Watercolors from France: Dappled Light Edition

 

Here is the waterlogued version of a tree in morning sunlight.

Here is the original photo from a morning walk along one of the canals in Toulouse, France.

I was enamored of the dappled light through the leaves.  Gorgeous to my eyes!

Texture Tuesday : Hope in Winter

This lone tree stands in the park near my house.  The plain white/gray background needed some dressing up.  What better chance to use my new coffee textures?!?

I picked one with the salty stars because they kind of look like snow flakes falling--or blooming trees.   What can I say?  I love winter!

Photo Processing in PhotoShop Elements :

 Layer 1 ) My Coffee Texture 4958 - Background image
Layer 2) Kim Klassen's Be Still Texture - Soft Light 100%
Layer 3) Kim Klassen's Hope Filled - Soft Light 100%
Layer 4) Copy Layer 1 - Normal 47%
Layer 5) Hue Saturation Adjustment - to dampen yellows and pinks
Layer 6) My Coffee Texture 4958 - shifted - Soft Light 43%

 Layer 7) My Coffee Texture 4934 - Soft Light 51%

 Layer 8) The Tree image - Color Burn - 100%
           (This treatment blurred out some of the houses and clutter in the horizon line)

With spring coming and the promise of gorgeous pink and white trees, I couldn't resist playing with some girly colors for a spring version :

For this version, I played with a few filters in Picassa (I know--heresy to the LightRoom crowd.)
     Graduated Tint (Pink from the top down)
     and Glow
This one is my favorite of the 2.  A little more color, a blush to bring back Spring.  

There it is!

Sharing with Texture Artists Facebook Group and Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.

Tree of Life : Wall Quilt Completed

[Click on the tree to view a larger size.]

This quilt has been in the works for about 2-1/2 years now.   It wasn't difficult, though it looks putsy.  I just needed to put in the time--and take my time with it.   I am grateful for the sewing table my husband made for me a few years ago.  It makes free-motion quilting so much easier than it used to be.

Detail photos of the quilting ...  I used my new embroidery threads to quilt it.  It's a strong polyester with a nice sheen.  I don't have to worry about the threads breaking as I would with rayon.   And I have so many colors in the set that it's easy to find a match! 

 

 

Detail of the stitching on the tree trunk.   

The edges of the tree were top-stitched down to the background layer of the quilt top, along with a stabilizer.  Then I quilted the background through the quilt sandwich (batting and backing included).  This helped to make the tree pop out.  

Originally, I wasn't planning to quilt/stitch on the tree, but I had a doodle in my sketchbook that my mother happened to see.  She liked it and encouraged to transfer it to the Tree above.  
It worked out nicely!

 

Although I love Hobbs 80/20 batting for bed quilts, I find that it sags over time (gravity's effect on all of us!)  in wall hangings.  I know people like to recommend Warm'n Natural which was originally designed for window quilts / winter insulation, and does NOT sag.  Although I've used it, it just doesn't puff up and look like quilts.  They are too flat for my tastes.  I've started using old mattress pads (after the parts that wrap around your mattress pooch out and tear off).  The padded part makes a nice puffy batting for wall hangings, that doesn't sag.     These are also good for quilted pillows and pot holders.    It's a great way to recycle them, too.  They're good yet, even if they won't stay on your bed!

I haven't done up an official quilt label yet.  I don't have a great way to do it yet.  My printer doesn't do fabric, and writing with a fabric pen is functional, but doesn't look so nice.   At this point, I just have the info written on an old library catalog card (recycling again!) pinned to the back.  Someday, I'll do a batch of them at once. 

Cherry Tree : May Photo-Heart Connection

This is a picture of a cherry tree in Sarry, France.  We were there at just the tight time in April, visiting family a few years ago.  I loved the gray, textured bark with the fresh pink (and fragrant) blossoms.  The brick wall was an extra bonus.  I've had this picture for a few years now, always wanting to work it up ...  I recently came across the quote and it finally came together.  ;-)

I love this quote.  I think the speaker is from Japan, a culture that has a love affair with cherry blossoms.  It also speaks to the magic of Spring.  The blossoms come from living wood.   If you chop down the tree, try to dissect it, you won't find those flowers.  You'll never find those flowers.  What makes it tick, you ask?  The Spring Breeze ...

This spring, we remodeled our kitchen--a long overdue project.  We picked natural cherry wood cabinets.  No spring blossoms there, but the wood is warm.   And we do have a reverence for cherry--wood and blossoms.  Maybe I'll print this one out and frame it for the kitchen wall?

Layer-by-Layer Processing :
Layer 1 : Background image
Layer 2 : Copy Background image - Screen 20%
Layer 3 :  Artisan Collection 2(3) Texture by 2 Lil Owls - Soft Light 60%
Layer 4 : Text - Jane Austen and Fortunaschwein Fonts  at 70% ; Color chosen from tree
Layer 5 : Crop  (It really needed to be cropped down.  The Full frame made it difficult to focus on the words.)
Layer 6 : Add a color fill frame - Multiply 38%
I also did a final "I'm feeling lucky" tweak in Picasa that appears to have boosted the contrast a bit.
Don't worry.  I still have the layers--That was just the exported version.

Cheers!  Or should I say Cherry Blossoms!
Check out what everyone else has posted for the May Photo-Heart Connection.

Beyond Layers Day 52 : Dream-Like

 

I took the photo from last week and tried it with Kim's Dream-Like recipe from this week.  Although her image came out with a beautiful golden glow, I'm underwhelmed with how my image came out.  

It looks really flat to me.  Disappointing.  

I'm feeling like it needs some kind of Rescue Treatment to save it.

Where did I go wrong?  Did I pick the wrong image for this treatment?

Maybe it will look better in the morning?

For the record, here are the steps Photo Processing :

Layer 1 : Background Image

Layer 2 : Copy background image.  

               Enhance >Adjust Color > Color Variations

               Mid-tones : Increase Red            Shadows : Increase Red          Adjust intensity

Layer 3 : Adjustment Layer - Brightness / Contrast - Lower Contrast to -50

Layer 4 : Adjustment Layer - Gradient Map > BtoW     Screen Blend Mode  40%

Layer 5 : Adjustment Layer - Solid Color > Blue       Exclusion at 24%

Layer 6 : Adjustment Layer - Hue Saturation or Levels

Layer 7 : Hue Saturation - Lower Yellows

Layer 8 : Add Kim Klassen's Yesteryear Texture    Soft Light 65%

Layer 9 : Add Kim Klassen's Thursday Texture   Soft Light 40%

Layer 10 : Add Text    Caflisch Pro Script

 In this version, I added 1 more layer of Texture to make the sky a little more interesting. 

More like Dorothy in Kansas in a dust storm, not Oz.

Here's the original photo taken this summer.

 

Here's the rendering from last week.   

I dream in Technicolor, so in my mind, this is more dream-like.

Beyond Layers Day 51 : A Tall Order - Part 1

The lesson today involves taking a landscape photo in a portrait orientation.  Kim wanted to see where her students live.  This is a tree at the side of the road in farm country out west of Oshkosh.

Photo Processing :
Layer 1 : Background Copy.
Layer 2 : RadLab (Antique Tone, EZ Burn 2, POS Lens)
Layer 3 : Kim Klassen's Zuzu Texture; Multiply blend mode 45%
Layer 4 : Kim Klassen's Cool Grunge; Soft Light blend mode at 52%
Layer 5 : Duplicate Layer 4; Multiply blend mode 34%
Layer 6 : Text Layer.  John Muir quote; Clafisch Script; Normal blend mode 86%.

Needle Lace Tree, Leaf & Moss

These are examples of Needle Lace.

I learned this technique from Susan Brittingham at Quilt University (online).

Use a heavy water-soluble stabilizer in a spring-tension embroidery hoop (These are thinner than the old wooden ones, and will fit under the foot of your machine.) along with some tulle or netting. Then you sew-sew-sew ... After the stabilizer is washed away, the netting gives the piece some body and structure which may be needed for larger pieces like the leaf and the tree canopy. The moss seems to get thick enough that it manages to support itself after the stabilizer washes away.

When your free-standing embroidery is complete, it can be appliqued to a quilt or wall-hanging.


The background fabric is a hand-dyed scrunch & dump that I did in one of Marjie McWilliams dying classes also at Quilt University.