Saturday, April 19, 2025

creativity this week, landscape, portrait and flower paintings and spring basket/ hexie spiral in quiltmaking

 

welcome to this week's creativity round up. The image above is one of my small journal paintings

I've been working in gouache again this week, it's not an easy medium to control but I love the effect ! 

note: paintings first, and all Sewing next if you're interested in one or the other

I'll start at the beginning, I view this tree every morning out the back door

so I tried to do a simple gouache painting in the journal. 
apparently I don't do simple
I didn't like it at first but like certain areas of it like some paint mixes
Then with the left over paint, did an abstract of just different colors on the palette
at first just color around the page, then not leaving well enough alone I added in posca pen lines
red paint pen on green, black and white pen, until I loved it. My thought was a portrait in center

 I had some paint left over in my lid palette , and not wanting to waste it, started this week's paintings from that. The dried paint looked like a flower to me already so... 


I'm loving my two home made journals, and the washi tape


a few dots of paint, some dots of ink 
After the blossom I wondered where that flower grew so painted a vista next
still had paint left and wanted to try a portrait. It's been a long time since I did one. Audrey Hepburn 
I referenced her image... and although I like the painting it doesn't capture her. 
I think the nose is too narrow, or the lips too large. It's lovely especially the lips but not like her. Please comment if you can help me figure this out? I loved her quote so added it in with ink and pink paint 

Still had paint left on the palette so I tried one of Matisse's painting as reference. I have this in poster form framed poster from National gallery of art in DC, and it hangs in my bedroom. 
you can see how small both paintings are in my journal. Seems like my lack of confidence keeps me from using the whole page. crikey. 

Then the remaining paint palette was just too muddy so I threw it away... and turned to fabric

Quilt Making this week

the rainbow scrap challenge color of the month is RED scraps... I do love hand piecing and english paper piecing so I tried something I saw on a google search for EPP
got set up for thread basting hexies by the TV

It's not sewn together but it's laid out on my felt covered cardboard tray


ready for more sewing by the TV

I was intrigued by the tutorial on pentagon EPP bowls here https://www.mollyandmama.com.au/blog/
So while on a FT sewing session with Cindy, made one using spring/Easter prints
small at 6" or so across


you make 6 for the top and 6 for the backing/underbowl and sew them all together. The inside/ top



funny bunny
the underside pics



I already cut out a larger version using pastel colors and my own dyed fabrics, and plan to embroider them then make a larger bowl... more on that next time! Thanks for visiting


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Thursday, April 17, 2025

I Like Thursday # 447 Pink blossoms, Easter baskets, portrait painting

blossom season

 click to make the image larger to see the delicate pink of these blossoms, and welcome to this week's list of likes

Delicate in pink petals, strong enough to survive Colorado

listening on audio




I like sewing and liked this video of how to not skew thick seams... a short video

https://youtube.com/shorts/NMWQsCTEaVs?si=EPqzwEWRMyeWE7_i

conversation starter this week, last of Easter prompts



did you get easter baskets as a child? Please describe them, what was in them, did you get them in the morning? After church? Did you make them for your kids  your mate or decorations ? 

I got pretty baskets with candies, or cheap toys, on fake grass, all arranged prettily. The mother put crinkly celophane around the basket, gathered it at the top with a big ribbon bow. 
PEZ dispensers were usually included
It sat on the dining room table til after church.
I LOVE gifts like stockings full of little stuff, and Easter baskets, and yep, I still miss them. 
Often the focal point was a chocolate bunny, one year a sugar egg with a scene in it. I was never a fan of jelly beans but they were pretty in the basket, my favorite was malted milk "eggs" and I couldn't get enough of those!  
and PEEPS were always there. I opened the box, and let them get stale because that made them chewy!

I don't remember the year baskets stopped, but must have been about age 12 or so. 

I like Sewing


This year      https://magpiesmumblings.blogspot.com/had a tutorial for an EPP fabric bowl, 
I made it and will show the whole cute bowl,  with all the scenes, on Saturday
I like painting and am doing it again.... I haven't done portraits for a long time, and I tried painting Audrey Hepburn, this week. I love this quote by her
I don't know where I went wrong with this, but will open discussion with you on Saturday's post. I wanted to really capture her but... well.. I still like the painting

From the archives on my blog, Easter 2019 with Milo
He was cautious of great big bunnies, yet somehow intrigued! 
Love you my beautiful boy
"yes, I want that bunny toy mama!"

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Saturday, April 12, 2025

Creativity this week charm pack quilt, Improv sewing in red and 3 little paintings

 

Very little as satisfying as watching paint dry.... welcome to this week's creativity round-up 

I'll start with the color of the month at rainbow scrap challenge, Red:

box of RED scraps
I eased into this color by pulling the really little scraps and sewing them together, watching the pattern show up, watching the colors blend, 
sewing one little section to another til I had two major sections to fit together into this...
about 18" X 13" 

my improv work lately looks like houses or cityscapes to me
Little doggie peeking out an upstairs window

I start by arranging the tiny scraps by shape into piles, then sewing a strip of tiny rectangles for instance, or geese, or squares cut at 1.5" etc. 
always a pile of shoes by the door

Using what's there, adding or trimming to make a section fit to another. It's so satisfying to see what lines are formed in the final piecing. So many pieces and so complex, come together to form this bedside table topper

like sourdough there is always a bit left over to start the next project, scraps are seldom "used up"


My friend Sonja in Hawaii sent me a link to a watercolor tulips video and I used my new journal, and tried washi tape to section off the page
I loved the tape, (bought off amazon in a set of 12 rolls) and it felt good to paint... 
then I wanted to see it done in gouache paint (opaque watercolor) to compare

I'm slowly learning to control gouache but love using them. I used plastic lids as a palette and when they truly dry out and are unusable, I can discard them. I used less valuable brushes as it's hard on them. 
the color is vibrant and opaque so it's easy to add color on top. I especially like the small yellow bud on the left, and the sky blending. I also love moving the paint around with my brush to see what happens
I didn't want to waste the expensive paint, so thought I'd do a background with it

I ended up loving it just the way it is.... the brush strokes and blending at horizon line. I mixed green and golden yellow on the palette first and it was too flat, so I just brushed on pure yellow gold onto the green and loved the subtle color, and light. Then went over the horizon line with a wet brush. It reminds me of art galleries that showed the "big red door" art, you know one color on a canvass.... I used to wonder how that was appealing til I did this. 

back to  quilt making...

A few months ago I wanted a mindless sewing project so pulled out two charm packs (precut 5" squares) 

I arranged them on the design wall then sewed them together. This week I finished the quilting on my little Janome Gem which is not meant to do heavy duty work. Two bernina's are out of commission and it's what's left. 

About 46" X 60"+ 
I sewed on this while Milo was battling his last illness, and started quilting it when DH called from the doggie ER to say he was dying. 

I put it away as grief took me. This week I finished quilting it and did a machine binding with this fabric


when strips are cut the pattern shows like this on the edge


very simple quilting yet time consuming 

pretty golden shiny hoffman vintage fabric on back

the squares are not pretty to me all together but they were a deep discount and I ordered them from the thumbnail pics online. As I worked with them, each was okay alone but all together I don't like them. 

I paired a scientific print I got long ago for my husband, which worked but the whole quilt is meh to me when finished. I learned life is too short to make and finish something you don't love. 


it was therapeutic to move to red after that. I am hoping to paint more gouache works this week. Happy creating y'all


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Thursday, April 10, 2025

I Like Thursday # 446 Egg hunts, spring views, books, pralines

 

We saw this view on our walk one day. A flock of birds in a budding tree. Spring. They were chittering at this guy 

Squirrel in the Attic

who was eating their seeds! 

Game for you.... what's this? 

lush blue, reflective, curved, 
Love this color and splash of color on our porch
turquoise, red chair, pink flamingo, yellow rock wall

speaking of a splash of color... only one person in this enormous subdivision planted daffodils
and they return each year even in our hardscrabble soil. They moved last year but the flowers are here 
Audio book  5th in the series by one of my fave authors

Another haircut I would like for me, but my hair is thin and very straight

Shadow shot this week, exaggerated us on a walk, I like the camera showing up

A  Purchase

 a new tablecloth in robins egg blue... with scalloped edges  on sale too 

Old tablecloth love

egg cups in center

I'd say I made this in high school, ahem, a Number of years ago. Hand embroidered in 1970's when mushrooms were in, avocado green and harvest gold were in, and young LeeAnna loved to embroider her jeans' bell bottoms. When I filled those in, I did this tablecloth 

The egg cups on top are a purchase from a flea market in Littleton CO years ago. Thought I'd make pin cushions from them but not yet

 Fine Dining


we baked hamburger buns last weekend, so good (not difficult to make) big and delish, cut like a dream

and cranberry bars, and...
home made pralines

I can't find /Easter candy without cornsyrup, soy products, or corn starch so I made us.... pralines

amazingly easy, butter, cream, vanilla, Powdered sugar (made with tapioca starch not corn), and lots of pecans. Drop by tablespoons onto non stick surface and chill. 

next week I want to make chocolate covered peanut butter eggs. 

My favorite Easter candy is malted milk balls... ( full of corn though)

our conversation starter: 


do you remember dying easter eggs? did you do it with your mom, or the other kids,  did you have those crayons to pre mark them?

what did your family do with them?  Did your family hide them for hunts? Any stories about hunts gone wrong or couldn't find all the eggs, 

the mother boiled them, then....

I remember the smell of the vinegar, dipping eggs teetering on little wire holders into rich color, dipping, dipping, color getting darker, letting them dry on the punch out in the cardboard kit. After finding them in our yard, numerous times, we ate them. 

Seems like we made deviled eggs with them, or just pulled them apart to see the yolk which I liked 

now for some funnies






now please visit these folks and let me know if you did an I Like post I can link with


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