Accepting challenges

  Deadlines are always motivating but the pressure of time is perhaps not conducive to the best work.

 I had ambitious plans but I'm wondering if my style might not be found in the more simpler modes.

 I do like blogging about what I do as I always learn when I try to describe my process and of course the photos often reveal details I overlook.

I must confess that I like this better on the wall than in the photo.  Aqua is a hard colour to capture and the light/dark balance seems off in the photo.  I had originally been so thrilled with pillow ticking for a base fabric for dyeing.  It dyes wonderfully but the more I work with it the more I find its tight weave a detriment to fibre art.

In the new year I hope to do less challenges and more technique series.

No couch potato

I'm beginning to feel like my old self. Of course, there is always room for improvement but I'm feeling the energy surge.
The binding gave me fits but that was because I under estimated the finished width. Now to hand sew it down.

The Three Creative Studios Tutorial of the Month was excellent. All about couching.

I did make a trip in to the city to get the much recommended open embroidery foot which is clear and has a small hole in the front for threads. Great visibility and has guide marks.

I had the free motion foot and it is so much fun. I do need a lot more practice but it is so cool!

Now I need more practice but this is exactly what I want to add to my fibre art so I shall be playing a lot more with couching.

I have been trying to work in the yard in the mornings. It is hot. I don't need to know the numbers; it just makes me hotter. Tomorrow I should have some photos to show I am not in any hammock sipping lemonade.

Have a look

This is the colour palette for the 3CS Colour Palette for the month.

When I saw the colours I knew I wanted to make my spring placemats with these fabrics. I have 8 of the 12 place mats sewn together. Four more to go and then the MQing. The shape is a bit odd but I needed them to be more square so I could get 12 people at the table.

Very busy day here. My bathroom flooring is finally going in.


Good thing my handy dandy hubby has a helper. It gives me a minute to post my own progress report! And I hope to have a very exciting report on Monday.

Good ol' college try

The 3CS has a number of challenges that I like to participate in. I am hampered a bit by being on dial-up so some tutorials can be an issue. The Technique of the Month is transferring colour and I tried a few things but I need to get the transfer medium. My trip to the city has been delayed so I won't meet that deadline but I did do some 'fooling around' with various things including a new box of crayons.

That didn't work so I wondered 'what if...'

I found the Faber-Castell PITT artist pen worked the best on fabric and I drew a border and then filled it with a little scene. Now this may not look like much but I'm actually impressed. Then I got my iron working on the fabric to heat it up and used several of my 64 colours to add some colour. I ironed the cloth with parchment paper between the iron and my drawing. Kinda cool! oh, I guess it should be, Hot Stuff! lol

The Flicker Group for the TOM is here.

The 3CS Colour palette challenge is a favorite combo of mine. I wanted to revisit some curved piecing so I dug out some old class notes. I did these with no pinning.

This is a little preview and I should have my spring place mats ready for viewing tomorrow.

Can this trash be saved?

These Journal quilts are full of surprises! My theme was garbage, anything we'd be throwing away. I had scraps left from a quilt project. I had a flimsy piece of white fabric. I had some phone books to throw away. I have been seeing lots of projects with selvages lately. I'm not sure I'm for saving all my selvages but I can come up with a few rather than throw them away. I have some paints that need to be used before I feel like I really did just throw my money away.

So, here is the process and reclamation from the garbage.

I used a gel medium to glue down bits of paper from the yellow pages of the phone book. I chose the sewer section which had a lot of non fabric advertisements. lol

I learned in my research that the first colours should be the opposite of your final plan. I tried to use a light hand over the papers even though it is a transparent paint. My 'oh' was kinda hesitant. :0 I also want to add a strip of green mulberry paper to separate my fabric strip.

I'm getting ready to add the finishing colour.

I'm sorry I was so dismayed at the arrival of 'midnight' I forgot to take a photo. But this is also where I got really nervous as things were getting out of hand. The Setacolours were ordered after a class I took a number of years ago. With basic colours you can mix everything you need. Uhm, works in theory but I am thinking I'd rather have smaller bottles and lots of options. yikes! Where is the garbage?

Thank goodness I got some Shimmer Pearl. (I shoulda got white as well.) So I covered a whole lot over and slapped another piece of of the yellow pages on top. Trust me, this was my trying to redeem my mess and it looked quite bad. So I shimmered a whole lot more!

well, that worked and I was off again. I'm wanting yellow and blue. I was so intent on not making garbage I forgot photos and focused on process.

I'm not unhappy but it certainly wasn't quite what I had in mind. Except for the heavy breathing and the heart palpitations, it is kinda fun and as my learning curve flattens out I'm sure it will totally be fun!

So here is my garbage!

This is probably a truer representation than the mellow photo I posted at the beginning.But I'll be posting the mellow version to the 3CS Journal Quilts flicker group!

Determination

I kinda feel like I'm wading thru slough grass. But I'm almost on to firm footing. Even extra curricular activities shouldn't stop progress. My house is my own again. I'm just hitting full stride and the phone announces overnight guests are dropping by tomorrow. I shall not become bogged down. 5 priorities a day; the next thing first. 8~o

Three Creative Studios is continuing with The Discipline in Creative Discipline and I realized my to-do lists are too big, too vague and too inaccessible. I think the white board up above my computer table here in the playroom and a master list in the house binder should work. The white board has focus for the week and 3 sections- DO, Doing, and Done. And so easy to write on, maybe I should have the master list this accessible.

I missed the Creative Cue deadline but I did do it. East- kinda primitive but I can improve This medium, water colour crayons is also new to me. I have a spiral sketchbook and this is all about fiddle and finish! This week's is heel and I do have an idea.

YAY!