Ian Malcolm.....

I am still busy staring at fabric.

and it is staring back at me.

painting and paper.....

This post doesn't have any fabric or sewing in it. This will be about what I do when I am not busy staring at fabric and wondering what to do next. (this way? that way? what color?)

This is about a free online workshop. [strathmoreartiststudio.com] The first one is doodles unleashed or some such thing.

I should have stopped at this point. It looked kinda cool. But no, I added doodles like the video showed.

These images are the before. When I finished, I was horrified by the doodling I did. It wasn't very pleasing to look at. (I never took a picture, it was late and dark outside) 

So I painted over everything and started over. 

I have come to the conclusion that I am not very good at doodling. 

I went back to what I know, stencils and cut-up sponges to apply the paint.

I will try again, but for now I am happy with these sheets of painted paper, as they are, right now.

All of them hiding 3 different workshop attempts. The sheets are 18x24 inches.

What to do with these now??

Well, 

My other latest obsession is making little books by folding paper.

Like this [8 page] or, this one that is [16 pages]...

I have used an old atlas page, 

12x12 scrapbook paper, (they are the tall skinny ones) 

18x24 makes the garden/love size with 16 pages

my paycheck deposit sheet, (the little white one) 

and brown packing paper. 

Plus several at school using unclaimed painted paper.

I think the workshop papers will be very happy becoming little books.

the lastest start, a movie quilt......

When I was ready to start on Crispy's zombie quilt....

he said, "i don't want that"

WHAT?

"I want Jurassic Park"

So what goes in a Jurassic Park quilt?

"well you need a raptor"

I had to think about this for a while.

Never did a dinosaur.

When Crispy and I cleaned in the basement...I found a random dinosaur!

How perfect, a model.

I kept adding pieces.

Went with a closed mouth. Seemed easiest, even if it is a curve.

Crispy could see the raptor, but is blue really a good camouflage color for a dinosaur?

Well, when you are using the very last of a fabric, you can't be picky.

I got to thinking, the neck was sort of boring.

So I cut it off!

He is still in pieces, but when I start putting it all together.....

I can use these flying geese in the neck.

What else goes in a Jurassic Park quilt?

Muldoon! The raptor gets him at the end of the movie

He will be spooked and looking up at the raptor.

He says, "clever girl"

I do have those letter done, just no picture yet. It will have other quotes too. 

I'll take more pictures when I start putting it all together.

It is time for filler!

But it is also time to go back to work, so things may slow down on this project.

a place to hang quilts outside.....

The wire/cable stuff is hung between two nails.

Maybe next year this building will get painted, for now it will be a weathered wood background.

This should work out really well!

Christmas Eve was warmish and snowless. 

It's like we went on vacation to a warmer place but never left the house.

I was able to take a bunch of pictures of the latest quilts.

iheart flowers.... 

The hearts were won from block lotto in February. 

The flowers were one of the summer blocks. 

When I combined them I thought of my father-in-law, he has so many flowers in the summer. So this went to tractor joe's mom and dad.

Aubri received a baby quilt. Her mom was very excited. I had done one for Aubri's brother a couple years ago. She was hoping Aubri would get a name quilt too.

A breeze came along. The backing is a hot pink sheet, just right for a girl.

As long as I was out there hanging quilts, I went and grabbed this off my bed. Finally, a fairly decent picture of the geocaching quilt!

This isn't a very good picture, but take note of the packages behind the cat. 

They are nicely wrapped gifts for my children.

I am patting myself on the back here, 

because last year....

I didn't put much effort into wrapping. 

My poor children got grocery sacks that I just stapled shut. Each one got a different store bag. Looks like one of them needed two bags, so they got matching bomgaars bags.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

made by others....

My sister made me a postcard for Christmas. I loved the way she cut the pictures to make the letters in the words claws. After she finished it she thought...wait, we think of cats as having claws, not dogs, oh well.

It is just way to cute.

This quilt was made by a mom who has a visually impaired son. She collected fabrics that all felt different. He may not see all the colors, but he will feel all the variety.

Lots of different textures.....

...including some white fur fabric. 

She said there were pieces of white fur flying around for days after she cut and sewed it in. I think she also said this was the first and last time she will use fur in a quilt.

Famous last words.

One of my goals today......rig up some wire outside, hang quilts and take pictures of my quilted presents. 

They need to be wrapped for Christmas Eve gift opening.

Now is not the time to dilly-dally. I am off to find the hammer and a couple nails.

& clothes pins...

where did I put the clothes pins?

it is about time....

Seems like forever since I was last posting.
My sister asked me to make a "blue baby quilt" for a friend of hers. She didn't care what I did, she trusted me to come up with something.
Using this technique... (8 at a time)....I made blue HST's for all the points.
I wanted to make some bears paw blocks for the quilt. Doing them this way REALLY made it all quite painless.

The 9 patches are randomly sewn 1 1/2 inch squares. As I sew other things, they get put through the machine.  I emptied the drawer they were stored in. But there is still a box on the desk full of squares. Eventually there will be more 9 patches that finish at 3 inches, in theory anyway.
The HST's finish at 1 1/2 inches. I think the starting squares were cut at 4 3/4 inches.

Crispy brought home his art project from school today. I was so excited to see it! I was squealing in delight! 

OMG, I LOVE it. I needed to find the camera right away and take a picture. 

Then I had to ask....who is it?

He says, "if you were a fan of Weezer, you would know who this is."

It is Rivers Cuomo. oh, of course. 

It is already hanging up in his room.

a quilt top...

These blocks are from Block Lotto when I won back in May. 

(block lotto was very good to me this year)

I painted Crispy's room a deep blue this past summer...so I used orange and blue to finish off the blocks.

It should look good in there!

and it snowed....the sticking kind...everything is white now.