Working Through Ideas

I've had a productive few days over the Bank Holiday working out ideas for quilts for 'Festival of Quilts'. I always need deadlines - this one is entry forms in by the end of the week ( tho' not necessarily finished pieces). I made good progress on Quilters Guild Challenge on theme of 'Elemental' spending a happy time yesterday with printing blocks to extend a piece already started. I want to do an additional piece using my stitching and painting techniques and so today I took annual leave to develop samples ( which I'll finish off as 12 x 12 CQ Journal Quilts).
In addition to my usual seascapes, I've been working on one based on mown fields in Greece
This sketch I did on the spot - as it had been wet, Mrs Farmer was out turning the hay again, even breaking up bales that had got too damp. So it was a bit of a challenge as she came back and turned a few rows after I'd started.
I did a larger scale sketch at home - the Inktense pencils are great for gestural strokes.

So to fabric - I used the same purple over-dyed fabric front and back so that people can see what the original was once painted ( also gives a second crack at it if it goes horribly wrong) I stitched the rows between the mounds of hay by machine and the hay itself by hand stitching with cotton perle. At this stage I'd already discounted this as subject for a larger piece as the curved stiching distorted the fabric terribly.
Once taped to a board it was more amenable. The painting was initially fun but became a bit of a struggle. As the stitching was quite uniform with few areas unstitched, it didn't have the 'hills and dales' to catch the paint but leave the underlying fabric revealed.
I kept going and took photos of numerous incarnations, all not quite working - if I corrected one area I ended up having to alter areas I was pleased with to get the overall balance right!
This is the final version so far - the grasses in the foreground aren't right but that area is so overworked and scratched into with palette knife I'll have to leave it a bit to see if I can retrieve it
So I think it's going to be another seascape for FoQ !