Just a little Neutral Fabric purchase....

Before all the neutral fabric purchases begin, let's enjoy some colorful stitching, shall we? 

On the notorious birthday weekend, which believe it or not, the posts will keep on coming as I have lots to share, I visited Artistic Artifacts in Alexandria VA.  I took time out from my shopping spree to visit with some women meeting at the store to stitch together. 

The artist working on this piece is Suzanne Langsdorf (I can send you her email addy if you want) and she graciously discussed process and color with me as I oooohed and aaaaahed over this slow stitching masterpiece. 

Then I shopped and this store is a CANDY store for people like me! Fibers, paints, fabric, one of a kind items galore.

If you haven't noticed I tend to purchase fabric with saturated color so if there is any lacking area of my stash it's neutrals.This butterfly print grabbed my attention. I do like a graphic design... but also it could be colored in... heh heh

 then there was this packet of fabric, a stencil with words I like in a large format. HA! I NEEDED that!

Some ink pads with light colored ink.

Some Stewart Gill metallic paint, soon to be discontinued in most of the art supply stores I visit.

Here is a peek at the fabric bundle I got for 24 bucks. I thought they were all quarter yards but they are different sizes, about 2 1/3 yards total of some unusual prints.

 So let the creations begin...

Sugar Bowl and Creamer

The tea set needed serving pieces... so here's a sugar bowl. That's some of my Alice in Wonderland fabric, fussy cut. Alice would have been on here but she was too tall...( hadn't sipped the shrinking-liquid yet)

And the cream pitcher. We like a lot of cream. The scrap was too small so I added in a little lime, and really, isn't lime almost always a good idea??
Maybe we'll want some dishes for a snack...

Here's a shot of the new dishes...

and one of the whole green set...

All patterns from SewPrecise software

Think about where your motivation comes from... what takes you from thinking "that might be fun" to actually making a block?
I credit SoScrappy http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/ link party with a new color each month for pushing me from the thinking about it to the actual making of it stage. Check out the other blocks being made with green at her link. I am also thankful for my other link party sites (see my links page) including the paper piecing going on today at http://quiltartdesigns.blogspot.com/

Perfect Pink Scotty Pin Cushion!

While at the beach, all the shops had a sidewalk sale going on. I found new sandals, purple capris, and this...

A cute little antique Scotty dog flower holder in PINK that would be perfect for a pin cushion.
At $5 it's a bargain, and reminds me of my childhood.
What better thing to buy on a big birthday weekend??








I added a pin cushion made from a bright turqoise and pink fabric stuffed with wool batting scraps, tied with ribbon floss!

So cute, right? Just the right size.

My other ceramic pin cushions of poodles and a donkey which cost more than 5 buckaroos, will happily welcome Scotty into the collection! (Slightly obsessed with pin cushions especially these four)

I'm in love...

linking to a pin cushion party HERE

Beach Birthday Bash

 

Rehoboth Beach DE for my birthday weekend earlier in May... we all went to the big sidewalk sale and for a wee walk on the boardwalk.  Note our pictures are under Cole's... typical of our lives...

Squinting into the sun, yet another beach activity to share

We were having a grand time til the policeman stopped us and invited us to leave... no dogs on the boardwalk after May first... grrrrr.

 He's not a dog officer, he's a poodle.

Hey! We've been thrown outta better places than this!!
 we quickly resumed our shopping spree, off the boardwalk and back to the sidewalk sale....

Don't you love this display?

I have a faces post to come later, but I just love a face, a sculpture and a doll as well as the sentiment in the sign.




We saw a celebrity, and of course she wanted her picture taken with Cole... paparazzi! You'd think she might be busy with the new grandbaby....

How many times have you wanted to say
just this???

We had fun and at least Cole and I got some treasures to take home.
Cole's were edible.
Hope you're having fun today!

Birthday loot

My new BFF!

One of the things we did for my birthday was make a trip to Rehoboth Beach. Along the way I wanted to visit the quilt shop in Lewis DE called Mare's Bears. (maresbearsquiltshop.com/) 
Whee! What fun this shop is! Cole was welcomed in by MaryAnn's sweetie, the two quickly becoming friends, and Cole was shown around the shop. They both rested together happily until the UPS delivery when they made a mutual decision to allow him in.

Momma needed fabric!!
As the countess would say...

I wanted to buy the place out but showed great restraint, AND all this was on sale! Woohoo!
I thought I might make some pillowcases with the Zzzzz's fabric, and well, the shoes HAD to come home with me. The little roll of low contrast is perfect since who ever buys enough faint pastel fabrics like this, not me as I go for the crazy color and patterns. Like....

OMGosh, Don't know how I'll use this, maybe in my retro quilt if that ever gets started. I didn't care, it had to jump in my bag and at $5 a yard, I should have bought more!
We went on to the beach but I want to do that in another post... as I found the cutest antique scotty dog that I am converting into a pin cushion... you know how I am.

Green Flamingos??

The flamingo family welcomes in the green ones.

The color of the month over at so scrappy is green. I am doing three series this year all paper pieced.
Cows, Teapots and cups, and flamingos.

I admit it was kind of hard to do these because of the color this month. Still, it was fun to choose scraps to use, and I do love the pink hearts on lime...

Especially the head!

And the checks on the long long neck
I like to see a variety of background colors, and just adore the seagull fabric scraps. The seagrass fabric was gifted to me in a scrap bag and I wish I had yardage.



My pattern source is Sew Precise software.
I printed it out in a few sizes to make it a bit more random. The following one is smaller.
Here it is before adding the black pen on the beak and eye....

The flock as it stands (looking for shrimp) now. Representing: pink, purple, green.

The value of cropping

First of all, it's good to have fabric out and laying around!
All of these were still out after the audition phase of "Reaching...." so that's been a while.
Hanging around the stage door...

Trying it out on a silk background

I haven't shown Reaching yet although it's been judged because I might change the border.

There is one particular line in a border that I think may need softening. I pulled some of the fabrics from the piece and made hexagons, just to see if that would work.

Nope.






Nothing wasted though, as the mix of rock wall fabric, hexie fabric, and silk with embossed black flower fabric is a terrific blend.
It seems like an abstract of a scene to me, and uses colors not common in my work. This makes me stretch and engages my senses.
The strip of blue-ish fabric is my hand painted piece from Reaching's poem fabric.

Of course I now have yet another set of components not made into something.

As I made the hexagons, I realized once again the value of cropping a print. The yardage is beautiful, but cropped into the hexagon shape, brought it into a tiny little piece of art. Sewn together like this, it gives me the feel of a tiled patio with a stone wall and trailing vines.

Anyway, once again I will need to make some decisions and this time with fabrics that will be hard to cut up!!
Do you go around like this in your creativity??

About me...

I was tagged for the one lovely blog award by Kaja (at sewslowly) and Marly (at marlysquilts) which was a happy surprise! Thank you to both of you. They both have terrific blogs, full of ideas and color and creative inspiration.  Both of these women take time to share their artistic journeys in a real way, so go meet them.

About me.... 
1. I love color. From childhood I loved color and making things. I have tried just about every craft out there and believe it all goes together to inform my current art. Once I discovered sewing however, it's all about the fabric! I still paint watercolors, I still bead, I still make sculptures, I still like stone and metal but it all relates to fabric nowadays and textural 3-D effects are important to my art.

2. I make original, story quilts that are often humorous. I want my artwork to express who I am, and either make a viewer laugh or think, and hopefully relate to them in some way. 

AMOO-HA!  detail shot

3. My degree is in Psychology/ Sociology and I worked way too many years as a social worker.
 I am lucky enough now to spend my days as a writer and an artist. I travel to guilds to teach and speak on increasing one's creativity.  

I love to laugh, and find the funny moments in life to share with others as I believe fun and creativity are soul sisters.

4.  I love words. I love to read and have since I first held a book. I put words on quilts now, and write for the joy of it! 
Words are magical and can transport you.

Quiet in progress

 5. I am a terrible housekeeper.

6. I have done a lot of musical theater both as a dancer and singer. I worked the Renaissance Festival in Florida for about 10 years as an interactive character doing improv. I am an old ballet and tap dancer with injuries but I still do Contra Dance with my Favorite Dance Parner (my husband) as often as possible. I used to belong to a zydeco group so I also still love to do Swing Dance, Cajun, and waltz.

7. I do math puzzles for fun and love jigsaw puzzles. I spend too much time playing games on the ipad.

8. I love dogs, still miss my labradaughter Chelsea after 14 years, and now live with a standard poodle Cole who writes a post weekly. He's very clever and funny too.

9. I have way too much fabric to use in several lifetimes and am happy to have it.
 It is my obsession and palette.
When I start a project I shop in my own stash for materials!! It's so much fun!!! I do spend time on it's care and housing.

I sew every day that my body allows. If I am not at the machine, I also love to hand piece and applique. I can't just watch TV, I must have a project going as well. I sew on an old Bernina 1630 and need a new machine but I would rather keep this one if possible.

10. I collect pin cushions. And poodles, flamingos, cows, and other bright and shiny sparkly things.

11. I go by principle of just try it, with art. Go ahead, try it! 

12. Walking is another passion of mine, and I find viewing nature  increases my creativity. You'll see posts about our travels as there is so much inspiration out there in the world.

I believe we are all here for a reason. We are the only people on Earth with our particular set of skills, history, challenges to overcome, minds, abilities. There is no other person better able to tell our story than us. Artwork has more impact when it's personal, and I encourage you to tell your story in fabric.

 In fact I want to hear all your stories... come sit by me and we'll chat!

I try to do that in my daily writing of the blog. Check out the top pages, the categories to the right, for lots of fun stuff from the past.

 Y'all come back again sometime!

Check out a few  blogs I am nominating and it should be every one of you!!

snowcatcher for the inspiration, beautiful photos and Friday Funnies!
pugmomquilts down to earth fabric and color lovin' gal
sooner or later we'll all be blogging for the mix of dye, weaving, fabric, and fun
daybyday  Mary has beautiful photos including her dragon sometimes
quiltedfabricart. Always cheerfully experimenting with fabric
poochsmooches  Funny accounts of Rita the dog

And folks, I read a lot of blogs, and LOVE them. I love the writers of these blogs!!
Please don't be offended if I didn't mention yours this time.... I know I am leaving out some that I read weekly, and I apologize!!  I can only throw myself on your understanding that my brain is crowded with quilting ideas and funny stories! 

hugs, LeeAnna

And just where am I supposed to sit?

And Just where am I supposed to sit??
Oh, fine, I'll just lie down here, on the floor, like a dog.

I didn't exactly feel comfortable in those little chairs for people anyway. 
Momma wanted to go out to dinner, to celebrate being even older, so we all packed it in the car and went to a little Cuban Fusion outdoor cafe so that we could ALL celebrate food her birthday.

I thought their food looked like a dog's dinner anyway, so where was my plate of food, and I wanted the beef. It may look like my dinner but they were all, "YUM! This is so flavorful and healthy! Oh the plantains are great!"
I don't do bananas and plantains smell very like bananas, so I just had a shrimp or two or three.
Then we strolled around the stores and I pulled to go in the furniture store here...

WOWIE!
A gold tree that would be great to pee on IF a poodle were outside, donchaknow.
(I went ahead and sort of sniffed it anyway, what the heck. Didn't smell like anything)

Unlike this rug. Now that rug was interesting. I could hardly pull my nose away from it. Imagine if it came home with us, now there's a perch for a poodle!!

Will you just look at what humans will sit on?!! Why there's hardly room for two legs, much less four.

Then the paparazzi found me! The shop women were all, "he's so cute, and what's his name", and rubbing my ears just so. I just love that little squeal-ly sound ladies make when they spot me. Then they asked how old I was.
WHAT?
Why you gotta bring age into it?? Yeah, momma and I had birthdays, so what?
We still like to shop and eat out!
I mean, I have to greet my public every so often, you know?

Daisy, daisy, tell me your answer true...

pattern source piecemealquilts

The RSC2015 color is green for the month of May.

This is May's cow block... in greens!

I call her Daisy for the flowers on her head and her nose.

Sorry about the wrinkles but honestly I couldn't be around this block long enough to really iron it.
This is an Adolescent block... it refused to work with me,  would not do what I wanted it to do, did not want to do ANYTHING I asked of it. Rip. Rip. Rip again.

Let's just look at the pretty fabrics, shall we?

Check out the little dragonflies and butterflies swirling around her body!
The little flowers on her tongue.

Note the bluebells and bees on her ears! Bees are attracted to flowers, you know.
I am considering making the fence with the fabric along the bottom here, a field of daisys showing thru the white fence (imagine if you will)

This is a shot with a little dragonfly head ornament

It's not appliqued on yet... what do you think?

I know the bluebell fabric doesn't really match tone wise but I kept picking it up so finally used it.