Hola! Blogging from Mexico.

This week I am blogging from Mexico and as you know, I always take a small sketchbook, some pencils, some watercolour pencils and a few paintbrushes with me when on vacation. Due to the fact that I didn't bring a novel along to read, I've been doing some sketching.

Also, I usually blog on Thursdays and today is Wednesday. Wow, how relaxed am I to even get out of my routine! Actually, today we had some rain and so I decided to blog now rather than tomorrow when, if the weather is good, we'll be golfing first thing and hitting the beach in the afternoon.

We are really enjoying ourselves, however they've had an unusual amount of rain here this month and the courses are flooded making for challenging conditions. We've seen so much wildlife on the course too. We've seen gators on the course as well as animal called a coati, turkey vultures, grey fox, cranes, flamingo-looking birds that weren't pink but grey, iguana and lizards. Really interesting!

Below are the sketches so far. Enjoy!

Zendoodling and Quilt Design

I have been zendoodling again. Not because I needed to de-stress myself but because I am trying to come up with a quilt design. Our local Christian School is planning a Silent Auction as a fundraiser early next year and along with some friends, I'd like to construct a quilt to place in it.

As you know, I'm not really a traditional quilter. I prefer more contemporary styles of quilts and I don't often make a quilt to adorn a bed. My quilts are designed as art that can be hung on the wall. I'm not sure yet what this quilt will be but I'd like to do something in black, white and gray. And so because zentangles are also mostly done in black, white and gray, I decided to try to come up with a square adorned with zentangles.

I drew a 4" x 4" square in my sketchbook and divided it like I divide my landscape quilt patterns. In each space, I did a different zendoodle. While I doodled I consciously tried to keep my darkest darks in one corner and my lightest lights in another. This will enhance the overall design of the quilt when the blocks are put together.

Once the block was filled with zendoodles, I photographed it and brought the photo up in my computer. I don't have a fancy photo editing software but I've found that I can do a lot in Microsoft Word. I imported the photo into my Word program and copied it so I had two. Then I rotated the second photo 1/4 around. I copied the original photo again and rotated the third copy 1/2 the way around and then I copied the original again and rotated the fourth copy 3/4 the way around. When I had the four squares oriented the way I wanted them, I put them together to make a large square out of them. I was really impressed with the result.

This is the original zendoodle block.





The above blocks are a combination of four of the original block with the three copies rotated. I gives me the feeling of a kaleidoscope.

I was able to get four different designs from this one block using the rotation method however, I was sure I could get many more designs from this square by manipulating it in different ways. Next I tried designing by flipping the photo of the original block so it showed up backwards and upside down. Below are the designs I got with that method.

 

As you can see these 4 examples look completely different than the first 4 examples.

I am sure there are many other design possibilities with this same original block and I think I will continue to find as many as I can. Then we'll have to decide which method we want to use for the quilt project and what type of art we want to make. There's the possibility we go a completely different direction but if we do end up using this design in some way, I'll post the final project here on the blog.

 

This experiment has also inspired me to try it with coloured fabric. Oh so many projects in my brain! I can't wait to get started!

Pen Pal Painting Challenge

Do you remember this past summer, I told you I had signed up for a painting project which was called the Pen Pal Painting Challenge? Well, we had until August to finish it and mail it in. The Art House Coop would go through them and then mail them to another participant along with a card that told a little about yourself and some contact information in case you wanted to contact the artist of the work you receive back.

Well, I received my pen pal's project this past week! How exciting it was. There are participants from all over the world so I was quite surprised that my pal is from Saskatchewan. Below is the project I did and also the project I got back.

My Metamorphosis Project

My Pen Pal's project

I will sit down and write my pen pal to try to get to know this artist in Saskatchewan. Cool!

New Technique for Fabric Cards

Although I have recalled the Fabric Cards I've made, I am still making them and sending them out to people. In my experimentation, I came across another technique.

In this technique, I layer fabrics one on top of another and cut away layers to reveal the patterns underneath. First of all I collect a few fabrics that co-ordinate and come up with a plan for them depending on their colours.

One layer is the back of the card, the next is the quilt batting, and then I have 2 or three layers of co-ordinating fabric on top of that again. I then zigzag the edges of the sandwich together.

This is the back of the card, the quilt batting and the third layer of the top fabric.

Here I lay the second layer of fabric on top

This is the first layer of fabric which I hand dyed a pale blue colour.
 

The sandwich is zigzagged together and then I stitched on top.

I cut away the first pale blue layer from inside the stitched area
to reveal the second layer of fabric underneath. I then stitched
a design on another section of the card.

On the flower design, I cut away the first and second layers of
fabric to reveal the third layer of fabric.

I will then embellish the card with buttons, beads, or found items to add interest to it.

Here are a few others I've made with the same technique.

Changes to a Completed Quilt

Each season I hang a new landscape quilt in my dining room and it came time to switch up the Spring one with the Fall one. (Note: I am currently working on the Summer one). But the whole time the Spring Quilt was hanging something bothered me about it.

I decided it was that the section of yellow in the middle didn't have enough value variation in it. So, using "Heat n Bond" I found some of the other dark fabrics that I had already used elsewhere in the quilt and placed pieces here and there over other fabric on the yellow bush.

I think the change breaks up the yellow mass pretty nicely and I like it better. I may still add a bit more of the darker values because it still seems to split the quilt in half instead of unifying it. You see sometimes when you think you're finished, you're not. Once I've added all the darker pieces, I'll have to machine quilt overtop of them again to secure them.

Summer Landscape Quilt - Quilt top completed

I've been working feverishly on the Summer Landscape Quilt and have finished piecing the top. Now  to shop for borders, quilt batting and a backing fabric. When I was fabric shopping I found this wonderful material that looked like water. I wished I had bought it before I started the quilt because it was perfect for the water parts. I decided to use it as a thin border around the quilt and then using "Heat n Bond" I ironed a few pieces to the quilt top to enhance the water. I also purchased a green fabric for the outside border and the back of the quilt.

A lot of quilters dye their own fabric to use in their projects and while that interests me, I find it very time consuming and messy. I took a course once with the Ontario College of Art on dying fabric with natural ingredients and I really enjoyed it. In that course I also dyed some silks and I have used these in the sky section of the quilt. As much as I enjoy dying fabric, I find that there are a lot of fantastic commercial fabrics on the market today and I prefer at this moment to use those. That may change if someone comes up with a really easy dying method.

 

My next stage in completing the quilt will be to sandwich the quilt with batting and the backing fabric and machine quilt it adding details to enhance the subject. This will take some thinking and planning because once I start to sew, it is really hard to remove something that doesn't work.

Summer Landscape Quilt Continued

Most of the main aspects of the quilt are completed and I have mostly background and water to finish. As you can see the canoe on the right has a refection in the water and it took me some time to figure out how I would depict that. I decided that I would use the same fabric as I used in the canoes but overlay each piece with a piece of dark blue organza. Organza is transparent so you can still see the original fabric through it but the dark blue colour gives it a distinction between the actual canoe and it's reflection. It seems to be working, but I won't know for sure until the whole quilt is done and I hang it on my design wall. That will be the point where I will notice what is not working and have to determine how I will fix it. So far, though, I am pleased with how it is developing.

When I begin each section, I take a picture of the pattern with my I-pad, because I have to cut the pattern apart in order to cut the fabric pieces. Then if I have a copy on my I-pad, I can see how it is supposed to go together. Well, in my excitement to start the next section, I forgot to photograph it before I started cutting it up and it was quite a challenge to put it back together again. I had several pieces in the wrong spots and had to take it apart again and start over.  I hate when things like that happen!