hip to be square

While I painting some fabrics this weekend, I was thinking about what the creative process, my process, might look like from the outside, in slow motion. I say slow because I am slow. I say I make slow art because it goes that way, meandering like a cat unable to walk a straight line and I can't hurry creative process, that much I've learned. And  I don't want to hurry the  process. I so enjoy being in  the "zone " I forget to eat occasionally and am often reminded by rumblings from my gut.  I enjoy ALL the processes very much, the painting, some planning, cutting, sewing, adding, subtracting, quilting and on and on. so many choices to be made along the way and I can't make them far ahead but only until the choice just before has been put into action.  then you can, of course have a change of heart  if an idea sprouts up .

this poured out box of scraps of many colors await a new life

 



random joined pieces become strips or squares.

I add on  till I get 4 1/2'' squares after trimmng.

like  these   cuties

then I cut 1 1/2" strips of my hand painted fabric and same size of a batik I like and sew them side by side and

sew a unit to all four sides of inner square.

 suppose I could call this a log cabin crumb I guess.
 I just call it fun as I don't like to over plan and once I get a rhythm,
 I'm  humming  now.

 Poof! another Saturday melts into a possible quilt top and scraps dwindle a little bit.

 

I have 16 blocks done so far  and  placed on the flannel covered stretcher bars.

I  just  might  make  more blocks.
(will post photo of quilted  up quilt in later post)

 

 or perhaps, I will take a nap.

Does your cat (or pup) assistant snore?
 Noodles does!

 

egg coloring 2013

Good Friday finds me once  again coloring eggs with

onion skins and herbs.

 

 This year I used rosemary springs inside the skins . That herb has grown so huge it looks almost like someone has left a Christmas tree at my kitchen door. I told  dh that it likes the Italian cooking I do so it leans into the deck, reaching for the door, making it easy for me to snip sprigs for cooking and away from the sun.

 all the other adjacent  plants reach the opposite direction?

 I wrap the skins snugly around the  raw eggs before I bundle them up in a coffee filter

and tie them  up with a bit o floss. then I boil them just like you would if

 making hard boiled eggs.  

I put vinegar into water, a mordant. The rosemary smells  most redolent as they cook.   

After peeling off the filter and skins from cooling eggs,  lovely marbled, mottled patterns are reveled .I  made a nest of Peli's hair,
aka Spanish moss, 

to cradle them for the photo.
 

I want to thank my flock o free range chicken for these fresh and nutritious little eggs. I have an egg  hunt almost daily as  they try to hide them. they have laid them in the car on the seat if you leave your window down. I have found eggs on top of car in the roof rack, in tool boxes, in deck chairs, and of course in the tall grasses and shrubs.
 

 

......to get to the egg salad of course! 

 

Spider lilies, basil, rosemary and Morea  iris  are in my Easter bouquet.
Be well and my your egg basket be overflowing!
 

 

Sky according to Lucy

"the Sky", said Lucy "is full o diamonds...."

Sky is the February theme for the atc trade.that is a broad topic of color

 to choose from!

how about all o them.

i must have a zillion sunset colored photos and dozens of painted one in postcards form. so where did my art part brain wander to this time?

 

 

To a song. again.

once again a piece of music, a song with the word Sky in it caught my attention.

pick me pick me  it said ,so the designing began.

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds was my inspiration.

 

i painted on a webbed recycled cloth with inks and used it to mono print
 the cotton fabric.

you can see it in the upper left corner of photo above.
 

here is close up of the first print. i added more inks as needed

for the ones that followed.

 

 

once again i quilted free-motion with a metallic thread in a pale gold.

the above photo shows front and back quilted in the sun and spirals of my imagination.

much to my delight the threads never broke on making 9 cards and i did not even change to a metallic needle. i just used my old dull one that had recently sewn on paper. i close up the  envelopes i make  or old calendar pages with a nice zig-zag stitch

 in colorful threads.

perhaps my singing of  "tangerine trees and marmalade skies"  made for

 good vibrations!

just in case you may have forgotten the words, this song is on the

 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album by the Beatles.

 

i hand stitched some diamond colored tiny glass beads all around the edges, usually one at a time using a quilitng needle. i know i know, this takes up a bit of time but i enjoy taking some hand work out on the deck where i can enjoy

 the clouds loafing along in the sky.

i call this trade             Sky according to Lucy.

(once upon a time long ago i had a mare by the name of Sky.)

 

the little twirled painted coffee filters above will dry into a sort of tie dye pattern.

when they are dry i iron them flat again and wrap my art cards in them to

help protect the art in transit.

 

here is some of the paper i  used in  this trade.

 

SO,what music has inspired you lately?

Oh, if you click on sunset top photo,
can you see the cat in the foreground?

 

hearts of fabric

Do you have any idea  of HOW many songs have the word 
 Heart
 

 

 in them ? mucho plenty!!
 

 

i made a batch of  valentine post cards  last week to trade this month that started with painting a heart on cloth 4 by 6 inches .quickly. loose.
 the backgrounds colors were watercolory in lights.
 i layered paintings up for some simple quilting on "Bernadette".

added a  bit of glimmer and shading and i was done .
While i  was making these cards to mail,

 

i  thought of as many titles as i could sing a few bars of before

 i googled a list.more than i recalled  but none the less a fun mental jog.

Every beat of my heart-Rod Stewart
Heart of gold-Neil Young
Piece of my heart-Janis Joplin
Young at heart-Frank Sinatra

those are just a few i reviewed in my mind  and sang as i painted and sewed.

and who doesn't love the sight of  a cat in the sink?
Noodles pauses in a Sunbeam of  light at his morning drink in the sink.

 

 

May all hearts be happy and well,

Sonja

 

 

 

devine verdigris

the  first trade of yet another year of glorious color in

Arts in the cards is on .

 this year we got to put in our color choice. i said puce and verdigris.

 verdigris was choice for January so i thought i would jump right in.

i love the blue/green colors of various metals left to weather.

 think of Miss Liberty statue and her lovely patina. 

I  have a lovely old lamp with such a base in that coloration.  

 

many plants and vines fall into that charming category as well.

 

i painted and over painted fabric for backs and coffee filters for fronts with all sorts o paints and glimmers i had on hand,

i fused a peltex layer between after they dried.

next day i sat at my trusty Bernina 830 record and free motion quilted away

the rainy afternoon.

 a bronze/blue edging over a zigzag stitch was the last step.

below

 i  have put them in a small tree for a photo before addressing them and sending out.

  

 

i think they would make great book marks if i re sized them to about 2"by 6".

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

 

 

 



fragrant friday

this lovely orchid blooms late in the year, now, for about a month and gives off a fragrance of spice like cloves only at night to attract moth pollinators.

Pumpkin painting people

Hello  October  Pumpkin  lovers!

Some autumnal  color for you!

pumpkin colored October sunset close up 

 why are these fine ladies smiling under a shady tree?? (see below)

they just painted up a patch/batch of pumpkins on fabric about the size of a postcard. i asked  them to make several after we practiced a bit of sketching on paper to loosen up. 

 they made some  to send and  some to keep .

 (even if folks don't sew one can always glue the

small original painting

 onto a card stock to make a greeting card ) 

 we also made sunsets on water and mountains and got more paint on fabric squares  than on our clothes. 

I love to demo and in doing so usually get the most paint on myself.  

oh,  i don't mind as  it eventually washes off my skin and i do wear painting clothes to class,well usually. it takes about a year to get a shirt painted good and i help it out by  often wiping my paint brushes directly on my shirt in class. 

 Erin,  Beth,  Heather,  Becky, and Aliea  shine!   

             

           a palette, a yogurt lid really, with paint on it will be applied to fabric  soon as i wind down.

after the painting class leaves,

i like to clean up the left behind paint onto pieces of fabric close at hand.

below are a few sections of cloth left to dry.

tomorrow i will iron them flat and eventually wash/iron them as i design, play, quilt and collage with these random colored cloth bits.

art cloth in the making, step one ..... above

 ironed flat fabric of  many colors to ready to inspire

After a painting session,  i wash my brushes and then let them dry flat on table before stashing them upright again

 in jars or cups for storage. 

i have some  brushes that are 30 plus years old that i still reach for!

my favorite paint to use on fabric is a screen printing inks by Versatex,

i have used these  for many decades and love them much .

i get them from dharmatrading.com

 bushes come from dick blick , my favorite one is the angled shader brush .

and i 

found one more use for my painted and clean up coffee filters.( some  colorful filters are shown in the previous Pear  Blossom post.)

 this time i did a little gathering stitch around the circumference , gathering it up with care, stuffed it with a bit of fluff, cinched closed after  inserting a  dried stem from an avocado dipped in a bit of glue. a scrap of green fabric cut in leaf shape slipped over stem and let dry.  paint more color onto finished pumpkin if you like.  might take some of that fabric of random colors and make some more. i usually make them out of fabric but that coffee filter said...pick me! and it worked!

Sunrise over Pearblossom, CA.

Sunrise over Pearblossom, CA

on the way north to the snowy mountains from the small town in southern California where i lived as a child was a place called Pearblossom. we usually arrived just about sunrise at a truck stop or ihop having left in the dark o early morning to

get a good start.

i love the name and when i read of a pear as a color trade with Artsinthecards, this is where my mind went. i painted bits of fabric the colors of fall pears. then i set up to paint some rosey sunrises also on cotton. next i cut hill shapes and layered them front of sun. simple stitch held them in place and some metallic thread made

the rays

reach out from the sun.

the circles under the cards are the used coffee filters colorful with paint from projects wiped and driped and used up on them. i use these papers to wrap up
my art cards like

a little burrito for traveling through the mail.
colorful papers to go.

Although i  admit to seeing far, far more sunsets,

i wish a happy sunrise to all!

Sonja