Ceramics Works-in-Progress: Succulent & Cacti Planters

Ceramics Works-in-Progress: Frost Porcelain Cabochons & Pit-Firing Heart

Materials: Frost Porcelain clay, and shucks I can't remember the clay for the heart which a clay mate gave me

Work-in-Progress Sewing: Beginning Quilting Class

It all started with watching a Creative Bug video on how to piece a top for a Rosy Quilt and then buying one French General mini charm pack of another from Etsy, some pink hued Kona solids and flower prints from Joann's, and then discovering some gorgeous rose prints from a local quilt fabric shop.  I worry about the combination of quilt fabrics from Joann's which are so thin and flimsy than more expensive fabrics.

However, I'm stuck.  I still have yet to make a border or two and include a backing and a binding.  Nor do I have any idea how to sandwich it all together into an actual quilt.  And so I signed up for a beginning quilt class at a local quilt fabric shop.  I was and am so excited about this project.

I found some vivid orange-colored yardage from Amy Butler in my stash and then picked out another Amy Butler fabric in a tangerine lotus print to go with the tangerine dots.

In my stash was this orange Amy Butler Midwest Modern print.

And I picked up online Amy Butler's lime dot fabric to coordinate with a color in the lotus and Midwest Modern fabric.

I found on Etsy a sale on this Amy Butler tangerine roses fabric as well as 2 yards of the tangerine dots for only $10, which I think will all make a pretty backing (maybe).

Juxtaposed together.

Sewing: Crib Pennant

I had leftover patchwork from the big dots pillow I'd sewn and hate to waste and decided to turn it into a crib pennant for my baby nephew, Rhys.  I cut out triangles from Wonder Under fusible web and ironed the "rough side" to the wrong side of the patchwork fabric.  I then cut out the pennants.

I then peeled off the fusible web paper and stuck the sticky sided patchwork fabric onto aqua blue fabric, spritzed it with water to help stick it better, and then pressed with a hot iron to fuse.

I sewed the two fabrics together with the zig zag setting on my sewing machine.

I printed out and then cut out on Arial letters of my nephew's name on card stock.  

I traced it "backwards" on fusible web and stuck it (spritz and steam ironed) on aqua blue fabric.

Lastly I zig zag stitched the aqua blue letters onto the patchwork pennants and then stitched aqua blue ribbon to string the pennants together.

My niece penned me a lovely thank you card in baby Rhy's voice.  I now want to sew a baby quilt for Rhy's pending baby sister.

Sewing: Big Dots Pillow

I bought a trio of fat quarters where "grey, taupe and teal butterflies coordinate with Caribbean Kona blue and Mocha feathers" at Scruffy Quilts in San Mateo, CA.  Scruffy Quilts had a July Butterfly Challenge Trio where if you use these fabrics in a project which could be "as small as a potholder or as large as a king size quilt," you could then be entered into a drawing for a $25 gift certificate.  I would have done potholders, but I don't yet how to make binding, and so I opted to sew Amy Butler's design of a big dot pillow as a wedding present for my nephew and his wife whose registry I noticed had these colors in their towels and bed sheets choices.  My zig zag stitching around the dots isn't perfect, but I hope that it's a charming, handmade look. 

Coloring Books

I got to Flax yesterday, saw my painting instructor there, talked watercolor with him and told him I remembered his adage in class to try to improve our drawing and was persuaded by him to purchase Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain by Betty Edwards though I hated that book years and years ago (but I remember too he said that it was the book's exercises he did when first enrolled at art school).....and then I get this nugget in an email from him: "It's an old adage from Art Center College of Design, where I went after my time at San Jose State….. "You can push paint around on a bad drawing all day long and it still won't look good, but you can push paint around almost any old way on a good drawing and it will still look good!". This statement is a bit flippant, but in essence, does hold true. Drawing is hard, learning how to use any given medium (oils, acrylics, watercolor, etc.) is easy. Drawing well is the key. The rest will come. 

OK, I'll get off my rant… try to get some WC or just pencil or ink sketches done, AND bring them to class."  

Umm, yesterday I needed to be somewhere in the morning and could not devote myself to the harder task of practicing to draw well nor the time to devote 4 hours to art making.  I had been digging through my craft boxes and found these two little preprinted mixed media canvases.  I also remember those popular "adult" coloring books that my friend Shannon bought at the museum bookstore for her classroom.  I've seen them at Michael's as well as indie bookstores and at Flax which my painting instructor said are one of the hottest selling items at the store, but he also commented that are in no way helpful in making our own good paintings.  I think though they serve a purpose for people who are too lazy or think they're too busy to learn perspective but wanna "make."  I was one of those people yesterday morning and didn't want to do the hard task of drawing and just wanted to "color in the lines."

Watercolor: Paint the Sky

"Value is more important than color."