Over 3 hours in the eye clinic

Got the ok to go for the eye test for glasses!!!!🤓

There was a whole lot of waiting going on. 🤨🤪
Just doodling. Then it started looking like a cheeky tunic so I kept going til it was. 😄

Take a Stitch Tuesday - TAST

Several storylines coming together here, so bear with me. There will be photos!

Some time ago, a friend was doing crazy quilting and became involved with a project called Take A Stitch Tuesday run by Sharon Boggon, who is well known for her online stitch dictionary of embroidery stitches. I was doing other things at the time, but I always kept it in the back of my mind to try. However, Sharon hasn't run this for some time.

Lately I have been really inspired by the stitching that Linda McLaughlin does...so, I have been playing with different ideas on how to do a bit more hand embroidery. Linda runs one of her series from her birthday, so I thought that might be a better place to start, than the beginning of the year when I seem to be very busy with the new year bead project. As part of that, I went looking for Sharon's stitch dictionary and signed up for her newsletter.

And...just about the time I was going to figure out how to make the year of embroidery stitching (but not every day!)happen...Sharon posted that she was running TAST - Take A Stitch Tuesday again! The site where the stitch dictionary is located has become very much in need of rebuilding or something, so she is transferring the stitches over to her Pintangle site.

The best advice I have heard about daily or weekly stitching projects is from Kathy Loomis who advises trying something out before the actual start. Then you can work out time issues or even whether the goal is manageable before you get to the point where you would feel you were letting the side down if you gave up. (No, not the exact words, but the principle is there.)

I started to see what to trial these ideas on and found my 'Slow Cloth' looking at me from the desk near my sewing machine. (Just realised I started this in August 2009!) Made up of 3 layers of rust dyed muslin with some small green muslin 'patches'. and then doodling on it with embroidery.

This was the 'Slow Cloth' before I did a lot of embroidery in the blank areas around the blocks.
I had got it to the point where I thought I did enough in the majority of the background, but was really stuck on what to put in that larger rusted spot.

And here is where TAST comes in! Sharon is basically reposting the original list of stitches. So, the week 1 was fly stitch.

I looked at the 'Slow Cloth' and realised I hadn't used fly stitch yet...and that it would be a great stitch for the large rust spot.

So, I have made a start using the fly stitch in a similar way you would do seeding stitch. I am thinking I will eventually fill in the rust spot, but starting with a thicker thread and working upwards with increasingly thinner ones so that it will look 'lighter' in the top part.

And to integrate these new stitches, I am adding stitches in some of those same threads in other parts of the work.

week 2 was buttonhole stitch

green thread irregular buttonhole stitch above the patch
and here with some random straight stitching changing the feel

week 3 - (today) is feather stitch)

Somewhat feathery, but I wanted to make it wander like some of the other trails in that part of the piece.

What the 'Slow Cloth' looks like now. If you scroll down through the 'Slow Cloth' posts, you can see some of the previous stitching close up.

Sharon says "The challenge is for new hands to learn the stitch or if you are an experienced stitcher take the stitch and push it a little further in a creative manner."

Now that my birthday has come, I want to do the stitches in that more creative way each week on a project. Not the 'Slow Cloth', though now am unstuck with this, it can be the 'stitching while watching telly' project.

But for now, this post will stand for the first 3 weeks.

Doodle 1

I am in the place in between work... clearing out my head from several months of making and looking forward to work I want to do this year. Over the weekend we had guests, so my head was still rather full.

So, today I sat and doodled for a while, pondering the ideas and which one to begin first.
Try it! I would recommend it for transitions.

Doodle 9

Here is a doodle I have been working on in fits and starts for sometime. At first, I did a bit of a "what if" thing. I took a berry from a bush...I can't even remember why or what prompted it! But I think it was blue and I wanted to see what the colour was. Instead of squishing it any old where, I thought I may as well squish it on a page in my doodle book. I had already started the swirly bit, but didn't like it well enough to finish. The colour was a bit mulberry.

Then, I left it, not thinking what I could do with it at that point. But, when I had the book at a meeting I had to go to, I started just drawing round the anomalies in the colour. So, that was interesting.

But, I left it open on my table at home, and bit by bit I saw faces of creatures that look a bit like various sea creatures. So, I drew in the eyes, some patterning for the creatures, and so on. I was nearly done when I was just doing a bit more detail. I had just washed my hands, and hadn't realised there was water under my ring. When it leaked out, I thought "oh no!". But, eventually the area affected looked a bit like a dolphin, so he got added. I have no idea why there is a pinecone floating on the top of the pile!

I found it interesting that the addition of water turned the colour blue again. A bit like beets, red cabbage and some red berries.

Anyway, it was quite fun in the end and quite out of the ordinary. Very surreal and fantasy like.
I might actually think about doing some sort of art work using this as a jumping off idea.

Doodle 8

It has been a while since I did a doodle. So, while I am working on what to do for the fund raiser, I will show you a doodle I did this week. (while at a boring meeting!)

I used a sepia pen that my son gave me for my Birthday. I am kind of surprised that it is so dark. But when you compare it, it is more brown looking.

Ascot Hat

Catching up with the Doodle Day prompts. Actually, Doodle Day and Today's Title are morphing into a Blog called Ideas Of Inspiration. The time between prompts is a bit longer. The current Prompt is Foxglove. I am still working on ideas for that.

The last one on Doodle Day was Ascot Hat. I drew something, but then thought, "Actually, I might make this someday!" So, it is reserved for the someday hat possibilities place in my head.

So, here is one that is just playing.

Sorry about the sunburnt lady. I haven't used those fineline pens for sometime and forgot how bright the peach really was! So, I had to go over it a bit with the pink again, just to keep it from being orange.

Painted Papers - swap

Some time ago I showed you the painted papers I did for a swap. This week the papers from the other ladies came. They are quite exciting. Somehow, when I read the guidelines, I thought you could choose from doodle or stamping. After I had done mine, then they were all calling them doodle papers. So, I have plenty of wonderful papers with doodles...and they have a samples of my stamped/stenciled papers! Oh well, if they use them to make a book, they will have some pages that they can do more doodles on!

Here they are spread out. And it is double wonderful, since they are all double sided! Now to get time to actually make something with them!

Give Away Doodle Designs

I'm loving all the comments for the give away! Keep them coming! It will be easier for me to keep track of who has commented if you put comments for the give away on the 200th post.


But you are welcome to continue with comments... in fact, I am sure you may possibly do so ...............Because............

Here are the designs I will be giving away!

TA DA!

These are developed from a doodle I haven't shared yet and some bits from Doodle 7.

2 things I learned.
1. These are way to complicated to have the students do.
2. Three designs like this take ALL day. One in the morning, one in the afternoon, and one in the evening.
But it was actually more like a rest to just sit and zone out and do the painting. I think I will be painting in my sleep tonight!

So, as much as I would love to give everyone something, I will limit the draw to 3 like I said yesterday.

I draw the designs freehand with chalk or Sharpie and then begin painting. Some colours soak in quite a bit, so they need 2 coats. I actually explored colours I don't normally work with in the middle design. I wanted to see the effects of using orange on the dark blue.

The designs are painted onto denim using craft acrylics which are also suitable for fabrics. The designs pop if you outline them with Sharpie. They can be washed...on low temp. The design may go muted if washed too frequently. You may need to touch up the outlining with permanent pen (which would probably only be Truly Permanent if you Didn't Want it to stay in the fabric!) If you sew it onto clothing, turn the garment inside out when you wash it to keep from distressing the paint.

Some asked about linking to your blog. I am fine with that. Thanks for including me!

200 Today!!

TA DA!!!!

Today's post is number 200! Thanks to everyone who stops by. So, I want to do another give away as a way of saying thanks.

This time I am going to paint one of my abstract flower designs for you on a square of denim. Then you can use it as you wish. Sew it as a patch on a jacket, stitch it into a quilt, embellish it with beads, post it up on your "special things" board, or whatever.

Some of my painted designs

I have yet to determine the design or the colour, but it will be along the lines of one of the motifs from one of the doodles. It will be a completely new one!

I will probably work on this tomorrow. At present, I am thinking just one...but you never know, I could get on a role and make 2 or 3! I will show you when they are done.

What you need to do

... is to leave a comment on this post.
I will collect them and at the end of the week, I will do a draw. When I have listed the winner(s), I will post them...probably next Sunday. Then, if you win, you will need to send me an email with your address. I will be teaching nearly everyday the following week, so I won't have time for chasing up snail mail addies.

PLEASE NOTE: I thought this might be a good time to give a link for people about how to leave a comment. Some might not know how. This page goes through the steps.

Some people do comment, but their email isn't connected to the comment. So, I can get the comment, but I can't reply back to you, as I don't know your email addy. So, if you want me to reply, you need to sort out your profile. There is a good tutorial of how to do this at this blog.

And finally, I do try to reply if there is a question or detailed comment. Sometimes I have just made another comment here on the blog following yours. Not sure if you have gone back to discover it though. Sometimes if it is just a short comment, I recognise it as such. I guess I could fire back something saying "thanks!" but I don't always have time!!

And that's the end of the boring bit. (Aren't you glad?)

Featured Blog

Today's Featured Blog is the Doodle Day Blog which I have referred to frequently. Helen S gives a prompt - usually at the weekend - and through the week members of the blog post the doodles they have made.

Recent prompts have included Dragons, their counterparts (Knights and Maidens), Butterflies and Dragonflies, Bees, Daisies, Tree House, Owl, and so on.

I have found these prompts good for getting me to try my hand at drawing. I am not intending to create extremely realistic drawings, but just play with ideas. Some of the ideas come out in the form of a story, some I am finding I want to explore in different ways and develop design possibilities. In this post, I wrote a bit of a philosophical ramble about how I was finding the doodling process.

Here is a doodle I did last week. I am still playing with developing some ideas about abstracting flowers to get some retro designs. but, instead of focusing solely on the design, because I am decorating a page, I often find that something else I end up doodling becomes the thing I like and want to take further.

Doodle 7

Getting photos has been the hard part. At first I tried photographs, but I could never get it right. Lately I have been scanning the page. But I am still not too happy with it. However, that being said, I think people get the gist of it.

If you click "doodle" on the labels at the bottom of this post, you can see some of the other doodles I have done. Some are here and some are on the Doodle Day Blog.

*****AND...on another note, tomorrow's post will be 200! Looks like time for another give away! Keep your eyes and ears open!*****

Doodle 6

The worshop went very well today. This evening we have a friend staying whom we haven't seen for a long time.
So, here is a doodle I did recently. We will see if I can make something interesting tomorrow!

a few doodles

Just a few more doodles I have done in the past week or so. Both of these were from prompts on the Doodle Day blog.

The first prompt was Owl. I had a few ideas of what I might do for Owl but they all went out the window when I heard Paul Simon's song on the radio. The computer in the sketch says "Sorry, Paul" in the Instant Messaging corner.

Call Me Owl

The next prompt was Kitchen Chaos. I started thinking about making a stew and I probably had a bit of Micky and the Fantasia Kitchen in mind as well! The top thingy is meant to be a chef's hat, even though it looks like a muffin. or maybe it is a muffin and the chaos has gone a bit too far!

In a Stew

I am enjoying these quick sketches and doodles. They sort of work to prime the pump so to speak.

Doodle 5

Well, it's not really no. 5. But I think it is the fifth one I put up here. I thought you might like to know what I mean about using the doodles to explore a design idea. On this one, I was trying a different shape for the centre of a flower. It is okay, but not quite what I wanted. I may revisit the idea sometime.

See the bit at the top? Sometimes I just start off with patterns and then there is even less page to worry about for trying a concept!

But today, I had success for another design for painting on fabric. AND, when I went to town for a bulb for the overlocker, I also popped into Oxfam and picked up a couple jeans type things which looked like candidates for refashioning or painting. so...watch this space.

freshly washed and in need of ironing

I have also been asked to teach a workshop in Nov. with a Christmassy theme. So, while that thought was in my mind, I played about with an idea that came to me that would be an original Christmas design. After all these years, you wouldn't think you could get any of those! but I think I came up with something that will work! And it is also something that could be translated to a stencil for part of it, so I may end up using it as a decorative pattern for the workshop.

Oh yeah, nearly forgot...I also painted one side of some papers this morning. I don't normally do much with papers. But I thought if I had some, I could play with some other painting ideas for a workshop I am to teach. As my C+G design principles teacher told us, it is easier to work with papers as it isn't so precious.

I have only done a sort of background effect at present, so I will show you more when I get more done.

Cheerful skirt

Remember the blue skirt that needed cheering up? I showed it hanging up on Monday and gave you a glimpse of the cheering yesterday. Well, here is the finished product!

I used a fabric I really liked from the box of quilting cottons my friend Gabrielle gave me last year. The print has a cheerful elegance to it. So, even though the skirt fabric is more of a lightweight summer suit type fabric, the print still works with it.

Here is what I did to decorate the skirt.
I chopped the skirt shorter (Why did I cut it longer than normal in the first place? This is why you shouldn't wait more than a year to make things up. You forget the plan!) Then I made up and added the ruffle. I decided to gather it about 2 cm from the top edge, and attach it straight to the front of the skirt fabric. Then I covered the stitching with a narrow blue ribbon.
You might recognise that the doodle flower has been taken a step further. Or has been given the What if? treatment. What if the petals were cut from the print I used for the ruffle. What if the centre were made of buttons (like seeds?). I have one at the back as well. I always think people forget to give the back interest, So I like to put a little something.The next thing I will do is put a bit of decoration on the white linen blouse that you could see partially in the original photo on Monday. I don't think I am doing ruffles. Just enough of the print to go with the skirt, but not so much that I can't wear it with other things.

Perhaps tomorrow, but I have to go buy a new light for my overlocker. So, we will see.

Sneak Peak

The skirt is getting the cheerful treatment. I found something that will help it be cheerful but not "in your face". It is also a fabric which works with the blouse. I haven't started playing with that yet, so I am not quite sure what it wants to be.

You may recognise the shapes. This is a further development from the doodle flower on the jeans skirt. I haven't shown the doodle yet because it is my design source and I am not tired of it yet!!

So, for today, while I am satin stitching, you can get a glimpse of what is going on.

Apparently Blogger has an outage tomorrow sometime, so if you don't hear from me tomorrow, don't fret.

Mrs. Primrose and Mrs. Periwinkle's house

The prompt on Doodle Day this week was Tree House. Helen S who sets the prompts referred to the Brambley Hedge books. I love those books. The drawings were far more important than the stories.

Disclaimer: The following post has become rather philosophical/long.

Before Brambley Hedge came out and my son was rather small, I wrote some children's stories (which, I hasten to add, are still only on notepaper in a drawer.) They were about Mrs. Primrose and Mrs. Periwinkle, 2 elderly rabbit sisters who "did things" with the children in their village. They got up to some interesting adventures.

I never thought I could draw their house. If I did, it would begin to look a bit like Wind in the Willows or The Hobbit. However, as I have started doodling, I have discovered I can draw...a bit.

One of the websites I found about doodling said something about it being easy as it is only one line at a time. And you know...it is! And, too, since I have been using a drawing pen, rather than a pencil, for some reason there is a bit more freedom about it. If I use a pencil, straight away I am rubbing out, correcting things. With a pen, you have to go with the last mark "good" or "bad" and make it work. Suddenly it is like making art. (Well it is isn't it?) It tells you what it wants to be... this line becomes this and that line becomes that. That is the way I work in other mediums (media?).


This for me is an exhilarating feeling. I have so many pictures in my head and things I would like to depict in one way or another. But often there is a bit of disappointment because I can't find existing things that really work to show what I have in my head. There is always some sort of compromise. Sometimes with fabrics and stitch I can get it rather near and I am content. But wouldn't it be better if you could really do it like the vision?

And, too, because I am working in a small book there is actually more freedom, since I don't have to fight the spaces. (I don't have to conquer the world, just a small part of it.) I am also only working one side of the page, because the number 5 drawing pen I started working with goes through the paper a bit if you are doing a darker spot. I have a number 1 pen, but it was too much different to the number 5, so they didn't really work together. I probably will leave things as they are for now and then find a book with paper that doesn't let the mark through. I have found my number 2 pen though, and I used it alot for this sketch.

It is also a bit freer not to use colour. Having to depict what it is with black and white makes your really think about what things look like. To use your observational skills. There will be a time for colour one day, but for now can I make it look like it with pen alone?


What I loved about doing this was the way I could start imagining the story as you drew. To start thinking of the characters and how they live. Where they would put things? What kind of bits and pieces they'd have round the house? And so on.

So, here is a start at realising a picture in my head, but the fact that I can draw something that can be recognised as something else without making a lot of allowances brings joy. One of the most joyful bits of this sketch was getting the flagstones right!! small pleasures, right?

What have you discovered lately that brings you joy?

Sketching

Today was the Design Principles class on Texture. It was wonderful. We all had a very good time. It wasn't too long before I managed to forget I was being observed! By my "boss" and by one of the teachers of the teaching course. So, they were meant to quietly sit there observing. But eventually they couldn't stay away and had to come over and have a look at what we were up to.

We played with Impasto, where you mix sand into paint and lay it on thick. It was a technique used by medieval artists. We also did several other fun things, but I promised I wouldn't put photos on the blog. Maybe when they develop their work and make up the resolved pieces they will let me.



So, instead here is a sketch of Pepper, who was waiting with chin on floor for me to do something the other day. The Doodle Day prompt the other week was dog. I had done some dogs in a doodle previously, but I thought I would try to do Pepper. Not too easy to do a black dog. Because I wasn't sure I'd get the shape right to start with, I started on a Post It. But all the practice I have been getting with dragons and all, I suppose helped with it going well. It really took a lot of working in more and more pencil to get the right effect. In fact there was so much pencil, the light bounces off.

I was quite chuffed with getting the forshortened front ear right.

Hey, everybody, I CAN draw! It's mainly about observation!

doodle 4 and a bit of a trick

Today was a migraine day. So you get photos I put on other blogs.

I'm not sure if I mentioned the Doodle Day blog. You get a prompt every week, and you can do a doodle and then upload it to the blog. This week's prompt was paisley. The lady who runs it started it from a blog with prompts for a variety of art. It is called Today's Title is... I heard about it by having a look at other Doodle day member blogs. So, I had a look and decided to go with that, too.
This week's prompt is "Slice of Reality".

So, I played with Paint Shop Pro to put the reality with the vision. Me with my Bernina girls. I should have placed them quite a bit taller, but it will do for the experiment. Each photo was taken in different years!
Now I get the idea how they can make the tricky photography of celebs with other celebs they shouldn't be with. 'Course they are better at it. but it isn't all that hard.

Doodle3

Today I am wading through paperwork in preparation for next weeks session on Texture. The paperwork isn't about texture...it is about end of course evaluations and so on. (I am finishing teaching the course for someone else.) On top of everything else, I am being observed, which has it's own set of paperwork! Fun...Not really.

No wonder teachers moan about all the paperwork!

However, I am finding I can cope with days away from the sewing machine or from creating something by doing a doodle page as I think about beginning the day.

I am also working through the C+G logbooks for the students, so I can understand exactly what it is they are meant to achieve. (It has changed slightly since I did this course.) although it could be tedious, I am finding it useful.

But, I am afraid the doodle page is all the visual interest you get today.

dragon study - tail Part 3

Here is the finished dragon tail and the doodle which I worked on to help me get the loops and patterning right. as you see, I decided to change a few directions. I thought it would be more positive to have the tail point upwards.
And now, off to do paperwork for courses and assignments for the teaching class.