On Crayons, Snow and Stitching

You may recall awhile back I wrote about wanting that big box of crayons – so many wonderful colors!  I finally bought myself an even bigger box awhile back and I hide them.  My grandson loves to color too and he has the box I wanted as a child but my big box, that’s for me and me alone – for now.  I just love looking at them.

On snow – we’ve had a lot of it this winter and I love it.  What does it say about me that I just realize how important color is and yet I love the whiteness that winter brings?  Perhaps it’s the bright that I love, not necessarily the color.  Then again, I add color to the snow scenes I paint so I must see it.

And stitching – I’m still doing it.  I signed up for another Craftsy class, this time on art quilting.  The first assignment was to use circles, squares and triangles for your design – abstract or floral.  I did a small flower – don’t like it a bit – it’s dull.

She didn’t assign but did have a pattern for Winken and Blinken, I thought about Winken Blinken and Nod and started it… a few variations to make it mine.  This one isn’t done.  It’s going to stay hanging where I can see it for awhile, until I see what needs to happen next.

And then there are all those pieces discharged fabric, two of them got some embroidery added and became mug rugs.

That may be the dull flower’s destiny too.

On working with our hands

I’ve written about stitching lately and about my search for my creative self… the one who makes art just to satisfy me.  I’ve done a lot of journaling, a lot of sketching, a lot of reading and a lot of stitching. 

This silly doll is my new muse, a Spirit Doll stitched in response to a Karen Musgraves Creativity Lesson.

The front is a very old piece of a well worn quilt top.  I doubt it would hold up for any use other than this.  The back is a piece of fabric I had been journaling on – another experiment unrelated but it works because I was journaling about stitching and life.  The legs are a combination of handmade and purchased beads.  I think she still needs wings but I’m not sure what kind so she will hang like this for now… just above the table I use for drawing, some stitching and where I’m still working my way through the “Nine Modern Day Muses” book.

Another blog I visit is “Spirit Cloth”.  I love her stitching and she helped me discover that I actually do like the quietness of hand stitching.  From her I also learned how to blind baste and I love it but that’s another subject.  Now I’m thinking about hand work and that applies to all art… painting, sculpting, stitching… it’s all handwork.

Jude’s Spirit Cloth blog also introduced me to Renate Hiller who did a short video about the importance of handwork… On Handwork is worth watching.  She made me think about growing up with both grandmothers, my mother and my aunt insisting I learn to stitch – fabric and yarn.  They all stitched.and now I feel fortunate to have grown up with them even though at the time I really would rather have been climbing trees, playing ball or doing some water sport.

Another reminder for me… Renate looks very much like my paternal grandmother.

Playtime

This is a proof, I’ve ordered a piece of fabric using my own image.  I started with this photo and obviously played a lot with the color. Can’t wait to get the fabric and I have no idea how I’ll use it yet.

I’ve taken lots of photos and have so many ideas running around in my head that I can’t seem to zero in on anything.  I should be painting, instead I’m playing with fabric.  Yesterday I spent the day playing with discharging color from fabric using Soft Scrub.  You read right, Soft Scrub, the stuff you clean your sink with.  It’s something I learned about from Jude Hill on her Spirit Cloth Blog.  I had fun cutting stencils from freezer paper, the using some scraps of brown linen did the following.

No stencil on this one, just the edge of a credit card and a pencil end.

Like the blue piece, I’m not really sure where I’m going with these but I’m leaning toward small quilts or prayer flags.

Tomorrow I’m going to start a painting.

Sketching and Stitching

I’ve been doing both.  I sketch with a group every Tuesday morning.  It helps keep my fingers working even when I’m not painting.

And I’m not painting, I’m still stitching.  I recently took a short class from Jane LaFazio.  It’s a circle but it reminded me of my wonky log cabin square so I had to try it.  Here is the first one.  I may have to buy another jean jacket to put this on the back of.

All that is left to do on that one is put in on something or finish it as wall art,  The next one I did is small because I was thinking jewelry.  The photo isn’t good but I think you can get the idea … I think it’s going to be a necklace

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The last one I did just because I like the colorful fabric that came in a kit for paper piecing…. I didn’t care about the paper piecing pattern, just the wonderful colors in the fabric scraps it included. This one isn’t done.  I’ll be adding some handwork and then need to decide what I’m going to do with it.  I had vowed this  year I was going to get more color in my life and I do believe this is a start.

In addition to stitching and sketching, I’ve done some rearranging in my studio.  And last night I dreamt about painting…. must be a sign, it’s time.

More Stitching… nothing finished

Lots of playing with fabric, sewing pieces together and cutting them apart to see what happens.  I have no idea what I’m going to do with these but I’m having fun.

I’ve also been thinking about an architectural series.  My first thought was paintings but maybe there will be some wall hangings too.  I’ve got a few photos in mind. Ideas are running around in my head, we’ll see where they land….  This one is on our corner, from the back, on an early morning walk it spoke to me….

The rest of these were taken one day when I was painting with friends at a local church.  Looking out the window I saw all sorts of potential, some things may have to be edited out in the finished piece, like the telephone tower behind the third one.

 

Skiing New Year’s Day I liked this scene – without the cars

And then there were some images as a challenge on wetcanvas, totally different type of image but architectural.

Wishing Everyone A Joy Filled Holiday

 

Wishing blessings to everyone this Season and looking forward to a very bright and creative 2013!

My Focus for December

Finish a book.  Not the novels I read or my daily devotional reading, I finish those with no trouble.  It’s the many books I buy with techniques to try and exercises to do that go unfinished. 

I start, get sidetracked with something else like another new technique or medium or whatever and the book goes in a pile, or back on the shelf and there it sits until I happen upon it again while looking for something else.

One that I happened on that way recently is “Nine Modern Day Muses and a Body Guard” by Jill Badonsky.  I know I read parts of it, there are highlights.  I didn’t do the exercises.  Rereading I can see that doing them would be valuable, especially since my muse seems to be hiding somewhere. 

The first exercise had me go back and think about what it was that I liked doing as a child.  Make things, draw and color.  I so wanted that big box of crayons, the one with sooooo many wonderful colors!  Now I wonder, why there isn’t more color in my art.  My paintings are peaceful rather than vibrant.  sometimes they are very bright and colorful like this small one title Mardi Gras. (it’s brighter in real life)

More often they’re quiet muted color like this Street In Greece. I like the quiet but what happened to the girl who longed for color?  She is either still there, buried inside me or she left.  I don’t know that I’ll find out doing the exercise in the Nine Muses book but I might.  Who knows, what I may learn about me if I stay focused long enough.