Not Afraid of Color

Saturday, February 18, 2023

my creative week.... Fun with Dick and Jane, SAHRR challenge met and some paintings

book cover, Fun with Dick and Jane 9" X 12.5"

the Project Quilting prompt this week was to interpret a favorite book...I remember the magical moment when I realized the alphabet I'd been singing and writing was the key to reading. The spark grew instantly. I came home and said, I CAN READ! I've never stopped!

As I pondered what to make in one week, I thought of our 1st grade readers.

I thought of the other books that have also marked a time period for me

Jessamy a story of a young girl who visits and aunt and time travels through her bedroom closet of her aunt's turn of the century home. I read that one many times, once in the last 5 years. Then there was Watership Down, The Thornbirds, Outlander, and so many authors I've come to love.

When we lived in the DC area, we used to go to the Library of Congress's Nat'l Book Festival yearly, and listen to many many authors speak.

I found a fat quarter of fabric with kids from that era, and cut motifs to collage into my "book"

I visited DaFont for a retro font and chose Fifties Movies. Printed the title out on paper to size

it was too small to cut letters out so I traced them on white fabric with ink, cut that out for the book title, and colored it in with prismacolor pencils in ocher and pink.

I collaged and quilted and finished this into a book cover... 9" X 11.5" opened up

you can see the collaged fabric motifs, the quilting, and with peltex instead of batting, it's firm.

note I did repetitive lines of quilting along the spine so it could expand to hold more pages and fold easily. I did the binding on machine with many rows of metallic gold stitching it in place on the front. Reminds me of the Little Golden Books I used to love as a child.

It was my desire to start keeping track of quilts I made each year. I tried spread sheets and written lists and never kept up with them. Now I plan to capture one of my images, and fill in details like size, month/year finished, challenges. If there is any other fact I'll add that in. I could not figure out how to format this orientation so I just cut out the image, and the typed info and glued in on.

So far I am enthralled when I look through it! I feel like I've been published! Haven't decided if I want to attach the "signatures" or groups of pages and they are all laying quite straight and flat so... no rush

Once again, I love what I made with this challenge.

click on image to enlarge it

At the start I wasn't sure how to pick just one, as I love being lost in a story, of reading history, of learning through words in books. But like the magic of reading, there is magic in inspiration too.

Next up is my Stay-At-Home-Round-Robin blocks/row for this week:

the block prompt is to use "flying geese" and you know I love improv geese and add them into lots of my work. But.... I'm making a Spring scene this time... how to use the repetitive triangles in a scene?

I drew out the idea for a butterfly... two sets of geese, one of them more narrow, could be wings.

picked out some fabric scraps to use...from the batik bucket, of course with spots on there!

How pretty! Shall I cut into these? YES! I even used the cutaway HST units to make a small butterfly after that! No waste!

four HST sewn together for each side

I had used a pink scrap in the butterfly for the RSC color this month, but thought... geese... how could I include more? I fleetingly thought make improv worms, nah. Got out my pink scraps and found these

oooo that might work. It's all just a twinkle of an idea on the design wall at the moment anyway. I quite like the pink under my lavender bunny block, like it's leading my eye to her.

gosh it's fun! I like a challenge, I like making something work with a parameter to work around.

So far it was the center, spool blocks, star blocks, hourglass blocks and now geese.

Last up, two paintings from this week. I go in spurts with art mediums... and am engrossed in fabric art at the moment but in honor of Valentines day...

I tried to learn a layering paint technique from this video, didn't do very well but it was fun

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW0_3nXJCm8

and this one from a video tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgIABNOO6FQ

I totally missed the mark on it but again I was trying to learn illusions. Gotta keep trying...

linking to these parties:

SAHRR

Project Quilting

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com

slow stitching Sundays

patchwork Sunday

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/

oh Scrap Sundays

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
lovelaughquilt.mondays

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

Midweek makers wednesdays

http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/

https://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/

off the wall Fridays

peacock party

tgiffriday

finished or not

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

Thursday, February 16, 2023

I Like Thursday #337

welcome to this week's list of likes... starting with watercolor painting.

This was a tutorial on how to paint a droplet of water, and mine doesn't look much like one but it's a heart and I like hearts. I believe this is a phrase that Jesus used...

So let's get on with the list...

I like reading,

and indeed the prompt for Project Quilting is books, and I made something special. Tune in Saturday for that please.

My ebook for the week is the same as last week, along with this one. I've been listening to this author's youtube lectures too this week

this is playing on audio books: a contemporary story of a woman's life... after she dies

watching on youtube...

look at this clever kitchen cabinet solution! new to me

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

fine dining

made these items this weekend:

all the vegetables soup also includes black eyed peas, lentils and maccaroni


the simple fruit cocktail cake by allrecipes

we had no fruit cocktail so I used some frozen fruit: mangoes, dark cherries, pineapple... it's good!

another oat loaf for breakfasts this week

another home made pizza with a mix of mozzarella and guyrere cheeses this time

we seemed to need to make do with some ingredients we had on hand this weekend. Everything turned out exception ally well despite the substitutions!

My studio calendar is lovely this month....

The prompt this week was, how did you know (insert name here) was the one?

I've heard some very cool stories from friends I asked this week too...

you've all heard our (dh and I) story of meeting,(if not check the label love and marriage=>) so I want to talk about friends this time. I'll pick one story of meeting to tell you about....

I called her Plane-mate Pat.

She smiled up at me as I was slithering down the plane's aisle to find a seat so I sat next to her. We didn't stop talking and laughing the whole flight! Then we introduced our husbands who were at the luggage area, and exchanged numbers. We had an instant attraction to each other... an instant trust and ability to share our lives. When this happens I wonder if we knew each other before this life.... there is some kind of recognition and ease.... an acceptance and understanding. A look in the eyes tells me?

We went on to visit each other, talk by phone often, and email a lot. She was hilarious and smart and wrote elaborate stories of a stuffed bear's travels, and sent them to me. She had a poodle too, and both our dogs were full of personality. We still use a phrase of Pat's, that both spouses needed to be present in order for all to "behold the miracle that is Mindy eating" (her poodle)

Cole the good

She had fought and won a battle with breast cancer, but she developed weaknesses from chemo and took meds for arthritis that reduced her ability to fight off colds and one day I got an email from her husband that she was gone after being unable to fight off a cold.

How did I know Pat was the one? the friend I needed, the one I would come to trust and share time with? I don't exactly know....but I've had this feeling with friends before and always pay attention.

With some people you just know you'll be friends

Cole liked snow

How did I know Cole was my dog when we met? I'd been mourning the loss of my labra-daughter for months. I visited breeders leaving empty handed, they weren't right. Then we tried one more, telling ourselves it was likely to be a waste of time, and there he was in all his tiny black curliness. He came up to me as if to say, finally! Where have you been? All the others are gone, and it wasn't easy to wait for you but I did! He was my heart and soul. A gentleman to the end. I just knew the moment I saw him.

If we listen, or pay attention, I think we get unmistakable clues that this mate/friend/pet is for us

After mourning Cole's passing, we contacted his breeder and when Milo was born, (and related to Cole), we said we wanted a black male. We went out and observed a lot of beautiful pups. I named one party (parti-)girl and she sat looking at us, calm amidst chaos and poop and pups running around eating as if to say save me from this. Tempting.

I named one 'big boy' as he was twice as big as the others, black and white and sweet and easily let me tip him over into my arms like a baby. The breeder thought he was my dog. But Milo was racing around too. I pulled him back, he bolted forward, I pulled him back and he raced ahead again. I picked him up and he refused to let me tip him back. But, I thought, he's the one.

there was that invisible draw to him and he's the perfect boy for me now.

the mountain climber

He makes me laugh, he snuggles (still HATES roll over) and cuddles me, he checks on me thru the day, looks longingly into my eyes to tell me things. I love him to distraction even as he's often a rascal. I think I knew he was the one when he made me laugh the first time.