Embroidery

I have been doing a little embroidery.  Hand embroidery.  At the moment, I seem to be obsessed with samplers!

One day when I couldn't get moving, I threaded all the embroidery threads in my box and added them to a piece of felt.  It really helps keep you going!
I am doing one with Sue Spargo on Craftsy, which I have showed before.  I am also doing two with rebecca ringquist on creativebug.  I am only just

starting on these.  The stitch combination up the top, I enjoyed, however the red and blue stitches are supposed to be tete de boef or the head of the bull.  Rebecca taught it differently to how I know it.  She used three sepearate stitches, on the right.   I was taught to do it as a fly stitch with a chain tail, at top left.  I also tried reversing the fly stitch and adding the chain below that.  The variations are interesting, and who's to say which is right.  Stitch names are not really that important to me so long as I don't get confused.
The third sampler, is a set of samplers from Christen Brown's book Embroidered and Embellished.  At present I am working on the first one with simple stitches.

I am also doing some crochet for charity for our local CWA (country Women's Association)  branch of which I am secretary.  We have decided that we will start the year with a drive to make hats scarves and blankets for the homeless as winter will be along soon.  This is something I have been wanting to do for so long.

I have been doing a little journaling.  This is this week's page for daily journaling.
Also The Tangled Textiles Group I belonged to has come to an end at challenge 15.  On the page, there is a grid for each of the challengers showing their work.
I thought I might show my grid here for you.

So, a quiet week for me.

Happy Creating!

Back to work!

I have just posted my Tangles textiles challenge piece here.   Only half the group have posted so far, but some great work there.  Make sure you have a look in the next day or two here.
In the next few days, I intend to blog my whole process for this piece in one post.
I have been doing a fair bit of stitching and have three new stitch squares for Art Every Day Month.

And here are squares 1 to 25 up on my design wall!

Now, originally, I began this as a challenge for November at Creative every day.

But yesterday, there was a guest post by Anne Lange on Julie Balzer's blog, about stitching 4 inch squares and using stencils as a basis for stitching.  This post really inspired me and I am dying to read the second half of the post.  I want now to continue my challenge for December and incorporate the stencils!  Have a look at Anne's site.  It is wonderful!

Today is Tuesday.  Normally on Tuesday,I spend most of my time at quilt group and don't get much done, but today we are having a day off as most of us have appointments and errands.

So, I am at home, very unusual.  I can now easily join the  T for tuesday gang!

I thought today, we might have our cup of tea as part of breakfast in bed (in the doll's house, that is!)

Also, I have done a bit more work on the owl painting I started a couple of weeks ago, here.

 I am doing this as a project for a craftsy class, painting wildlife in mixed media with tutor  Sharlena Wood.  I am really enjoying this process.  You can find the source image, which is cc licensed by photographer Matt Knoth, here.  Obviously, this is just for my own purposes and will not be for sale.

This class has given me a renewed interest in pastels, which I used to paint with quite often.

Quite a long post, but Happy Creating!

Foursquare

Here are another four of my stitched squared for AEDM.

I am beginning to get quite a collection of these and they are looking great together.

As usual, I am working hard at my Tangled Textiles piece at the last moment!  This piece, is turning out to have a lot of beading, which is what I have been busy with in the last few days.  The link above is to my last update, but I will be posting my final finish on Tuesday morning Australian time.

Happy Creating!

Day 13 of AEDM

Amazing that I have actually made it to day 13!
Here are my last two stitched squares for the challenge.

I think I will still add something to the paisleys in the left one.  They are really starting to mount up on my design wall.
I have got a bit behind with other things, because I have been working on my Tangled Textiles challenge, which was due on the 16th, but I think will now be due on the 24th.  Luckily so, because I am teaching a workshop on Saturday and have to have lots of bits and pieces ready for our christmas stall on sunday. (And of course as usual, I haven't done anything much!)
I have posted about my progress here.  But here is a little peek

Happy Creating!

Orange and purple makes...

I missed a post yesterday. Ooops.  But I still got my stitched squares done for Art Every Day Month.

I was away from home most of the day getting tests done.  Nothing wrong, just routine, but it was a long day away from the studio!
I am working on a daily drawing, but it is one of those complicated ones and is only at the sketch stage.
Here are my warm ups.

And of course the reason for the post title!
A friend asked about the warm ups and I thought I would just copy my reply in here for your information.

• For the warm ups, I am using a black book and a white book.  They are old, and something I would never have used probably. They are both about A5 or half of a letter sheet.  When I started, I began by creating a collage in the black book with scraps and/or prompts from "Painted pages"  I now use prompts of my own collected from everywhere, things like use a circle or add some red etc.  Then I experimented with paint and prompts in the white book.
• I spent 5 minutes or less on each page, using 1-5 prompts (when needed) and use a timer so I don't go overboard.
• I sometimes don't feel particularly creative when I sit down to work, but I know that if I just start, the creativity will come.  The just starting can be a problem and that is what these warm ups are for.  They help me create a routine of just getting on with it.  Because they are so short and use scraps, I can't argue about wasting time or resources and in the long run they make me more productive, because as I am doing them, ideas tend to start.  Sometimes two colours will inspire me, or a shape will give me an idea, but usually, at the end of my 5 minutes, I am rearing to get on with something!
•  Painted Paes is a book. here is the google books link.  However there are lots of art and mixed media books with prompts in them.
• Here is the link to the post about my prompt cards (it is one of a number of old posts where I was using facebook to insert my pictures.  I have since found that eventually, facebook alters the URLs or archives them, so the pictures are lost)
• I now have two sets of prompts. one is specifically art and one is textiles, but there is a fair amount of overlap.

And here is my journal page for today.

This is actually the next spread in my actual written journal - before I have written into it.  In my art journal I am working on a spread for Art Journal journey which I hope to finish tomorrow.

I also got some work done on my Tangled textiles Challenge piece, which I have blogged about here.

Happy creating!

another one of those days

Today has been one of those days!
Have you ever sat at your desk and felt devoid of creativity?
I did today.
and every time you started something, something went wrong?
Very frustrating!
At least I got some basics done.
My daily drawing

Just a thistle.  these are flowering along the creek path I walk each day and even though they are weeds, I do like them, being purple.
My stitched square for the Art Every Day Challenge

This one even has a bit of machine scribble.
I also did a tiny bit of work on my tangled textiles challenge which I blogged about here.

Happy creating!

A feather from a crow

Continuing on with trying to keep with a routine....
Most of my morning is taken up with tidying up, journaling and email, but once it becomes a habit, I am hoping it will be quicker??
Here is my unfinished Daily drawing

Sometimes I choose a very detailed drawing, and in these cases, I allow myself to complete it over a few days.  This is a very intricate shell, which I have only just started.

My warm ups for today, both collages and not much paint today, which is unusual, and even more unusual, my journal page for today

A landscape collage from magazine pages.  It took quite a while to make, so I have just left it simple like this, but I expect I will work back into it with pastels and paint at a later date.

 And here is some stitching.  This is a feather using free motion on water soluble stabilizer.  It will probably go into my challenge piece for Tangled Textiles, which is due on 16th November, so you will probably see a bit of this work in the next few weeks.

Happy Creating!

Oops, again

I have been absent again!  This time it was because a family member died.  She had had cancer for a year and we knew she was sinking, but it was hard to say goodbye to someone who still had a lot of life to live.
I have not got much done in the past week as a result.
Here is my latest daily drawing.  A tiny honeyeater that is about the size of a wren, which Tony and I saw yesterday on a daily  walk.

I have also been working in my art journal, but have been posting those to instagram here.

Hopefully I will have some textile work soon.  I have one piece in progress and also my Tangled Textiles challenge piece to get into.

Happy Creating!

A bit of bracken

Today's daily drawing effort has actually taken me a few days and is not finished yet.  Apparently, it is allowed to work on a sketch for more than a day as many of the others in the pool have.

It is a sketch of a frond of bracken, which does not seem to be as common now as it was before the fires in 2009.  Not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.
I have been doing a little journaling as well, but they are over on instagram.
I have also started on my Tangled textiles challenge here.


Happy Creating!

Two finishes

As I said yesterday, I finished my Tangled Textiles piece.  I am adding the same post here, but do go over and look at some of the work the others have done, it's great!
But before that, I will show you my (very late) block for february for CQJP2014

As you all know, my piece for Tangled Textiles was about Vincent van Gogh.
It all started with some sunflower prints...

What else comes to mind when you think of sunflowers and art.
A little bit of needlefelting

Some thread sketching

Some quilting

I thought the spiral went well with Vincent.  More quilting

And a whole lot more quilting

And I finally had something I liked.  No-one said anything about size, so I went a bit overboard (sorry)

You can see the step by steps-
here 
here
here 
here
and here
Hope you like it!

What's on the table

I had forgotten today was Sunday.  Well here in Australia it is,  not quite there elsewhere, I think.

So of course it is digital drawing day.  Terry has been hosting this over on her blog on Sundays (US time).  I haven't heard that she has stopped, but her post will not be up for a while yet, but drop on over later to see what she and Joan have been doing.  The theme was 'What's on the table?'  and for me, that was pretty easy.  What's on the table are the courses I am doing at the moment.

So I drew a sketch of my sketchbook.  I said  last time that I was relying too much on using the pastel tool, in Artrage, so this week, I did two things.  Firstly, I used Layers and secondly, I used some other tools,
I did the background with a palette knife tool.  That was fun.  then for the sketchbook, I used the watercolour brush tool.  when I wanted to blend, I used it without the instant dry feature and when I wanted a sharp line, or a dot,  I used the instant dry.  I think it will take me a while to get the hang of blending the layers,  but I am happy with my little drawing.

I did say yesterday, I would show you the quilting on my Tangled Textiles piece.  It is finished and I will be posting it tomorrow on the TT site, and here.   But I will just give you a little peek at some quilting.

I thought this spiral design would fit in well with the 'Vincent van Gogh' idea.
I love the way the chiffon blends in after being quilted.

Happy creating!

a little bit more

Still working on my Tangled Textiles challenge piece.  Today I did some thread sketching.

This is my thread sketch of the yellow house, where Vincent lived in Arles.  My intention had been to add colour, but I think I prefer it just as a sketch.
I also outlined the painted fusible title

It looks a bit better like this, I think.
I also did some work on the needlefelting and began the quilting,  but you can see that tomorrow (I hope!)
Here's a picture of how it is going

I  am liking how it is going and am going to enjoy having it on my wall.

Happy creating!