Neocolor II Inpatien Flowers

I picked the follow picture to try out my new Neocolor II watersoluble pastels: First, I converted the image using Adobe Photoshop Elements. Then, I printed the image onto a piece of cotton fabric that was ironed to a sheet of freezer paper and trimmed to 8.5 x 11 inches. This was the first time I made my own printer ready fabric and it worked well. I was motivated to try it when I realized that I could make my own for pennies versus purchasing it for approx $5 per sheet especially when I already had cotton and freezer paper on hand. Next, the ink-jet printed image was heat-set using the iron.

Next, I began coloring the image using the pastel pencils.

I used a variety of colors in an attempt to add depth. A paint brush was used to blend the colors.

One flower colored & blended.

After coloring the flowers, I colored the background & continued touching up the flowers.

Once I'm satisfied with the colored picture, I'll brush it with water to brighten it up. But first, I may add some more color to darken up the background to add more contrast. Hopefully, it'll get alot brighter to come close to the original picture.

I'm not sure what this project will end up as but it's been fun so far.

Thinking of Spring

I enjoy following a blog called "May Your Bobbin Always Be Full." Recently, after reading the blog, I was inspired to use some of the art supplies that I've collected over the years. http://luannkessi.blogspot.com/search/label/Neocolors%20II?updated-max=2011-04-01T18%3A26%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=20 Also, this provided a good excuse to use one of my many flower pictures. I chose a picture of some lollipop gerber daisies from my yard a couple of years ago. I downloaded a trail copy of Photoshop Elements and converted the image to a line drawing.

Next, the image was printed using the laser jet printer. I heat transfered the image to cotton fabric and then colored it using water soluble oil pastels.

After everything was colored, I used water and texture medium to blend the colors.Here's the finished flower. Next, I'll focus upon coloring the background. Then, it'll be time to quilt it.

Fun way to spend a cloudy day and get ready for spring!

Quilt to complete the kitchen makeover

Buddy & I painted the kitchen over a year ago. At that time, I made some temporary window treatments. Then, about a month ago, I made some new valances for the kitchen. Next, I decided to recreate a quilt from a book that I checked out from the library called Color harmony for quilts : a quiltmaker's guide to exploring color / Weeks Ringle, Bill Kerr.
Author: Ringle, Weeks. Imprint:Gloucester, MA : Rockport Publishers, 2002. (Buddy's been doing a good job of seeing that I make it to the library to check out books instead of going to Barnes & Noble.) One of the quilts featured in the book is called Raindrops. I recalled really liking the quilt and its color scheme from when I checked the book out in the past. I decided to make a similar quilt for the kitchen wall which had a large empty space above the chest of drawers that I refinished a few years ago.

I began by ordering a selection solid cottons from e-quilter.com. I began by trying to arrange 12" squares and quickly determined that there must be a better approach. I then cut out small 3"x3" squares and quarter circles and arranged them until I was relatively satisfied with the color scheme. It seems that this should be rather simple given that I had a book to follow but I found that wasn't necessarily the case. Here's my 9"x12" mini quilt.

Next, I made the quilt top out of 12"x12" squares and 6"quarter circles. At this point, I'm still second guessing the color choices.

Then, I prepared the quilt sandwich and began machine quilting. All of the quarters, halves and circles were quilted first. These are supposed to resemble the ripples caused by raindrops falling on water.

I then free-motioned quilted the remainder of the quilt using a stippled design. I began liking the color choice more once some texture was added.

After sewing on the binding, I washed and dryed the quilt. This is the point at which the textures really emerge.

The quilt is displayed in my kitchen on a decorative drapery rod (thanks to Buddy's help). I think it illustrates my kitchen's color scheme very clearly. It reminds me of sea glass & good times on and near the water.
In this photo, you can see the aloe vera plant on the left that Karen gave me a few years ago. It seems quite happy because I have followed her directions and have given it little water. The plant on the right grew from a cutting that I got from the Christmas Cactus that belonged to Buddy's Mom.

Guess this means that the kitchen makeover that began over a year ago is somewhat complete.

Quilting

I spent some time over the weekend playing with some fabrics that I purchased at the AQS Quilt Show that Mom and I went to in 2004 in Paducah, Kentucky. The fabrics are a bright combination of pinks, yellows, and oranges. I'm concerned that the quilt will be too "peachy" especially with the slashing that I've chosen. I may have to make a trip to the fabric store to find something that will provide some contrast. (The camera really helps drive this point home!)

I also gathered fabrics to create a pickle dish quilt that is featured on the cover of Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Romance, a book that I found at my local library. This quilt will feature some of the batiks that I've collected over time.

Although the pattern looked difficult, I decided to give it a try and was pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

Here is 1/2 of a "pickle dish."

Only 71 to go!

This one may take a while. The dishes are the easy part. Stitching in the corners and the center will be more time consuming and challenging.

Let the fun begin.

Let It Snow!

Here are the snowmen that I made using recycled bottles that Carolyn found at an estate sale and some old earrings that I got from Mom. They are probably as close as I'll get to seeing real snowmen at my house this year...even though I know some folks that would like to share some of the snow that they've already endured with me.

These little guys were based upon directions from a magazine called Cloth Paper Scissors that can be accessed via http://www.beadingdaily.com/blogs/daily/archive/2009/11/30/is-there-life-beyond-jewelry.aspx

Mackinaw Island & Whitefish Point

Carolyn & I began the day by taking a 7:30 am ferry ride to Mackinac Island. It was probably the roughest ferry ride that I have experienced due to high winds and large waves. We were both glad that the ride to the island only took 16 minutes and that the cabin was enclosed. Tourist season on the island runs for 4 months per year. Of course, we're at the end of this year's season. Everyone was cold today (we were glad that we weren't the only ones). The locals reported that temperatures have dropped significantly over the past few days. Of course, the high winds didn't help the situation.

We learned that it is warm enough to swim in Lake Michigan during August and September. I'm guessing that it's still cold by east coast standards.


We spent the morning exploring Mackinac Island via foot and carriage. Automobiles were prohibited from the island beginning in the early 1900s.

Of course, I had to take the usual flower related photo of rose hips.

Here is an arch that is located in the state park that's located on the island.

Pretty fall colors everywhere.

A view from Fort Mackinaw:

Next, we headed back to the mainland and north to Whitefish Point to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum.

Here's a photo of Mackinac Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the world (between anchorages). Shore to shore is approx 5 miles.

Northern Michigan is very remote and beautiful. It looks like a paradise for people that love the great outdoors and hunting.

Here's an interesting set of directions regarding diving that was part of one of the museum's displays. Would you meet the criteria?

The museum had the bell of the Edmond Fitzgerald on display. Sad story but only one of hundreds of shipwrecks that have occurred in the area.

Here's a quilt made using the Lone Star Quilt pattern that Mom used on her quilt (yes, it was part of an exhibit at the museum). I found the impact that using like colors had on the overall quilt to be interesting.

We visited the shore of Lake Superior. It was windy and cold

with big angry waves (mid 40's). The Edmond Fitzgerald was lost about 17 miles from this point.

An employee at the museum reported that the average temperature of Lake Superior is 38 degrees. Sailing anyone?

Here are a couple of shots:

The stones looked like what I would call river rocks, smooth and round. I didn't have any luck finding any "sea" glass but I'm not sure that it could survive the lake very well. Notice the dark pieces of wood that have washed up on the shore.

Please note that not all of my pictures contain flowers.

After a long day, it's back to Mackinaw City for dinner. Here's the beautiful bridge at night. I was pleased that my camera almost did it justice.

Tomorrow, we're heading south back to northern Indiana and milder weather.

Indiana & Northern Michigan

We arrived on Saturday afternoon. Ended up spending a little more time in Indianapolis than planned but went to a quilt show while there. This one dated back to the Civil War. All of us like the pattern.

Spent some time on Sunday afternoon looking through lots of old photos with Mom, Paul, and Christine. Here's an interesting one that illustrates how sweet and innocent all of us really were (Clean too!). Please note how Carolyn looked up to me even then.

Off to dinner with the family. It's always nice to see and visit with everyone. Unfortunately, not everyone was able to come.

On Monday, Carolyn & I headed for Michigan and found us a couple of Big Boys. It was the best we could do! Carolyn recalled the "Big Boy" piggy bank that she had when she was young. If I remember correctly, it was a gift from Mom and Dad when they went to Nashville leaving us behind.

The fall colors are lovely just like I had hoped with lots of reds. We also enjoyed the tremendous variety of evergreens...like seeing Christmas trees everywhere. Many were such a rich shade of blue/green that they looked as if they had been painted.

The lake looked choppy with lots of waves. At one point today, we even saw people surfing in Lake Michigan. Of course, they had on wet suits. We knew we had arrived in Mackinac City when we saw the towers for the suspension bridge. Upon arrival, advisories were posted due to high winds (65 mph) with speed limits of 20 mph for tractor trailers. We decided to cross the bridge tomorrow and take a ferry over to Mackinac Island (lets hope the winds are calm!!!!).