Saturday, March 15, 2025

my creative week

it's about 18.5"  X  23" at this point, with about 20 blocks

 

this creativity post is brought to you by the color yellow (thank you Rainbow scrap challenge)

and  the magic of little scraps of fabric! 

I even have three paintings using yellow, and my latest purchase to show you so let's get this started!
 With the purchase! 
three bundles of hand dyed cherrywood fabrics, (Hobbyhouseneedleworks had them for a good price) 

while I was getting more fabric to pet, I also got a beading kit (palette pin) two yummy hand dyed embroidery floss colors from Weeks that I've never tried, some more gold beads, and turquoise hand dye

Until now all my cherrywood projects have been done with the bag of tiny strips I got years ago at a quilt store... 


I looked into my yellow scrap box, and pulled out the smallest scraps to use this time. I decided to do 5" blocks in squares and rectangles.
 I cut some whole cloth squares at 5" ,
 made some 4-patch blocks, 
some 9-patch blocks, 
some insane tiny 36-patch blocks (again at 5" )
 some skinny strip blocks, all to use up the really small but pretty scraps. 
Of course I included some two-geese 5" blocks, couldn't help myself! then started to play with design
here is a skinny strip section next to a 9-patch


the block is made of 3/4" finished size squares
all improvisational piecing so much fun

I looked up what the color vibration of yellow does for us... 

What is the healing power of yellow? Yellow crystals are known for their healing properties, which include boosting confidence, enhancing clarity, promoting positivity, and aiding in physical health issues such as digestion and detoxification. They are also believed to support emotional balance and spiritual growth

excellent! 

I decided some medicinal painting and meditation painting was called for too, and I do love quinacridone gold watercolor paint so.... 

I did two small paintings, one abstract, one representational

flowers

many shades in this and the other one. Excess is never enough I say!! 

When DH came out of his office for lunch, he said those look like pressed flowers! I take that as a compliment, thanks Hon. The stems were done with stabilo crayons that really melt with water. 

I find abstracts hard to do, but I loved using my daniel smith granulating paints, and my slant brush that made that cool line on the left. I mixed in some magenta flourescent paint and gold paints for drama 

then I got out my new journal covered paint book that I want to use for meditative painting.... and did

repetitive lines 

:it's messy because I was not slow and careful but it helped to still my emotional self after hearing what's being done to the country by this new regime. Sorry, it's true, and often stops me feeling creative. I resent not feeling safe enough now that I'm retired and have more time. So I painted with the round brush, then used a posca (acrylic paint in a pen) to draw lines in turquoise yellow and white on and between them, then put in dots and stars because. 


before I knitted, I crocheted and still love the control I have with that... 

this crochet technique is cool, granny squares done with 6 colors to make a 3-d effect of window panes


bye for now... stay calm and make art




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Thursday, March 13, 2025

I Like Thursday # 442 brought to you by the color green

 welcome to this week's list of likes 

                                                  this week brought to you by the color green...

allergens are threatening to take us down this week, and I go to bed with stuffy sinuses and wake up with them even worse. I often hold my warm cup of coffee up to my forehead and along the tops of my cheek bones (between sips) and they start to drain quickly. Do you do that? 

before showers make up or hair fixing  looking rough there Lana!

I love these hand dyed (cherrywood fabrics) fabrics and there are three sets of them to show on Saturday's creativity post.... stay tuned! 

blue to turquoise to green

quote (I am still learning) from Michelangelo

j'apprends encore


I want to fly away from it all

https://lapaylor.blogspot.com/2019/01/fly-away-wordless-wednesday.html 


ever have a night when you can't sleep? watch this for ideas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5KByN-tT_w 

awe, love this

https://youtube.com/shorts/4JaO0cjLRIw?si=I54QFjiKF7wZaW9K


(still reading and watching tv but nothing stands out this week)

The conversation starter this week: 

in honor of St Patrick's day, what is your favorite shade of green? do you have any clothes in that color? accents for the home like pillows, duvets, etc?   

close up of a quilt banner that hangs in the entry

for years I have joked that lime green is my neutral in quilt making, and I love the brightness of it, even have a shirt that color, and a silk sweater


isn't the edge of that silk sweater pretty?

Next I like turquoise or aqua, then a blue green forest green sort of color, and have a soft pendleton wool sweater that color. I wear aqua t shirts in the summer and they look great with a tan.

 Where is my portable typewriter in turquoise, after 4 moves? it's M I A 

I love this painting on foam core done for an art opening at my  then boyfriend's gallery. They were going to throw it away! 

good greens in this!


I love our two dark green loveseats. I got them at an estate sale at a mansion in Maryland. I love how they sit, how they look, and the lines of them. Both poodles also loved these sofas! Here is Cole... now I'm missing him and Milo again. Is it true it's better to have loved and lost than never to loved at all? 

 


yes


Milo's memories

Milo was a sommelier in another life. When dh opened a bottle of wine, Milo dropped whatever he was doing, ran over on high alert, and barked as it popped! Then demanded to sniff the cork and give it a taste. (he generally approved of the wine) 

He also was a big believer in no one bullying anyone, including the kitchen table. When it shifted out of place and dh would start to push it back, Milo again dropped everything to run over and bark his outrage at pushing a table around! 

Sometimes when he saw a bath coming, read the signs like the Daddy putting on swim trunks in the dead of winter, he would run to my side and push against me, growling at the approaching Daddy, 

"Mama, don't look now but growl with me to tell him we will not be pushed around like a table, or manhandled into the shower just to get nearly drowned. Growl mama! tell him! " 

I would pet his curly stinky head, and get up from my chair, and walk with him up the stairs and into the bathroom in solidarity, a sort of Bataan Death march with much head hanging, and dragging of feet. 

I love you Milo...  always

 



I'd love a bite, thanks mama!

gone but never forgotten
please visit these fine people to read their list of likes and answer to the prompts

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Friday, March 7, 2025

my creative week, painting on fabric, collage, quilt, bead ......Project quilting piece complete!

 

This week, creative time focused on the Project Quilting prompt "ARROW" The above image is of my completed piece, a watercolor journal cover. 

I don't like arrows but I like houses and they are an arrow of sorts, right?  I started by pulling out some of my own hand painted fabrics, and one I've been saving for years looks to me like rocks and mountains, and it was a good size to go around my journal! 

With some fold over bits from this scrap that I love and hoarded for years too! 


I carefully pieced two sections to the hand painted fabric, chose backing and used thin cotton batting

the house is made of a scrap I stamped with words, and the roof from fabric I painted to become leaves but didn't use. I cut it into a triangle. It is painted with seta shimmer paint and the whole thing just sparkles! 
carefully positioned the gold edge of the turtle scrap to look like piping!



and folded the turtle piece to go around the front cover showing the faux piping and one line of words

I stamped the lady frog on muslim then colored her with markers and fused her in place along what I see as a river next to the house
front inside cover

back inside cover




back of book's quilting

this photo shows the whole back of journal but is washed out for some reason

bound the complete edge with gray binding strip
Of course there were beads stitched on the spiral, tiny triangle beads, also are sewn on the gator's coat buttons! 
It's all quilted with gold metalic thread. 
last step was to fold it around the notebook, and hand stitch the fold to the top with hand dyed size 5 perle cotton ,  so it would slip over any journal cover in future


challenge complete!
*I am happy to complete this and will be happy to paint the pages in this journal

*I am happy I used some of my own painted fabrics on a paint journal cover!

*I love the inside flap characters, the golden beads, and looking at the quilting on the back, seeing different things in the fabric. 

And then I started making patchwork blocks with little yellow scraps for the Rainbow Scrap challenge
each is 5" square

linking with

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Thursday, March 6, 2025

I Like Thursday #441

 

welcome to this week's list of likes.  it's a hard time around here for likes so I have a few really fun videos this time. the art above is a metal sculpture made in Haiti. I've had it for about 40 years. I used to work at my friend's art gallery and he gifted it to me. I've moved it so many times and it's usually one of the first things to go on the wall as it holds my keys.

this quote really spoke to me

"If life is a never-ending loop of dirty dishes and laundry, then that means life is a never-ending loop of home-cooked meals and comfy, clean clothes." from https://www.zenstitching.ca/blog/

Reading on audio

I started another good one by Elin Hildebrand set on Nantucket. Her books keep my interest 


Reading ebook


I'm on the next in series with jana de long  set this time at a halloween festival gone bad in NewOrleans

 I love music and singing so in honor of another early spring here,  I hope you like this rendition of Younger than Springtime

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYy1KXJ7mBk&list=RDuKL8EJlgqwQ&index=34 

 fine dining



made lemon/garlic/butter rice as a side to salmon one night. Very good and gooey the way I like it

 https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/273448/my-moms-greek-lemon-rice/

ohhhhhh  how to fold clothes very neatly

https://youtube.com/shorts/x95i23d2r-g?si=XO-gT2VtTUut8chr 


funny  short video  jobs this puppy is qualified for


Well! things I never would have thought of are solutions!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXQ8EY1YW8k 

 >>>I did enjoy the start of Survivor and Amazing Race on TV this week. Are you watching?

our prompt as a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?   it may be more than one thing as you got older how did it change? Did you bring any aspect of that into your career?

I imagined I would be a theater actress, singing and dancing. I sang and danced just like the movies I saw. I wasn't brave or confident enough to pursue it but did community theater as often as possible as a young woman. It took bravery to audition, even in the small pond of Tampa. I also performed as a wench in the rennaisance festival for years. 

As a child I always enjoyed playing school too, and thought I might teach. 
For a while I wanted to be a physician/surgeon and got so far as two years of biology major/pre med courses before I switched to social work. That was the career I spent years doing but I worked in schools for a while and had to teach classes to my drop out prevention kids. 
Now that might have been more like theater actually as they were middle school kids who are the toughest. A daily dog and pony show to keep their attention! 
One of them said she liked me so much since I wasn't like an adult. 
huh? you know, she said, fun and you actually listen to us. Oh...

after marrying, and moving North, I began teaching the techniques I developed for quilt making, and lecturing to guilds so teaching adults fulfilled my being a teacher I suppose! 

arting

Project quilting still needed doing so I have been trying to at least sew a bit.... Saturday post holds creativity.. 

 

please visit these fine folk to read their list of likes, let me know if I should link to your post too


https://wordweaverart.blogspot.com/

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Saturday, March 1, 2025

My creative week spent sewing on my round robin quilt


I spent my creative time this week in my wee studio, adding to my Stay at home Round Robin quilt

the prompt was Kite blocks... I started with a search online to see them, and for my whimsical house piece decided to make them look like kites, and used blue sky scraps (Thanks, RSC!) plus scrap triangles from feedsack fabrics

I did them improvisationally. cut a rectangle from a blue scrap, then cut that in half on an angle both directions. Now to add a triangle that meets on the tips after sewing
did that on all four corners, then trimmed the excess kite fabric to match the original blue shapes. 
Sewed them together and this happened
patch more sky scraps (yikes, running out of this one!) to make them into same size, sew blocks to each other. Need another kite to stretch across the top...
they will get tails after the whole top is together

It was fun making these, I love little scraps and admit I keep tiny ones, and love how they turn into shapes or fill in gaps

Soooo...

 I was never satisfied with my quarter log cabins and thought, will they look better if made with all the same size logs? I chose scraps I could cut down to 1.5" and made another set
they didn't look better to me, so I decided they would go along the sides of the quilt top, and sewed those to each other, miraculously they came out the same length! 

Now I wasn't satisfied with the lattice slice blocks idea either, the ME fabric wasn't bold enough...
lattice blocks are on the bottom, too pale

then I thought... I love to insert little strips when making landscapes why not take a 3.5" strip of one of the feedsack repro fabrics, and insert tiny darker green "grass" pieces? 
It's done improvisationally as I love what comes from taking that leap into the unknown! 

you overlap the fabrics both right side up,  
 where you want the insert, cut a curve, 
then sew the curves together gently pulling the edges together as you go. Spritz with water and press


See the wide green insert on the left? it's too big so I just appliqued  the background scrap onto the to the middle of it and voila your eye tells you it's two grass sprigs! See below

remember I found six tiny yo-yo's in my feedsack fabrics scrap bag? Perfect for wee flowers in the grass! 
I actually clapped my hands when I stuck them in the new strip of grass!!!
Whee! it's coming together and making sense. 

I love the whole process of being given prompts for rows and the leeway to tweak them to suit me!


I think it's going to work in this orientation. 
We've reached the end of the prompt for rows, now I just need to fit the bits and pieces together, 
(sorry lattice strip, I think you'll go in the scrap bin for now)

into a unified whole top, and quilt it. 
another Whee! 
then add in some hand stitches, some geegaws to embellish, and it'll be done. 
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