Maria Elkins

I’ve decided that I’m going to postpone the completion of this project. I wanted to complete it by today, but there’s no possible way to do that and still be happy with the results. I decided it was much better for me to relax, take my time, and enjoy the process. So, the quilt will go on the design wall for a while, and I’ll come back to it fresh in a few days. I have a commitment next week, so it won’t be done in time for the Houston deadline for this year, but there will be other [ ... ]

I worked quite diligently yesterday. I usually do when a deadline is looming. I’m not one to give up easily. I stayed focused but still took reasonable breaks so I wouldn’t injure myself. My goal was to have both girls quilted and the central flower and leaves, too. I nearly made it. I got all of those things done except the arms, hands, and faces. I had a few roadblocks. For the first time in a long time, I had fusible webbing that refused to stay stuck. It was some old Wonder Under, but I’ve not had a problem [ ... ]

I started Monday by making what I thought were going to be just a few finishing touches to the quilt top. I thought I would just spend an hour or two, but that curvy bottom edge kept bugging me. I just had to change it. I dug in my trash can and pulled out the scraps that I had cut off. Thankfully, the print is really forgiving. I was able to fuse the pieces back together without it being too noticeable. While I was doing that, an idea flashed in my mind. I wondered if [ ... ]

I think I’m nearly done with the top. There are a couple painted areas I want to tweak, and I’m not terribly fond of that bottom edge, but at least I’m getting close. I hope to resolve those issues quickly so I can get this basted. Then I need to clean up my studio enough to reach the sewing machine!

Yesterday, I finished putting the shadow and highlight accents on the two dresses. I also started painting the clivia (AKA Kaffir lily). However, the painted version is not quite as neon orange as it appears in this photo. By the way, thank you to everyone who helped identify that flower. Backgrounds are a problem for me. I typically say, “Backgrounds are boring.” But I’m thinking this image will need something at the bottom. I can just leave these poor little girls floating in space. It seems like they need to be standing on something. And, in the photo, the space [ ... ]

I worked on painting the dresses yesterday. Overall, I like how they turned out, even if I still didn’t get that watercolor feeling I was envisioning. I think that effect is going to need a lot more practice when I don’t have a deadline. (The rippling you see in the photo is really the dropcloth underneath, not stripes in the fabric.) While I like the painted look, I had a “what if” idea that I wanted to try out. I started cutting out a couple print fabrics and incorporated them in the shadowed and highlighted areas on the dress. [ ... ]

I finally finished cutting out all the GFG blocks (I never imagined it would take so long!), and I started painting, just like I promised. I thought the hair would be a safe place to start. While I like how it turned out, it doesn’t look anything like the real hair colors. Oh, well. That was just a “source photo,” right? I’m not trying to reproduce the photo, just the idea. Since I’m fairly messy, I’ve started covering lots of surfaces when I paint. These “chucks” work great under the palette, the brushes, and the water bucket. I got [ ... ]