Not Afraid of Color: Pile O'Scraps

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Saturday, September 23, 2023

quilting art... this week's creativity round

welcome to this week's creativity round up... I spent more time with needle and thread this week.

The turquoise/aqua color palette sang to me, of peace, comfort, soft beauty and clear skies. This little improvisational piece is finished, and fits my bedside table beautifully.

it started with the 4 log cabin blocks... tiny scraps and color variations, one sewn to another, round and round then trim and sew the 4 blocks together. I had little triangles in the box, so those were done in an improvisational way. Flying Geese.

I wanted color balance so I continued to add triangles from the white/beige box. There! They are just about long enough to go with the center. Add in two turquoise scraps following the curves of the geese

lots probably too much quilting for a 12" X 20" piece and it's done. Bind with another strip from scrap box...

I also nearly finished the quilting on the other turquoise piece too...

The challenge color of the month at RSC is to use Aqua scraps this month... and I'm happy to say I sewed and sewed and the level of scraps left is still high!

I am always amazed at the beauty in tiny pieces of fabric sewn next to each other.

Little steps... add this to that, vary the lines, use all shades together, vary the sizes and this piece turned into a landscape to me...reminding me of lakes and mountains, of grassy banks, and gentle breezes...

Like putting together a puzzle, like fitting in mosaic tiles, like dabbing on dots of color....

I am deciding if to add or where to place the bits of blowing petals. I'll stitch over them with a gold metallic thread. Both pieces were totally quilted with sulky mylar hologram thread and they gently sparkle when the light hits it.

I just need to put on the binding, and finish (over-)quilting it and this will be finished.

I was inspired to use my yo yo tools this week by a free workshop this week...

I had them for years...Y E A R S !! and finally used them... and am working on putting them onto this:

so many decisions when you work in an additive way. Design as you go along.

I think some beaded beads in the centers would be nice. Maybe antique buttons to tack them down to a quilted tree...

Zen stitch starts next week, alongside a painting workshop. I am mid abstract painting workshop now with Laly Maille, so I'm putting down my needle for today and going to paint.

And bake bread. The temps are predicted to be 77F instead of 85F like it's been and will be for weeks because it's now hot in the front range of Colorado. When we moved here a few years ago it cooled off first of Sept and snowed by Halloween. I think, if we are kind to Mother Earth she'll be kind to us. I want to protect nature, it gives so much to me.

here's to lots of time to create this week for all... getting lost in creation makes me a better person

Zen stitch workshop (free) through Kate Ward coming the following week

and painting workshop thru Tamara La Porte (free ) overlapping the same week

linking with

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

oh Scrap Sundays

slow stitching Sundays

https://melvalovesscraps.blogspot.com/2023/09/spilling-over-with-ideas-sew-tell.html

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

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

face off

finished or not

off the wall Fridays

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

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Saturday, April 22, 2023

Stitch by stitch, block by block, a mini improv quilt and some paintings

just a test of my posca pens

I've been sewing, painting and sketching this week. This is my little round up of each....

I got stuck working to turn a set of 12 RSC blocks into a person sized quilt this week, so I took them off the design wall and put up another set I did last year, and loved them!

however I found only 10 blocks so I quickly made two more in colors I like,

yellow/gold

and

purple for RSC color of the month of April

and began to think of how to make these 9.5" blocks into a person sized quilt too.... and those blocks were so much fun to make (pattern at https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/) I decided to make some in black and white...

then I liked it so I made 6 blocks, 3 each for the top and bottom of the layout. But... I now need side blocks, 12 of them for the two sides, and they are cut out but not finished yet.

18 blocks finished so far, 12 more to go!

I am reluctant to show too much before I reveal the finished quilt, but it's really cool! I need to decide whether to separate the blocks with sashing, and what color, or to join them so the points touch and they create circles like the OTHER quilt!

The problem with my other quilt is it's all done in reproduction 1930's fabrics but needs a big border and none of my prints are large enough for that. I want the borders to be quiet since the center blocks are in all colors. I'll find a yellow that will do in my stash...

I cut away some triangles in making these blocks, and well you know me, waste not so I did this one day

and with the black and white cut off triangles I made this wee improvisational geese quiltlet

HEE HEE! I love this tiny quiltlet! I suppose it could be a leeeeetle coaster but right now it just makes me smile seeing it!

from tiny triangles cut off the blocks on the left

this is the back

so the pinwheels came from cut offs last week, and the geese this week. Improv can be small, y'all

as to painting....

I followed along with this tutorial

to make this in my tiny copier paper journal of nature sketches... I wanted to learn how to draw a folded leaf....

my tiny 5" X 6" sketchbook

I follow a blog about two scamps, weimaraners in France, and Katy shared a cow photo one day. I tried to sketch it in black and white, but couldn't help adding the yellow! just a morning sketch while having my coffee.

trying to learn how to create depth and shadow with just pencil lines

I've been watching an organization workshop too this week, with lots of ideas and videos about managing your paper/ scrapbooking supplies. I have a lot of paints, paper, stencils and stamps and supplies can take over your home! It's called "paper crafters get organized"

I am stitching away on my hexie project during nightime tv watching...

I'm sewing the big "petals" to each other now

there are 47 hexies in each "petal" and it's amazingly fast to sew petal to petal although it tires my hands a bit. Anyone else have trouble getting a needle across the folded edges without missing the fabric now and then? I love hand sewing!

Okay, two big quilts in the works, painting and learning to sketch, and looking at other people's tidy studios... it's a busy creative week!

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

oh Scrap Sundays

slow stitching Sundays

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