A bit of Creation and Quilting

One day recently, perhaps it was Saturday, I pulled out some pieces of fabric from my "chunks and pieces" collection.  I was not using yardage for this.  I intended to use  what I made from this technique to make a quilted notebook cover.  That is one of my go-to projects when I just want to play with fabric.  

Cutting the fabric into strip - just a rough size, no need to measure exactly for this - I was thinking about color relationships.  I started with the aqua, lime green, yellow and purple. Then I decided to add some darker green,  a midtone violet, a hand dyed lavender and just a pop of red.  I started with all solid colors, but the darker green was a print.  I didn't have enough of the green, so I did some more digging and found a dark solid green. 
I used them both. 

As I laid out the strips into patterns, I was trying to find a design that made me happy. Two were laid out, considered and put away.  Then, instead of a "pattern" - I decided to had a "plan" that wasn't exact. 
I started in the middle of this piece and worked outwards on both sides. My plan was to keep the lighter colors in the middle in  a somewhat random pattern.  I came out with this and used the dark green solid to enclose the ends of the piece. 

I worked on that for a few days. 

Then it was quilting time. 
How should I quilt it?

What color thread?

I decided to try to make the thread match the fabric to some degree.

Here it is Quilted.

Essentially, I quilted inside each shape and left it at that. 

Now I need to figure out how I will finish it.  

I don't have enough of the dark green to enclose the sides without piecing it.

One possibility is a simple black binding around the entire piece. 
I don't want to distract from art.  

The dark purple would work also, but I used it up. 

Hmmm.... time will tell. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Owls -Altered Book Page

Just for fun, I ordered some acrylic gouache.  I saw it used in an art class video. 

Of course I took a piece of paper just to play with the paint and see how it works.  I had no plan but this is what I ended up with. 

The paint is matte finish just like watercolor gouache.  After I painted the colors and let it dry, I went back in with a black Zig brand pen and decorated those circle shapes. 

I was convinced I could have fun with these paints so I opened my altered book to a page that was prepped with gesso and painted these owls. 

I did go back in to add a bit with some watercolor crayons as the paints resisted a bit on the gessoed paper. I think it came out like a children's book illustration - and I like it. 

I will try the acrylic gouache on some other pages that haven't been coated with gesso another time. 

Linking to the Friday Face off.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A Quilt Finish - 2018-2026

In 2018,  I started a quilt.   I made the top in good time (all in the month of March, I think.)  Parts of it were likely crumb blocks or crumb pieces that I had started earlier, but they were just "playtime" pieces. 

A friend designed the layout for a crumb quilt and I decided to play along, knowing that I wasn't copying it really - just using a basic framework for my unique crumb blocks. 

Then the top was finished and somehow ended up in a pile.  I don't know when I decided to layer and baste it, but I did.  I used Elmer's school glue to baste it. It worked, it held well, but honestly the glue bled through the top and it looked awful.  I knew that the glue would wash out, but I didn't show any of the quilting process because of it. 

I quilted on it for a while and it landed in a pile one more time.  Somehow the tension got off and I had to rip out a section of it. Finally, a few days ago I started quilting on it once more. Once the quilting was finished, I let it sit overnight and trimmed it the next morning.  Then I cut the binding and finished it today. 

With the wildness of the piecing,  I decided to use a flamboyant print fabric for the binding. 

I wasn't sure how it would look but I just ran with the idea.  

I think the binding choice is perfect. 

Here are some close up photos of the quilting. 

It isn't perfect, but it is fun and most importantly

    IT IS FINISHED..

I have a couple of other quilt tops in a pile. 

But I also have some of my handwoven chosen to work with. 

hmmmm...what next? only time will tell. 

I have a painting in an altered book that I will be showing Friday.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Sunday, creating digitally

For Sunday in the Art Room I wanted to share a video with you showing stages of a digital painting. 

I had to upload it to YouTube since blogger isn’t cooperating with me today. 

I was going to embed the video, but that isn’t working today either. So I am sharing it as a link.

Link

If you watch, you’ll see that I started by importing one of my sketches. Then I traced over parts of it and even changed parts.  Procreate is an app for the iPad. It allows me to work in layers. For example, in this video and image the lips are one layer. That is right, just the lips. What this means is that I can hide the li layer and create a new layer to have different lips if desired. 

 I suppose I need a picture or two, so here is the lady.

Yes this is a different version. You can duplicate your work and create different images without repeating all of the work.

Here is the finished one from the video

Linking to Sunday in the Art Room

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Finding my way back

This may be sad or triggering for some of you. If you find it to be too much, I don't mind if you scroll down to the dashed line and start there.

For over six years I was one of two caregivers for my mother who had dementia. Her particular dementia was Vascular Dementia.  That means that the blood vessels in the brain were damaged in some way leading to a lack of oxygen and nutrients in the brain. This eventually causes brain tissues to deteriorate and eventually fail to function.  
Toward the end of September, my mother passed away peacefully on a Sunday morning. She had been under hospice care for about a month. I will say that our experience with hospice was excellent. 

I am 'stuck' with the role of executor for the will at this point and it is stressing me out. My feelings about loss and everything else have me in a state of confusion and mixed feelings.  I thought that once mom passed I would be able to resume my "normal" life.  However, at this point I feel like a little boat adrift on the high tides in the middle of the ocean.  I am trying to get back into my creative activities, but they seem pointless right now.  

---------------------------------------------

I did join a brand new writer's group that is meeting at the Public Library here. Our first "assignment" was to describe ourselves in three words and expand on those words. The words I chose were words that I think portray my best side. Perhaps I should repeat the exercise and use three of my worst traits. 
Anyway,  I chose to use "songwriter" "creative" and "friend"'

Here is that piece. 

songwriter, poetry with melody

I try to live in harmony 

I share my words with you

the feelings here in heart and mind

always trying to be kind

I share my dreams with you

creative soul, creating art

quilting and painting are a part

of what I share with you

creative things come from within

happy things that make me grin

I share a smile with you

Friend, a companion I judge not

I try to do just what I ought

 caring for a special few 

I will share my life, my hopes, my dreams

but I won't push it to extremes 

you can trust me to be true

I hope you enjoyed that bit of poetry.  

Now let me share some gel prints

This was a gradient printed over the purple abstract tree shape. 

These are two gradients that will probably be used in collage. 

This is a nice almost neutral that should also work well in collage. 

And, for the Friday Face Off,  here is a very old photo from the family archives. 

I am not sure just who these folks are. 

My mystery ancestors.

I suspect that they are on my maternal lineage but I have had no luck in identifying them. 

Linking to the Friday Face Off

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Monsters? SITAR

After more than a month away,  I am back for Sunday in the Art Room.  Today I am sharing art that is not my work.  My niece's husband has written at least two children's books.  My offering for today is a bit of art from his second book. "There Are No Monster's Under My Bed"  

The illustrations that Kevin has created are delightfully whimsical.   I love the "monsters" in the book best of all, so I am sharing a couple of photos.  These are only cropped portions of the illustrations, but you will easily get the feel for his illustration style. 

 First is two monsters running. 

I love the cape flying along behind the frog. And those lips on the purple monster are so much fun. 

The second photo I am sharing is that purple monster from a front view. 

I think I would have been frightened of this one as a child also. 

The story explains how the child realizes that the monsters are just 

ordinary things that we see differently in dark rooms. 

If you would like to get this book for someone you love, you can find it on Amazon

There Are No Monsters Under My Bed

Linking to Sunday in the Art Room

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A 36 Year Old Photo

Back in 1990,  when I was a bit younger than I am now,  a dear friend and I went on a trip to Pigeon Forge Tennessee.  The town was packed. This wasn't a surprise to us and we were all there for the Opening of Dollywood's 4th year.  This year they were adding a carousel. In grand fashion, there was a parade through the main street of the town.  The Grand Marshall was riding on a Lion from the carousel. 

I had my camera with a zoom lens and was chasing along taking photos.  Here is a photo that I took that year with my good old Pentax film camera.  

Yes, of course the Grand Marshall for the parade was none other than Dolly Parton. 

As she was going by,  I yelled out "Hey, Dolly!  I never saw a fox riding on a lion before." 

She laughed delightedly and said "I never thought of it that way!"

Rest in Peace, dear lady.

Linking to the Friday Face off.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Altered Book Pages

I have been missing on here for a while. These days I have a lot less time and energy for creating because I am caring for my Mom.  She is in the later stages of dementia.  That's life and we carry on. 

However,  this week I took a little time to create a two page spread in one of my altered books and decided to share these pages with you.  The first page was created starting with a "roll-off" sheet.  Let me explain.  

When you are printing with a gel plate, you use a brayer to roll out the paint. Then to clean off the brayer, you "roll off" the remaining paint on scrap paper.  I am actually using an old manual from a leadership class as paper for this process.  So here is that page:

To fill in the areas around the roll off,  I used some of my painted papers and a couple of brush markers. 

For the facing page, I used the above as inspiration and created a similar image using mostly collage and some brush markers. For the collage, I used painted papers and a few pieces from an old magazine page.

They are different yet similar and I like them both.  

I am linking to Sunday in the Art Room.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Little Me

I was going through some old photos on my phone and found an early photo of me. My grandfather had stood me on the hood of a car holding my Easter basket.  I appear to be roughly 4 years old, but I could be off a year either way. 

My at those fat little legs! They thinned out as I grew.  I was a skinny child in school. 

Anyway,  I decided to put this into the AI "remix" on my phone and make a watercolor

type image of it, just for fun. 

I have to laugh at the AI "goof" of putting flowers growing inside the car. 

I still think it came out as a lovely image. 

Linking to the Friday Face Off

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Is this one slightly creepy?

As I continue to work on my altered books, I find pages that you haven't seen yet.  This first one may be slightly creepy. I probably added to the creep factor by the words I added. (it as unintentional - I promise

New Beginnings

This is a photo transfer from a magazine - she is actually pretty.

The transfer is done with a gel printing process. I put this over another 

gel print that I had drawn lines on. I think the lines make it creepy. 

Here  is a happy alien,

This is a copy of a drawing that I colored, cut out and collaged over a 

painted background. 

Linking to the Friday Face Off

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

A face or two for Friday

Friday is the day Nicole hosts the Friday Face Off,  so I have a couple of "faces" to share today. 

I took some fabric that I bought in Mexico several years ago. It is a bordered fabric and I like the other part far more than the part with the white background.  Of course I kept the part with the white thinking "I may find a use for it someday."   One of the "themes" I have in my altered book is flowers and wildflowers.  So, I cut up the pieces to collage into my book. 

Here is the layout

Yes,  did buy this in Mexico, but the words are in French. 
I also added a few strips of washi tape with flowers. 

And I did a few quick pen drawings right on the page. 

There are faces there.  Do you see them?

If not, here are some close ups

Oh yes, I forgot to mention that a few places, I used an acrylic pen to 

make the design a bit stronger. 

But how about another face - this one is mine. 

I took a selfie and used AI on it to paint myself.

I think it is the most accurate AI changed photo of me that I have seen. NO, I don't have paint on my face, but I have always loved artists that weren't afraid to add color that "isn't really there" to a face or shadows or whatever.  

Linking to The Friday Face Off
I hope Nicole is feeling better and can host this week. She shared that she was having a bad Lupus flair in her last post. Wishing you well, Nicole. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Artful Sunday

This week passed rather quickly.  But I did get some work done on my altered books.  One of them is quickly nearing completion - and I think I avoid working on it for that reason. 

I have been saving the fortunes from my fortune cookies - well some of them. I like to add them to a page for content.   I thought this one was perfect for the inside cover of one book. 

It says "You are loved. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise."

The image is one of my AI creations that I printed and collaged on the inside cover. 

The facing page is just covered with tinted gesso right now. I will certainly be adding something. 

Here are two more pages that I gessoed while I was using the gesso.

I really like using the gesso with a few drops of paint to make an interesting background. 

Here is one that has been done for a while but I don't think I have shown it. 

The quote or something similar is attributed to Picasso.  I thought that was appropriate for my hand stamp - too many fingers, a subtle nod to Picasso.  A friend mentioned that the facing page looks a bit like a face. Do you see that?

Next is a two page spread with gessoed background and ATCs as the content. 

I confess that I had to go back and relearn how to draw the central design  on the upper left card. 

Now I had drawn many variations on that which will surely turn up in a later post. 

Finally here is a wish for you in the fortune. 

(Your dreams will come true.) 

Linking to Sunday in The Art Room

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.