My new table

Freecycle is a wonderful thing. I recieved this wonderful tredle machine last weekend. It has been out in a barn or in a shed or something, and was looking a bit shabby. I removed the sewing machine and added a thin plywood top to the existing top (remember the top has a hole in it for the machine!). I painted it the light olive color on the top and left the drawers and metal work as is. I really like the look of it on my porch.

Painting

Well, I am still painting. But not on quilts. Seems like I had this great idea to touch up the paint on the trim I installed around the windows and to repaint my front door. So off to the paint store to get one gallon of paint. I came home with 4 different colors. FOUR. Why so many you ask? Well while I was there I thought that the base house could use some touch ups. White. Then the door color (Steel blue). Somehow I decided that adding two other accent colors would be nice (light blue and a light yellowy olive). Great. I started the project very energetically but it has become a very large and slow project. Funny, most of my projects start this way and end up more then I can get done. As of right now, the front door has a new coat of paint along with, the back door, the side door, the door to the front porch, the trim on the new windows, the trim on five old windows, the ceiling of the porch, and the little details on the columns on the front porch. I'm NOT DONE. Most of the color is done, but I know have to touch it up with the white. Now mind you, I have painted most of this with a 1.5 inch brush and a little tiny .5 inch brush. At least 2 coats all surfaces. The porch might not be done, but I am!!
Here is the front door, check out the gift card curtains. I plan on adding more of these curtains to other windows.

Still Painting

Im finding that i really like to paint, or, rather sketch with paint. worked on my brainscan quilt tonight and finally figured out what to put in the big blank space on the right. A full figure. Im happy with it.

I also painted up a little pointy face person/elf/whatever. I really enjoy painting the faces. I have been triing to work on different face shape. This one is painted on some commercial fabric (white on white print) that i dyed about a week ago. I dont think that you could find a better fit for the face then this fabric, i would have sworn it was made just for this image.

Maybe a deadline will help.

I signed up for Open Studios. What have I done. I just gave myself a deadline of October 1st to finish up all these half done quilts. Hopefully the deadline will keep my on track and away from starting more quilts. If you are in the area on October 18th or 19th, visit me in downtown North Adams, Mass. I will have more details on where to find me later.
http://northadamsopenstudios.com/

Short Attention Span Quilting

Welcome to short attention span quilting. I can't seem to finish a quilt, but boy can i start them. I was up in the studio last night and as much as i tried to stay focused on finishing the quilts from the previous post, i found myself starting three new ones. This first one is ok, I started to quilt it and relized i put way to much stitching in the face, She took on an older appearance then what i wanted. I will continue with this one and i really would like to add hands and leaves to this one. I also need a bit more defination in the face.
This little FATC, just went out to a swap this week. The theme was Enchanted. This little piece is machine felted with a hand painted face. I really like this little one.
More painted faces. Do you see a theme for this week. My paints are getting quite the work out. This little wood fairy will be surrounded by leaves also. I also see some large brances going thru the quilt. I want to work on the eyes a bit more, maybe use my pencils for a little detail. Im really a terrible painter who has no control of a paint brush, so detail work is really difficult for me.

Finally the last piece i started last night is this little housewife. I need to add some color to her lips and highlights to her eyes. I see a basket of clothing and some dresses hung in the background a way to finish this piece up. I also have to add some more fabric to the bottom for her feet. They wern't originally in the plans, but plans change so fast around her some days.

And don't you just love this fabric? So not like me. I have recently found that even though im big on batiks fabrics, that i have begun to love some of the fabrics that started me sewing in the first place. Some of these piece are from the box of fabrics rescued from an old farmhouse. I really didnt think i would be able to use these fabrics, but have found them to be quite interesting to work with.

What's New

Well, for me its always, either producing a ton of work, or nothing. I finally recovered from working on all the school/kid related quilts and have had time to work on the quilts that im making for the grant i recieved from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. I hope to have 6 pieces to present to them by the end of the year. So far i have 5 started and i have to start on the key piece this week. The full skeleton. Here are a few of the in progress pieces. I started to quilt the Mary piece.. FINALLY. I really like the look of the gold thread, but tying them off in the back is taking way to long! And sorry to the quilt police, but my quilt backs are NOT pretty. This piece for some reason is VERY HEAVY. and difficult to work with.

The next one is "RED". not yet quilted, im hoping that the quilt work will pull this one out. I like the simplicity.. but it might be too simple.

"Split personality" I just made last night. Im thinking of adding a rib cage to the two heads. lots of painting, i really have been enjoying the process of painting, something that i thought i would never say!

Then next unnamed piece has just the back done. lots of hand dyed commercial fabrics and one piece of fabric done with the shaving cream technique of marbling. (very fun, but very messy). Im looking into adding news print, watches, and old lace on top of this one.

well, folks. there you have it. And thanks to the Massachusetts Cultural Council for the funding of this project.

First Grade Quilting Project

One more student piece. This one was done by the first grade class at the local elementary school. My twins both are in this class i was suckered into helping them do this piece. I was really supposed to be just someone to bounce ideas off of... but somehow I ended up "just" getting the fabrics, then I ended up putting the thing together. It is a large quilt. 72 x 72 inches. And for someone who is more comfortable doing quilts in the 40 inch range this was a monster. Im really seeing the need for a longarm after doing the last 4 large quilts. I cant wait to get back to journal quilts! lol. The children did such a wonderful job on this piece. They did all the drawins in transferable crayons. The teachers on this project are just the best. They really brought out the artist in all of them. They also were incharge of having the kids sew on the 150+ that they put on to keep this monster together. They all should be very proud of the work they put into this piece. I wish i had a better photo. I did hear that it might be hung up in the school, so if that is the case I will snap a shot of it in September.