Eleven hours, minus breaks and meals. What a luxury! I was able to lavish most of the day on my quilt. I finished the baby, his baby quilt, the arms reaching for him, and his mom’s clothes and hands. Tomorrow morning, when I’m fresh, I’ll tackle the mom’s face and hair, and then I need to go to the drawing board to plan the background sky. I feel good about how much I got done so far. I feel so much less pressured, although I confess I did quite a bit of stress eating today. Mostly good food like [ ... ]
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Apr 23
2012
Eleven hours, minus breaks and meals. What a luxury! I was able to lavish most of the day on my quilt. I finished the baby, his baby quilt, the arms reaching for him, and his mom’s clothes and hands. Tomorrow morning, when I’m fresh, I’ll tackle the mom’s face and hair, and then I need to go to the drawing board to plan the background sky. I feel good about how much I got done so far. I feel so much less pressured, although I confess I did quite a bit of stress eating today. Mostly good food like [ ... ]
Category: Surrender, work in progress
7 Comments
Apr 22
2012
I was able to squeeze in an hour or so this morning before church. I spent the time adding some brown background to the right and left of the baby quilt. I also added some additional shadows within the quilt to try to emphasize the idea that it is bending over the edge of the table. Not sure I quite achieved that look, but I have decided that I’m done fiddling with it.
This evening after Bible study I prepared my backing fabric and batting, and then I pin basted the quilt sandwich. Because the cotton/silk blend fabric is more [ ... ]
Category: Surrender, work in progress
4 Comments
Apr 21
2012
Backgrounds. I’ve never liked them. Like I said before, backgrounds are boring. Maybe it’s because I spent so many years just drawing with pencil or Conté crayons, concentrating on just the main image. Somehow that seems fine for a simple drawing, but it doesn’t work so well on painted images.
So, I always end up with the same dilemma. I never quite know how to how to deal with the background, especially in a piece like this. The main image is completely painted, but if I do a watercolor wash for the background, I risk having it bleed into [ ... ]
Category: Surrender, work in progress
12 Comments
Apr 20
2012
Today was a wonderful day for working. I put in “Cinderella” and worked steadily while the mice sewed a ballgown. Then I popped in “Tangled” and continued my adventure while Rapunzel went on an adventure of her own. It was so nice to work uninterrupted for several hours at a stretch.
I decided the baby needed to be laying on a baby quilt. I just had to figure out how to work out the various bending lines. I solved the problem by laying a plaid towel on my dining room table. This let me get the basic lines [ ... ]
Category: Surrender, work in progress
7 Comments
Apr 19
2012
I squeezed in two more hours today. I wanted more of a tonal difference between the mother and baby, so I adjusted the colors of the clothing. Then I finished putting in the arms. I wanted them to be rather vague, sketchy, and somewhat translucent.
Now I have the dilemma of what the baby is laying on and what is in the background. I don’t know why, but backgrounds are boring to me, so I always forget to consider them until the main image is finished. I know my art teachers would lecture me for doing this.
I imported the [ ... ]
Category: Surrender, work in progress
6 Comments
Apr 18
2012
I always shake my head when people see a quilt I’ve made and remark, “You must have a lot of patience.” No, if I have a choice, I’m not patient. But, life often requires patience. Monday was swallowed up with more doctor appointments for DH, and an errand with DD#1. Tuesday was snatched away with grocery shopping and taking my mom for her errands. So, today I finally had the opportunity to work on this quilt that I’ve had in mind for several weeks. But, naturally, I’m on a deadline, so I need quick and easy. See, I’m not [ ... ]
Category: Surrender, work in progress
6 Comments
Apr 15
2012
I’ve been tossing around an idea for a new quilt. Last week I took a few dozen photos, and today I spent quite a bit of time playing with them in Photoshop Elements. I did some mixing and matching from several pictures, choosing the elements I liked best.
Once I had the basic image settled, I started sketching. I like to use large sheets of paper that I get from the online office supply store. This 27″ by 34″ easel pad has a 1″ grid printed on in light blue lines, which makes it handy [ ... ]
Category: Surrender, work in progress
4 Comments
Apr 12
2012
April 13, 14, and 15 will be very big days for quilters in Ohio and the surrounding regions. The International Quilt Festival will be in Cincinnati!
I still don’t know if I’ll be able to make it. I’ll be taking my sweet husband to yet another specialist on Friday. They are still trying to determine why he had a stroke at just 53. Today, they did a transesophageal echocardiogram or TEE to take a closer look at his heart. Friday will be the third doctor’s visit this week alone, and [ ... ]
Category: quilt shows, Windblown
6 Comments
Apr 11
2012
The Spring 2012 issue of NQA’s Quilting Quarterly arrived in my mailbox last week. It spent several days sitting on my desk before I opened it. Emblazoned across the top of the page 9 says “Quilting with No Fear,” and below is a picture of me. Oh, dear! Me? No fear? I try to be brave. I try to approach my art without fear, but I definitely haven’t arrived! In fact, over the last several months, I feel like my feet have been captured in concrete and I can’t break free. I have an idea in my mind, but [ ... ]
Category: In Answer to Prayer, published, teaching, Windblown
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Apr 07
2012
I finished my taxes yesterday! Knowing I had to tackle them has been looming over me for several weeks. What a relief to be done!!! We celebrated with DQ in the afternoon as soon as I hit “Submit.” In the evening, sweet hubby decided we needed to go to Longhorn for dinner so I wouldn’t have to cook. Who am I to say no?
To celebrate the occasion, I thought it would be fun to share some of what I took out of the attic last week. I brought home three special boxes. Inside the first were eight sketchbooks from my [ ... ]
Category: family
3 Comments
