Search Results for: heron

I began hemming the sides and bottom of my Heron fabric painting today and putting a backing on it.  I sew the backing on by hand because I like the way the edges look better than when they’re machine stitched.

I’ll be using an old linen for the backing as I usually do.

I also sent Sara Kelly a photo of my Heron so she can size it for making prints and postcards.  The prints will most likely be 11×17″ or close to that size.  I’ll sell them both in my Etsy Shop and directly from my blog.

I have Bellydancing tonight so I know I won’t be able to finish the backing today, but I am excited to get back to work on it and get as much done as possible.

A simple backstitch in a wavey line is how I decided to attach the old quilt backing to the water/sky.

Then I went did two more rows of stitching to thicken it and trimmed the old quilt back.

With that my Heron is just about done.

Now, to hem the sides, and bottom then sew a backing on it.

I have gotten so many people asking about buying my Heron fabric painting. I appreciate them all and the stories that go along with them.  I can see how much herons touch people’s lives, as they have touched mine.

My Heron is sold.

I  want you to know how I go about selling my work.   I don’t ask people to commit to a piece of art that I’m working on until it’s finished.  The first person who asked about it gets first choice.  If there is more than one person who is interested, as with my Heron, I keep a list according to the order in which people contact me.

So if the first person doesn’t want it for some reason, I move down the list.

Since my Heron is so popular, when It’s finished I will be making prints which I will sign and postcards of her.

This way my Heron, in a different form, will be available to anyone who wants her.

After finishing up my Dog Potholders, I stitched around the body of my heron with blue embroidery floss using a back stitch.  I like how the blue line appears different depending on the fabric it’s next to.

Next, I’ll work on that line where the old quilt backing and the blue sky/water fabric come together. (where the red basting stitch is in the photo below) I’m still not sure how I’ll sew that down.  I don’t have any idea yet, but I know it will come to me.

I sewed my Heron’s feet today.  (Photo by Jon Katz)

It took me a couple of tries to get the first one right, but then I was ready for the second.  I knew just what to do.

I wound the embroidery floss around the tips of the toes to make the claws.  They looked just as I imaged they would.  That doesn’t always happen.  And sometimes it happens, but doesn’t look as good in the physical world as it did in my mind.

This time it was as I’d hoped it would be.

After the feet were done, I looked up some embroidery stitches and decided to do a backstitch with embroidery floss around the whole Heron.  I started on the bottom with the blue. I didn’t get too far, but I do like the way it looks.

I felt a transition was needed between the birds body and the background.

The small stitched outline was just what just right.  I’ll work on it more tomorrow.

I saw the Heron legs so clearly in my head.  I knew just what they’d look like and how I’d sew them.

Although I pretended to look at other fabrics, I knew I would use this orange piece that came off the end of some Sari material that I bought on my trip to India (so long ago now).  And I distinctly saw the thread I’d stitch it with as being darker than the fabric.

So that’s what I did this morning.

I started working on the first leg of the Heron using a deep purple embroidery floss.  I kept taking a step back to look at it as I worked on it, just to make sure it looked right.  The further along I got the more I was troubled by it.

It looked like I had pictured it in my head, but it didn’t look right on the actual piece.

But I wasn’t ready to give up on it.  It was, after all, what I had pictured. So I left it and sewed the other leg down using a soft orange embroidery floss.  This way I could compare them.

Once I saw them together I had no more doubts.

The orange floss created the texture I wanted.  Suddenly the dark purple lines just looked decorative and out of place.

I tied knots for the knees (which makes me very happy for some reason, maybe because it’s a simple solution that really works).

To make the feet I’ll cut the fabric that’s hanging into three or four pieces (one toe may be hidden behind the sphere) and sew them down the same way I did the legs.

I had a good day in my studio working on my Heron fabric painting.  Once I started working on the eye and beak, I was into it.  I stitched the eye, beak and top of the heron’s head using my free motion sewing machine.

Then I started adding the fabric.  The first pieces I sewed to incorporate with the stitching.

Then I added the rest of the fabric using matte medium. Those scrap pieces that Karen sent me were just the right shape and size.  I only had do so a small amount of trimming.

I had the fabric laid out on my work table and just chose the colors that looked right as I went along.  I knew I wanted darker blue on the bottom and more of the greens for the wing.

I love working with the matte medium.  In the past I would have hand-stitched the fabric on to the backing.  I was always trying to hide the stitches.  I didn’t like the lines they made on the fabric. I wanted the pieces of fabric to be more integrated with each other.

I started using the matte medium when I made some collages inspired by my friend Emily during the pandemic lockdown.

Tomorrow I’ll start working on the legs and feet. I already know which fabric I want to use and that   I’ll be hand sewing the legs.

“Get the sheep”, I yelled to Fate, motioning with my hand for her to keep running.

We were in the back pasture, the light already fading at 7:30 pm.  I walked backward, the sheep following me to the far fence, Fate circling round and round.

Even though the flowers are long gone I caught the scent of beebalm as I crushed the tall leafy plants under my feet.  I saw the green heron, which I’ve been watching all summer,  coming from a distance and looked up as he flew right over my head and landed in the marsh on the other side of the fence.

I took it as an affirmation to continue working on my Heron fabric painting.

I didn’t get much studio time today.  It was time for me to catch up on my bookkeeping again.  As usual, I put it off so that I was three months behind.

By the time I got to my studio, the sun was already on the west side of the house, the thick orange light streaming in my front window. I sat on my floor an emptied bag of fabric scraps from Nancy piled in front of me.  I picked through the slices of circles putting aside the blues and greens.

For some reason, there were a lot of them, just the colors I was looking for. Their shapes, close enough to create the illusion of feathers.

I also did a few drawings to get a feeling for what the eye and markings around the head will look like.  I’ll stitch the eye, but I’m not sure where the stitching will end and the fabric begin. I’ll figure that out as I work on it.

The heron eye I liked best was on a piece of paper with my list of things I’d like to get done this week.

Thursday Jon and I are going to Bishop Gibbons.  Sue Silverstein said the kids in her class are excited to make some dog and cat beds for a local shelter. It’s a good place to start then we can work our way up to the lap quilts.

I had a big bag of polyester batting that someone gave me a while ago. We’ll use that for the batting.  But I want to make a sample bed so the students will have something to work from.

I owe someone a Chicken Potholder so that’s on my list.

And I want to work on my Corona Kimono.  Now that Jon and I both got covid I know what I’ll be stitching on the collar, the last place to fill in with my drawings.

Tomorrow I hope to cross the “heron face” off my list. Because that’s what I plan on working on in the morning.

I got some good work done on my Heron fabric painting today.

The idea for the Heron standing on a sphere underwater, but the water also being the night sky, came to me when I was reading about Heron in Ted Andrews’s book Animal Speak.

The image came to me when I read…. “[Herons] are the symbol of balance and they represent the ability to progress and evolve. The longer the legs, the deeper the water the heron will feed in. The deeper life can be explored….When it feeds it stands in the water, reflecting a connection to the earth-while implying the exploration of other dimensions on the earth.”  

This morning I found the fabric for the sphere.  I had so many ideas about what it would look like. And I tried a lot of different fabric before I found these two.   I pieced them together and sewed the half sphere on the backing after placing the night sky fabric behind it.

I took out the hand-stitches from the quilt backing and let that define the dividing line between the “water” and “sky.”   I will hand stitch that soft edge down. But I’m not sure what kind of stitch I’ll use yet.

Then, when Jon and I were on a call with our web designers I figured out how I would make the legs.  They’ll be fabric and I’ll stitch them the same way I sew the branches on my fabric trees, by looping the thread around the fabric, pulling it into the shape I want it to be.

This way the legs and feet will pop off the backing a bit. And they’ll be a lot of fun to make. I can’t wait to get to them.

But next, I need to sew the Heron’s beak and eye. I’ll be using fabric and matt medium for the body, but I’ll stitch the eye and the fabric for the beak.

Jon and I talked about taking the holiday off and decided we’d stop working early and spend the afternoon together.  But it’s a dreary day and we both ended up working longer than we intended.

Not that either of us is surprised. I got into working on my heron fabric painting and Jon wrote a meaningful piece about beginning life anew, something we both seem to be doing again and again since we found each other.

I prepped the backing for my heron.

I chose an old quilt for the backing and this morning I sewed the sleeve to hang it by and the batting on the back of it. I always hand sew the sleeve because I don’t the line a sewing machine stitch makes across the top of the backing.

I cut a template for the semi-circle the heron is standing on.  I will be cutting away some of the backing to expose a blue piece of fabric behind the lower part of the heron’s legs. And I cut out the drawing I did of the heron and will trace around it to get a silhouette of the bird to work from.

When I first drew the heron, it got bigger and bigger as I made corrections to it.  The neck and legs both needed to be longer. I thought it was too big and  I kept trying to draw it smaller, but every time I drew it, it came out the same size.

I finally relented and accepted that this was how it was supposed to be.

Today when I looked at it hanging on the wall for the first time, I didn’t think it was too big at all.

After doing this work, I needed a break. Although some planning is helpful, like knowing which pieces should be sewn down first and knowing I’ll be cutting away some of the backing I felt like I was doing too much planning.  I don’t want the piece to lose its spontaneity.

So we had lunch then I took a walk in the rain with the dogs.

It was just what I needed to clear my head. When I got back I knew I had chosen the wrong blue fabric and which one I wanted to use instead.  I also found a piece of material that I think will work perfectly for the semi-circle that heron is standing on.

But I’m going to leave that for another day.

It’s already close to dinner time and even though we didn’t take the time off we intended, it will be nice to stop working after dinner and cozy up in the house together, reading and watching the rain.