Marks

I was sitting in a meeting and my friend was carrying a tote bag with the New Yorker logo printed on it. That is where these ideas came from.

These are sheets of 18 X 24 paper with black sumi ink using a flat brush

Sister Quilt

We decided to do two blocks a week and get this quilt done in 6+ months. We should be done with the blocks in 25 weeks then we have to assemble, sandwich and quilt.

Here are my first two blocks

Pumkin

If you can see by the handy dandy measures on my table this block is a tad over 1" square. THIS is the point when I knew I was in over my head

The pie and hot mitts

This is the block with the thumb wrong on the right mitt

Fixed

Here are my sister's first two blocks

Surface design in my sketchbook

I am really having fun in that concertina sketchbook. I have taken 6 or 8 pages and made a continuous work across the pages. I've never worked in that format before and I have to admit I am having so much fun I can't seem to stop. I have shown you the first and second spread. Here are 3 more:

Shapes

Starting to loosen up

Resists

I used oil pastels, PVC glue, matte gel medium, tulip dimensional paint and stickers (maybe more) as resists

Imaginary Landscapes

Harder to do than you might think.

A Felted Rock

Yes, one of my friend's said it is so cold out even the rocks need coats.

See the rock in 360 degrees on YouTube HERE

Wales

Here is another of the 8 page spreads I made in my new concertina sketchbook. 

Check it out on YouTube HERE

A purse from a sow's ear

Well, maybe not a purse but a sketchbook from "reclaimed" trash. I bought a sketchbook and it came in a slip case. I threw the slip case in the recycle bin but later fished it out again because it was made from heavy weight box board.

I slit off the top and bottom leaving what looked like a book.

I made a 10 signature insert and coptic stitched it with dental floss since it was waxed and would never show.

I covered the old book slip with some of my paste paper

I reinforced the spine of the book insert with a buckram "patch" and glued the insert in the book cover with gell medium.

Voilla', a new sketchbook

Valentines Day

Remember this past summer at one of the workshops I overdyed some red fabric in the indigo bath. I was totally copying Laura Kemshall. I cut little hearts out of wood and used it with clamps as a resist. 

This was the time to dig that fabric out and make three valentines for my partner Brian, my sister Susan and my friends from Milwaukee who always send me a handmade valentine each year. 

For my friends

For my sister

For Brian

My sister and I are making a quilt together

As you probably already know I found my birth family and I have a half sister who quilts

Although we live about a thousand miles apart we are both making the same quilt. Pretty cool. I am NOT a pattern/traditional quilter but my sister is. This will be a stretch for me but you can follow along and witness my frustration. It will be child's play for my sister.

Although I am not a farm girl, my sister is so this quilt will celebrate her farm heritage.

The book that goes with the quilt

All the fabric in a larger bin and each block cut in the tiny bin to take to the machine.

Improv finished

Wrapping up a few projects and here is the improv done. I had three machines threaded with green, lavender, and pink. Made the quilting go faster. This was my first free motion experience on the two Necchis.

Here is the entire quilt close-up on YouTube

Click link

It is mounted now but not framed yet

sewing for the pleasure of it

Just today I mentioned that sometimes I just like to sit and sew for the pleasure of it. That Necchi really invites usage. What a dream machine. Now that I have a "real" foot pedal (like on a car), on the Mira and I am enjoying both machine.

Jean came over and of course I took NO photos at the time. Marcella came as well and we worked on making rope bowls with fabric outers. We used 100% cotton clothesline and cut 2.5" wide strips and folded them and ironed them like bias tape. The clothes line went in the center crease with the two sides (also folded) criss crossed over and stitched in place. Mine came out very sloppy.

Then I started the bottom circle and you can see from this photo how bumpy and awful mine was.

When I stitched a bottom the size I wanted, I flipped the bottom up and continued to sew - still sloppy.

This is what your bowl will look like if you are sloppy and careless. I took scissors and literally cut it even.

I then applied a binding to try to hide the botched job. All in all, it was fairly successful. It is certainly good enough for me to use.

The binding is hand sewn down and the bowl is much sturdier with the cloth cover as compared to the bowl just with rope.

My sorry shape shifting rope bowl from earlier this year.

Jean's bowl she gave me as a gift. This is what it is supposed to look like. She makes awesome bowls. 

Thank you Jean!!!

Second 8 page spread

in my sketchbook. The accordion sketchbook arrived and this was mt first spread in the new sketchbook.

Second Spread