Not Much of a Crazy Quilter

Posted on by under hand stitching

I have had this UFO lying around for several years now. The quilt itself was made by one of the members of our surface design group 2-3 years ago. She was teaching us a new hand stitch each session and we were supposed to decorate the crazy quilt with that stitch. However, she quit our group and I never did anything further with it.

Crazy Quilt

So I decided I needed to finish it and then I can make it into a pillow.

Crazy Quilt - Stem Stitch

The light blue on this section is stem stitch. I don’t really need any more practice on this stitch as I use it frequently.

Crazy Quilt - Pekingnese Stitch

This is Pekinese stitch around this triangle. Essentially a back stitch with further wrapping with another thread.

Crazy Quilt - Palestrina Stitch

This is Palestrina stitch on the blue triangle. It helps if you draw a line to keep it straight. I got a little wobbly in the middle section. I keep forgetting how to do this stitch and have to look it up each time to make sure I get it right. It’s not that hard but…

Crazy Quilt - Cretan Stitch

This one is Cretan stitch along the dark green.

Crazy Quilt - Combo Stitches

And this is the one I started with and it looks the most like crazy quilting is supposed to look like. Somehow, I can’t seem to keep up the fanciness of it all. This is a combination of Blanket/Buttonhole stitch, combined with Detached Chain and French Knots. But I am slowly making progress. I think I will try some other stitches that I don’t normally do so I can get a bit more practice. The thread I am using is all wool which I dyed naturally with indigo and a few other natural dyes which I have completely forgotten what they are. So hopefully, I will finish this soon and start on a hand stitch project that I like to do. Hope you have a nice weekend and thanks for dropping by.

Color Inspiration

Posted on by under Inspiration

I visited New York City last week and found lots of colorful inspiration. We went to the New York Botanical Garden and I took hundreds of photos. These are just a few, plus one of some peacocks from the Staten Island Zoo. I think all of these will be wonderful for developing color palettes.

If you get a chance to visit the botanical gardens it is well worth it. There was also a Frida Kahlo exhibit which we enjoyed.

Silk Paper Making

Posted on by under mixed media

Today I met with my local group and we made silk paper. I have done this before and actually it is the first thing I tried when starting out in fiber art. We used either matte medium or textile medium mixed with water to glue the silk layers together. I made some fairly thick and others very thin. I’m not sure what I will do with all of these yet. Since they have medium in them, I’m not sure they will work well with felting but I might try one and see. Here are the photos of what I made. Most of them are still wet at this point. The textured white one is dry.

I will probably add stitch to them as it is very easy to stitch on silk paper either with machine or hand. You can click on any of the photos to enlarge them. Hope you have a nice weekend!

I Painted All Day

Posted on by under sketch book

I painted all day long today. Unfortunately, I painted this:

New Garage Freshly Painted

It’s our new garage. Previously, we housed the boat in a tent. We were always having to scrape the snow off the roof of the tent so it wouldn’t collapse and the tent was falling apart. So we had a new garage built and I said “Oh we can paint it ourselves.” What was I thinking??

Garage and House

So here it is from the other side. We got paint to match the house and painted the walls. I still have to paint the trim and the door. The garage door is being installed tomorrow. And oh, I almost forgot, the floor is wooden so we got this special waterproof decking stuff to paint on the floor. So we have to prime the floor and then do two coats of the decking stuff. What fun.

sketchbook Feathers

But I did add a couple of sketches to my sketchbook this week. These are three different types of feathers that I found on my morning walks.

sketchbook pine cone cropped

And here’s a pine cone that has been sitting on the windowsill for a while. I have hesitated to sketch it since it is a bit complex but I bit the bullet. And I really like how it turned out. Have a great weekend. And if you’d like to come help finish painting the garage, I would love for you to come and visit!