first cut, dismantling a pineapple for food and future planting

Pineapple.

I was delighted to see this pineapple on my counter one day ready for harvesting.

we love fresh fruit salad and this is a great addition to the usual fruit,

 one that is grown locally.

 first cut is the deepest, removing the crown

 

 then trimming the sides

 

cutting into chunks

 

rest of it stored in fridge and cut  fresh each day as needed

 

then  removing the crown of leaves

 

and peeling of about an inch of leaves

  

put into a jar of water with bottom just touching the waterline.

(cranky blogger won't let me upright this  photo)
 

 soon it will sprout little white roots

 

 next step to plant in a potting soil after sprouting  roots

 (I have a compost heap so I dig to the bottom of that  black gold.)

 I will plant it into a pot until I decide where I want to plant  in the yard.

 

 

I have some comfy sandals for my feet this summer, recommend by a nurse as I have developed plantar fasciitis n the last 6 months.bummer.

 they are called

OOfos and are available at TheInsoleStore.com

 I am a very happy customer.

 www.TheInsoleStore.Com

AND I have another pair just like these!

 

 

This is the latest homemade happy birthday card made for husband

 with Noodles as inspiration.

 When he was a kitten he loved to play BOO!

 He would run up behind you,

tap you on the back of the calf or butt, and streak past you like a flash!

like, now your it!

flashback

a couple years ago in a painting class I did some demos of an animal and a fruit as an afternoon exercise to loosen up a bit after lunch. a silly cat and some flora  and a tiny pineapple and then larger pineapple appeared n the cloth before long . Recently i found those pieces languishing and together with some yardage painted that day I made a shoulder bag. 

It's free motion quilted on the Bernina 830 record

.   

 

May your all be pineapples be sweet

 and

 may your feet be happy

 every summer !

 

Aloha nui loa, Sonja 

 

 

 

 



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?

 

A prayer flag for Boston

Aloha is the flag I sent to Boston after reading about a  request call from the

 North Jersey Modern Quilt Guild. 

I used fabric paints, finger tips and a big stitch to make one of my favorite and reoccurring themes,

Aloha.

this is a  one  word that has many levels and meanings, many.

 

 

below, a bit closer look .

 

 

a month or so ago

 I did an exchange of prayer flags with a group of artists I have traded with for years. we started with fabric postcard with " art2mail" in 2006 if  I recall, and  this arting  still goes on with an occasional  "something else"  challenge exchange . The half dozen  members remaining in contact is a manageable  amount to trade with .
And Getting original fabric art in your mail is a most wondermous thing.

 do you think this might just be a modern  form of pen pals ? 

 

above

  are 4 Flags I made and sent to Texas, Ohio, and England .

 

I kept the Grace one for my collection

 

                                   

  above are the flags  that came in my mailbox.

we each picked what ever words we wanted to reflect a sentiment

blowing in the breeze

and around the planet.

 Thank you Kate, Barb and Jo! 

 

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".