Charity Quilts

Perhaps some of you remember the king size quilt I made for the PuppyLoveMe.org auction. 

I hope it brings in lots of money. My friend Rosalita has "gone out of the art quilt" business and offered me fabric for a reason - not just to add to my stash. I have enough for two and possibly three quilts to have auctioned off in the future. You will see these on the blog when the snow is flying here and the temps drop to well below freezing.

While there she offered me this watercolor paper and three pen sets

Jacquard fabric paint, texture/rubbing plates and the gridded plastic piece I can use for all kinds of adventures.

Sheets of watercolor paper

Really nice charcoal

Yipee! Thanks so much Rosalita!!

My Sketchbook Kit arrived

These are all the goodies that came in my supply kit for the DMTV Sketchbook Workshop. I bought a second sketchbook but the kit came with one sketchbook, a plastic eraser, a graphite stick, a set of dye based water colors (VERY vibrant and pigmented), a paint brush, peel and stick foam for stamps and a piece of compressed sponge which is thin when compressed and can be cut with scissors then it expands when wet for stamping.

This is my third set of watercolors that I have gotten from the Kemshalls. I LOVE them and you can see I don't take very good care of them (sad but true). I use them all the time. However I am a fanatic brush cleaner and I have some brushes that are 40 years old and I use them constantly.

My home

This spread contains two previously painted watercolors. One is my house and the other my backyard.

Remember you can click twice for 2X enlargements 

This is a "bird's eye view of my house.

And then I made a pocket to keep an photo copies or ephemera safe.

Small Format Sketchbook

This is a smaller format sketchbook about 6" X 9" pages. The cover is a monoprint I made in black acrylic paint then colored with acrylic paint scraped on with a credit card. I like it.

Book board and paper for signatures

Gluing on paper for the covers

Front

 Back

Golden yellow waxed linen thread

Both books finished

Large format sketchbook

I decided to make 2 new sketchbooks for a workshop I am taking from the Kemshalls. This is a 9" X 12" sketchbook. I just LOVED this paper and the yummy orange thread I used to stitched it.

Medium weight watercolor paper

Folded and stacked into signatures

Book Board

Paper glued on and covered with waxed paper

Finished

Love that orange waxed linen thread

The Garmin Lady

I love any electronic doodad that comes down the pike. One thing I never thought I needed was a Garmin GPS. When I flew to Columbus, Ohio, I rented a car and drove to Wisconsin the next day. During the week I drove to many places and had no idea how to get there. I have a smart phone but don't really like the GPS apps so I broke down and bought a Garmin. I am now in love with the Garmin lady. She takes me every where I want to go and I have free map updates for life. Does it get any better? I can't believe it has taken me this long to get one.

When I got home I had three separate piece: The Garmin screen, the charger and hook, and the sand bag mount that sits on the dash board or in my case, the passenger seat. Now I needed a neat container to store the pieces.

Yes, the screen is in an old sock. The sandbag mount is brilliant

This is a piece of Laura Kemshall's fingerprint fabric. Doesn't it look like a desert landscape?

Folded in half and ironed

 Opened with some batting

This may not look like it but this variegated thread worked perfectly for the quilting.

The Garmin lady's new home

Putting the Blue Book to bed

After saying that I almost always finish what I start, I am putting the Blue Book to bed, as in throwing it in the trash can. The main reason is that the pages (3 and 4 sheets thick) stitched together are too thick and the pages themselves are hard to work on. Had I started in a "normal" watercolor sketchbook, I don't think I would be stopping. Anyhow as soon as I get my package of art supplies from the Kemshalls, I am starting their Sketchbook Workshop. Meantime, here are some of the pages I started in the Blue Book, never to be seem again.

There are some damsel flies

 This is a sheet of tracing paper from another post that I smeared paint on with a credit card - a favorite tool.

And here I had folded the tracing paper over onto the next sheet and I was going to continue the design/color across another 2 page spread.

Night night Blue Book.

Addendum to the black box

I came into the room and glanced at the black box. It wasn't until then that I realized I had not done kantha stitching on the top panel. Fortunately I was able to rip the panel off even though I used E6000. I stitched the back ground and now the box is unified.

The Black Box Finished

It might take me a while but I almost always finish what I started. Here is the first post where you saw the box.
I started out with plans to paint the box but that was a total failure. It had to do with the paint. Then I came up with this crazy idea of embroidering the same designs onto wool suiting that I embroidered onto the cotton book cover from the first post. I like to have something to work on in front of the TV at night because if my hands are busy making something, they are not stuffing food into my mouth (smile).

This is the cloth "Kantha" stitched book from the Dorothy Caldwell workshop at the Crow Barn.

This is my design drawn on to the wool suiting with a white chalk pen. I also stitched a quick running stitch in thin cotton thread to denote the corners. Came in handy when gluing it down.

Paper Patterns

Embroidery finished (and out of focus)

My handmade upholstery hammer, pins like we used in the 60's and some E6000 (with a credit card to spread it)

Glue on

Start of the fabric strip with hammered in pins holding it n place. Always thinking!!

Wrapping it on the "dotted line".

Top in place

Box finished.

I am very pleased with the way this turned out. With Crows and Pine trees, how can you do wrong!

Bacon?

I have not cooked bacon is so many years I can't even remember. At least 30 years. Well, I saw this great veggie salad on Facebook made with chopped broccoli and cauliflower but it also had 6 slices of crumbled bacon. I hate the smell of bacon cooking but went online to find a way to do it in the oven. The salad tasted great. So I am throwing away the package the bacon was packed in and I noticed this ridged plastic inside. HUM?? This looks like great stencil making material. I wanted to make a graphic stencil for rubbing as well as stenciling.

 Washed very well but still the bacon scent persists

Pen lines

Cut with a razor knife.

Graphite stick on plain paper

This is an altered book, my Blue Book, and the pages are 3 or 4 pages thick with gesso on each side. This is not the greatest surface to try to do a rubbing. The right page has the stencil under it but you can barely see the image made with oil pastels. The left page is all 8 squares that were cut out and taped into a bundle.  Better .

This is the page with water color paint

I think I will get a lot of use out of this stencil just not in this altered book. I am kind of sorry I started this "Blue Book" project in an altered book. I think it would have turned out better in a normal sketchbook. I have a few more pages done but I am not going to stress over doing a lot of work in it.

PLUS, I just signed up for the Kemshalls sketchbook workshop. I am really looking forward to this. It's a work at your own pace but structured. I do best with structure.  Maybe you can join me. It is a great value if you consider all the art materials supplied, the instruction book as well as weeks and weeks worth of exercises. I took a Crow Barn workshop for a week that was well over $1000. with travel and hotels. Compared to that, this is a major bargain. I plan on taking all four workshops.