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Saturday, May 17, 2025

creatively speaking, an owl, a flower, a moon, and some stitching

 

for this week's creativity round up I'll start with the spiral hexie blocks

are you tired of seeing the progression of these yet LOL? Each color is a project on it's own. 36 hexies in one colorway, light to dark, hand basted and sewn. I have no idea how I'll fit all the colors together 

I focused on mixed media with all it's layers and supplies and variety this week. I also took time each day to sew as I need the fabric time, seeing colors joined with threads. 

Note I just cleaned my reading glasses, held them up and found they are really scratched. Hooray! it's the glasses at fault!

back to art, this week fabric first, paper art to follow that

I am catching up on the RSC colors from the last few months, red is the last one to do on this
I like the large format of these blocks (12.5" each) from two 2.5" strips from scraps. ( pattern source given on last 3 Saturday posts)

I'm ramping up for Zen Stitch workshop starting on May 27th or so by Kate Ward

Paper arts

I've done a lot more painting this week, some my morning pages, some from lessons in the Mixed media free online workshop... I love to talk about art, so I'll show a sampling of my projects, new to me techniques, and tell what I learned

Seeing the week condensed like this, in one post, reminds me I'm doing something, otherwise it gets lost in the daily stress and blah blah blah

I'll start with a blend of quilt and paint love
two doodles from morning drawings

makes me want to do more quiltmaking with solid fabrics instead of my usual prints


I do love color, and know it has a vibration we might not be aware of (but it's real) 
I wanted to try a technique of painting onto tissue paper (here the tissue was tan to start with)
and I mixed up a beautiful palette of orange by mixing four colors, plus a green. 
yes it's done in a yogurt lid

continuing the learning curve of gouache paint (it's opaque but still watercolor) I started by taping a notepad paper flamingo to the page, stamping the ranger ink in corderoy color, over, adding some orange dragged off the flamingo "mask",  in my junk paper art journal.
color!!! glorious! remove the paper flamingo, I Like ...
> inked texture from the pad stamped on
> the orange mixed with white and a bit of golden yellow for the sand
> the dry brush effect for the palm trunk on the right
Now what to paint with the rest of that fab color? tulips
> childlike but also graphic
>various sizes
>vibrancy of the paint blending on the paper

and the way creamy gouache feels under the brush. This paper was just copier thin paper too

turn the page and see how the paper mask would be on another composition.... kind of like it! 
use more orange paint and 
GOSH! I love the flower explosion of color here! On just copier paper! Look at all those tones of orange too
Whee!  Cheap brushes, dab of paints mixed and wowza! 

sometimes I paint because I catch sight of the palette of gouache on my desktop... 
If you've got paint, use it   

I like doing these little painting experiments in the morning while having coffee, before the "critic" wakes up and tells me I'm wasting supplies and time. 

She needs to sleep in or get a job and leave me to it
cut off water color paper painted with left over paint on palette

collage magazine pages of words, ink pad from ranger, gouache paint in a loose mix on paper, black paint lines 
I Like...
> the visual texture. This would do well on fabric
> mix of black into the lovely mix of blue and green
>posca acrylic paint pen dots over the green chest
>addition of black leaves on the branch

a random video about baby owls made me snort with laughter at it's gesture

so I drew it
bwaaahaha! I love this but, of course can't leave well enough alone. I wanted to see what painting on tissue looked like. I had some tan tissue, and dabbed on some gouache and it became a tree.

the color is very interesting isn't it? 
> I liked glueing the painted torn tissue on the journal overlapping pages
> I liked putting the dab of discarded painted paper over the owl to see how that might do
> I liked the tree filling in the facing page, and grounding the owl sketch
> I liked that I didn't glue the tissue to the owl yet so I can remove it after noting how it worked

this was from a workshop and she does rock cairns in series changing each one. 
I like
> the idea of making more of these
> the look of the washi tape pattern
> the lichen on a rock
> the mystical look of a mostly lavender sky and limited palette
>the rune on the top rock, in fact I printed out a page or runes to use next time
> the iridescent ink by FW inks around the moon
 

some videos that look good

well! easy flower embroidery 

 


this is a super easy short tute for painting leaves... love green? you'll love seeing the shades here


til next time, thank you so much for your comments and checking in with me!!! Love, LeeAnna

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Thursday, May 15, 2025

I Like Thursday # 451 flowers, colors, paint, and conversation prompt

 



welcome to this week's list of likes starting with birdsong... "we're baaaaack" 

and tulips in a neighbor's yard,

I love the delicacy, the plentiful blossoms, the delicate depth and range of pinks
beautifully set in their front yard
nice food for a birthday week
It was so hot but we had everything ready to go in the oven one after the other... a lunch of oven chicken flautas, then we made pear crumble with the lovely pears from last week's post
almond thumbprint cookies with raspberry, and a pear crumble
some cookies, then hamburger buns to use with various sandwiches... 

then one might think the black forest cake for my birthday was the piece de resistance but turns out we were out of cherry liquor and buttermilk for the chocolate cake.... we made do (as one must) with amaretto to soak the cherries, and powdered buttermilk....but  the whipped cream never set, the chocolate icing never set and they whole thing should have become a trifle. Tasted good.

Why do some recipes work great over and over then all of a sudden fail? 

this little mama is satisfied with her acorns
nom nom nom.... keep walking people!
interestingly critters don't run off when we walk by now, do they sense my loneliness? 

I've spent creative time painting and making mixed media this week in my online workshop. 
drawing with this pen
 
my happy birthday mixed media piece from last week

a morning doodle painting

and hand sewing, do you enjoy green as a color? 
lots more to share on Saturday's post but how about this lime green  in a neighbor's yard... 
My pic isn't great sorry but in person the lime next to BOLD lemon yellow iris, then fuchia flox with burning bushes in background? ahhhhh.... color.....


Weather, a short respite from intense heat.... complete with rain. Heavenly to sit and paint by the open slider feeling a slight breeze. Our house seems like an oven holding heat, so when we get a pop up cool day we open the windows we can to change the air. 

We did the twice yearly cleaning of the fan blades in the bedroom. To do that we had to move Milo's crate used as a way to prevent his falling off the bed at night.... which started me crying and pining for my special boy again. 

We walk despite the heat, but others came out for it this week. We got to catch up with three neighbors we love.... (helping me forget the one that yelled at me from his moving car to take off my mask) 

They all asked about Milo.... and grieved with us to lose a dog they also fell in love with and will miss. 

what is that old saying, a grief shared is a grief halved?  if not at least it felt right to share it with others who understand the loss of that kind of bond is devastating. Mothers day is always hard, but this year was awful. 

speaking of birthday weeks.... and memories of youth.... I ran across this lovely rendition 

Why are birthdays with a zero so impactful? I'm still me. Still funny on the outside, soft inside


on video ....funny! 


our prompt this week, following last week's bike question, have you ridden a motorcycle, do you like them? tell us your story or opinions on them

As for me.... I am not a big fan. I've had people ride their motorcycles up on the highway between two lanes of cars, I've had them circle in front at an exit when I was turning, turning right in front of me, and they are noisy when I just want peace. 

That said, I was introduced to driving one by my nephew, who happens to be 5 years younger than I, and that was the only time til....

On route to moving to canada, my friend and I went through Yellowstone. (Florida to Edmonton meant seeing a lot along the way!) It was a dark and stormy night.... lodgepole pines were being blown over roads, the lights went out in the town, we all gathered at the only grocery store to gather our wits. 

My friend and I were young and cute and open to adventure. Two guys were there who had the biggest bestest motorcyles. One said, come on, I'll give you a ride. My friend and I looked at each other and shrugged, the guys were safe enough, then.... then there I was arms around a stranger, he turned on his sound system, and we took off. I looked back and Kay never got on ! 

He was nice, we were only gone about 15 minutes, came back safely and I never saw him again! 

I think I had good intuition, so did Kay....both of us social workers in child welfare, and it was fun. 

(hashtag protection from angels)


now please visit these folk to see what they liked this week. Let me know if you did a post I should link in.... as as always I love to read your stories too

 


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Saturday, May 10, 2025

Living a creative life paintings, fabric art photo inspiration

 

For this week's creativity round up I start with 2" scraps of fabric... oh it's not done, it's just a start using pieces cut off (then resewn) a larger scrap project. The eye scrap came from a friend in Maryland who used that fabric to sew scrubs for her nurse brother, then she gave me the cuts from that. 

years ago now
no piece seems to be too small to throw away when you see potential in the everyday
I was inspired this week by the Eagles I watch,  sitting in front of a mighty background
made me want to paint it...
and these will eventually be painted in gouache  
one of the mixed media workshops this week used gouache, this is my attempt

which looks like local views here actually. 
 Back to some sewing.... For my EPP project, the hexie of spirals, I am catching up on RSC colors, this time I'm almost done with this month's green scraps piece. It's in sections as I progress
next up is doing yellow from two months ago

I am not sure how they will come together when all colors are done but here are two blocks pressed. I'm sure it will morph with more colors
speaking of colors and fabric, I am also catching up on my other scrappy project for the year
another green one
I've done three green, three red, and three blue so far, 
It's fun to sew, I need to do red and pink next

yellow up close

free pattern is online

last week I showed a small quilted component, and said the photo showed a face in it. In person it looks like a tulip or a lake but the image looked like a face to me

so I printed it out and colored in what I saw. 
Two workshops on mixed media had us paint backgrounds and then find the bunny, or face
 
 
I saw one, my husband saw another so I penciled in both


then added more paint. The teacher painted all the background white, but I didn't want to so...
inspired by mama and her babies in our yard
then scribble with water soluble crayon and find a face
became this


and for some reason I painted bunny and lady on one small journal page... 
and I tried collage again, this time on a full paper... magazine pages torn... the yoga woman a balloon and some mountains... pulled paper off a kleenex box for the chrysanthemum like flowers, 

a painted over page of akashic writing done with my caligraphy pen, hearts were on a cake in a magazine. I painted over the woman with caran d'ache crayon and prisma color pencil, smeared on some gesso and white gouache. 
In the words of Stevie Wonder, isn't she pretty?  Filled in her hands with colored pencil, filled in eyes with ink, cheeks with color pencil and now it's a form of myself for my birthday week upcoming.
Happy Birthday inked in with colored pencil... 

I may not be this young or thin or even blond now but I remember being those things. I remember doing tai chi on the banks of the Hillsborough River on Saturdays, I can still feel energy if I try. 
We will all age, hopefully we will be a sum of all we've lived through, wiser, kinder, more understanding and still finding ways to create beauty

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