Multiple Projects

I am one of those apparently unusual people who does not accumulate UFOs.  I generally like to finish one project before starting another, but am not fanatical about it.  This week I began to tear out the paper from paper piecing.  Thirty-six intricate blocks takes a fair amount of time.  I chose to do it in the evening while watching Amazon Prime movies.  Some of those movies are pretty bad, but they prevent the paper tearing from getting so boring.  It is not fun, like sewing.  I also had to run out to get more black fabric.

This left me with a hole in my days when I usually sew, so I started the portrait of our long deceased collie.  Scroll down a couple of weeks to see my tutorials on the process.  I have been going back and forth between projects, applying borders on the big quilt and finding fault with the dog.  I did the dog with stash fabrics and could have benefitted from a couple of fat quarters from the quilt shop.  Some areas needed a slight value change so I pulled out my acrylic paints.  Most of the bottles are now defunct.

Note to self:  Clean out that box and get rid of dead paint.

I had enough viable bottles to mix a nice, soft blue-gray to darken up some areas as needed.  I love the result.  It softens the harsh line where black and white fabric meet.  It adds some shadow where needed.  I like it so much that I am going to do some more to soften edges (more obvious when you can stand back to look at it).  Thread painting would do the job, but I don't want to quilt this so heavily.  It doesn't need it.  I have read that others have used acrylic paint so why not.  I applied it in a very thin coat, and I don't plan to wash this little quilt.

See the gray on the white next to black?  Not much
but enough.

I am eager to get to quilting it, but will do the background first.  I took a picture of Lady lying in front of a big fan on a hot day.  She looks like she is flying and her fur is being blown around.  I will quilt the flying fur on top of the finished background so it will show up nicely.

TIP:  Be flexible with both time and process.  Take your time testing something new.  I have Tsukineko Inks.  I have Inktense pencils.  I have PaintStix.  Using scrap fabrics I tried them all, but like the result with the acrylic paints the best.  It is subtle.

I will also put a tiny, white dot in her eye, a catchlight.  It will brighten the eye and make it look alive.  In this case only on her right eye.  The left eye is almost hidden and the catchlight would be in the wrong place and look funny.

Sew some happy seams this week.  I wish you many successful projects separately or all together whatever is your style.

Zentangle Quilt

I am taking a break from history today because I just did something out of the box for me, totally fun!  I got interested in Zentangles awhile back and bought myself a small sketch book to play around with.  I mentioned this to my daughter and she said, "My kids did that in school."  Boy, am I behind the times!  I did a few small ones with varying degrees of satisfaction.  Then I bought Tsukineko inks at a Sew Expo, got them home and had too many questions about how to manage them so I signed up for a class.  The upshot is that I had an idea and would like to use ink to color a small whole, cloth quilt.  I sat down with my 5 x 7 inch Zentangle sketch book and here is what I turned out:

Doodles on paper 5x7 inches

I enlarged it to 11"x14" and printed it out on 4 pieces of paper, which I then taped together.  I grabbed some white fabric and traced the design with blue marker, sandwiched the thing with two layers of Quilter's Dream cotton Select to make the feathers puffy.  I didn't want to spend time doing trapunto, even though I love it. I spent about 7 hours quilting and I love how the two layers of batting puff.  I didn't try very hard, I just had fun.  If this turns into anything worthwhile, that will be nice.  If not, then I will make do or throw it out, and make another one using my new-found knowledge about the inks.

Here is the quilted version.  It is all white with black, ecru and white thread.  The colors in the photo are due to lighting and are indicative of the photographer's rush to just get the picture taken.

Doodles in fabric.

If I do it again there are a couple of minor things I will change in the design, but right now I just want to play with it.  The black thread looks harsh, but my intent is to fill it with color so the black outlines will be nice...maybe.

Stay tuned to see what happens with the inks.  Class is May 3, but I may still have to do the painting at home after class.  I don't know yet.

Addendum:  So much for that idea.  A family funeral has taken priority and I have had to cancel out of the class.  Maybe I will play with the inks the see what happens on my own, or wait until the next opportunity.

TIP:  As I have said before, keep an open mind and be flexible.  Sometimes that is all you can do.