Dyeing Experiment

I was able to get away to a Provincial Park in Northern Ontario last week for a few days and usually I take my sketching supplies with me. However, this time I took a tie dye kit that I bought at Walmart and various fabrics that I had pre-washed. It was great to dye fabric outside. The dyeing took several hours and then the fabric had to rest for 12 hours to cure the dye. I only mixed up 3 of the 6 colours but I was really pleased with the results. I used silk and cotton fabrics cut into smaller sized pieces.



A card I made with some of my hand dyed fabric.

                            Also here is a glimpse of my Zentangle quilt as it nears completion.

Inspired by a Zentangle

Do you remember my post on Zentangles? Well, I decided to do an art quilt of one of my zentangles. I thought it would be really nice to do a piece in just black and white...or as it turns out....a creamy white and black. It will be a piece that is not as large as one of my wall quilts but more of a picture size that you could hang on the wall. When it's completed, I plan to have it stretched and framed just like a painting.

Fabric selections for the Zentangle Piece

Pattern for the piece

Some completed sections

Thought you might also be interested in the finished and framed Day Lily painting I was busy with.

Canoe Trip Sketches

Well, it has been almost a month since I put something down on these pages. That is not because I haven't been creating, however. The day after my last blog, we went on a 4 day canoe trip with 10 women into the interior of Algonquin Provincial Park. What a wonderful time we had! To commemorate that time, I spent this month doing sketches from some of my on location sketches and also from some of the photographs we brought back. The sketches were done on watercolour paper with a fine liner and watercolour pencils, which were easier to take along on a canoe trip than watercolour paint. I will give one to each of the women who were on the trip as a reminder of what a great time we had. I'm also thinking of using one of these sketches to make my Summer Art Quilt. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which one?


Joe Lake




Burnt Island Lake



Bartlett Lake



East Arm



Tom Thomson Lake



Tom Thomson Lake



East Arm



Willow Lake



Canoe Lake



Zentangle Doodles

I am not one who ever sits idle. Even when I am relaxing, I have something in my hands that I am working on. When I don't have enough time to get into my studio but have 15 minutes here and there, I like to work on small projects. While investigating journalling I came across Zentangles. This is what I used to call doodling. It is quite a calming and engaging passtime. It's something I can do in front of the TV or while I am sitting in the backyard in the evening. While most zentangles are quite abstract, I like to make something recognizable out of them. I was amazed at how many U-tube videos there of people zentangling. It's quite mesmerizing to watch.

Daylily Progress on a Hot and Humid Day

As the temperature is over 30C today, its a good day to spend in the cool basement working on my latest painting. Due to the fact that I have to let the painting dry between layers, I am also often working on a variety of other projects at the same time. I continue to make fabric cards as well as try to complete my block of the month quilt blocks. I'm a little behind because I just finished the May blocks today.

My daylily painting is from a photo from last year and as I sit here blogging, I am noticing that my neighbour has a new crop blooming in his garden. I'll make sure I take my camera out and get some more photo inspirations.





I like to show my work in stages to allow you to see a little bit of my method. I have the main colours in place and now I just have to darken some areas to give the flower a little more depth. I will also add more glazes to brighten the colours.

Letting Go

It's been a few weeks since I've blogged, but I'm back. I had been working on a new Banner for our church, something I was excited to work on. I had bought beautiful fabric for the background and was going to use leftover felt that I had stored after finishing previous banners. I worked fervently on it and I was liking the results until I was almost completely finished. After I had added some of the last elements, I hung it up on my design wall to look at from a distance and realized it was too busy. I was really disappointed due to all the hours I had put into it, but there really wasn't any way of salvaging it, so I have had to accept that it didn't work and let it go. I'll probably find a use for some of the fabric so I won't toss in it the trash heap but instead I'll recycle it into something else. Oh well, not everything we create become masterpieces and we always learn something, even from failed projects. Now to move on.


A glimpse of my failed project

 I have a few relatives getting married this year and I usually present them with a piece of artwork as part of their wedding gift so I have begun planning various pieces. I try to come up with something that appeals to the couple when I plan and I have asked family members for ideas. This latest painting will be done on heavy watercolour paper with fluid acrylic. Fluid acrylic behaves like watercolour but the colours are more vibrant and it dries permanent so that when it is rewetted, the paint will not come off as with watercolour. The subject is a closeup of a daylily.


Daylily sketch



First colours, background

 As you see, I haven't gotten very far on this painting. Hopefully I will be able to get to it a little more often this week.

Mystery Project Completed and Hung

Well, it's done and I have drummed up the nerve to hang it in a public place that I'm pretty sure I won't get fined for. But when I found a good vantage point to photograph it from, I realized I had made it too small for such a large public space and it's difficult to read it unless you are really close. However, the design and the colours are still attractive and I consider it a success having never tried working with plastic before. This project did stretch me and I had a great time creating it. Here's a challenge for those of you living in the area. SEE IF YOU CAN FIND IT. And let me know if you do.