Whew!

Before I could fuse down my cut out horse background, I had to remove all the papers from the
hex horse fabric!

I've kept the papers in place until I was ready to 'merge' the two pieces!

This was good TV work!!!  I use a wide piece of masking tape to hold my threads...that's the beige blob/piece is on the left!

Most of the papers have been removed at this point.

All the papers are gone!!  Next I pressed the piece really well.

Really, this part wasn't that hard...the fusing of the cut out horse....although, I've been known to fuse something to something it shouldn't be fused to!  Haven't we all at one time or another!

All fused down and no problem!

I already had fusible web on the entire back of the cut out horse,  which allowed me to fuse some interfacing so I could stitch around the horse using a button hole stitch.

I know this picture doesn't look that different from the one above, but this one is stitched around the edges...honest!!

You can see the stitches here.

Its turning out, so far, to what I had in mind.  I'll add some pencil or paint to give more definition to the horses shoulder/legs and of course he'll need some beads for his mane and tail!  And an eye!   Right!

Hex Horse Progress

Making progress!  I've finished sewing all the rows of my horse fabric.  I happy with the layout and will use oil pastels or pencils to color in areas that may need a 'touch' up or two once the overlay fabric is in place.
I have my paper overlay on top of the fabric in this picture.

And yep, I'll be adding some beading for the mane...

And beads for the tail...although, it's hard to see in this picture!


Now to decide on the background fabric.  As you saw in my previous post, I'm playing with stamping on fabric.  I want to have letters and/or words on the background but this horse is rather large (15"x13") and the piece can only be 16" x 20"...sooooooo   Not sure how much lettering I'll be able to use.  Ugo has letters/words in most of his work.

So off to look at some fabric for piecing the background!

Where does the time go

Bob was up quite early this a.m. to get lawn trash out by 7...Kalee and I didn't get up until 7:20...it's already 11 a.m. and I don't know where the time went!  I actually started to write down the time and what I've done within each hour!  Geeezzzz  More on that in a  later post!!

So I'm making progress sewing my hexes together!  I'm about half way with creating rows and actually have sewn rows together.  You can see the horse's head and some of the neck fabric is sewn together.

Next shows the pattern on top of the fabric.  So far so good. 

 If I get sometime today, I want to start looking at some fabric to piece together for the background or is it top ground!  HA...I'll be doing some type of printing with letters or words as this is a theme for Ugo's work  I wold like to have 'mustang' written somewhere but will have to see.

This piece is for the Inspired By....that our Aussome Fiber Group is doing.  Ugo Nespolo is the Italian artist one of the ladies in our group chose for an artist.  You can see the picture I'm using as my inspiration here.   If it doesn't work out, heck, I'll just keep the quilt and save it for another artist!  We'll see.....

Another beautiful day here in the neighborhood!  We did have rain on and off for the past two days but Bob got in 6 holes yesterday...OK, so he got wet but he was golfing, right!!  I'm still working Kalee's training sessions into my daily routine...yikes!!  3 sessions a day, only 5-15 min. but it does take time.  More so for me because I have to read the lessons several times to make sure I understand them.  I've resorted to making 4x6 index cards with the steps just so I remember when I go to do the lesson....oh to be young again and have a good memory!  HA

The Hex Horse Saga Starts

I mentioned in a previous post that I wasn't sure how to handle keeping tract of my horse hex pieces - creating my horse background fabric.  It hit me the other night that I needed to make a template using my hex printed sheet(s).  So I printed out about four sheets with the 1" hexes on them, taped together than  laid my horse pattern on top.

I traced my horse on top and thought it looked pretty good...but then...yep, always a "but then" moment isn't there!!

I thought the hexes looked too predictable...so.....I retraced turning the paper...geezzzz...no, there isn't much difference and I don't know what I expected...I wanted the hexes on the face a certain way so the body had to follow...anyway, here's my pattern..yea, looks confusing but the 'real' horse is in dark blue marker.  I can tell...

So next up I'll continue to make about 20 or more hexes, then I'll start to lay them on top of my paper pattern.  I'm thinking I may use a little spray adhesive on the paper template so the fabric hexes stay in place.  This way I can take row by row to sew the hexes together.

Whew!  I think I have a plan!!  Now to execute it!  

This week is the 4-H fair but our little girl scrapped her foot on Friday when Brody ran into her in the pool area.  Kris took Amber in to urgent care yesterday and her ankle was infected and swollen.  She's on antibiotic's and has to keep her foot up for 24-48 hours.  Poor kid...it's also suppose to rain on Tues. so we're looking at heading to the fair on Thursday.  We just need to make sure each of their friends can make it.  Keeping my fingers crossed...we've not missed a fair since Amber was 2 or 3 years old!!!  Hard to believe we've been going that many years (Amber will be 15 in August!).

Hex Horse Progress

I love creating my own fabric but at times there is a drawback...when you get a favorite piece but it's not big enough for a project and recreating it isn't possible.  So....

I'm trying to lay out the 3.4" hexes I've made so far for my 'horse' hex piece (I thought I was using a larger hex pattern...not!)...and the pieces you see on the 'butt' are the ones I screen printed several, several years ago.  I have about seven hexes left in that fabric to place but now I'm looking through my stash to fill in.  I will move the darker pieces further on the butt and legs...filling in with another piece of fabric I painted in a workshop with Phil Beaver back in 2003!  The color below really does match better than it looks here.  I'll put more yellows up further then fade to the browns below and my screen printed darker pieces.

It is a bit tedious but I love seeing how he's coming together.  Now to keep my hex placement when I go to pick up and sew together a hex piece of fabric!  I'll make sure to take a picture so I can see the placement but I'm sure there's another way I can 'tack' them on another drawing of the horse to see my rows.    Yikes! Always a challenge but keeps the old mind working.

We're off to the kids house this afternoon for a 4th of July BBQ...Darrin is smoking a brisket and my daughter and I are bringing some dishes.   I made my corn salsa, which is so good!  And  I also made a Lemon Blueberry Cake from Tommy over at Tommy Cooks. We all know she's a great artist -Tommy the Material Girl  but did you know she's cooks and bakes like a woman possessed!    Those who read her blog know this very well...if you don't know Tommy, it's worth the trip...to her blog(s), that is!

 It's a beautiful afternoon even on the cool side (71 degrees) but my kind of weather! Enjoy the weekend!