Sunday, April 30, 2017
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Appearance in Watertown, SD on May 11
Northern Prairie Arts and the Watertown Arts Council sponsor an Arts Night at The Pub in Watertown, SD, the 2nd Thursday of every month. They invited me to speak May 11, and I am so excited!
If you're in the area, come and hear an excerpt from EVAN AND THE LEAGUE OF GRANDMAS!
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Watermelon Tennies!
Remember when I decorated these tie-dye shoes? And these? A Facebook conversation with my friend Judy triggered another notion- Watermelon Shoes! I just happened to have a pair of new, white tennis in my closet, ready to embellish (doesn't everyone?) and within a couple of hours, I had the basics done. It took a few days for them to cure and dry, but this morning I added the seeds and laces, and VOILA!
The process is the same as with the earlier pairs- color the shoes with permanent markers (I used Prismacolor this time, because there are more, subtle color shades- 4 each, greens and pinks), drizzle with rubbing alcohol (I use a pipette for the drizzling), allow that to dry/cure for 24 hours, rinse, allow to dry. And then add any non-blotch embellishments you want. Easy Peasy!
Just slop the color on- no need to be neat. I am tickled with myself for remembering to put a line of pale green around the pink shoe sole.
Rubbing alcohol makes the colors wick and blend.
I really love how they came out.
I'm also pleased with the seeds. I waited to draw them after the blending because I wanted sharp outlines. If I had drawn them before drizzling the alcohol, they would have turned into gray blotches.
The process is the same as with the earlier pairs- color the shoes with permanent markers (I used Prismacolor this time, because there are more, subtle color shades- 4 each, greens and pinks), drizzle with rubbing alcohol (I use a pipette for the drizzling), allow that to dry/cure for 24 hours, rinse, allow to dry. And then add any non-blotch embellishments you want. Easy Peasy!
I really love how they came out.
I'm also pleased with the seeds. I waited to draw them after the blending because I wanted sharp outlines. If I had drawn them before drizzling the alcohol, they would have turned into gray blotches.
Monday, April 24, 2017
Week 16 - One Year of Stitches
When it's finished, this piece will be auctioned off, with the proceeds going to the South Dakota/Minnesota branch of Planned Parenthood. I'll post details when the auction opens. It'll be a few weeks.
Monday, April 17, 2017
Saturday, April 8, 2017
324
Okay, I've been detailing my weekly progress on the 1 Year of Stitches project, which is coming along very well. I'll finish the first one in maybe a month, and the next project is lined up. But I only work on that an hour a day. I've had several other projects going during the same time (including writing an entire book! Which will go out to publishers soon! No, it's not a Tory mystery), one of which was a pretty major undertaking.
Way back in 2010, I bought a length of pre-assembled patchwork fabric from my friend Lorah at an auction. You can see the piece about halfway down the post here. I did make one thing (a bag) from some of the fabric, but otherwise, it sat in my closet, waiting to decide what it wanted to be. Fast forward to this January when I found out that Lorah was going to be a Grandma for the first time. The fabric spoke, and it told me it wanted to go back to Lorah, as a Grandma's House quilt (to stay there, for all grandchildren).
So, I cut a hunk of the patchwork (there is a LOT of it- it's commercially made, but actual patchwork. A total mystery) 18 x 18 squares in size (324 squares), and started quilting. In each square, I used an air-erase marker and drew a design, whatever occurred to me on that given day. I did representational designs and whimsical doodles. Outside of the border squares, and one mirror image feather, and two similar (though not identical) birdies, all of the designs are unique. I tried to quilt 6 squares a day, and yesterday I finished it.
The quilt contains many many motifs, including the entire alphabet and the numbers 1-9. I loved doing every stitch, and I cannot wait to give it to Lorah (well, I can wait until after next Friday, because I want to show it off at my Knitter's Group)(baby isn't due until May, so I'm good on the timeline).
Anyway, here are the designs, and the finished quilt:
I love it!
Way back in 2010, I bought a length of pre-assembled patchwork fabric from my friend Lorah at an auction. You can see the piece about halfway down the post here. I did make one thing (a bag) from some of the fabric, but otherwise, it sat in my closet, waiting to decide what it wanted to be. Fast forward to this January when I found out that Lorah was going to be a Grandma for the first time. The fabric spoke, and it told me it wanted to go back to Lorah, as a Grandma's House quilt (to stay there, for all grandchildren).
So, I cut a hunk of the patchwork (there is a LOT of it- it's commercially made, but actual patchwork. A total mystery) 18 x 18 squares in size (324 squares), and started quilting. In each square, I used an air-erase marker and drew a design, whatever occurred to me on that given day. I did representational designs and whimsical doodles. Outside of the border squares, and one mirror image feather, and two similar (though not identical) birdies, all of the designs are unique. I tried to quilt 6 squares a day, and yesterday I finished it.
The quilt contains many many motifs, including the entire alphabet and the numbers 1-9. I loved doing every stitch, and I cannot wait to give it to Lorah (well, I can wait until after next Friday, because I want to show it off at my Knitter's Group)(baby isn't due until May, so I'm good on the timeline).
Anyway, here are the designs, and the finished quilt:
I wanted to have a solid color binding but could not find the right shade of yellow, so I went with the dots, because the white echoes the white stitches. I'm glad I did.
My hi-tech method for drawing the border arcs!
I love it!
Some of the squares amused me greatly- none more than the tiny TARDIS!
I have more of the patchwork fabric, but I will not be making another one of these... heh.