The Making of Music

Tangled Textiles has its reveal day today for 'Music'. I'm glad to have these challenges as it gets me into my sewing room and it also pushes me to work through problems with a project instead of just setting it aside and moving on. Below is how I arrived at my version of 'Music'.....

Sketches and more sketches ... dancing notes .....

  ... I considered making the theme "Every good boy deserves fudge"... did you learn that phrase along with 'face' to learn your music lines? 

 .... perhaps a winter scene?....

 Finally I settled on a version of above but with a treble clef as the center of interest.....

 I remembered doing a quilt for the challenge "Rhythm" and wanted something similar for the background. I was thrilled to find I already had a hand dyed pieced that said 'rhythm' to me and it was in the colors I wanted.

 I did need to dye the matching strips ..... and found Dyna Flows to quick and easy ...

I considered several options for the black lines of the notes and treble clef but finally decided to hand stitch cording onto the quilt ...

 ....it was lacking something. I wanted the treble clef to be dancing and singing with the backup of notes, but this wasn't it....

  ....so I added the dance trail of the treble clef as it had entered the stage .... seemed to tie the piece together and ground the treble clef......

  ....but those notes were too stiff so I ripped parts out and tried to make them a little more graceful.....and I added another cord next to the original cord of each of the white notes. I'm hoping the music show is ready to go!

Overall I'm happy with my final piece although those notes still aren't as graceful as I would like .... but there's always the next challenge ..... and this one was fun!

The Monarch

When I learned about the decline of monarch butterflies and their becoming endangered we bought a few more milkweed plants for the yard. Some time after seeing lots of caterpillars on the milkweed I finally spotted a butterfly who had just emerged.....

Here's an interesting read about the monarchs ..... http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/science-matters/2013/10/help-solve-an-orange-and-black-mystery/