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Hi all,
Sorry, I know it's been a couple of weeks, but I seem to be always busy lately. That and I wanted to actually have some pictures to post. I have been getting commissioned pillows left and right, which is a good thing, but now I have a lot to do! These pillows are logo dream pillows Donna G. commissioned for clients. I was really happy with how they came out. The designs were both taken from business logos.
Me and Pillows seem to be getting along just fine! i was thinking about that on my way home from work today. I love to make pillows! The very first quilted item I made was a pillow for Mike, my first hub, back when I was a teenager. It was hand stitched and hand quilted, VERY traditional, but it was pretty. I have made pillows ever since. I think I like my pillows because they are a combination of pillows and mini quilts. I do love to make mini quilts, too. I wish I could come up with an interesting way to frame them. I think they would sell better. Something really artsy, yet inexpensive. For the future, maybe...
My damn printer died last week, and wouldn't you know 2 pictures that I need for my next 2 pillows are there, NOT printed out! Well, since if there is a will, there's a way, I ended up tracing a picture of Bowie off the monitor for a kitty pillow for Kaitlyn! I take my deadlines seriously, believe me! I'll probably do that for the "Blush" logo pillow too, as I need to have the lettering exact. That should be a nice one, too.
Anyway, time to de-stress with a martini. Till next time!
Hi all, Happy Monday!
This quilt is my latest addition to Etsy. I wanted to write about this one because when I posted it, I sort of revisited with it and liked it very much!
It had been hanging in a little gallery called Oh My Gallery and I sort of forgot about it. When I took it back I looked at it and realized this is probably one of my more successful merges of paint and fabric! I did this as a result of taking Velda Newman's class 3 years ago at QBL. At the time it seemed like a lot of fussy sewing, but the paint techniques I learned I find I'm still using, especially adding detail with watercolor pencils. And the sewing doesn't seem so fussy anymore....
I still fight the battle of realism vs. abstract. I am a good realistic artist, yet something keeps pushing me to go into the abstract, probably because I don't think I'm good in that style. Crazy? Yes.This was an appropriate topic because of my current project, my Hydrangea dream pillow series. The flowers have a realistic feel to them, something I have shied away from, and I am liking it!And I am using paint and dyed fabric to get that effect, so I feel this is another successful collaboration. If I can do It I will put a photo at the end of this as an example.
My goal is to have 25-30 pillows done by December for the Plymouth Center for the Arts Christmas sale, but in the meantime they are going up on Etsy, and I have 3 commissioned pillows to do. So, yes, I am busy! But I love this.
Till next time!
Hi all! 
This is the first in my new dream pillow series entitled "Hydrangeas." This is for you, Paula! And thank you for the wonderful idea! What a fun thing this is going to be! Hydrangeas have always been one of my favorite flowers, and I really like making these pillows. I love the idea of functional art, especially in this rotten economy. I feel like these pillows do double duty: you get a mini quilt and a comfy, pretty thing all in one.The quilt, is, of course, a pocket that holds an herbal sachet. In making the blossoms I have used only hand dyed or sun printed fabrics. When I dye fabric I sometimes scrunch it up to get a great mottled affect. Sun printed fabric is white cotton treated with a sun sensitive paint. You paint the fabric, lay objects on top of it, ( in this case, hydrangea blossoms) and leave it out in the sun till it dries. You get the most wonderful image of the object on the fabric. I have had this particular fabric for almost a year; I am so happy to be able to use it! This particular quilt is only lightly stitched; I don't know if that will change or not. I was a little afraid to lose the intensity of the flower image in this one. I am having fun with highlighting and adding detail with my watercolor pencils!
You know, I really love flowers, and I have always shied away from working with them in my art. That reminds me of something I read a long time ago. It was about an artist who never painted flowers although he or she loved them, and it was because it was it was such a cliche kind of subject, like ALL artist painted flowers, so I'm not. Isn't that stupid, and that's exactly what I've been doing. Like it's too girly to work with flowers, or something equally dumb. NO MORE!!! I am out to conquer flowers, and I'm starting with hydrangeas. Look for 7 more pillows. Later!
What a busy weekend it was! We celebrated 
Mike's birthday on Saturday with a beer and food pairing dinner, with LOTS of beer! It was really fun, and I think he really enjoyed it. The next day was my nephew Mark's 7th birthday party, with LOTS of screaming little boys! I don't know how my sister does it; I have lost all patience for little kids. But, then, I'm old! ( Not, really...) I took an extra day off this week to recover--
And here's what I did with it! Got a good start on my next batch of dream pillows, this one titled "Hydrangeas."Here you see some of the pieces I will be using for the motifs. The motif will be on the pocket, and, of course, the pocket will hold a lovely herbal sachet. There will be at least 6, with my friend, Paula, getting the first one. This is her commission, and so she should. This is truly a project of love, as this flower is one of my favorites. Especially blue ones. A fabric I am using for this series I made last summer with a sun sensitive paint, very cool. You paint your piece of fabric with this paint, and the blue I have is VERY close to hydrangea blue!, place stuff on the fabric you wish to get a sun print from, and then leave the whole thing in the sun till it dries. You get an image of what you placed on the fabric in paint, as the paint lightens around the object. In this case I used actual flowers and leaves, and got some really beautiful images of hydrangea clusters. I am SO glad I saved this fabric. If the sun ever comes out again I would like to do another batch. There are some dried clusters on last years plants that look very promising....
Well that's it. I hope to have a picture of a completed one for next time! Think SUN!!!!!!!!
Hi all!
Pictured there on the right is one of four "Winter Moon" dream pillows I posted on Etsy last night--TWO are left! My friend Donna bought them; I couldn't be more thrilled! I also had someone see them on Etsy and post it on her blog. That was very cool and I felt very honored. I think these really came out good! My friend Paula has also commissioned one-she wants a hydrangea motif. I have always wanted to do something with hydrangeas, so that will be my next series, hers being the first, of course! I have also fallen in love with dupioni silk! It is great to work with, is surface washable, and has the most luxurious look to it!
Now that I seem to finally have found my focus--what a rough year it has been so far!--I think it's time to buckle down and a make a plan. I've decided to try to get away from TV a bit in order to give myself more sewing and planning time. Not all! I still need my soap and horror! But one thing I did that I've found very beneficial is moved my sewing machine out of the kitchen and into the office. I think I needed to get out of the hustle and bustle of the house. In the office I have the computer. I can use that to either listen to music of watch a movie. Plus, I feel like it's more of MY space, which is so important to me. I am trying to plan things for smaller amounts of time, as I don't have a lot of time! So I am trying to plan small to-do's. That way I will get SOMETHING done instead of nothing at all! I guess it's like inching forward, which is better than standing still. In addition to more pillows I am planning a quilt for a special exhibit at Art Guild. It is for the vision impaired as well as for people who can see, so all the art in this show has to be touchable. But more on that later! :-)
Hey all!
Missed last week because I had to do the saddest thing I have ever had to do: put down my little cat, Bowie. That's him in the photo. We had him about 11 years and he was a very good and very happy cat. He sure did love to eat. Just before the holidays he became sick, and by the time we got him to the vet he had a raging kidney infection. Put him on meds, fluids, all sorts of pills, but he only got worse. We put him down on Tuesday, Feb 9. I cried for 2 days, and I still miss him. On his last day I made his time left as comfortable as possible. I made him chicken breast, one of his favorites, and he spent a lot of time out in the sun. He was an outdoor kitty and I think he really enjoyed that. He also got some quality lap time. Poor little Bo. The end was very peaceful, and he was surrounded by people who loved him. Mike and Bud were there, and Dr. Lindsay. She thought he was a great cat, and he was. i will always love and miss you, Bo. Rest in peace, my handsome little man.
Had a fun morning with Rhonda yesterday; we took a ride to see my other sister Sandra at the antique store she works in. What a fun place! I found these little vintage linen napkins that I thought would be great for pillows for my "Winter Moon" pockets, but now that I see it put together, I don't know. Bud was watching me stuff it, and said, Oh that's cute, but then proceeded to tell me it kind of looks like a "frog on a log," like it was just put there on the pillow. I, of course, kind of bristled when he said that, but as usual his criticism is spot on, much as I hate to admit it. And as harsh as he can be sometimes!!! I mean, I don't hate it; I bought them because the yellow stripe in the fabric is the same yellow as the moon, but now that it's all together I don't think that's enough.I think it could be better. I think that's what was wrong when I was in Joann's the other night trying to pick out background fabric and having trouble doing it. I wasn't connecting the pocket to the pillow, just matching the colors. And I like how I worded that, cause that's exactly right! I have already stitched the other pocket to the other napkin, but before I go any further I will play with it some more, and see if I can get more of a marriage between the pillow and the pocket. Keep ya posted!
Hello all!
Here it is Monday and I didn't forget! Pictured here is a pocket from my upcoming set of dream pillows entitled "Winter Moon." They are cut, fused, and stitched, and the stars are seed beads, and sequins. The pocket will be stitched to a stuffed pillow and filled with an herbal sachet. There will be 6 in the set, and will sell for around $30 on Etsy. These have been really fun to make. Given this crappy economy we are in, I decided to try making practical art, and on a smaller scale. I would so love to make some money from my art this year. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that "Fractured Vases" was in the Plymouth Guild art show; well the opening was very fun and they gave my quilt a great spot. It was also very well received! My work is progressing slowly, though. This winter schedule we are in at work gives me practically no morning time; i feel like I am always scrambling to catch up! Plus my cat, Bowie, has been very sick, and of course it's up to me to get him to his appointments! And administer shots, and keep track of his meds...like I don't have enough to do. Got a call from that little gallery some of my stuff is in--Wee Gallery I think it is called. They want to know if I want to trade stuff and put different things in. I may just bag it. If I can't sell a framed mini there I don't see how I'll sell a quilt. Oh well. I guess I feel a little down; I hate this time of year. Till next time, folks--maybe I'll keep with the moon theme. I like it! Grimlets???
Whoops! A day late...I was so exhausted when I came home from work all I could think of was bedtime. Oh well, I'm here. This week I started something I hope to sell on Etsy: a series of Dream Pillows. A dream pillow is a small pillow with a pocket on it that holds an herbal sachet and is supposed to promote peaceful sleep and sweet dreams. My pocket will feature fabric art; in this case a very simple scene featuring trees, flying birds, and a full moon. I am having a lot of fun with this project; I would really like to find a way to make more money on Etsy. I will have pictures next week, of the scenes at least. Have a good week!
See, I'm back. I think it is in my head that Monday
is now blog night, so this will be a regular. Any-
way, this is the quilt I wanted to talk about tonight. This is my newest quilt called "Fractured Vases." After seeing it when it was finally I done, I realized that this was a little throwback to my quilting roots, and it was really fun to do.
It came about when my friend Janet and I were looking at an issue of Quilting Arts Magazine (Oct/Nov 2009, issue 41). Janet is a traditional quilter, and is always fascinated by the art quilts she sees. We were looking at a quilt called "The Cubist's Edge" by Frances Holliday Alford, trying to figure out how she made it, when Janet said she might actually try to make a part of it to help her understand the construction. I looked at her and said, What a great idea, I'll make one, too, and we can see how they both turn out! Frances' quilt consisted of 12 vases of flowers, but we decided to go with 4, as it would be smaller and easier to finish, as this was just an exercise. So we went into the project with no expectation and had a ball with it! After making 4 cut and fused vases of flowers, all different, we cut them into quarters and put them back together again. Boy was that tough to do ! I liked my vases! Janet stopped there, but I wanted to take mine one step further. I cut a band off each edge, allowing the width of the band, because I shifted them all to one side. If you try to see the bands you'll know what I mean. I wish I had taken a picture of Janet's, as hers looked absolutely NOTHING like mine, and was absolutely beautiful! Our color tastes are completely different, shapes were completely different. We basically followed the same steps, and ended up with 2 TOTALLY different quilts. It was a great exercise! Once I cut the bands, though, the quilt started to take on a life of its own. I saw that when I made those cuts, it made squares inside squares, and I wanted to emphasize that. I did so with lots of fabric paint, oil pastels, and top stitching, to make a light square inside a dark square inside a light square. I don't know that I will make another one in this style, but this was a great learning experience. I learned a lot by working in a different manner, and also from studying Frances' quilt. Oh, and this quilt will be hanging in the Plymouth Guild Art show that opens this Friday!
I can't believe it's been since last June that I wrote in this thing! I went back looking at the pictures and it was nice to revisit! I just watched the movie "Julie and Julia" where Julie writes a blog about how she cooked all 540 recipes in Julia Child's cookbook, and she was so disciplined about it! It brought me back here, that's for sure! I'm afraid part of the problem is that I am in the throes of menopause and I get very easily distracted, but enough excuses. I'll try to get you quickly caught up on what I've been up to.
The rust and blue Grimlet I just sold on Etsy last month. I have made 2 quilts, one of which is pictured. It is an abstract of a group of crocuses, and the second is another abstract about flowers, but I want to write about that one separately. This past December I had another Grimlet appear in a magazine called Haute Handbags; that is pictured, also! That was a real hoot, to see one of my pieces in a magazine! Then, of course, the holidays got in the way, and I took a little hiatus from all art, but I'm back. And since this is a good night for it, I am designating Monday night to be BLOG NIGHT. That's right, folks, I'm shooting for a weekly entry! And since I worked a 10 hour day today, I'm exhausted and going to bed soon, but it will be a lot shorter than 7 months till I'm back!
Hi all,
