Bits of color here and there...

I have been noticing Spring approaching in it's various ways.

Our garden tulips are starting to bloom...

My increased need for colors in my life...

Colors coming out in some paintings I have been doing lately...

I have stacks of fabrics to sew, quilt blocks to work on, canvases to get ready for a little corner of an art show a friend is sharing with me in May, and a ton of new ideas that seem to blossom in the Spring. Oh and a garden to plan... what to grow this year that the snails and bugs won't get to before I do?

Painting...

It is definitely taking me more than a day or two to figure out the direction my life/my art is taking but I have that on the back burner now while I do ahead and play some more...

This week I dabbled at some painting. Making some backgrounds, doing the Flora Bowley online Bloom True class, and playing with some canvases I had other things on and wanted to reuse and start over with.  

And then there is You Tube. I have been spending a lot of time watching videos lately: mixed media, art quilting, sewing, painting, you name it! I found one via Facebook from Mystic Tulip Arts and after watching it thought I would make my own version. HERE is her video. It is Betty Franks Krause' Love Grows Painting and Doodling on Canvas.

This is what I came up with. It still needs a lot more doodling to go with her style, but it is getting there. I love how bright the colors are. It is painted over a paper collaged canvas which is what you can see through the colors.

Stop and smell the flowers

I have been crazy busy the last few weeks and the other day it hit me: why am I doing this? I have a gazillion art projects and sewing projects and things to keep me occupied and there I was, sitting at my desk, not wanting to do ANYTHING. My body and brain were fighting back: I am retired -- I don't need to be doing something every moment of the day. I was so tired from running to this class and that class and doing part of one online course then rushing over to another one...

So I stopped for a day and let my thoughts rush in and boy was I in for a surprise! It turns out I really do not know what I want to be doing with this part of my life! I had so many options that I was overwhelmed.

Time to step back a bit, think about my word for the year:
OPEN. Yes I was open to everything -- was that a problem? Or could I learn to be open to ideas and let them flow through me? Did I have to DO everything I thought of, or could I just notice and let it go?  It was obvious to me I needed to work on this idea.

And my CDFs (core desired feelings from the Danielle LaPorte Desire Map book): had been taking a back seat to all my running around lately. Time to reflect on these:
Unencumbered: started on a major house cleaning then sort of stopped when I got so busy arting and sewing. Need to return to this one.
Aligned: well I have not done as much yoga as I thought I might be doing, what is stopping me?
Vibrant: well the art stuff is happening -- lots of color, but there is still something missing -- I am not as happy about creating my art as I thought I would be. I keep asking myself this question:  What is my art asking of me?
Connected: I am getting out and seeing friends, but there is more I need/want to work on for this one.
Mindful: at first I was thinking of this for eating and it has sort of been happening, but I want it happening in more areas of my life too.

I think I will be doing more sitting back and reflecting today...

What a fun week it has been!

And a busy one!

First I want to welcome new followers to the blog who found me though the Grow Your Blog Party from last week! It has been a pleasure reading your comments and finding more new blog friends with similar interests. I really can feel the "web-ness" of the WWW when we do things like the blog party, which connects people from all over through a desire to share all the fun things we do.

Then, last week was a week of a lot of sewing! The week before I finally bought myself a Baby Lock Eclipse serger (after thinking about one for at least 6 months)...

I had one serger lesson before I took LisAnn's Serger Club Tiered Skirt class at Country Sew and now I can very quickly and easily make skirts...

What I love about the serger (also called an overlock machine) is that it does several things at the same time in the sewing process. It is essentially a finishing machine (all those weird stitches you see at the edges of your clothing seams, those are overlocked -- keeps fabric from fraying), but it also can gather and of course it cuts the edges of your stitches so instead of 5 or 6 steps with a regular sewing machine to make gathers (pin, baste, gather, stitch, take out basting, trim seams), it does all that in one step. In the class we learned how to make the casing for elastic (like a blind hem for you sewers out there), how to figure out the fabric for the tiers, and for the hem, a nice rolled hem stitch. 

And then yesterday, I went to Oakland for an all day workshop at the lovely A Verb For Keeping Warm yarn and fabric shop. The workshop was to learn the basics of the Alabama Chanin  hand-sewn method of stenciling, stitching, and cutting a garment. We made a simple bandana sampler as a beginner project. 

Here is a section of three ways of stitching around the cut or stenciled areas...

All of Alabama Chanin clothing is made on jersey knit (think t-shirt material). I had never actually worked with jersey before so I discovered how difficult it is to cut when I was making the squares to bring to the workshop. I guess it takes a little getting used to. And lest you think oh, t-shirt material, how plain can that be, check out her collection. Keep in mind these are all hand-sewn and take weeks to make... and cost thousands of dollars if you want the full embroidered beaded clothing!