A Little Something New

     I felt like making something small and quick.
     Most Tuesdays, I meet up with some friends downtown in a group we've formed called "Sketch Out". We just sit in a park and sketch. Lately, I've been bringing air plants from my yard at home and sketching those. I'm not good at drawing, which is why I like to go to Sketch Out. It forces me to practice regularly.

sketch book

     Well, I was sitting at home on Saturday morning and decided to quickly try to sew one of my sketches with black thread on white cloth. I thought I'd spend maybe 10 minutes or so. I cut up an old white sheet and put a small piece of it (about 12 x 12) on a piece of batting. I put my sketch book with the sketch of the air plants next to the sewing machine and set up the machine for free motion and just began to free-motion sew on the blank white cloth on the batting. I figured I had nothing to lose. I tried to "draw" a few air plants with the black thread.
     After I had it done (and it did only take about 10 minutes), I decided to take it another step. I got out my Derwent Inktense Pencils and I colored in the wood stick and the plants. I used a small paintbrush I had forgotten to clean one day and the bristles were all stuck together and it was perfect for the small spaces. For some of the spaces, I wet the brush with water and and then wiped it directly onto the pencil and then onto the cloth.
     Then, I thought I should keep going. So I got out acrylic paints and GAC 900 and painted the background light blues. That needed more texture so I dipped a toilet paper roll into white acrylic paint and stamped it here and there. Then I dipped a piece that came off a rattan furniture into some tan paint and stamped that spiral design here and there.

Supplies

     After it dried, I free-motion quilted the background with air plants using a variegated thread and couched a green yarn around the edge. I ended up spending several (maybe 6 or so) hours on it. So much for my 10 minutes. Not a great work of art, but fun and satisfying for a spur of the moment urge to create.

Air Plant Mini Quilt

The Real Florida

I've been hard at work on my quilt for the Color Wheel of Emotions exhibit. I photographed the ornament on which it is based and altered it in Photoshop. Then I made a sketch with pencil to check out the values and changed places that I thought needed to be darker or lighter. Then I got out my Inktense pencil set and did a few color sketches/paintings and with each one altered the colors to get them the way I want them. My next step will be to create it with fabric. I think I will paint the fabric base various colors and then add fabrics by fusing the appropriate colors and shapes to the base. I think that this piece will require a lot of stitching to get the effects I want.
     Since I can't show you any pictures of it now, I'll share some photos I took yesterday when I was on a bike ride. My husband and I rode our bicycles down to Blue Springs State Park and then walked the trails there to see the sights. We saw about 10 manatees including a mother with her calf, two bald eagles, a gator, and a corn snake. The weather was in the low 70's/ high 60's (Fahrenheit) and the sky was a crisp blue. I feel so lucky to live in a place that is, for many, a vacation destination, but far enough away from the crowds.

Manatee mother with calf

Blue Springs walkway

Blue Springs Run at the mouth of
the St. John's River

My bike with a friend

Need a Certain Color of Thread?

I was finishing up my SAQA auction quilt and needed a small amount of powder blue Pearle Cotton thread. I had a light gray and a dark blue, but no powder blue. I didn't want to drive to the fabric store that has Pearle Cotton (20 minutes each way). So I took the gray thread and Inktense Watercolor Pencils in blue and a green and white and colored the thread directly. Then I dipped the colored thread in water. It was a little too intense a color so I folded and twisted the thread to double it up with uncolored thread. Some of the ink transferred to the uncolored part of the thread and I got the color and intensity I needed. The Inktense is permanent when it dries.

Thread partially colored

Dipped in water

Twisted to spread the ink to more of the thread