Thursday, August 9, 2012

Landscape Quilt Completed

I finished my Gloria Loughman landscape quilt, which was started in a workshop 2 weeks ago. I don't 'do' landscapes because I want them to be realistic, so this was an exercise in dealing with something almost abstract.  I didn't have an actual picture of my landscape, so I think it helped me be less perfect in the design. I took photos of some of the aspects, but overall it was a memory picture.
Also, I had wanted to use what I learned in class in another of my ANZAC banners (as boring as it is to many people it may not be every one's cup of tea, but to me, there are many stories to be told).
When I attended this year's ANZAC dawn service at our local military camp, Linton (and also my workplace), I watched the sunrise through one of the Camp's many huge palm trees. There was also a very tall soldier standing in front of me, so I got his silhouette and the tree with the sun lightening the sky over the Tararua Ranges.
Here we have it:
Here is a close-up of the soldier - to ensure that the lightness of his face didn't distract too much, I covered the fabric with fine tulle.
Most of the green fabric has been painted with fabric paint - I needed to get a variation for depth of field.
All I need now is a title.
Any one have any ideas?

Sunday, August 5, 2012

A Knitted Cowl for Winter

I knitted up this cowl for Sarah for Wellington's winter.
I used a ply of 8ply pure wool and a single ply of silk. The pattern is a leaf design by Emily Kausalik and I got it from Ravelry (this is a free site to join, and some of the patterns are free - such a great range!). The cowl still needs to be blocked (it was a last minute birthday present for Sarah) and I made it longer than Emily's instructions. Ideally I would have liked it to be a little longer for the over-the-head use (but I was running out of wool):
If it gets a little baggy around the neck you can use a lovely clasp to secure it tighter.
I really liked the design and will probably make another one using wool and alpaca plied together.