Author: -N-

Tomatoes

I have been busy sewing for the holidays, as well as busy with appointments.  Watercolor has fallen to the wayside – but not forgotten!  Today, before I head out for a sewing class, I decided I wanted to work on white space, such as highlights, without using frisket.  I took some tomatoes, set them on my desk (which has an acrylic protective surface), and painted.  Here ya go!

Reds are actually a challenge as there are subtleties between the different areas.  The same with the yellows of the cherry tomatoes.  I decided to use the complimentary colors to create the shadows within the tomatoes themselves, but used blue for cast shadows in one, and tried to imitate the reflective cast shadows in the other painting, trying to replicate the tomatoes on the shiny acrylic surface.

 

Finished the Quilt Top and Killed My Iron

This is the quilt top, all put together as of noon today!  This is just the top – next Sunday is the border, and then wait until the second class begins sometime next year.  That is when we will add the batting and the back side of the quilt.  And do the binding.  And, I assume, the quilting.  It feels pretty good to be at this point in the quilt, let me tell you!

And, in the middle of all this excitement, my foot wrapped around the cord to my iron – one I have had for 20 years at least and really like – pulled the iron off the counter, and it shattered into a billion pieces of plastic.  “It’s dead, Jim,” to quote someone.  Luckily, I had another iron, older than that one, as back up.

Sacrifices must be made, I guess.  The sewing gods are jealous gods . . .

Quilting Project, i

For the past month, every Sunday, I have been taking a beginning quilting class from 1 to 4 pm. It’s like boot camp! The teacher is detail oriented, explains the whys and wherefores, and is perfect. At this point, we beginners are “piecers” and not quilters. No quilting in this session – to be continued in 2019.

I have been sewing forever, since about 10 or 11, and now that I am closing in on retirement, you can guess that I have been doing it for awhile.  However, quilting is different in some ways.  No backstitching.  Precision seaming.  Scant 1/4 inch seams.  How do my points look?  (Those are where the points of square or triangle meet another piece – are they pointed, blunted, exposed?)  Every time you make a seam, you iron – press the piece flat, open the seam.  Then move on.

In the picture above, you can see that I have set up a small pressing station next to me. This keeps me from getting up and down with each seam. Many people do this. The little iron is really nice – and really inexpensive, too! It’s a “Hot to Trot” mini iron by Sunbeam, with a mini price of $12.99 at Target or on Amazon. It heats up quickly, has steam, has steam bursts, and is comfortable in the hand. The ironing pad is also a cutting board on the other side, but I find it easier to walk over to the drafting table if I need to cut anything (first picture).

The pattern itself is filled with lessons. To read a quilt pattern requires a bit of work, and a poorly written pattern will kill your enthusiasm very quickly. This one was written by the teacher, Becky, and she’s done a really good job. Her being the teacher, she knows this pattern. Last week, I had sewn a couple of pieces wrong – in just a glance, she said, “You need to fix that!” I think I am so – sew? – lucky to have an exacting and knowledgeable instructor. This is really important as I have been to a few other quilting classes and they have all left me very disappointed. While I don’t see myself becoming an obsessive quilter like some people, I know that I am going to walk away with an appreciation of quilting and a new sewing skillset.

Finally, as a birthday present, I was given a lightweight, take-to-class sewing machine by the best guy in the world, mi esposo Josh. I’ve had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the machine, partly because of problems with a foot being made of a flexing, flimsy plastic (which the dealer replaced with a metal foot – much nicer – love goes up, hate goes down), but also because I am learning a new skill with a new machine. This is a Pfaff Passport 3.0, weighing in at less than 15 lbs. Considering one of my machines is a 50 pounder, a portable, class machine is necessary. This machine was made for portability, and in that arena I really like it. In the big picture, I think this machine is a keeper. If I need to have more harp space – the area between the needle and the right hand part of the machine – I can always use a bigger machine. For the quilting, I may bring in my Janome 6500 as it is more powerful, has a quilting table, and more harp space.

Finally, the quilt itself. In class I completed the center square, and then one of the 3 different squares which will surround the center. I need to complete all 12 squares – 3 different patterns – by next Sunday. That is when we start working on the borders, which consist of strips and squares. I think we will also begin on “squaring the quilt” – when you make your quilt an even shape. Or, that may be the final class. The center square is fairly large, and the other squares will surround it. The center square is below. It is a graphical representation of a flower basket.

The surrounding squares are all variants of flower baskets. Below is “square 1” of the three. Each square requires 4 renditions of the same square; yesterday I completed all of this square – all 4 of them. It took a bit of time.

Over the next few days, today included, I will complete the remaining 8 squares. The dog ears will be trimmed. Fortunately, I have cut out all the pieces for the entire quilt – except the border – and placed each one in a baggy, each piece labeled in size and for which square. These are the details Becky has been so good with! It would be all to easy to get lost in colors, shapes, sizes, and so on.

Okay, time for breakfast, and then on to sewing! To be continued . . .

Aspen Grove

I painted this using multiple layers of frisket on the paper.  On the first round, I blocked off the right side of the aspens.  Once I was fairly content with the overall image, I added frisket over various areas, such as the greens and browns of the foliage.  I made lines to represent trees, and dots to suggest a glint of sunshine on a leaf.  I did this three or four times on dried paint.  In the end, I removed the frisket, left some areas white, and painted over other white areas with transparent glazes, hoping to pull together different areas of the painting.  Finally, I made small dots of colored paint in the foliage, to suggest leaves.

This study was to utilize what I have been learning from the experience of following Rick Surowicz’s YouTube videos, as well as what I learned just painting.  This is the first time I conscientiously laid out a plan or method on how to approach the painting.  First, drawing.  Then frisket.  Next, washes of green, gold, brown, and oranges broad across the paper and blurred using a spray bottle and blotting.  From there, details, contrast, and so on.  Overall, I think my painting has taken a turn for the better.