Finished FFFC Challenge # 31

Cozy Cottage
Size 15 x 16.5 inches

I have been playing catch up with my Yahoo group (FFFC) challenges. Last night I finished Challenge # 31. Since we are on Challenge #33 I am still behind. I know I should have done 33 first but I had a beginning design for 31 so decided to go with that one.

Our challenge was to use highly saturated colors combined with diluted or muted colors (tones) for the color element, and to use planes & masses for the design element. I know I managed the planes and masses, the house with its one point perspective, and the hills in the background are the planes. Not so sure I met the challenge when it came to the color use, some of the greens may not be toned enough, though the blue greens I used for the distant hills and the grey for the sky and house are muted colors. The red for the trim around windows and the door is a bright highly saturated color so those parts work, as for the rest... I leave it up to you to decide.

I had fun with this challenge using all sorts of embellishing techniques to give me a look that I wanted. The base of the quilt is layered machine applique, with the lowest green pieced to the upper section.

The house I drafted in Illustrator using one point perspective, then I printed it out and used freezer paper to create the templates. I tried the house in various positions on the background but ended up liking it slightly off center to the left so left it there. I used a white glue to put it temporarily in place then machine appliqued all the pieces using a satin stitch. It was looking a bit naked so I decided some bushes would be nice, but didn't want to do flat fabric ones so after looking through my fiber stash I decided to create my bushes with Solvy and fiber.

First I placed a strip of heavy Solvy in a small hoop, then I placed various fibers on top of the Solvy arrainging them so it would look like there were three bushes in a row, then I dampened some additional strips of Solvy and placed them over the top of the fiber solvy sandwich to hold the fibers in place. Then I let it dry.

After the sandwich was dry I free motion sewed the stems of the bushes, enough to keep all the fibers in place but not so heavy that you can't see the fibers. Then I took it out of the hoop, trimmed away the extra solvy and soaked the rest away. The next step was to let it dry. Here is a picture of the dry finished bushes before being sewn down onto the quilt.

I made two sets of these, after all a major element of design is repetition and I wanted two of these bush elements.

I felt the sky area was too bland so I added clouds using shiva paint sticks, two shades of grey and a bit of white. I added details to the windows and the open door area with pearl cotton. The bushes were attached by the use of pearl cotton size #5.

I am calling this one Cozy Cottage, after all the lights are on, the door is open welcoming visitors. I should probably have some smoke coming from the chimney but I didn't want to use more paint for it so I think I will leave it as it. As always comments are welcome.