Nellie"s Needles

Friday, July 18, 2008

Rocks and Borders

Back to the mountain lake piece. The edges of the rocks had been left loose so the shrubby trees and flowers could be tucked between and behind them.
The raw edges of the rocks are free-motion quilted into place with a brightly colored variegated King Tut thread. I drew more stems and trunks with oil stick pastels, water color pencils, and felt tip pens ... in other words, I used whatever worked to get the effect I desired.

Here's a photo of the huge boulders along that lakes shoreline.
The quilt's shoreline is greatly influenced by the one along the stream that flows past our cabin.
The borders are done in my "ortwork" collage technique.
Lengths of various yarns were laid across a base fabric that has words pertaining to forests printed on it. I had made two long extra wide pieces ... one for the sides, the other for the top and bottom. A layer of black tulle was laid over the top and then I machine quilted and couched other yarns through all the layers.

The borders were cut to size and the corners mitered. They were zig-zag stitched to the main part of the quilt. Various yarns are couched over the outside and inside edges over the border.

Now the not-so-fun part of hand-sewing facings and a sleeve to the back begins.

6 comments:

Kay said...

I really like the texture of that ortwork border. It seems to have a perfect "woody" look.

verobirdie said...

The landscape itself is beautiful and the border is really what it needed.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Kay - the border is great. I love this quilt

Janice said...

Lovely, lovely, lovely work.

McIrish Annie said...

Nellie, I like the way you did the borders! Great idea! can't wait to see the finished project

Anonymous said...

Nellie, wonderful works! I'm in fascination!!! Good luck!