Art Exercise - Painting on Paper

For a few days, I have been reading one of my books on art and creativity.  This one is "The New Creative Artist" by Nina Leland.   In the book she is a strong proponent of play as a way of increasing creativity. 

While looking through the book, I came upon an exercise that she calls "Creating Trapped Shapes"  

While I didn't follow the rules exactly,  I did take a piece of watercolor paper and use paint to create lines that cross and go off all sides of the page to create random shapes.   

My starting paper was already painted with a golden yellow that blended into an orange shade.  Black paint was my choice of line.  Then in the following days, I started filling in some of the shapes with color. Seriously, it is similar to crazy quilt piecing.  You want to create contrast and a nice variety of colors that are harmonious. (Unless you want to do something different! It is play with no rules.)  
One strong command she gives is to play and don't expect to make good art. Rather, enjoy the process. Since painting led me to quilting, it is good to revisit painting for a while. 

Friday morning, I walked in to where I had been painting and saw  somewhat of an image in my random shapes.  So I decided to enhance that image just a bit. I changed one of the shapes with some opaque paint.  (no rules!) and did a few other bits to enhance.  It isn't great art, but I think it is a fun piece.

 

This could possibly be the springboard for a fun little primitive quilt design at some point. Or it could just simple be a painting exercise.  I don't know if I will add any more paint on it or just let it be what it is.  I did have fun with it - and that was the point. 

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.

Artsy Fartsy Bluebirds

As an Island Batik Ambassador we get a new challenge for each month. 

Products are provided by Island Batik and industry partner Aurifil for these projects.
Thanks Aurifil and Island Batik.

The July challenge is called the "Artsy Fartsy" challenge.  We were challenged to create an some type of artistic piece that uses three weights of Aurifil thread.  I had a great time gathering my threads and fabrics and deciding on my project.
I confess that there was not a lot of planning in this quilt. Rather, I put fusible onto some chosen fabrics and cut shapes.  Then I had some play time arranging and re-arranging the pieces. (then I fused and cut some more because I wanted more of some of them.)

Once I had an arrangement that I liked I fused it all into place. Then I started stitching.
I realized that I didn't have enough petals on the red flower, but I had some lovely red Aurifil thread #1103 in a 40 weight.  It went on the machine and I did some thread painting with it to create more petals. The 40 weight does nicely for free motion thread painting. I also used it to stitch down the other petals.

You can see that this was taken mid-process.
 The flower changed a bit more before it was finished. 

Meanwhile, this bluebird wing was cut from the exact same fabric as the background.  OOPS!  So let me fix that, but how?  Again, Aurifil thread to the rescue.  The wing is a rather delicate structure so a lighter weight thread seemed in order.  I had some 50 wt.  Aurifil #2730 that looked perfect for this.

The thread painting changed the look of the wing so that it doesn't blend into the background.

I did thread painting on several of the elements including this little broderie perse appliqué flower.

In a few places I got out of the lines, but I don't worry about that too much.
This is 28 wt Aurifil thread.

All of the broderie perse appliqué pieces were cut from a strip of Island Batik

 fabric that came in a Stash Builder package.  

This strip was all flowers and birds just perfect for this project

This odd little fantasy flower was embellished with some 40 wt thread.

The flower petals and blue birds were cut with a couple of Accuquilt dies that I have had for a long time.   After the green leaves were cut, I used the "waste" fabric, trimmed slightly to create the grass.

The grass was fused in place and later thread painted with both 50 wt and 28 wt Aurifil thread.  The 28 worked great in my machine with a size 90 needle and a 50 wt Aurifil thread in the bobbin.  I adjusted the tension to be sure that the bobbin thread did not come to the top.

The same red used for the flower petal was perfect to sign my quilt with free motion stitching

Finally, I fused the backing fabric over all the stitching and added a binding.   The binding was hand sewn to the back using 28 wt thread.  Surprisingly, it doesn't show at all.

 Two more broderie perse close-ups 

And that red flower....

It has more petals and embellishment on it. 

And now the final reveal

Isn't it delightful?  

Aurifil thread and Island Batik fabrics are a match made in heaven. 

(p.s.  I can hardly wait to show you my August project!  

      It is a new fabric line that I love and I think you will too.) 

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.

More Fuse and Sew

After my success with the fuse and sew birds a couple of days ago, I decided to do a bit more of it.  I had already fused and cut the die shapes.  I had another couple of birds and a some dogs. The dogs are the AccuQuilt Gingham Dog die for the GO! cutter.

My dogs are not Gingham though, they are batik just like the birds.  The previous birds were blue birds. Today I used the red batik and have two red birds.  I am thinking these will go with the other two birds (and probably more dogs and birds) in a fun quilt. I will have to fuse and cut some more shapes with other batiks - but I am good with that.

I had some difficulty sewing around the birds. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I thought the tension was messed up. Then I happened to glance at the thread spool.  The thread was wrapping around the rod that the spool goes on.  My machine is designed with the thread spool rod horizontally.  The thread wasn't coming off the spool properly.  Hmmm..what to do?  This  thread is embroidery thread on a small cone. Hmm... (((Light Bulb!!))))  I place the spool on the bobbin winder post.  It worked beautifully.  My other option would have been to wind the thread on a spool or a bobbin OR use a thread stand, and well, I was being lazy and didn't want to get up. This was easier and it worked.

**Today's tip(s) 
1. When you make something you like and have fun making - repeat your success; it feels good.   
2. If the tension seems off, watch your thread to make sure it is coming off the spool neatly. If it catches on the rod, it will wreck your stitches and mimics a tension issue. 

Have fun sewing!

Applique -Fuse & Sew

As many of you know, I don't normally do applique.  However, I have a few AccuQuilt Go!  applique dies.  One of these is the GO! Bird die.  It is just one simple little bird shape.   Birds make me think of happy days, freedom and flying.  I would love to be able to just fly up high in the sky and soar.  Do you have "flying dreams" ?  I know I do.  My flying dreams are usually happy dreams when I am resting well.

GO! Bird

Item 55352

Oops, I got lost there.  Ha ha.  I decided to fuse some fabric - well, actually I was fusing some solids for a quilt along that I plan on doing.  I used up all of my Wonder Under -so I ordered more!  But I had some Misty Fuse so I grabbed a couple of batik fabrics and put Misty Fuse on the back of them.
I have to tell you that I have issues with Misty Fuse.  For me it is hard to cut due to the lack of a paper backing. My poor old eyes have a hard time focusing on it.  There are some things I love about it also. if I mis-cut the Misty Fuse then I can either just add a bit along the edge OR if it is just a little too wide, I can fold it back on itself and it hardly makes it any thicker.  You can't do that with paper backed fusibles -at least not easily.  So really, the good outweighs the bad. Yeah, that MistyFuse is a good product.

So, I cut some birds with my die.  **Today's tip: if you are die cutting pre-fused fabrics, where the fused pieces touch you will need a layer of release paper between them.  Otherwise they will be VERY difficult to separate (ask me how I know!) **   Then I cut a thin wavy piece of pre-fused fabric for a branch.  I got a background piece and fused them down. Ahhh..that feels good.,
Next I layered some  tearaway/washaway embroidery stabilizer behind it.  At the machine, I set up for a blanket stitch and outlined it all.   Here it is:

My blanket stitch accuracy needs a little work, but I like the overall outcome.  This will end up somewhere in a quilt I am sure.

The Tiger Egret

On our Mexico trip, I saw this interesting egret that I had never seen before. Luckily our tour guide knew exactly what this guy is. He is a Tiger Egret.
I just thought you might like to see him. (well it could be a her, I didn't know how to tell, do you? NO! I am not going to lift the tail feathers and look either!)



In the courtyard there was this lovely pink Hibiscus. I couldn't resist sharing it.

More Backdoor Friends ---and yo-yos

There are a lot of "backdoor friends" eating today. This little fellow flies up to the feeder and grabs a seed, then off to perch on the leg of this old chair and eat it. His head was down when the shutter fired so you can't see his pretty little topknot. He is a Tufted Titmouse.











This lady is relatively new to us. We have seen the male version but Ms. Woody is new here. We think they are Downy Woodpeckers.


























Now here are two little cuties feeding with no care that the other is there. Ms Cardinal is skittish so this is the best pic I can get of her. The other is some type of sparrow I suppose














And just so you don't think I have been totally lazy here are some fabric yo-yos that I have been making. They will eventually be sewn together into a nice "quilt," or as some perfer to call it, a coverlet. Even though there will be no batting or backing, just the yo-yos sewn together, I call it a quilt. Those things are surprisingly warm.

And How is your weekend going?