Small Gifts Part II on Off the Wall Friday

Curves, Still using the scraps from this one!

 Well here on the banks of the Great Lakes, we are still waiting for spring to arrive.  I'm not sure how much snow and cold this girl can take but I'm getting close to my limit.  More daylight has helped though, and I started a new sleep routine ...working back to my goal of 8 hrs a night...every night.  I'm quite sure I haven't done that since the early 2000's so this ought to be interesting.

The nights I'm getting over 7 hours, I'm noticing that I do have energy to do stuff after work.  To that extent, I've started the small project for my teammate's birthday. First I started with a simple design.  When you are designing small, you don't need a complicated composition.  What I'm thinking is to do this simple flower that will show case big stitch embroidery.  Then add a simple quote...or words....or something of that nature.  As always, I like to make one design decision at a time. 

 

Then the fun stuff.  I tackled my stash.   In true Disney Princess fashion, my co-worker loves all things pink.   To that end, I had to find fabrics that said HER rather than ME. Starting with the backgrounds....

I have in mind doing a pieced background that will be stitched to a foundation . I'm not sure exactly how, but I think raw edges and stitching will be involved.  

Then the flower fabrics...I started in my stash...nothing that would work there, down into my studio's stash...nope.  All of them yelled NINA and nothing said Disney Princess.  Finally, I spied my scraps.  It really felt great to get back into my studio.  How did I forget that I had cleaned it so well?  My whole body just relaxed stepping into it.  For as messy as I can be, I love things neat and tidy.

Sorry I digress...yes I did find what I needed in my scrap bin.  This is about the time when I realized something that you probably caught on to ..that the background wasn't pink but actually coral.  Once that realization set in, finding the right scraps was easy.  I chose some left over from my curves quilt.  The improv piecing is already done and they will be the right value for that medium to light background...a Win - Win .  Plus she's so going to dig knowing that a bit of a quilt was in her little piece.

Running my fingers through fabric again made me think...why did I stop quilting again?

Just typing it all out gives me a solid plan on finishing this ...because finishing it I must ...her birthday is the beginning of April.  

Under Things I Like....

My sister in law, Susan recommended her new favorite show...The Great British Sewing Bee.  Am I the last to discover this show?  It has all the things I like in a reality show...regular people, showing us a bit about them and what they do and not too much ridiculous drama.  Honestly, I would rather watch this type of reality show than the Housewives of BumFEygpt anytime!  Because I've been limiting my screen
time in favor of ...wait for it...sleep, I'm only 2 seasons in but I just love to watch people create.

I'm always a little shocked that for as little as I know about garment sewing, I totally understand what they are doing and why.  It's nice that needlework crosses over.  Plus, I think this counts as cross training like we I said in last week's post.

You can find the show on Roku here ...watch online or download the app to your smart tv.  Commercials are short and not obnoxious.  Plus, it's all free which is refreshing.  

Has anybody else watched it?  What do you think?

and of course...

What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Small Gifts on Off the Wall Friday

Sarah Lyte, machine quilted
Rough organic edge

Caro Ramsey 
pulled tight on a board

 I learned long ago that I don't like "making" gifts.  I mean at first glance it seems like a broke girl's bestfriend, right?  But in reality, it's a lot of time and effort.   In today's world time is definitely equated to money. Making a gift even a small one can be hours of work.  

As for effort....well think about it...how hard is it anymore to whip your phone out of your back pocket, pick a gift on Amazon and press a button to buy??  In a day or two,  it will be easily shipped to the person including a personalize note. The other option?? You can design, make, finish AND deliver a gift.

Honestly both of those things (time and effort)  I don't mind actually....it's more the fact that most people don't appreciate the time and effort that went into the gift.  But is that a THEM thing or a ME thing??  Without this evolving into a long therapy session of  why you give a gift (to give some love or to recieve some love), let's just say, I don't like making gifts.

Well, until I do.

I think this is fused, machine stitched 
And the lettering was done on a 
computer 

Deb Smith, post card
Blanket stitch edges

I work with a Disney Princess of a young woman.  She's kind and empathetic to a fault  and it's been a challenge to blend her Gen Z warm heartedness with my Gen X snarkiness  cynicism   realism. But we've done it by finding common ground.  One of which is that we like things that are homemade.  

To that end, I want to make her a little birthday gift. Little gifts aren't as much time or effort and they still say I care enough to not buy a gift for you off of Amazon.  Especially for someone who will appreciate it.  So now that I am feeling better, I spent some time revisiting my pinterest boards and picked some cool ideas.  I posted some inspirational photos here which I tried to attribute properly but the older pinterest gets the harder it is to track that down.  

All of them have two things in common...they all involve stitch texture which I still want to explore some more and they have a cool collage element.  Plus, I want to keep the size 5 by 7 or so.  I love the fabric post card ideas too.  

Pretty aren't they?  Our team is small and we've established a rule of small little gifts...nothing elaborate or expensive but just things that say ... I appreciate working with you everyday.  Let's see if I can actually get it done by April.

Oh that's a good thing about making gifts...it comes with a built in deadline to help a girl along on her reset!

Do you have any good ideas for small scale quilty projects?

So What Have You've been Up to Creatively?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Class with Emily Richardson - Off the Wall Friday

Basically the Before

Ready to Paint!

So the artist/teacher Emily Richardson finally was rescheduled this year to return to Quilting by the Lake to teacher the class Inspiration Through Reflection: Painting Fabric, Creating Quilts. I believe this was her 5th time at the conference over the last 20 years.  Even though I loved her work, I just wasn't in a place that I thought I could confidently be taught what she did.  BUT this year, I was and I'm so glad I did!!  


At QBL, some years I learn just a bit and play a lot; some years I learn a LOT of stuff and play not at all.  I've had a couple really crappy years where I kept waking up each day and think OMG why did I take this class???  THIS year I really had a creative breakthrough and an amazing lot of fun!!  I would look up at Emily and say at least a couple of times a day, "I'm really  having a good time!!"

My OMG why didn't I take up knitting when I had a chance!

Now going in I really didn't have a clear idea  of what we are going to do.  But I did know that I didn't think she was going to show us how she created and show us how to do it!!  BOY was I wrong.  We had a nice range of 21 ladies in class  - some with a ton of surface design experience, some with a ton of design experience, ladies who had made very few art quilts and even a lady who  really hadn't made a quilt yet.  And Emily taught us all....no matter where we were on our creative journey she found us and dragged us along till we got the hang of it.  The class looked like an art gallery when we were done.

So Here's What We Did:

On the first day of class, I promised Emily I was going to jump on her train and follow her directions.  This really is  not my style.  I mean I love rules....right up to the point that I think their stupid.  But if you just stay in your little box and never step out,  you will never progress.  (maybe I should send that to the leaders of the two major political parties).

Getting the hang of it

hmmmm, Sorry, I digress....

For the first two days we painted mostly silk.  The supply list came with a relatively inexpensive supply kit that contained all sorts of silk types for us to experiment with. Plus I brought all my silk scraps  too.  We stacked the fabric and just started painting.  I would be lying if I said at this point I had a clue of how I was suppose to paint but Emily said just get some paint on the silk so that's what I did (as you can see from the picture).  But with each following painting session, I had more an idea of how it was going to come out and what kind of effects I liked best.  Really, though all the fabric came out usable.  Maybe not amazing usable, but it will do usable.

MUCH Happier With this one

By  Day 3, we put all the paint away, and started to design. Emily gave us instructions on how basically put the fabric up and fill up your piece. THEN you were suppose to move things around by what you liked and what you didn't.  What bothered you...what you didn't,..she gave us a list of things on how to evaluate your piece so you know when it was done and that was a skill I really needed to work on.  But really not many of us started with a clear idea of how it was going to come out and that's how she does it.  At the end THEN she titles it.  Totally different with how I work.

By the end of Day 3, I finished my first trial which Emily thought was almost there.  She walked up and looked at the piece - looked at my silk pile .... grabbed  the right piece and put it in the right place.  PERFECT....so apparently you get better at this with years of practice.  Although that saved me a TON of trials, I still like to do my own work.  I asked if I could do another one that looked more like me and less derivative of Emily's work.  She gave me a look because normally classes start sewing it down but once mine was basted I thought I could do the rest at home. (Most everyone did more than one...some even did three!  She said she never had a class do that!)

Actually this one came out the best....you really don't know you're going until you iron the out!!

Day 4/5 was spent doing a much bigger piece more in my own compositional style and it went  together  much easier.  By Friday at 2:00 pm, it was all basted and ready for our last evaluations.  I'm leaving that piece for another post but I really love it!!

My first piece ...not super big 14" by 20"

Two weeks later, I still haven't made it back into my studio to figure how how to finish sewing them.  But I will  this weekend.

Now we're cooking....ooops Painting!

So to sum it up....If you ever get a chance to take a class with Emily ... DO IT!!  She has a unique teaching style which is totally her.  She's a lovely lady.  Quiet on the outside but really has a nice dry sense of humor underneath. She's VERY generous with her process.  She's one of the few teacher/artist that doesn't do this to be in the limelight.  In fact, I'm thinking that is the last place she wants to be.  I think she creates to share the beauty of her work with the world.  And yessssss...it was super fun to soak it in all week!

I love this picture!

So What You Been Up to Lately?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

!!ScaTTereD!! Off the Wall Friday

The Orange Princess

Am I the only one that feels scattered?

 I can't seem to settle into anything and when I walk into my studio there are a bunch of projects all half done.  Now I know that most quilters and artists, tend work this way, but I don't.  I'm a Start - to - Finish type of chick.  I like the routine of it - the security of it - the predictableness of it.  But lately my studio has been anything but predictable.  Between family projects, lost sewing machine pieces (that are found just when the new one arrives - of course!) and unfinished pieces  - the chaos is getting to me.

 And whose to blame for this chaos - me!

 I haven't been saying No enough.  I never had a problem saying No before - but lately I must think I'm wonder woman because I can't get it all done.  So today I decided to say No.  Ohh and start finishing up some of these projects!

I backed out of Sandy's great open studio and decided only to finish up the one little leaf quilt which I actually like.  I just have to face it at work tomorrow.

I also blew off my Master's class assignment - because let's face it - its a  HOT MESS.  I handed it in knowing it was a hot mess and needed to be scrapped and started from the beginning  - but just didn't have the heart to do it this week.

What I did do - was work on the Curves  - which by the way - I've been wanting to do for a month now.  I finished up the quilting.  I also took out quilting due to puckering and requilted ( I swear that is a job that required the patience of a saint - swear being the key word there!)  Now all I have to do is go over the main edges with more stitching and I'm done.  I entered it into Amy's Blogger's Quilt Show.


Now if I want to - I'll re-do my masterclass assignment next week - but maybe I won't.  and that's okay.  You know I originally cut this out of a magazine (its the new Pantene ad campaign) for my teen daughter but I think I need to put it up in my studio too!

So What have you been up to creatively?

Say it with Color - Off the Wall Friday

I love color.  I know that I spend a lot of time saying how important value is when I'm designing but I still love color more.  So you can imagine how happy I was that this month's topic is color.  Its fun to explore how color can be used to express the mood of a piece.  Its amazing how much you can communicate  with just picking out the right palette.

How you ask? 

 Well here are some tips. . . .

Red, Orange, Yellow - Emotional Colors - strength, energy, joy, enthusiasm, passion, etc

Notice how I used these colors to express my passion for praise - the joyfulness that I feel when I praise God.

I used Blue and Purple for a calm but rich mood

Green - freshness, rebirth, harmony, newness

Blue - water and sky - calmness or storminess - serenity and sincerity

Purple - always adds richness

White is always pure for me and Black is about power

So with those general guidelines in mind I created my sketches for this month assignment.  I took Elizabeth's suggestion and made one sketch.  It was one that I'm going to do a little piece for with Open Studio so why not kill two birds with one stone??  I then interpreted it into three palettes that  - hopefully - create three  different moods.  It was fun to get out the crayons and the color pencils!  Not to mention I love working with organic shapes!

So what have you been up to creatively?

Good Things in Small Packages - Off the Wall Friday

First of all, let me say a big Thank You for the well wishes.  For the first time in months, I'm feeling like my normal self.  So many things have fallin' by the wayside, that its going to take a while for me to catch up!  I have a new empathy for people who are chronically ill - that's for sure!

So along the line of catching up, it dawned on me that Sandy's Open Studio event was less than a month away!  How did that happen??  She and I had talked about this year creating some art especially for the event.  The idea is that if the pieces were simple enough and priced reasonably enough, they would appeal to a larger audience.

Although this is a great idea, I swear, I don't have a clue of how to make something small and simple.  I mean isn't More is More??  It seems to me that I'm of the mindset that if it takes a lot of time and its really big than it must be a good piece.  Which of course, isn't true but it must be the over achiever in me!

So today I dug deep and tried to create a quick and simple piece.   I think that this piece although simple is pretty.  I always thought it was cheating to let the pretty hand dyes carry the piece, but now that I'm doing all the hand dyeing, I guess I'm changing my tune.  With some nice quick quilting to add texture this piece will be done. (please be mindful that getting handdyed fabric to photograph like it really looks is near impossible with my point and shoot camera!)

With small pieces you can experiment and  try new things.  You can use them as springboards to larger pieces.  You can sell them cheap.. . .grin.  Let's see how many I can get done this month!



So what have been up to creatively?