second skinny

So I’m coming along with the hand stitching on the first skinny, but have to take it in small doses. I’ve forgotten what it’s like to handle a large wad of quilt in one hand when you stitch without a hoop. My thumb is complaining and don’t want to aggravate for gardening .

my 2nd skinny is inspired by Tom Russell of Texas. He doesn’t have a website – but he has entered Houston several times. I like to be “inspired by” but attempt to avoid a exact copy. I’ve changed the orientation from horizontal to vertical, changed the background to my own version of string pieced blocks, and going to change the birds and flowers to my own William Morris /pippa moore influenced shapes .

I am having a problem with the base of the tree so here’s a series of photos, but now that I see this photo of the background – the transition from dark to light looks too abrupt. But I will stop fussing as it will be all covered with branches , birds , flowers and leaves and I will ” get over it”

string pieced backgroundcartoon drawing of treestring pieced tree trunk with fairly decent transition from dark to light,tree trunk placed on background.

Here is the cartoon of my tree’s basic shape above.

and below is the main trunk of strings.

string pieced tree trunk with fairly decent transition from dark to light,

But here is the 2 of them placed together and I’m not happy with the base of the tree almost getting lost in the navy blue of the background.

tree trunk placed on background.

Now when I took an online course in still life composition from Pamela Allen, ( Yes, I was listening Pamela) she taught us to place a contrasting fabric behind an object to separate it from the background. I’m thinking that the base of the tree that is chocolate brown needs a halo edge of rusts or green to show separation. I could also put piping on the edge of the trunk.

Oh ! before you comment, the trunk is a separate quiltlet by it’s self  with extra batting- with facing to finish the edge – but piping could be used as well.

Comments are welcome.

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