Pixeladies

Anyone ever heard of the Pixeladies? NO- NOT PIXIE ladies as I misinterpreted the name originally! PIXEL ladies! They are a pair of SAQA members from California who work together and who are VERY clever women. They are Kris Sazaki and Deb Cashatt and they offer a rather splendid online course on using Photoshop Elements for fibre artists. I have just finished part one of their two part programme and am anxiously awaiting part two.

If you are a fibre artist or if you are just interested in art and photography, check them out. In part one of the course, we learned soo much! We are using PSE 13, BTW! My old version was PSE 10 and there IS a bit of a learning curve . Here are a few examples of what we have been doing.

This scary chick is a "selfie" I took as we each had to post a photo of ourselves so we knew who was who. (My goodness, this woman looks severe!)

We learned to make a watermark.

In fact we learned a few ways to do watermarks!

We learned how to plan quilting lines on a photo. This is just the lines. The picture was an daylily.

Like this!

We learned to abstract a photo in order to make a quilt pattern. This was FUNNN!

We learned how to "cut up fabric" to make a nine patch for a virtual quilt.

We learned to intensify the colours in a photo so it would print better on fabric.

This is a small representation of what we learned in the first part of the course. Look up the Pixeladies at www.pixeladies.com if you are interested .When the time is right , I will post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com. Too busy to quilt much right now. I am also in the middle of my Digital Photography class . LOVING it all!

I am going to post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com even though this is not needlework. I hope some day some of it may BECOME needlework. Keep an eye on this space!

Busy schedule but almost quilted

I have truly been on the hot tear and continue to be. I am having a BLAST but have wrecked my poor old back and am REALLY tired. I am in week 2 of the PSE online class with Deb Cashatt and Kris Sazaki, the Pixeladies. It is a great programme but very time consuming- four lessons per week for three weeks WITH homework and a live Webinar! One week off then Part 2 for three more weeks. On top of that, I am in Week 3 of part 2 of my digital Photography course. Tonight is CLOSEUP and MACRO. Can you guess who's excited???

Progress HAS been made though on the Clockworks . I am almost done the quilting. Just a bit more then Lily Gilding and squaring before I can finish the edges and do the sleeve, photograph, and label. Here is a peek or two at what I have so far.

Hah!I saw those two little green marks and here they are again. They are on the photo, NOT the quilt!

Here are a few closeups for those of you who are detail peoples!

What can I say? LOTS of dense quilting as always.

I like the quilting here but the colour is off so it is not as clear.

I DO like these gears too.

And a bit broader view of the part I really like.

I am trying to decide if I want to do denser quilting in the lower left part. It is very open at the moment like the quilting on the gold part in the last picture. I kind of think I DO want to intensify it but maybe not today as I still have the rest of the black to finish.

Anyway, here it is as it stands now. I SHALL be done before the end of the week. Then, maybe I can get some more pictures taken. I bought myself three ting little orchids to photograph at close range. Can't wait to start.

I am finally posting to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com. Haven't posted for a while. Hi everyone :-)

Update!

I THINK I am ready to layer. Here is the "final" revision-----I THINK!

I am tired now. This has been a LOT of work! It surely is FUN work though. Now, I have to concentrate on finishing it nicely and on all of my courses. I like being bush but I am BUSY right now!! Looks like a great, VERY useful few weeks.

I hope you are all being productive and that you are all well. So far, so good here!!! Fingers crossed.

Devilish details

A VERY Happy New Year to all of you nice readers of this little blog. DH and I have been well but our a lot of our family has been very ill with 'flu- REAL 'flu, not just colds! I hope you have all fared much better? Little Oliver has had an ear infection and Type A influenza. He is MUCH recovered and walking by himself now- EVERYWHERE! That is such a joy to watch. His Mum and Dad have both been very ill. My SIL still has 'flu but seems to be recovering. Apart from all of the illness, we have had a Happy Christmas and a great start to the New Year.

The Clockworks piece grows apace. I am not sure why I tackle stuff like this. Must have masochistic leanings! So far, so good but I am to the stage now where I have a LOT of Devilish Detail to add and it is a slow process. It really IS fun to do but exhausting too. Here it is as it currently stands.

Still needing a LOT of little detail and some revisions here and there.

As well as working on this quilt top, I have been making friends with my new camera. I made a small resolution to try to take one good photo per day ( lots more if I have time but I do NOT have time every day) to keep a 2015-365 file to see if I have improved by 01 Jan 2016!

I bought myself a bunch of hot pink Gerberas ( red and hot pink are REALLY tough to photograph!) and have been playing with them :-)

and this is an artificial magnolia branch, also fun to play with .

I need to get busy on today's photo . I took the one of the quilt top today but that does not count! It has to be one I have to work at!! Part 2 of my Digital Photography course begins tomorrow PM( 8 weeks total) and I start the online Photoshop Elements for Fibre Arts with Kris Sazaki and Deb Cashatt, also SAQA members (Professional). It runs in two three week sessions all online but the info remains accessible for six months. Prepare to be amazed!!! ( She said hopefully !)

Because it is Tuesday, I will post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com and look forward to touching base with you in this brand new year. Happy New Year again and Happy Creating! Stay well.