Day 264. Sewing no where fast

I was able to sew both of these small ones on tonight

I added another layer of batting to the cell so it's raised up a bit-I like the effect

I don't think I'll be able to complete this by Thursday for the show...maybe I'll show it, in process

Day 263. Started working on finishing my HPV applique piece

1st - tea staining of purple lace for overlay

2nd - stretching 3 layers, fabric, batting & background fabric over stretcher bars

Final background stretched

3rd - pinned appliqued cells to background

Day 262. More Quilt Ideas

Day 261. New Quilt fabrics

So yesterday, Saturday, I spent ALL day looking for quilt fabrics for the new wedding-gift quilt I am going to make.  I spent so long searching, 3 thrift stores, 2-5 miles of walking and 1 fabric store that by the time I got home, I fell fast asleep on the couch, neglecting my blog... So here are the fabrics which I decided on yesterday.  The blue fabric is going to be the back piece and the green will be the binding.  The other softer hues will be the top piece although I like them so much in contrast with the blue that I was thinking I might incorporate it into the top piece as well.

Day 260. Edited some Architecture pics

Day 259.

259. Finished a pillow quilt, after months of forgetting it

Front, previously finished pine burr quilt top

Today I made this back piece, which is two pieces with a folded slit to slide the pillow insert in.

Here it is with a pillow insert, although I think I need to get a larger one to fill it out more

Day 258. Quilt Idea

I'm going to be starting a quilt for a wedding gift.  I was thinking of all these different quilt designs and I was having a hard time getting motivated to pick one when it occured to me that I must feel so unmotivated because who wants to recieve a standarized quilt from an artist?  The great thing about being creative is, well, being creative! I have some colors I want to work with, so I layed out my palette and starting moving them around on my canvas.  I like the idea of getting away from straight lines and I also know that sewing curves is difficult, but I invisioned a way of doing it in an easier way.  I like this image and idea in my mind, I'm so excited to get started now.  I feel lucky to be going out on Thursday for some fabric shopping!

Day 257. I love my ottoman, drawing

We got this new ottoman this weekend and it has a sweet pattern on it. I'm entranced so I started this drawing to commemorate it.  I know, it's kind of silly, but I guess it's the little things in life!

Day 256. More on Joy of Life

Day 254. Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life)

Lately I have been really hard on myself, obsessed with how much I weigh, how big my pant size is, and giving myself a terrible talking-to every time I want to eat anything bad for me.  The problem is that I feel so bad that I end up trying to stuff all this food down creating an emotional dyke.  Well I'm home visiting my parents and woke up this morning looking at a copy of Le bonheur de vivre (The Joy of Life) by Matisse and I had a revelation.  I'm really not so bad, if I had lived in Matisse's times, I would have been a down-right hottie.  I have been a victim of peer pressure, a media peer pressure.  So I decided to put myself right into The Joy of Life and to stop giving myself such a hard time, Jeez Louise, lay off!
This piece is still in process, but here's the start.

Day 253. Oops I forgot

Well, I had a really busy Friday day and completely forgot about my blog. Oops.

Day 252. Edited photos of the Charity Quilts

Today we gave the quilts to be distributed.  It was a good feeling to know that they will go to babes in need of warmth and our thoughts of speedy recoveries.  I spent some time tonight editing pictures I took of the quilts for those who made them.  Here you can see them too-aren't they terrific?

Day 251. Incomplete Octopus for Sara

Day 250. More for Sara

Day 249. For my friend Sara

Day 248.

Still life still in progress...

Day 247. Planted porch flowers

Went to the Hyde Park Garden Fair, in the misty rain, and found these beauties fit for my shady porch.  I had to plant them inside since it was SO cold and think I might just keep them in the kitchen for a few days until it warms up just a bit.  It's so cathartic digging in the dirt!

Day 246. Creator looks in on her precious baby

I've been working on this piece a long time.  There are now 3 finished variations.  But after the other two, I just wasn't comfortable, they didn't seem quite right and I finally realized it was because of the series that it fits in to (about mythology and creation;) the other piece in this series (so far) is specifically about the earth and while this one was all along as well, it wasn't as obvious.  I think now it has solidity.

Day 245. Blogger Maintanence-sorry for the Delay

Yesterday I spent a few hours working on this piece, then I tried to upload it to my blog but blogger was having maintanence.  So sorry for the delay.  I'm not very convinced on the pink color of the cake pedestal, I think it fights for attention with the hearts box.

Day 244.

Day 243. No photoshoping, just staring at the sun

Day 242.

Day 241. These ones will for sure burn white spots into your vision. I hope

Day 240. Fun with surrealist community drawings

Tonight some lovely artist friends came over for potluck dinner.  Then I managed to twist their arms into helping me make artwork for my blog. Hahahaha...(I say as I twist my handlebar moustache)
We made these three drawings and then after they left, I added some other digital bits.
Thanks to Sanjay ach to contributing a Creative Commons photo of rhino skin that I used in the first one.

Day 238. I finished! Finally

Day 237. I'm wearing my bad idea jeans

In high school I had this friend, Duffy.  He was notorious for his bad ideas.  He would climb into a dryer and tells us to turn it on, he made his own napalm, ect... The stories could go on and on, but the best bad idea I remember he had was when we built a huge bonfire in another friend's backyard consisting of a telephone poll we brought down and sawed through-it was a HUGE fire.  So this night, Duffy gets the idea that he is going to jump across the fire. Yah, of course.  It was toward the end of summer, beginning of fall, we had all been drinking and other stuff.  He was wearing these tattered old blue jeans (you know, the kinds that are all ripped up on the bottom.) So after he didn't clear the jump across, fell in and caught somewhat on fire, he got out, put himself out and said, "yup I was wearing my bad idea jeans."

It is with this spirit that I have launched into my newest project

I've always loved breaking the rules, so when my mom told me don't stare into the sun, you'll go blind I would secretly take sneak peaks just to see if I would go blind.  Then I got a camera and was told, don't aim at the sun, it could damage the camera.  So of course one of my favorite "shots" is aiming at the sun, it lends such a sentimental kind of nostalgia to any subject.

I am not only a rule breaker but a photoshop whore where I shamelessly throw on filters to my images, use blending effects and the like.  But lately I am fascinated with the lens flare render.  It is so easy to bring out that sentiment, sometimes it looks very fake, but you can ease it in and it actually looks natural.  But that is not what I am trying to do with this new project.

In these so obvious lens flare photos, I want to see if I can affect the viewer's eyes in that born to be bad way- could I make a viewer go blind?  Could I mesmerize the viewer with such obvious fakery? 

Day 236. Which faux lighting do you like better?

Which one mesmerizes you more? Or do they mesmerize you at all?

Day 235. more with the Still life

Day 234. Binding the Binding

it seems ad infitium... Will this binding ever stop?  It's only a baby blanket and yet the binding just keeps going and going and going...maybe that means that the baby who recieves the blanket will recover it's health and live and live and live for a VERY long time.  I hope so, that is my non-religiously afflitated prayer.


P.S. I am today 64% of the way completed with my 365 days.

Day 233.