Art Every Day Month -- Day 30 -- The last day

I've been hand quilting since yesterday. I enjoy this process more than I can express in words. Hand quilting adds so very much to a quilt. Well, machine quilting does too, I'm just not good at machine quilting. I've sat here and quilted so long today that my whole body hurts and I still don't want to stop. I know that I must when I get to this point though. Otherwise, I won't be able to quilt tomorrow.

This is the last day of Art Every Day Month. I've enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I accomplished more than I thought I would also. More than I thought I could, for that matter. It has been a joyful experience. I plan to participate again next year. In fact, I may just pretend that I'm in it again next month, just to see what else I can accomplish. It has been wonderful! Thank you to Leah Piken Kolidas for hosting this project and for coming up with the idea. Thank you to the other participants also. You have all added a lot to my life this month. It has been a pleasure.

Now, I'm feeling a little punk, so I'm going to get off the computer and watch the cartoon Dr. Suess' How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I love to hear Boris Karloff's voice and I love to see that silly little dog panting and all happy faced. Good memories. Good times. May you all have a wonderful December.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 24

First I want to thank the people who left lovely comments for me on yesterday's post! I love comments and they were all so nice. Thank you. You all gave me the courage to try to draw again today.





Looking back at my little wren from yesterday, I decided that I really like it. Hopefully, tomorrow I'll like my cardinal just as much. I probably should try to paint him and see if that helps any. I didn't show my husband either drawings until tonight. He could at least identify the cardinal. He thought the wren was a chickadee. Oh well, he doesn't know most birds from chickens, but he can at least tell that a bird is a bird.





Earlier today, I went to Happiness is Quilting in McKinney TX. I had to go up to Dallas to get an allergy shot so I figured I might as well have a little fun too. So, I went to the quilt shop to get more size 8 perle cotton embroidery thread. That's what I prefer to use on my quote quilts. I had some DMC thread, but I wanted a particular color of Presencia. It's the lighter blue in the photo of threads. Kind of a turquoise blue or maybe a Robin's egg blue. Whatever color it is, I love it! I had several skeins of the 6 strand embroidery floss, but none of the perle cotton. It was hard to choose which quilt shop to go to. I've been wanting to go to my favorite quilt shop, Quilt Country in Lewisville, but I couldn't remember if they carried Presencia thread. I headed to McKinney because I knew they did. I also got some iron on transfers for dish towels and some plain dish towels to embroider. I've really enjoyed the embroidery lately. Although I'm not letting myself start on these yet.



I have a mini to make for a Christmas exchange in a couple of weeks. I want to make another quote quilt for that, but I can't decide on a funny quote. Have you got any ideas? After the party and mini exchange, I'll be working on a gift that I'm extremely behind on. It's a memory quilt for my daughter-in-law's sister and her husband. They're second child passed away after only a couple of days of life. I've been working on a quilt for them from his clothing for some time. It's been an off and on project because it's been difficult for me to work on. The time has come to finish it though. His parents really need it.

Then I can get back to and finish any of the quilts I've started and not finished during this month. It's all going to be fun and I'm looking forward to almost all of it. Thanks for coming along with me.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 18

I hand quilt my small quilt projects in a 14" hoop. I have a large hoop stand that I prefer to use, but it's really too big for something this small. Even if I added fabric to all four of the sides, it would still be awkward and uncomfortable to work on something this small in it. I think that may be why I made large quilts for so long.

Most of my quilts have been given away as gifts. I have many less quilts in my home than most quilters do. That's just the way it is. And now that I've finally, finally started to make art quilts, I may never make another large bed quilt again.

I don't know if "art" quilt is even the right term to use for my newest quilts. I know that they are totally my own creation. They are one of a kind, even if I use the quotes again, the fabrics will be different and more than likely the way it's quilted will be different also. Pattern will be different. I know that these quilts are creative and come from what I feel. Maybe that is an art quilt.

This photo shows me quilting on "Happy". I'm sitting at my sewing/computer table. My sewing machine can be been pushed to the side. The computer key board is under the quilt. If you look closely, under the light, you can see the door hangers I've been working on occasionally also. My needle threaders are on and near the sewing machine, along with various sewing paraphernalia. These are the things that make me happy.

Art Every Day Month -- Day 16

Today hasn't been productive, at least not very. I have started some more door hangers for gifts and fun. They're quick, easy and I enjoy making them. At least the embroidery part is all of that. The sewing part is just OK.

It's been so long since I've hand quilted that I lost my callus. Loosing the callus for a hand quilter is a sad thing because when you start back up at the quilting, it hurts. Then you get sore and have to develop the callus all over again. I will hand quilt some each day until I get my callus back, but I won't be able to quilt a whole heck of a lot until then. Just enough to get sore until I get my callus back. Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it? Actually, other than the pain part, it is. I'll show you something on my quilting as soon as I have a good amount done.