Is it a good thing if life settles down? I'm not sure that it is. Then, it might get too boring. I've neglected my blog lately because I got called back to my home town suddenly for not such a good thing that I won't go into here. Life got interrupted (or maybe I should say plans got interrupted). But in the process, old relationships got refreshed and renewed and old places got revisited. So, in the end, the trip was a blessing.
When I got back home, I had a birthday. My husband usually never knows what to get me for gifts so I started a wish list on Amazon to make it easier for him. I started the list a long time ago and forgot about it so when I unwrapped the gifts, I was genuinely surprised. He got my this travel sized water color kit which is perfect for my Tuesdays when I get together with friends in the coffee shop or parks to sketch and paint. It is also perfect for on airplanes.
Koi Watercolors and Brush
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| Watercolor set with Opus playing with brush |
The brush unscrews to fill with water so that you don't need to carry water with you. And the plastic palette can be attached to the top, bottom, left, or right side. Pretty Cool!
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| The box |
And then, for inspiration, he also gave me this wonderful book written by Martha Sielman.
Masters: Art Quilts Volume 1 (I already have Volume 2).
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| Wonderful book |
Once home, I met with my group ArtsEtc and showed them the small quilt I had begun but didn't know how to finish. The group consensus was that the figure of the girl wasn't showing up enough and to fix that I needed to mask the dark blue rectangle a little. Also, I needed to add some more blue to the right and frame it in blue. Here it is, with the changes. I put a white sheer on top of the blue rectangle, sewed on blue edges, and added a small blue rectangle to the right. I also painted the girl to make her darker. Then I added batting and made a pillowcase finish. Now I need to do some hand quilting to finish it off.
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| before |
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| The Puppeteer |
So the ups and downs of life keep us on our toes. The downs tend to dampen the creative spirit and make us wonder why but by wondering and questioning I think it leads us to new pathways and discoveries and new adventures. It's a good thing to not settle down... at least not for me.
I'm linking this to
Off The Wall Friday where you can find other art quilt blogs. Please make comments on their posts so that they know you stopped by. Thanks for visiting.
Such an interesting little quilt!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Angela. I've been working on several sketches with the girl and the fossil image, too.
DeleteAmazon wish lists are the way to go. I like this little quilt.
ReplyDeleteThe wish lists take the pressure off the ones who wait until the last minute, too. I'm hoping this little quilt leads to a nice series of larger ones.
DeleteThat kit is going on my wish list. I like the idea of the water in the pen. And your group is very smart. Amazing what a difference just lightening the blue makes. The girl is now the focal point where before you had to look for her.
ReplyDeleteIt really helps to have a group to turn to for advice. At first, I liked that the girl was faintly visible. But after listening to their advice and playing with the image in Photoshop, I realized I liked it better with her darker.
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