Back to Sun, Moon and Stars

The suns, moons and stars are mine but credit goes to Jude Hill (Spirit Cloth) for the layout.  The only difference is hers is horizontal.  I'm not sure where I'm going with this so I scanned it and will do some doodling.  Grandson said he wanted it so maybe this will be a small quilt for him.  So far I have only a few very sketchy thoughts that need to be flushed out.  

Meanwhile I've also done more work on bookmarks but need to photograph them.  Maybe for tomorrow's entry.

Fall & Another Wine Bag

Every year for the past several I've made a Christmas table runner.  This year I decided to do one for Fall.  I still have some hand stitching to do to finish but it's close to done.

A design wall would be helpful.  Now that this is all together I can see that I should have put the top one the other way around and on the bottom.  Oh well, most that see it won't notice.  Perhaps I'll do another one next fall.  One can only use so many Christmas table runners.  On the other hand, there is still time... maybe there is room for one more for Christmas. But first, more wine bags.

This one is denim with ribbon from my grandmother's knit shop and tatting done by my mother.  The ribbon is an indication of how long I keep things.  My grandmother has been gone since 1958.  It's taffeta and pretty sturdy but just in case, I put a fusible backing on it before adding it to the bag.

I've used the ribbon on wreaths and lots of other holiday decorations and think of her every time I use it.  This is the first time I've used it on something that may go away.  Still plenty left though so I'm not feeling a loss.

I recently saw a knit wall hanging where the person used a lot of her grandmother's knitting tools to make it an art piece.  I have been thinking about doing something similar though not a knit wall hanging. While I was once an avid knitter, my fingers no longer enjoy it so I do another type of stitching.  I have some of Grandma's tools, some of my mother's, and some parts of quilts done by my great, great grandmother.  One of these days I'll figure out a way to put them all together in a piece of art.  Maybe that will be my project for the January exhibit at the Gallery.  We're suppose to do a work of art that is totally different than anything else we have done.... maybe an assemblage?  Have to talk with my friend Annie Morgan... the assemblage expert.

Halloween & More Sun, Moon, Stars

This is the start of my Halloween decorating, it will hold the glowstick bracelets we give out.  I think I'll put a black cloth on the table; no idea yet what else will be there but it's a start.  the crow is one I made with another idea in mind.  He was sitting unfinished in my studio, he still needed legs.  I saw him and one of those AHA moments came... went out and bought a pail, sprayed it black and attached the crow.

I also did a bit more stitching on the Sun, Moon and Stars project...

The top three stars I was lucky enough to be able to buy from Jude Hill (Spirit Cloth.)  Things in her store go as quickly as she puts them there.  I have 9 of these little stars but I don't want to use them all in the same piece.  The rest are mine.  Harvest moon and the sun are appliqued as is the little boat.  

For the boat I was thinking Winkin' Blinkin' and Nod; however, they aren't in a wooden shoe. 

And I this is our little guy, I got there just as the photographer was about to snap his photo for the team pictures so I was able to get a shot too. 

Sun, Moon, Stars and Wine Bags

 This is one of the Sun, Moon and Stars pieces that I'm working on.  It's small and I have no idea what it will eventually become part of but for now it just says something, a quote I saw and liked but I have no idea who said it. "The Sky is no limit.  There are footprints on the Moon."

 And a couple more pieces to add to the basket of potential for this project.  You can learn more about it over on the Spirit Cloth blog, Jude Hill's blog is one of my favorites.

And I'm still working on Wine Bags, these are the newest, two of denim and 1 velvet.  I think I need to make some in Christmas colors next but I also like the combination of denim and lace.  And that reminds me.... I spent three days taking a huge pile of old jeans apart.  Some mine, some husbands, some my sons and some my grandsons.  Now all that denim is neatly organized in tubs and I filled a 39 gallon trash bag with the parts I wasn't going to use.  That's a lot of old jeans.

Today, more wine bags and more Sun, Moon and Stars.  

Some Stitching

I worked on this while we were floating up the Rhone, practicing the Kantha stitch.

And this one which I am still working on; the middle I'm thinking of as spirit intertwined.  The other two are from designs I saw in Arles and Avignon.  I'm adding one more design from the Pope's Palace in Avignon to this one; then it will be time to start another blue strip.

Another Silly One and a Blanket Block

I haven't decided, is she an angel or just throwing up her arms wondering what the h#%l was she thinking when she stitched me.  Whichever, I like her and I think she'll live on my studio wall with some other dolls that hang there.  They'll like her company.

I worked a bit more on one of the blocks for our winter blanket.  Her face is trapunto, there's a bit of old lace (have to use some of that stash) and now I'm adding some embroidery.  I'll be doing more embroidery on this one but haven't decided where or what.

That's it for today, I can't believe I have been so good about posting this week.  Spring Break and my grandson isn't here every morning before the bus so I have time early morning.  That will change next week.

Something for the Garden and Some Stitching

As I was stitching the face on this one I was thinking, actually singing in my mind,  "I see the moon and the moon sees me..." Guess that's why the eyes got so big.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with this but I've gone back to redo a class I took from Jude Hill several years back and this is one of the pieces that has resulted from that.  I like everything but the big eyes.

And this, I did for our garden a year ago but it was too top heavy so it has been sitting in my studio waiting for me to add a larger plate at the bottom.  I haven't found the right plate for the bottom so I added some heavy stones and cemented them in that bottom piece.  No longer top heavy and ready to go in the garden if Spring ever arrives.

Yesterday was Tuesday Painters day but I haven't photographed what I did yet.  I'll post that later in the week.

Something New

Last week my spouse was making Onion Soup and when I saw all those onion skins I asked him to save them for me.  Having been with me for more than 40 years and living with me for one month shy of 40 years he didn't ask why, just left them all in the sink for me.

I made my first vegetable dye and this is the result....

The piece that looks pink wasn't onion skin dye, that piece was in the pot with the eggs dyed with silk ties.  The rest onion skin dye on muslin, some bleached, some unbleaced.  

The piece with the face in the moon lower left is a prayer flag that will hang in one of my studio windows to see what happens to the dye.  I've layerd two pieces than put a strip of muslin and aother of lace to see what happens.  Everything is based so I can take layers off and date results.  I won't take them all off at once.

I really like the result and am anxious to try more vegetable dyes.

Meanwhile.... I also did a still life sketch with my Tuesday group.... from this still ife set up

This is my sketch, you can see I altered it just a tad.  I don't know if it will get painted, it's in my sketch book and we'll be getting together tomorrow.  We shall see what tomorrow brings.

More Winter

 I've added some lace and thinking of part of another circle by the tree.  I know this one isn't done but it's close.  I've started another one with a face, still working on that one too.  And one that's pinned but so far nothing is really attached, just pinned.  This lace seems very fragile so I think I will need to cover the block with something light and transparent to protect it.  Or maybe it will end up an art quilt that will just hang on a wall.

There's also a start on another center; I think I'll practice more border stitches on this one, so far just the basic blanket stitch.

And finally, because so far all of the faces seem to be female and it is a blanket for our bed, a winter blanket at that, I've started on Old Man Winter.  The dark lines will be gone once he's done.  I used a magic pen from Fields Fabric to do the drawing...it can be erased when it's on paper and ironed away when on fabric.

I've also done a few moons to add to some of the blocks that won't be getting as much embellishment.  So far, moons as they were on birthdays and other special dates through out this year.  I've done January, February and March but only photographed one.  The rest are pinned to blocks.

This is what I've been up to this past week.  These and a Tuesday painting which I haven't photographed yet.  I'll do that tomorrow afternoon, when I have another one done to go with it.  Maybe.

The Winter Quilt continues

I posted this a couple days ago.

I did a bit more stitching and decided to go in a different direction.  Another small piece I was working on seemed like it just might fit over the dark doors.  This is a close-up of part of it.

And here it is in place

..I'm not calling the block done yet but for now, that's as far as I'm going.  And since I seem to be in a mood for circles and moons I decided to do a moon in honor of my sister's birthday yesterday .... it was a half moon so here is my March 2nd moon..

I don't know how far I will go with this moon theme but it seems appropriate, the quilt is going to be a blanket after all.

And as I am looking at this work I am thinking of my mother.  She was a master embroiderer as in The Embroiderers Guild of America certified  master surface embroiderer.  Her work was perfect.  Maybe that's why I didn't like doing it.  At any rate, she's not looking over my shoulder so I can do it any way I want and I suppose, if I keep at it, I might get close to perfect.  I really don't care, I'm just having fun playing with fabric and thread.  

An aside about my mother.  I did a piece of needlepoint that I wanted made into a glasses case for my reading glasses.  I asked her to put it togher for me.  She did and when she gave it to me I looked and asked why she made it so much bigger.  Her response... glasses wouldn't fit in what you gave me.  I got my glasses out, showed them to her and said "do you honestly think I don't know what size to make something to fit my own glasses?" Needless to say, I was upset because the case was so big that there was no way I could use it.  I told her she could keep it since her glasses fit in it just fine.  That's a vent that needed to get out I guess.

The Winter Quilt

Just a quick post to show some progress.  I did a little work on this piece yesterday, weaving to see if I can make it a bit lighter in value.

It looks like it will help some but it will take more than just the doors.  I'll do a little more this afternoon and see how it goes. 

Thoughts about art and stitching and more on the Moon and Stars

I think I'll call this done for now.  I may cut off the part to the right of the black line I drew, not sure yet.  As I worked on this more I thought about stitching and painting and which I enjoy more.

No conclusions, I seem to enjoy the one I am doing at the moment.  And at the moment it seems to be stitching.  While sorting through fabrics I came back to a quilt I started a few years back. Each block was different and I wanted to keep it that way but was out of ideas.  I had all the squares done, strips put together and laid out ready to put it all together.  I realized two things... it wasn't big enough and I didn't like the center block.  So, it was set aside.

I'm not a quilter, I made one when we first got married and the teacher was an excellent quilter but also one who insisted on perfect.  I don't do perfect.  I finished the quilt and it became a blanket but that was almost 40 years ago and it's a bit worn.

That is what prompted the new one but once done and not really ready to be finished, I just couldn't work up the enthusiasm to do more blocks.   It was to be a blanket for our bed and since my thinking was winter, it was (is) whites and off whites.  The strips have been sitting unfinished in my sewing room ever since.


 This is the Center block,..

Much too dark for for the rest of the quilt.  I got to thinking about it and first thought, cut it our of the strip and arrange the rest of the strips around it instead of just long strips.  I cut it out.  Then decided I could probably do some embroidery using lighter floss and see how that works.  I may also just applique a piece over the top of it.  We'll see.  Doesn't matter, my mind is in motion and I'm inspired to take up this quilt again.  Hopefully I will be able to finish it this time.

And just to give you an example of how I stray from medium to medium, this is a ccokie jar I made a few years back.  I love it but we don't do cookies in our house so it sits on a shelf in our dining room.

The color doesn't show up in this photo but you can see there is a lot of texture.  I love texture!

The Moon and Stars

Yesterday I did a little more work on this little one.  I have no idea where it's going to end up but for now, it's fun going.

Playing A Little More

This morning I did a little experimenting with printing, a monotype print, on fabric.  Here are two views of the maids cottage on Spider Key.  They’re based on the same sketches in my sketchbook that I used the other day but this time on fabric.  More collage items will be stitched to these.

Thursday I spent the day making collage papers, here are a few of my favorites….

Yesterday I spent the day playing with Thomas the Train and my grandson.  I had to leave him in Grandpa’s care for about 45 minutes.  Evidently Grandpa wasn’t in to playing because when I returned he rushed to me, gave me a big hug saying “Grandma, Grandma, I misseded you sooo much.” Later in the day when I had changed into clothes for the gallery opening last night he looked at me, hands on hips, stern face: ‘You’re not leaving again are you.”  I assured him I wouldn’t be leaving until after he had gone home.  Gotta love that little guy!

Santa forgot his hat

I’ve started to put Christmas away and it seems Santa forgot something.  I thought it would be a good daily painting.

In addition to painting, I stitched.  I’m learning to do pojagi stitching which I’ve talked about before.  Today I finished my first square.  It’s a lot of scrap fabric which meant I got a lot of practice doing the seam.  Things I’ve learned along the way:

1.  My old trusty Singer is in need of a good cleaning.

2.  I really do need to learn to cut straight in order to do a good pojagi seam. 

3.  Life would be easier with a stitch in the ditch foot so I ordered one for my Viking.  So far haven’t found one that will fit the old Singer.

I do like the quilt look and the fact that it’s a single layer (both sides are finished) so it has many uses.  Originally I said I thought it was like the French seam my mother used; however, the more I look at it I think it’s more like a flat felled seam.  I’m going to have to look that up and compare.  Meanwhile, if the snow clears up I’m off to the fabric store with my machine.

sketching and stitching

I never know where my muse may take me.  I certainly never expected to be making stuffed birds but

The owl came first inspired by one of my Chi O sisters posting one on her Facebook page, thank you Ronda.  This isn’t what she posted but hers got me thinking and the next thing I knew I had four birds done.  The other two are small and sit in a nest which is yet to be made.  I learned a bunch making these and will do another owl with ears the right size and in the right place.  In the meantime I’ve got some new doll ideas swimming around in my head so who knows where my muse is going to take me next.  In the meantime….

I’m still sketching in my sketchbook.  These two are from one of the wetcanvas weekend drawing events last month.  This past weekend I did one that didn’t come out at all like I planned.  I was doing some experimenting and learned what didn’t work so it was worth doing anyway.  This is it…

This is the weekend and I’ve got another wetcanvas image in mind to do before I get back to stitching.

Hopefully before he goes off to college

This quilt top was ready to quilt last spring.  That shadow is me taking the photo.  The quilt is for our niece Margot’s baby boy.  But he’s a little boy now, no longer a baby.  Frankly, I was afraid to quilt it.  I’ve done a lot of stitching and done some quilting but the biggest quilting task I’d ever taken on was a table runner.  I started quilting this the same way I’d done the table runner, just stitching with a regular everyday foot on my machine.  WRONG…. oh so wrong.  

So I broke down and bought a walking foot.  Did some practice on other projects but still avoided the baby quilt.  Fear of messing up had me.  This past week I was reading one of Julia Cameron’s books on Creativity and she talked about just that type of fear.  She suggested it wasn’t fear of the project not being perfect, it might be fear of the person doing the project not being perfect.  Well, I have to admit, that hit home.  Often, if I think I can’t do it perfect I don’t do it.  At least not if anyone else is going to see it. 

Well, our niece already knows I’m not perfect so let’s just dive in and get this thing done before Zepher is off to college.  So yesterday I spent the afternoon in my sewing room happily stitching away.  No, it isn’t perfect but not bad.  Now to do the binding, hmmmm.  I’ll wait a bit, practice another couple small projects and then dive in.  At least I can get it done before pre-school I hope.

Newest Work Finished & Delivered

 

This is Freedom, one of the three 8” x 8” pieces in the current exhibit at the Gallery Uptown.  I’m delighted to be part of “Fire, Fiber and Color” with 8 other outstanding women artists this month.  If you are in town, do stop and check it out.  If you’re not, here are the artists who have a web presence, Sheri Woodard, watercolors; Nancy Slack, glass;  Maggie Bandstra, acrylics and pottery; Joni Hyma, pastels;  Valerie Boet, fiber and watercolors; Sharon Smithem, mosaics and oils; and Sharon Tanis, photography.  Jackie Bonomo, pastels, is also part of the exhibit; however, she is not on the internet – yet.

These are the some of images that I have been show as works in process for the past few weeks.  The one above and the following two started with the piece that was all color.  I’m pleased with how they turned out….

Circle On The Square

and Games People Play

All three are 8x8 and $95 each. 

I also have the three 4X4 inch pieces in but having delivered at the last minute – yes, I procrastinate! – I wasn’t able to get a good photo of those so will have to wait to post them later.

Two of my fiber pieces in the exhibit…. Summer Solstice

And one of three from an ongoing Remembering series, remembering the many generations of women in my family who stitched.,,

Thanks to Jude Hill’s Spirit Cloth blog.  It was there I first saw a face similar to this one and loved it.  I can’t tell you how many variations on it I’ve done.