lion testing, gardening and Mr Cute

the testing of the water color pencils was semi successful

the blending and graduation of color went well, and I like that look

my fear that the color would bleed into the animal appears to be justified, however -- along the front paws and the back of the lion where there is not a real strong, distinct line the color did change

so now I'm trying to figure out what I can use as a "resist" to keep that from happening on the other animals

since we returned from our daughter's right after the 4th of July we've had really warm temperatures and rain every day at some point -- usually in late afternoon or evening

it has been great for the garden!

you may remember the pictures from a couple of months ago of the wood frame we built in the area where we planted the green beans

and here it is with the green beans running up the netting on both sides

some of those plants show signs of forming blooms, so we hope to be eating green (and yellow!) beans soon

we planted a whole variety of peppers and chilis

this first one to form is a poblano and it is really pretty

one of the bell pepper plants has several little peppers about the size of a pea




here are the makings of a salad!

romaine lettuce at this end of the garden -- and some butter lettuce at the other end of the garden that we've already been eating

and the tomato plant there is loaded with little baby roma tomatoes

we have a lot of different tomato plants out there -- some for just eating, some for cooking

last summer's garden surprise was the white pumpkin that the squirrels planted just outside the garden fence

this summer's surprise is this odd companion planting in among the green beans

CARROTS!

we had carrots planted in this area a couple of summers ago, but for the most part they didn't come up and we decided we weren't going to try that again because the soil has some pretty big rocks in it still

I wasn't even sure what they were until we were weeding and pulled one up thinking it was a weed

obviously we'll be leaving the rest of them alone and getting a little bonus harvest (hopefully!)

the first of the many squash plants has begun to bloom (we planted zucchini, hubbard, butternut and pumpkin)

this is zucchini - they are always the first ones to start blooming and producing

and the blooms and leaves are just really pretty

(and yes, this is another garden picture that might serve as inspiration for a piece of fiber art!)



last night as I was heading off to my quilt guild meeting I snapped this photo (I was stopped at the light -- I wouldn't try this trick while I'm driving!)

that dark cloud is a good example of what we've been seeing

some of these clouds have been full of hail as well as rain

we're grateful that so far we've had only little tiny hail that has not damaged our garden

and I need to say thank you to my daughter for the availability of this photo for you to see -- my cell phone has a camera in it but I've never been able to figure out how to download the pictures from it to my computer, so whenever I take a photo that I want to be able to do something with, I text it to my daughter's cell phone (she has a smart phone) and she emails it back to me -- convoluted but it does work as long as I have a willing child! Thanks kid!!

I haven't posted any pictures of Mr Cute from our long weekend at the 4th of July

usually I wait until my daughter has put them out on her facebook page, but yesterday afternoon she said "go ahead and do it mom", so here you go

over that long weekend, Mr Cute had his first experience in the wading pool

that's his mommy's arm and knee there in the picture as she was sitting in the pool with him (and there wasn't a lot of water in it)

he seems to be trying to decide if he likes the sensation

before he got out he was pouring water out of that little ball toy and having a pretty good time


and here we have the DH having a conversation with Mr Cute

it's great that the DH has healed well enough that he can hold Mr Cute now














and if you look closely you can see that Mr Cute has two bottom teeth!

his hair has a definite red cast to it -- no big surprise


so there is your gratuitous cuteness for today

time for me to go get some work done!

let the testing begin

one of my concerns about doing the backgrounds on the Out of Africa pieces is that the water color will "bleed" into the animals that have already been done

so I will be doing a "test"

this panel, which was not selected to be part of the finished project (for a number or reasons, not the least of which is I'm simply not happy with the rubber stamp), will be a good place for me to test the water colors without putting the other animal panels in danger

theoretically, because the animals are stamped with an acrylic paint that has a textile medium in it, the fibers under the color should be "sealed" and the water color shouldn't bleed into there

but because I've never actually tried this and I haven't seen any literature about it, I'm not sure

we'll see how it goes

last night I reached a milestone spot in the current sweater project -- this one is knit from the top down and I have reached the point where the sleeves get separated from the body -- nice!

tonight is my local quilt guild meeting -- and in July we do our birthday party potluck -- having been assigned to bring a main dish, I'll be whipping up a big batch of my "famous" macaroni and cheese to take along

leaf stitching continues too -- there are now 63 aspen leaves all turned and stitched -- I think I'm about a third of the way up the panel

time to go get some breakfast

coloring Out of Africa

since all of the stamping and detailing is done on the animal stamps I needed to start in on the details of the backgrounds on these panels

but I didn't want to just start working on the fabric without some plan now that I've done that much work one each one

technology to the rescue! I took each fabric panel and made a full size color copy so I could play with color and technique

the plan is to create a sunset sky wash with watercolor pencils in the background

then use the Copic markers to create the grasses and little shrubs around them

the little bushes here with the gazelles were the first attempt which I am not totally pleased with, but I like the rest of it



the elephant panel has better greenery

I'm focusing on the animals in the individual panels, so the shrubs and grasses need to be just background


this is the center panel -- the umbrella tree

my plan for this panel is to do all of the water color wash first then applique the tree over it

I also plan to run the branches of the tree out across the mat and into each of the animal panels as well

which will take a little coordinating





in the giraffe panel I've put in one sort of straggly leafless tree there in the background

















and one of the zebras is grazing on the lone little shrub in his panel

the giraffe and the zebras are the animals that look the least "finished" because they need considerable detail that gets added with thread -- the manes on all of them will be an embroidery stitch called "turkey stitch" that creates a sort of bristle like look

the tail of the giraffe will be some longer strands of embroidery thread that I will braid together and tie off at the end to create a little tuft on the end

I'm starting to get really excited about this piece as it is beginning to come together even better than I had imagined
as I pointed out a while back, having a garden not only helps put food on the table, it also gives me artistic ideas as well

this year we planted two bags of onion sets, and we've been eating green onions out of it for a while now

we've now had about 10 days of really warm temperatures and almost daily afternoon or evening rain storms, which apparently is prime onion growing weather -- a lot of them have gotten a lot taller and I can tell that the onions are starting to get round -- sort of like little boiling onions

this morning when I went out to take stuff to the compost bin there were these little tips on some of the plants -- the beginning of them going to seed -- which is not what I want them to do right now -- I want those onions to get bigger first

so I broke them off -- the colors and textures and shapes of these are pretty cool -- I'll be filing this picture away to consider using it for a small art quilt

there must be something about electric appliances that knows when they will be needed most and then they decide to stop working

this would be the latest culprit

this big floor fan has been helping keep us cool on the evenings when the high humidity of a rain storm keeps the swampy cooler from being effective

last night when I pressed the button the fan blades made a feeble attempt to turn a couple of times then just died -- I guess I shouldn't complain too much, this fan has been with us for probably 20 years and survived move after move after move, but still

AACCKKK!!!

(and of course this always happens with something in a month when there are 5 weeks between paydays and finances are especially tight)

doing without one is just not possible however, so this morning after breakfast I'll be heading over to Walmart to see if I can pick up a replacement

geesh

smart shopping and project progress

yesterday I decided that since I needed to return one library book and pick up another one I would make a stop in the little scrap booking store that is right there next door to the library

I figured it was worth the savings in gas to just pick up the needed Copic marker there instead of going a couple of miles the other direction

turned out to be an even better deal than that -- they had a deal going on -- buy 3 markers, get one free -- which makes the price of each of these just $5.25 instead of $6.49

so I got the needed black one and 3 different shades of green that I can use both on the Africa series and on the trees piece

as the DH pointed out, I am going to be doing more with these markers as time goes on, so it makes sense to pick up the colors that I'll be using when I can get a good deal on them
the result of having the right tool for the job was that I came home and finished the marker work on the zebras

so now all 4 of the animal panels for this piece are ready for me to do the next step -- the backgrounds -- which will be paint and markers and stitching and beading

and I'm thinking about the sky on these and if I should consider the water color pencils to create a sunset like coloring in the background too

we'll see
the quilting on the cone flowers is coming along

I decided to try to create the texture look of the flower petals by doing wavy rows of quilting from the center to the tip of the petal and there are actually two different colors of quilting threads in that patterning as well

(in this picture the color isn't intense enough, but the stitching texture does show up well)

this petal is the biggest bright yellow one and the two rusty colored petals on either side of it are also stitched

I'm real pleased with how this is going, both how it looks and the time line to having it done

leaf applique continues -- I added 9 more yesterday, for a total of 47

this morning we've already completed weeding the garden and mowing the back yard, so as soon as I finish posting this and eating my breakfast I'm heading to the studio to get more work done!

back to the Africa piece

over the weekend I spent some time working on the pieces of the Out of Africa series

I had done all of the rubber stamping a couple of weeks ago, and the detail (that I put in with Copic markers) on the gazelle block got finished just before we went off to my daughter's for the 4th of July weekend

Saturday afternoon I pulled out those markers again and did the work on the elephant and the giraffe

unfortunately, when I pulled out the zebras panel and the marker I needed for it I discovered that the black Copic has gone the way of all markers -- after at least 5 years of ongoing use for many projects and a very dry climate, it had given it's all

a trip to the local craft store is in order -- the trick will be to restrain myself to only that black marker (heh, well, I'll try to be that good!)

the branched fringing on this is coming along

just normal straight fringing is pretty time consuming, but branched fringing even more so

the instruction goes something like this: *run needle through the next bead on the edge of the piece, pick up 13 seed beads, one striped bead and one size 15 bead; run needle back through the striped bead and the next 3 seed beads and pull up tight - one branch formed; pick up 13 seed beads, one striped bead and one size 15 bead; run needle back through the striped bead and the next 3 seed beads and pull up tight - second branch formed; pick up 10 seed beads, one E bead, one striped bead and one size 15 bead; run needle back through the striped bead, the E bead, the 10 seed beads; skip the branch, run needle through the next 10 beads; skip the branch, run needle through the next 10 beads, pull up tight -- one fringe created

repeat from * for as many times as it takes to fringe the entire bottom edge

at this point I'm really glad I decided to turn this so I'm fringing along the short side of the shape!

progress continues on the other quilt projects -- there are now 38 aspen leaves stitched down on the trees piece (and I'm thinking as I work on it that I always seem to be working on this huge piece when it's HOT!)

and there are now 3 of the petals quilted on the cone flower piece as well as the background spaces between those

work continues on the Christmas sweater piece as well -- 8.5 inches worked and I'm in the second skein of yarn

time to get busy -- laundry to wash, lawns to mow

huge surprises in the mail box

almost exactly a year ago I decided to participate in the Dream Rocket project

this 24"x24" piece titled "Coexist" is what I created for the project with the idea that it would be in the display at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose, California from January 1 to March 1 of this year

yesterday I got notice from the project coordinator that my piece has been selected to appear in three more shows!

I am stunned and excited

the three shows are:

Visions Gallery, Houlton, ME from Aug 1 to Sept 24, 2011

Tompkins Square Branch of NYC Public Library from Nov 1 to Dec 31, 2011

2012 National Art Educators Association Conference Exhibit in New York City from Mar 1 to 4, 2012

just amazing
the sun hat is complete

and I'm real pleased with the way it looks

I took a picture of the inside too but there's no point showing it to you because it looks just like the outside -- heh

just need to find a bubble envelope so I can pack up a "squishy" to send off to Mr. Cute

(and to make a couple of dish scrubbies to put in there too since the "big dog" at my daughter's house demolished another one)

after I wrote yesterday's blog I decided that I did indeed want to turn the orientation of this piece

so I carefully removed the old bails and created a whole new one and reattached the chain

now I'm working on the graduated branched fringe

this may take a little while



yesterday afternoon the DH used some more of the stuff from the garden

he picked rhubarb

and made a strawberry rhubarb pie

yummmmy

messy (I'm glad we put foil under the pie pan) but wonderful

hats and beads and Christmas (!?)

I stitched 9 more leaves onto the aspen trees yesterday, for a total now of 22, but I'm not going to take a picture every day -- you'll just have to take my word for it

I did take a picture of the progress made on the sun hat, however

the brim is all stitched, turned, top stitched (in concentric rings) and ready to attach to the crown

and the inside and outside pieces of the crown are ready to be put together to have the brim added

still need to cut a strip of bias to be the band on the inside when I set these together -- hopefully today
since I had finished the rework on one lapis piece and I had all of the right color beads already out in the work tray I decided to go ahead and do the rework on this one too

this one doesn't need as much work -- I won't be taking the back off of this one, just redoing the fringe

which I took off yesterday

I'm thinking a branched fringe using the seed beads and the e beads that were used in both the "chain" and the bead embroidery

maybe

as I look at the piece in the photo I'm wondering if it could be improved by turning it 90 degrees to the right and hanging the paisley by the narrow edge of the curve

hmmmmm -- I'll get back to you on that

yesterday afternoon I decided I needed to take some photos of some more pieces to add to my Etsy shop

and I found this piece

which I did a while back and now I think it doesn't look quite "finished" either

that's right folks, it's another rework piece

after the blue paisley

maybe

it's that time of year when I start thinking about making Christmas cards if I make them all by hand

when I was in Hobby Lobby last weekend with my daughter I found this rubber stamp that just says "possibilities" for this year's cards

there will be some fiddling and experimenting with this until I settle on something that I can make quite a number of without it being so labor intensive that I can't get anything else done

the front lawn got mowed before I posted here today -- and a trip was made to the Farmer's Market -- time for some breakfast now, then to work in the studio

necklace rework finished and the trees return

now that it is done I like it a lot better

I finished up the rest of the fringing yesterday afternoon, and since I had already done the chain it was real easy to slide the pendant on there and head for the photo studio

which means now I need to think about what piece of jewelry I'll be working on next

I have another piece to rework (coincidentally it is also lapis)

and I have a whole lot of stones that are just waiting for me to turn them into something cool

perhaps a trip through the stone box is in order


the pinning of the Hawaii piece is all complete now

and I've pulled out all of the threads that I'll need to do the quilting on this as well

but before I actually start working on that quilting I need to finish the quilting on the cone flower piece

it's nice to have a project in reserve




and since both the cone flower and the Hawaii piece are now in the quilting stage, it was time to decide what would be in the applique work slot

and the trees were a natural

I had already cut out all of those little leaves and had them sitting in a box just waiting for the next step

so yesterday I pinned them down to the quilt surface -- I don't know how many of them I pinned because I didn't count them, but I know that there are now 13 of them stitched down (since each leaf is pinned with a single quilter's safety pin, I'll be able to figure out how many by counting the pins as they get stitched)

like with the Hawaii piece, it's hard for me to see the whole picture while I'm actually working on it, but when I look at the pictures I take for the blog, I get a better feel for how it's going

(heh, yeah -- we can't see the trees for the leaves!)

I'm looking forward to actually keeping this piece in the work rotation and finally getting it finished!

the new sun hat for Mr Cute got cut out yesterday (right after I took this picture)

so maybe today I'll get some of the sewing done


after we make a trip for groceries


time to get going

unintended discharge project

sometimes when I'm doing the weekly laundry I find unusual things

when I put this pair of pants in the washer I thought this was mud from garden working

it's not

actually it is the result of the splash from the cleaner we used on the deck

evidently the bleach component in that cleaner was strong enough to remove the color from the fabric

I have to say that the effect of the splash over the already printed field is pretty neat looking

wonder if I could recreate that look on purpose for some future project -- this may get played with some more













a couple of pictures of the center of the cone flower center that has had two layers of quilting done on it -- I really like the texture this created over the center

last night, after I finished the second layer of quilting on the center I decided to go ahead and quilt the petals of the piece, then if I have time after that before the entry deadline I will go back to the center and add another layer of quilting there

this is the fabric I bought to make a new sun hat for Mr Cute

it has been washed and pressed and is ready for me to cut and stitch

and I hope to do some of that today


I worked on the beading project yesterday and took 3 pictures of it -- and all of them were blurry -- hmmm, guess we're not ready for publication yet!

today I hope to get the Hawaii piece pinned for quilting, and perhaps to get some more leaves pinned to the trees so I can get some more of those attached

my original plan for this morning was to mow the front lawn, but we had rain yesterday afternoon and into the evening, and it is definitely too wet to mow -- I'll be working on other things instead

odds and ends of the weekend

we spent the long holiday weekend with our daughter

which is not to say that I didn't work on anything

the Hawaii piece, for example, is now ready to be quilted -- I finished stitching down the last palm frond last night

and I'm about half way through quilting the center of the cone flower

my daughter and I spent part of a couple of afternoons working on scrap book projects, so I'm making good progress on the Christmas thing I'm doing

on Saturday all of us went to the local Farmer's Market to walk around and pick up a few things

this picture of the ever fabulous Mr Cute was taken by his mama a few days before that, but it's pretty close to Saturday's attire

love the shades!!

and he's got his sippy cup in a firm grasp too

my daughter says he needs another sun hat (you know, one to wash, one to wear!), so I got some fabric to make him one (it's in the wash right now -- pictures soon)





since the current big project on the knitting sticks is one my daughter doesn't get to see until Christmas, my evening knitting time was more afghan squares

and a lovely group they are too!

today I'm doing laundry and paying the monthly bills and generally catching up on household things so I can get back into the studio routine

time to get moving

Happy 4th!

we're going to celebrate quietly with a TV concert and some good food

have a happy and safe 4th!

swabbing the deck and other fun

when we moved into this house there was nothing but mud when you stepped out of the side door of the garage

the DH remedied that by building a deck out there - which is nice because it also provides an area where I can move tubs around when I work in the storage shed

but it's been a few years it looked pretty dirty and the wood was drying out

a few days ago we scrubbed it with a bleach solution to clean it off

and yesterday we rolled on the stain/sealer stuff -- it looks really good now -- it still smells like fresh stain so we'll be staying off of it for a while



let the fringing begin

did just a little bit of it yesterday afternoon - being careful to count out the beads that go at the ends so I get the same number on each side

I think I'm going to like the way this looks





the quilting on the cone flower piece has begun

yesterday afternoon I put together the piece work that is the backing for this piece out of fabrics that came with the challenge print

actually, the pieces with the flowers and birds on them ARE the challenge print

(I just hope this challenge group is as open minded about the use of their challenge fabric as the Hoffman folks are -- you just have to use it somewhere!)

after I put the back together I pinned the "sandwich" and last night I started on the quilting -- I had rust colored thread to start on that area, but not really the right yellow -- I'll be taking care of that today

time to get moving -- I want to get the lawn mowed before it gets really hot!!