Paris Cafe Art Quilt... Done and a Rocket Quilt Started

 Well, I did add a few more final touches after these photos were taken, but it's done!  It's 40 x 50 inches with a white border.  This was made especially for my machine quilter, Annie who has done a wonderful job on all the art quilts I've made so far (except for the small ones which I did).  I hope she likes it...

 To the left is the latest art quilt.  Last year around this time, I made a mermaid quilt for our daughter (drawn and painted on Kona cotton, then sandwiched and quilted).  She loved it and my son wanted a 'rocket/blast off' quilt.  I had a mind block about it for a LONG time, since... well... I'm more in tune with mermaids than rockets.  Finally I asked him to draw me all his fave rocket ships and BOOM!  I had the basis for the quilt.  It will fit a full/queen bed nicely.  I'm so eager to get it all painted... but will take a lot of drying time before I can do all the sections.  (our dining room table is only so big :)

Will report back on rocket progress in the coming weeks. 

Now if I could just get that Light Project zine started... have not found time but hope to before school is out.  Happy weekend :)

Today, at the Cafe de Flore

Here is a little glimpse at the new art quilt I'm working on... it's actually a commission. I'm willingly and happily doing an 'art for art' trade. This quilt is for the lady who does machine quilting for me... in exchange for her services, she wanted an art quilt instead of cold, hard cash. Not a problem! I'm having so much fun with this one... she love Paris cafes and asked for something along those lines. I'll share more as the painting progresses.

Happy 'almost' Friday. Tomorrow there will be a few '100 faces' sketches to share. See you then!

Halloween and Fabric Painting

Our Halloween was grand... and here are a few masterpieces that father and son carved while the girls were out. Nice job, don't you think?!

I painted fabric for a shower curtain and 'sink skirt' for my bathroom. It's quite a small room and in need of a change. The design is loosely based on a 1950's textile from the Victoria and Albert Museum. I'm happy with the way it turned out! Now if only I could give the room a fresh coat of paint in a nice, warm toast color.

Just to let y'all know, my daughter spilled something on my laptop keyboard and now it is kaput. Hopefully, I can get it repaired but until then, I can only blog and post comments when I'm borrowing a friend's computer! ARG! Maybe I could saran wrap the keyboard... if it's even salvageable. I'm trying not to brood about it. Happy hump day.

Dinner and a Quilt

And now... dinner's ready! Check out a nice, new dish I made... Stuffed, baked eggplant! It was yummy but time intensive - has 3 layers inside each eggplant shell. The recipe is from an older cookbook, the Vegetarian Epicure.

Here's the 'Bedtime Rituals' paintings sewn into a quilt - which was a family effort. Tried to choose starry, night time style fabrics. (including Eric Carle's 'Very Lonely Firefly' fabric :) Now, to finish the hand painted border with the lyrics to 'Blue Moon' on it and have it machine quilted. Then, we'll all have to fight for it to decide who's bed it graces first!

Raspberry Tarts

Here is the latest art quilt top... almost done painting it. I knew a very interesting Swedish lady when I was little who had us over to her family's house. She literally prepared a smorgasbord for us and made raspberry tarts in charming little silver tins for dessert. I was so impressed with the fluted, shiny tins and whatever it was she was filling them with (was around 6 or 7). This drawing was inspired by her - and the desire to do a 'kitchen ritual' series.

Have a great weekend!

Summer Banners

Baby girl's banner...

Big brother's banner...

Special summer breakfast. (usually it's just Cheerios!)

I finally finished the first art quilt/fabric painted thing from all the 'Turtlemoon' exploration I've been doing since late spring -meaning the banners above. I used bias hem tape for the 'string' and it sure was easy just to open the package... no cutting out! Getting ready to start another big piece, I just have to decide on the subject matter. Better get back to the old sketchbook (drawing board sounds better!)

Summer Chamomile

Latest art quilt underway... it's summer, so of course I had to do a beach scene. Here it is drying in the hot sun.

The old water table is new all over again. I can't believe the hours of fun both of the kids have had with this thing. Our son dumped sand in it because he wanted to create the 'bottom of the ocean'. I thought the notion was pretty cool... not to mention my 3 1/2 yr old daughter asking every day, "Mama, where is heaven?" Makes for great conversation.

Here's the Granny's Flower Garden quilt I've been working on since late spring. I've had to back off a bit from it since looking down for such long periods actually gave me a stiff neck. Who knew hand sewing was a hazard to the old bod.

German chamomile that was grown from seed. I'm very proud of these little flowers since it's the ONLY thing planted from seed that ever grew from my amateur gardening hands.

And all the while some good old fashioned jazz playing in the background. It's quickly becoming the soundtrack of summer 2010 for us at 'Midnight Pines'. (all the kids in the family chose that name for our dwelling since it houses a bunch of night owls... not to mention all the Ponderosa pines in the yard.) Happy weekend :

Bedtime and The Little Cottage Garden

A new drawing series on fabric... based on bedtime rituals. (this was my son's idea and a very good one at that!) I'll show more as they progress. They are on fat quarter size fabric.

Here are a few more drawings and painting on fabric. (a la Turtlemoon) I decided to do a fat quarter size because the larger piece is fun but a little daunting for a first - timer in this medium. (although I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the fat quarter size... ?make a quilt based on a theme? ) This really is such a fun way to work. The drawings are not meant to be perfect and definitely not 'precious' or careful. The text is in a 'free write' style... not planned or copied from any preparations but spontaneous. The work is engrossing, exhilarating and in a way, exhausting!

I'll be adding another layer of color to the 'dirt' and a few other areas. There's a learning curve with this paint (jacquard color paint) - hoping it's possible to glaze!