zentangle ATC exchange

 

 

 

 My  first two attempts to make Zentangle ATC's

 went by the wayside, into the ditch,

off the road...
I filled the backs of  envelopes with  black lines but nothing surfaced .
my doodles ended up needing to be quilted and after starting out with a piece o plain muslin, the  black thread I used  kept breaking . I switched over to a variegated blue called de Nile by Superior of the king tut line that I got a cone of because I like it so much, then  the quilting /doodling went much smoother. free motion quilting is so like the doodle marks we made in margins of our note books as students in  class or on the phone with a pen or pencil. The this case the fabric is the paper and the needle is the pen only reversed because the thread is stationary and I move the blank fabric beneath the needle. the foot peddle got hot . I quilt barefooted.

 

When the quilting and cutting into sections was complete  I was thirsty for color so I painted the cards colors in  magenta, sky  and golden yellow and colors they make combined . I sprayed water and let the colors run outside the lines

 and the next morning..

 they had  dried and curled up like so many chips in the sunshine!
 that is not a problem with a hot iron on hand. I  fused some of the art paper made from those  painted coffee filters, again, on the backs and placed a weight on finished cards to flatten them for the mail, overnight. 
 

the finished ATC's

all ready to mail out.

 

 

and now

 that age old question

egg or chicken?

 

my helper Noodles everythinghereismine

" I am here to help!"

 

I got allot of help when i was finishing the 50 star Christmas quilt this week.Noodles is my cat helper.You have seen him here before holding down things and rearranging fabric according to cat standards.

                                      " what if i lay myself down here..
                                                          smells good"

                                  " why not move this closer to my face"

                                    "  this is soft  like me..... is this for me?"

" now where is that pin i just pulled out of your binding with my teeth?"

A cautionary tail.

 even older cats can hurt themselves if they get a hair brain idea to remove glass headed straight pins while you are  distracted  for even a moment.

so don't leave  your work unattended.

 i did not want an emergency trip to the vet any more than most cats like taking a ride in a crate in a car.

 labeled and ready to bring on the holiday cheer

 

all that work means yet another nap for Noodles.

may your helpers be taking lots o naps.

 

 

what are you working on for the holidays?

be well, Sonja

This post is now linked up to "Off the Wall Fridays"

thank you Nina Marie

 

 

 



prayer flag for June

Mahalo
is a word for ThankYou.
it is a one word prayer
of being grateful and aware of all beauty around you.

I took one of my prayer flags that had the word stitched on and collaged it with some of the pieces of fabric that i am thankful to find in a box,

colorful bits waiting to be useful.

after i decided upon an arrangement i free motion tacked them down , overlapping.

after a freemotion quilting session, i painted some parts
that wanted more color.

the addiiton of buttons and ties complete this project.

 

this is held up to the morning sunrise.

 

i have left the edges raw on purpose.

perhaps they shall join up at a later date.
As for now they are free.
Mahalo, Sonja

Plumeria

what a wonderful fragrance the Plumeria gives off .

 So clean and light and welcoming.

  

Here is a painting of plumerias in my hand.

later i painted a smaller verson,

 quilted it, and shared  with some of my art pals.

oh happy day of flowers

have a great memorial weekend.

the birds the word.....

                                 "everybodys heard the birds the word....bbbbbbb....."

dh mower with chicken inspectors

(my mower is the bottom one and it goes on woman power.)

 

And if you are old enought to recall this song or watch Family Guy upon ocassion, what does that conjour up for you?   and not to mention some of the art blogs i follow that  are bird  art talking/making  as well, and the birthday card i got this year from a dear friend  had a photo of a chicken crossing the road and asking that age old question.......why DID the chicken cross the road?  all this and the fact that i have a yard full of chickens and can't  find but a few eggs a day....lead me to this post.

that and the last painting class i  held.

i painted a chicken as a demo when i asked students to think about an animal to paint in the afternoon session. we painted flowers mostly in the morning cause i think that is least difficult and you need to put the color somewhere after all, unless making yardage.  the chicken i drew / painted was indeed crossing some surface, she was dashing and colorful. just recently i quilted the road she was crossing at a very high speed!   

yes, she is certainly a  colorful bird as seen in this middle  close up above.

a few weeks ago i thought it would be fun to put my  class painting samples  together and i am in the process of quilting  some more of them now.

can you see the rocky road the red hen is crossing with speed? 

lots of fun was had by quilting the dots.

i love to finger paint alot so this is repeating pattern in my work lately, those  finger dots. 

we painted poultry, penquins,peacocks,butterflies, and even a pineapples showed up on fabrics on the sunny afternoon.  what a great class  this was with 3 repeaters and 3 new ladies. all artists on cloth in my veiw.i  will post some of their art .  i always wish i had taken more photos the next day but there never seems to be enough time when you have a paint brush in hand! 

i will

also will try to rotate this one later.

 pineapple upsidedown.

blogger thinks this is is what i want even thou my jpg has leaves at the top.

fun in the summer is painting outside.