Prompt #28 and Printing

The creative prompt number 28 is blue. First I did this drop.........is it a raindrop? a teardrop or perhaps a drop of blue blood? you decide. Now if you happen to be a reader of Kathy's Quilts you will know that she is very fond of blueberries and that is what prompted this one. Click on Clara the Cow on my side bar to learn more about the creative prompts, come join in.

My most recent post showed several fabrics I had painted and plan to use for postcards, here they are after spending some time being run through my printer. Now they are ready to "embellish" with thread, more paint, inks and possibly even some beading.
In the past, whenever I put fabric through my printer I kinda held my breath and hoped for the best.
It is always so annoying to have a nicely prepared piece get jammed in the printer and even though I make sure that the fabric is thoroughly adhered to freezer paper it can still happen.
Over the last couple of days I have run more than 2 dozen sheets through the printer with each attempt being successful due to the following extra step.

Once I have pressed the fabric to freezer paper and cut it to size, I then zigzag stitch it to a piece of card stock. Just the bottom edge is all it takes and now there is no curling or separating which is usually the reason for a bad result.

Edit: I forgot to mention that you want to be absolutely sure you clip those threads tails completely off. You don't want any loose thread that can get pulled into your printer and do nasty things.

A friend is moving from her home that she has lived in for more than 50 years in which she raised 5 children. I send her postcards every now and then, I wanted to send a special one for this particular move.
I took a photo of her home, played in my Photoshop program and came up with this. I plan to send it to the new apartment and hope she will like it when it is complete.


Please go over to Quilt Hollow's site and read her 2 most recent posts. It involves Etsy and what you need to do to ensure that you keep your name should you ever decide to become an Etsy seller. She found out too late that someone else has taken her name, not actually using it, and tried to sell it to her (Etsy rules do not allow the selling of a name) She is urging you to register your name there. I have, even though I am not selling anything on Etsy at this time, this way I can be sure that in the event I wish to in the future, I will be able to keep the identity people associate with me and my work. It takes only a couple of minutes and cost nothing.

Painting fabrics and "Crave"

This week's prompt is Crave, Jaye asks 'what do you crave'?
I crave inspiration and ideas so my response is a light bulb.
If you crave hot fudge sundaes or scrumptious chocolate cake, here is an excuse to indulge. The plastic containers that those treats come in can be useful items in your studio. Use the sundae containers when mixing fabric paint, snap the lid in place to store the excess. The cake containers make handy lidded bowls when inverted, they are just the right size to rinse a small amount of fabric or for soaking in Bubble Jet set solution.

I plan to print more of my prompt responses onto fabric destined to become postcards so I thought I'd create some interesting background pieces.

I began by covering my table with an inexpensive piece of 8 gauge vinyl, instead of actually painting, I pour the paint onto the work surface and then lay or drag the fabric in the paint.
I change and add colours as I go until I have something of interest.



I scrunch them up, toss coarse salt on top and leave them to dry. I really like the way the tone on tones act as a resist with the paint.

I think these will do nicely.

Postcard backs and this week's doodle

This week's creative prompt word is house. Here is my response.

How do you make your postcard backs? Up until now I have used cotton on which I have transferred text using various methods such as the use of T shirt transfer paper, printing directly onto the fabric as well as some photocopy transfer techniques. While these all get the job done they can be time consuming and at times, expensive methods. I like the backs to be neat, tidy and legible, something I don't always achieve when I do it by hand.
While attending this year's Grand National quilt show (all postcards), I noticed that several artist's were actually using some form of paper on the backs of their cards so I began playing with the idea of printing on card stock. It works great but since printer inks will run and bleed when they get wet you need to take it a step further cause you can't always count on the mail staying dry. You can do several things, one is to simply make your finished card it's own clear envelope............I cut the "zip" off a zip lock sandwich bag, it is the perfect size to slip the card into and tape closed after you have had the stamp hand canceled, I checked with the postal outlet and was told this was a quite acceptable way to post these. If you don't want to do that you can photocopy on card stock ( photocopies don't run) I checked with Staples to be sure this could be done at the self serve copiers and they assured me this was no problem. Using my computer I created the back you see here complete with my "signature" initials.
Two fit nicely on a standard 8.5"x 11" sheet, just think of the possibilities.

Doodles that I had previously printed were made into cards this week. I think most, if not all of my prompt doodles will become postcards.....might be some giveaways in the future.
I played with paints and inks on both the foot (journey) and bee (queen), I like this look much better than the colour pencil.
I love to do free motion stitching so the postcards make a great excuse to sit and play. A hot dry iron and some fusible web was used to secure the back of the card then I stitched as I would normally. Take care not to stitch too densely.

Magic

Here are my doodles for the current word prompt magic.
I am officially caught up now that I have posted responses to all 25 word prompts to date. I had lots of ideas for magic but stopped with these two, a Magician's hat with magic wand
and of course who should be without a magic carpet?




Jaye has recently set up a flickr group here where you will soon be able to see every one's responses once they all have had time to join and add their photos to the pool.

I don't have any quilting to show at this time.
The quilt for my sister was a priority for me this summer and now that it is completed I am working on designs for several projects that I can not show just yet........besides I hear the beach calling

Creative Prompt "Remember" & print play

Creative prompt #24 was Remember and in response to it, I decided to doodle a diary. Too bad I can't find the key....might be some interesting stuff in there.

I also spent a little time transferring some of my previous doodles to fabric. Some were printed directly onto fabric while others were done using a photocopy transfer method involving the use of a solvent. Then as you can see I added a little colour to a few using coloured pencil and textile medium. I don't really care for the added colour all that much. ( I much prefer those black and white or grayscale images), however, I kinda like the way the exclamation mark looks.
I am planning on turning these all into postcards at some point but for now just testing a few ideas. Gotta make more play time and get out the paints and inks.

If you are new to my blog and want to know more about these creative prompts or possibly join in,, click on the picture of Clara the Cow on my sidebar.

My First Blog Award!

Molly Fryer at Molly's Place has bestowed this award on me.
It is the "Its a Major" award. This award goes to anyone who
likes to smile and or laugh and just generally spreads that along in this blogging community in which we all travel.
The quilt I am making for my sister is a design created by Molly. I took a few liberties with it but it was the perfect foundation for this quilt which I am happy to report is finished and ready to be given to my sister. The label is on and the quilt has been washed and dried so that it has that wonderful crinkly look and that fabulous soft feel. More about the this quilt's significance can be found here or click on Rose on my sidebar to read all the posts about this quilt.



So Thank you Molly, not only for the award but for creating such a wonderful quilt pattern and sharing it with us all.


Now I think I should pass this award on as well.
So to Kathy of Kathy's Quilt's...........I really enjoy your blog, you are a busy, busy gal who always makes me smile.
and to the Comic Book Lady at Quilt as Desired who shares my enthusiasm for art quilting and is a constant source of encouragement.
To Jaye at ArtQuiltmaker for her creative prompts. Jaye has made me realize that I have a wealth of original designs just waiting to emerge.

I am really not quite sure what the rules are for passing along awards of this type but I think I'll stop here even though there are so many more bloggers out there who keep me focused, encouraged and entertained as well.

Almost Caught up.

Ever since I was contacted by Linda M Poole and told about the Creative Prompts Project at Jaye's ArtQuiltmaker blog, I have been doodling away trying to get caught up. I am pleased to say that I have now all but one finished. I also finally figured out how to get Clara the Cow to live on my sidebar, click on her to learn more, see what others are doing or catch the doodling bug just like I have.
For the prompt Beginning I did an egg




For Excitement I doodled an exclamation mark



Kindness is represented by a heart that contains
the words "lending a helping hand"



Air?............. how about the way a dandelion's seed float
through the air even on days with little or no breeze.



It was when Linda came across this postcard I was showing, that she invited me to join their group.But since the postcard
had been done before I learned of these prompts I wanted to do something a little different so here is a Spring



For Bubbles I could not resist playing with a Lava Lamp,
Okay, I know that those are really wax blobs in there but
they still kinda look like bubbles to me when I was a kid.






The last and most recent one I have to show is for the word
Look, I chose to draw a magnifying glass................
click on it if you want a closer look :-)





Something I have just this moment realized is that I have not signed any of these................do you sign all of your work? I make labels for my quilts but I almost never sign anything I try to draw or sketch. Do you really need to sign a doodle???

Sneak Peak

I am making progress on the quilt for my sister Rose. I hope to complete the quilting and start binding it by the middle of next week.
I almost never mark my quilts for stitching and rarely plan anything. I quilt on my domestic machine where I just begin in the middle and work my way out.

Here is a sneak peak at the back. Hopefully you can see some of the detail by clicking on the image.

I like to vary the stitching, so you will see some meandering, a little McTavishing, a few feathers......I have never done feathers on a quilt before but I LOVED doing them and I am quite pleased with how these turned out so I just might get a little more brave on my next project.












I also added a few little "hidden" things like this sail boat and hammer, each are only two and a half inches in size. For these I drew my outline with a black sharpie marker onto some water soluble stabilizer, once pinned in place, I simply stitched the outline and then tore away the stabilizer.


Just a couple of borders left to quilt.

A few more doodles

I can't stop the doodling. Jaye at ArtQuiltmaker challenges us each week with a new prompt, read about how it works here. I have to say that I had never tried anything like this before and had no idea that I had this sort of doodling in me. I am finding this to be an absolutely fabulous exercise. Now that I have started I just can't stop.
A friend, fellow guild member and blogger, the Comic Book Lady is challenging herself in a similar fashion, check out this awesome art quilt she came up with and see what she plans to do with it.

Okay ya, I know this is a quilt blog but I assure you many of these doodles will find their way into my quilt projects and I am actually keeping that thought in mind as I put pen to paper. If you are a regular reader you know I am still trying to catch up so instead of posting one at a time, I post several and will continue to do so for a little while yet.

Here are some of my responses to a few of the more recent prompts. The "footprint" you see above is for the word journey.



Here is my answer to........ time
I knew immediately that I wanted to use an hour glass but as I worked I decided to add all sorts of words that might precede time.



The word percolate led to this



................and finally you see my doodle for circle

Creative Prompt Doodles

The following doodles/drawings are the result of an exercise I came across on ArtQuiltmaker's blog, where you can read more about it all on the creative prompts page, scroll down toward the bottom and you will see a list of words, by clicking on each word you will find links to others terrific responses to these prompts.
I am just going to show you some of the doodles I have done so far. I have plans to take each of them a step further. I see a wonderful opportunity for art quilts, stamp carving, stenciling, free motion embroidery and creating batiks using resist and dye. I'll post the next stage when I get time to develop my ideas further. I got started a little late so I am first going to show some of the earlier prompts and in a day or so I'll post some of the more recent ones. I hope to eventually get caught up and have something done for each of the weekly prompts.

The one you see above is my response to the word "source" ..............a hand can be the source of many things, two that come to mind are pain and comfort.

At times, I just like to play a bit with lettering so here you see my responses to Beacon and Dream.















Sometimes I have to think a while about what I will draw and at
other times it is immediate as in my response to the word, light
how about "light as a feather"



Some of my responses are pretty self explanatory, like in the case of words such as trees or orange.










While others likely require you to know what I was thinking as I scribbled. In this next case I happened to be enjoying a
gorgeous afternoon at the beach and the thought occurred
to me that I was being rather "bold" wearing a bikini at my age when I absolutely do NOT look like this.


I must admit that I am completely enjoying this exercise in creativity, why not give it a try yourself?