A New Challenge

I'm excited to tell you that I was recently invited to participate in The Sketchbook Challenge. Basically what that means is I'll be posting once or twice a month over on that blog along with some other fabulous artists.

There is a new theme announced each month and The Sketchbook Challenge artists (and anyone else who wants to play along) create sketches and interpret the theme. The theme for June was just announced today and it is Urban Sketching. You can read all about this theme on the blog. There is also a Flickr group set up where anyone can share photos of what they created with each theme. And bonus...at the end of each month if your drawing is chosen from the Flickr group, you could win a great prize.

I'm looking forward to this new challenge, especially since I've been pretty lazy lately about sketching regularly. Hopefully this will get sketching back into my daily habits. How about you? Do you sketch regularly? Semi-regularly? Not at all? I invite you to play along with me.

And just to get warmed up, here is a sketch I did last evening. It is a digital sketch that I did on my iPad using an app called Paper by Fifty Three.

These items just happened to be on the table right by where I sit in the TV room.

Back to Handbags

Way back in this post I shared two kitties I had painted on cotton duck with the intention of making them into handbags. Well I'm finally getting to that project. I started with the orange/magenta kitty yesterday and didn't get very far.

We finally had a beautiful day here today and I spent a lot of it out in the garden.....phew, I'm tuckered out.

Art Quilting With Neocolor II Crayons

I hope you all are having an enjoyably long weekend, on this Memorial Weekend. When I started creating the art quilt triptych (see previous post), I video taped the steps along the way, and today I finally have that video ready for you to view.  I obviously need more experience with my camcorder as there are times where the video is black and white and times when I forgot to change the orientation.  But I think you'll get the idea of what I'm showing.  Please enjoy!

Cat Triptych Almost Done

Click on photo for a larger view

I'm happy to say that this project is basically done. All I have left to do is add labels and hanging sleeves. I'm not sure if you noticed but I decided to leave all the background areas uncolored. Every time I walked into my studio, I'd look at them and was really liking how they looked just like this.  I also kept worrying that if I did add color to the background that I'd regret it. So that's that! I love how they turned out and now need to think of a name for them.

All Done

Well this is the last post on the baby items I made for my granddaughter who is due to join this world in early September. I have now washed and dried the quilt and the texture plumped up perfectly. I did notice a little dulling in the white strips and I figured that might happen with a little purple dye migration, even though I took my usual precautionary steps to prevent that. Oh well!

Close up.

I shared the crib bumpers with you in the previous post but had to show them again.

And here's a shot of the packaging that the bumper foam came in, just in case any of you were interested. There was also a pattern included.

And here is the final item I made to coordinate ... a diaper stacker that hangs on the end of the crib.  I found the free pattern for this online here. I wanted a version that tied at the top and not one with a hanger.

I still need to shop for crib sheets as I decided I didn't want to make those.  Then I'll be all set for the baby shower eight days from now.  Now to figure out how to wrap it all.  Hubby suggested a garbage bag (insert eye roll here). I will have to look for some large gift bags that look nicer than a garbage bag.

Nearing the Finish Line

I finished the quilting on the purple baby quilt over the weekend. Today I started work on the binding and as I type this I have one side left to hand stitch. Then it's ready for a wash n' dry.

I used Quilter's Dream wool batting in this quilt, the same batting I used in the previous two quilts I made like this. See this post and this post. In the photo above, you can see on the left the backing fabric and in the center is a strip of the batting.

Here is a close-up view of one of the blocks, showing how I quilted it. I used a pretty simple design because the variety of fabrics in this quilt I think would not have shown off a more elaborate quilting design. All the blocks are quilted the same. I used Superior King Tut thread in a variegated purple for the quilting.

The next photo shows the crib bumpers I made. I used the same fabrics that I used for the quilt back and binding. The bumpers are reversible so my daughter-in-law can arrange them to her liking.

I'm thinking about making a crib skirt, hanging diaper bag, and a hanging fabric organizer. Hmmmm.....

It would appear that this baby stuff has totally consumed me. For the moment it has and the reason for this is because the baby shower is coming up early in June and I'd like to have all this done in time for that.

Purple Quilt Top

Well here it is! The 81 blocks all stitched into a quilt top. Today I plan to get it sandwiched and hopefully start quilting it.

I've also got the fabrics cut for the crib bumpers and I'll share more of that project soon.

Lots O'Blocks

This weekend I spent my spare time working on quilt blocks for the baby quilt. I think I have about 30 to 35 made so far and I need 81 total. The blocks measure 6" unfinished.

I am finding myself thinking about the baby as I sew. Wondering who she'll look like...mommy, daddy, or ME. Wondering if she'll want to learn about sewing/quilting. And all those kinds of thoughts.

I'm using assorted black on white prints for the skinny strips in the blocks and below are the fabrics I have yet to use. Did you notice that I'm not using traditional baby fabrics in this quilt. Does that mean it's contemporary? I'm not a baby fabric kind of person I guess.

I'm still contemplating what to do on the background of the cat triptych, but I think I'm getting closer.

Progress and a Dash of Purple

I've added more color...stems and leaves are now green, I added some purple shading to several areas on the cats (that may be somewhat difficult to see) and some shading on the flower petals.

Now I'm having doubts about whether to add background color or leave the background as is, just the neutral fabrics. I mocked up (very quickly and messily) a green background in photoshop in the next photo to try and get an idea of what it would be like with background color. I had envisioned green as my background all along. Maybe another color would be better. Hmmmm. Any thoughts?

And here's the state of my sewing space...purple chaos. But I'm loving it! I made a trip to Joann yesterday and picked up crib bumper pad inserts and fabric to cover them. Woo wee!

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New-To-Me Artist Discovery
As I was browsing through another person's pin board on Pinterest (a great big huge time wasting activity), I discovered a photo of a quilt that I liked so I clicked on it and it took me to the artist's web site. Once there, I found myself totally in love with all the work she does. I'm very enamored with the fiber bowls she makes. Do check her out. I hope you enjoy your visit as much as I did.

Artist:  Hilde Morin
Web site:  http://www.hildemorin.com/index.htm

Painting the Flowers

I'm moving along with the triptych. All the flowers are now colored in. At some point, after all the initial color is in place over these quilts, I will go back to everything and add  more shading and highlighting. Next I am going to work on the stems and leaves and then the background. Oh and I still need to pick a color for the kitties' eyes.

Guess what I started yesterday? A baby quilt! My daughter-in-law has expressed an interest in purple for the nursery, so I starting cutting purple fabrics for a quilt.