The Making of Music

Tangled Textiles has its reveal day today for 'Music'. I'm glad to have these challenges as it gets me into my sewing room and it also pushes me to work through problems with a project instead of just setting it aside and moving on. Below is how I arrived at my version of 'Music'.....

Sketches and more sketches ... dancing notes .....

  ... I considered making the theme "Every good boy deserves fudge"... did you learn that phrase along with 'face' to learn your music lines? 

 .... perhaps a winter scene?....

 Finally I settled on a version of above but with a treble clef as the center of interest.....

 I remembered doing a quilt for the challenge "Rhythm" and wanted something similar for the background. I was thrilled to find I already had a hand dyed pieced that said 'rhythm' to me and it was in the colors I wanted.

 I did need to dye the matching strips ..... and found Dyna Flows to quick and easy ...

I considered several options for the black lines of the notes and treble clef but finally decided to hand stitch cording onto the quilt ...

 ....it was lacking something. I wanted the treble clef to be dancing and singing with the backup of notes, but this wasn't it....

  ....so I added the dance trail of the treble clef as it had entered the stage .... seemed to tie the piece together and ground the treble clef......

  ....but those notes were too stiff so I ripped parts out and tried to make them a little more graceful.....and I added another cord next to the original cord of each of the white notes. I'm hoping the music show is ready to go!

Overall I'm happy with my final piece although those notes still aren't as graceful as I would like .... but there's always the next challenge ..... and this one was fun!

Quilter's Tool Caddy

In between several other projects and chores, I've been trying to add the fiber and embellishment parts for several clay pieces I have stacked and waiting. This morning I was suddenly inspired to create this little quilt for one of my vessels.

Quilter's Tool Caddy

I usually include petals, leaves, spices, etc. but am happy with this simplicity of a mini raw edge quilt. Perhaps a similar design may work for my wall curves .... back to the sewing room .....

Hope you're having a wonderful creative week!

Click on the middle photo to see more photos of this pot at my etsy shop.

Inspiration

Earlier this summer a friend and I were hiking and came across an interesting art show, a medical office that offers there wall space for art shows, had fiber art on display. Of course we went in and here are a few of the art quilts from the show.

I wish I could tell you the names of the artists but I did not write them down. I did meet one of the quilt artists and she gave me her card and I cannot find it!

This is the setting of the show .....

Elizabeth and I also found these inspirations on our hikes this summer .....

As summer comes to an end I hope you are enjoying your September whatever season you are in!

Tangled Textiles Reveal Day

is today! This is our second challenge and the theme is Celebrate. Head on over to Tangled Textiles and see what each of us has been celebrating.

Celebrate!

Summer has become my time to visit friends and family in Canada. Lucky me, that means flying up to British Columbia, possibly my favorite place in the world. This year is the first time I've had a time commitment, that of creating an art quilt with a deadline of August 18th, while I'm still away. The theme is 'Celebrate' which seemed perfect for summer holidays but being away from home and my studio it is presenting a true challenge. I have a couple days to overcome the obstacles and get something together so I am optimistic but realistic. This will not be my star composition although it may have a little star quality in perhaps shapes? If you'd like to see what everyone is up in the Tangled Textiles group head over to http://tangledtextiles.blogspot.com/

A Painter

 I will always remember my mother-in-law as a creator and explorer, she loved to cook healthy meals, she attended yoga retreats in younger years, she changed religious beliefs often, the general route she followed took her from Roman Catholic to  Lutheran to Roman Catholic and finally to Buddhism. Had she spent more time in Florida she would have made it to Judaism as she was very interested in the religion of her new friends she was meeting here. And I will always remember her saying "all I want to do is paint" when asked what activities she wanted to do after moving from California to Florida. However she did do more than paint. She also joined a Spanish class as well as three painting classes. She passed away early this morning. These are a few of the paintings she did shortly after moving to Florida.

And this is a quilt I made for her by photographing her painting, printing it onto fabric, then adding some tulle and fabrics. I can see more of her paintings either becoming quilts or inspiring some quilts .....

Inspired

The past two months has been a fun and rewarding time spent sketching, planning and creating my first challenge quilt for Tangled Textiles. I've been wanting to try out some new techniques and this was my opportunity to do just that. I enjoy Terri's cup quilt (from her Etsy shop) each day as I work in the kitchen and her mosaic technique has been saying 'try me, try me!" so I used her technique for the background of my games quilt.

I was really happy with the background but had to keep going and those last few steps were challenging. For more on how I got from background to 'Net Play' and the other wonderful creations from fellow Tangled Textiles members head over to the blog.

Happy playing whatever your game!

Clay in the Sewing Room & Destination Quilt

When making clay rattles some months back I decided to try creating a little storage cube for my bodkins. I've found it very handy to keep my bodkins separate from my large needles.

I've been using a couple of these bodkins to sew these clay ATC's. One is a little larger, one a little smaller than a standard ATC.

 The third clay piece below is a rattle waiting for a inchie. I fired the high temp wires into the cube and plan to tie an inchie in place. Only problem I've never made an actual inchie so I may join the inchie challenge at least until I come up an appropriate inchie for this rattle.

This is reveal week for our 'Destination' quilts. Earlier this week I shared a sketch inspired by the trail near our home. It kept coming to mind when I thought of 'destination' as I don't know my destination but I sure am loving the path I'm on. Hence my destination quilt was created ......

Watercolor pencils ....

More watercolor pencils, then you can see the leaves where I have already washed the color with water. After brushing with water came the quilting.

And finally how to finish ... binding or ..... I finally decided ....

Because my current path involves clay and fiber I added some of my clay beads my path. I'm sure I'll find more clay and fiber at my destination.
For more Destination quilts check out the flickr group.

Holiday Time - Fun Stuff - In and From the Sewing Room

 These cute little red fruit are from our coontie plant. I had hoped they were edible but apparently not. I found an article that says 'the coontie may be the most primitive plant on earth'. so I displayed them in my 'primitive' wagon dish, from my last glaze firing. 

 

Holidays and cold weather always makes me want to spent time sewing. Elle's post about making bookmarks from her scraps prompted me to dig out some scraps and get busy. The bookmarks weren't totally scraps; I used some fresh fat quarters but the postcard and ATC were sure made from scraps!  I also added some flower petals and lavender to the postcard.

Then for some more gift wrapping. This is how I reused one of those boxes whose advertising on it definitely does not make it a gift box. I used Wonder Under to cover the box with a floral I had bought for a dress a few years ago only to realize quickly that I liked the fabric but to wear it. But it makes a fun Florida Christmas box.

 This is a nifty little cutting tool I don't use often but it is handy at times.

 Nicolas isn't too excited about the holidays yet ..... but I hope you're enjoying yours!