Visual Journaling 1-A

Today was devoted to my journal(s).  I have 7 going right now, all different sizes and purposes.  I am still new to the visual journaling world, but am diving right in, learning as I go.  This was the theme of my day:

The next two pictures are for the February Sketchbook Challenge.  The theme is "opposites," and I have been having a hard time with this one.

The next page is a little more obviously "opposite":

I'll keep thinking about this.

On the other hand, thinking doesn't get anything down on paper, and I think the whole idea of the sketchbook challenge is to get people drawing in their sketchbooks.  .....OK, I have my marching orders.

Another day of soy wax batik!

I played with the wax pot all day today.  I am getting better at keeping it under control and not dripping wax all over the place.  While my samples today still look like a big mess, I have a better sense of what kind of designs I like, and what works and what doesn't.  I think I'd like to try this process with thickened dyes instead of paint, because the paint colors aren't as intense as I'd like, but I'll have to read up on that a bit more first...AND wait for more soy wax to arrive in the mail!

A wonderful workshop with Melanie Testa

I went to the City Quilter in NYC on Saturday for an inspiring day with Melanie Testa, learning the basics of batik using fabric paints and soy wax.  It was kind of like making Ukrainian Easter eggs (something my children did in Elementary school).  You approach your design backwards -- in other words, you start with the lightest color, cover it with wax, and add more layers of color on top.  Everything looks like a giant mess until you iron away the wax to reveal beauty underneath.... (or not, as the case may be!)  The tricky part is getting the wax to drip off the mark-making tools evenly and consistently.  It is definitely a learning process, but the technique is one that appeals to me, so I have a feeling I'll be doing more of this.

Oh darn....

I've been playing with water-soluble fabric, and making lacy structures on the sewing machine, which can then be used as a base for interesting textures.  Using what is essentially a darning stitch, I can see all kinds of possibilities to play with!  Here, I've needle-felted the "weaving" onto a base of RIT-dyed batting and wool roving.

if it's not one thing, it's another....

I now know why it was so hard for me to keep a blog in the past.  I simply can't be one of those wonderful artists who can write about their creative process every single day.  "Life" always seems to creep in there for me.  It's not that I don't get anything done, either.  I do, but because I have so many projects going simultaneously, and because I work on them in 10 minute increments in between other things, it seems as though everything in my world just takes a very long time.

I did get a few things done over the last few days:  Here's a needle felted sewing kit (the applique is RIT-dyed batting).

I finished this image of the madonna and child.  It was fun to do -- I printed a photo I took of a medieval painting (from the Loreto Museum in Prague) onto a piece of interfacing, and used the printed image to guide the sewing machine needle as I free-style machine embroidered it.

Finally, I have been trying to finish the quilt I am hand quilting.  This has been a long project... some three years so far, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Here's the second-to-last block:

I have to say, I do love my own creative process, even if it does take a long time.... Or maybe it's because it takes a long time?

Yet another snow day....

Today was lovely.  The snow turned to ice by mid-morning and coated the entire world with silver.  Good thing I didn't have to go out in it!  I played at my sewing machine all day, and will show you what I did tomorrow.  For now, husband is back from his Italian business trip and brought me this photo:

The quilt I made last spring for the Johns Hopkins University's SAIS Bologna Center is up on the wall in the Director's office!  I think it looks great!

Snow Day

It's another snow day... the eighth this year, I think I heard.  I generally like them because they have the energy of a freebie -- a day free to play.  Not today, though.  My youngest daughter is active in her high school's theatre program... so I am too, and today was spent sewing fringe on a 1920's flapper wedding dress....  

The good news is, I ran out of fringe, so the rest of the day is for playing!  (Although there is that quilt I've been hand-finishing for the last three years, staring me in the face....)