designing...

Things are moving swiftly on my commission challenge. When I fully wrap my head around an idea, I tend to make decisions quickly and move along to the doing part. Here is a pictorial presentation of what's been happening:

planning

First I printed out an actual size photo, no fancy ink or paper, just an image to guide me. I made a tracing of it to lay over my work when I need to check alignment of parts. Underneath is a piece of heavy Pellon interfacing that will be my base.

auditioning

I auditioned my ephemera with the wool mittens that were already felted into submission as I knew that I wanted them to be the lawn.

refining

I decided to cut up the cream and sage tissue paper and rearrange it. Dryer sheets will make a good texture for the stucco, and cotton ribbon makes the steps.

adding shadows

As I was covering the tissue paper with tulle to give it better stability, I decided that the roof line needed shadows. Black tulle does the trick. The shiny plastic bags make good window reflections.

checking alignment

My tracing paper guide has come in handy several times to check that all the components are properly aligned.

auditioning thread

Then it was time to audition thread for the machine sketching. I like using variegated thread and this time I wanted light for the top part and dark for the bottom.

paper guide

My paper guide gets thoroughly used, now it will guide my machine sketching lines. I don't follow it slavishly, it's just there to make sure that proportions are correct and I don't forget all the details that I want to use.

almost ready for hand stitching

Now the tedious job of removing the paper guide is almost done. I will refine and maybe remove some material now and decide on the hand stitching details.