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.

Watching the Series Grow

 

Here is this series so far - the original sketch, Mother Earth and Spring.  I think the series itself deserves a name.... hmmmmm..... not sure yet.  But I do know that Summer is next!

Spring

So where do you go when the first quilt of a series is Mother Earth?  Hmmmmm.  I started looking at my stacks of fabric for inspiration.  And I found the perfect piece.  I could see the design almost immediately.

Here is what the fabric looked like before I started to chop it into little pieces.

Of course what I really mean when I say "chopped" is that I did what quilters call Fussy Cutting.  That means taking scissors and carefully cutting around a design.  Using teeny tiny scissors with serrated edges for some of the small areas.  I added fusible webbing to the back of the fabric before I started cutting.

Here is how the design that I used for Mother Earth looked when it turned into Spring....

 

I originally planned to have some of the green foliage stick out from a regular green fabric that would be exactly like the design on top of Mother Earth's head - but it did not work out that way.  For this particular design it needed to be different.  That makes me curious to see what direction the next quilt in this series will go.

Here are some details to show the beads on the flowers and the ferns and the fancy-schmancy  (my made up word) stitching that I used to secure the edges of the fabric. More on that particular subject in just a moment....

Securing the edges.  Ha!  I learned a very (!!) important lesson with this quilt.  Do you remember the picture of the fabric that inspired this design?  Well it is beautiful fabric but it is NOT quilting fabric.  Nope.  It is upholstery fabric.  Which I learned (after all that fussy cutting and fusing and putting the fabric down on the background) is very very very hard to sew into without shredding the fibers so that they stick out all ! over ! the place !!

YIKES.  I was actually flamboozled for a while trying to figure out what to do.  But then I just revved up my Bernina and chose some fancy-schmancy decorative stitches that would secure the edges.  Whew!  And I also used beads and tiny stitches by hand to secure other areas.  Lesson learned.  No more upholstery fabric no matter how pretty the design is.

 

Mother Earth

So here is the first quilt in this series.  Actually until I finished this one I didn't know that it was going to be a series - but I kept having thoughts about different colors and things growing from her head and I just couldn't stop myself.

But back to Mother Earth.  You will notice a couple of changes from the original little sketch that inspired this quilt.  First of all she has two eyes - not just one.  I really struggled with this.  But she looked like she needed two eyes so - boom - there they are.  I am glad that I added the second one.

And she has lips - which were needed to complete her personality.  And of course those are branches growing out of her head. 

Another bit to notice is that there is no neck on this creature.  I feel like she isn't so much a "person" as a creature or energy field erupting from a rocky crag of the planet.  I have no idea if anyone else will think that - but that is OK.

Once I finished the fabric portions of the basic design, I could tell that she (do you notice how this is a "she"???) really needed some sparkle.  So beads were added.  Here are some close ups....

A New Adventure - A New Series!

Here in Arkansas it has been HOT HOT HOT!!!  It seems even hotter than a normal summer.  Or maybe just hotter earlier.  (Or maybe I am feeling my age!  Heavens, that cannot be the problem!)

Anyway..... while hot summer weather and gardens require a lot of energy and time, I also find it a perfect time to quilt.  I call it Guilt-Free-Quilting because a sensible person should NOT be outside in this heat.  They should be inside where it is cool.

So I started a new series.  I love to work on a series of quilts with either a theme or an idea or a specific design to create structure to a group of quilts.  Probably part of my natural instinct to organize the world.

Inspiration for this particular series came from a little scribble drawing I made one day.  This is what it looks like.  For some reason it really speaks to me.  It is only about 3 inches square.

It is sort of peculiar because it has only one eye..... I am not certain whether this will stay the same or change when it becomes a quilt.  We'll see.....

Meeting with Crazy Quilters

I just returned from a lovely meeting with quilters in Mountain View.  Such a nice group of ladies!  They asked me to present a program about "Where Do Ideas Come From".  I had a lot of fun thinking about the way to talk about that topic - and trying to decide what to bring to demonstrate my feelings about Ideas and Creativity.

One of the things that I realized as I prepared for this talk was that my approach to Life Everday is very different than my approach to Art.  In Life I am cautious and often too focused on being prepared for possible challenges and problems.  OK.... I am a bit of a scaredy-cat.  I don't leap with Joy at the unknown.

But in Art ---- the other side of my personality LEAPS into challenges - in fact I hunt for them and create them.  In Art they are fun and wonderful and exciting.  I have no fear anymore.  The phrase that guides me is "What If...?".  It sends me charging in new directions to experiment with new ideas.

It doesn't mean that I am always successful, but that is OK with me.  I learn more from my mistakes than I do from the easy things that work every time.

Ah LIFE!  So interesting to travel along and see what wondrous new things are offered.