Sfsnad Project Really Done

Well, my teacher Laura would not let me get away with a sloppy job. Based on her comments, I fixed the tops of the two front hills, and slightly grayed out the left hill. Since I had to restitch the left hill, I fixed the poppy center that I didn't like, and added more fronds.

 

Sfsnad Project done

It turned out well; the only part I don't like is the center of the poppy - should have done it differently, but I'm going to let it go. I don't think I need to add any more yellow/orange sky color. As usual I'm going to sit on it and review it tomorrow. It might need more green fronds on the lower left quadrant - it looks a little sparse.

Sfsnad Project

Having fun so far.

Detail of poppy:

Moving On

I decided that I have to stop moping and move on. I received my MC Step 5 back and it is a good thing I passed, that cheered me up a bit. The judges suggested that I add some darker stitches at the left hill, so here's the before, and here's the after:

It added depth to the hill - great suggestion (and that's why they are judges!) Detail of the hill:

I also saw this project at San Francisco School of Needlework and Design; it is one of the places I've kept my eye on. Since I'm going through MC Color program, I should be able to come up with the color design for their challenge landscape:

This is my rendition so far - I may or may not send it in - depends on how I feel about it when finished. I removed the grapes, and put the purple on the hills, with orange and green for the California poppies. Another triadic scheme. I echo'ed a little bit of the orange in the sky; it may not be enough - I will see when the poppies are done.

Disaster

I was finishing the goldfish piece using the finishing techniques of JEC. Unfortunately it wasn't meant to get wet - the ink that was the design ran, and there were blue halos around everything. It took a lot of spraying and blotting to get it sort of ok - but not perfect. Also some of the orange silk color ran onto the fabric. I was SO DISGUSTED, especially since I was so careful with this piece. Live and learn - I'll call it my cheap Chinese restaurant piece  - I can hardly bear to look at it.

Goldfish Done!

It's always exciting when I finish a JE piece! After all it is such a lot of work and takes so long. I started this piece November 2015, so all in all it didn't take as long as some other pieces. The bubbles added a lot to the design, and the background fabric really gives a sense of swirling water.

On looking at it closely just now, I think there should be a small section of purple seaweed above the large goldfish's left pelvic fin, to provide continuity of the purple seaweed towards the top. On the picture provided with the piece, that section is also missing, which I don't think is right. I'm going to add that tomorrow.