Creative Tuesday: Curls (#70)

Happy Creative Tuesday! 

I'm so proud of myself for actually working on this week's challenge of Curls in advance of Tuesday.  I admit I didn't really have any ideas in mind, so I just let me brush wander over the page in very soft waves.  Not knowing what it would become I set the page aside and let it dry overnight.

The next morning I decided it wasn't curly enough.  It was wavy yes, but I was certain I could push the theme farther.  So, with a black sharpie I started in with the curly lines and knew I was heading in a great direction.

The result is another one of my crazy, colorful, abstracts.  And I'm smitten with it.  And because I can't resist here is the instagram of the doodle. 

Hope you had as much fun with this one as I did.  And I'm looking forward to the next challenge, aren't you?

 

Happy Moment #54: The Goodnight Kiss

A Friday ritual with Soulemama.  A single (or a few) photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary, happy moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments too.

“Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.”

~Omar Khayyam

Catching up with Snips of July

Oh my goodness can you believe it's nearing the end of August?  Me either.  Let's catch up.  Shall we? 

I haven't done a ton of sewing.  Mostly, life has revolved around family, birthdays, the pups, and just enjoying summer things.  Here are the goings on through the lens of instagram (@cwiltex), which the Mister pointed out might be the culprit of my lack of blogging.  Nonsense, I'm just a plain lazy blogger sometimes.

I'm looking to get back to more 'regular' blogging next week.  Till then, wishing you sunshine and puppy snuggles!

Creative Tuesday: Polka Dot (#69)

I have a very late Creative Tuesday entry.  But I still enjoyed creating the piece and thought I should post it anyway.  The theme was a simple one (and fun).  I admit I didn't spend much time thinking about how to make it cute or clever.  I simply played with the shape of the Polka Dot.  And I think this is the result of a whole city of polka dots dancing and playing together.

I started with some transparent watercolor circles and began layering deeper and deeper from there.

All said and done, I used watercolors, markers, and colored pens.  Very soothing to create and nice to get into my doodling pad again!  (Not the greatest picture, but you hopefully get the idea.)

Creative Tuesday: Spy (#68)

Hello Creative Tuesday!  Have I told you how much I adore you lately?  I wasn't sure if I would be able to fit in a piece today, but an idea clicked for this week's meme of Spy and I ran with it.  I even got to paint with bubble wrap.  Yes, sir, a little creative boost when I feel like I really needed it.

Can you Spy the secret coded message?  Enjoy!

 

No fabric incorporated this time, but the bee is made of paper towel colored with sharpie and the coins are made from foil off the top of a food container.  And of course bubble wrap to create the trippy textured background.

Also, I posted about the Sammy picture I painted on fabric for a previous Creative Tuesday in case you want to see the final thing.

Till next week!!  Muah!

Dogs on Quilts & Dog Art Quilt

I've finally got my act together and am ready to enter the Pet's on Quilts Show hosted by the lovely Lily Pad Quilting! 

Girls are you ready?  Perk up and look lively!! 

Here we go!  If we are meeting for the first time I'd like to say welcome and I'm so glad you've come!  So are the girls!! 

Katie and Sammy are two high energy, quilt loving, golden retrievers.  Katie is on the left, she's a little over 5 years old.  And Sammy is just a pup coming in at a little over 1 year old.  They are posing for you today on my most recent finish, the Rainbow quilt, which I admit is getting a ton of use even in the summer. 

For the Dog Themed 'Art' Quilt category, I am also debuting my whole cloth painted quilt.  I think I am going to call this one "Puppy  Dreams," but don't say I didn't warn you that the name might change a million more times. 

Yes, you guessed it, that's Sammy in fabric and paint!!  I have to say that I am totally in love with this new process and the freedom of multimedia!  

It all started with the introduction to painting on fabric through an event that was hosted by my Art Quilt special interest group.  It was honestly one of those moments in a lifetime that you feel a spark ignite and all you want to live for is for painting on fabrics. 

Ok, so maybe it wasn't that strong, but I did pretty much order my own set of fabric paints within a week and then got to work.  I decided to start with a picture I took of Sammy for a challenge called "Darling" issued through the Creative Tuesday Co-op.  If you want to be inspired or to feed a need to continuously create, then I highly recommend the group!!  

Once I was satisfied with how Sammy looked, I heat set the paint and got to work on adding fur texture through quilting.  I admit the quilting was a bit nerve-wrecking, but I am so pleased with the results!

Even with the quilting progressing nicely, I still had to do something with the plain white background.  You see Sammy embodies puppy hood... never stopping, runs everywhere, she's loud, she adores toys, and I might even venture to say that hiking and swimming are her favorite things to do.  So, I needed a background to match her personality.

Here's a close up of raw edge appliqued green fabric to create a mossy ground.  The texture is finished off with more free motion quilting and a few dabs of paint for drama.

I also added bits of raw wool roving in blues and greens to create the effect of the wind swirling around her.  The last touch was to cut those flowers out of white lace, tack them on, put a pearl bead in the middle, and then a touch of orange to help them pop.

Yes, I really enjoyed bringing this quilt to life!  And I'm happy to be sharing it with you today too!

And because I couldn't resist just one more picture of our little ham.  Here is one more of Sammy from my instagram feed.  I'm @cwiltex if you want to follow along there.

It was a pleasure to have you over!  Wishing you sunshine and endless creativity!

Creative Tuesday: Beatles Song (#67)

It's Creative Tuesday time!  Today's meme was Beatles Songs.  You know that English group that was pretty popular back 60's/70's?  Ya, before I was born, ha!  Well, the challenge is to pick your favorite Beatles song and create a drawing inspired by it.  So, I bet your dying to know what my favorite song is, right? 

Me too. 

I admit I've heard of the Beatles.  I can even openly say I think I like their music.  Then, I pondered about what my favorite song was. 

Drew a total blank. 

Then, I tried to think of any song by the Beatles. 

Again.  Total blanksville.  I admit, connecting music artists and their song names isn't a strong skill for me.  (I can hear the Mister laughing at that.)  Thank goodness for Google!  After about 5 minutes I was off and rolling and couldn't get the song "Love is All You Need" out of my head. 

Perfect!  I had my muse!  I got my acrylic paints out for this one.  I've been wanting to see how they might mix into a multimedia piece.  I started with a base of red tissue paper, pink and green fabric, and that piece of striped cardboard.

Layering is my favorite part, I applied a bunch of acrylic paint with a paint brush and bubble wrap.  The hardest part of using paint for me... is waiting for it to dry.  Who's with me?

Thank goodness for distractions.  While the piece dried I set out to add more texture to the Sammy piece that you might remember from a previous Creative Tuesday.  I will be showing off the finish tomorrow for the Pet's on Quilts parade!!

Once the paint was dry, I glued on a bit of lime green tissue paper, and a few torn pieces of origami paper.  Then doodled around with sharpie markers in lots of colors to outline, trace, or emphasize. 

Totally soothing. 

Totally creative. 
Totally creating without concern or plans.

And I admit, I adore the results of that crazy mind of mine. 

I also adore these two lovable pups who wouldn't let me out of their sight last night.  That's Katie on the left and Sammy super-manning on the right. 

Anyway, here's a better look at the results of my mixed media craziness.  I see many more of these pieces, in this style, in my future.  I have even thought about how I might be able to better bring this style to my quilting. 

And of course I had to instagram it!  I can't remember exactly what filter I used, but I love the way it faded the piece and made it seem like old school rock and roll.  I'm also excited that this is my third piece that I found a way to incorporate fabric in an unexpected way!

And, I'll leave you with a snap of the lake down the road.  It was so peaceful, so calm, so serene this morning!  Sure gets my creative juices bubbling!

Wishing you endless creativity and all the time you need to capture it!

Making a Strawberry Tart

This was the first time I made a tart of any kind.  And what a fun experience!

Good to the last bite!

Hope your week is off to a sweet start!

Instagram-y Goodness {#2}

How about some more instagram-y goodness to round out the week?

::  a cute drawing on a package of candy

::  the dragon that adorns a wall in my sewing room

::  a mini quilt, made for me by my dear bloggy friend Monika, also on a wall in my sewing room so I can see it every day

::  we rented a dumpster and clean out a lot of things!

::  we've managed to really tire out Sammy a million days in a row

::  this is a huge mushroom that was growing out of our veggie garden rock wall

::  Sammy took a trip to the Home Depot with us and loved every second

::  we had the lobster picnic at Stew Leonard's -- it was awesome!

::  the mister got me sunflowers, one of my favorites!

::  pretty flowers that I pass on my walks at lunch
::  fluffy golden tails happily in the air on a walk through the woods
::  Ms. Bambi and baby bambi taking a stroll through the yard
::  our lake in the fog and mist
::  the prism quilt is filling out after getting a tiny bit of attention mid week.  I have a plan to finish out the white spots
::  came home at golden hour... that time when the sun is setting with golden rays.  It was really pretty through this tree!
::  got a puzzle for the Mister while he recovers, forgot how much fun puzzles can be.
::  my messy desk that I still managed to create at this week
::  reading my kindle by flashlight while the power was out last night.  Are you reading anything at the moment?

No big plans for the weekend, just the way I like it sometimes.  And here's hoping that I can sneak some sewing time in!

Ready Yourself for Sewing

Here are components of a good creative mind ready for sewing.

1.  A messy desk.  Make sure you have lots of types of creative materials, like watercolors, that have nothing to do with sewing on your desk and in the way.  And lots of wires too.  The ones in view here are for recharging gadgets. 

2.  A crude plan.  (apologies for the photo facing the wrong direction), when you start out even a simple pencil sketch or in this case a marker sketch can get you on your way.  This is a sketch of week #2 of the Tetris quilt along.  You can see week #1 here.  And I should give myself a few bonus points, because this sketch is at least cut out and glued into my sewing journal.  Less chances of being lost that way, right?

3.  A floor that is clean enough to put fabric on.  I know.  I hear you asking me why I'm not using my design wall for exactly this use.  I'll get to why next.  But, first let's focus on the floor.  If you are going to put fabric on it, be sure it's free of dog hair and stuff.  Mine turned out to be kinda hairy and it took a few shakes of the fabric to return the hairy stuff back to the floor. 

4.  A design wall that's full to the brim.  Hence the reason I had to layout my above pieces on the floor.  A cluttered design wall is just as good as a cluttered desk.  Gives your brain no room to process and forces you right into sewing action since there is no 'holding zone' for something else in progress.  And I still hold that the only way these triangles are coming down is either sew or press them.  Seriously.

5.  Get reaquainted with your sewing machine.  Remember this lovely?  It's been too long.  So long, that I was sewing and the stitches stopped working and I couldn't figure out what was wrong.... turned out to be an empty bobbin.  Wow, this summer is powerful anti-sewing stuff.  The bobbin.  Now, how do you wind one of those things?  Ha, silly me!

Yes, I'm being sarcastic as heck, but what fun to dive back into some sewing time after a way to long break.  I'm sure it'll be smooth sailing from here.