Since October 7th I have been surrounded with many shades of olive green in my studio. I began creating quilted pieces in combat colors as my way to work in these horrendous times.
I have created dramatic pieces and angry pieces and sad pieces. The anger and absolute horror does not leave me.
During the weeks I have been working with children. Creating something constructive and learning new positive techniques is a wonderful way for them to manage their fears and sorrow, at least for a few hours. It also gives me a purpose in these times.
They learnt to sew by hand and create art and accessories from fabric scraps that they all have at home. I brought my buttons and beads for them to use.
I had said that I would continue creating in camo combat colors until either the fabrics or my ideas ran out. Well neither is happening. Fabric scraps, as all creators know multiply while one sleeps. I don't sleep a lot but they are still multiplying.
I am dreaming my ideas. Every morning I wake up with more ideas. A cityscape, a field of anemones, a soldier in action.
My studio at this moment in time is all the shades of olive drab
Olive drab is variously described as a "dull olive-green colour" (Oxford English Dictionary);[4] "a shade of greenish-brown" (Webster's New World Dictionary);[5] "a dark gray-green" (MacMillan English dictionary); "a grayish olive to dark olive brown or olive gray" (American Heritage Dictionary);[6] or "A dull but fairly strong gray-green color" (Collins English Dictionary). It is widely used as a camouflage color for uniforms and equipment in the armed forces.
Whenever I teach a class I create samples of my own and this week I taught fabric flowers so I created my version of fabric flowers.
I am writing a new tutorial for a boho rustic fabric bag and had originally thought of using the flower applique on one of the bag panels
This is what I had originally envisioned
and then this morning I woke up and saw the floral applique as part of an art piece over a dark olive brown canvas.
I went to my olive fabric boxes and found these 2 pieces which I could stretch over a canvas
I auditioned them - first a green brown
and a darker green
The colors are darker in real life. For the time being I am keeping both until I make my final decision.
I found more scraps in the remnants pile to create another crumb piece for the second panel of the bag. I might still applique something onto it.
It will most probably come to me in a dream.
To create your own floral arrangement find a detailed tutorial here on Etsy
and here on the site