Catching up!

I finally got my red acrylic paint to make my colour wheel for the Basics class that Balzer Designs offers. As I pursue my own way I have felt to get better grounded in the basics and this 12 month selection of various techniques sounded like a good start.  Getting Started!

Lesson one is about colour mixing.

Now I had actually given up on finding the Liquitex Basics primary red. So I bought the 3 primaries from Grumbacher's Academy Acrylics which the art store carried.  And of course, soon as I purchased them I found the missing tube at the next store!  :(   So I colour mixed both brands. :)  If some look similar to their neighbours it is probably because I don't have equal amounts of the necessary ingredients. First thing I leaned is I am not necessarily precise.  lol  But I am really leaning this colour wheel and I'm okay with 'close enough'!

This was loads of fun.  I had 12 different blues and I mixed them with a primary yellow.  Very cool!

The extra paints were all smeared into my journal for future development.

Then just as I was congratulating myself on finishing I clicked a little word- next!  :O

Tints, Tones, Shades

This was most enlightening.  I understood the principle but actually doing it was very worth while!

Neutrals!  Again, enlightening.  After finally getting it through my head that opposites make mud- don't do it! I made mud.  I didn't have time to mix my secondary colours so I decided to try my gouache colours. It turns out that opposites with lots of white make a whole range of browns that would be skin tones!  :O Now I can't imagine doing skins but...  My first try was not a brown but a grey. Blue red and blue green and that made grey.  So I found something else in the set.

Then the Duh!  Colour mixing works with things other than acrylics.  I knew that but now I KNOW that!  lol.  I had already diluted my spray inks but hadn't made the next step to making my own mixes.  Luv it!  I also learned it is best to buy good products.  Michael's pan pastels are so hard they don't hardly work.  :(  So I'll save my coupons for stamps, punches and fun foam.  I joined the Artist's Emporium in Winnipeg and I get a discount on everything and they will mail me stuff if I ever give up going to the city!  lol  They are very helpful, too!  No question too dumb!  Ask me how I know!

Now this is as things piled up on Tuesday.  Hopefully we have peaked and the piles will begin to subside soon.

I'll be back sometime next Tuesday; hopefully faster and well rested!  Me and the 'puter!

Can anyone sniff spring yet?

wow - a whiteout!

No visibility on Monday but it looks like business as usual now although things got a bit blurry with the wedding quilt.  Again!  :(

Last Friday I did a major errand run and as I was not happy with the wedding quilt I decided to try a compatible green and a plain white for the final border.  I washed up the fabric.  I ironed and added some spray starch and began cutting.

I think the white dots on the one green  are distracting. The tone on tone floral is the better choice even if a bit lighter than the ones already in the top.  I was thinking the edges could kinda fade out. I cut someof the white. Oye, so glad I didn't do all of the pieces as they are way too stark to my way of thinking.  I am NOT going back to any more stores to look.  I have done that at least three times previously and  there are no better choices.  :(  Now I've had some yardage of a similar look to the floral but I had just discounted it because it has blue and not aqua.  But I was desperate and ...

I think it can work.

I also replaced the striped pink for the darker solid. I had too much texture with diagonal lines that I had somehow never noticed.  :O  I think when I restarted this old wip I had just kept telling myself it was okay and forging ahead.  But I have learned that it is better to admit I don't like it before I have way more to 'fix' than I am comfortable fixing.  lol

~

A bit more of the white stuff!

The lady in the pet shop brought a white cockateil out for the grand kiddies to see up close and personal.

Nice, but my dear namesake told me later she'd rather have a snake!  snort!  This was while the grand son was trying to catch the goldfish!  :O   The kiddies luv the outing.  It is just me that becomes the fast moving white blur!  

I am discovering how to use white.  The big brush Pitt artist pen arrived in my local store and I can hardly wait for the new distress paint.  Dylusions has a very cool white spray I want to try as well.

The 'puter is off to the spa tomorrow.  I  will be sleeping on the new fabric choices but I think this will be as good as it is gonna get.

Bloggers are always a helpful bunch so I'll be considering all the comments and as always I recommend the creative bunch at The Needle and Thread Network.

R & R

This week was relatively all planned.  A little R & R for me and for my computer.

But a blizzard has arrived and the Rooster is home.  The good news is that although he wants to be fed three times a day, he has already got the ingredients spread out for their prep.  The bad news is that I will be stopping to eat, talk and regroup!  lol

I need to  work ahead a bit as the computer will be gone from the middle of the week and over the weekend.  I won't be available to pick it up till the beginning of next week.

Now I just need to remember just what I was revved up to accomplish this week!  And I was trying to forget that the Rooster's new coveralls need hemming!  

Five things to understand

Maybe six!

I tackled the books and the dust bunnies in the future guest room.  I didn't disturb the two applique projects I have not unveiled that are under the bed. ;)  But I am beginning to understand what parts of function I need to retain and still have good form.  I'm going to hide the bottom half of these open shelves!  I am beginning to understand what I like; which is the first section in my No Compromise Decorating Book.

This makes me hopeful.  I'm becoming comfortable with the me that now lives in my body.  I'm beginning to 'see' things I never saw before.  I can see a clearing in the forest. lol

Kindness is a choice and I'm blessed by friends to whom I can show kindness and who are incredibly kind to me.  This week's pot luck involved a dessert I cannot eat so I was very kindly given a little tapioca pudding.   :)

Valentine's Day is about luv, love, LOVE but what we really need is charity.  I think it is only learned from the One who is the embodiment of agape.

Therefore I can still experience peace in the midst of change and a variety of circumstances.

And that makes me very thankful.

A red letter day!

I didn't know I could do this!  You lay down water colours and then isolate what you 'see'!

We had so much fun!  While we waited for the watercolours to dry we worked on another technique.

We never even got to the third thing we were supposed to do!  It was indeed, a red letter day!

Wow not quite wordless

This is not about what if's...

This is about what will be..., Will be.

My deficiency in math is typically glaring and I am just going to do my best and finish.  That means a bit of preplanning to spread the substitute fabrics around.  But  I need to remember this is a bed quilt so only two sides are always seen together.

I have enough yellow, enough aqua, enough pink.  I have not enough original light floral, nor enough substitute light floral.  The light mauve was used elsewhere in the top and is up for a possible.  The yellow green I bought to make up for the shortage of the original is almost gone.  I should have got double!  :(

It will be what it will be! Hind sight on this quilt top is that I should have used only a few colours and not tried to get cute with light, medium, and dark for all the main colours, especially with the design changing as I progressed and the passage of too much time.  I have definitely learned a good and valuable lesson!

It will be fine!  ;^)

Monday's Mind

The piles are getting higher and I neglected to take a photo of the Rooster with the young grand chicks as they tried to conquer the mountain!

That is because I was with their parents as we poured over kitchen designs.  They are remodeling their kitchen and I know that ours will be tackled sometime in the coming year.  I am making note of what is working for them and seeing if it would work for me.  The section of this month's book is about understanding your space and yourself.  This applies to much more than home decorating, I'm a thinking!  :^)

As I work through my ufo's I am beginning to understand what I like and the value of finishing things so I don't have to spend time on old luves!  I have some mending and some household things to make this week.  I shall plug away on the curved blocks.

The classes I have actually paid money for need to be brought up to the top of my to-do list.

This is all pretty boring but it is a necessary post as I drag my wandering mind back to what is supposed to be moving me forward on my goals for the year.  

Charge!!!

Something satisfying

I got a nice selection of fabrics from Sew Sisters Quilt Shop in Toronto.  A few 'just because' and the rest are for making my 'own' fabric.  The two charm packages were thrown in as extras!  :)

My search for shelves was frustrating and the closest I came was a shower shelf.  I'll see how that works but my next try will be the new IKEA in Winnipeg.

I had a wonderful early morning playtime with deli paper and screen printing.  

I was playing with paper instead of sewing that first row of blocks to my quilt top.  But I do have the first row of blocks all sewn together.  phew!

And I just finished the 12 winter place mats.  They are ready for Sunday lunch!  

I am very satisfied with the week.

Early morning excitement!

I did have a reasonably packed day with some boring chores scheduled into it.  But then I had a peek at what my very good friend Margi was up to last night.  :O  She is waiting for Nemo and now that I have grand kiddies I know all about Nemo.  lol  But I had only a bit of theoretical knowledge about screen printing.

Scrap Wisdom Collage is where you will find Margaret's blog and can see and learn as she pushes all the boundaries of making collages.  I'm a FAN!  I have been following her ever since she did a guest tutorial on the old Three Creative Studios blog.  I've been buying screens, stencils and dvd's and I can probably blame my Photoshop Elements on her as well!  ;^)  I've been asking lots of questions and she answers just about all of them. She doesn't know how to add more time to a day though!

So when I set my coffee cup down to check out the weather conditions in her neck of the woods I saw that she had been making good use of a storm day and I 'just' had to change my plans if not my jammies!

I prepped some watercolour paper and painted some deli paper.

I used the boring stencil that she had added to my order.  whoo hoo!

I smeared paint from my palette paper with the recommended squeegee which is like a wall paper scraper/smoother.  Gorgeous melds!

I leaped onto a deep cadmium red.  Look at all those blends of hot goodness!

I had no Inktense blocks but I tried NeoArt water-soluble wax pastels.

The extra bonus was I now know how they work!  :)

What an amazing amount of creative fun!  I need to get a better grasp of loading up the squeegee but  it is very forgiving for the odd ooops!

Now I am not even sure I can get back to the mundane!  The regularly scheduled  Friday Finish report will become the Saturday summing up!  Now what if....

wow, slow down for curves

In spite of signs that there are curves ahead I am beginning to pick up speed.

The curves are NOT hard.  But keeping all the colour combos straight and the diagonal shading rightly oriented is challenging.  I have already picked out one mistake. :(

It doesn't help that the design wall is across the hall!

The other challenge is that I am getting really nervous about how much fabric I actually have.  I am already making adjustments and substitutions!

And it is that time of the week to have a look at the Trans Canada Internet highway to see how my fellow  TN&TN's are doing.  I hope they are handling there curves with skill and speed!  :^)

Backgrounds

These are my backgrounds for the month of February.

It is very cold and I don't imagine imagine we'll see anything of warmth until March.

But if any warmth shows up I will be definitely adding it to the pages.

I'll be reckoning up things for winter and getting ready to embrace spring.

It is kinda tricky making a plain enough background to support whatever the month will bring.

But spring always gives a promise of something exciting happening.