blog hop stops here!

Treasured Feathers

is one of the many pieces featured in

The Sketchbook Challenge book 

by Sue Bleiweiss

There is a huge blog hop going on to help Sue Celebrate her new book release.  

Each artist in the book is hosting a stop along the hop with tons of giveaway prizes.

See the list of stops at the very bottom of this post, check the dates and be sure to visit each. 

Sue's book is loaded with great sketchbook themes to get your sketchbook fun started, strategies for turning your sketchbook pages into art, photos, tutorials and much more.

Available at

Amazon

ArtPlantae Books

Barnes&Noble

Leave a comment on THIS post and be entered to win 

 from Sue Pelland Designs

 1) A Leaves Galore Grande size template

And

2)A Quilter's Chalk Line tool

 And 

3) the pattern of your choice from Sue's website

Retail value $80.00! 

I will be picking the winner

July 2, 2012 Monday.

From sketchbook page to art quilt.

In the book there is a tutorial on how to make Silk Fusion
or sometimes called Silk paper.
This technique was used to make the bird, flowers and tree come to life.

- - - - - 

Blog hop schedule:

June 26:
Jill Berry
Sue Bleiweiss

June 27:
Violette
Kathyanne White

June 28:
Kathy Sperino
Leslie Tucker Jenison

June 29:
Jamie Fingal
Lynn Krawczyk

July 2:
Jackie Bowcutt
Lyric Kinard

July 3:
Jane Davies
Kim Rae Nugent

July 5:
Carla Sonheim
Carol Sloan

July 6:
Susan Brubaker Knapp
Diana Trout

July 9:
Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Judi Hurwitt

July 10:
Jane LaFazio
Kelli Nina Perkins

- - - - - 

Blog hop Sponsors

Mistyfuse

ArtPlantae Today 

Gelli Arts

Joggles 

Sue Pelland Designs

ProChemical and Dye 

The Thread Studio

Blue Twig Studio

The Artist Cellar 

inside my sketchbook

Over the past year I've added more color to my sketchbook doodles.

 My sketchbook comes with me in the car if we are driving for awhile.

This is an image that was doodled in a book and then I tried it out on cloth. 

It's not finished, but it's fun taking ideas from sketchbooks and putting them onto cloth.

Since using my pillboxes as travel water color kits, it's made adding color to sketches much easier.

There is no mess and the supplies fit well into a little bag.

 I've realized my fat sketchbook is almost full of pictures, 

but only on the right side of the pages.

When the right side pages are all filled

 maybe I'll flip the book over and do the opposite pages.

 Working over on the left side is not my favorite.  

I remember as a kid I'd use my left hand to do the left side pages,

 I could try that again. . .  

We'll see, I'm in no rush.

Speaking of sketchbooks -

Help Sue Bleiweiss celebrate her new book

The Sketchbook Challenge.

There is a huge blog hop starting today with loads of great giveaways.  

Check the schedule below for the stops on the hop.

Come back here on Thursday the 28th and take a chance at winning a prize.

Blog hop schedule:

June 26:
Jill Berry
Sue Bleiweiss

June 27:
Violette
Kathyanne White

June 28:
Kathy Sperino
Leslie Tucker Jenison

June 29:
Jamie Fingal
Lynn Krawczyk

July 2:
Jackie Bowcutt
Lyric Kinard

July 3:
Jane Davies
Kim Rae Nugent

July 5:
Carla Sonheim
Carol Sloan

July 6:
Susan Brubaker Knapp
Diana Trout

July 9:
Tracie Lyn Huskamp
Judi Hurwitt

July 10:
Jane LaFazio
Kelli Nina Perkins


Available at
Amazon
ArtPlantae Books
Barnes&Noble

summer color and fun

Last month or so a few of us got together at Sue's and painted some canvas cloth.

We had no real plan or purpose for the fabric, it was just fun to do.

It matched my spray painted patio furniture, 

so I cut mine up and made pillows.

 He walked into the frame when I went to snap a picture of the pillow.  

Couldn't resist a sniff of the flowers I guess,

 or maybe he wanted to just borrow my book.

People always ask

"Does he swim?"

yup

 and then he shakes

painted applique

 Vintage quilt squares were stitched together and quilted.  A light layer of Gesso mixed with textile medium was painted over the top. 

Then Pro Chem textile paints were used to paint the background.  

Using Sue Pelland's Leaves Galore rulers, freezer paper templates were drawn out in various shapes and sizes.  A number of shapes can be created by sliding and moving the ruler.  I used a pencil with the ruler to experiment with the shapes, then cut them out with scissors.  

I traced around the template with a fabric marker to create the flowers and painted with textile paints.

Below you can see the vintage blocks before painted.  

You may remember these blocks, they've been used as backgrounds in previous quilts.  

The integrity of the fabrics is poor so it wasn't going to ever be worth my efforts to put together a quilt. 

Many still remain and I will keep using them in art quilts.

It's been fun giving them a new life.

Stay tuned for an upcoming blog hop to celebrate the release of 

The Sketchbook Challenge Book 

by Sue Bleiweiss

There will be over $1100 worth of prizes given away during the hop.

I'll be giving away one of Sue Pelland's rulers, a chalk line tool for marking and one of her patterns.

  

Stay tuned for a list of all other stops along the hop and the fantastic prizes.

 Book available at

Amazon  

Barnes&Noble 

ArtPlantae

making your art - work for you

It's no secret that we live in a time when we are attached to our smart phones. 

Using an ifrogz interchangeable case, 

you can insert your own artwork into the cover and smarten' up your phone's look.

My ifrogz came with two cool leather covers but, for summer my phone needed a brighter look.

 I took some doodles from my sketchbook,

resized and glued them together with a few layers of card-stock.

Once laminated the new insert makes a hard cover that protects the back.

The one below is painted fabric fused to layers of stiff stabilizer then stitched.

focus friday feature

 out the sewing room window

allium fields

 Today is color challenge 3 reveal for the Fiberactions art quilt group.

The theme this period: 

split compliment

The color chosen was yellow/green and it's split compliments 

are

 red and violet.

This piece started as a piece of plain white pfd fabric and was painted using textile paints.  Once dry it was fused to a firm stabilizer, then completely quilted.

The last photo shows the back of the piece after most of the stitching 

and you can see no backing was used.

Silk fibers were felted directly to the painted and quilted ground.

Lastly, embroidery threads and bias cut silk fabric were stitched.

Piping was added, then the piece was stitched to black silk fabric which was fused to a stiff stabilizer.

The allium flower is a delightful looking flower with it's perfectly round shape. It grows from a single bulb and is related to the onion/garlic family.

It's meaning is

unity, humility and patience.

quilted comfort

 A comfort quilt made using the Done For Love Pattern 

by Deb Wendt of Wendt Quilting.

The original pattern calls for appliqued hearts, but I was pressed for time so I left them off.

It works up quickly and can made with or without a border. 

It would look great with some of the new, modern looking fat quarter packs.

To add interest a large medallion diamond was quilted in the center 

with freehand fillers in the open space.

focus friday feature

Dicentra Spectabilis

Bleeding Heart, one of my favorite plants.  

A shade garden gift

that keeps on giving.

Did you know inside the flower are all sorts of treasures?

Mom, remember when we walked the roadside from Gramma's to Place's,

 there were big bleeding heart bushes? 

I think they belonged to the house next to Gram's   

and we weren't supposed to pick the flowers. 

But I did it anyway.

When the flower starts to open it looks like a princess with pigtails.

Pull the flower apart and find some of her magical treasures.

two pink bunnies, 

or sometimes they looked like pink swans 

or even pink whales

a pretty pendant.
 when the pendant is pulled apart and you get it just right
you find
a musical lyre with silk strings

i couldn't get it this time

 i got her earrings

and

ice skates.

 sometimes they look like silk slippers

or even a pair of garden shovels.

the best is her magic wand

look closely at the tip-

it's a tiny star!

 perfect little shade garden treasures

when you see a bleeding heart plant

go ahead and pick a little flower, 

(i won't tell)

see how many hidden treasures you can find.

you can find a story about the treasures here

i don't remember this story,

but i'm guessing i liked making my own up anyway.

Happy Shade Garden Planting!

neutral confusion

Made for the Neutrals Fusion Exhibit 

for Machine Quilters Expo East this past month.

A challenge quilt to use the pattern given and only neutral fabrics.  The neutral fabrics were provided and you could add other neutrals as well as the 1"colored fabric mini border.  

Quilt as desired.

It was a small exhibit, 2 handfuls of quilts or so; all different and unique. 

It certainly was a challenge to use only the neutral fabrics. My border was a little darker than I would have liked, and the opposite side of the fabric was used at that.  

It was what was on hand and I didn't want to purchase anything extra for this piece.

The five flowers on this quilt represent 5 lives lost between the time I received my challenge kit in December, to when I was able to work on the piece in March.

I'll admit-this was a design on the fly, but it was fun to work on a piece of my own.

It's quiet and peaceful and it looks nice where it's hanging in my sewing room.

Celebrating

Jack, Christopher, MaryJane, Georgia and Maizey