Before and After

Back in September I took this piece to a meeting where it was critiqued by someone that has a lot more art education than I do

I made this piece during 2012 as a response to a challenge to make a piece of art based on the word FOUR

I was pretty sure it was finished -- it had even been in a showcase exhibit at a quilt show in Denver

but I wanted to hear what someone else thought

 

and this is what it looks like now

making the change was not real difficult, but I think it makes a big difference

I was pretty nervous about having something critiqued, but it was done in such a positive, constructive and supportive way that I came away really excited about the experience and now I've even joined an online critique group to continue asking for assistance with future pieces

(and yes, I did actually do a little hand stitching on this to finish it up last night, so the hand is recovering nicely, thanks)

the DH attended a wood working demo on Saturday afternoon, and while he was learning all about using his router, I sat and worked on knitting more parts for the dinosaur

that bright orange piece is the tummy gusset, then then gray head and the spotted back leg

this is moving right along

some more paper crafts got finished too --- this is the front of the invitations for a gathering that I did on Saturday morning

we've been doing the clean up of the leaves now that the cold weather and the wind have taken almost all of them off the trees

when I went to the shed in the back yard to get out the leaf blower, this is what I saw

evidence once again that there is ample material for making art all around if you are paying attention

I think this will be another piece in the "Slice of Life" series

today there is a bit more outdoor work to do and the usual Monday laundry -- time to get to that

what one can do with a bandaged finger

the hand is recovering -- it may be a few more days before I can hold a sewing needle to do bead work or hand stitching, but I discovered yesterday that there were a few things I can do

like stamping the trees onto the card stock for the Christmas cards

I did all 50 cards yesterday afternoon -- yippee!!  step one of that project is done

and I can knit!! 

so now the body of the dinosaur toy is all finished and I've finished the tummy section up to where the decreasing begins

this is a good thing since this at least is progress on Christmas projects!

and I worked on this some more

I have eight more rows to do that go from the front edge of the sweater over the shoulder and down to the back edge then I'll be doing the last sleeve 

rolling along here too

doing what I can.......

some good stuff, some bad stuff

I've been working on this year's Christmas cards

 from a drawing 

to a hand cut rubber stamp

 

to the way the stamp will look as the background of each card


I like how this is looking

and there is this drawing that I did recently

but the question, as with all abstract pieces is "which side up?"

I hope to make this into a quilted triptych, have not decided how big yet

I should have stayed with the paper crafting and stayed away from the sewing machine and I could have spent six hours at home instead of sitting the the waiting room of the emergency room waiting for what amounted to about 10 minutes of care

and before you ask why "why not your doctor's office" I'll tell you that I called there first but they didn't have anyone available to see me and I was told to go to the ER

I won't be doing any stitching for a few days, as the wound needs to heal from where they removed the sewing machine needle from my finger

talk about feeling majorly stupid

geesh!

making design decisions

number 1

number 2

number 3

now that the pieces are ready I have to decide how to put them all together

and of course how this actually works out will depend on how the string up goes

which one do you like?

Elphie and the divining rod

I took this picture (and several other angles) on Saturday in our side yard

it's a little hard to see, but what inspired the picture taking was the stick she had picked up and had between her front paws -- it looks like a diving rod!

what I did not notice until I opened the picture on my computer screen later is the awesome shadow pattern across the picture

this will be going into my file to turn into another art quilt

meantime, work on sorting, packing and moving stuff continues -- I'm struggling with not having any time to work on art projects as my sewing just now is focused on getting Christmas projects done, and there has not been any extra time to do art between those things -- feeling pretty cranky about that mostly because I can't see the end of it right now

trying to deal with what appears to be the new normal of pain level now that cold weather and storm fronts are rolling through is not doing anything to improve my state of mind either

just trying to soldier on

some more progress

these are going much quicker with each one I make (now if I could just sit down to work on this project at a time of the day that I don't nod off into a nap!)

I have 3 more of these to do then I'll be trying out the combinations to put this piece together

I love this little guy

this was my first attempt at piecing a background, fusing something on top then doing detail stitching over that

the stitching really brings out the details

now it's on to the quilting!

dinosaur spots!

the knitting is rolling along

spent a lot of time the last few days working on sorting, packing, trashing and rearranging -- made enough trips up and down the basement stairs that my knee is bothering me again (NUTS!)

hoping for a little working and a little art time today as soon as all the week's paperwork is done

onward!

Before and After

there was something not quite right about the picture on the left

so I made some changes 

now I'm ready to move on to the quilting 

and I'm starting to think about the next piece from this series

four done -- seven to go!  looking good

more spots -- this project is rolling right along too

the project to move my studio from where it was in the dining room to it's newly rearranged home in the basement is progressing nicely  -- when my daughter and son in law were here earlier in the month my son in law helped us carry all of the big tubs of fabric down there, and the DH and I have been slowly moving smaller things there since --- I'm nearly to the point that I can at least start working on some Christmas sewing soon

most of this week I've been struggling with a sinus infection -- finally this morning starting to feel less woozy and achy -- things are looking up

changing direction

sometimes once I get into a project I decide something needs to be changed -- in this case, the triangle bead at the top left of the picture just didn't work for me

so I redid it

I like the square better and the colors are a lot better

so now I have 10 more of these to do

then there is this project

even though I really liked the look of the first version, it turned out that the yarn I began with is a color long ago discontinued so I can't get any more of it

so, we began again last night with different yarn -- more spots this time -- I think it will be good too

rolling right along

all of the aqua colored crystal beads have their framing

so do all of the dark blue one

now it's on to the next color!

the knitting of the dinosaur toy is going well -- except I need some more of the yarn I'm using

this is being made out of a cotton yarn and there is not enough of it in the two little balls I had from a prior project to do the whole thing --- I'll be trying to remedy that today

success!  the camper has tail lights!

I think this is ready to be sandwiched and quilted now

time to get moving --- lots to do -- laundry, shopping, packing, etc., etc.

Testing, Testing

before I can move on to the next steps on a couple of projects, I needed to test out how well the techniques I plan to use would actually work

the "test" on the left side is a stencil that I cut from freezer paper to see if I could use it to paint the tail lights on the camper  --  it worked really well

the "test" on the right side is a color photograph printed on fabric -- now that it has been heat set, I need to do the washability test -- keeping my fingers crossed!

yesterday we put up most of the rest of the tomatoes from the great garden stripping that we did the first weekend of October at our daughter's --- eight pints of San Marcos plum tomatoes all ready for the shelf and future making of pasta sauce -- YUM!

this project is moving along --- I've nearly finished with encircling the crystal beads of this color

and I finally remembered to take a picture of the shell I'm knitting for myself -- love the color and the pattern, but it is only getting about half an hour a day as I'm trying to get other Christmas projects finished --- 

time to get back to work!

Stealing time for the studio

even though we ran errands yesterday and did some more work inside the house, I did get some time to work on art projects too

the pieces for this project are slowly coming together -- circles are more difficult that triangles or squares

the quilt top is almost done --- a little more to do, but I need to experiment with a technique first to be sure it will work

this one is coming along too -- and also needs some experimenting on some scrap fabric for the next step

and the beginning of another Christmas project

this is the beginning of a toy that I hope to be able to stuff in the top of Mr Cute's Christmas sock 

that big bin of yard clean up trash is scheduled to be picked up today -- yippee!!

time to get moving, need to make our monthly trip to Costco this morning, then back to work on projects

my how time flies!

Can't believe it's been almost a week since I posted here!

As I said then, we are working hard to get our house ready to market, so we're busy

over the weekend my daughter and son in law came down to give us a hand with the heavy outdoor work

we got a Bagster at the local hardware store and on Saturday there was major pruning of pine trees and ash trees 

my son in law even removed a dead aspen tree -- felling it neatly into the neighbor's drive way -- which was exactly where it was supposed to go as the neighbor is going to cut it up and use it for firewood

at the end of the day we were all pretty tired -- including the dogs -- two of whom decided that on my daughter was the right place to warm their feet and take a nap

I have been working on this project some -- putting these vintage glass beads into beaded triangles

the piece these are for is going to be in a competition if I get it done by the deadline

yesterday afternoon the quilt show in Denver that I hung back in September had to be taken down

take down is always easier that putting one up!  it took about as long to drive there as it did to take down the show

which meant I finished another of these afghan squares  --  last week I shipped off a box full, and I need only four more to fill the next box -- rolling right along

time to get busy -- lots of laundry to do today, and I need to pack up those quilts and get them mailed back to the artists