Sky painting, shibori painting,, and the wave

I'm pretty sure that today is one of the nicest days we've had for some time. Sunny, warm and springlike. I've got another line of clothes out since yesterday's dried perfectly. I even washed two pillows in my front load machine following an article I saw somewhere, maybe Pinterest. I didn't save it. I just remember that they used dish washing detergent as one of the cleaners. I added Oxyclean. They're now hanging on the line looking lovely and white.

Despite the gorgeous weather, and though I was sorely tempted, I opted (really the pain forced me) to give my sore hip and leg a rest and  stayed inside to play with fabric and paint.

First, I painted a sky for the piece I want to do with surfer from pictures my son sent me. I cut out a few pieces in what I think will be the colors for the water. I've laid it all out and I have a picture of where I want it to go. Can you see it?

I'm pretty sure I'll be painting another sky. It's not quite what I want, but at least this one will be usable in a future piece. Some of the water shapes may change as well, but it's a start.As usual, there will be lots of stitching once I'm happy with the basic underlying colors and shapes. Some of those will change too. And as you  often see with big waves, there is a lot of white froth and foam. I've come across some different ways of doing it, so I'll be experimenting there too. I'm out of my comfort zone; it is a challenge that will occupy me and my thoughts for a while.

While I was at my painting table, I also did background fabric for more birch trees using the shibori method that I wrote about in Quilting Arts April/May 2013.

Here is the first piece still moist and wrinkled.

Now it is dry and I've ironed it.

The background is a marbled batik that I pictured  as a sky and forest on a spring day when I bought it.The blue runs down into the bottom (forest floor) so I'll have to do some strategic appliqueing and stitching. It will go on my design wall to think about while I work on the surfer.

The next piece I did on my usual mottled gray batik.

I will be using it to do a demo piece for a workshop that I am teaching the end of April. Can you see birches in there?
 I'm connecting to the Needle and Thread Network.