Wish I Was Here

I always have a list of quilts I want to make, but sometimes a rogue slips into the queue. Recently as I fossicked through my quilts and scrap parts I came across a 12 by 12 inch square sewn together scraps part that said beach to me.

I combined that square with scrap strips, an ancient fat quarter of unknown origin, painted color catchers, and organza scraps. I also used special leftover strips from a gift of painted fabric. My goal was to convey the feeling of hazy brightness I’ve experienced at the beach, not necessarily a beach landscape.

“Wish I Was Here” 16 by 20 inches

Here’s how I began.

I decided the painted fabric stabilizer was too blobby (that’s a word, right?)

Then I added organza and decided I needed more of it.

I finished the edges with a sparkly rat tail that hinted at sea glass to me. All the quilting and edging was done with 40 weight cotton thread.

The colors keep changing according to the light, just like the beach.

I’m linking to Off The Wall Friday.

It’s The Little Things

Not every piece of art has to be a blockbuster. Sometimes doing little projects can be satisfying, too. Over the past week I have been inspired to create mini bits by what turned up when I went hunting for a missing quilt. I am ashamed to say there’s no method to my quilt storage system other than compatibility between quilt size and storage container. A quilt may be rolled up, under my bed, in a tote, or in a big black trunk. So I looked through a lot of stuff before I found what I sought. Along the way I refolded and straightened quilts, looked at old quilts with new eyes, and came across unfinished bits.

The first bit I felt compelled to work with because I found it on February 12 was a paper pieced heart block. I think I made it before 2011. With the addition of batting, backing and binding (from stash!) it now can be used as a hanging, a trivet, or a potholder.

Next, two quilts I came across needed some revisions, so I did that. You can see the original versions here and here.

“If You Go Into The Woods Today” got warmer shading on the trees.

“Deep Purple” got a narrow green strip around part of the inner purple area.

Then, my bowl of thread snippets caught my eye. I had just read a blog post about thread bowls and I have a roll of Solvy. Some free motion stitching, organza scraps, and thread created a small bowl. It’s cute, but it sure won’t hold water.

To cap my week of minis, I decided on my 100 day project. My choice had to use materials on hand, be quick, be flexible enough to entertain me, and be easy. I plan to make a daily 4 by 4 inch collage featuring one of my printing stamps.

Just some of my collage paper scraps, cut up card stock, and a glue stick.

I have picked up stamps cheaply at art center sales to augment those I purchased at stores.

We’ll see how long I can keep this project going. I’m linking to Off The Wall Fridays.

Hearts and Flowers

Thank goodness dreary February is brightened up by Valentine’s Day. This year I decided to go traditional with hearts and flowers to celebrate, though I won’t turn down a nice bottle of wine or some dark chocolate.

I think I once made a hearts quilt, but it was gifted a long time ago. Rather than go the quilt route I found it was faster and more fun to sew some hearts onto leftover blank greeting cards. The background is painted pattern tissue, and the hearts are old sheet music that I painted and stamped. The papers were heavy enough I didn’t have issues with the needle holes.

The flowers are ones I made when I was learning to control a watercolor brush. I needed lots of practice so I had lots of trials to choose from. Not only did I use them in the work below, but I featured them in a Florida Project collage spread.

I added thin marker lines to accent the petals.

The candy and florist industries may not appreciate my efforts, but I am happy to use some of the bits I’ve saved to create love tokens.

I’m linking to Off The Wall Fridays.

The Florida Project

I have packed an art project every time we’ve spent a few winter weeks in Florida. Last year it was assorted fabric strips and my sewing machine that produced four small quilts. Years before that I took hand stitching projects that resulted in the embroidered squares of “Every Which Way” and “Torii Traces.”

“Torii Traces” 2016

To change it up on this trip I took materials for making collages. Of course I had the exciting task of sewing down all those wool felt squares, but that was mindless work. Because I didn’t want to harm the furnishings at my in-laws’ condo I packed only paper scraps, scissors, board books (to use as sketchbooks,) and a glue stick. The paper scraps contained a lot of text, either whole phrases or words, or single letters. A limited number of raw materials really helps focus my mind.

I produced three board books of collages. That isn’t so impressive when I tell you the largest book measures 7.5 by 6 inches. Here’s a sample of my results, grouped by ones I love, I like, and meh.

I had prepped redacted text from an old book.

A lot of text, but yellow dominates.

First time to include flowers.

Here I combined part of a subway map, a brochure for Fallingwater, a page from a old German dictionary, and some Asian text.

The worst of the bunch. I am redoing it, but it’s never going to be great.

Since my return to Ohio I have continued to work in other board books in addition to revising my work from Florida, and can finally show off filled sketchbooks.