Fabric and quilts and design

We've been making what I think of as art quilts for a while now.

Each of them begun with a specific gift purpose in mind (except for the angels there at the end that I plan to enter in the State Fair, but after that have no real plan for)

Each of them has been a new adventure, where I've learned a new technique, developed a new theme, etc., etc.

But there's always that issue of finding the fabric that I really want to use --- as in I know exactly what I want, I can see it in my head, but no one else has seen it yet, so no one has made it yet.

As you may recall from yesterday's post, I recently ran across a book about creating your own cloth --- not just that whole "throw it in the washer with rit dye" thing (although that is also a valid step possibility in the process), but the idea of layering techniques -- as in wash it with color then stamp it with your own hand made stamps then paint in some details then add foiling or stitching

All very exciting from the perspective of making a length of one-of-a-kind cloth

But what if I wanted, say 5 or 6 yards of the stuff, with a repeat

The possibilities of that seemed pretty remote

until I was looking at the blog of the author of the most exciting of the books I picked up

she was talking about something called Spoonflower. WOW!! You load up your artwork, you place your order, they print your fabric!!

This is very exciting, and full of amazing possibilities!!!

It boggles the mind (I may need to go lie down a while and contemplate all the things I could do with this idea!)

movin' along

here, as promised, a first look at the bracelet I've just started working on

There on the left end I've done the orange parts (anything colored yellow will be beaded in orange -- I don't have an orange marker!)

The next step will be the purples then everything else will be greens

The plan is to submit this project to a color competition --- if I get it done in time and if I like the look of it when it's finished

Giraffes rule!!

At least this one has taken over the knitting beyond any thought of sanity!

Finished this back leg last night

I can report that the use of the cardboard yarn bobbins did make it easier, but there is still a certain amount of "detangling" that goes on

So now it's on to the last leg

whooo hoooooo






Under the catagory of "what's going on in the garage workshop", the DH finished this up and carried it into the house yesterday afternoon

You may recall my saying that we plan to move my loom upstairs, now that the piano lives at our daughter's house.

The bench is so I can actually sit at the loom -- and notice the very cool shelf --- or built in tray -- included in this lovely! That is so I have someplace to put shuttles, etc. while I'm working on a project.

He plans to make me a small matching bookcase too, so that my weaving books can be right there within easy reach.

The best part of this is that a lot of the wood he is using is stuff we're recycling from helping to tear out my sister's kitchen for a remodel.

Go Green!!

Late last week I put in requests for some books from our library (I love the way I can browse the card catalog online at all hours of the day and night!)

Anyway, this was one of the ones I had requested, and I can tell you it is AWESOME!!

Enough science to keep you out of trouble, enough imagination to stoke the ideas of those of us who are "science challenged".

She speaks in terms I get --- like "dying is like cooking, you need to make sure you have all the ingredients before you start"!

She also doesn't make it so expensive and scary that you are afraid to even try anything at home.

The way she uses layered techniques is really cool too -- and there is a whole section on creating your own rubber stamps out of things like those foam trays meat comes on.

And the reference charts for materials and techniques -- oh my! What more could one ask for?!

So now I'm wondering if I can get my paws on a copy of this book for my very own so I can fill it with notes (stickies and otherwise) and use it as a guide to some experiments of my own.

looks like I'll be browsing the used books on Amazon!

The Milky Way Complete

Finished at last!

Once I finally figured out the color blend this went quite quickly

Now it's on to a bead embroidered bracelet in purples, greens and oranges for a competition

It's a wash out

After a month of listening to the sloosh, sloosh of the rock tumbler, it was time to wash out the glass and take a look at the newest batch of Rocky Mountain Beach Glass!

And here they are in all their glory (although the picture does not do them justice!!)

The list then is this (from top to bottom):

Row 1: brown (amber) glass from a raspberry beer bottle

Row 2: yellow textured glass from a drinking glass

Row 3 & 4: purple textured glass from a plate

Row 5: red textured glass from a plate

Row 6: green glass found on the sidewalk, clear glass from a bowl and the smallest clear glass a piece found in the street

I'm thinking about taking some of the yellow glass and some of the brown glass and making a bracelet



Need a new suit?

These are the four suits I have created for the deck of cards I'm making for my mother

Two red suits (ladybugs and flowers) and two gray suits (snails and mushrooms).

So now it's on to doing the numbers

Work on other things is progressing, just nothing to show you this morning ---

Cardinal Complete -- almost

Ok, everything except legs!

I used some tiny (3mm) beads for his eyes

I'm just so delighted with this little guy I can't tell you

So today we'll be moving on to flowers to adorn the bird house!





While I am working right along on the Unidentified Christmas Project, I have also begun working on the leaf project.

This is the very first piece of the first block

I know, it doesn't look like much, but like I said, it's just the first piece




more later ya'll

multi tasking again

For whatever reason (call it a character flaw perhaps, or maybe it's just from 30 some years of HAVING to do it in corporate jobs), I do not work on just one thing at a time.

Yesterday was a particularly busy day.

Having ripped out the first go at the chain for this project, I'm now much happier with the color blend (I added 2 additional brown tones), and now it's moving right along.

The first piece is about 6 inches long, so there are another 2.5 inches to do on this side, then the other side.

ah, much better

Now that I have a card back that I'm happy with, I did some work on the letters and numbers that will be on the fronts of the cards.

(Yes folks, I'll be creating the drawings for all 54 (got to include the jokers!) cards in this deck)

Oh and those little drawings at the bottom will be the suits -- mushrooms, flowers, lady bugs and snails

I haven't decided yet on color schemes and of course there are all the face cards still to create, but it is moving along





Since the bird houses are basically done except for the embellishments, I really need to get the birdies done!

This is the little cardinal that I had started on Wednesday

I still need to put in the little beads for his eyes and the DH is working on some little wire feet

The next thing for this birdhouse will be some red and white flowers

I have to say this is one of those "did I do that" moments -- I was sure that needle felting a bird was just beyond my abilities, but I'm really, REALLY pleased with this attempt.

Next (after the flowers that is) will be a yellow bird (for the green bird house). I printed off a bunch of pictures of yellow birds to refer to this morning (gotta love Google Images!)

Do you remember me talking about the leaf quilting project?

These are really poor pictures (sorry!), but they are the first pencil drawings of the designs for this 3 panel project.

This morning I was making color copies of the leaf scans so I have colored patterns to start working from.

While I was working on new design ideas I did a design for a new beaded bracelet. There is a competition for a beaded piece that uses only the 3 secondary colors (purple, green, orange), so I decided to give it a try. Pictures in good time my pretties!


As is usual, when I spend a bit of time on the phone (especially if I get to wait on hold!), I do a bit of doodling.

These are the latest additions to the collection.

Lookie, they aren't birds! Nope, they're four legged critters

Giraffe! Gazelle?

They may show up in the playing cards -- who knows!


Then there is this little issue.

See the middle finger? See how it isn't as flat to the counter as the rest?

Yup, that's because I can't really straighten it out

Once again yesterday afternoon this finger started bothering me. In fact, about 12:30 this morning I got up and got a gel ice pack and wrapped my fingers with it to cut the pain so I could sleep.

This morning it's still really sore and stiff, but at least the stabbing pain has gone away.

I'm glad it's my left hand, but it does still slow me down -- nuts!

ok, enough babble for today --- time to go get something done!

felting and drawing and knitting (OH MY!)

The stain on the bird houses dried (and "de-stinked") enough to bring them into the house and give them a coat of clear acrylic sealer.

Glitter and other embellishments will be next!






Meantime, I started working on the first of the birds.

On the left is the basic "bird" shape in the white base wool, and on the right is the bird with the first of the cardinal red wool over the base and the beginning of the special shaping (the "crest" on the head of the cardinal makes it look sort of like it has a pointy head).

I had fussed about (and put off) working on this because I was afraid it would be a lot more difficult than it turned out to be. (go figure)


So I got out the colored pencils yesterday and did the blue card back

And then I did a second one with more patterning in red

So, which one is better?

I've started working on the lettering and numbering masters too


There are no new pictures of the Milky Way necklace --- I finished the fringe, which I am pretty happy with, then I started on the right angle weave --- worked about 3 inches and decided the colors were just not right and tore it all out ----- ah yes, the trips to the frog pond (rip it, rip it) are still with us.

Perhaps today's work will go better, I added a tube of shiny rootbeer colored beads to the mix and I think that will help.


And the giraffe now has 2 front legs

The second one went a lot quicker, and I'm starting to get a better grasp of making the patterning chart and the shaping increases/decreases work together

So tonight I'll be casting on and starting the first of the back legs

I've pretty much decided that the legs of this critter need to stay soft and floppy, but I'm also pretty sure I'll need to insert something in the neck so it isn't floppy --- I'll be raiding our scrap pile of PVC pipe --- I figure a small diameter piece wrapped in some batting will work

we'll see





Yesterday I was watching the Martha Stewart show while I ate my lunch, and she did a whole segment about Lilly Pulitzer and the fabrics that are developed under that name. I remember those prints! And interestingly enough, some of them really resemble some of the doodles that I've done. They're all really stylized representations of shapes (like shells and flowers and one with a monkey on it), done basically in one or two colors on a white field.

So now I'm thinking it would be fun to create some fabric from my own designs. This morning I went on line to our local library and requested every book on that subject that I could find. Time to do some research!!

another giant leap

Remember seeing pictures of these here before?

This morning I have been working on putting together the package of forms and things to submit both of these to a competition

The competition is sponsored by one of the suppliers I use a lot. (As in most everything in the way of seed beads comes from them).

There are a couple of reasons that I decided to enter these.

One is because everything in the two of them except the big purple glass leaf came from this supplier. And because one of the things they want you to do is use their stuff, these definately qualified.

Two is that I have decided lately that the only way to get folks to know who I am and what I do is to get my stuff out there. If I should actually get either of these through the competition, they will appear in the catalog of the company which goes to a whole lot of folks all over the country. And in magazine ads in magazines such as Bead and Button and Art Jewelry and even the occasional quilting magazine! Now that's being seen!

Oh yeah, and first prize is $1000 in merchandise from the catalog --- we're talking major bead stash building here -- given that the average cost of a tube of beads that I use is around $2, that would be about 500 tubes of beads -- ok, this would be a BIG deal here.

The deadline for entering isn't until April 15, but I'm done with these two pieces now, so why not send them? If I come up with something else in the next month I can always send another envelope!

and speaking of coming up with something else, this is the new piece of jewelry that I worked on a bit yesterday.

The stone is something that I picked up at a gem show last year (or the year before). It has this sort of swirly "milky way" look to it (I'm talking galaxy here, not candy bar!).

I used some sort of red and brown beads (one of the colors is called "chocolate cherry", so maybe we are talking candy here!!) to build the bezel, it's been backed with leather and now I'm working on the fringe.

The plan for the "chain" is to use graduated right angle weave tubes right off the top corners.

This is another of those "I started this then set it aside to do something else and I really need to finish it" items from the box of such things that I "discovered" when I cleaned up the beads a couple of weeks ago. That box is slowly being emptied out and I actually finish things up --- oh yeah!

Meantime, while I have worked on other things, I have nothing else to show for it today -- perhaps tomorrow

movin' on

Finished, in progress and just begun

You may recall a week ago or so I talked about reworking a piece of jewelry.

Yesterday I finished up the rework

The new version is on the left, the old one on the right

I'm much happier with the new one. While the basic shape didn't change, it now has a much better bail, nicer fringe (that I think looks like the crystals they used to hang from the victorian lamps) and a completely different chain which does not use any of the wire and crimps that I have had considerable trouble with.

Yup, I like this version much better.


The DH got to the staining part on his project, so while the can was open, he put the stain on these for me.

Because of the different woods and the way they were cut when the roofs were made, they have this lovely "panel" look that I really like

And putting the stain over these softened the look of the paint color considerably

The next step will be to put a clear sealer on both of these and the red and white one



If you've been reading along for a long time, you may remember that I made my mother a set of paperdolls for Christmas the last two years.


She collects paperdolls, and really enjoyed having some of my hand made ones to add to the collection

She also collects playing cards

So I've decided that this year I'll make her a deck of hand drawn ones, using some of my infamous doodles


The drawing on the left is the design (so far) for the back of the cards. If you look closely at the "raw doodling" on the right you can see the piece I picked out of the scribbling and turned into the design by rotating and flipping it and merging it together in the center.

Yes, I know there is software out there (in fact, I probably have it on my computer) that would let me do all of that on the computer.

The thing is I enjoy the "organic-ness" of drawing it on the paper in segments, flipping and turning the little parts, doing the whole drawing in pencil first then inking it in, then erasing the pencil lines.

I'm not sure that I'm done "embellishing" -- I may put some more design work in the bigger white spaces. The backs of playing cards are usually pretty "filled" with design.

But at least I have begun the project!

May I present the first knitting done on the giraffe

I love the look of this

It's so long

It's got cute nobby knees

It's so, so -- "giraffey"

Knitting these one at a time was a good idea. Even with only one to deal with the many strands of yarn there was still a good deal of "knit one, purl one, untangle one"

I did discover some issues of conflict between where the increases need to be and the patterning chart, which I will have to work on a bit more when I get to the back legs and the body, but so far it's going pretty well.

The DH says this definately looks like something that should get entered in the State Fair.

I'm now thinking about the possibility of putting something inside the legs (and the neck too) that would allow him to stand up (probably chunks of PVC pipe), but on the other hand, the general design of this critter is such that it will look so cute sitting down with it's legs crossed.

Obviously there will be more fiddling with this one before we're done.

When last we saw our hero

she had been "helping out" in the garage with the bench building that the DH was working on

Today's adventure of the "great speckled dog" is the result of her "assistance" while the DH cooked dinner last night

Got to love the flour spots!!

And you can tell from this pose that she was just worn out by her kitchen helper duties ---- mmmmm, time for a snooze!

Yes, so mellow, she is virtually sedated


Yesterday was another of those days where I worked on a number of projects, but since nothing is complete (except another piece of the Unidentified Christmas Project, which will not be shown here), there are no pictures

The tiger eye necklace I've been reworking is moving right along. I've got about 2/3 of the chain complete, which means it should be done soon --- possibly even today.

The first leg of the giraffe is progressing nicely. Last night I worked about 15 rows of the patterning -- at the end I worked a row that I had to turn right around and pick out because I had read the chart from the wrong side -- a sure sign I was too tired to work on that any longer! It is looking really good, and I'm hoping to finish up that leg today.

I've also made some good progress on the afghan square. And did some work on the designs for the quilted leaf project.

and just because I did that whole new page full of doodles, I'm thinking about the Christmas present I want to make for my mother this year, and may actually start on that soon too

can't ever have too many irons in the fire is my motto

Clandestine trip

Sometimes we make a trip into Denver without telling anyone we're going there.

Usually this is one of those "run in, pick something up that we can't get in our little berg, run out" sort of trips that we try to accomplish in the time between rush hours.

Yesterday we made one of those

The Gem Show was on. We had some scrap gold we wanted to sell (we don't work much in gold, and have no way to melt it down and reuse it) and figured that would be a good way to get a little money to pick up some new stones to work with.

Here then are the "goodies" I picked up (from left to right starting with the top row): quartz druzy; quartz with little "ferny" things inside (I know, there's some proper name for this stuff, but I don't know what it is); labradorite; kyanite (this one is so thin the light actually comes through it); blue tigereye; agate druzy and a geode slice.

We also picked up 3 boxes of small facetted stones (emeralds, pink topaz and mystic topaz) that are cut ovals that we will use mostly to make earrings in sterling silver mounts.

Since I spent a bit of time in the car, I managed to finish this block for the "wall of linen" afghan.

Later last night I cast on what is supposed to be the last block of this project

Rather or not it acually IS the last block will depend on what I think about the overall size of the project when I lay out all the blocks on the floor

There is always the possibility that I will think it needs to be longer, and I might decide to knit an additional row's worth of blocks



Can you tell I spent some time on the phone last night?

While I was chatting with my daugher I covered an entire 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper with various doodles.

These I think are the best of the lot. I especially like the four legged critter with the ring of flowers around it's neck, although the bird in heels is rather interesting too.

No doubt at least one of these will make it's way into some future graphics project.

That's about the extent of what got done yesterday -- today we're not planning to even go out of the house (except for the mail), so I should get a bit more work done on things -- or not