my creative week

 

this was a week of sewing, writing, and watching video lessons... with one drawing 

hand sewing hexies, tiny quiltlets from scraps, and one drawing

 

the sewing primarily was "middle sewing"  involving a lot of putting blocks together, basting a quilt, finding appropriate fabrics, making design decision that take time but don't show well in a round up.

I now have completed the squares for two RSC block sets made last year... I added an entire row of black and white squares to go with the colorful scrap blocks done last year, but like the first set I'm reluctant to show it until it's done, but here is one

and each time I made one black and white block, I cut away little triangles, which I then decided to sew into hourglass blocks. No measuring, just sew odd shaped triangle to odd shaped triangle,

until I had a lot of them. I don't know if this is considered improvisational, but it feels that way.

I played with arrangements but when I noticed this fabric left from my big blocks...

just a fat quarter (of a yard) and saw the musical cats, I decided to set the wee blocks (2" square) into a frame

yep, that's cool. They were not tidy nor even, but I didn't let that get in the way of making this for my husband, the guitar player who loves cats 

finishing about 7" square

for table scraps... he's playing "notes"

no scrap too small, no scrap wasted. I miss being part of a quilt group in Maryland that gave me bags of what they considered too-small scraps. These came from making the large person sized quilt on the wall

the hexie project is together, pressed flat, layered with batting, with felt as backing... I'm quilting it now, and went through two discarded thread choices before settling on gold metallic. So far I've gone around the finished edge twice with straight stitch, after unpicking the buttonhole stitch I tried in the beginning

I wanted to be finished with the quilting before sharing it but it was part of my creativity this week. 

I trim the felt close to the edge as a finish. I've gone through several choices for quilting the center but think I've decided on straight lines radiating from a center point, maybe. 

Making art is not linear. 

there are many decisions, all the way to completion. 

I've never liked the phrase, " it's not over til the fat lady sings" having battled with weight all my life, but it's not over in art-ing til the last detail is on and the artist is satisfied. 

 this little lady is my true triumph this week. I LOVE her. She came from my heart, my mind, my spirit this week, a woman secure in herself, wearing a daffodil in her hair. 

It is much MUCH more difficult to draw with pencil than paint, IMHO. Drawing is intentional, one must look closely, and call the shot before putting down a line. Paint can spread, move, blend by itself, it is often impressionistic in my world. I could paint the idea of a portrait, but this black line on white paper is strong. 

I did an initial drawing, then went back, layer by layer, additional flick of a pencil, an erasure, a blending of graphite to shadow. Another layer of hair added... and she had slightly different eyes that felt somehow wrong to me. 

After looking at her through the week, between sewing blocks, as I passed by, I erased one tiny area of her eye changing the shape slightly, rounding it just a millimeter more and suddenly she looked different. 

I've grappled with noses, and lip lines. I like hers. I am always learning about shadow. Clothing and shoulders are often challenging. Not having a picture to go by is challenging. 

I love this bit so much...

Her necklace. I want one like this, gold with three drop pearls. The face has been my go to design for years. I painted large now framed art with stars like this in the past. I'm glad I could give this to her. 

Even now, in this photo I see I should remove some shadow along her chest line. 

Isn't it wonderful to learn by doing? 

I " spaved" this week with threads. 

These are daily functional  3 ply cotton threads 50wt from "connecting threads"... and they are a great price from the online store. I find them to be smooth, strong, and gorgeous colors. If I were going to quilt stores I might purchase Metler for daily piecing but these are great and to me, in my usage, stronger than the aurofil the young quilters seem to favor but I find breaks too often.

I was visiting the blog (https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/) and she recommended these threads for hand swing EPP. I ordered the set right away from amazon, a great price at only $3 per spool in the 6 spool set of gorgeous colors

they are called cottonized poly, are 80wt so thin as a hair almost, very very very strong for pulling repeatedly through epp pieces, smooth, disappear in the stitching but the colors are wonderful. I'm glad I risked getting them sight unseen!

as a video treat, and I haven't tried this yet, I leave you with this

..... a cool method of joining the final binding ends

 https://youtube.com/shorts/F2N6QelobsQ?feature=share

 

 

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com

https://thejoyfulquilter.blogspot.com/2023/04/april-2023-abc-table-scraps-link-party.html 

patchwork Sunday   

oh Scrap Sundays

slow stitching

https://quiltinglearningcombo.blogspot.com/ 

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

http://www.inquiringquilter.com/ Wednesday wait loss

Midweek makers wednesdays  

http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/ 

https://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/ 

off the wall Fridays   

face off 

peacock party

tgiffriday

finished or not

https://beadwright.blogspot.com/ 

https://myblog-lunchbreak.blogspot.com/