A tiny quilt, and Misc.

I bet your finding with spring time vanishes quicker, it is loving the outside,
it seems distracting, you pause longer for things, even putting groceries in the car your being thankful your not freezing, and walking slower in parking lots because it is pleasant, people stop longer to talk. It is nice

This is a small quilt, I use them as cards sometimes, the face seems rather vague in the quilt but I wanted it that way. Then it wanted to puff out so I had to do tiny stitches over that part. It has quite a bit of hand stitching even the binding is hand done with some odd corners. I would like to have 5 done by the
13th of April, One is all I have or one and a third. I also want to paint.
I read how to do tranfers on fabric and I want to do that also. rather then print everything on the fabric sheet. However the garden keeps calling also.

I like these tiny rosettes of sedum and the faded leaves, such a perfect design that I had nothing to do with. Feeling a bit scattered

Ever Wonder

I do, where these people come from that are in mixed media art. Whre do they live, how come they are out walking about with a look of pondering the earth and the rest of the inhabitants that seem ordinary, when clearly the writing is on the wall to them.
Do they get a census form, a tax form, a warning for keeping of song birds from the DNR? No, they live wandering lives of music, flowers, finding lost things. or moving things to be lost. Their vocabulary is of pleasant words, inspire, love,
searching, joy, hope.

I best get busy and quit wandering around in fairyland. I do that, wander around and then find rocks with hearts on them all provided by these people.

Looking For The Sun

That is not true of me, we have sun, it is dry, pleasant weather, but wishing for rain, it starts earlier every year wanting rain.

Also, I am wanting osmething else from these paintings, emotion, personality, a little haunting, but still pretty, and I don't mean haunted. maybe a look of remorse
or forlorn, not quite so cute, but pretty. I am working on it.

I don't think we have to be accepting of what we do, change is hard no matter the
thing that we are trying to change. I don't even want a permanent change just the ability to do what I want.

I like layering so the painting is layered with fabric behind done in Print Shop and it is also done with my photo of Coral Bells coming to life in the garden.

I need to go outside and do some physical work, not that the painting will change with some sweat, it might.

Looking Out

A day of not much, Just a little of this and that. Reading a lot of what other people have to say, and also what they say other people have said. Some things are a little stirring, some make you wonder, others make you want to go and do.

I am glad I kept my mouth shut today, We got a new fridge about 2 weeks ago and in the unpacking the freezer part's handle broke. They ordered a new one and it came today. When I got to the car I looked and no hardware, so I went back in the store and about halfway to the counter I realized there was hardware on the broken handle at home.

I realized today that I have painted 38 paintings, mixed media type, and done 4 quilts this is since Feb. 1. I didn't ignore other things that I usually do either, and the point is I was wondering why I feel a little tired. Even enjoyment can make you tired.

This is a test

I had some help with problem things on the computer today and I want to see if they are fixed, one problem was the windows kept coming up like they did for dialup when I was posting photos, the other thing was some security updates that were not working right. The computer is like a child, one does the best they know to manage it's behavior, and sometimes a therapist can help it be more cooperative, you just have to know the inner reasons for the behavior, I don't always know. The thing about the computer is you can't reason with it, or distract it from what it is doing you have to fix it. It has fixed it's self on occasion, and that is the most magic of all, even in life fixing one's self.

Where did all this come from, this is a simple test. It is pillows that are now gone,and a doll, I made these things once and had submissions to a magazine. It was precollage love not right at this time.. I always loved collage.

Other Artists, their work

I received a beautiful package in the mail this week, This painting was on the outside of the package, with great artful things on the inside. I did just let it be on the table a while to admire before carefully opening. The joyful face on this package is so pretty and creative. You can visit "A Floudering Star" and see more. Click on Previous posts to enjoy her work further, she is a mixed media artist. The pink paper you see is to cover the address. http://flounderingstar.blogspot.com/


I also want to show you work by Westy Copeland, I apolgize for not posting her
blog page, but for some reason it does not post correctly. You can Google her name and find work by her. She is an active artist in the Minneapolis, St. Paul area.
Each fall she has work in an art show close by, I enjoy the simplicity of her work.

Using What You Have

I have been visitng some art quilting blogs and seeing things that are more quiet than my past quilt posts, I have a bin of things like this, things other people have made with the same desire that I have to create things. My mother's favorite color for things on tables and desks was ecru, she thought it showed more taste to be understated. But then I also remember some beautiful colors in the threads she used coming to a store she shopped in and suddenly she was about color. Her paintings were about color also.

So this painting was about less color and then into the quilt about less color, but oculdn't quite stay neutral. Had to add some. The quilt is a painting, crochet bits, yarn, painted abstractions, buttons, and a lot of stitches, even a tiny bit of my own hand stitches. Even with bits of color it is still more quiet.

Quilts and more quilts

As I post the photos of these, I am thinking I have changed in my thought process, and in the skill of doing a face. I did these last fall, I was anticipating the quilt show coming and wanting to speak about quick things for quilts, a speedier gratification when working with fabric. I am not a person who can work on a project for a long time, no matter how beautiful the pattern or idea, I can't work for months on the same thing, as it starts to lose some of it's appeal in the process.
But my paintings have changed, so the quilts with these faces don't quite look like what I would do now. Yet, I still like the face that isn't a portrait the best. There is a fine line in there someplace about a good face that isn't quite real, Or a face that has some distortion yet has charm.

These quilts have painted faces, stamping, yarn, ribbon, crayon rubbings, new and old fabric. A busy sort of contruction that in the end pleases me most. The composition intent is for someone to see it and look for balance that is out of balance, and if your thinking as you look how is that side the same as the other side and they aren't, simular but not the same, that is what pleases me.

New Friends

I had to come and post this and take my time so it is Sunday instead of Saturday.

This was so bad, and you know how the old saying less is better, but this kept saying it still needs something. Adding the while made a huge difference, it is a paper doily stencil that I did very carefully carelessly, it helped so much and then underneath more stamping before I did the doily work, plus adding some color to the flower and the tiny birds and a bit of text. Her dress is napkin collage.

I won't sleep, I don't sleep well when things go well as I want to do another.

Art Quilt

Welcome spring, all bloggers seems so thrilled to have it arrive. I am also, at this point one still has everything, everything to bloom, nothing wilted and done.
Anticipation is one of the great things of life. Enjoy your spring.

This is a painting I did, and put it on fabric with the printer, added but of recycled clothes, and ribbon. It is fun digging through the stuff looking for what you think is right, often what your hunting for turns out wrong and the surprise of finding what you forgot is the best.

Now I wrote this once and posted the same photo twice by mistake, now to try again. if I get the same photo twice again I will leave it. Then I will work on a painting that has failure written all over it. Really I am near the end and usually they get better this is not. Will see tomorrow.

Miscellaneous, or a grab bag

I loved grab bags as a kid, a brown bag in a basket of othe brown bags and you could choose one for less than a dollar. You would get something fun, and a good surprise. You cold get one of those woven straw tubes and put a finger in each end and become stuck, or a game of Jacks, a new jump rope, that I used to play tug of war with the dog. Once my mother got a pretty ring and we were outside looking at it and she dropped it, just like that a chicken ran up and ate it.

The point is this post is like that sort of something of everything, some rugs I made from old sweatshirts hooked with a rug hook into burlap. It is different than latchook. These rugs have a very tight loop of fabric on the surface of the rug. Ignore the pumpkins, I took this photo last fall. They are my favorite tho and are called Long Island Cheese Squash, so aren't really a pumpkin, and they aren't really a good squash either, they are just pretty.

Remnants of winter, can you see the tiny bit of green coming to life?

A face started sometime ago and just now finished because it was there and I was waiting for other things to dry. It is not even very good, but I would of thought it was 6 months ago. She reminds me of a broken doll with a crack across her face. That is a mark from layering papers.

Suggestion of Worry

This seems to have that, except the cat, and you know how cats are they refuse blame, even if they have an accident that caused them to fall or look stupid they sit down and wash and just act as if that was suppose to happen. George Carlin does a funny bit about cats, I watch it on Utube sometimes. Most of it is funny some isn't, but what he has to say about them so mostly true.

I had a class today on faces and it went really well, I am not use to talking for 5 hours tho so feel a little out of words. The faces were so nice that they did and learned how to get them on fabric and create a quilt. The women are very good quilters, great skill, beautiful work, and colors.

The rhubarb is up, there is a bit of green showing in the garden, wonderful, even if we get colder this weekend it is still wonderful to see the snow gone.

Thank you dear bloggers for your visits and comments

Painting for quilt

The photo with out the flower border is the painting, the photo with flower border and writing is changed in photoshop, I blurred the edges for transparency and added text. She has sheet music hair and napkin flowers. She is in a hurry to get things done, but has a song in her head and one in her heart. She is a wren enthusiest. Like the song, "I'm in a Hurry to Get Things Done, I Rush and Rush and I don't know why.

The mood has been for things not real, or close to real, just fun. Before Mixed Media art it was folk art, doing a search today for inspiration I didn't see a lot of differences, some of the same sort of enchantment about the work. It is thrilling to visit other blogs and see what transpired at the art table and in their minds on any given day. It is fun to play games with oneself and say you have to create something of the scraps on the floor, or the junk mail. My husband even finds things that are a bit off and tells me they would work in my paintings. Of course he has this sense of humor, he brings odd gifts, a rock, a deer horn, a rusty nail, a tiny part from old plumbing, or part of a childs toy, all found items as he works outside. Of course there are a few jars of such items in his shed, I could go pick out my own gift. It is a gift to see beauty, oddness,

unexpected and be able to cherish it in our own way.

The cat even enjoys mixed media, the cat toys have felt, feathers, yarn, bells, but can also be excited by the real thing.

I do have one more quilt done, waiting for the right light to photograph it, I missed it this morning.

Quilt and Whimsy

It took me longer to get a decent photo than it did to make the quilt. Outside just works better, I was getting too much of the fabric grain and no matter how I tried to change it, it was still a bad scan.

This is a painting I did last summer, not detailed that much, the painting was then printed on fabric. Recycled fabric was used in the brown design and the butterfly. Two strands of twisted yard form some of the straight and curved lines. Quilt measure 12in x12in.

We learn in life to never say "this won't take long" something always goes amiss, or amess when that thought enters our head. How the morning has gone, so now I have to hurry and get another small quilt done and it won't take long.

The Woman of the House

I feel that when I see her, takes charge gets things done, however not a pain. She is a gentle person who does not use her tongue like a whip. She also hosts the tea for the women's club in her community, that explains the mass of hydrangeas in the house.

My husband says that I would never have to hit anyone as I can beat them up with my tongue.

I guess that is called a "Tongue Lashing" I don't find this true, but do others see us as we see ourselves? I don't think so, they don't know all the things about the inner person. Cosmetics or not we all have a cosmetic appearance that we use. We are different in our home than at a work place, or a store, and we can be different depending on what we need, as we push the numbers on the phone to finally get to the dept. we want and hear numerous things from all the depts we don't want, we are using our other self in preparation to receive the service we want.

It always works well to say a greeting of pleasantries and use their name if you can understand it. Then say I am hoping you can help me. This has nothing to do with what words are in my head. I think we should take pride in all the people we can be, it means we can cope, we can help, we can excel.

Working on whimsy

Pondering Woman

We all do that, become deep in thought as time slips away. We sort our thoughts, and sometimes think the same thought over and over. Frequently if we write the thought down and some solutions we can get it out of our head. People talk about choices, it leads us to think there is a choice we might really like, sometimes there isn't one that we feel great about, but there are still choices. So we ponder, and hear our own voice talking to us, a friend I admire calls this an "Ear Worm" she gets these with songs and the same line and song stay with her for a day. We met on a message borad a long time ago, and sometimes I like to add song lines to a post and she scolds me that now that will be with her all day. It is like that when I paint these faces and the mouths are too big, I hear Johnny Cash singing, "You Big Mouth Woman" and sometimes it isn't jut in my head he really is as I listen to old CW music on a station called "'Moose Country"

Except right now I hear Jackson Brown singing "Here Come Those Tears" I like the videos of him , BBC 1978. He had a great band then. Enough, and a long paragraph.

Taking Butterflies For a Walk

And don't forget to take the Luna Moth along. This started out being something else, a girl flying a kite because it is March, but somehow I got off the idea, I was searching the internet for

butterflies for class next week. Yesterday was like that sort of never doing what was planned either because it didn't work or I didn't know how.

This morning I saw some red tulip tips in the garden. Joy of Spring.

So as your out walking your butterflies, enjoy the new season that is at least for the moment upon us.

Guest Speaker Prep

I will be giving a short talk at a quilt show on art quilts, art quilts with a face on them, not large quilts wall hanging size. This is a month away so I have to get my handouts ready and I have to write my talk. Today I prepared my hand outs. After I paint the face I print it out on fabric, the fabric has a paper back so it goes through the printer and then you peel off the fabric and can sew it anyway you choose. The small quilt you see on the right is a face painted on fabric.

This isn't a class it is a speaker engagement with a handout. Here you will see part of the handout, the painting, and the painting with digital additions that may or may not get cut apart for the quilt construction.

Oh OH, repeat performance

I was doing some editing on the post and lost it completely, so just a repost of this painting, and if you have not been here before you will see the stages if you scrol down. It really helps to get things right the first time. Thanks Star it isn't your fault I lost the whole thing. We use to have dial up and sometimes the connect box comes up when I post and it goofed me up a lot.

Photos of Spring Breakup and a Busy Painting

No Painting today, that doesn't mean I don't have a painting. The refridge died so had to go hunt for a new and be thankful for a cold garage. I knew it was going as sometimes it sounded like a semi trying to pass on the freeway, passing while honking. That was the first warning 4 years ago. So it held on.

These photos are just that what I felt was pretty as spring tries to arrive. the fields are full of standing water and geese everywhere. I like the photo that was taken on the high bluff of backwaters from a river. The other is same river.

I felt like doing a painting with much busyness, I rather like that. Sometimes I mount them on cardboard covered with newsprint, and even designs on the newsprint.
or just a touch of paint, doing that much bigger than the painting takes away some of the busy work in the painting. It also allows one to use thrift store frames that are quite nice. I can also mount several paintings with the same backing in a large frame. Use some of the same colors on the newspaper as in the paintings and pull it together with some stencils.

Thinking Spring

It is early for this far north to get to spring minded, I have seen 3 robins, only one other time that I can remember did I see first Robins on the 7th and 8th of March.

We have some rushing rivers, a few patches of bare ground, soft earth in places, and now and then you can drive with the heater off in the car.

I thought this tree bark covered with lichen, it is a pretty pattern for a background in a painting I thought, even Richard said looks like your backgrounds,
and like that a painting appeared. This must be a spring maid, she drifts through the woodlands to stir the Mayflowers, spring beauties, and violets.

a woman, a bird, a house

I didn't even have to paint it. The bird is one of my most favorite 5 cent items from a garage sale. It is quite old and it is a pie bird, you put it in the middle of your pie so the pie doesn't drizzel juice all over your oven. It has a tiny crack so I am careful with it. One hardly finds nickle things any longer, and this was some years ago, I had this pie bird a long time before I knew what it was, I saw another at an antique shop, and I am still thrilled at that identical bird was 22.00.

I like the woman also she is from Portugal, and the other things are just odds and ends and the effect you see is an altered layered look. I do like vintage salt and pepper shakers with flowers and I don't buy a pair I buy when there is just one. I like the blurred look, however I would appreciate ability to do a clear sharp look also.

Work In Progress Continues

This work has taken on a look of conflict perhaps between the two faces, and I am going to have to figure out how to get some joy or beauty into this work and still keep the expression the faces reveal. As I work on this I feel very much the need for the less stressed sort of painting that just has a pretty outcome. I am liking the faces and still see corrections to make.

You can look at this and play the game also of finding things wrong with this picture, like you did as a child in an activity book. We still say that don't we? What is wrong with this picture? I hope for progress for a view tomorrow. First posting in previous days post.

Quilts airing on the line, I made these quilts and they are just getting a spring freshen up in the March breezes. The photo has been altered, with cuttings and pasteings.