Saturday, June 26, 2021

sewing Saturday table scraps and new projects

 Welcome to this week's sewing round up!

Let's start with my Table Scraps offering for this month... a table runner in purple for the rainbow scrap challenge color of the month. 

just playing with the units before adding geese units

I made two art quilts from some improv blocks made a year ago, plus lots more pieces sewn in! The mountain piece is a finished top waiting for quilting. The leftovers from that, plus improv flying geese units turned into the table runner above. 

close up during quilting, before it was finished.

I did a lot of quilting on this, and pulled the border to the back and hand stitched it in place for an edge treatment. 

finished close up
 Thank you to Joy at thejoyfulquilter for the impetus to make this!

I put the little quilt above on Thursday's post in detail, but mention it here as I found this little table top stand this week, and put this on my cutting table as inspiration. It's all painted on white muslin, with blue sparkly borders. 

Ending the month in purple are some wine bottles for that project. I like them! 

I looked through some of my books this week, for a quick summer project, and decided on the little beach cabanas with blue snail's trail blocks...

I didn't realize the block was just 2.5" so it was very tedious and the scraps needed to be higher contrast and less patterned. Live and learn and move on.The centers are 1.5" 4 patches... but I did get to use a lot of leftover tiny triangles out of the scrap box.

 I just jumped in without realizing how small they were. I do not want to make more so I'll fill in with some cute water prints under the houses. 

I also pulled out two painted pink flower tops ready to quilt so watch for those! 

I've watched a few videos on The Quilt Show this week, and more on making art and painting. It's all good for creativity!  

have a cookie before you go... made from my fave chocolate chip oatmeal recipe, with chopped pecans added in this time

 Linking to

TABLE SCRAPS Challenge/ Link Party

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/ 

 







Thursday, June 24, 2021

i like #250

 

time for another list of likes for the week! This is a quilt I unearthed when organizing my finished work, made some years ago. I also found a cute table top quilt stand and put it together...


 Right now it's just sitting on my cutting table but I am enjoying looking at it. It was made while leading a group in how to apply ink and paint to fabric. I started by coloring in spheres with oil pastels. I have four brands and the only ones I do not like are shiva (odor and they fade in washer) 

I used rubbing plates to create a background, stencils and acrylic paint for the tree and words, stamps for the paintbrushes and scissors. I quilted it with metallic thread of course. I like the hint of time passing while you create done with dry brush and paint thru a stencil. You don't have to always totally cover an area with paint. 

I like the craft show on NBC Making It with Amy Poller starting tonight for the third season. 

Master Chef is back... unfortunately we finished Murdoch's current season... 

I like seeing my bean plants grow, and the wild flowers are tiny still but alive so far. The heat is oppressive now so I stay in more. Plus people refuse to get vaccines and it's not safe for me to get out yet, so I am reading a lot, watching youtubes, researching history on my hometown, chatting with friends like Joy and Rose, hand sewing my tiny tumbling blocks, and writing. 

I like the author Jenn Mackinlay series about librarians but am at the end and waiting for her next book. I am listening to another of her series on audio

 

It's not as well written as the other series, in my humble opinion. I finished meant to be and it was just wonderful. Then I started a book by Julia Quinn and she is just wonderful!!! Of course I can't finish it in the time left so I fully expect to have to wait months to finish it. I'm trying to though!

do you know the site "books in order" it will tell you all the series titles you might like to read!

I discovered a new youtube series... Great Art Explained... for an artist or anyone who views life through an artist's eyes, this discussion is important. Here the Mona Lisa is explained, and explained in the time period it was painted.Very interesting and informative

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9JvUDrrXmY

want to try a new recipe? 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeCYCv2ZHg0
 

Milo's Moments

Milo: Can I have a glass of wine Mama? 

Mama: um, aren't you a little young for wine honey? 

Milo: not in dog years

Mama: I don't think alcohol is good for dogs sweetie

Milo: I have to endure the opening of bottles, I should be allowed a poodle sized glass of wine!

Mama: ooops too late, it's all gone.
 https://www.mmmquilts.com/


 

https://scrapatches.blogspot.com/    

 

 LINKING WITH

https://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/
rosie and the boys nature pics   

friday smiles at a stitch in time

Saturday, June 19, 2021

Saturday Sewing Round-up hexies to gardens

 

All the colors so far!
I've been sewing a lot this week, and avoiding the blistering heat outside. For the Rainbow Scrap challenge color of the month Purple, I made some more hexie fan blocks. 

even these remind me of flowers!
I cannot remember now the designer's name but I had to reconfigure her pattern a bit. I saw her make these on tv. (anyone remember?) 

I finished the table scraps piece with improv flying geese, and finished the mountain piece top. What an accomplishment to get all the improv sections together into a balanced straight quilt top. I love it but will only show it now when it's finished. The runner will go in next week's link party for Table Scraps at thejoyfulquilter

since we planted flower seeds last Saturday

and I've been practicing color blending and shadows on my calendar pages

I looked again at my older experimental painting on fabric, using inktense pencils. To set the color you add water, dry, and iron

that caused some bleeding of the purple and blue inks, but as I looked at it I saw another goddess piece, this time a garden goddess!

A while back I did a painting video class cutting out vases and pots and applying them to paper, so I just cut them this time from fabric. The original flower piece was on a scrap of muslin, so it wasn't big enough to support the pots. No worries, I just stuck another piece, of what I saw as tile floor fabric along the bottom to look like a patio.

here it is quilted with metallic thread and with turquoise beads sewn on. I used rayon to secure the pots, quilted in a golden leaf design on one pot, appliqued the cutaway from another applique on the brown pot. 

Of course when it needed the goddess I saw the original bleeding as her shoulders and had to sketch a head over them! Using prismacolor pencils and inks, she began to emerge... I think she's pretty

Quilting threads help to define the flowers, her hair, face and the painted butterfly in the corner. There was a missing corner to the muslin scrap so I tucked in a butterfly, that I painted onto black and white butterfly fabric a while back. It was in the painted scraps box. Like her purple hair?

about 8" X 9" "Beautiful Magic"

It is much larger than the other goddess pieces so far... I let the piece dictate it's size if I can

I fiddle with any art piece til I feel it's done. This time I didn't like the shadow in her eyes so I finished her with a white gel pen for highlights and used different embellishments to give meaning to the piece. 

rayon thread defines flower petals, beads add dimension

swirls and metallic thread bring your eye to the butterfly

To finish the edge, I wanted something kind of rough and organic, like outlining a bed of flowers. I zigzagged first with gold sulky thread, then over that I zig zagged over a double layer of thick gold embroidery thread.

Once I started looking at the painted scrap, and the idea came to me, it took one afternoon to complete. 

Of course as I looked at the "finished" piece I decided to add the beads... so that happened the next day. 

I am finding that my creative endeavors, painting, drawing, sewing, beading are coming together to inform my mixed media pieces. How fun to see how one art form influences the other. 

sorry to tease you with the two improv pieces but their day to shine is coming soon! 

Linking with

patchwork Sunday                    
oh Scrap Sundays 

scrap happy Saturdays





Thursday, June 17, 2021

I Like #249 surviving the heat

 

welcome to this week's list of likes, and number one is the coloring page on my weekly calendar (Joanna Basford) 

I didn't know how much I'd enjoy doodling away, shading and highlighting these pages

but I look forward to turning the page to a new week on Mondays!

It didn't take long to finish coloring, so I played with my watercolor pencils on the calendar side drawing flowers I hope to see in my pots soon! 











scribble in color, then use water brush to blend

speaking of flowers, we sowed some wildflower seeds last weekend and they are popping up
tiny but there!

speaking of growing things, the beans are filling out, 4/8 turned into seedlings

I love watching growing flowers and vegetables. The basil is also sprouting! 

I sewed a lot, finishing this month's table runner in purple, and finishing the mountain piece with three sections of improv. flying geese. More on Saturday.

After painting flowers I started cutting some bits out of fusible scraps, hopefully they and some pots in earth tones will become art quilts next week

(c)LAPaylor
 I tried a recipe for applesauce chocolate brownies but it was a dry mess. Not recommending.Then with the heat I wanted dessert but not using the oven so I went far back to my teen years and found my old recipe for cheesecake pie... no baking! (recipe: HERE)

I made a graham cracker crust,  9" pan, one brick of softened cream cheese, 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice, and one can sweetened condensed milk. Blend cheese/ milk til fluffy, then blend in juice, pour in pie shell and chill. I leave off the pie filling everyone used to pile on top. It was so very good all week.

 The Kominsky Method Poster

On TV this week was the next season of The Kominski Method on netflix... laugh out loud funny. I LOVE Alan Arkin, and Paul Reiser...Also enjoying the bachelorette, Mental Samurai game show, the housewives on Bravo. Just finished the first and wonderful season of FireFly lane... come back soon....

reading  

a three generation story full of good characters. I'm in a race with the library to finish it before they come in the night and snatch it away. 

Listening to the  first book in the Faye Longchamp series, that the library took before I was finished, and I found out I was reading book 10! I am listening now to book one, which explains a lot about the series. I recommend it!


I've watched a lot of painting videos this week, Freesian Horses videos, and dyeing videos on The Quilt Show. It's been blistering hot outside. I found this series on Youtube...


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiFiOrWrQQ4Celebrities are told what their ancestry dna results are in percentages, then the fun begins. A phone like thing tells them where they are to go next to experience their heritage... Hello! Time to go to Scotland! Time to visit Oregon, USA!

Milo's Moments


 It's been so hot, especially if you wear a black fur coat all the time! Why one of my ears might be melting off my head! I still want to go out and chase my ring toy around though! 


 

https://scrapatches.blogspot.com/    

 

Linking with

Saturday, June 12, 2021

sewing round up summer sweaters to improv geese


 For this week's sewing round up... it's too hot for sweaters!!! (but....)

the collection grows with the addition of a purple one this month. 

Did you know I studied ballet for a long time? I still have a fondness for ballet-pink shoes, it's automatic to "spot" while turning in any dance form, and am too limber for my own good.

the color of the month at Rainbow Scrap Challenge is purple, and I've been obsessed this week with improv flying geese making. 

I used to do geese with the flip method, then the speedy multiple method, and the paper pieced method.

They all make very orderly tidy in a row geese. 

not the look I want right now,  so I came up with the fun way I'm doing improv geese with tiny scraps and oddly shaped triangles in the scrap bin. To do this you need to stop caring if a point gets nipped, and angles are different, and just play with them. 

I started an improv piece with sections I had pieced last year to become enormous flowers. They became a mountain with a field of flowers in front, but I'm not showing it yet. The leftovers from THAT became my runner for table scraps this month, while sewing this week. (full pic on that post at the end of the month)

for now I just wanted to share some cute geese, 

I knew I saved these little triangles for something good!!! 

while digging through the green scraps, to accent the purple pieces, I found some scraps a bee mate gave me while I was back in Maryland. Can it be 3 years ago now already?

all together there were 8 large half square triangle pieces, kind of alike but not exact, cut from a border print. No doubt they were rejects in her project as they weren't cut right from her border print.

Well, I cut them right, then stitched them together into squares, then a big medallion piece to be made into something soon. This is fiddle-y as you must match lines exactly to get the affect.

but maybe after all the improv piecing I needed a balance of sewing something exact for a moment.

I was immersed in my audio book about an archeologist who found a 30 year old body on a dig, 

Burials

but the library snatched it back with no warning, unfinished and it's in demand so I started another called DaVinci's Cat

Da Vinci's Cat - Murdock, Catherine Gilbert
  about time travel probably written  for young adults. I tend to associate my current sewing works with books I'm hearing while working. 

Anyway, this story is drawing me back to the studio, which is a good thing. 

I feel best when I'm obsessed with an art project, how about you?

Linking with 

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
lovelaughquilt.mondays

oh Scrap Sundays  


 scrap happy Saturdays



Thursday, June 10, 2021

I Like Thursday #248

 

Welcome to this week's list of likes. Short this week, starting with pin cushions... I made this one from a cute vintage plant holder. 

Summer is popping out all over
 

I planted the beans saved from last year's plants, and some bell pepper seeds, last weekend. Fingers crossed they thrive. It's hot enough! 

bush breaks out in flowers this week!

this week's coloring page

using a mix of watercolor pencil (prismacolor) waterpen, and staedtler fineliner pens
 

videos on youtube:

 Trying to eat better?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DudMHGosYEk


thinking about a new hairstyle and return to the salon? Watch this first!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkmBn-HlPbM
 

I have seen some good videos on The Quilt Show recently on hand dyeing and landscapes with hand dyes. Messy though, I won't be racing to do that again any time soon. Maybe now that it's hot, I'll go out to paint on fabric again. 

Speaking of fabric I'm having a lot of fun sewing my abstract mountain, meadow piece this week. 

On TV the bachelorette show returns and I'm in, all in. Other favorite shows had finales this week, the Good Doctor's season end was so good... as was New Amsterdam's. Watching the NY  and Beverly Hills housewives on Bravo. Midsomer Murders and Murdoch Mysteries are both in season and good. 

 

Listening to a great audio book this week, 

Hardcover Burials Book

solving a mystery this modern day archeologist returns to her husband's home town to solve a mystery from 30 years ago... thank you to Colette for the referral but then I found out it's book 10 in the series!!! I have to go find the earlier ones now 

Reading Jude Devereaux's latest book on ebook and I am now into it and enjoying the storyline. Two sisters grappling with following their hearts while doing what is needed for each other.


Milo's Moments



 

"Mama, I want a big pancake like yours!"

Mama: well, you're not as big as Mama, so I gave you a Milo sized pancake

Milo: I could be bigger if I had a bigger pancake!

come out and play Mama!

these fine people have likes to share please visit them too and let me know if you wrote a list this week so I can add your name in!


 
 
Linking to
https://www.knitbygodshand.com/
http://itsasmalltownlife.blogspot.com/