Creativity round up this week, Owl be seeing you....quilting, painting and Ink-tober

 

I finished up the painting workshop and although I didn't do all lessons, I feel like I learned so much.

(quilters, the fabric art is near the bottom of this post in case you're wondering! Lots to show)

The painting above was inspired by Tamara LaPorte. She urged us to let go the idea of perfection and acknowledge parts of ourselves we might believe to be undesirable. 

I chose to interpret on this whimsical bird, these three things about my body, plus a roundish shape.

Big Feet... I grew up in the top percentages for height til I stopped growing at 5'7" so my feet were always bigger than my friend's. People pointed out this flaw, as if I could change it, and used it as a way to put me down. Must humans do this? no, no they don't have to find ways to make others feel less than

Open mouth, I grew up holding everything inside and being a "good quiet girl" and when I started acknowledging my opinions the pendulum might have swung past the middle! lol  I might now be too quick to express myself but I try to temper that with tolerance and acceptance of others. Kindness. 

I feel my arms are a bit short, I have trouble sometimes reaching parts of my body or objects in back of the fridge. It causes a bit of trouble now that my spine is injured, for instance reaching to tie sneakers sometimes causes my vertebra to slip a bit. 

I AM LOVE

 Why do we give people power to make us feel less than? Why do we compare ourselves to others? 

I think it's a waste of time unless it's something you can change or want to change. It can get in the way of leading the most powerful life. 

I do not say brag about these characteristics, I say accept them as part of you in this life. Right? 

Ink-tober has encouraged me to draw more.... mostly on little scraps of paper so I feel free to learn

the prompt this day was "plump"

Seems to be more acceptable these days to be a bit plump... but when I was a teen the model Twiggy was  the it girl...

Prompt was pentangle acropolis

I am always surprised how easy pentangle videos make elaborate patterns easy, in little marks that add up to a big design. I tried to use my stick pen and ink (gold) on this one... a fail but it's all good

Joy asked what made this a pentangle... well a pentangle teacher did it in small steps, repeated lines.. black ink? Not sure.  This time the repeated lines turned into a flower. I like! 

In fabric this week:

scrap pile to pull from

 I wanted to use my neutral light scraps for RSC's prompt this week. I chose skinny strips, probably trash for most sewists, and as I like to do, sewed one to another, over and over til it grew into this

8" X 10"

pretty on it's own but I wanted to do something more with it. I always like pieced backgrounds but hate to cover them up with applique! I pulled this book off the shelf

what cute birds! kind of  fall-like

I dug through the fusible backed fabric scraps to build this...

Hee hee! my friend Diane called it curious bird. It's primitive in style, which I like but don't often try that style. It's now quilted (no photo yet) in plain straight lines, to add some texture but no distracting lines. It's on peltex stiff stabilizer so it can sit up on a desk or mantle on it's own. 

I only need to finish the edges, and suspect I might do a hand buttonhole stitch in embroidery perle cotton, maybe with some beads on the edge. 

It took a few hours to design and make, a fun afternoon spent listening to my audio book. After I finished the hand work on the binding of Kaleidoscope. 

all the stuff on the design wall show up on the photo too! grrrr

I cannot aim the digital camera right ever. This is very square, around 50" square 

It's pretty heavily quilted, and only needs a sleeve to display in in the family room for Thanksgiving

lots to see, places to look at when not looking at the TV below it. It was a challenging quilt, starting with designing it on paper, careful piecing and organizing, being careful to keep sections oriented correctly. Each stage was lovely and now it's done. Feels good to finish doesn't it? 

I love the connection between us.... please leave a comment so I know you were here, or email me at [email protected] and tell me what you think

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https://songbirddesigns.blog/monday-musings-6-26-23/ 

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face off

finished or not

off the wall Fridays

This week's creativity round-up... paintings, gold, quilting, planning, and paper dolls!

 

there are many finishes when making a quilt... finish the design, finish sewing together the top, finish layering the top/ batting/ backing and baste, finish the quilting, and finish the binding to finish the edges... finish putting on the hanging sleeve on the back and hang it up or put it on the bed!

this week I finished quilting this big quilt, wrestling with it under the arm of my little old machine. I mostly used mylar sprakling turquoise threads, purple threads, and a YLI variegated fall color cotton thread to do that. Mostly used my walking foot, but along the trees on the border I used free motion foot and hand guided the branches in YLI gold metallic threads. 

now for the binding, I think a dark orange fabric... 

this is ready to layer and baste so the quilting can begin

RSC people look at the project in light neutrals on the right

usually as I make a top, I am thinking ahead to how to quilt it. The stitching of 3 layers makes another design that can make or break a quilt. I have no idea how I'm going to do this one, as there are so many lines already, it's so large, and will be heavy to manipulate. Let me know if you have ideas! The fabric on top (left) is for the backing layer.

Mostly this week I tried to do some painting lessons from Willowing's free workshops...

here is a taste of what I tried... lots of black and white, and gold this week!

yes that's actually gold metallic paint (made by finetec)

it started as a line drawing with stabilo crayon, then dissolved with water to blend

it's not even or perfect or half as good as the teacher but I really like it, and the name is "clarity"

it shimmers in person! I love the stylized way to do feathers, black and white inks overlayed.

another line drawing done with stabilo crayon, then plain water on a brush to blend, shadow and blur the lines. It's random the way the paper and water work together, and I am just able to let go and watch the process. I went back and added in some darker inked lines at the end.

I've been working on 140 lb watercolor paper by canson 

one teacher offered free line drawings for paper dolls... I approached them like any other watercolor, blending tombow marker with water and using watercolor pan paints to blend color. How fun! 

Little LeeAnna used to cut out paper dolls as a young girl, remember McCalls magazine always gave us one!

  I enjoyed shading and mixing paints for the little treats but putting in tiny brads was challenging. The wings and arms move now though...

gold watercolor paint from finetec

 

I like that each one has a saying I believe in...

"we rise by lifting others"

and yes they are in our permanent Christmas tree in the family room, now decorated for Halloween

"Be kind, for everyone is fighting a battle"

I'll finish today's round up with "Ink-tober"   a festival of drawing every day this month! I am working my way through a list of links to daily pintangle lessons... during morning coffee...

it's about slow additions.... a line here, a line there, color in some areas... follow the lesson and just let yourself enjoy seeing the ink growing into a pattern. I use scrap paper, unwanted paper from the printer, torn in fourths, stapled together to make a sort of book to use. No worries, it's all recycled bits that other people might throw away. I use the backs for lists and well, this kind of thing

the inktober pentangle list is here: (scroll down for actual links)

 https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PHycEAPxv7_Ct9fKtONp3JdzT2AJuzFX/view

list of words to inspire you to draw/ink too: https://inktober.com/rules

having trouble leaving a comment? It's likely due to a computer update recently... here is a remedy: 

scroll to bottom of her post: https://quiltingjetgirl.com/2023/10/09/cloudy-night-sky-details-details/

otherwise, my email is [email protected]

linking with

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com

patchwork Sunday   

oh Scrap Sundays

slow stitching Sundays

https://melvalovesscraps.blogspot.com/

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

https://songbirddesigns.blog/monday-musings-6-26-23/ 

http://www.inquiringquilter.com/ Wednesday wait loss

Midweek makers wednesdays  

http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/ 

https://confessionsofafabricaddict.blogspot.com/ 

face off

finished or not

off the wall Fridays

 

Sewing Saturday

 

I have been mostly sewing on the kaleidoscope quilt this week and would rather wait to show you the top finished. So.... these are two little sweaters in the color of the month, sort of since it's hard to identify. I think Angela at rainbow scrap challenge said turquoise or aqua or something between blue and green. 

When I looked it up, I read the color cyan is a mix of blue and green and there is talk of it here

https://colorpsychologymeaning.com/color-turquoise/

My favorite shirt falls in this color range, and I love turquoise  in general. The page above says if one really likes this color :

"They’re more interested in doing their own thing and self expression rather than trying to fit in with or follow the crowd. Even though they’re bright colors that stands out, a wearer would probably not be looking for attention, simply wishing to express themselves without looking for the approval or opinions of others.You have an ability to see things clearly and objectively, you don’t let personal biases affect your decisions or way of thinking.

You find focusing on one task at a time boring, you prefer to undertake multiple tasks."

which brings me back to this week's post! 

 

While making decisions about the direction this would go, and it's difficult sometimes to make a choice as it then limits the choice making! Does that make sense to you? Until I make a choice it's all open to me... but I also love to finish things so after a lot of auditions of different blues, 

they all have a different tone... and this isn't all I tried!

 I chose  two to look like a bright autumn sky, and think I want the border pretty simple so I can focus on the center. 

 while pondering these decisions I started sewing leftover strata together for fun

My little bin is AQUA too!

for instance when cutting out the strata for one piece with a dash of bright yellow, these little shards were left. 

Of course I kept them!

note their size against the 1" grid above. I kept sewing them together til that ADORABLE little flower like thing emerged. This might me my favorite surprise. 

they aren't all the same size but I just sewed them together and loved seeing the fabrics in larger amounts. Ricky Tims Kaleidoscope pattern requires that you let go and let the pieces fall where they may, and enjoy the ride. I was sad that some pretty fabrics came down to a splash of color however the whole thing on my wall is breathtaking to me! Can't wait to show you the top finished! 

 

when looking at the cutaway leftovers, I decided to trim some down to a diamond shape, and wanted them all the same angles and sizes so I got out the temporary tape to tell me where to cut

 

not sure what this will be yet but I like the way this looks for something.

so I basically move the bits around til I get a little excited feeling from them, and sometimes sew them without plan, sometimes trim into a shape like the diamond. They will turn into something for sure.
 

I have 25- 60 degree diamonds to turn into a runner, a lot of small wedges like above to turn into starlike fans to put into something, three  improv  pieces that could be mug rugs for fall. 

 I have sandwiched the purple mountain piece, the 9-patch runner, and the green and purple floral improv so they are all waiting to be over-quilted! I had to do the kaleidoscope this week since the class was going on (I think you can find the sessions on youtube now) but there's a lot of fun ahead. 

It's still very hot and summer but fall will come eventually and I love those colors too

wildflower seeds in a big pot

So this week was one of using my stash of larger fabrics in the strata, then one of using the "new" scraps from that piece, plus getting ready to quilt some work from last month. I listened to two books on audio while sewing this week so I'm "reading too" and caught a good bit of Olympics as well. 

Did you see the artistic swimming? Now the bizarre rhythmic gymnastics is going.

Women multitask

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