Tulips

Last night, I cut out a few bits of fused fabric tulip shapes to audition on my layered. I was anxious to see how it would work before I continued laying out the background strips.

The sun has come out again and plans to stay for a while I believe. The plan is for me to go outside for an hour or so in the morning or until I'm too sore to keep going, come in for lunch along with the application of ice packs, and then I head to my studio for some art play.

This  morning's task was to finish transplanting my rhubarb further along the fence where it will get more sun.

I know it looks pretty blah now but I am so proud of this, lol! It took 2 days and involved digging up the grass and sifting through rocky soil, sieving out what I could get out of the still partly frozen compost bin and adding it to the patch, digging up the rhubarb to move and laying in the brick border; all done gingerly and at a turtles pace, so as not to aggravate the joints. But oh, it is so good to get outdoors and into the dirt!

I used the ice packs during lunch and after tea, I m0oved into my studio. I was anxious to lay out more fabrics for my tulip background. What you see below is just an idea of where I will go with it.

The orange is brighter in these second two pictures than the first one. After a recent little photography lesson, I m experimenting with new lights. At the moment I'm using natural light and a  light on a stand. I have a second light bulb but need another stand.

The fused tulips and swirls are laid out to get a feel for the placement and color. I will take them off and stitch down all the layers of background fabric before fusing them on.

The plan is for the free motion stitching to enhance the background as well as providing soft transitions between the layers.

I picture it as a long narrow piece with some of the tulips extending outside the edges.