New ideas

As I have been going through photos stored on my external Hard Drives, I have come across some dandies! I found this stunning red Iris that I took at the Royal Botanical Gardens one evening several years ago. I played around with the original picture in Photoshop and came up with a few crops that have now gone into my For Quilting file! It is a VERY full file! I think it could be fabulous- maybe not too huge , say 24 inches - 30 inches square ? Could be very Georgia O'Keefe! Watch out when the Layered one is finished- or nearing finished :-)

The original photo judiciously cropped to get rid of extra background

"Closer to" as my Gran used to say

I like this one a  LOT!

Like I said, keep watching this space. I need to replenish my stores of hand dyes. Reds and purples and yellows would be nice!

Here is Layers so far. Those of you who are trained to observe ( :-) ) will see that some chunks have been removed and replaced and some have been added to. More to do!

Soldiering on!

I am having a nasty TMJ attack today! I am in a lot of pain and cannot open my mouth very well ( DH is probably happy!- not really. He is VERY sympathetic.)I THINK it may be because of the 85% Lindt Chocolate I eat daily as "medicine"- just 1-2 squares. It is VERY hard and my poor old jaw is protesting - loudly. Gotta be more careful.

I am working away on this big thing and realized that I have not posted a picture for a long time. It is getting heavy and complex now and I may be changing my mind about how to handle it. I WILL finish this layer as planned though. It ain't over till it's over- and it ain't over !

I am not likely in a good enough frame of mind to be doing this but I am determined to finish it asap. Remember, you heard it here first! Enough dawdling, here it is to date... I am about two thirds of the way across the piece from left to right You can see what has not been layered yet- the right hand side and the bottom edge. As I said earlier, soldiering on!

Accessory Inchies

Back from the edge of the abyss. I am here once again on Every Inchie Monday. Sorry for the sporadic participation. It would be a huge yawn for me to relate my reasons for my absence but all that aside, I DID make some Inchies today.

The word for this week was ACCESSORY. We all love them, don't we ladies :-)

Makes me think of my glamourous Mum . She has always done scarves SO well. Still does at the tender age of 92!

Believe it or not, I used to wear hats! I actually used to wear them rather well. The only ones I would be caught dead in now are my silly sun hat in summer and my multi layered fleece one in winter. NO PICTURES!

I still wear earrings though. 

... and I carry a purse- but I carry a REAL purse - filled with everything, camera, iPod, iPad etc etc etc. Now ask me about my sore neck!

I am posting these Inchies on everyinchiemonday2012.blogspot.com
Have a look at the rest of the Accessory Inchies there. Enjoy:-)

Layers craving green

The quilt so far, colour levels reduced in Photoshop to more truly reflect the colours

Here we are to date- as of 4:00PM on Sunday. As you can see, I have begun to add surface detail. LOTS to go and I am almost out of -A- Steam a Seam and , -B- energy!

In my humble opinion, this is doing what I want at this point. I started out with two real photos of real subjects-an open magnolia bloom and a pale blue iris. Those were layered several times in Photoshop and you have seen the resulting picture. Now, I am after an abstracted version of  the photo, HOPEFULLY resulting in a sort of Essence of Spring portrait. At the moment, the quilt top and my heart are crying out for more of the chartreuse green- that most essential of spring colours. It is there in the original but I am going to try to find some spots to emphasize it and to suggest little growing shoots amongst the flurry of flower petals.

I think I have had the biscuit though for today. If I do anything else, it should be the Inchies for this week- Accessory is the word for this week. After dinner, if I am still awake, I will try to make a couple. I have been VERY slack with my Inchies lately as I have been very busy on other things but I will try to get back on the Inchie waggon this week. Enjoy the remains of your weekend.

Not an easy task!

Well, I have bitten off a big mouthful this time. It looks very disorganized at the moment but I am working very slowly and will get it! It WILL be finished to my satisfaction.

I have all of the substrate in place. Sadly, the first few pieces were turned edge, sewn in place and they look wrinkly compared to the fused pieces but when ironed and not moved around, they DO lie flat . It is just frustrating when I am displacing it all the time . Not to worry!


Well, don't be shocked! Here is the quilt top so far. The colours are not exactly true. They are a bit chalkier in real life.

There! That's a bit better. I have just taken a new pic smoothed out and hung up so it makes a tad more sense to the casual viewer.

Here it is with the pattern pieces as I cut them apart for details

Do you find it making ANY sense at all? I do, but then, I am its Mummy!

You  see what I mean about the wrinkles. They DO go away when they are nicely ironed. L O N G way to go yet! Bear with me . OH, and wish me luck- LOTS of luck!

Photoshop Layers Quilted?

Here is where I am starting on my new project. I LOVE the colours in this photo. It is a Layers project I have been doing on Photoshop and it is a blend of two pictures, a blue iris and a pink saucer magnolia. The pattern is VERY complex and another time , I would layer the pattern too! Anyway, I have made a wee start. Trouble is, it is big and I keep running out of fabrics so I had to dye a bit more this afternoon. Here is the story so far ....

It looks a mess because it IS a mess at the moment. I am just beginning to build up the substrate and will work on the detail once this ground layer is all in place. You can see a few of the pattern pieces and you will appreciate how complicated this will be, but I am up for a challenge :-) The original photo, enlarged to 8"x 10" is lying on the top left of the quilt. I will keep you posted!

I am sorry to have been so scarce lately. I did not do Inchies this week. Just TOO BUSY! Sorry. I am working hard on the new computer , taking classes at Apple, teaching a quilting class  and generally living life in the fast-ish lane. Time seems to be flying somehow.

Had a great long visit with our daughter on Sunday. They had an earthquake on Saturday last at 12:08PM , magnitude 4.3. No damage but it rattled the house for a bit. I had NO idea Tennessee was such an active earthquake zone but it is the second most active in the USA! Those old Appalachians are not settled down  yet!

Well, on that cheery note, I believe it is time to shut down for the evening. I will post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com. There is always lots to see there!

Sorry! Told you I was learning a new computer, Mac instead of the old PC. NOW I see how to do the link for TNTN properly! Sorry Monika :-)

Heart Inchies

I am on time this week! Yay!!Well done me :-)

I have made some little Heart Inchies. I am NOT saying it has been easy but it has been enjoyable. STILL learning! My Darling Anthropologist daughter would say, " Mum ! Lower primates would learn faster!" Ah, well, c'est la vie.

Anyway, here they are in all of their colourful glory. Six Heart Inchies..................

With Glowing hearts...

And a tangled heart......

And , alas, a broken heart :-(

And who knows what THIS heart is??

And a troubled heart. It is beating irregularly!!

And lastly, the chain of hearts that is Family.

May Peace and Joy and Love be in YOUR hearts.

These are all done on watercolour paper with Pigma Micron pens and then painted with Caran d"Ache soluble Wax pastels used as watercolours. What a fun medium! What glorious colours . Enjoy.

I am posting this on everyinchiemonday2012.blogspot.com You will find lots more there too.

Still figuring it all out

I have been playing about with this new computer and all of its bells and whistles. As a result of that and the fact that I seem a tad obsessed about housework at the moment, I have done no work on my quilt. My mind is a little puddle somehow but I am making progress and am playing with iPhoto and Photoshop. That is a nice quiet diversion for my scrambled brain. Look what I came across!!

Remember spring and summer?

I LOVE hollyhocks! I used to make dollies from the blooms when I was little:-)

One of my pretty iris sibirica. Love these too!

I have been pulling a few pictures onto the new machine so I have something to play with in Photoshop. Found all sorts of nice things.

I HOPE to soon show some progress on the new quilt but I HAD to do some housework today. Those dust bunnies are HARES in this house- well, not so much now, but they were! Parts of the house are looking a tad tidier. Now, I think I will go out for a wee walk before dinner. Enjoy the flowers and remember the good times!

REMEMBER TO PUT THE CLOCKS BACK AN HOUR TONIGHT! Pray for us please. Our antique clocks require fancy footwork at this time of the year.

 This is the photo I am hoping to tackle next , as soon as I have gotten my computer up and running happily. So far, so good. It is lovely and I THINK I am in love! Not sure if this post will work as I am doing it on my iPad as the Mac updates its OS and iPhoto. Stay tuned!

This photo will definitely be a challenge but I LOVE the colours! It sings "SPRING" to me very gently! I plan on using all hand dyes with organza overlays and lots of interesting quilting. The pattern is drawn, enlarged and printed so it is all up to me now

Ok, let us try to post this. Fingers crossed!