broken up or the body quickly begins to object.
• Perseverance has its rewards. Stepping back and looking at my progress provided a great incentive to continue.
• Patience is a virtue! I firmly believe we increase our ability to be patient by training - creating opportunities to practice the skill. This is certainly one!

A Tree Grows In Victor

Despite the fact that I have been gone the past week and had less than a week home between trips, I am in the midst of a new art quilt. A photo taken in Maui inspired me and I had drafted a sketch based on the photo before I left.

Here is the edited photo I used for my sketching.

Before my last trip, I created a tracing paper version that began to identify the various pieces.

You can see the part of the art quilt that I had cut out before I left on my trip.

I returned full of enthusiasm and though I anticipated a busy weekend, I still managed to get to my art and the main tree is 90% cut.

I am basically using Transdoodle to transfer the design to fabric backed with MistyFuse. At the moment the pieces are pinned to a piece of muslin backing. Since I still want to add some sky into the leaves of the tree and want to be sure I have allowed properly for the placement of the trees, I won't fuse to the muslin until most of the piece is complete.

There is a tremendous amount of detail that still needs to go into the remaining portion so I expect I may be cutting and fusing all week. But, I am really pleased with the feel of what is emerging. And, I can't wait to get to the quilting!