Art Every Day Month Day 9

Today's art is photo-

graphy. I was driving home from the post office when I spotted this church sign. I thought it was a hoot! Had to turn around to go back to photograph it. The leaf filled driveway is mine. Every time I drive up it, I notice how beautiful it is with all the leaves down on it. Thought I'd try to capture it and then share it with you.

*I may just use the sign wording for my "quote" quilt.

Art for Day #8

I made this door hanger today for my niece B. She requested this particular saying on it. She'll hang it on her bedroom door when she's sleeping or wanting privacy. I used purple embroidery floss for the hanger (and the embroidery). I just braided 9 lengths of 6 strand DMC and then sewed it into the little sandwich. The fabric used was scraps from the project I worked on yesterday. Started to hand quilt this, but I didn't have a color on hand that looked good, so I'm calling it officially finished without quilting it. I'll try to get it in the mail to her tomorrow.

Art Day #7

Today is the 7th day of Art Every Day Month. This is my art play for the day, although I may not be finished playing today. This is the little art quilt top I just made. I'm thinking about making it into a "quote" quilt. If I do, I'll need to decide which direction I want the words to go.

I guess a lot will depend on which quote I choose to put on here. I posted photos of the top in both directions so that I could hopefully see which I like better. The blue looking squares are actually black. Not a dark black, but black to very dark grey, almost as dark as the black splotch on the brown fabric. I didn't end up with as much of the brown in it as I thought I would and I did put all 7 fabrics in it instead of the 5 I originally intended to use.

The first block or grouping of fabric used was pulled from a bag and used as it was pulled out. Then I decided to try to get three pieces of each fabric in the little top. My favorite fabrics in this top are the ones in the corners, the dark green with stripes and the black. I wish I had a yard of each of those instead of just a fat quarter. The quilt top is 14" x 16 3/4". Off to play more.

Going For It

This is my second post for day 6 of Art Every Day Month. I craved the chance to work on something new after this morning's endeavor, which just frustrated me. I've had these fabrics since the Houston Quilt Festival, about three weeks. Wonderful, fun, hand dyed fabrics that I bought from Marcia Derse. I wish I could go to her now to buy at least as many as I bought in Houston. If you want to see what I've done with the other fabrics I got from her, check out this link for my Happy quilt. That's the name I've finally given it. Just looking at it makes me happy. I hope to start hand quilting it very soon.

These fabrics remind me of a forest or of grasses. I don't know what will end up being made from them. I cut them free hand with scissors tonight. For me, that was a huge step! I've been afraid to do something like that, even though I've always wanted to. These fabrics were (for me) rather expensive. So, cutting them without a planned quilt in mind was a bit nerve wracking. But I did it! I will confess that I've only used part of the fabrics. I bought fat quarters of each, but cut any where from 1/4 to 1/2 of each fat quarter for this project. Of course, I know that I can always use more of any of the fabrics, but I'd like to make another quilt from these fabrics too and I'd like to bind both quilts from these fabrics. Needless to say, both quilts will be small. I hope to start some kind of sewing on this one tomorrow. I'm excited.

Day 6 -- Art Every Day Challenge

I had an urge to hand quilt today. So, I picked up my Stormy Weather Pineapple to work on. I had already quilted the center square and between each of the blocks. I started today by quilting the corner triangles that met close to the center block so that I could start the next block. After I started to quilt on the second block, I decided that I really did not like how the quilting looked! So, I started to rip it all out!

Talk about a headache! I had picked a very mottled grey fabric for the back. The light grey quilting thread blends in exceptionally well. It's a booger to see the stitches to rip them out. I had planned to only rip out inside the blocks and leave the quilting that was between the blocks, but I can't do it because I can't see all the stitches! I'm going to have to take it totally apart -- even the basting. That's the only way to make sure I rip out all the stitches. Then I'm going to bite the bullet and machine quilt this puppy. Boy, I hope I don't screw this up. I'll update again later today, if there's anything to update with. Until next time, happy creating.

Photo of the Week 32 of 39 -- Circle

This is an old wagon wheel in my yard. When I first put it in, I had planned to plant flowers in it. It's in a really shady area and on a slight hill. I still think pansies would look just great in it, but for some reason, I've never done a thing with it. I don't even notice it in the yard anymore. When I went out to photograph it, I was surprised that so many of the bricks had been displaced by the dogs and that there were so many weeds in it. I need to clean it up because for some reason, even without flowers, I still like it there.

Next week's theme is "from ground level".

Today's Art Everyday Posting Day 5

I finished RAGE today! This isn't the best photo. I may try to take another one tomorrow during the day light hours.

I made this quilt in an effort to work through some rough times and feelings. The heart is all cracked and broken, but holding together. The other wound is where I felt that I was kicked in the stomach by the things that filled me with rage.

This little quilt (12" square) if made only of fabric. There is no batting in it. I ripped and cut each piece of fabric too. I wanted the fabric to show the pain I was in at the time. Even the binding has cuts in it. I have sewn up the holes in the backing black fabric with large obvious stitches to represent surgical stitches of old and sewn the cuts in the binding in basically the same way. Click the photo to see the quilt in a larger photo.

Art Every Day, Day 4

I have nothing to show you today, but I can tell you what I did. I worked on my RAGE quilt which I hope to finish binding tomorrow. Then I'll post a photo of the completed quilt. If you'd like to check out the other participants, click this link.

I also ordered greeting cards and some new (sample) business cards from a few of my photographs. That was really fun! I can't wait to get them.

More tomorrow.

The Bright Side Project

It's a beautiful sunshiny day outside. I can hear the birds singing and I want to make art today. Of course I have several other things to do also, mostly the washing of clothes and dishes. We're about out of both around here. Regardless of what is going on, I almost always start my day with checking out my email. I get daily emails from several sources and one of my favorites is from The Bright Side Project. A really fun website that "delivers daily sunshine" with giveaways! All you do is answer a question each day and if your answer is picked, you win! Of course you have to check back to see if you won too and claim your prize if you did. Which is no problem since, if you're like me, you're checking them out daily anyway.

I've had a lot of fun answering questions on the blog. Even more fun reading the answers given by others. I haven't won anything, but if I ever do, I'll let you know. Until then, because it could indeed be a long wait for me to actually win something, be sure to check them out by clicking on the link above. I bet you'll enjoy them too!

Art Today

I'm in a beading mood. I wish I was in a sewing mood, especially since my quilt retreat next week is now in danger, but I'm not. I wanted to do something with the beautiful blue tiger eye beads I had, so today, I grabbed them. All the beads in this Anglican rosary are tiger eye or black glass seed beads. I used three different sizes and two different types of tiger eye, with a gold tone pewter Celtic cross and gold findings. I really like it and I'm tempted to keep it for myself, but that was not the reason for making it. This one is really long and can be worn as a necklace. I need to make more necklace type prayer beads. Maybe even some that are totally unique and don't follow any kind of Anglican or Catholic style.

I may not have gotten any art done yesterday and all I really did the day before was photograph beads I had made the night before that, but I tell you, this art challenge has really got me going! I hadn't beaded in ages and in three days I've made several new things. I'm happy. Be sure to click on the photo to see the beads more closely.