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Saturday, May 13, 2023

sketching and sewing fabric, a creativity round up for May

 

I love color. I love making. All my life I've loved making. I remember as a very young girl loving the feel of art supplies from crayons, to fabric, to weaving potholders to see a pattern emerging. I took lessons at the rec center in embroidery and stitched on my bell bottoms in high school., I did ceramics and made jewelry with macrame and beads. I sewed all my clothes. I painted and stitched and tried every craft I got my hands on. 

I had no formal art training in school because I spent all elective hours on band.Now I rely on, and spend my happy hours in the studio making....

 

art t shirt designs | Artist shirts, Artist tshirt, Painter tshirt 

This was one of those weeks, not exactly fallow but making this week was often like running through water.

I often wake up slowly, starting the creative day with a sketch or little painting. Inspiration comes on little cat feet, and I make sure to notice when something makes me want to express it in paint

on this morning it was the quote... I grabbed one of the scrap papers made of copier paper and a paint brush, my KOI watercolors and dropped color on it. The paper isn't made for this, so it's absorbed immediately

I used my set of 3 zig markers in gold/silver, three shaped nibs, and looked on DaFont for some kind of idea to make up my own font, and mixed different styles in my way. First the flat tipped caligraphy nib

a black pigma in places, a white gel in places. It's more

another morning I wanted to sketch a portrait, learning by doing, training my eye to see details in a photo/image. I am partial to the 1920's look, and this lovely caught my eye...

I knew the shadows, the hat, the clothing would challenge my ability, plus I often get the proportions off on bodies, and hands... hands are really difficult... isn't she pretty?

Using just pencil makes it another challenge. This is in my sketchbook, so I committed to drawing a bit larger as well. Pencil lines are commitments. 

the other tool used is the blending sponge tip often sold as zentangle blenders. It smears the graphite

This is a mix of quick marks, and slow looking deeply for why something didn't quite work

I must say, I love her... love the shadows that create face definition, subtle and no color. 

on the sewing front, I have been steadily quilting sections of this person sized quilt

this will be the border fabric for the sides

I quilted the top and bottom borders, and attached them to the quilted center sections. The bamboo batting is heavier than I thought it would be, but again, I'm committed to it now.

I now need to hand stitch the seam flap to cover the seams on three areas before putting on the final two borders. It's taking a long time to do this way but with my little machine, and bad back, it's the only way to make a big quilt. Right now this is 47" X 70" and will be 16" wider with the side borders


 

I liked Ricky Tims' new quilt Portal. He's walking us through it on youtube. I'm doing it with my friend Cindy, who lives in another state. We compare notes and both plan to approach this in an improvisational way. I started with orange scraps cut from strips in the scrap bin

this quilt takes more planning than I expected, planning of color placement. Still, I just paired some up and cut, then resewed , actually pretty quickly


My minds eye sees this as a fall forest scene, so I'll add in blue skies, and deep greens, and browns. 

for now I'm using oranges because that's the color of the month at RSC... and it is satisfying to see the glow. Here is the progress so far, pretty good for some random scraps don't you think?

I like the way it's starting to look. His quilt is 7 of those horizontal rows, and much much wider than this is now, so we'll see what I choose as I go along.

 Feels good to use the scraps, reducing patter to colors to see how they blend when viewed

Next week starts ZenStitch workshops through Kate Ward website. Looking forward to learning some new techniques.

Happy arting y'all

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

finished or not

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

 





17 comments:

  1. I love that your art takes you in so many different directions. And, what a good quote to remember!

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  2. Fun to see what you've been working on this week! The drawing of the 1920s woman is lovely - her hands look wonderful to me. I would think hands and faces would be very challenging. Love the look of your star quilt and the Ricky Tims strippy project, too.

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  3. Beautiful colours this week. Your drawing is very good. Replicating shapes and shadows is quite an art. You almost have to draw around the edge of shadows to get the right shape, then shade in to blur the edges. Bravo!
    We like your lineup of scraps. Such beautiful colours. You could maybe just do a whole quilt with them as is.
    ERin

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  4. Beautiful art, I love the watercolor and quote, and your lady has a lovely face, very expressive. The new sewing project looks fun to make, these strippy blocks are bright and cheerful! Thanks for sharing ;)

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  5. Loved I arted! I did lots of the same things you did as a kid, but wasn't very good at many of them, still though it was fun. I have a friend who's a well known artist in my area and she and I would spend hours in her basement. She had lots of art stuff. Her mother was very sweet and always encouraged me, even though I had no talent. My friend has sold many pieces of art through the years. YOu remind me of my grade school friend. Love the colors in all your fabrics, and your 20's drawing, very nice.
    Sandy's Space

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  6. Love that t-shirt. I did take lots of art classes in high school, and a couple of art classes in college as fine arts electives. I used to do a lot of pen and ink, but haven't done hardly any painting. I so admire your eye for color - it's a gift.

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  7. What a fabulous quote. I love that you immortalized it with pen and paint. I've never taken a class with Ricky Timms in-person or online, although I've been tempted to. I've loved his work for - could it be 30 years now? Sounds like you are both being challenge and enjoying yourself.

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  8. Really pretty strips you put together. You concentrated on orange, what color did your co-quilter use?

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  9. Oh, your Ricky project is delightful. Love the sketch of the young woman and I think it developed quite nicely. Percy is residing on our mantle with his dear remains. It is so sweet....It makes him feel more alive than not. My heart is full.

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  10. You are always busy. So many interesting projects. Good idea to take a class with a friend, especially online. It’s helpful to be able to talk a lot later.

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  11. Love how Portal is progressing! It's like the sun through the trees. So pretty. Thanks for sharing on my weekly show and tell, Wednesday Wait Loss.

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  12. Humour. Fun and Fabrics. Luv your art today.

    Thanks for linking to AFFF

    much💖love

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  13. Isn't making things a wonderful addiction? Color, texture, materials... there are always new discoveries. This was fun to read. HAve a wonderful weekend. hugs-Erika

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  14. I love your bright star quilt and I need that "Oops, I Arted" t-shirt, LOL!

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  15. I was a tomboy so art didn't interest me at first, but my sister and mother were extraordinary artists so the exposure drew me to it. I still avoided it as I couldn't compete with the awesome art they produced between them, but when I went to college I took an art class that inspired me to do things my own way. I now enjoy art, it is my escape from the stresses of our times and it is just fun. I still need a model or picture to draw from (My mother and sister could create reality and fantasy from their imaginations) and I still don't make things that look real, but I enjoy the process and look forward to the results. So that's my story ... not as fun as yours and your art speaks to your love for it. I admire your courage tackling that quilt. You will get a weeks worth of exercise every time you have to pick it up :) And, I want that shirt ...

    Andrea @ From the Sol

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  16. Your Star Quilt is spectacular, Leeanna, and I love your 1920s lady!

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  17. So much amazing creativeness. I love that you let your mind take you where it needs to create - so very cool!

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