quilt challenge-52 cards in a year

Week 5

I read an article by Nikki Wheeler in an e-mail sent by the quilting arts team entitled Tips for Textural Mini Quilts. In essence the article showed artists how to use all those quilted scraps left over at the end of an art project.  I decided this week to use scraps I had been saving to make an card loosely based on the shape of a Fern leaf.

I cut the pieces into to finer strips and then stitched them together with a satin stitch.  I chose to around each of line of satin stitch with orange thread.

I wanted to experiment with a complementary colour scheme and to emphasise each ridge of the leaf more.  Down the centre ridge I used crayon to shade. 

Quilting-time saving tip #3

Another thing I find works well to create more time to make art is to get all your work done early on the morning and to have the house tidy before bed at night. 

I always try to tidy up at dinner time.  I try and make a game out of it with the children.  We see how much we can get done in 10 minutes I always make sure the kitchen is tidy and clean before bed and that the sink is shiny. 

The fly lady has a wonderful web page on how to keep your house wonderful and clean and organised even if you are working full time.  Her first tip is to keep her sink sparkling.  To look at her programme go to the link below. 

http://www.flylady.net/pages/begin_babysteps.asp


 It is amazing how much cleaner the house feels if the sink and benches in the kitchen are clean.   I try and make sure everything is laid out the night before for the next day and I get out the meat for the next nights dinner.

In the morning I try and have the washing done,  prepare the dinner,  have the house tidy and the breakfast dishes completed before the children leave for school.  When had children still at home I made a goal to have it done before 10 am.  With the important jobs out of the way I feel a lot more free to create art in any time left throughout the day.  It also means that in a busy day,pockets of time are more likely to become available rather than them getting sucked up into house work and other necessary but unimportant tasks.

quilt challenge-52 cards in a year

Week four

This week I have added colour to fabric and I have have also taken colour away.   

I started by painting white cotton fabric with fabric ink and then I stenciled the main image on the middle of the fabric.  With  thickened bleach  I painted patterns on the fabric.  Once this was washed and dried I used a black,  silver and white pen to emphasise pattern.  Then I machine quilted the piece.

I added shiva oil sticks to give the piece a nice sheen and more definition.    I then used pens and coloured pencils to add shading and more depth to the lines.

For information on how to purchase these wonderful paint sticks follow the link below.

http://store.quiltingdaily.com/Quilting/Merchandise/Shiva-Iridescent-Paintstik-Singles.html 

Quilting arts calendar competition

It has come to my attention that some people have found it hard to find my

2 winning entries for the 2011 Quilting arts calander competition so I have put a new link up here to see if it is any easier. 

http://www.quiltingarts.com/media/p/18496.aspx

http://www.quiltingarts.com/media/p/18494.aspx

I'm sorry for the inconvenience. 

Quilting arts calendar

I have just found out that my quilting art piece

"2 peas in a pod"

 has been chosen as the front cover on the 2011

Quilting arts calendar.   

Go to

 http://store.quiltingdaily.com/Quilting/Merchandise/Quilting-Arts-2011-Calendar.html?a=qe100622

to see the cover or to order a copy. 

Art photography ideas

When looking for a subject to shoot for art photography the first thing I consider in the sculpture of the object.  I tend to gravitate towards nature.  I enjoy the organic shapes,  smells and texture of natural resources.

 I place what ever I am photographing on a plain background  (like above) or I blur the background if the object can't be removed. As I have done in the photo below.

By minimising the distractions in the background I find I am able to "play" a little more with he photo.  I can emphasise the strong sculpture and texture of the photo.  It also draws the viewers eye to the image immediately.

I also like to get up close to the object, in this case a flower.  What can be seen closely is beautiful.and the camera can capture this beauty so well.  Sometimes it is even hard to tell what the bigger picture might be.  As in the case of the first picture of this blog a newly opened fern leaf.   Also try taking the same object form different angle and with different effects.  The following photos are of the same fern leaf.

Try getting down and getting close and seeing nature or other objects from a different angle.  See where a another view might take you.

Quilting-#2 Time saving:Once a week basket

One of the best time savers I have found so I can get to quilting more is our once a week basket.  

I use this tool everyday to get the house tidy.  Anything found in the common areas of the house i.e.  Lounge,  hall way,  bathroom kitchen etc that dosen't belong there gets put in the once a week basket.  Every saturday morning someone in the house sorts the belongings in the basket out and retuns then to there proper places.

  When I began doing this the basket was emptied every day but as we have used theis tool more once a week has been sufficient. Using this method of clean up have freed my time up more,  created a tidy atmosphere to work in (which has cleared up my mind) and eased the load of housework on a daily basis.