Technology

I LOVE my new iPad . It is a second gen one, not the third, but it is GREAT and it has 3G so I am in a waiting room . Posting online. How cool os THAT?

I have been away for a few days visiting our daughter.Had a lovely visit but we are really tired now so not much exciting stuff happening artistically just for a couple of days. Back at it soon!

Dance Inchies

At our house,Highland Dancing was front and centre for many years. Velvet, tartan and lace was the order of the day....and, NO, this is NOT our tartan!

For me , it was tutus and roses and sequins. Divine!!

So many little girls dream of becoming ballerinas.

Life IS a dance! Let yourself go.

Hours of practice. Sore, bleeding toes. GREAT satisfaction

Express yourself with abandon!

Life is a sort of dance. Express yourself well in your dance. Enjoy it all and, as the saying goes, " dance like there is no one watching"! Good advice.

Done and dusted at last

I am calling this the Wall of Wierd- because all of the little pieces here have odd, interesting , mostly industrial fabrics in them . NOT very Trad!

I finally finished the little Alien Critter and really enjoyed doing it. It is bound and backed by a glorious fabric by Caryl Bryer Fallert from her Ombre Stripe collection- delicious! I put some commercially dyed "batik" on the back. Funny little piece- about 18" x20".Here he is  in a starring role...

Pity the colours are not TOO accurate. However, you get the idea.

                                                                              Next?........

Agreement on Blog Security issues

Having read Morning AJ's comment this morning, I feel I should voice my opinion in agreement with hers and with the opinions of many other Blogspot Bloggers. ENOUGH, already! Enough with the "prove you are not a robot" nonsense. We DO all know where the Delete button is and how many of us have found nasty comments or spam all over our blogs anyway? I am sorely tempted to refrain from commenting on those sites that persist in using this silly system. It is insulting and unnecessary. Please feel free to comment on MY blog , unencumbered by robots or by proving you are NOT one. If you are cheeky though, be prepared to be zapped into oblivion.

The Zentangle beast

I have been quilting the background of this little piece - having a ball! I did a little bit of bobbin work on the curlicues at the end of the spikes. It is ok, but I need to speak to my Guru to get the tensions adjusted properly. The quilting is ALMOST finished and I still like this piece. It is abnormal for me, but maybe I am growing ? I am less fearful now of trying wild and crazy things than I used to be. This one just grew out of my head :-)( shows the state of my head, doesn't it!!)

Just showing the background quilting

Detail

Bobbin work on the curlicues

Too bad it is cropped so much. I will get a better one next time but this is as far as I have gotten to date. I HOPE to finish the quilting tonight.

Garden Inchies

....and pretty maids, all in a row.

...a host of golden daffodils

...mille fiore

..pansies are for thoughts

Tulip

...inch by inch, row by row...

...cherry blossom

Imaginary bloom

... yet another thought

If there is one thing that competes with my love of quilting and drawing, it is my love of gardening. I was out there today, "liberating" my hellebores. They are all in bloom but mired under a tangled mess of last year's leaves and the detritus of winter. I am WHACKED now, but the hellebores no longer blush unseen. They ARE lovely and so much is starting to come up in our garden now after a week of very mild weather. As a parting shot on the subject of gardens, here is a garden of Garden Inchies. Enjoy!!Go out and see what is growing in YOUR part of the world.

Alien Entity!!

Alien Entity!

Look what this has morphed into over night!I have been adding these little spiky tentacles to some of my Zentangles and as this piece started out as a Zentangle... I like it!It may not have general appeal. The public at large may be a little freaked out, but I LIKE it! I was very glad that this piece of doll stocking striped fabric was big enough to do what I wanted. I am continuing with the quilting and thread painting and we shall see what befalls tonight :-)

Spikes on a serpent shape

Thinking of the Tomato Hornworm!

Little sea creatures

                                      You get the picture! My imagination is having a play day:-)

Later the same day. Started some quilting a la Zentangle.

Neat back side, eh!This is for Penny who loves backs- if she sees it!

...and another part of the back- just for fun. I like backs too.

Zentangle piece

Silk for the reemay. Wish I had intensified the blue.

The reemay just sitting on top of the silk. Love the colours so far.

Well, I have painted a piece of silk for the background and fused the reemay to it . So far, so good. Now, I am sitting, staring at this trying to decide where I want to go from here??? Do I want to cut the centre out and fuse it to a backing or do I want to keep this whole thing intact and border it with something? I have it sitting on a piece of batting and am tempted to quilt it soon . Maybe that would help me decide. What to do? What to do??

The two parts fused together. This is pretty light weight Habotai silk( 12mm). Maybe Dupioni or a heavier Habotai would have been more stable. I just got a piece of 16mm today . It has nice heft so prehaps it would not have wrinkled like this has . Not a major problem, but it bugs me a little. However, once it is stitched and quilted I am sure it will be fine.I used Trans Web on the back of the reemay. Not sure I love that product!

             I have posted this on The Needle and Thread Network.Click on the link on the sidebar.

Redo

I decided, after much anguish, that I did NOT like the way I had finished the Urchin, so, one last time, here he is FINISHED!! No more tweaks. I am done!  Fini!

Remounted and FINI

I also added some little metal beads to the bare, empty spots to suggest sand grains. These are gorgeous little beads, faceted pewtery coloured and very sparkly in a delicate sort of way, given to me by a very kind friend!

Little metal faceted beads added to the bare spots and out onto the binding

Bottom left hand corner

I am a MUCH happier camper :-)

Step Inchies

"One small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind!" Remember that? Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon for the very first time and we all watched- MILLIONS of us. Then, eons ago, a single humanoid ancestor strolled along a muddy stream bank and left an imprint there for all time when the mud dried and the print became fossilized. He left us a tiny peek into his barefoot world. We walk alone. We walk with friends. We are constantly climbing the steps of the ladder to success- or trying to. Take care where you step because your steps may be indelible and not all marked trails lead to happy endings.

One small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.

Fossilized footprint of an early human ancestor

In our life, we really always walk alone

How lovely to walk with a little friend though!

On our climb up the ladder of success, be careful where and how you step. We will ALL be watching.

                                                      *PLEASE WATCH YOUR STEP*

Zentangle piece

I am having a ball with Zentangles and have cut this piece of painted reemay that makes me think of some of the Tangles I have been making lately. This is NOT the background but I needed something to show up the cut out reemay piece. This is moving right along but I need to make a background for it. That will take some time .I also hope to make the crossing Tangle lines go over and under each other . I am thinking I could use a marker to do some interesting shading. We shall see. Drop in from time to time and see how it goes.

I am still debating about removing the background of the Sea Urchin. I am not totally pleased with it. Maybe I will just finish the Urchin himself. Once again, stay tuned - and prepare to be amazed..... or not ?

A new experiment

My original drawing coloured with pencil crayons

I am at it again ! Still playing with reemay. This time, I have actually followed the directions given by Betty Busby. I painted the reemay, ironed it to shrink it slightly then fused Trans Web onto the back side of it. That part is now set aside while I transfer my drawing onto the back of the reemay using my light table. Once that is done, the reemay will be pinned back onto the little wooden frame for burning. I plan to burn it so that the lines end up a  bit wider than they are in the coloured drawing. I want the intricacy of the drawn shape but more reemay to show off the colour transitions. Wish me luck. I am also trying to shake out of the conservative use of colour that seems to be me at the moment! I have said before that I am a colour junkie, but lately, you would never know it. Maybe I am in my pastel period!!

Black and white , enlarged photocopy of my drawing

The painted reemay

Wish me luck.

All done at last

The colour on this is a little bit off because it is taken indoors in the evening. If I can get truer colour tomorrow, I will change the photo. I guess I like it alright. I wish I had had a different fabric for the background but this is another piece of the same fabric as the backing for the Reemay , even though it looks different here. It is nice and chalky looking, very fossil-like which I like but maybe did not QUITE do what I was wanting it to do. On the whole though, I am happy.

Nearing finished

The beading is all done now

A few closer looks at the detail

Still raggedy edges but now it wants to be bound and mounted nicely

I THINK I am going to put the whole thing on another piece of fabric with batting. It has been a proper WIP as I have kind of had to make it up as I go. I DO know what I want and where I want to go, but I am still altering as I go along. Maybe it will be done by tomorrow ?

I am linked to the Needle and Thread Network with this one.