What's Creating Today - 2015

For the last few months I have been "sew" single minded in the studio.  My focus of late has been working on many of my art quilting projects, and making items for my Etsy store. And while it was nice to take a creative break from doing any art journaling or mixed media art, I didn't realize how much I had missed it until I got the e-mail about iHanna's spring DIY postcard swap.  I always look forward to the swap because it gives me a chance to experiment creatively and share my discoveries with others.  And the best part is that in return I get wonderful postcards from others which always delight and inspire me.  I received so many wonderful cards from all over the world this swap and I am looking forward to sharing those with you in my next post.

First though I thought I would share the postcards I created for the swap.  My approach to this swap, as was to the last swap, was to work on my collage art.  I love collage.  I love combining imagery in layers and how in doing so it can convey hidden in "plain sight" meaning and message.  And what I especially love about collage is the ease in which I can drop in and out of creating one without worrying about being able to pick up where I left off in the creative flow.  Too many times when I am ready to sit down and art journal, my brain gets in the way of the creative process.  Thinking and planning a journaling layout for me often creates a mental and creative block to getting anything done on the page.  With collage there is no thinking or planning, just layering.

So onto the cards:

 

The above was the first card I made.  And after I finished making it I photographed it, which I did after every card I made for the swap.  I learned from quilting that sometimes your perspective is skewed by looking down at something lying on a table.  In quilting when dealing with larger applique pieces that are still in progress and cannot be hung on a design wall, taking a photo of the piece often gives you a different perspective that can be valuable in your layout.  It also helps you to make observations in a general sense on how your work is progressing, or analyze things you have already done.  In looking at the photos of the cards I made I began to see trends in my work.  Here is what I observed (in no particular order):

 

Observation 1 -   I mostly work with images and backgrounds in pastel or brighter colors.

 

Observation 2 - I use a lot of vintage imagery that is thought provoking.

Observation 3 - I usually include a message.

 

 

Observation 4 - I use a lot of little scraps.

 

Observation 5 - I do a lot of detail cutting.

 

Observation 6 - My cards almost always have a very decidedly feminine feel.

 

Observation 7 - I love to use a script stamp on backgrounds or incorporate them on little scraps.

 

Observation 8 - I almost always include flowers, butterflies or birds.

 

I hope you enjoyed looking at my cards.  Feel free to leave your comments, they are always appreciated.  Look for my next blog post coming soon on the cards I received for the postcard swap. 

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Happy Creating!

 

 

 

What's new at The Loft - Episode 116

MY LIFE IS A CREATIVE WORK IN PROGRESS

I have many times in the past looked over how my focus has shifted from one hobby to another, and wondered what my friends and family must think of me.  I think my husband and kids find me insane at how my creative focus keeps shifting from one pursuit to another.  In moments of self reflection I have discovered a lot of things about myself and why I am the way I am, and why I can't seem to focus on any one creative pursuit.  Instead of relating this always changing focus to some sort of attention disorder, I have begun to realize that it stems from a desire to learn. 

I've never been one for school but I was always most happiest in school in my classes that dealt more with a creative nature than traditional subjects and book reading.  These many  "hobbies" (my latest passion is mini art quilts) I've pursued over the years come from my own endless need for creative learning.  More over they are an integral part of who I am, even in those times in my life when they could only be seen in the smallest measure.  I love to create, and it's a passion that burns inside me brightly and at times is so strong that I find it difficult to focus on other things.  On days when I'm so tired and stressed from my "day" job that all I want to do is pop in a movie and relax I still find myself planning out my next project, looking for inspiration, or just trying to work out problems with projects I've put temporarily on hold.  I also often find that some of my best ideas or problem resolution comes when I'm trying to drift off to sleep, which is why I have gotten into the habit of leaving a note pad and pen on my nightstand.

The downside of course is that there always comes a stumping point of for me in the creative process.  In my own desire to be more artistically creative, I find that original thought becomes more and more of an obstacle.  I want to do something creative but I confound myself with too much thinking about originality, instead of more creative "play".  But inspiration sometimes is just a matter of how you look and interpret things, or perhaps just a matter of recycling what you have already done.

 For those of you who have read my blog for a while, you are probably already familiar with my 2010 ATC 3.6.5 challenge, where each day I made one ATC per day for the whole year.  Two years later staring at 150 of those cards which now sit at a giant piece of wall art in my living room, (photo of canvas) it hit me that I had 365 days of inspiration and original thought so why not just change the medium and turn some of these into mini art quilts.

One of my favorite ATC's I created during the challenge was an original piece called "The Tree of Four Seasons".  I selected this one because it was colorful and the design could be replicated simply.

Here is the fabric version, what do you think?

The muslin base was divided into quadrants for one color to represent each season and then I began layering the specific colors to their quadrant.I used a free motion stitch to hold all in place once I had the background looking the way I wanted to. 

I used embroidery floss and more free motion stitching to embellish the circles.

 

 

This was a fun project and really helped jump start more creative ideas I have for additional mini art quilts which I will share with you in the future.


MORE RICHARD ARMITAGE

Further to my June 12th post which had a small segment at the bottom called "My Mother's Day breakfast with Richard Armitage" I was so excited to learn that Mr. Armitage would in fact be attending the San Diego Comic-Con 2012 in July to promote The Hobbit.  My hubby attended Comic-Con again this year but unfortunately he did not win the lottery for a spot in the autograph signing line, however I was more than thrilled when he sent me a few photos back. 

Here's a poster of Mr. Armitage in costume as Thorin

They also had a life sized replica of Mr. Amitage's character from The Hobbit on display.

Of course here is what he normally looks like without the beard

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'm working on a few new concepts and look forward to sharing more of my work in the future.  As always comments are welcome so feel free to send me a note and let me know what you think. 

Bye for now

What's new at The Loft - Episode 115

In my last post I hinted that I would have an announcement soon and after many months of discussing, planning and stressing I'm happy to announce that...

MY ETSY STORE IS FINALLY OPEN!!!

The shop right now only has one listing but we will be adding more in the near future, so stop by and let me know what you think.



Mini Art Quilts

I recently took a thread art mini quilt class with my good friend and quilting mentor Teri Morrow.  She is amazingly talented and creative, and a wonderfully patient teacher.  In her class we learned how to make these fun little scrappy mini art quilts with layered backgrounds, applique and LOTS of free motion stitching to not only secure the layers but to accentuate the applique with an almost hand drawn look using thread.  Teri had given us a choice from two of her original designs to work on in class.  I chose the below design to learn the technique.   

I loved this project so much that I couldn't wait to do the other one of Teri's designs (below).

I was so inspired that I wanted to see if I could duplicate a picture, so I found this cute picture online and went to work.

And here is how she turned out

This project was a challenge but I am really happy with the way it turned out.



Well that's all I have for today.  Comments are always welcome so feel free to drop me a note and let me know what you think.  Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.