Pumpkin inspired art

My husband came home from the farmer's market on Saturday with four cute little pumpkins.I liked the way these three sat up on the front porch bench with the praying mantis sculpture behind them so I took a picture.
There is something about the color first... shades of orange against the brown bench, the pop of lime green tree behind it creating depth, the hard lines of the wooden bench against the roundness of the pumpkins. The crescent shaped lines on the pumpkins repeat the curves themselves. The stems even curve with strong lines created with shadow.
See?
Art in the simple every day life, that's what excites me.
I got out my oil pastels, texture "rubbings" plates, some plain muslin, my foamcore as a palette, and went to the porch where I see this vista...

I can see this from the kitchen window too.
and this...

I love a full round container of mums this time of year!
And got busy...

First I sketched out pumpkin shapes to fill the fabric, probably a fat quarter. Just the pumpkins, I'll worry about the filler later.

Chanel your inner 5 year old.
Yellow first, as it's the glow or highlight and lightest color.

then I placed the web rubbing plate under the first pumpkin and went over the top with orange and red pastels. I tried a different plate under each pumpkin.

Blending the orange, creating more color by going over it again, then going over with brick red and blending. Some green and purple mooshed in.

I used the plates to rub in some green, a spider web, the sky...overlapping the colors to blend.
And used this plate to draw on the letters. It needs to cure for about 24 hours, then be ironed with a hot iron and pressing sheet of fabric. Then it's ready to quilt and finish.

It's so pretty in person... come see!

I kind of cut off the leaves done along the bottom but you get the picture. I think it will look great with lots of threads and a strong black binding to frame it. I wonder if you think it looks too simple or child like???

The thing is, I had fun making it. It's from my heart and hands, I'm using my art supplies, and it'll be pretty.
What more can you ask of an hour? That's how long this took. Hope you are inspired by the fall colors to try some drawing and or painting.

ouch! My food BIT me! another Cole Caper

Cole's food stand, his bowl says" Look my dog is hungry"

Cole here, to discuss an important issue.

My food BIT ME!

Ack! here's the story...

I got pretty excited when I saw Momma go to the big white box that holds the food, and pull out some of my favorite ingredients.
Finally! She's making what I like!

Scrambled egg whites! With cheddar cheese and butter! I mean, you all get it right? Anything with cheese is good.

Just look!  Imagine the smell!

I begged and begged her to give me some. She had some, and I was more than ready for my serving.

She put some on a plate and said one of my least favorite words...

"Wait"
 Let me say, I don't think her definition of obedience and my definition are the same.


As soon as she turned her head sat down to eat her eggs I rushed over to mine. I mean, you understand the smell right? It was screaming at me to "come" which was louder than her "wait"

Well, it bit me. Yikes! I ran away and grabbed a squeak toy and squeaked at momma that the food was fighting back. She just sat there, eating hers. Wow.
She said, kind of snotty unconcerned-like,"I said, "wait"" (LeeAnna here, it was just hot for Pete's sake)

I was not getting near the plate at this point, can you blame me? She came over with the plate a moment later, and fed me a bite. Oh! So it's safe now! I gobbled the whole thing ignoring the danger, standing up like super-dog! Ta-da!

Then I left one little morsel for the "food goddess" just my superstition, heh heh, just to keep it comin'

Imagine your dishes were orange....

pattern from  http://quiltinginamsterdam.blogspot.com/

Imagine your set of dishes was a rich orange color.... hmmmm
I LIKE it!
Especially if they had motifs like the bowls above. Or these

I only did not use these exciting fabrics because they came from the yardage drawer of orangey-golden goodness. Another project another day...
The color this month at superscrappy. is orange so here are my orange dishes.

There are the little fishes again, lol! And a fine array of orange prints straight off the boat scrap pile.
The pattern source for dishes and tiny coffee or cocoa pot are SewPrecise

And for Halloween a cup of Web Tea

heh heh, Loved making this new pattern from Maartje (link under first picture) from spidery fabric. I inked in the tea tab, changed up the pattern a wee bit.
So there you have it,

 Check out the other people having orange fun at RSC 2015.

Purple Stairs.... an art discussion with questions for you

My Favorite shot

I am thinking about art and the art of making art today.
I took this picture of some purple stairs on my Labor Day walk. I took three pictures and have not altered them except to watermark them. The others follow this one.

I know a lot of you are quilters who primarily use patterns. I am hoping some of you  want to discuss some art principles with me today.

The thing about this picture, a very ordinary every day scene in West Annapolis MD, is the color of the stairs. I like that the purple seems darker on the treads as opposed to the railings except for the shadows on certain railings.

I like the" line" . One of the guidelines in making art is to consider line. I like the parallel lines going from the siding on the house to the treads to the diagonal lines in the roof  in the background. The strong vertical lines of the posts are also repeated in the window sashing. As a concept I love the idea of line in quilting.

Those of you making block quilts consider line for a moment. The way pieces intersect and form new patterns when set. We spend a lot of time on color but line is important too.
This is a slightly different angle and I do NOT like it as much. Why?

 I think it's because the roof in the background is not as strong a line. Also I lost the third window and artistic design calls for items in odd numbers to be more pleasing to the eye. Why do you think it's less interesting? Or do you?

Now I DO like this close up. The purple now fills the frame, the line has changed from almost equal amounts of horizontal, vertical and diagonal to nearly all vertical. There are almost no treads showing to repeat the horizontal lines in the house. I think if I used this as inspiration for a painting or a drawing, I would not use the shed in the back at all.

What do you think? After all is said and done, I like the first one the best and feel it would be an interesting exercise to take an hour and use it to make a piece of art.

Regarding color, purple is the compliment to yellow, in this case yellow-green on a color wheel. That means they look pleasing together, they enhance each other. There are so many shades of purple and green so I'd have to take care with fabric or paint to get tones that complement.

I have found using equal amounts of complimentary colors is almost too much to bear. Let one take the starring role and one support it. Don't forget to use light medium and dark of each as well, so the piece will sparkle.
 So, if you were to be inspired by a photo would you make it representational? Into a block design? Abstract? Let's talk!

I'm bored, Let's go somewhere!

Apparently Cole decided that he was owed a trip since he stayed home yesterday while we went to the quilt show.  I'll let him tell you the story....
Yep, I gave them the intense poodle stare all day on Sunday until they finally got the picture.

The poodle needed to go somewhere.
 I packed them up in the car and we went for a little walkabout at my fave shopping center.

First stop, Arhaus Furniture,  where ALL the employees LOVE me. I mean, they come over and pet me and tell my pawrents they should give me better treats and stop making me wear a leash and not give me baths.

At least I think that's what they were saying...
Check out this bed...

 now I like my comfort but this seems like a few too many throw pillows on a bed to me. Then we saw this light...

I told Momma to get a picture to show you... it smelled like, what is that, oh yeah! The Beach!

Sea Shells all artistically organized!

After I finished looking at everything, and licked all my new friends goodbye, we walked on.

Suddenly I had a weird feeling....
yikes!
Did I hear scissors? I just had a bath!
Keep walking Daddy!

I had just decided to throw mommy a bone, and let her go into Anthropologie when we saw this....

For Barking out loud!  It's a cute little maltese in a stroller!! This guy is so teeny he was standing up while his momma pushed him around. Sweet ride!

He squeaked at me so I rushed over to give him a sniff. Isn't he cute? Can I have him?? Please let me have him!











 He and I talked the people into letting us do the pee-dance. First he went over to the tree, then I went over to the tree and that little guy can really lift a leg! There was a lot of sniffing going on, especially when he walked right under my stomach. I haven't walked under a dog since I was a young'un!

We had a nice conversation, dog style, man to man until his mom put him back in the stroller and gave him a drink out of his own glass. I mean, how is it this guy gets carted around in style... is he a king or something?

Mom, Dad and I visited a few more stores, and  I acknowledged the paparazzi who all wanted to pet me,
until I was satisfied with my outing then we went home for a big bowl of kibble. I'm so glad they finally realized what I wanted all day, to go on a field trip!

I wonder if I would like to have a dog of my own... maybe for Christmas. Santa??

What's a quilt show without a fabric purchase??

We went to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza yesterday. This quilt, made from cathedral window blocks, amazing, was one of the ones from the World Quilt show. I apologize for not being able to focus on the name of the maker but she is from Japan.
I met up with Mari, a blogging friend who recently moved to PA. Her blog is academicquilter.blogspot.com/

Here we are taking a break from all the fun, shopping and awesome quilts.
We look happy don't we?? It was such a gift to become acquainted with a kindred spirit! Mari is just adorable and it was so much fun to walk around with her, commenting, shopping and seeing quilts from a fresh perspective.
I was distracted so I must ask forgiveness for not getting names of the makers. I will show you a few of my favorites...

I believe this was made in New Zealand. Anyone know the maker? Look at the lovely pieced work and how in the world was that tree done??

The next ome was a big bed quilt... look closer, a double wedding ring, pieced with white, cream and tans and embossed with daisies! Love! Anyone know the maker?? 

At least I could read the maker of this one.
This is a close up of the kind of whimsy, detail and three-d effects I love!

Rachaeldaisy from Australia made it.

There are competition quilts for PNQE, some of the World quilt show quilts, special display exhibits, Hoffman challenges, and .... shopping!


I went with all good intentions not to buy more fabric but y'all....

Look at the bunnies!!! Who could resist these two at $5 a yard for each? Not me. The ground on the poppies is so bluegreen. The bunnies are doing chores y'all. Spring will be here before you know it and I will need them.
Then there were these...

I had a yard of the circles in my hand, ready to pay $10, then the shop owner said, buy two get one free!
What! Well then, two yards of the circles which is what I wanted anyway, and free companion fabric making these a bargain as well at less than seven bucks a yard. All that color makes me happy.
The real find of the day was Mari. I just had such a great time with her, and it felt like we had known each other for years. What a happy day full of good things.

Orange you glad you're a flamingo??

These blocks from Sew Precise are sized at 4" X 6"

The flamingos are back and they're wearing orange this time, in honor of the rainbow scrap challenge color of the month. Looking good on them... in fact my native Florida Flamingos wore orange a lot.

When I was a young thing, I often went to hear my favorite trio play music. Jazzy music, with a piano, harmonica, and the washboard played by Flo Mingo. She was gorgeous, tall, thin, long curly dark hair, big smile, deep smoky voice. I mean, I already loved flamingos but she was the icing on the cake! 

When you start these blocks you have to get a pile of sky scraps and water scraps all ready....then match them to the body fabric tones....                      you can click on any image to make it larger

Sparkling water!!

This time I did not have the patience to do the teensy little beak with paper piecing, so I inked one in...

with these

And here's the whole flock as it "stands" (on one leg) now... missing a couple colors....

How will I set them??? I already have a working title

Don't ignore the muse

I went into the studio on a rainy Saturday morning to make some paper pieced flamingos. While looking through the blue scraps for sky/water fabric, I see these...

most less than 1" wide strips about 5 inches long all grouped together. Hmmm, seam these together...

not concerning yourself with straight edges... then using the BEST tools...

spray it with water, and smooth out the seams with your very best tool, your hand...

 when almost flat, press with a hot iron and let's make a mess...

Stamps, ink pads...

your colored pencils, a fabric pen like Tee Juice in black, and a white gel pen and some paper to test the image on.
One stamp from each of three packages will do it...

Then go around the letters with black pen, fill in some of them with white for sparkle, use purple and pink colored pencil behind the words

heat set with iron when dry, which is within minutes
Trim and that's all the waste I ended up with. I didn't mind what size it finished, just trimmed to the largest it allowed.

Add just a bit of zentangle on the sign...

Wasn't until I saw this pic on the blog that I noticed the word IF show up. Cool.

and let the auditions begin...
I like this which is more intense in color in person.
Maybe different proportions. Opinions???
I've used this fabric in many many quilts.

The one at the top of the page is a new exciting black and gray fabric, go back and look... I'll wait...


How about this?

A Ginny Beyer fabric with intense blue and purple, almost glowing with rich color... or this?

Try to ignore the red and green ironing board cover.

 It's a lovely hand dye I have used before and am in LOVE with and decided if I love it that much I should use it as often as I want. So there.

Of course I can't buy any more if I run out. It was a special fabric, overdyed  by a vendor in Houston. Colored in with pencil by myself. The hexies are from a project where I used both these items. I haven't it shown it here but...
I show it in lectures ...



And here it is a bit re-arranged

So the whole process from stepping into the studio, digging thru blue scraps, to auditioning took 1 hour.

That's it.
It's not finished but on it's way. I imagine gold thread to quilt it.

Wouldn't it be fun to take an hour and see what you create?
Then tell me all about it? Just an hour to let your inner child play?

By the way, the words say:
"The Journey is never truly over, it just changed course"
I have finally chosen another border but am keeping it quiet (not showing) for the moment. It's a mix of a few of the ones shown.



 The studio is a mess. But... it's always a mess because I start to clean then get excited about making something.

I don't ignore the muse when she speaks... I listen and hasten to do her bidding.