By the Sea By the Sea.....

Do you remember in the last post one of the critters that was wearing a swim suit?  Well - she decided to become a quilt. 

I loved the design that my friend Betty made - it made me smile.  But when I started to make this little gal in fabric I had a terrible time!  I almost threw it away.  But when that happens, I try to keep plugging and figure out what is NOT working, and fix the problem.  I actually like the completed project.

She is standing in a lake and you can tell she got a little too much sunshine on her pink body.  She must have used more sunscreen on her face.  The blue sparkly fabric on the waves adds a lot of sparkle to the finished quilt. 

This quilt is what I call one of my "cleanse my palate" quilts.  I needed to just switch gears and do something completely different - and this really helped.  I am curious to see what I do next.

Creating with Friends

One of my favorite days each month is getting together with my Renegade friends.  We have been meeting each month for 14 or 15 years.  All of us are Art Quilters and we bring our latest projects to share and to get advice on when we run into challenges.  And we are Friends.  This meeting adds Joy to my life.

So this month I brought a project for us to try together.  I found the idea online and had such fun myself that I knew my buddies would make lovely little critters. 

Again it is very simple and uses just cardstock and scrap paper and glue.  Here are the designs that the Renegades made.....

3D Picasso Critters

I get the most wonderful and FUN ideas from the Carla Sonheim website.  Every summer she has kids classes for free - and since I am a Kid At Heart I always take part and have a good time doing things that I never would have imagined by myself.  

One of the projects this summer was to use cardstock and staples and markers and make 3D critters.  The one above is a big dog.  The others are a smaller dog and a chicken.

I had SOOO much fun making these crazy guys and figuring out how to decorate them with color and shapes was actually a really good exercise in thinking creatively.  Life can be such fun if you just let loose and trust your instincts.

 

Summer is Here

So here is Summer - the latest addition to the series.  I should probably think of a name for the series.... hmmmm.

Anyway - the inspiration for this one was the fabric that is the "body".  It is a beautiful scrap that my good friend Betty gifted me from the leftovers from her quilt.  It seemed perfect for this vibrant quilt.

I did run into lots of problems with the hair or flames or heat that is rising from Summer's head.  My original plan was to use the black with shapes fabric that makes up the interior of the flames right now - but of course it didn't look right because all you could see were free-floating blobs of color.  But once I changed to the other fabric those pieces fit right in like I planned it that way.








I also originally planned to have bright yellow lightening bolts shooting up from her head.  But that just looked stupid and confusing.  So I changed the plan and used variegated thread and then added beads.  Also some great beads on the eyelids.