Stormy Sky

Update August 27,2010... Here is the final version of my "Stormy Sky" piece. Thanks to all who gave comments before the quilting in the sky was finished! I went with the monofilament, but did have to do a bit of playing with things to get the needle holes to hide. I bound the edges with a black suede yarn, and it finished at 10"x10" square. To find our how I solved the "hole" problem, see the post on my Andrus Gardens Blog. I even finished another small piece yesterday, too!!


I am finally able to try to post this to the blog...
This is my first almost finished piece in a long time.... I was originally going to use the Black Walnut trees in my back yard as inspiration, with their crooked, graceful branches, but we ended up having a really stormy evening and a wonderful "show" in the sky. I took tons of photos, and decided I liked the way the trees in my garden made the silhouettes against the sky. At the moment, this is appx 10" square, with the branch and leaf details quilted in black thread on the appliqued silhouettes that I cut using a photo as a pattern. The really neat clouds (Mamatus, or Mamocumulous) were in such bright colors (oranges, etc. that I don't normally use), and there was even a bit of blue sky, too. The cloud part of the sky is done as a photo transfer from a transparency. Something I have played with a little, but not on such a big scale as this one (the new for me technique). It turned out better than I imagined, and I tried to "ruin" the sharp lower edge of the transfer so it would blend into the fabric.
The transfer was done over one of my hand dyed fabrics that had pale blue and golden yellow blotches on it. The fabric with the transfer added is above. I had hoped to use just that fabric for the background, but decided that the yellow was too vivid, and it needed the other dyed fabric piece with the blues, pinks, and more white, that I added some yellow to so it would blend better into the fabric the clouds were transferred to. Here is a link to a blog post I did showing the process I used for my transfer.
A detail shot showing the stitching done in black thread. I tried to bring the stitching into the sky like the smaller branches and leaves of the trees. I used a variegated thread in baby colors in the sky so far, but am not sure how to approach the cloud area. I am thinking of either using monofilament, or maybe a brassy copper metallic I have. None of my variegateds are the right colors... I don't think....

Another detail shot of a tree and bushes, showing the clouds really well. I think I want the clouds to stand out more than any stitching I do, but am looking for ideas. I may end up making a smaller piece to just play on.... or maybe just print the actual inspiration photo onto fabric and play with threads???
Here is the Photo I used for the transfer and pattern for the trees. The transfer made the clouds "backwards", but that's "artistic license" right?

Still a work in Progress, but the farthest I have gotten in a long time :)