Quilting this week

This week I have been working on a small art quilt.  I have based this quilt on the mussel shells which are common on New Zealand beaches.  It has been fun to interpret sketches I have drawn on location in my sketchbook.  I want to show you today they way I work on a new piece of work.

I first sketch on location taking down the subject and any ideas I have surrounding the subject.  In this case I sketched my own interpretation of seaweed,  mussel shells and grass.  I combined some of these elements into a cool bag design.

Then from this I made more sketches,  I chose this one to make into a small wall quilt.

I then sketched it up in my sketchbook and did a few colour ways.  This was the one I liked the best.

I collected some photos as reference for colour and for my palette choice.  i used these as a guide for my paint selection.

This is the finished top of my quilt.  When I get to this point I spend a few days looking at the quilt top deciding on quilting designs. 

The whole design board area.

 Hopefully this week I can get it quilted!



Photography this week

This week I have spent a lot of time at school watching sport events.  Photos of sports can be a challenge to take.  Most digital cameras have a sport mode button which you should try to use for fast action shots.  The photos will be clearer than on a normal automatic mode.  The fast shutter speed enables you to take photos of fast paced action. 

These photos were taken on my Canon SLR camera on sport mode. 

Freestyle

Waiting for the next race to begin

Finishing the race

Number one finish !!!

Backstroke

Close up of the facial expressions

Celebration

Diving for the next race

Half way through a stroke in breaststroke

Water coming of his face.

Taking photos from different angles keeps interest and explains the story better,  it also gives you more of a chance to get good photos. 

Try to use you camera to take an action shot this week.  You might like to try one of these ideas

• A sporting event
• Children playing
• Cars and machinery moving
• landscapes while in a moving vehicle
• Kids on a trampoline
• Pets playing
• Birds flying

Have fun experimenting with different shots.

P.S.  He got first in freestyle and backstroke and third in breaststroke and butterfly.  He got a certificate for being third overall in his age group.



Sketchbook challenge

This months challenge is flowers.  This is such an exciting theme this month.  I love to draw flowers in a stylised form.  I am looking forward to experimenting with different designs and techniques with this theme in mind.  I think flowers are such a personal gift in a persons life.  Flowers are a part of so many occasions birth , death,  birthdays,  celebrations of many kinds,  wedding etc.  They are such a significant part of our lives and who we all are.  My most favourite memory of my grandma is of her with her nose in a rose.  She loved them and I have inherited her love of flowers, especially fragrant roses. 

This first page has been done using acrylic paints and silver pen.  I used a commercial stamp for the background and I made the stencil for the centre design.

This page was also done with acrylic paint but I used gold pen as the accent. The flowers were also another original stencil.

This last page was done with the same stencils as the previous two pages.  I thought this could make quite a nice fabric.

Getting back on track with my quilting

Thank you for the few comments I received to help me get myself motivated and recharged with my art work.  It has really helped me to re focus and to look at where I am going next. 

So this week I have taken out some old work that I hadn't quite finished and started working on them.  It feels good to work again and be creative.  I love the satisfaction of creating something beautiful and special. 

This quilt I made a while ago wasn't sitting properly.  No matter what I did it wouldn't sit right.  I tried blocking it,  undoing stitching,  and reworking the blocks but to no avail it just 'it's own' way of sitting.

 I had done too much work on this to just cast aside or to throw it out.  I put my thinking cap on and decided I could probably use it for a few things.  So out came the scissors,  rotary cutter and the sewing machine.  This took my a lot of courage to cut into this piece of work :)

I first made 2 book covers for by sketchbooks.

The instructions for these covers are in the Surface Platter work shop by Lyric Kinard, produced by interweave.  They are very simple to make and really beautiful.

I have been wanting to make some covers for my sewing machines for a while and thought this stitched material would be wonderful.  These cover my felting machine,  my old faithful Bernina record and......

......My Pfaff machine. 

I attached elastic at each end of the machine so I can slip the covers over easily and so they fit snugly. 

I have only zigzagged the edges at the moment.  I want to see how they work before I do a more permanent edging on the covers.

I really love how they have all turned out and I feel satisfied that an unused piece of work now has a practical purpose.

Put a little kindness in the world

Lyric Kinard at http://lyrickinard.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/kindness-chronicles_04.html   has written a great blog about being kind.  What can we do to be kind in the world?  She has listed listed some wonderful ideas and challenged us to make an effort to be kind.  So here is some of the kind things I have done these past couple of weeks....

• Told a lady at the supermarket she looked beautiful (this one always embarrasses my kids)
• Made smoothies for breakfast for everyone
• Told a child her hair looked lovely
• Phoned a friend have troubles
• Prayed for a friend in need
• Popped in and saw a friend whose dad is sick
• Did a chore normally assigned to one of my kids
• Sat and listened to a teenager
• Defended a person who was being put down
• Gave away produce from my garden (this one was kind to me too....does this count?)

What have you done kind this month.  Join us on our quest for kindness

Photography this week

I captured some photos of my daughters flowers she received last week at her graduation from the personal progress programme ( a programme similar in length and work to the duke of Edinburgh programme)  I used theme this month form the sketchbook challenge as inspiration-close-up.

Sketchbook challenge

My 2 pages this week are ink and watercolour.  I have a delicious new set of watercolours.  They are made by Phebe and are the watercolour aquarelle fine brand. They are lovely to use.

I love to  get new supplies.  It is fun seeing what possibilities they have and where they can take me.

I also like seeing how they work for me.

What the can potentially accomplish.

I have had fun experimenting with this new set.  I love colour

The fist page I did I based on a shape I found close up in a towel design.  The shape was a long crescent.

I particularly like the top right square and can see some possibilities for future work.

The second page this week is a close up of the view from my sewing window of a yucca.  I love the shapes both positive and negative and the really Strong lines.