Saturday, October 14, 2023

creativity : learning new techniques and using my supplies... paints, inks and fabric art this week

 

this creative week was mostly focused on paint, ink and binding a finished quilt

I had two free workshops plus Inkktober prompts this week, which means very limited instruction time in which to take lessons

The little lamb above was challenging for me because I had to work with acrylic paints. hard for me to mix and use as they dry so fast here

I have a small set of acrylic paints in tubes, and I painted the background with a palette knife. 

I thought it was too harsh til I looked out the back door at our sunset one night, and it looked nearly exactly the same!!! Sometimes when critiquing our own work, we need distance of time in order to see it anew. 

acrylic set, and gouache set
 I used gouache watercolor paint and it really was unstable, so I learned how supplies behave in different circumstances. 

Each morning I try a new way to ink for "Inktober" and this came from using up the dabs of gouache left on the plastic lid I used as a disposable palette, waste not want not.  Loved the sentiment I saw online...

done on an index card

some prompts are words, like "rise"

and some are new to me pentangle lessons


" Bounce"

"toad"

the goal is to use your pens every day in Oct.   To move around, I went up to the studio to prepare and sew on the binding for the kaleidoscope quilt

I used an orange print, double fold, and hand stitch to the backing... a way to let go of that quilt

the needle threader is glued to a wood stand, it makes threading easy, then cut the thread and if I need to leave it, I store the needle in a scrap to find it easily when I'm ready to do more. 

I plan to finally put  these components into a quilt this year, hopefully this month as RSC color is light neutrals

back to lessons, this one was on "scribble portraits" 

inspiration image on L,  my beginning sketch on R.

I got out my sketching pencils... 3 tombow graphite in diff. harnesses, 6 watersoluble pencils in different hardnesses, stabilo all thin pencil that really disolves in water, my erasers, my shading brushstix to blend... a black ink pen, and a white paint pen by posca

Now it's done, and I finally stopped overworking it to correct flaws, I see my issue was proportion. The mouth is too high. She's not as pretty as the original image. It's a learning piece done in my regular sketchbook not watercolor paper. I do like the beads in her hair... the two colors of inks. 

I watched a couple lessons without attempting and started some hopefully to be finished this week

this was supposed to be a base sketch, then boldly paint drops of color all over it but... but...

she's just in the sketchook but I love her so much as she is... 

I can do lessons in short bursts, and move around to keep my back in better shape. I'd love to get stuck in to the process and forget time, but that would be injurious now. Know what I mean? 

I never thought I could draw, and thank everyone who offers lessons online for inspiring me to try, and for their wisdom in teaching... you make it easier.You give me tools to use in self expression!

Linking with

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

https://songbirddesigns.blog/monday-musings-6-26-23/ 

finished or not

off the wall Fridays


Thursday, October 12, 2023

I Like Thursday # 371 creating, cooking, flowers, a recipe, and an opinionated black poodle

 

It's time to list our likes for this week! I like my poodle son, especially sharing the frame with another fave, flamingos  (these ghosts come out every year) 

I have spent time this week, trying to do two workshops, one on painting and one on crafts...

 

 and my back got hurt from trying to do too much at the computer. I guess I need to let it go but I'm sad... when my back goes, vertebra slip and pinch nerves, so... I'll just try to prioritize the lessons and accept my limits. 

Love this big pumpkin on our porch

 the only problem with this pumpkin is a squirrel... I see it sitting on the pumpkin trying to rip off the stem... Heyyyyy leave it til Thanksgiving please, then it's all yours, all the seeds, just like last year!!!

we got an orange mum to go with the purple one
I love mums in Fall, and used to line our walkway with them in MD. They are too expensive here, but we got a new orange one to go with the purple one and it's so festive now out back!

I'm still reading the same stories, even on audio as last week. 


I'm still loving tv, with Big Brother, Amazing Race, Survivor, Dancing with the stars (Barry from Brady Bunch who I had a girlish crush on) and so many brave celebrities doing very well. Bachelor in paradise, and best yet, Golden Bachelor the first time a 72 year old bachelor (wife of 43 years passed away) finds love again with women over the age of 60, and they are all kind, polite, multifaceted, and fun to watch. 

I was glad to get some household deep cleaning done the past week, how nice that was. We live in CO now and it's dusty y'all. I noticed our paneled doors were dusty even though we open and close them daily... so we wiped ALL the carved panels clean, mopped the wood floors, cleaned webs off the porches, and got up some leaves

I love fall colors, and this tree made us very happy. It looked dead a couple years ago, and neighbors said cut it down. Well I noticed it was putting out baby trees all around the dead trunk, so we nurtured it, and eventually cut the mother tree, but the circle of babies made this! We periodically cut small saplings to the ground but I think Mother Nature is doing a fine job

saw this on a workshop this week, and liked it...

 prompt for the week:

what ethnic foods do you like? ex: most of us like Italian, but how about Vietnamese? Thai? Mexican? Cuban? German? Swedish? others?do you get take out, eat at a special place,  or have you learned to make a version at home?

  I grew up eating Cuban food at restaurants, and still make arroyo con pollo (chicken and yellow rice) at least once a month. I used to love deviled crab balls, piccadillo, Boliche, black beans and flan. 

I love Italian food, and greatly miss eating out at Amicci's in Little Italy Baltimore.  I love the flavors of Mexican food. We often make our version of fajitas, and turkey chili with lots of beans. We both love beans so often have them as a side. 

Thai is my favorite dinner out... but we now make our own, with a jar of Thai sauce plus lots of fresh vege, over rice. 

We used to go out to Pappas in Tarpon Springs for Greek food...I always got butter seared shrimp, and always their special salad. A Greek salad there had the most lush potato salad in it as well as the usual. We used to go so often, my mother once found out how to make it from our waitress. We served the potato salad at most family gatherings after that. 

Because we still need to protect ourselves from covid, we no longer eat out or even get take out... sad for me. 

Growing up, adopted into a deep south family who cooked "old school" basic foods, they  seldom used spices other than bacon grease that sat on the back of the stove. We ate a lot of basic foods but I fondly remember chicken and dumplins   boil a chicken, remove all bones, and drop dough into the boiling water, they were gooey and fluffy both, then return chicken to the pot. I have never made that myself. 

My mother found some recipe for an 18 layer strawberry shortcake and made it for all gatherings after that. I cannot find a recipe for it anywhere. She had special pans, the cakes were moist and chewy, about a half inch thick. Layer with whipped cream and strawberries.

just got a new back porch mat (from Khols)

 

It helps clean my tootsies!
I finished knitting the socks for DH, and started this cowl for me... made with wool blend yarn in a lush shade of cranberry. It's a free pattern for Moss stitch cowl,knitted in the round on odd number of stitches. Knit one, purl one, around the joined base row, and automatically a purl stitch falls on top of a knit stitch to create this lovely feeling texture!

of course I got mixed up. The designer said I could mindlessly knit while watching tv... but then I suddenly couldn't tell if I should knit or purl and uh oh... but I decided to make the best of it, keep going and just start pattern again where I was, after all the slightly unsightly part will be hidden on my neck... and it is getting easier to see what stitch I'm on.

Fine Dining... my own recipe sorry no pics

I made up my own recipe for cooking some sweet potatoes....

I had three odd sweet potatoes and it was too hot still, to run the oven to bake them. This time I peeled them, cut into 1" wide rounds, 

Melted about 1 1/2 TBSP butter in pan, placed rounds in single layer on that, salted them, garlic powder and cinnamon powder on that, melted in 1/4 cup brown sugar with some chicken broth and covered them til almost tender. Turned them over a couple times in the pan to coat them. 

took off the pan cover and continued to cook til the rounds were coated in a caramel sauce and sister, they were delicious. 4 thumbs up and two paws up ! I'll be cooking them again this way you can be sure. I always liked carmalized sweet potatoes at restaurants and never made them. 

Milo's Moment

Milo: Great! I love breakfast in bed... although I'm not sure if that face will bite me...but being the big brave poodle that I am, I risked it and had a yummy snack. You can put that cleaned plate away now mama... heh heh

Mama: as precious as you are, I think I might still just wash the plate if you don't mind...

suit yourself, I am going out back to see if the squirrel is invading my space again.

please visit these people to see what they liked this week!

grammajudyb.blogspot.com

https://www.texasquiltgal.com/

               friday smiles at a stitch in time



Saturday, October 7, 2023

This week's creativity round-up... paintings, gold, quilting, planning, and paper dolls!

 

there are many finishes when making a quilt... finish the design, finish sewing together the top, finish layering the top/ batting/ backing and baste, finish the quilting, and finish the binding to finish the edges... finish putting on the hanging sleeve on the back and hang it up or put it on the bed!
this week I finished quilting this big quilt, wrestling with it under the arm of my little old machine. I mostly used mylar sprakling turquoise threads, purple threads, and a YLI variegated fall color cotton thread to do that. Mostly used my walking foot, but along the trees on the border I used free motion foot and hand guided the branches in YLI gold metallic threads. 

now for the binding, I think a dark orange fabric... 

this is ready to layer and baste so the quilting can begin

RSC people look at the project in light neutrals on the right

usually as I make a top, I am thinking ahead to how to quilt it. The stitching of 3 layers makes another design that can make or break a quilt. I have no idea how I'm going to do this one, as there are so many lines already, it's so large, and will be heavy to manipulate. Let me know if you have ideas! The fabric on top (left) is for the backing layer.

Mostly this week I tried to do some painting lessons from Willowing's free workshops...

here is a taste of what I tried... lots of black and white, and gold this week!

yes that's actually gold metallic paint (made by finetec)


it started as a line drawing with stabilo crayon, then dissolved with water to blend

it's not even or perfect or half as good as the teacher but I really like it, and the name is "clarity"

it shimmers in person! I love the stylized way to do feathers, black and white inks overlayed.

another line drawing done with stabilo crayon, then plain water on a brush to blend, shadow and blur the lines. It's random the way the paper and water work together, and I am just able to let go and watch the process. I went back and added in some darker inked lines at the end.

I've been working on 140 lb watercolor paper by canson 

one teacher offered free line drawings for paper dolls... I approached them like any other watercolor, blending tombow marker with water and using watercolor pan paints to blend color. How fun! 

Little LeeAnna used to cut out paper dolls as a young girl, remember McCalls magazine always gave us one!

  I enjoyed shading and mixing paints for the little treats but putting in tiny brads was challenging. The wings and arms move now though...

gold watercolor paint from finetec

 

I like that each one has a saying I believe in...

"we rise by lifting others"

and yes they are in our permanent Christmas tree in the family room, now decorated for Halloween

"Be kind, for everyone is fighting a battle"

I'll finish today's round up with "Ink-tober"   a festival of drawing every day this month! I am working my way through a list of links to daily pintangle lessons... during morning coffee...

it's about slow additions.... a line here, a line there, color in some areas... follow the lesson and just let yourself enjoy seeing the ink growing into a pattern. I use scrap paper, unwanted paper from the printer, torn in fourths, stapled together to make a sort of book to use. No worries, it's all recycled bits that other people might throw away. I use the backs for lists and well, this kind of thing

the inktober pentangle list is here: (scroll down for actual links)

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PHycEAPxv7_Ct9fKtONp3JdzT2AJuzFX/view

list of words to inspire you to draw/ink too: https://inktober.com/rules

having trouble leaving a comment? It's likely due to a computer update recently... here is a remedy: 

scroll to bottom of her post: https://quiltingjetgirl.com/2023/10/09/cloudy-night-sky-details-details/

otherwise, my email is lapaylor@gmail.com

linking with

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

https://songbirddesigns.blog/monday-musings-6-26-23/ 

finished or not

off the wall Fridays