Friday, February 26, 2016

Another UFO saves me from cleaning up...

One day I faced my fears, and entered the studio with the intention to clean it up!
Of course as I started to sort the piles, I ran across a UFO... so I dropped everything in the creative questioning... what could I make with this??
I found the strip pieced and stamped blue section, a silk hexie section, and some scraps folded together...
So I pieced the scraps. I couched , a black and a sparklky green ribbon around. The bottom edge was sewn with my specialty stitch and gold thread. I used the silk hexie scrap to border and folded it to the back as a binding too.
I decided to bead some drop beads to the bottom. I love how they look!

I also hand sewed some little seed beads to the centers of the hexies, making them look like clouds or little pillows to me.

The whole thing has sort of a dreamy feel...





The whole piece started as sewing little blue scraps together. (I can't find that post) then stamped with three different stamps, and added some zentangle inking.

The words say, The journey is never truly over It just changed course.
I drew in little circles next to the stamp, then last night added golden beads which add sparkle and dimension.
The gold thread is YLI metallic, free motion spirals down the side and around the sun.

The sun fabric was a scrap from one I hand penciled and used in another large piece. I couldn't bear to throw away the smallest piece! So here it is again!

I love how the delicate gold beads look circling the sun.






and on this one. See the beads?

You can see the black ribbon, and the green threads here. I put the black one first. Then went back and put a row of the green. I will use that again.







I used scraps, stamps and ink, zentangle pens, beads specialty threads all from stash. Yea!
What did I learn?
1. not everything I sew has to be used... maybe this little blue center could have been a greeting card, but it didn't. I listened to my creative side and put different elements into the one piece.
2. I developed another edge treatment to show in my workshops.
3. The blue strips were about 1" X 3". Certainly worthy of throwing away, but I didn't.


4. Go ahead and keep elements, but keep them together and see what might work together.
5. Sometimes you don't know what you have til you stand back. When I stand back I see the word IF
created by the banner and the bird!!! couldn't have planned that
6. I am ready to return to sorting now... got that out of my system!

23 comments:

Kat Scribner said...

What an interesting piece of art! I avoid the clean up too...I've been doing it all week.

gayle said...

So much more satisfying than cleaning up! 8)
Beautiful work.

Julierose said...

Just beautiful work--LOVE the addition of the beads--really lovely Hugs, julierose

Jasmine said...

I always love seeing your details. The beads are perfect!

PaintedThread said...

Very pretty. I love all the mixed media.

Mary in Boulder said...

Circles, hexies, swirls....there's a lot of movement here which reinforce the idea of a journey. The purple/blues contrast so well against the orange/black.....a surprise, also often found on a journey. And all your personal touches that make the journey yours. Quite a lot in one small piece!

Maria said...

I love it ! The beads really made a nice finish.

Mystic Quilter said...

Oh clever you - this is amazing!

Unknown said...

That is the problem with cleaning up, just finish it with no interruption, but that seems impossible for me too. Glad you did not do it either. I love your 'art piece'. Amd the beads are a perfect addition.

claudia said...

Oh how I love your project! Keep it up, the more you write and share, the more I read and think about doing this stuff for myself. Hopefully one day I will have a break through and can get back my creative mojo. I'm still blocked. I really, really like this one!!!

quiltedfabricart said...

Love! I recognized that vibrant circles fabric right away and the beads on the bottom adds just the right touch,

TheEclecticAbuela said...

Cleaning up--bah! Creating--yay!

JanineMarie said...

I'm glad you dropped everything and created. Wow! So many elements came together in this and I love how some of it was intentionally planned and some (like the word IF) just happened!

Gwyned Trefethen said...

Cleaning is relative - look at all those wonderful elements you invited to the party. Now you have the Journey quilt to remind you of what a wonderful time you had.

Joanne said...

The benifits of cleaning! Looks great! What inspiration!

Turid said...

I love all your details.

Jennifer Fulton Inquiring Quilter said...

wow! Your creative juices were flowing! Lovely piece.

AlidaP said...

I have the same problem when I try to clean up my sewing space! I get creatively distracted and I make little progress on the sewing but good progress in quilty art! :) Your piece is wonderful, I really like how you are able to include so many elements, but they are balanced and with a purpose! Thanks for sharing!!

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

The more I see of your art, the more I love it. Wish I lived close enough to come to one of your classes!

PaulaB quilts said...

IF, the perfect title for a journey, like the road not taken. The golden color thread with white specks in it adds a great deal, I looked at it super closeup. A really complete work.

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

I fully understand getting sidetracked while trying to clean - that certainly explains the state of my sewing room. This piece is just gorgeous. Love all the different details you have added. So much fun and a real work of art.

Muv said...

Hello LeeAnna,
Total fun! Those silk hexagons with beads are totally gorgeous, and the unexpected "if" is amazing. No ifs about it, tidying up is far too tedious, you just had to stop.
Thank you for linking up with Free Motion Mavericks!
Love, Muv

Afton Warrick said...

What a delightful way to clean!