Silhouette - PQ 13.2

This week has been a roller-coaster of inspiration and reality!  I had some really great ideas, was inspired to try several techniques to implement those ideas, and then crashed back to reality by the fact that I do not (yet!) have the skills to use any of those techniques to make something that I would be proud of for this challenge.  

One technique is, of course, applique.  Applique is not my favorite technique, and I first thought that the only way to do a silhouette would be with applique.   I knew that I wanted to do the challenge, just wasn't sure that I wanted to do a complicated applique! So I hemmed and hawed and procrastinated for a few days. 

On Tuesday morning, I went down to the boathouse for my regular crew team workout.  Note that, since it is winter here in Pittsburgh, we don't take the boats and go out on the water, we work out on the rowing machines inside the boathouse.  The machines are set up facing the floor-to-ceiling windows, so that we can see the river (and wish that we were out on the water instead of indoors!)  So while I was working out, I was watching the water flow past the docks. I noticed the reflections of the docks in the water.  That reminded me of some photos that had been taken last fall, with the team boats backlit by the setting sun.  Or, I guess you could say, 'silhouetted' by the setting sun!  Inspiration!!

I went to the team's website and found the pictures that I was thinking of.  

 

Reality: Both of them are really great examples of silhouette, but way too complicated (for me) to make appliques out of them, at least not in a week.  

So I went back to hemming and hawing.  

On Wednesday morning, I attended a meeting of the Creative Quilters subgroup of the local quilting guild.  The topic was thread painting.  They mentioned several types of thread painting, one of which involves printing a picture on fabric and stitching over it.  Inspiration!!

I watched several of the videos about thread painting.  It looked easy!  I can do this!  Reality: No, I can't. That is another technique that I want to learn, and want to get good at, but my attempts this week were dismal failures.  File this under "things that I want to do someday". 

I set my sights lower.  I realized that what fascinated me about the rowing pictures was the lighting, and the setting sun.  That reminded me of some pictures that my brother had taken of seagulls at the beach, with the sun behind them.  So I did some internet surfing and found some really cool pictures of sea birds sitting on docks, piers or buoys.  Inspiration!!  

This time, reality was the winner.  I realized that I didn't have to make a super complicated applique project in order for me to be happy with it. I decided to make a simple applique project.  It finished at 10 X 14 inches and is the perfect size to add to the wall in my sewing room. 

This week's project took me a little longer than usual, but I am glad that I had all that inspiration. One of these days, I WILL do a thread painting of a rower at sunset! 

Seagull at Sunset