2 steps forward, 1 step back

last night I finished the quilting of the summer panel

and now I'm in the process of taking out the quilting in the spring panel

the problem here is that after I did the winter panel and the summer panel by creating a swirly pattern that accented the clouds in the sky portion of the picture, the quilting in the spring panel, which doesn't do that just looks -- well, wrong

so I'm very carefully picking out the quilting in the sky portion and will re-quilt it using that same cloud accenting swirly pattern

yes, it will add some time to the project, but it will improve it and even more important, I will be happier with the piece -- otherwise my eye would always be drawn to that panel and I'd be unhappy with it

I've been working on the drawings for the Hoffman piece

I like the colors of the vases (and those will be some of the Hoffman coordinate fabrics), and the roses in the purpley-pink and the pinky-purple will be cut right out of the challenge fabric

but I'm still struggling with the background

do I want 3 different colors there?

or would a dark wall with a light colored table cloth be better?

and then there is the question of "where is the light"?

and where should the shadows be?

I'll be spending some time looking at images of classic still life paintings to work on learning more to do this


meantime, the framing of the center dinosaur is going really well -- I hope to have that finished today

and I spent a lot of time yesterday afternoon playing with beads -- and determined that I will be making a small order to Fire Mountain Gems for some wider clasps and some beads that will go with those spring/leaf green and chartreuse cameos as well as that carved floral piece -- both of which are colors that I haven't worked with before so I just don't have anything in the stash that works

I'm still waiting for one more order to arrive, so I'll probably wait to make that bead order until I can see if I need anything to go with it

lots of fun stuff happening in the studio!