more going backwards to go forwards

until very recently, ripping anything out really annoyed me -- as in I would have rather just started over with something different entirely

but in the last few months the idea of going backward to go forward has gained a lot of "cred" with me

and this week was another good example

this piece, for example has been rolling right along

until I got to the place where I had to do the road that runs down the right hand side and across the bottom

my original idea was to quilt this part so it looked like dry, cracked open dirt

problem number one -- that meant either flipping this big piece (it's about 3 feet by 5 feet) around and around to create those shapes, or teaching myself how to free motion quilt in circles

so I spent several days working on free motion quilting those circles

and I broke a lot of sewing machine needles

and it brought me to problem number two -- I really hated the way it looked

not because my circles were kind of "clunky", but just because I didn't feel like it worked as the design element I thought it would be

after thinking about it for a couple of days while I worked on something else, I decided it made better sense to quilt that area in long curved lines that look like rutted road -- or disc marks in a field

so yesterday afternoon, I got out the exacto knife with a fresh blade and "skinned" that side of the quilt, separating the backing from the batting to cut out all of those quilted circles 

back to where I was at the beginning of the week, but I'm a lot happier about where I'm going now

I have started doing the quilting on this piece

beginning with the trees and structures with black rayon thread

I hope to have this piece finished by November 19 so I can take it with me when I give my artist talk in the gallery where the other part of what this began as is hanging

this design has done some morphing since last week

since I could never resolve the barn issue in the original idea, I decided to go with this plan instead

work on the first silo has begun

the windmill is ready to be quilted

there has been some other work going on here too

when we moved into this house there was really only one thing that didn't look "finished" to me

a fireplace -- even a gas log fireplace -- needs a mantle in my mind

so the DH recently built one for it, and it has now been installed and I finished painting it yesterday

we're ready to "hang the stockings with care" when the time comes

the coming week involves traveling to the gallery where my piece is in an art show for the opening reception on Thursday evening and more work on a lot of projects

Onward!