Project Quilting, Challenge 9.3. Bold and Brave

#90 "Wander not Lost"  For voting purposes, thanks


My first quilt, two weeks ago, was completed at my sister's studio in CA-  I didn't realize how much easier that made the process until I arrived home in FL to begin my second quilt.

     My first challenge- how to make a quilting studio in 5 minutes?  Grab the ol' kitchen table and chairs of course, lol!  Dig through all closets in house till I found Mom's sewing machine. Next track down all sewing related items.  Linked my computer to a TV and started cranking some classic rock.

Everyone starts somewhere.  This is my starting point.

First concept was to see a Samurai, sword drawn, against an unknown antagonist.  As the pieces started to come together, this concept changed from a battle scene to a journey of possibilities.  This felt like it fit the Brave and Bold challenge topic better.  It also seemed to sum up my life over the last few years.

Beginning sketch idea.  Replaced sword idea to hiking stick.  Better fit.

Source of material for this challenge came from all over: some pieces came from my sister's scrap bins, others were re-purposed ribbon and cleaning supplies and a trip to the Dollar Store and Jo-anne's fabric for missing components.  Can you spy puppy Parsley investigating?

Pulled scraps and random material like 3M green scour pads and weed barrier cloth!!!

First idea for the bonsai tree was to roll several different materials together to create the colors and texture of a bonsai.  Unfortunately, I didn't quite grasp the way to manipulate the material.  The more I tried, the messier it came out.  Instead I made 4 or 5 different parts to the tree and patched them together.

Tree pattern ready for piecing together.

Placing the tree and character to tell the story seems easy right?  Took so much time to pin down these 2 components exactly where they seemed to naturally fit.  Telling the visual story is just as important to my process as the actual quilting techniques are.  I seem to have an eye for this.  Must have been picked up this skill at film school.

Placing pieces for a natural flow.

After hand stitching my traveler all together, something just looked a little off...  Looked like I was being given directions.  Time to edit!!!! 

Scarecrow???

Edit edit edit...  I had to learn that the fabric didn't change as fast as a pencil and eraser did.

The scene all coming together.  Wheres their staff?

Finding the right staff for this person's quest was an epic all in itself.  Found the right stick with just a slight curve in it.  Slowly sanded rough spots as their long weary miles would have.  I really tried to leave as much stickness as I could.

I opted to "puff" up my character using some toy stuffing to complete this task.  It did distort the rectangle shape of the overall quilt though.  It's all a learning process.

Final quilt "Wander not Lost".  Bold and Brave 9.3 challenge.

Wander not Lost

Ahh done.