TAST week 11 ~ whipped wheel

Happy Saint Patricks Day.

no shamrocks from me today but i do have these happy little 'sunbursts' for you.


the stitch for week 11 with TAST is the whipped wheel.
this is considered a 'woven' stitch as the first layer is made up of stitching that passes through the fabric, but the second (sometimes more) layer is woven in and out of the first layer.

apparently the 'weaving' became part of my whole thought process as i looked for a suitable place to work this stitch. i found an area on my wonderful husband's stocking that held fabrics of a very fragile nature . . . this is part of working with antique textiles and not unexpected. i decided to cover part of this area with closely spaced long stitches creating a sort of warp and began to experiment with weaving on a very small scale. i used a blunt tapestry needle and various threads for the weft part of the weave.  before i knew it i had covered the entire area. it's very primitive but it was interesting to try and i now have a head full of ideas on how i might take this further . . .

once i had that all done i placed some half whipped wheels at regular intervals along the side of the woven area. i used the same light colored thread (used throughout most of my experimental woven 'patch') to create the base of the (half) whipped wheel. this part of the stitch cannot actually be seen as i covered it completely (with a medium weight blueish/purple thread) to continue creating the stitch.

i took things a step further by adding a single colonial knot (using a medium weight turquoise thread) in the center of each of the stitches and then i added more single colonial knots (using two strands of cotton floss in variegated oranges) at the ends of each rib of the wheel. i think they look a bit like a bunting of some sort.

interestingly i have a very good friend who weaves and she frequently shares odd bits of leftover threads with me. all of the threads within today's post (except for the orange cotton floss) are gifted from her.

there are several fun and well done examples of this stitch shown here and here.  i LOVE this wordy idea and my favorite use of this stitch: grapes anyone?

if you think that you may be interested in learning embroidery or practicing the stitches you already know it's well worth a visit to Pin Tangle to join in with this project.


recent gifts include:

• realizing that the 'full circle' can sometimes be a long time in materializing 
• a simple but satisfying dinner eaten quietly at home with my husband
• reading a novel

~Let it Snow~

this weeks Sunday Postcard Art challenge is "Let it Snow". i recently finished a fabric paper postcard for my daughter and i used an image of that card to create this one by importing it into photoshop elements and adding some additional layers, artwork and text to it. using the pencil and various brushes was challenging for me today and my lines look shaky which i was upset by at first but have now decided that i rather like the childish look of it in this piece . . . i even drew my own primitive little snowflake~!~

for more fabulous postcard art go to: www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

SPA CHALLENGE ~ FLOURISH

this past week has been a busy one for me and i'm just barely getting anything done for the SPA challenge of "flourish". one of my own photographs and a quick insertion of some text and i'm calling it done.

http://www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com/

"music" was this weeks theme at sunday postcard art. i have once again used several of my own photographs and had fun while learning some more about photoshop elements 7.

to see many more postcards go to:

http://www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com/

this is my SPA challenge card for the week. the theme was "crackle". i used one of my own images, some special effects from pse7 and added a quote that i like.

to see many more postcards from some very talented artists go to:
www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

the winner of my "winter comforts" give-away is:

congratulations Lesley Ninnes of: http://www.sea-blue-sky-abstracts.blogspot.com/ ~!~

i will need you to send an e-mail to libbyquilter@yahoo.com with your address information and then i will be happily mailing you some comforting goodies~!~



thank you to everyone who entered. i do wish you all a winter FULL of the kindest comforts.




and now for another sunday postcard art card. the theme was Edgar Allan Poe and i once again managed to use some of my own photos to create a digital collage. i am having quite a bit of fun with the program now although it is still a whole lot of trial and error.

http://www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

~!!~i did it~!!~

this is my digital postcard creation for sunday postcard art (halloween). my very first digital creation and if you ask me how i did it i would not begin to know what to tell you because it was a whole lot of experimental trial and error. it's not perfect or anything but I DID IT~!!~

www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

btw: this was created using five of my own photographic images

this week's SPA challenge was

"SKULLS & SKELLIES!".

www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

Sunday Postcard Art/School

www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

yesterday i discovered that i am the very lucky winner of a blog giveaway~!!!~yiipppeeeee~!!!~i participated in a giveaway hosted by Eileen of Keeping it Rural in Wisconsin (http://ruralwisconsin.blogspot.com/ ) and it's been promised that it holds some surprises, but i do know that there are vintage linens and ephemera handpicked from her very own antiques and collectibles store~Wellers (http://www.wellerstore.com/).

of course, all i can think about is what sort of wonderful art i can morph these goodies into . . . a package is on it's way and when it gets here i'll be sure and share the details within my blog. until then you should make a point of stopping by her charming blog as well as the Weller website to see what is going on. i understand that the store merchandise changes daily and is overflowing with fabulous collectible treats of every kind~!!~

speaking of art from ephemera: earlier this week i received a package from Viv Sliwka/Hensteeth (www.hensteethart.blogspot.com). i placed an order from her etsy space and am quite thrilled with, not only her work, but her incredible customer service. for those of you who don't know of Viv's work you really must take a minute or two (or five or ten) and visit her site. it's chocked full of fabulous handmade goodies that have the sweetest whimsical nature about them. her art is a treat for any eyes~!!~

i went out into the garden today and was overwhelmed with the enormous amount of tomatoes that i have ripening. i think there will be some canning/preserving in my upcoming weekend~!!~

and check out the size of that zucchini~!~i don't know how it got overlooked but once it was finally discovered it was promptly picked~! it's ginourmous~!!~

i also met up with cricket, our calico kitty who wanted to help with the gardening glory. isn't she a sweetie~!?!~ looks can be a bit deceiving though . . . she used to be an inside cat until she became very territorial and especially honry with gracie, another one of our cats. in the end, the only way to make it work out short of finding some new homes for both of them, was to make one of them a house cat and one an outside cat and keep them separated at all times~!!~ cricket actually prefers being outside anyway and as long as she has the shelter of the garage at night and during bad weather seems quite happy to be the queen of her own kingdom. meanwhile gracie sits in the windows and makes faces and hissy noises through the glass at her every time she gets the chance . . .

a couple of weeks ago i posted some shots of mayflies hatching from our pond. i've recently been able to capture shots of what looks to be either a dragonfly or a damselfly doing the same. in the top photo there are some fantastic details that can be seen, especially if you click on it and look at the larger version of the shot.

it seemed to be a lengthy and difficult process for the dragonfly and at times it would just hang limp and exhausted from the "skin" bit. in the lower photo you can see the papery shell that it has nearly completely labored out of. just a bit of one wing to go . . . unfortunately i did not get to witness the end of this drama as i had to move on to other things that needed doing. i noticed later that evening that it was gone and am assuming that all went as it should have for this "baby" dragonfly.

i continue to make good progress in rearranging my schedule for more art making. i do still have to work on giving some things up and deciding just what my priorities are . . . it's tough when you like doing everything~!!~!

this week i managed to get six tulips done and three crumb pieced nine-patches.

the nine-patches take a surprising amount of time due to the crumb/string piecing of the "darker" squares. these will measure nine inches when sewn up.

i've also begun to sort out the very smallest scraps so that i can streamline them into a project and make them useful too . . . was going to brainstorm that this afternoon but am running out of time . . . please feel free to share ideas if you have any.

the Christmas card (#4) that i was working on last week is now bound and complete. i went around the edges with a machined zig zag stitch in a variegated thread (Christmas colors). time to start working on # 5~!~

i have been working on my SPA postcard and this week's theme is "school".

while thinking about what i wanted to do i was remembering what my own favorite things were about starting a new school year. i know for some it was all about getting a new pair of shoes. i did not grow up wealthy. my parents both worked hard providing for our family and although there was always "enough", brand new shoes were not a part of every new school year. so what got me excited was that new box of crayons that i would get at the beginning of the year. that was back in the day when the school still provided those supplies . . . new crayons, new pencils, new erasers and once in a while a few colored pencils(!!!) . . . and the books . . . i was a voracious reader~!~ so share with me what memories you have of school. i want to know what you did or did not enjoy about school. what year you remember as being particularly good or eventful in some way and why . . . were you a social butterfly or more the wall-flower type? or maybe you were one of those rebel types that the rest of us wished we had the courage to be . . . in the meantime; i'll work on my postcard and you can pop back in on sunday and have a look.

Sunday Postcard Art Challenge/Fish

www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

my daughter turned 24 years old yesterday~!~even though i took part in the whole process from the very beginning, i'm quite surprised by this event . . . i know that it's very trite and oversaid but, where oh where did the time go~!?!~ she spent her birthday discovering cloud forests in Honduras. i can't imagine it getting much better than that~!~you go girl~!!~ the late summer flowers are swaying in the hot summer sun now and once again, i wonder where the time went . . . around here, the fall season usually comes suddenly and with a vengeance, charging straight into a long cold winter so at any time we could wake up to killing frosts and ruined gardens and frozen flowers. i consider every day a gift from the summer gods and brace for the worst. every once in a great while we have a "real" warm extended fall season but it's rare. so it's hope for the best and expect the worst for us sun worshipers.

this year the strawberries that i planted did terribly. i got less than a handful of very tiny berries over the whole year. they were quite tasty and sweet but NOT in abundance. today i discovered the biggest cache yet~!~ three ripe berries~!!!~again, no bigger than my thumb nail but picture perfect anyway~!!~

earlier this summer i had an arborist tell me that the tree that i thought was a Japanese cherry tree is actually an ornamental crab apple. due to our fabulously unusual, virtually frost free spring, we have an abundance of fruit beginning to ripen. these are also very tiny and once the fall frosts have "cured" them the birds will come and feast all winter long. i'm looking forward to having an abundance of natural bird food right outside my front door and near a window from which i can watch this ongoing winter feast.

the bees know that time is of the essence and are busier than ever in their honey making endeavors.

so, between the cues given me by my garden and the local school year resuming, i have decided that it's time for me to get a bit more serious about my creative pursuits. i've been reading a book by Julia Cameron called "The Sound of Paper/Starting from Scratch" and it has become a helpful resource full of tools to get myself back on a (disciplined) creative path. i have been guilty in the past of thinking that creativity and discipline do not belong together in the same sentence but i'm quite certain i was wrong~!!~as there have been many a night that i have gone to bed feeling like, once again, i failed to catch the comet by the tail and fly simply because i don't think that i have the time or extended energy to do it. Julia councils me that i must be hyper aware of fleeting bits of time and use those productively rather than look for full days of extended energy to work with. i must consider my art important enough to set aside absolute blocks of time for. so i've begun to do just that; set aside specific scheduled time to work on various creative persuits. i've recognized and decided that not honoring these promises to myself is just as bad as not honoring promises that i've made to others. i have always considered myself careful with integrity and given to my full potential (often stretching beyond even that). at least that is how it goes when it's someone else other than myself that i've made the promises to . . . not so much when it comes down to being true to my self, particularly my artistic self.

the next few weeks will be all about re-organizing my schedules so that i can take better care of my creative side with much more loving attention than i have in the past. much easier said than done but i think i can claim a good start.

during this past week i managed to get back to my scrap management projects and finished eight tulips. i also worked on the ongoing Christmas card project for my daughter and card #4 is ready to finish and bind.

i put aside a bit of daily time to work on my sunday postcard art challenge. this is a sneak peek of what i'm working on for the fish theme that is coming up.

AND last but not least, i have uploaded my photoshop elements program. you know the one that i have been dancing around since last Christmas!?! i have acitvely begun tutorials and am making some progress in understanding all that this program will be able to add to my photography/digital art. i am getting excited~!!!~