I had a dry spell with my painting urges there for awhile, but today it found me. I have had the idea of painting Koi windsocks for some time now, and found inspiration with blue and coral colors. This one is painted on a 6x6 canvas board in gouache.
When the pandemic hit and we all realized we wouldn't be going anywhere for awhile, I decided to start a new quilt. But not just one that was a lap size like so many I have made. The largest I had made up to this point was a double wedding ring quilt that I hand quilted.
This quilt was going to be King size because my husband and I wanted to upgrade from a Queen to a King size bed. I found a geometric pattern, and began to look at colors. The pattern only required 2 for the top, but there was also the border and backing to consider.
There is a local quilt shop very close to my house that I just love. While there are many beautiful printed fabrics, I really only go there for the Kona solids and unique Batik fabrics.
With so many people opting to sew their own face masks, and supply chains being fouled up, I had to special order this fabric and wait about a month before I could buy it.
Sewing the top took me nearly a year to finish, and the hand-quilting took me even longer. I did not work on it consistently however, so had I been doing that, I could have been done with this in 6 months. I used a contrasting violet for the border, and picked out a gorgeous batik that brings out all the colors plus a few more. Very pleased with the backing!
It's hard to see, but I did mess up cutting some of the squares, so the pattern does not line up as I like. The quilting is more sparse than most hand-quilted projects because it is just so huge I would be quilting it still in five years!
Regardless of it not being 100% the way I had hoped, it did turn out stunning and is now placed on our beautiful new King bed.
My husband loves wolves, and he always calls our family with our two dogs the 'wolf pack'. He has wolf T-shirts and even drinks his daily coffee from a wolf mug. When I found the Colorado Wolf & Wildlife Center in Central Colorado, he became very intrigued for a possible future visit. Meanwhile, I scoured this website to look at the pack and fell in love with Amarok. The vision of painting him wouldn't escape me, so here he is below. Watercolor on paper.
An unusual and rare bird, I have a slight fascination with the graceful swan with velvet black feathers. They are found in Australia and Ta...
