Saturday, March 16, 2024

creativity this week... sewing, runs with scissors, sketching and a cookie

 

welcome to my creativity round up for the week... 

This is my rainbow scrap challenge purple piece for the week.... all the papers are now basted and ready for me to hand stitch while watching tv tonight. I love having a variety of scraps so that I can see my fabrics! I'm trying to do dots in all the joining hexie shapes in each colorway. 

I used my portable design table (cardboard covered in felt) to arrange these a few days ago. I didn't like one of them so I found another scrap to baste around the paper and it's ready now!

One day I was a bit low and just needed to see fabric sewn to fabric... so I pulled out the little bag of solid color tiny scraps and did just that

I made some log cabins without worrying about straight or even bits, and then sewed them together. I made more improv geese, later piecing the strip between two black strips, using free form curvy sewing

then found 25 squares of grunge fabric, who knows where they came from. and since I love grunge, I sewed the 2 1/2" squares together in a pleasing way. 

Oh how pretty they are! then I made the log cabin strip and the geese strip fit the squares, 

and decided to add in more odd strips of solid fabrics, pleasing myself. 

I am LOVING this!!  I cut out some little hexies of solid colors plus black, and plan to hand baste those and maybe add in that as another strip set, just keep going. 

well, at some point it will feel done, and I'll stop. My plan now is to do some hand embroidery stitching somewhere on it but don't know how yet. Now that I like it so much, I want to keep it very modern version of amish style. 

Funny thing is this week I googled mondrian and was looking at his art work... and this is reminiscent of his style. 

jay stanley: Piet Mondrian | Abstract | Contemporary art | Fine art prints,  reproductions, print on demand, framing

While Joy and I chatted on zoom this week, I asked if she knew when the round robins were due? She looked it up and 

uh oh

about 2 weeks, so I pulled my top out, put on bright blue borders,

chose a backing, pieced some bamboo batting, pressed the top well, and the backing, then pin basted it ready to start quilting! Nothing like a deadline to keep you going! I love seeing a quilt pin basted, and doing the first quilting lines to stabilize it for free motion. 

I wrote several stories, meeting my writing goal too, but the real creative work was having the grand idea to add chocolate chips to my chewy coconut cookies lol!taste is like a mounds bar.

(link on Thurs "I Like" list post) 

this is an off week for PQ, thank goodness! 

While watching a video of SoulManna this week, I doodled and jotted down points to remember on a piece of copier paper... this is just a bit of it...

I felt very seen as she talked! 

linking with some of these:


design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

https://songbirddesigns.blog/monday-musings-6-26-23/ 

finished or not

https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

https://beadwright.blogspot.com/







Thursday, March 14, 2024

I Like Thursday # 393 second week of March

welcome to this week's list of likes... I like pink, and this quilt hangs in the stairwell

This week... I enjoyed TV again. No good dramas on yet, good doctor was bumped. I do like deal or no deal island, survivor, American Idol, So you think you can dance, Master chef junior edition, Spring baking show. 

Fine Dining

I tried a new to me recipe for chocolate cake with whole wheat and buttermilk replacing some of the fat. It. Was. DRY and to me not worth the calories left in it. MEH! don't you hate it when a recipe is not good???

I returned to an old recipe that did work out

chewy coconut cookies, half with chocolate chips  ( Recipe  )

I've made these before, and like them, but this time added in mini chocolate chips to half the dough and, YUM! cookie version of a mounds bar

(I did not like the time change this week. I am not sleepy at bedtime, but very sleepy when it's time to get up, I'm hungry at the wrong times, and so much daylight means people are all out all the time now)

I liked this  quote: 

Advice from a nearly 60 year-old, cranky woman who has lost too many loved ones at too young an age:
Y'know what? 
Life is ridiculously short. Eat the Peeps and Candy Corn. Put up the Christmas tree whenever it pleases you. Listen to the weird-ass 80s music that nobody else likes. 
 
Watch Hallmark holiday movies. Drink pumpkin spice all year long. Wear plaid and stripes together, and socks and sandals. 
 
Do your wildest, most fun you.
 
 For those of you that seem to take some kind of perverse pleasure in telling others how, why, and where to live their lives, for the love of naked baby mole rats, shut up and go create your own little life 
- let people have their tiny moments of joy in this fleeting existence.
 
I enjoyed this video

video   older women fun clothing choices


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bzELvR6wks

laughed at these jokes

No photo description available. 

No photo description available. 

 prompt this week

what is your favorite spring flower and do you try to grow them in your house or yard? 

I love tulips, all the colors and the shape, how tall they are. I've never been able to grow them however. Too hot in Florida, squirrels at the bulbs in Maryland, and soil/temps inhospitable here in our part of Colorado.

I like Allium for their size, never had one grow in my yard, I like tree blossoms, and now and then I see poppies here

Milo's Moments

 

Milo here... nothing new to report. I've been hanging out. I keep moving my family room bed so here I am lying on the cold hard ground... hungry, ignored, no playmates, no toys...

Mama: MILO!!!!! stop that! You are not hungry, not ignored, and have so many toys! 

Milo well, not right this minute and dogs live in the NOW mama. 

Mama: life with a poodle! 

Now please visit these people to see what they liked this week... and leave a comment so Mama will smile, tell her what you liked this week! 

https://tentoesinthewater.blogspot.com/

https://canadianneedlenana.blogspot.com/  

grammajudyb.blogspot.com

https://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/


 
 
   LINKING WITH 

               friday smiles 


Saturday, March 9, 2024

creativity this week, Project Quilting challenge met, purple scraps used and a few sketches for fun

 

see the fashionable ladies who lunch???
This was Project Quilting week, meaning we were given a prompt of "wearable" and one week to design, make and finish a project. She said we could include clothing fabric
cupcakes, fat chefs, chocolates!

repurpose a wearable

like an old Christmas apron?

or make something to actually wear, and I needed an apron so...

I picked fabrics starting with the fancy chefs, and fussy cut some strips to use, started piecing them large enough to cover the apron...

I cut around the apron with enough to fold under to stitch to the edge of the apron, and made a leeeetle ruffle of a scrap of dotted fabric just big enough to cut a few bias 2" strips. 


Fold those in half and gather , insert into the bottom stitching. A few quilting lines to secure the lightweight fabric to the canvas xmas apron, and it's done! 

the little ruffle reminds of of 50's aprons, plus looks good from the xmas side

I may not love to cook, but do an awful lot of it, now I can giggle every time I see the candy, cupcakes, fancy chefs, and fat ones!!!

I spent some time watching some drawing videos... one was 8 lessons to try starting with single line drawings (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U5B8kCsvME)

I have paper by the computer to write morning pages sometimes, so I grabbed one and sketched what I saw, coffee mug, fork and glasses. I usually hate that form of drawing but actually enjoyed it this morning. Maybe because I used my fountain pen in deep black, the flow of ink, the scritch of metal as the pen dances across paper... I've always loved a fountain pen

On this day, I watched a video by Lucky Luna art... two zentangles... those are great because they show you step by step how to draw intricate images. Just add a line, then another, then another... I like how the serrated leaf is made by little dashes, then go back with a v inserted between them! Shade a bit with pencil and brushstix to blend it

The color of the month at rainbow scrap challenge is purple. I  watched my friend Cindy making a Kwandi style quilt to go behind her bed, where you prepare a backing, batting, and then hand stitch squares to it. I never tried that so, I thought make a little one with some purple scraps to try it.

5" X 8"

It was tedious to turn little edges, hold while hand stitching, but I think I got the idea at least and used some scraps. I played with my embroidery threads, loving how the colors show, not worrying the least about stitch length or being even or anything other than letting my mind wander a bit

I liked the little french knots with thick perle cotton, the flowers, running stitch with french knots added in. Then it didn't fit well into my new book for hand stitching things (from two weeks ago)


 so I played with it enjoying the feel of it, the slight gathering that big stitch makes, the texture and subtle colors until...

it became a camera case for my point and shoot. Yep, a canon, I like much much more than my iphone camera...
the back

when you fold it you get to see little cropped bits... and notice different things. I liked doing the chain stitch, I closed in some buttonhole stitch to become little boxes... I do love handwork and might add some into my sunflower piece after it's quilted. 

happy creating!

project quilting #5


design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

https://songbirddesigns.blog/monday-musings-6-26-23/ 

finished or not

https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

https://beadwright.blogspot.com/ 









Thursday, March 7, 2024

I Like Thursday # 392 sensing spring, some likes and a poodle saga

 welcome to this week's list of likes... starting with sparkly things that catch the light. 

this is a tree ornament but it is living on my mantle right now with some little white lights

TV

so many shows have finally returned, to keep me entertained at night, The Good Doctor, Murdoch Mysteries, American Idol, Survivor, Amazing race is returning, Traitors S2 is finishing,

Reading 

on Ebook 


on Audio 


sewing 

I finished the top of a quilt , that is in last Saturday's post, and want to share the quote I put on it

 post link is HERE

>> btw, 

when I mentioned meeting nice neighbors, they are NOT "next-door neighbors" which many people assumed. That would have been exceptional but not our luck. They live about 6 streets over and we haven't caught them outside again. Still they live in the 'hood, and are the nicest ones we met in the last 5 years of living here. 

a wee painting

Our Prompt this week

Describe something you experience with each of your senses every SPRING

taste,  touch,  sight,  hearing,  scent

taste: better asparagus, hot cross buns, See's candy eggs for Easter baskets

touch: the feel of a warm breeze on your arms

sight: In the past, back East, I saw daffodils and tulips popping up, buds on trees, grass turning from brown to green

hearing: birdsong as they begin to return, the noxious sound of leaf blowers and mowers

scent: around here, everyone sprays their lawns with noxious chemicals and my migraines return putting me out of life. It's already happening 3 months early now that we had this warming all winter long. The flies are already out again, 3 months early. No one plants flowers here the ground isn't receptive in our yard either. So scent, I remember back east the smell of trees flowering, and in years past when we felt safe to visit other areas, one bush that made delicious smelling blossoms but not in our neighborhood. 

40 Best Spring Jokes for Kids and Parents | Jokes about Spring  117 Spring Puns That Might Sprout Some Happiness | Bored Panda

Spring is not my favorite season but I know many of you like hot weather and all it brings, our house walls and concrete roof is superheated from the sun so we don't look forward to hot weather at all. 

A sight of spring in the house is the return of the candy colored pastel twinkle lights on the stairs, and spring like quilts on the walls. 


Milo's Moment

 

 Mama: MILO! why are you dragging your bed over on top of the toy box? And why do you chew on it? 

Milo: Why do you expect me to rest on top of a big toy? (toys are meant to be chewed, silly mama)

ummmmm.....
 Mama: another question, why didn't you eat both pieces of lettuce that fell off my bowl? They both had dressing on them

Milo: why would you eat lettuce? Even with dressing? and I noticed you didn't drop any of the stuff I do like, like feta cheese, tomato or avocado? 

Mama: avocado is bad for doggies honey. 

Milo: mama, too much  that tastes good is bad for doggies! 

Mama: don't I know it honey! Same for humans! 

Milo: speaking of eating, I'm grateful Dad got more Veggie Burgers so I got a small bowl of them, but  my pawrents got a big sandwich. 

I like burgers!

 


please visit these people to see what they liked this week (let me know to add in your link) 

https://wordweaverart.blogspot.com/ 

https://canadianneedlenana.blogspot.com/  

grammajudyb.blogspot.com

https://comfortspiral.blogspot.com/


 
 
   LINKING WITH 

               friday smiles