Free Friday Inspiration

     I do love the end of the week. And as promised , I  have a giveaway for you. It’s a thank you for being faithful friends for the past year while I learned to blog . You have inspired me. So now to pass the inspiration back, or to let you inspire someone else, I have some freebies for you.  On each Friday for the next four weeks, I will announce a give away. You need only to comment and let me know about one creative thing that you did in the past week. Maybe it was taking a great photo of your kids. Or you finished the binding on a quilt. Or a painting in a journal.  Or drew a sketch of something you intend to make. You certainly know what creative is!

    On the following Friday, I will announce the winner and the next giveaway. The giveaway is something that inspired or prompted me to do something creative.

     For this week, it’s a small journal, a Pitt pen and case for your pencils. I started using a journal about a year ago and can’t live without it in my backpack or purse. It goes where I go. Just like my camera, phone and car keys.

     So leave a comment and let me know one creative thing that you did this past week. I’ll start. I finished a small stitch sampler on linen in which I practiced four of Leah Day‘s  machine quilting fillers: etch n sketch, flame, bamboo and checkerboard. Small so I could actually accomplish something! A little imperfect work of the week.

                                                               Work of the Week #9
                                                      
    Be creative, my friends. Leave a comment on this post and I will enter you in this week’s giveaway.

More Than One Year Later

     I can’t believe I missed this. I have been blogging for more than a year now. I looked back and this is my 170th post and I started last October. I remember how hard the first post was. I had a million excuses. I don’t know how to use the technology I might need. I have awful pictures. What would I say after the first few posts? Would anyone really care? Do I really want to be an artist ? Would others really care about hearing about all my mistakes  and this journey? Do I know anything that might inspire someone else?

    Well I figured out , in the end , I am just a gopher.( Not an artist yet :).   I need to stick myself out of the hole- a sometimes lonesome hole because I usually work alone-and see if anyone is out there. I love reading what you are doing. Thus, my blog list. Is anyone doing the same thing I am? Whether it be dyeing fabric, designing or just making something else fun to see. I am inspired beyond belief by others and I enjoy how freely others share their feelings and their process.

   I have done this, not only to share what I have done, but for the connections made. I thank you so  for the new friendships I have made. I couldn’t have believed a year ago I would have met so many new friends through blogging. And had an opportunity to meet and share their journey. I have re-connected with old friends and been able to share in their successes. Great big tears of joy I have cried for them and they don’t even know it because they can’t see me.I love seeing what their hands and mind have created.  How sweet is their success when they have worked so hard. And I was able to share in it because they shared  through their blogs.

    Thank you for putting up with my awful pictures, my poor grammar and my, often, unedited posts. Thanks for your technology advice. Silly, silly girl that I am! Most of all, again thanks for your friendships and taking time to read out of your busy day.

    Guess I need to learn to say instead  of “I can’t do this” ,  “I will do this “.

     Be creative, my friends! I better think of a giveaway to celebrate.

An Appointment

     I have an appointment. No-not to have my head examined. But with Leah Day of Day Style Designs who has put together an awesome amount of tutorials about free motion quilting. I have been spending maybe thirty minutes a day practicing some of these design on her blog. She is a great teacher and her tutorials found there are extremely helpful. And FREE. When I think of free motion quilting, I think of huge feathers or swirly things which don’t lend well with what I am currently doing.  When I scanned her tutorials, she has many designs or suggestions that I could use.

Already, I have found two things most helpful-to put a book by my foot pedal and to wear gloves-consistently. I didn’t like wearing them at first but feel they help me.

I am tired of using my walking foot for machine quilting but never have been able to make free motion quilting “work” for me. I am always willing to try again. And I wanted a break from miserable design flops.

 It also works on a day when I know I don’t have the whole day to devote to piecing or design. Thirty minutes can be squeezed in anywhere, can’t it?

Be creative, my friends!

***my daughter is goofing around with my blog this week for her graphics deign class so bear with me while she keeps changing it.Who knows, it needs to be re-done anyway!****

Zero, Zip, Nada, Nothing

     That’s what my dad would say when he didn’t get anything done at work. I am afraid I could say the same for this week. I had a project up on my design wall and I made 16 blocks for it and then ten more. I played with it. I moved it around. I slept on the idea. I put some of it together. That was kind of delusional. Desperate. Then I cut it up more after I sewed some of the blocks together. I just didn’t like it.It was a disaster. And it was big. A big ugly disaster and I am even showing it to you. Oh well…my husband said-I guess that’s the good part of being an aspiring artist- you can start over again. Well, I guess so but I was pretty frustrated. I feel like at this point there should be some predictibilty in what I want to do…Ha-ha. Maybe I could go to work as  fabric cutter or ironing lady. It could be my new profession. It is a very humbling process. I am not using this- I hated the blue and green line through it which I didn’t strip piece but cut each piece individually. Not even smart. I will salvage some pieces-for what-just to make myself feel better?  Oh well.

    
     My natural dyeing attempt was kind of a bust, too. But that was absolutely my fault. Always read the directions first! It’s in the washer and I will show it to you next post so you can see and avoid my mistakes. I loved the frozen flower petals I did earlier- a warm butter yellow. Yum.

     I went to our West Michigan Fiber Arts group on Monday night and our talented Gail Myrrhorodosky gave a great presentaion on the process of creating one of her pieces. Lots of yarn and fibers stitched down with tulle, solvy and aquamagic. That was a privilege.
 
     So 20+ hours later, I am back to work. Today I will use a pattern for a very pink baby quilt. Safe, isn’t it?  And I am ok with it.

    Or maybe I should just tackle some works in process. Or carve a pumpkin with the kids.

     I love this. Intrigued by white. Must focus though.

Be creative, my friends. For me. I am not this week.

A Different Kind of Cooking

     Some people make dinner for their families. Nice healthy, hot dinners.

Not generally linen dyed in pomengranate juice and then boiled in hot water.

 Or fall leaves ready to be cold bundled.

 But those people just aren’t having as much fun as I am.

These results will take a few days. So stay tuned. I should have bundled more but am out of usable fabric. My daughter warned me I under no circumstance use any piece of fabric in her room that was white.

Be creative, my friends!

A Treat for You

     For those of you who enjoy going to the Barn to study with Nancy Crow, I have a treat for you today. Judy Kirpich has been attending a two week master’s class and has so graciously been blogging about her journey. I haven’t had the opportunity to meet Judy but have only been reading her blog for about a year now. She is very talented and you will enjoy how hard she has been working there and her beautiful results.

     I am off to sew for two hours. My kids have fall break yesterday and today. They will still be sleeping or doing the chores I have written out for them before we go pick up their friends at 11am. A new strategy : I have written my studio time on the family calendar for the next week. I am way too grumpy without it.

Be inspired by Judy today! Thanks for taking the time to share with us.

Slower Things

     I have crashed after a long period of going and going. I feel as if I am walking in deep sand this week and going nowhere fast. I want to pull the covers up and sleep although I haven’t found much space for that. I have things up on my design wall but it’s not clicking. So I sat with one of my many unfinished projects. Quietly and slowly stitching. I am tired of rushing.

     Maybe some things just are meant to take longer than others. Hope to get my energy back soon. Might take a highly caffeinated beverage to make it through today though.

Be creative for me, would you? Happy sewing, my friends.

Friday Fun

     I am so excited.  I am have been playing on a consistent basis for a month now. And this weekend friends are coming from Connecticut to visit and run the Grand Rapids marathon. ( They are trying to cover a marathon in each state…not for me but good for them!) We lived in Monroe, CT for 5 years and I do so miss the friends I made there. So it will be great to see them.

     I am ripping out stitching from the previous machine disaster. Machine quilting is no fun to rip out. With each stitch I rip out, I wonder why in the world I kept going so long….So hope to have a finish for you next week. I have been working so hard this week, but it had been kids stuff and house stuff.

     Since I have no real art to show you today, I will give you a Friday Moment . I found this blog-Amanda at Soule Mama and it is a really nice place to go to visit. She is renovating an old home and that’s something that I love to watch. That and the simplicity of a room that has nothing in it. An “Ahh” moment. At the end of the week.

     My Friday moment- Lucy in the leaves loving fall. Aren’t we all? Storing it up.

     Another link for you- Film in the Fridge. Someone in Burlington, VT who had carved out a nice little niche for herself and makes really fun quilts. I enjoyed her quilt from yesterday. And was excited that there is a new fabric and yarn shop in Burlington, nido.  I will check it out at Christmas when we go there.

     But first, I will enjoy fall. Be creative, my friends!

The Flop of the Workshop Queen

     I really love to read what I read the day before – and then laugh at what I have written. I am making a costume for one of those silly high school events. decided to be Jessie and Woody from Toy Story. I thought ok that will be easy. Fabric obtained and ready to sew yesterday thinking I would be done in a day.

     I have made and re-made the yellow vest-maybe four times so far. I don’t sew garments for a reason. Everything just seems backwards to me and I can’t make it all fit together. No I don’t have a pattern. How hard did I think it was going to be? On top of my frustration is the little princess who thought it wasn’t quite right again… Tomorrow I need to conquer the cuffs and the chaps which will go over jeans.

     So much for all that knowledge I have from all those workshops. Knowledge is only good if you can use it. Most of my usable knowledge is currently coming for free on the internet.

      The good part of my day was that my camera lens came back from the repair shop. Maybe you will get pictures of this lovely costume yet this week and it will be finished.

     My new machine seems to like piecing.

A trial of machine quilting on this next. After the Jessie costume is done.

Washed up two surface design pieces which were painted with some diluted acrylic paints. I feel like a squirrel putting away as much summer time dyeing and painting to use in the long winter months here.  Can’t get enough put away.

I was worried they were going to be stiff but I heat set first, then washed them. Nice and soft. Ready for hand stitching this winter.

Off to sew a costume.
Happy Sewing, my friends!

The Workshop Queen

     I was asked last week who I had studied with. I couldn’t rattle the list off even though I know I have taken lots of classes.  Fortunately, I have lived in many different places over the twenty  some years I have been sewing. I didn’t always join a guild but when I did, I wasn’t disappointed. It is a good way to take a one or two day workshop to see if it is a technique or method you would like to add to your basic skill set.

 I have had some great teachers and some not so great teachers. But I did take a few minutes to answer that question for myself.

Traditional
1. Ami Simms
2. Jeanna Kimball
3. Nancy Pearson
4. Ann Frishkorn
5. Harriet Hargrove
6. Mary Ellen Hopkins
7. Mary Stori
8. Maureen Noble

Non traditional
1. Elin Noble and Jane Davila
2. Carol Soderlund
3. Libby Lehman
4. Carol Taylor
5.. Velda Newman
6.. Ellen Ann Eddy
7. Marjorie Mcwilliams (Quilt Universtiy)
8. Melanie Testa ( Joggles)
9. Jude Hill (online)
10. Nancy Crow x 3

 I know there are some I have forgotten. Now that I have written it all down-wow that’s alot of classes! And  wide range of teachers and styles. I don’t have a burning desire to take another right now. Maybe next spring. Just want to work. I just wanted to have a better answer the next time someone asks me who I have studied with!

Do you have a favorite teacher or class you have taken? Why did you like it? Or is there someone you haven’t taken a class from but has inspired you?

Happy Sewing, my friends!

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