Mono printing and making confettie foliage

I've been creatively busy today, completely ignoring the vacuum cleaner waiting in the corner (hubby brings it upstairs for me). I really wanted to test out a mono-print of a poinsettia which I painted onto a Ziploc bag and then pressed to a piece of cotton. I used an extender to keep the paint wet.

On the right are 3 fabrics that I picked as possibilities to go with for a table runner. I will probably try a couple more prints before I choose one to work with. The plan is to add a bit of thread painting, keeping it loose and sketchy.

This afternoon, I worked on the birches, adding some background foliage with stippling and cutting a few more trees.

 Then I cut up some foliage colored fabrics with the wavy rotary cutter.

Some of my readers will have seen this process before. You can find a post about it in the tutorial section under the header. Next, I sandwich the bits I call confetti between 2 pieces of Saran Cling Wrap Plus.

I take it to the machine and free motion stitch in a meandering zigzag making sure to cover all the little bits.

Finally, it gets sandwiched between sheets of newspaper and ironed without steam until all the Saran has melted away.

I like to use pieces that I cut and pull apart for parts of the foliage and ground cover.

The weather changed yesterday after the rain to cooler  temps. Many maritimers took advantage of the record breaking temperatures on Saturday to have a last fling at the beaches and on the waters. We went kayaking at a place called Island Lake about an hours drive from here. My husband is always patient enough to paddle or float around while I stop fro a sketch.

We packed our lunch which we had to eat in the kayaks alongside a shore. There wasn't really a good spot to land and get out.

It is quite different from Portage Lake or Lake Nictau at Mount Carlton--definitely not for swimming-- but still beautiful in its way.

A bit of exciting news that I got on Friday from a guild member was that I won first place in the Kennebecasis Valley Quilt Show in the non traditional category with my tulips piece that I called Spring Fling.

I did photograph it before sending it, but can't seem to find them. Here is just a section that I showed before.

Problem is-- good news, bad news, it also sold! A good thing but I must find those pictures.

Happy Monday!