Is it stealing?

I really want to do some really cool FMQ on my Asian Bargello. I'm picturing two really cool koi fish circling around each other. Now, I'm not particularly skilled in terms of drawing. What I see in my head doesn't come out on paper. To compensate for this, I've mostly stuck to abstract art in the past (my perfectionism doesn't get in the way there). So I "borrowed" an image from a google images search to use as a starting point. I've edited the photo I "borrowed" a little, but not significantly. However, I'm also sure that it will look different once I've stitched it in to the quilt.

But is it stealling? I'm not selling this quilt or profiting from it in any way. I just really appreciated the quality fish Koyosan drew and wanted to use that as a launching point for my creative indevors.

This is Koyosan's awesome fish:

http://koyasan.deviantart.com/art/Gold-fish-145015978

This is how I've changed it somewhat to use as a guideline while I'm FMQ:

Picture the above as the primary the quilting on this quilt:

I'll have to add some other background quilting to cover the needs of the batting. I'm cosidering different wave options, but don't want to detract from the fish.

But, I'm on the fence. I can't decide if I'm abusing my googling and CorelDraw (yes, I prefer to use Corel products for graphic manipulation) skills and plagerizing (or whatever the artist equivilant of that is) Koyosan. Or if I'm just being inspired by the excellent work Koyasan has done. I'd like to consider it a spark, but I'm not sure if I'm just making excuses.

Anyway, check out what everyone else is working on here:

http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

WIP Wednesday

Did you miss me? Probably not ;o)


On top of my husband working insane hours, we all got sick. We also started to move my sewing space. I've now upgraded from a 4' x 2' closet to a 4' x 11' space in the bedroom. I still managed to fit some sewing in, but just wasn't up to blogging. After all, I sew for sanity.


I finished my Asian bargello quilt top! I plan on quilting this by machine once I have a machine that can handle it. I still plan on quilting a really big koi fish so it may be a while before this gets quilted. I haven't tried free motion quilting before. . . so it may be a little bit until I'm good enough to quilt this. I looked into having someone else long-arm quilt it for me and they wanted over $200 +shipping! Ouch! I think it can wait for me.

I also made my daughter a cloth book this week. After my daughter was found sticking a library book in her mouth, I decided it's time to increase her library with some books that can be chewed on. 

Now most would go to the store and buy some, but they are ALL polyester! Ewww. I'm sorry, I know some think I'm going overboard on this, but I really don't want her putting polyester in her mouth. That stuff has nasty chemicals that you can't wash out and end up in her little body. I just can't do it. So, we're making them. My Mom sent a really cute one that she embroidered for her. And I'm working on a couple designs that I'll get printed by spoonflower.com. 

What has everyone else been working on? Check it out here:

WIP Wednesday, on Thursday :oP

Well, I now have 2 of 4 placemats bound and on the table. I made napkins that match the binding months ago, it's about time I get this finished. I just take forever finishing bindings by hand. I'm not sure what my hold up is it is pretty easy.


I have a couple more rows of my asian bargello quilt done. Don't mind the wave in fabric in the picture. There just happens to be something under it on my ironing board. I'm planning on quilting a large dragon in each of the corners, and a really large koi fish (*sp?) in the center. For the rest of the space, I was thinking a really basic Sashiko style stitch to not draw away from the rest of the quilting design, but kind of sticks to the theme of the fabrics. Because of the number of seems though, it may be too difficult to do by hand. I might have to look at having someone professionally quilt this one.

I'm also working on a Brown Bear quilt for a friend who is going to have her 4th child in December. We're planning on giving them the quilt and a new copy of the book as a gift. Since I plan on hand quilting it, I better get going on this one. It is going to take me a while! Pia decided she must help showcase the beauty of this quilt. I have to choose a colour to satin stitch around all the letters on the border with. . . uggg.

And last but not least. . . you should be seeing a completed Dr. Seuss crib sheet soon, very soon. Audrey is so fixated with her Peter Rabbit and Curious George sheets, I decided she needed a Dr. Seuss one too!