MORE PROGRESS ON GIRLS
As you can see I have been doing some work on this piece. It is not going as fast as I had hoped but I sort of have two jobs. Raising the family seems to be the one that wins out most of the time....why is that?? One to think about. Anyway, the portrait is primarily done. If you are observant you may have noticed I cut them from their painted background. This actually caused me to pause with scissors in hand for a moment. Once the fist snip was made I just went fast and was pleased with the result. Part of making this work for me is about letting go of preconceived notions of how things should be done/created. Cutting my portrait was very cathartic. After I have pieced the whole thing together I will add finishing touches to the portrait. I have pieced the sides to the pleated middle and have free-motion stitched the girls to the background. I added ribbon to their stomach sashes in order to balance color, and in their sleeves. Again, having to cut the portrait. Yeaks! ...but I love it.

I have tried to include some dress making techniques and think the ribbon in the sleeves is very child like so suites the piece. In this photo you can see a detail of the ribbon work on the sleeve.