A Tiny Glimpse

My new art group, Art Squared, has its first reveal on Oct 1st.   I've been working on my piece off and on for a couple months now and it's nearly finished.  Here's a tiny little glimpse of my piece.

 Be sure to join us for the reveal and see how each of us interpreted the first "Mystical"  theme.

New Thermofax Screens

Yesterday, I posted a stencil design from my friend Terri Stegmiller.  Today, I'll show you some new Thermofax screens.

Terri is lucky enough to have a Thermofax machine and she has made some fabulous screens.  You can find her designs in her ETSY shop...along with lots of her other art.

But getting to my point, I sent some more of my drawings to Terri and she made them into screens for me.   I did a quick printing on fabric scraps  just to see how they looked.  I love them all.  The paint I grabbed was a little too thin, so there they are not as crisp, but that is totally my fault...the screens are perfect.  So here they are...

Gears

Fans

Small Leaf

Large Leaf

Sm Swirl Feather

Lg Swirl Feather

So if you are in the market to have some of your drawings made into screens, keep Terri in mind...you won't be disappointed!

Mollie is Done!

I finished my newest fish Mollie yesterday.  When I'm painting on canvas, I use many of the same surface design tools that I use on fabric.  This one is no different. I used a bunch of different stencils amongst the layers of both the background and within Mollie. Some of the stencils I used are below.

I love stencils and I use them interchangeably for quilting , painting and printing. I get them from all different sources including (but not limited to) joggles, artists cellar, stencil girl, the crafters warehouse,  and I even make my own.

This one was designed by my friend Terri Stegmiller and I love it!

I took lots of photos between adding layers so you could see the process.  

Now that she's done, on to the next project which is finishing up my first challenge piece for my new art group. That reveal will be Oct 1st.

Continuing My Fish Series

Another thing I've done while waiting to get back to quilting from this shoulder mess, is do another set of fish drawings.  This next set will be done both on canvas and as quilts.

The first few layers  of canvas number 1 are underway...so here is the start of  "Mollie"

and a little more

Now, back to the Saints game!

Garment Sewing

As I mentioned in the previous post, I've also been doing some garment sewing.  What started it all was seeing a cute jacket in a local boutique.  I really loved the cut and the fabric, but the seams were just serged. Well, I can deal with that EXCEPT when the price is almost $300.  For that price, I would expect fully finished french seams!  After all, it's not hard to do and is such a nice finish.

So, I passed up the expensive, marginally constructed jacket and proceeded to make my own.  Years ago, I made all my clothes, so that's not a problem for me. Just once I retired I quit doing it.  Well, I'm back at it and I got a little carried away.  So far I've finished 5 skirts, 5 tailored sleeveless shells and 4 jackets.  I say so far because I have another 5 jackets cut out and ready to sew.  And they are all the same style.  I modified an old pattern that I used to use to give it a more updated look. I also added princess seams to give it  a better fit.

So here are the 4 completed jackets...though these photos were taken before I added the buttonholes and buttons.

green lace

black,white,&gray cotton

Blue batik

rayon/linen blend

I had forgotten how nice it is to have clothes that fit perfectly...one of the many benefits of making your own! And all for much less than that poorly made jacket in the store. 

Long Time No Post!

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth, but I have have been otherwise engaged.  Life has been busy and I've been having more issues with my shoulder.  But things are settling down on all counts now.

So what have I been up to all this time?  Well, since I couldn't use the longarm for a while I found other things to do.  I painted a couple more canvases and I did some garment sewing...more about that in another post.  In this post, I'll share the two new canvases.

First up is the turtle.  I posted the beginning of that a while ago.  Well, as happens on occasion, I really didn't like how it was going, so I gessoed over it and started again.  The end result is
"Trudy and the Twins"

The next one I did is "Olivia"

Both are 18" x 24" and are done with  acrylic paints and were fun diversions.  I've also been printing a bit with the gelli plate and even doing a little stamp carving to keep my creative muse occupied.

Just a  couple more weeks and I'll be ready to get back at the quilting machine. ☺

iPad Games for Cats

I found several interactive games designed for cats to play in the App Store . Most were free, a couple were $1.99.  

Bouree loves them! His favorites are the fishing game and the paint game.