Quilting on the Edge

Art Quilt From Scraps: Fourth Posting

My creative side is still not pleased with what I've done so far.  I mean, it's okay, but it is not right yet is all I'm saying.   I thought the piece was too much..........too much color, not enough contrast.  Too much brightness.  One way to look at a WIP(work in progress) is to convert the image to a black and white piece to see the differences in values, so I did that.

I like the strong contrast of the polka dot windows........still not sure on the background.

I decided to make the orange/peach/red pieces less prominent in the photo.  I'm wondering if I reduce the amount of those colors, and introduce some more darker colors, the impact of the orange/peach/red pieces would be better since there would be less of them. 

 I added some dark green and black and purple  pieces in place of some of the peach/orange ones... it's toned down now, and the organges left are more apparent.  Below is the photo in black/white.

Is it better now?  or just about the same?   Still studying it......stay tuned.

Video tour of my Sewing Studio

http://s604.photobucket.com/albums/tt124/chrispredd/Sewing%20Studio%20August%202009%20LP/?action=view&current=20090826125819.flv

My newest toy is a video camera......if you click on the link above, you can see my first video, a tour of my sewing studio.   Not bad for my first try, altho I can see I need improvement.  thanks for looking.

Art Quilt from Scraps: 3rd Posting

I went to bed early last eve and woke up around three AM.......it was raining and thundering and lightning out, and I wasn't going back to sleep, at least not right then.  I kept thinking about my scraps art quilt, and couldn't shake the idea that I should  "move it around more".  I was not happy with what I'd done so far, mostly because it was boring me.  This is what happens to me when I do work that is literal or representational......I always prefer more abstract or creative expressions.   So I started to work on my project again, removing all I had done from the design wall. 

This was my first new arrangement.

I decided to start adding some brighter background colors and see where it would take me. 

I like the contrast a lot, and kept adding more pieces and colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love what the purple and orange hues have done to my piece.....I think it could be highlighting the largest house shape a bit.  I started adding more fabrics.....remember I'm working with boxes of scraps, so it's a challenge to find pieces that will work.   I did a lot of digging in those boxes, cutting pieces to fit.  The photo below is where I ended up for now:  

After I got all the fabric in place, it seemed to me that I needed to make the window sections  stand out, so that's how they ended up with the black/white polka dot fabric.  All of these pieces are just placed on the design wall and not yet sewn. I'm going to sit with this for a few days and see what thoughts come to mind. Feel free to comment if you want to........ 

 

Friday August 28, 2009 Final Answer

It's time for sunflowers here.....our community has a Sunflower Fair each year in September.....lots of the usual, good food, stuff for sale, and competitions with sunflowers.  Not here yet though.....

This has been another fast week....after a weekend away for three days.  Here's what I've taken from the week:

Long distance driving trips give me a desire to eat carbs in the form of junk food.

It's fun to visit grown up kids and see how their lives are going.

Visiting an art museum with my daughter in law is something I'd like to do again.

Quilts returned after being in travelling exhibits for over a year are like all new quilts again.....It's been so long since I've seen them I nearly forgot about them. 

Learning how to use my new video camera is not as intimidating as I thought. 

New babies in the family give everybody a reason to be excited, and offer hope. 

A little known fact about me is .........................I've been walking for fitness for over 20 years........30 minutes a day, daily in most cases. It's obviously a habit by now........when I don't do it for some reason, I really miss it.  Some of my best walks are when I'm tired and don't think I can do it, then I'm invigorated when I do.  Right now I'm listening to a novel when I walk each day......that makes the time go by really fast, sometimes I walk longer because I want to keep hearing the story. Walking is the best stress reliever I know.  My favorite shoes are Privo walking sandals by Clarks.   Sometimes I go to different parks or neighborhoods for my walks, and my favorite is walking by a lake or ocean.  Take a walk this weekend! 

 

Progress on Scrap Box Art Quilt 2nd posting

Here's my WIP (work in progress) as of this morning.  I've completed adding greens to the piece, if you recall I'm trying to simulate looking at rooftops through trees. I may have to add some tree trunks and branches to this, but not right now.

I have this arranged as I like it, and turned my attention to the bottom half of this piece.  I'm toying with the idea of making it look like home foundations and then the street.  Here's what I came up with so far, just by using scraps and placing them on the design wall.

I'm not sure about all of this yet, but I like where it is going.  I see the bottom pieces are wavy, and those pieces need to be straightened out before I would sew them.  Now they remind me of water, and that's not right!   I want this piece to suggest a neighborhood, not necessarily be a literal representation  of such. 

So this is where I am today.....I'll look at it a while and see what's next!  

Art Quilt from Fabric Scrap Box: Beginnings

  I started pawing through my three boxes of scraps and found a few pieces that were fairly large and already pieced from a variety of fabrics.  I began cutting them into peaked edge pieces....laying them out on the design wall.  They reminded me of houses.  I realized that my inspiration came from this past weekend when we visited my son and his wife in Pittsburgh.  It is very hilly there, houses often are elevated from the streets, and many mature trees abound around them.  I remember sitting in the backyard and noticing that I could see peaks of other houses between the tree branches.  I'm pretty sure this is where this beginning for this art quilt originated. 

I paid attention to their placement in order to make the negative space  interesting to the viewer.  I like the jagged edges.  I decided to begin filling in the negative spaces with different green fabrics to remind me of leafy branches.  Here's what I did so far.

I also found a few scraps with lines on a light background, and placed pieces of these on the houses as windows.  I emphasized the lines with an India ink pen.   So far, so good, at least I think so for right now.  I'll have to wait and see what materializes next.  I'll continue sewing in the greens for the background and then decide what to do next.    

Tuesdays Ten: August 25, 2009 Family Visits

The past two weekends we visited two of our children and their families, one in Michigan and another in Pittsburgh.  Here's the cradle I used for two of my sons, now it's been restained and a new mattress made, and delivered to the son and his wife in Pittsburgh expecting their first child in November.   There's a lot to experience in visiting your grown children, so that's what my list of ten will be about today. What's interesting about visiting grown children?

Seeing them managing a household, recalling how years ago you could not imagine that ever occurring.  remember the messy bedrooms?

Watching them deal with their children, realizing they are the ones in charge now of molding new little lives.

Seeing the grandchildren's bedrooms.  Times have changed!

Enjoying a meal they prepared for you.

Seeing them interact with their spouses in a kind and respectful manner.

Having them ask for advice on a household problem, and giving it carefully and tactfully.

Talking with the grandchildren about their lives.

Realizing something you said annoyed them, and not knowing why exactly. Note to self not to say that again.

Realizing they face some problems with raising kids that you never had to deal with when they were young.

Being aware they went out of their way to make your visit special, and being grateful for that.

Then you get in the car and talk about the visit for a bit on the way home, aand then you and your spouse are silent as you realize you're job is over.They turned into fine mature adults, and your jobs are done.  That's a good feeling....... 

Three Boxes of Fabric Scraps

You're looking at three boxes of fabric scraps.  This morning I can't shake the urge to begin a creation using these scraps. This is an exciting challenge for me.....I've done it before.  Create an art quilt using only the scraps in these boxes.  They are full too.....most of these fabrics have been saved over the past few years.....left overs from other projects, or small pieces of favorite fabrics I couldn't bear to throw away.  So this will be my new project.  The thrill is I don't know what I'll be making......not sure where it will take me, but that's the exciting part.  Here's a photo of the boxes with their covers removed:  

I originally tried to save them by color, but you can see that didn't work, and this is what I have now.

I'll post my process as I go along if you care to follow what I'm doing.

Friday August 21, 2009: My Final Answer

Here's a photo that I changed to a line drawing in Photoshop.  I was experimenting with photos that I could use as a pattern for drawing with India ink pens on cloth.  I was amazed at all the details that were clearly visible without the color getting in the way of the subject.

In a way, changing the photo to black and white added more to the picture than detracting from it.  The important parts really stand out now.  Look at all the detail around the sandals and the structure of the chair.

Here's a few observations from the week gone by:

It's nice to be invited outside to see your grandson on the trampoline, especially when he himself does the inviting.

Sometimes treasures can be found in the garage, covering pieces of furniture.

Tornado sirens are a good invention.

Sometimes an e-mail message can bring exciting news.

Listening to a novel while walking daily is a wonderful way to multitask.

No amount of preparation would be enough in the event of a nuclear disaster.

A little known fact about me is............... I once took horse back riding lessons many moons ago.  It was on a whim........I had about four or five lessons before the horse got spooked and ran off through the woods  off trail, while my instructor was shouting "don't worry, he only knows how to get back to the barn".  I WAS worrying. I remember ducking to avoid tree branches, but did not remember to pull on the reins.   We got back unharmed, yet I was shaken.  I don't recall if I went back for more lessons or not, but I haven't ridden a horse since that series of lessons.   I wish I would have continued.....as I like solitary activities, and this could have been a nice way to pass an afternoon and just think about things.  

Have a good weekend.....don't let the weather determine your mood! 

 

 

Tuesday's Ten: New Uses for Old Bicycle Wheel

I've been doing a lot of cleaning out of stuff in our basement lately, and one of these items was an old bicycle wheel from years back....I'll bet the bicycle is long gone, surely it belonged to one of our sons who are all long gone from our home. At the same time I recently read an article about reusing items for something other than that for which they were intended.  So today I'm going to list ten new uses for an old bicycle wheel.

Roll it along the street using a stick as a guide.  (I've seen this in old movies, have you?) Good to  practice balance and coordination.

Hang it on the wall as art....maybe spray paint it first?  How about all black or all silver?  Sounds pretty contemporary to me.

Remove some the spokes, and use it as a way to keep things sorted.......like different screws, or jewelry, or beads.

Hang it from the ceiling as a flat base support for a mobile.

Hang it from the ceiling and attach balloons for a party........for kids, make the balloons low enough so they have to walk through the balloons.

Remove some spokes and turn it into some sort of game......tossing bean bags in areas with different point values for example.

Attach it to the ceiling as the background for a ceiling light.

Remove spokes as desired and plant a herb garden in it laid onto the ground.

Use it as a Christmas Star decoration......running lights in a star shape then attaching it to some surface outside, like garage side or porch.

Turn it into a roulette wheel for an at home casino game.

Okay, some of these are far fetched a little, but they are all possible with the right imagination and tools.   I did none of them.......I gave the wheel away at a garage sale and maybe that person eyed it with some really unique idea in mind.  Have any ideas for this bicycle wheel?  Post here.........it would be fun to read some others.  And next time you're faced with some item you no longer have use for, maybe thinking of alternate uses before you pitch it may be a fun idea.