Calendar and Sketchbook Challenge

Here is a little bit of my Quilting Arts Calendar Challenge Entry.
Yes, it is Oatis!

I first made my background from fabric and paper and paint.

I drew my cartoon drawings on vintage feed sack and thread sketched them on my sewing machine.
They are coloured with pencil crayons.

This is the back of the fabric paper. I free motion stitched around the motifs from the back.

Here is the finished 12"x 12" art quilt, called:
PUPPY ANTICS
Oatie is in a large bucket while gathering leaves at the cottage.
Oatie playing with the neighbour's black cat.
Oatie sleeping with his paws up. Yep, he really does.
Oatie standing while we dance to the Black Eyed Peas: Boom,boom,pow!
Finally a portrait!
I made this art quilt in a mere 3 days and had the photos in the mail.
But alas, I didn't make the list of finalists,
but I have a very cute quilt!

A page from my new 2011 Sketchbook.
Sketchy animals drawn while traveling in my new car.

My Highly Prized Page for the Sketchbook Challenge.
I followed a video instructed by Pam Carriker.
I am really loving Pam's art.
She has a book coming out soon called, Art at the Speed Of Life.
The little girl is a copy of an old photo I bought in Florida.

A birthday card I made for my friend Sandra Spagnuolo, a mixed media artist.
The focal point is from an old pattern I found in an antique market.
I hope you have time to check out the Sketchbook Challenge.
I am enjoying it daily!

Impromptu Art

Art from Flowers!

At the cottage a couple of weeks ago I started playing with some flowers sitting on the table. ( Flox and a expired Rose of Sharon)

My new studio space before order.

One bird has finally left the nest!
This room has become my paint room and storage for all my felting supplies. More photos soon.

Crayon melted on cotton, acrylic paint wash, foiled in gold, machine embroidery and hand stitching

A few weeks ago, I was totally inspired by Canadian Fibre artist Wendy Feldberg. I read about her art and techniques in the new e-mag In Stitches from Quilting Arts. This is the end result! I highly recommend the e-mag, it is so interactive! I emailed Wendy to tell her how excited I was about her art. She replied immediately!

Close up!




Another melted crayon piece, with roses.
I plan to make samall purses from these pieces.

This was a UFO. I painted the fabric with Setacolours, set down some machine quilted lines and heavily hand embroidered it on holiday. Then nothing, set in a pile of UFOs, until I discovered Leah Day's 365 days of Free motion quilting on line. Wow, I was very impressed. I decided to make a journal of drawn quilting designs of Leah's. Drawing the designs helps you to stitch them continuously later. I ordered Leah's quilting aids and was thrilled with the Magic Genie Bobbin Washers. Free motion quilting has never been easier. The washer keeps the lower bobbin thread from appearing on the top of your quilt. You can easily used a neutral thread in the bobbin and any colour on the top! Heaven. I decided to machine quilt the rest of my piece and it looks lovely!

Pebbles in the Stream

Until next time, and much sooner! Keep stitching!

Playing with Papers

Decorated Papers, using hand made paper, crayons and paint.



My mom, sister Brenda, my aunt Elly and I had a delightful time on Monday on the Grand River Dinner Cruise. We saw a movie about the Grand River, were entertained by the Blazing Fiddles and had a tasty lunch on the Princess pontoon boat along the Grand River. Captain Al told us about the local history, especially about the Mohawk natives and the Six Nations Reserve. We saw from the river where the poet, Pauline Johnson lived.



This past week I have been completely enthralled with making design papers for stitching on. Using the instructions from Jill A Kennedy's Florabundance article in Quilting Arts Magazine, I've made one surface to stitch on and I have a couple more ready to go. Above is a design paper after using wax crayons and painting over the resist with Dynaflow. I added some Shiva gold on top. It's ready to be fused to craft fuse stabilizer on the back and fused with stitch witchery on the top. Once that is done I will scrunch up the paper fabric to soften it. The next step is to cut the pieces apart and reassemble into a design.




This is a close up of my first crayoned and painted Paper with stitching on it.




This is an over all view of the same paper. After reassembling and fusing to craft fuse again, I zigzagged the edges and free motion quilted the whole paper. I started hand stitching using a straight stitch, a few french knots and cross stitches. Its amazing that I started with a piece of painted manila paper from school and ended up with a stitchery.



This is my first cloth Doodle. I enjoyed doing this so much. I am keeping this one and making 3 more for a swap with Cloth, Paper Studio forum.
I finally got to working on making my studio spots in my house. My bookcase is up and filled with my art quilting books beside an easy chair in my living room. This is my reading SPOT! Since I can not have one big studio, I will have spots all over my house. Right now I am at my computer spot in the basement family room. This will be a summer project for sure! Until next week, try paper quilting!