Comfort Cottage

We Shopped 'Til We Dropped For Pink Saturday

I received a note from Beverly at How Sweet the Sound asking me to repost this for Pink Saturday.  It wasn't until I read her note that it occurred to me that yes, there's plenty of pink here!  I think I'm slipping :)

It's been months since my sister and I took our last trip to The Old Country Store.  Yesterday, the weather was cold and clear, and we were ready to rumble :)  We got an early start, and I think we were the first customers in the store!  As usual, there was no shortage of gorgeous fabrics to chose from.  They had many of the new lines and a fresh selection of quilting books as well.  I immediately headed for the mountain of fat quarters which were beautifully arranged according to style and color.  I was not disappointed.  Would you like to see what I came home with?

 

 

These are from French General.  Can you just picture them paired with vintage laces, buttons and vintage jewelry?

 

 

Can you say Oo la la?

 

The next set is at exactly the opposite end of the spectrum...bright, modern and vibrant.  They are from Moda's Terrain collection.

 

Wouldn't they make cute cupcake pincushions?  This pattern by Sandi Henderson of Portabello Pixie is perfect!

I fell in love with this cheerful set.  It's from Riley Blake's Quite Contrary collection by My Mind's Eye.

 

I immediately thought of Heather Bailey's adorable pincushions.

 

 

 

I've had these for awhile now.  I asolutely love them.  They remind me of cotton candy and a summer day.  They're from the Bliss collection by Bonnie and Camille for Moda.

 

Camille Roskelley was featured in the Fall 2010 issue of Where Women Create.

 

 

Isn't her studio cute?

 

Finally, there is a new Moda collection called Prairie Paisley II by Minick and Simpson.

 

 

I've always wanted to do a quilt using the spools block.  I think these fabrics would work really well with a traditional pattern like that.  What do you think?

 

Of course, I really hate to start a new project until I finish the one on the table right now.  I'm making some good progress with it.

 

 

It's all cut out.  It's actually piecing together pretty quickly.  I won't get to work on it again until later tomorrow.  I have to take my son in to have his stitches removed.  His eye is healing well and his cheek has a normal contour to it again.  He's able to see, so we're counting our blessings!  Again, I want to thank all of you for your encouragement and support. It has meant everything to me.

Since I originally posted this last week, I finished the quilt top!

 To visit all of our Pink Saturday participants, just click on the Pink Saturday icon in my right sidebar.  I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend.  I'll be visiting!  Hugs and blessings to you.

Until next time,

 

 

Making My Mark

Today I'm sharing my first piece of art for Week 2 of Traci Bautista's online workshop, Doodles Unleashed.  This week we're working BIG.  The idea is to explore making marks with different water media and stamps.  The finished piece will be cut apart later in the workshop, and used for other art.  I worked it on Strathmore 400 series 140lb cold pressed watercolor paper.  I photographed my process in order to give you a closer look at how my work evolves.

I'll begin with the scene of the crime:

 

For this project, I'll be using two brushes:  a one-inch flat, and a size 8 round.  I worked at my easel so the paint could roll freely down the paper.  Watercolor paper has two sides to it-a smooth side, and a more textured side.  To enhance and speed the dripping, I used the smooth side.  I kept a spray bottle filled with water handy in case the drips didn't roll far enough down the page. 

 

 

Using my flat brush, I loosely painted lines and squiggles.  I mostly use DaVinci Tube Watercolors.  They are a professional grade product, which means that they have a very high concentration of pigment and very little filler.

 

 

Next, I added thinner lines with the round brush and some affirmation words.  I used a limited color palette.  It's important not to mix colors with their complements (Complementary colors are those that are positioned opposite one another on the color wheel).  If you do, you'll get mud!

This project gave me the chance to use my own hand-carved rubber stamps.

 

 

A few were derived from Dover images, but most are my own hand-drawn designs.  I chose two of my own designs to use for my painting.

 

At this point, I switched to using Caran D'Ache Neocolor II water-soluble crayons.  I experimented with getting a good coating of color onto the stamp.  I found that the strongest images were produced when I swiped the stamp with a damp flat brush, and then rubbed the crayon over the stamp until there was a generous coating of color on it. 

 

 

After stamping, I used Derwent watercolor pencils to enhance the images.  I kept a small cup of water close, and dipped the pencils directly into the water as I worked.

 

 

It's time to step back and assess my progress!

 

 

Now, it's time to pull it all together.  I used Portfolio Water-Soluble Oil Pastels and Caran D'ache Neocolor II crayons to add in blocks of color and accents.

 

 

 

 

After I shot this photo, I noticed the curious effect of the light filtering through the blinds.  I think that it would be interesting when printed out and incorporated into a collage.

 

 

My Neocolor IIs are my favorite art supplies!

 

 

I decided to use my alphabet stencils at the end so I could choose small parts of them and place them where they would be visible.  I sprayed watered down watercolor paint over them.  I love the look of splattered paint.  I had a Neocolor II crayon in my hand, so I tried dipping it in the water and flinging it over the paper.  It worked great!  A word of caution if you have bad aim:  cover the wall behind your easel.  Fortunately, I painted my walls with scrubbable paint.  Dark blue splatters were not what I had in mind when I decorated the room!

 

 

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed this time in my studio.  Let me know what you think of the post.  If the response is positive, I'll plan more posts like it in the future.  Happy painting!

 

Until next time,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Bit of Purple

I've always loved the color purple.  I even had purple tweed wallpaper and purple flowers in my bedroom as a teen.  Today's art journal page has a bit of purple in it too.

 

 

What did your room look like when you were a teen?  I'd really like to hear from you.

 

 

This is where I do my art journaling.  It's a bit chaotic, but I like it that way.

 

Happiness is 84 colors (er, well, 103-I ordered some extra colors)!

 

For all of you digital artists out there, I have one question.  Have you seen the Spring '11 issue of Somerset Digital Studio?  It's fantastic.  Not only does it feature fabulous digital art, but if you purchase the magazine, you get a free (yep, free) digital kit called Color Splash from Deviant Scrap to use for your art projects. 

 

  I think I'll get back to my Victorian quilt book tomorrow.  Come and see me again soon.   I love knowing you're out there, creating what you love most!

 

Until next time,

 

Hurricane Season

 
I woke up this morning, turned on the computer, and looked around at my studio.  Yup, it's hurricane season, and my studio looks like an F5 blew through here. I try to stay organized...HONEST!!  Somehow, as a show approaches, the winds start to blow.  The more my creative brain starts to warm up, the bigger the storm!  Just a few weeks ago, I was so proud of my newly reorganized space.

Then, my creative cogs began to turn, steam started coming out of my ears, and, well...here it is...the ugly truth.

 

 

 
 

 

 

There's a pile of prewashed tea towels calling my name.  Oh goody...ironing.

They'll be pretty...I promise!

Of course, I must see EVERY piece of fabric before I make a decision.

It's sort of like the second law of thermodynamics:  all things break down.

Sigh.

Have a beautiful day!

Sew Much Fun

My White sewing machine, "Old Faithful" seldom gets a break.  I've been working on a gift for a dear friend of mine.   Would you like to join me in the studio?

I found this wonderful quilting book by Nancy Halvorsen at my local quilt shop, Hayloft Fabrics.  It is packed with incredibly cute projects that make very special gifts. 

 

At the time I found this book, Hayloft was also carrying the new line of fabrics, Garden Song.  Of course I had to have a little of each one, so I bought fat quarters in every pattern.  I was like a kid in a candy store!

 

I wanted to do them all, but I decided on one for my friend and chose the fabrics to use.

It's really important to prewash your fabrics if you are going to do fusible applique.  I learned this lesson the hard way when I made my son's baby quilt.  The reason you prewash is to remove the size from the fabric.  If you don't, your appliques will peel off like an onion skin after the first wash!  Next, I press my fabrics before cutting.

 

I like HeatnBond to adhere my appliques, but there are many good products that you can find at your local fabric and craft stores.  You can place it right over the patterns in your book and trace them.

I cut my HeatnBond pieces just outside of the pattern lines so that when I fuse them to the fabric and cut it out, the adhesive prevents the edges from fraying.  Also, if you cut out the centers of each piece of HeatnBond, your appliques won't be "stiff".

After I cut out my fabric appliques, I peel off the paper backing leaving the adhesive on the back of the fabric.  I use a dry iron (no steam) set on a low setting to fuse the appliques to the background.  Then I machine zigzag stitch around each piece.

 

Isn't this fun?  It doesn't take much to get me excited!

I love when a project combines dimensional items such as buttons and embroidery.  I sandwiched a piece of thin quilt batting between the top and the backing fabric and basted them together.  Finally I added borders, hanging loops and a little hand-quilting.  In a very short time, I had a lovely gift for a very special friend.

I hope you enjoyed our studio time.  If you have any questions about quilting, I'd love to hear from you.  You can email me or drop a comment on my post.    Have a great day!

Quilt Studio of My Dreams

Lately,  my creative life has read like the plot for a bad horror movie.  You know what I mean:  those old Chiller Theater flicks that we'd stay up late for as kids.  Sometimes you'd be so freaked out, you'd be afraid to go to bed.  My quilting supplies had become a kind of colorful ooze,  somehow escaping every attempt at containment.  Every time I'd open the door to my sewing room/bedroom (yes, they are one and the same), I found that the ooze had spread.   Menacingly, it wound its way around my neck,  eventually cutting off the blood supply to my creative brain.  {blood-curdling scream}

In most horror movies it's the same.  You're sitting on the edge of your seat as the victim of the moment has their hand poised over the door knob.  If a pin were to drop, you'd launch, creating a new sky light in your ceiling.  Through your fingers, you watch in terror,  yelling, "No!! Don't go down there!"  As the victim meets her unfortunate end, you ask yourself, "Why do they always have to go into the basement?"  Unlike our victim, I changed the script, and stopped going into my little shop of horrors.  I couldn't think in there, much less create.  To an artist, that's a fate worse than death. 

When the script stinks, not even the best of actors can save it.  This one needed a serious rewrite.  The new one reads like this:  She ran from the house, armed herself with organizational artillery, and returned to conquer the ooze.  It screamed and fought, but after two weeks, it succumbed.  Now it is her slave, rather than her master.  Creative bliss returned.

 

 

Those movies never show you the happily ever after, so I'm going to share mine.

 

Not only did I have to acquire said organizational artillery,  I had to assemble it too!  You can't imagine the contortions I had to bend myself into to get this stuff together.  It weighed a ton!  Even the baskets and boxes had to be assembled.  IKEA's stuff is surprisingly durable and inexpensive, but you pay the difference in sweat.

 

Aren't those striped boxes cute?  They're reinforced with metal and they had to be screwed together.

 

I love yo-yos!  They're so colorful and versatile!

 

"Bliss"  is the new fabric collection by Camille Roskelley.    She was featured in the latest issue of Where Women Create.   It's my favorite of the Somerset Studio magazines.   It is also the focus of a wonderful website of the same name.  If you want to be inspired, check it out.

I still haven't figured out what I want to do with the antique flour sacks and feed sacks.

The Branas baskets came in several sizes.  This size was perfect for my fat quarters.

I found the jar of buttons in a dark corner of the local antique/curiosity shop.  The natural linen came from one of the town's thrift shops.   I paid just pennies for several yards.  It's wonderful for embroidery and wool applique.

 

These Dunroven cotton towels are so versatile.  They can be embroidered and appliqued.  I've made basket liners from them, as well as aprons.  The fabric is wonderfully thick and sturdy.

I brought my favorite quilting and sewing books up to the studio.   I'm a huge fan of Thimbleberries books and fabrics by Lynette Jensen.

It's no secret that I haunt the local thrift stores, and I hit the jackpot with these fabrics.  I adore red, and that strawberry fabric (8 yards of it!) would be perfect for curtains in a retro kitchen.  It goes perfectly with all of my antique red and white kitchenware.

 

This eight foot high cabinet is actually an old IKEA piece.  My girlfriend gave it to me when she was moving out of her house.  It used to be white, but the room needed black to tie in with the black and white toile, and it grounds the room.  It had painfully garish brass hardware which I traded out for brushed antique pewter handles.  I keep some art books and magazines in the top, plus a few other odds and ends I've acquired along the way

Any ideas on what to do with antique chandelier crystals besides jewelry?  They were another thrift store find.

In the bottom, I keep all of my embroidery/crazy quilt supplies.  Those little plastic drawers are a lifesaver!

I'm so happy to finally have my space organized again.  When everything is in place, it leaves the imagination free to wander.  I'm so much more productive now.  Stay tuned for more on my sewing projects to come.  Have a wonderful day, and thanks for coming by to see my studio!

 

 

Painter's Heaven

I've visited a lot of you out there in blogland and more than once you've referred to your creative space as your happy place.  I understand.  I have been blessed with my own room where I make my creative dreams come true.  To me, it's a little piece of heaven.  It could use a little cosmetic surgery, but all the important stuff is there!

Unfortunately, like many creative people, I've developed a bit of a problem.  I love color and making art so much that I've gone down too many avenues.  My studio has reached a point where I haven't wanted to go into it because it's overflowing with STUFF!   I'd need to take out an insurance policy before I let anyone in there!  They might not come out alive.  I've come to a conclusion:  Sometimes, we can accumulate too much.  I've found that I have so many directions I could go, that I've developed a kind of "creative paralysis".  

The bottom line is this:  It's possible to clutter your mind and your space with so much stuff that it becomes impossible to concentrate on anything!  It's sort of like "creative ADD".    It's taken a lot of soul-searching, but I've finally arrived at the place where I'm ready to let go of some things in order to concentrate on a few things that I truly love.  I can't believe how amazingly liberating this is!  After twelve years of collecting an incredible number of wooden rubber stamps (there may be those willing to die for this collection), I've decided to begin selling them off.  I also decided to unload my entire polymer clay outfit (You could start a small business on that collection!)

I want to share with you one of the things I truly enjoy doing.  It's the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning and makes my heart beat faster just thinking about it.  The pictures say it all.

I began decorative painting about seventeen years ago.  Recently, because of so many other distractions, I haven't been doing as much painting.  With every other media competing for my attention, it just wasn't fun anymore.

 

I'm on a mission to complete several works in progress.  This one is a re-purposed  antique door that has been partially finished for several years.  I'm about a week away from completion.  When it's done, I'll post photos!

 

If there is anything I've learned in my creative travels, it is that the right tools are essential to a good result!

This excites me more than a basketful of Hershey's miniatures! 

 

 

I've always shied away from oils until last year.  I tried the water-soluble ones and they're really the best of both worlds.  They look and behave like oils, but cleanup is as easy as soap and water!

Oh, the possibilities!  In life, as well as in the studio, a new canvas and a fresh start are always exciting.  Seize the moment!

It always begins with a sketch...an idea...a desire.  Begin right where you are.  You never know where the path may lead.   Often we don't know what we're being prepared for.  That's where faith comes in.  Take the first step, and as my dad used to say, "Keep putting one foot in front of the other."

Oh, and one final word of advice:  A coffee mug on the painting table is a health hazard.  The paint brush usually ends up in it rather than in the rinse tub.

I truly hope you find joy in whatever you do.  God bless you until next time!

 

Studio Time

Hi everyone!  I'm sending you a great big cheerful hello from my cozy studio!  Today is a special day.    "Why?" do you ask?  It's TAKE YOUR BLOGGING FRIENDS TO WORK DAY,  here at Comfort Cottage!  Yes,  we're going to try to forget the 70 mph hurricane force winds that ripped through here on Friday, accompanied by yet another dumping of snow, and I'm going to share a little of what goes on here in the studio.  Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between the hurricanes that occur outside and the ones that occur in here.

Before we get started I'd like to send out a thank you to Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for bringing us all together.  Stop by and see her, and you'll find out who else  is attending the pink party today.

I visited Gail at Decorating My Tin Shack for the first time, last week.  She has the most delightful collection of pincushions.  I know you'll want to see them, so stop by and say hello!

I hope you have had enough time to grab a cup of hot cocoa and a muffin.  Find a seat and I'll share with you my "pillow" process.

Okay, so my decision won't affect the course of history, but hey, it is really tough to choose between so many luscious pink fabrics!

 

Once I've decided on a fabric (or two, or three...), I choose some laces or trims.

Can you tell, I've been hanging around at thrift shops for too long?  The piles of lace are growing and growing...

Maybe a crocheted doily would be better.  What do you think?

 Of course, white always looks nice.

 
Okay, I've finally arrived at the right combination.

 

Quick, put everything away before I change my mind again!

Now where are my tools?

I love my Mary Engelbreit pincushion!  Isn't it cute?

 

Just let me check the drawing one more time and then I'll start cutting out the pieces. 

Maybe no one will notice that humongous pile of fabric behind my chair.  Oh well, it is a working studio!  If I waited until I got it straightened up, I'd never be able to show it to you.  I do reorganize from time to time and I usually discover that I need MORE STORAGE!

Let me introduce you to my old friend.  It's a White 2121 and we've been together for more than twenty years now.  We've made everything together.  We even teamed up to make my very first quilt in 1990.

 

 

Okay, here's the deal.  It's 11:30 EST on Friday night.  I'm beat, but I want to get in these last photos.  So, the rest of this will be no frills!

Behold the aftermath of the creative storm!  Does this look familiar?  No matter how organized I am when I start, the end result is always the same.

In the end, it's usually worth it.  Drum roll please!

The chair cover is a little distracting, but you get the idea.

 

Well, that's about all I can manage tonight!  I may sleep in a bit, but I'll be around to visit you.  God bless you all and good morning!