Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Summer of Color

This week the challenge is baseball nut which is vanilla ice cream with ribbons of black raspberry and studded with cashews.  I had some fun with these colors.

My first piece is a sketch that I colored with Prismacolors.  It is from a Lifebook lesson on how to draw whimsical animals.  Here is my puppy.

The next piece is a watercolor painting that I did in my journal.  I used pearlescent watercolors so she has a lot of shimmer.  



 The last piece is a small quilt that is different than my other two.  I used strips in the colors and twisted and sewed them down.  The ends are left free to flutter in the breeze.
Now I am off to finish preparing for my daughter's open house in four days.  After that I will be back to creating.  Have a good week.
Janelle  

Friday, June 22, 2012

Summer of Color

I have finally finished my art for the mint chocolate chip week.  I had fun working with greens and browns this week.
My first piece for this week was a sketch that was colored with Prismacolor pencils.  She is a woodland elf.
The next piece that I made was an acrylic painting done in my journal.  I had to do a wooded landscape for my elf.
The last piece I made was another little quilt.  This was just another abstract piece.  I'm liking these little quilts.  They are pretty quick to make and have a lot of texture.  


I haven't had the time that I want right now to look and comment on all the great art that everyone is creating.  My oldest child graduated from high school this year and I'm in the middle of cleaning and preparing for a big party for her.  I have one more week till the party and then I will have more time to check out everyone's blogs.  For now have a great week and keep creating wonderful art.
Janelle  


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Summer of Color

This is the first page of my journal for this summer's challenge.

This week on summer of color ice cream inspirations the color was rainbow sherbet- including bold oranges, pinks, yellows, and a hint of white.  I came up with three different projects for this color.

The first one was in combination with a Lifebook lesson where we made blob art animals.  I used the sherbet colors to make my blobs.  This was a fun way to come up with some fun funky animals.


On the back I glued some scrap book paper just to make it look nice.  It folds into a little accordion book.
 The second project that I did was an abstract painting.  I painted this in a new watercolor Moleskine journal.  

The last project that I made was a small quilt.  I hand dye cotton fabric in the summer so I have a stash of colors already and I added some extra pinks for this week.  These are the fabrics that I used for this small quilt.
This quilt is 7 1/2" by 7 1/2" finished. 
 I layered different sizes of circles on my muslin background and laid a sheer white polyester over top of the whole piece and then free motion stitched it all down.  Next I layered five circles of fabric of the same size down and stitched around the outside.  I did this four times.  Then I cut away portions of the circles so that all the layers could be seen.  Then I stitched a spiral around the circles. I finished the edges using a pillowcase technique.   I wet the quilt down and rubbed the edges of the circles to get it to fray a bit for the last step. 
Here is a close up of one of the circles.  My stitching isn't the neatest, but this was a good way for me to get back to quilting for the summer.  I have been spending most of my time painting this last year, but I want to keep on making art quilts too. 

Now I'm gathering ideas for the next challenge which is mint chocolate chip.  There is still plenty of time to join this fun challenge so check it out at Summer of Color.

Have a great week,
Janelle






Thursday, June 7, 2012

Lifebook

I made a butterfly for my Lifebook lesson this week.  I love butterflies, so this lesson was fun to do.

I am also working on some blob art pieces that aren't quite done yet.  The outdoors is taking more of my attention too.  I have been picking strawberries and helping my sister's garden this week.  I need to spruce up my gardens and lawn soon too, because my daughter's open house for graduation is getting closer.

I have also been dyeing fabric this week in preparation for the summer of color challenge.  This week the colors are rainbow sherbet, with oranges, yellows, pinks, and a touch of white.
Here are the fabrics that I am using.
I will hopefully have this project done by Monday, so I can share with everyone.
Have a great weekend
Janelle

Monday, June 4, 2012

Color of Summer Two

I am participating in Summer of Color 2 this year hosted by the lovely Kristin at Twinkle Twinkle.  Go here to find all about the wonderful community and this summer's challenge: Summer of Color 2.
This weeks color is Rainbow Sherbet with bold oranges, pinks, yellows, and a hint of white.  I am already thinking about what I want to do for this week.  I can tell you that I have some plans to dye fabric in various shades of pinks to round out this weeks colors in my stash.  I also have a watercolor Moleskine notebook that I got for Christmas that has been dying to be filled. Come back soon to see what I have come up with for this week.  Please join in on the fun yourself too, because it is a great way to start of the summer.
Janelle