Softly into the Night

There is a neat contest going on over at Stitched in Color where you pick a mosaic of 12 fabrics from Fresh Modern Fabric to represent the theme of "Softly Against Black." 

And... two lucky winners are going to get their bundles.  Pretty incredible, right?

Please dash over to this post to get the details in case you want to play along. 

When I heard the theme, Softly Against Black," and mulled it over in my head a picture of a wolf howling at a soft yellow moon in the dark of night, with a light snow falling filled my head. 

Here are the colors I choose to represent my imagination.  The gray and silvers are for the wolfs fur, the blues might be the fading night sky or the blue eyes of the wolf, the yellows are for the pale moon rising high above the wolf's head, and the pop of orange and black for contrast.  I also noticed that I kept to a theme of circles in some of the prints.  Must be that moon stuck in my imagination. 

Fun, right?  You can make up to three mosaics... and I'm totally tempted to try another one. 

Sometimes planning a project and picking the fabrics is my favorite part.  Happy sewing!

Edited to add:

I knew I wouldn't be able to resist just one more mosaic. 

This one embodies a silly tale of animals going to storm the castle through the early morning light.  I warned you it was silly, but I also love the combination of grays and blues.  And the pops of pink and red really push this bundle to the limits.  Just think of the fun you could have with this!

Just Creating

I have a piece I've started that I'm not sure what it's meant to be.  You see, I had the need to be in my sewing room.  My de-stress room.  And sew. 

I started by taking two remnants from a very soft sheet and sewing them together.  Then I took some brightly colored red and pink scraps and began arranging them in a circle-swoosh.  I used a dab of glue stick to hold these in place.

The next layer added was fabric paint.  Swirls and swishes added with big chunky brushes.  Dots and circles. 

Feels like it shows the harmony of my normal.  I see my normal as my days filled with bright and cheery bits and pieces which are just so to compliment each other.  I crave my normal these days.  These last feel weeks have been filled with worry and have been darker, less harmonious.

I instagramed this a while ago.  The framing of the image just begs for me to continue on.  It begs for me to fill in the focal point in the middle. 

What's to come and where's this going?  I don't know.  And I'm ok with that. 

This is turning a bit in a mental dump or artist diary of the time.  Perhaps to finally become an art quilt?  Right now it feels a bit like security.  Like my safety blanket.  Like things will be ok as long I keep dumping out the stress into this container. 

The lesson I am taking from this?  Fiber, fabric, and paint are my therapy.  They help me make sense of things and ground myself so that I can be strong. 

I have a feeling you are going to see a lot more of this scrap as I grow and change it. 

Reflecting on 9/11

I feel like 9/11 snuck up on me a little this year.  I know days are turning into weeks as I focus on the immediate, but geez.  So in my own reflection and moments of silence, I'm sharing a few ground zero photos I took on a walk by back in February.  We were in NYC for the Parade of Champions to celebrate the Giants winning the Superbowl. 

As the parade ended and the crowd began to disperse we walked through shut down streets.  At one point, I also remember being surprised to look up and see the new tower rising.  I was surprised to be that close to it.  I was surprised to see the steel workers with somber faces doing their thing and hooting for the Giants. 

I remember feeling very warm in my heart remembering all the courage of that day and the actions of strangers with nothing but love for their fellow man.  The selflessness. 

It's that burst of pride that I will carry with me very purposely today. 

We will never forget.  I will never forget.

Three Cheers!

I'm not really sure where to start, but things have been busy, stressful, tiring, and have needed my attention lately.  I am slowly stretching out my arms to feel what this space feels like again.  I was reminded over the weekend that it's a good place to cheer on that little happy thing in my life and embrace the positive. 

You see I have a bad habit of worrying... which simply put is spending energy on things you can't control.  I need to remember to spend my energy in better ways. 

::  So, let's cheer for fluffy puppies who know when to nuzzle you to make you feel amazing. 
::  Let's cheer for gardens with abundant harvests... even if you burned the salsa.
::  And cheer for spare sewing moments that calm every nerve and fiber of me.
What are you cheering today?

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!