Pillowcase for my nephew and the Million Pillowcase Challenge...

I found a couple of You Tube videos about the Million Pillowcase challenge so I decided to practice how to make it by making a pillowcase for my nephew that I will see in Oregon in a couple of weeks. I found this cute monster print at JoAnn's a few weeks ago and got some thinking I might make him something with it, so the pillowcase fit the bill. Hope it isn't going to be too scary for him (I think he is 6 now).


It starts out as a tube with all the layers sewn "burrito" style:



then turned inside out, sewn on right sides then turned again to the wrong sides making a French seam:




Here are a couple of places on You Tube that describe how to make it the best (I think): Missouri Star Quilt Company and Crafty Gemini There are others but I like those two the best. Information on the actual challenge is HERE.

Ajay's Quilt -- Finally Finished!

Finally got the binding on and hand sewn! Good thing since we are almost on summer vacation and I wanted to get the quilt to my colleague's baby before we left school!! After all he was born a few months ago and will soon be outgrowing it. I wanted to make a small quilt for him to play on so I hope this works out for that.



Hope she likes it. It was my first quilt so it is small. It was all self-taught via You Tube quilting videos and asking a lot of questions at quilt shops! Now that this one is made I feel more confident and the next one shouldn't take me so long.

Playing with Paint Shop Pro...

freesias stylized, a photo by Cali-rhoz on Flickr.

Looking for pix to make a new banner, stopped to play a bit with effects. Looking forward to summer where I will have long blocks of time to play with art and photos and all these things that take time on a weekend.

Ajay's quilt...

So this was a couple of weeks ago when I started out. I had just laid out all the squares and was trying to figure out how to configure it...




And now it is all sewn and simple machine straight line quilted and ready for binding...



I would like to get it finished this weekend so I can get it to her next week!

Third permutation of the Old Time piece...

It needed some other color and some stuff...dull old timey bling... so here is my next permutation of it, still nothing fused down or sewn cause I feel there are probably more changes to come:

Working on a small art quilt...

I have been seeing a lot of "journal art quilts" online -- smallish art quilts that see to range from as small as 5" x 5" to around 9" x 12". I like working in a smaller size so I decided to work on a few designs that have been percolating in my head.

This one uses an old time photo of me and Andy (from around 15 years ago?) that I printed out on muslin. Here is my first putting together of fabrics and ideas:



And here I have added to it and changed a few things. It is still no where near done and everything is still loose -- I just like having it out on my work table and in a photo so I can see it and make changes as they come to me. Different camera so colors are a little different... this bottom one is closer to the real colors.



It still needs something... not sure when it will get finished but when it is I will know it.

Spring Break!!

So yesterday was the first day of Spring Break and it was rainy and stormy. Perfect for staying inside and sewing (with a mid-day side trip with Andy to Trader Joe's and Nugget Markets). I made this shopping tote:



I needed to practice my sewing: making a boxed bottom and getting the straps put in right. Next one I will practice making pockets!



And it folds up when I am not shopping:



Then this morning, day 2 of my break... I was looking for a photo of some hollyhocks I had found on a trip either last summer or the one before and found that I had a ton of flower photos that had not been tagged in my Flicker photos... so I spent a little time this morning starting to organize and tag my photos (HERE are just the flowers so far).







I really want to grow hollyhocks this year -- I'd better get planting!

Remembering last summer...

ligo7, a photo by Cali-rhoz on Flickr.

I came home from work today and felt the need to go back through my photos and reread my blogs from my trip last summer... this photo caught my eye and I decided to reshare it. It's from a flower market (and summer festival) in Riga, Latvia.

Teaching myself quilting...

I love the Internet. It is so full of info and how-to videos... so much easier now to learn quilting than when I did it 40 or so years ago (not even sure I ever finished that first quilt it was so hard!). So I have found a few great info sources and I am teaching myself sewing and quilting from them. Today's lesson is from The Missouri Star Quilting Co video "Disappearing Nice Patch Quilt Block Tutorial." The idea in a nutshell is to sew 9 small squares together (I used pieces from charm packs which are precut squares) and then cut them in half vertically and horizonally to get 4 pieced blocks to mix around.

Here is my sewn 9 patch:


and then here are the squares cut and rearranged:



It is a cool technique that is super easy but looks like you did a ton of work. I like that!

The squares above are on my make-shift "design wall" which is a piece of batting pinned across a bookshelf. I need to get a foamcore board or something to put the batting on and then have it to move around. The cool part is the fabric just sticks to it when you put it up so you can move pieces around and then stand back and look at them.



I wish I had more wall space but I don't at the moment -- none that is in a bright enough area to see anything anyway.

Flowers Art Quilt is finished...

Just in time to bring it to my Art Quilt group on Wednesday to share!

Working on an art quilt...

Got inspired by a wonderful art quilter, Jamie Fingal, to make this for my art quilting class...

Still have some decorative stitching to do but it is almost finished. Mostly it has been a learning experience on how to figure out how to do something I see and make it. From this I think it will be easier to branch out on my own. So I think I will have to call this one "Jamie's Flowers" ya think?

Here is the art quilt by Jamie Fingal that got me so jazzed...

Finished!

crazy pink done, a photo by Cali-rhoz on Flickr.

Now to send it off...

Crazy pink after

Crazy pink after, a photo by Cali-rhoz on Flickr.

The pillow is almost done... still need to attach the pink border then attach it to the pink back. I sure hope I finish it before my niece stops liking pink!

Thrift store fabric finds...

I struck quilter's gold today! I thought I would check a couple of the thrift stores between my work and home on the way home today and I found some great finds!

This was a sari for just $4.95!


One of these was a gorgeous table runner than needs a better photo


Some cotton curtains


Yards and yards of velvet!


Interesting cotton and a brocade type fabric


Some interesting cottons

All of the above fabrics totaled less than $20.00! There are two more stores on another street I will try tomorrow... looks like I will find my interesting crazy quilt fabrics this way for a while -- Sacramento area has a TON of thrift stores! And there is a 3-day weekend coming up!!

Pink Pillow before

Pink Pillow before, a photo by Cali-rhoz on Flickr.

I think I have a new obsession -- crazy quilting! I have been devouring how-to's and ideas from online and finally decided to just make something!

I decided my first pillow would go to my niece who loves pink. This is the pieced together front piece before any embellishments. Then I will add borders to make it pillow form size (14" x 14") and then add the back.

Fabric Book covers so far

Fabric Book covers so far, a photo by Cali-rhoz on Flickr.

What has taken center stage... art journal on back burner this week while I play with my new sewing machine and get some quilting ideas.

Evenings with my art journal...

I have been spending the last few evenings playing around with paints and techniques in my art journal.



Maybe these will be backgrounds for something...



Or maybe not...



I also made the realization tonight (as seen on an older very pink page) that I can just have experiments (ugly or not) in my art journal, that I can just use it for experiments and pages don't HAVE to be "finished", and that I can have fun!



That is the most important part of it all!

Rainy Sunday and finding a stash of old inks...

It is one of those gray days that I am glad to be inside and putting more of my art supplies away. In fact, this morning I found a whole box of old inks and liquid acrylic paints that I knew I had but wasn't sure where they were...



So I spent some of the morning testing out each one and logging it (guess that is the science side of me) so I would know what I had before I went and bought more (which I almost did when I saw a couple of online sales but thought, well maybe some of my old inks are still good... and a lot of them were)!



And this is where they will live... (those are Twinkling H2Os in the other box):



And THIS is my art room organization best friend:

Geocaching Again!

I had a ton of fun this afternoon geocaching with my friend Jan. We found 8 new caches and then another new one for me that she had already found but wanted to show me just cause it was so clever. AND we walked around 2.8 miles while doing this so it was a double bonus!

Without giving too much away here are a few photos...









This next one eluded us for a bit but I found it! (Then she had to climb the tree cause I am too short!)

A few hours later...

The room isn't finished by any means, still a lot of junk to put away but here is a start...



and

Old Favorites and a New One...

Yesterday and today I have been looking at some art and videos by some of my favorite art journalists. Some of them I have been lucky enough to take workshops with (so inspiring!) and others I look at from afar but all inspire me and motivate me to create more.

I have many, many favorites but for now, here are 4 of them:

JULIANA COLES:
Juliana Coles website and her Institute for Extreme Journalism website.
Juliana Coles You Tube Channel.

TEESHA MOORE:
Teesha's website which includes her amazing journals.
Teesha's techniques videos page.

TRACI BUNKERS:
Traci's blog.
Traci's You Tube techniques channel.

The above three I have taken workshops with. The next one I recently discovered and enjoy seeing her Inspiration Wednesday videos.

DONNA DOWNEY:
Donna's webpage.
Donna's Inspiration Wednesday videos.

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Spent some of this morning still playing with Pinterest and looking at the above websites and other journaling pages on the Internet.

But my main task for the rest of this weekend is to continue reworking my art room (well art and everything else!) into a better usable space.
Today's goal: take everything out that is on the floor and clear off my work table.
Here's why:



and

Inspiration

"The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
~ Anais Nin

Discovered Pinterest could help me as an Inspiration board without having to print out things that inspire me.

Later that same day...

Pinterest captured my attention this morning and I spent way too much time on it looking at interesting things other people had pinned, then found a few (lot) others to pin to my page...