Sunny Delight

It was a gorgeous Spring afternoon in Central Texas, and I finished work early. Hmmm . . . what to do, what to do. Oh look! Spray paint!

 

And stencils:



And some canvas that I picked up who KNOWS when or where. All of that equals lots of fun:


 
 

I think I may make some canvas journals or journal covers out of this.

I also had a piece of muslin that I was using as test fabric; I think I’ll be able to cut some great little pieces out of this to reuse at some point.

Quilt As You Go

I seem to have a never-ending supply of scraps. This comes in handy when I’m reluctant to cut into my gorgeous “new” fabrics (although yes, I am fully aware that my kids would sell my gorgeous fabrics in a garage sale for nothing were I to head for the Big Quilting Studio in the Sky).
Anyway, I kept stitching the scraps together, then joining them with other fabric, until I had 12 of these 18” squares:


Around the same time, I ran across this “quilt as you go” tutorial, so I decided that would be perfect for my blocks. I do get tired of wrestling big quilts under the needle of my machine to quilt them.
This time, I quilted these blocks individually, then attached them together according to the tutorial. It was easier than I thought it would be, and I love the result.


Next up on the agenda: finishing up some old WIPs and UFOs, and working on some surface design techniques. But the next pieced quilt I make WILL use some of those gorgeous “new” fabrics!

Fun with Paint

I had some leftover paint that i needed to use up, so I created these monoprints on fabric:



 
 
I was also inspired by an episode of Design Matters TV to roll a very thin layer of paint onto a prestitched quilt sample piece (yes, this piece is truly ugly, but I’m only showing it here for the technique!). I added some highlights with Tsukineko inks. I think I’ll try this technique again with something more carefully stitched.



And, on a different note, I’m practicing pen & ink stippling:



I’ve been trying to either finish some old UFOs and WIPs, or to reuse them in new projects. I’ve been working hard to “let go” of supplies, old projects, and things that just aren’t working. Even after just a little of this, I’m already feeling “lighter,” so I think I’ll keep it up!

Eureka!

Despite my resolve, I haven’t been any better about posting.

But I did want to share a couple of discoveries with you . . . as always, I’m probably the last kid on the (blog) block to know about these, but you never know . . .

1) Google Reader. WOW! I love this thing. It’s easily accessible to me because I use gmail, but if you don’t you can probably find a reader that works just as well. I remember the days of having to check the blogs I follow manually to see if there were any new posts. Even then, I never made it through the list because I got distracted by their blog rolls, and I fell into the blog rabbit hole. No more! Now I see all the new blog posts in one easy-to-read list (I hope Jamie Fingal doesn’t mind that I’m showing her blog here in my list—I’m a fan!):



2) I’m also a long-time fan of the Kemshalls, and I just discovered their “Design Matters TV” videos. Access to the videos does cost money, but I think it’s reasonable for the amount of knowledge they share with their viewers. I’m having a blast watching the videos, and as always with Linda & Laura Kemshall, I’m inspired to create!

(Btw, I have no affiliation with either of these products, I just love them both.)

I hope to share pics soon of the various things I’ve been working on. Unfortunately, I’ve discovered that one of the factors in my blog-neglect may be my “new” camera. My old Kodak gave out a few months ago, and I replaced it with a Fujifilm Finepix. There’s just no comparison with the old Kodak, and I spend a lot more time photoshopping the pics to make them even presentable.

I kick myself for not following my inclination to buy another Kodak Easyshare.

Oh well; live and learn, right?

P.S.: Glancing through my blog, I see I included a recommendation for Google Reader in my last blog post; that's what happens when too much time passes between posts :-) At any rate, just take it to mean I love Google Reader TWICE as much as I did before!

Random Musings

Do you ever notice a strange phenomenon where time just disappears, and you can’t pinpoint the reason? I can’t figure out why I’m so “busy” and yet getting absolutely nothing done. What giant black hole is sucking my days away before I can get a grasp on them?

One consequence of this phenomenon is that I can’t get into a rhythm. I seem to be ricocheting from one task to another—a little pinch of time here, a dollop there, and then the day is over. Frankly, it’s driving me nuts.

Since I know blogging is one way to give some shape to my days, I thought it might be useful to get something—anything—down, just to have a record to show that I’m moving in SOME direction (whether it’s a positive direction remains to be seen).

So, here are some bits and pieces of my life at the moment. Exercises from Lyric Kinard’s Artist’s Toolbox class at Quilt U; on texture & shape:

Actual texture (the different “feels” of the fabric):

Visual texture (the visual way the fabric “represents” texture):

On shapes & lines, and the relative formality of them:

 

And finally, a piece in progress that came about from the above:

Finally, a helpful tip that most everyone else probably knows about: Do you use Google Reader? I just discovered this as a way to keep up with the blogs I like to read and I LOVE it! It pulls all the latest posts from my favorite blogs into one, easy-to-peruse list. I use Google Reader because I use gmail, and they are tied together. There are probably other readers out there that are just as handy.

Two Steps Forward . . . you know what follows

This past week I “slipped back” a little into last year’s habits of sort of aimlessly wandering when it came to working on projects. I have a class starting later this week (Lyric Kinard’s Artist’s Toolbox at Quilt U) so I don’t really want to start anything new. So . . . .not a whole lot to share with you right now.

I experimented with some bleach and wood pieces and clamps; that was a colossal failure, so no need to take pics of those pieces.

All my sketches this past week were pretty awful. I haven’t felt well and I was forcing myself to sketch anyway, just to make it a habit.

I did run across these purple and green blocks that I had made WAY back when I started piecing traditional blocks. I started to stash them away and realized I was so tired of running across them, so I impulsively slashed them up and inserted some hand-dyed orange fabric, then sewed them together.




Definitely an improvement, but I’m not really sure what I’ll do with this block now.

So, there you have it.

On the other hand, I do have a couple of book recommendations for you. I just finished Mary Karr’s Lit: A Memoir. This book has been out for a couple of years, but I just got around to reading it. Karr is a brilliant writer, and she held me captive with the tragic, poignant, and funny details of her recovery from alcohol addiction. If you’ve ever know anyone who suffered from an addiction, you won’t want to miss this book. Even if you haven’t, it’s one of the best memoirs I’ve read.

For you Kindle people, I happened to run across Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. These letters were written beginning in 1909 by a young widow who traveled to Wyoming with her 2-yr. old daughter to work as a housekeeper. I’ve only just started reading them, but Stewart is a gifted and funny writer who paints a detailed picture of life at that time. And, the best part is, this book is free for your Kindle!

I haven’t been completely slug-like. In addition to that great wonky block above, I went on a marvelous adventure this weekend across the web, learning lots about one of my favorite poets, Rainer Maria Rilke. Next time I post, I’ll tell you how I started at Rilke and ended up at Ad Reinhardt’s black canvases.