May Day ...Celebrate

      

       The sun is out. May Day beckons one to create festive baskets for neighbors' doors. There are numerous videos and instructions to make cone baskets with ribbons, filling them with flowers, and secretly leaving on a door handle! Next year for certain! Google May Day baskets and join me next year.

       Today I want to share the birthday card part of celebrations. Every time the grandchildren had a birthday I made a card to go with their gift. At first the cards were mini journal quilts and with age have become mini posters. I rely mostly on Comic Life, a Plasq company to create since it is fast and fun. Great company to deal with. http://plasq.com/apps/comiclife/macwin/ You can try it for free. First, some quilts:

Hannah at 5

Erika at 2

    For paper cards,  open the Comic Life app, choose a page to work on, find a photo to use and write a poem that fits the grandchild this year. I find ways to insert the poem in a bubble, choosing different backgrounds, fonts, balloons. You have to be flexible, expect changes over the years but not be shy to look around for all that is offered to play with and click on. The tools are not just for comics!

And it is not too late to make a May Day basket!

Pandemic Surprise.

Shock, surprise. What happens when we take off our masks and see each other in person? 

Every birthday I write a poem or doggerel for the grandchildren along with a small quilt, or now a card. With little information I search for photos and put them into Comic Life which enlarges and makes smaller without loss.  I collected photos from young to teen last year, but I asked Erika if I could see her favorite photo should I want to paint her. I had sent her birthday card, but when I got the photos of this year, her favorites without the mask, I saw she had grown up and I needed another card,  I returned to Comic Life. I added a flattening filter just for fun and more mystery.

The first card I created, made more sense of the "ears." Looking at the two, you can see what a difference a year has made...what I didn't see happening under the mask.We will all have plenty of visual surprises once this pandemic has passed, as it will. Click to enlarge.

Painting Daily here ...always available model

     Ignoring the serial snowstorms, Joe drops me at the Boston MFA every Thursday to paint a series, in my case, self portraits. I love my classmates and teacher. Sadly, there are only two more classes. When I get home, I paint some more, all in acrylic. NO MORE. I am transitioning back to oils, alkyds (faster drying oils because of the resin) and maybe encaustic.  I ordered a cardboard carrier for wet paintings, and it will be a joy to return to this easier medium.

      Whereas I painted 18 self portraits, two were a different size and not included in these photos. These are all 9 x 12's, on cardboard backs of legal tablets or in the last few, on canvas boards. I won't have any problem tossing, but in deep concentration, I learned something on every effort. After class is over, I will either return to a bigger canvas and my engagement with art history subject matter (see LindaHicksweb.com) or enjoy the suggestions of Carol Marine in her book Daily Painting for a 6" x 6" painting a day. This is a fabulous book that I bought yesterday and highly recommend...relevant to many creative endeavors. Click on the photos to enlarge or scare yourself. Do you have a favorite?

         Since my blog is a storage site for my crafts that I return to see how I did something years ago, I will add that Erika had a birthday on Valentine's Day and is now nine. We gave her a small guitar (she often fiddles with Joe's). She likes to see herself on her quilted birthday card so I printed photos of her on EQ Printables, cotton lawn inkjet fabric sheets. Pardon the photography. I developed the soft birthday card in Comic Life software and sprayed the batting with a glue (bad idea). Then I simply sewed around the two photo fabric sheets, batting between, and added stick-on rhinestones. I cut the edges with pinking shears which you can see only at the bottom of the poorly cropped photo, but it looked very nice "in person" for a quick, simple, but attractive finish. I also finished Erika's crocheted scarf, "the draft dodger"!  Click on photos to enlarge.Thanks for visiting if you did!

Spring Break in April

   THE SUN IS OUT! In April I wanted to get to NYC to see the Degenerates Show at the Neue Galerie. The lines were long, but I found it helpful to get there ten minutes before the museum opened. I once made an oil painting of Hitler's Degenerate Artists. Hitler put up one show of art he had preferred, but more people attended the other show of artists' work he ridiculed. Here is my painting, containing names of some of the 125 artists censored by the Nazis and others from the Renaissance up to the present who have been subjected to public censorship. Click on photos to enlarge.

    I returned to NYC the next week to meet elementary school friends who were in the area to see Ann's grandchild in a musical. I took those bracelets and NYC quilt birthday card I showed last month.  One bracelet was way too big...but it feels good to make something to gift when you gather with old pals. I enjoyed playing with photos and videos afterwards...at one point making a video with my iPhone of the slideshow and music on my computer. I used Comic Life software to collage photos.

    Easter was next when Joe and David tied the eggs on the tree. After setting our casual table, Joe and I made string eggs we saw at Ben Franklin. We blew up balloons and wound string around. We anchored string by painting all over with a watery white glue called Stiffy. After we hung these to dry overnight, we hid dyed eggs, burst the balloons and draped the string shapes on the lights. It was fun to be kids, but may not do that craft again :*))

     I made up 8 blocks for Katie's Project Hope Quilt and painted (sample) and stitched in the plain areas. I used Jaquard fabric paints and small brushes.  I also created a challenge quilt with strips, cutting casually, called "Where oh Where oh Where is Spring." Here is an earlier photo. I have since free-motion stitched the title in the top row and am still working on this. This quilt will be interactive.

     The Journal Quilt Connection is getting excited about the QC quilt show May 30 to June 1. Hope to have photos soon. This is too much for one post so I am off to bed! Thanks for looking and come to the show!

Elana's Winter

Click video link QC quilt show above

Mystery Quilt for the Material Mavens Journal Quilt Reveal

The Keys in Hiding ~ Again!

     It’s an increasing MYSTERY where I have placed things! 

      In the midst of creating my first attempt at this mystery quilt, Que Sera Sera (below), the puzzle of children’s development, I needed a crystal ball and finally made one that doesn’t photograph as good as it looks. At the same time, I re-read Art and Fear, which gave me the nerve to paint the rabbit.  I Googled Alice’s rabbit, Images, and sketched a composite, however anatomically challenged he is.  I dove into my Lumiere textile paints and was surprised how slowly they built up compared with my other paints. I added a black permanent marker in spots. My background fabric awaited.

      To make the crystal ball, I traced a saucer onto freezer paper and ironed the freezer paper to fabric. I folded in the edges (Katie P-M suggests spray starch) and blind-stitched it. I opened the backing and added polyfill. It needed more. In my stash I found this sheer fabric that doesn’t fray. I cut it out and used a spray glue to the edges. Next, I began to quilt things to batting. I took silver embroidery floss to stitch around the globe, after inserting a felt key. I also used embroidery thread on the clock.I needed bubbles for thoughts. I first photographed the piece and added it to Comic Life software to test bubble shapes and colors. Then I cut out fabric onto which I had ironed Wonder Under and printed the thoughts with Fabrico, a permanent marker. The fabric for the backside was too small,  but I hastily glued it down and stitched over all with invisible thread to suggest the speed of the frantic rabbit. Perhaps some hands or fingers are needed to hover over the ball, but it’s late, it’s late!

        Neither is perfect, but I made so many mistakes and learned several new techniques.That is a special bonus of art journal quilting!

Hannah's birthday card: quilted and digital

      Hannah has a birthday coming up and I like to prepare ahead. First I printed a birthday card on the computer using Comic Life software; and then I printed the same photo onto a printable fabric. She should have quite a stack of both Comic Life cards and quilted pieces by now!

 click photos to enlarge.

   Making the quilted card is somewhat like creating a journal quilt. One thinks of the main idea to communicate. This year Hannah is a nut about reading and always has a book in her hand. That had to be the theme.

      I ordinarily choose a fabric for the background and build on that, but this time I held the print  next to my stash to see what colors looked good with it. I sewed them, and cut batting and backside. For the backside I chose sheets of music since Hannah was back to piano lessons. I ironed some strips left over from another project, glued them on the edges and used a satin stitch to secure. 

      The quilt was finished but I just kept adding on anything that was in reach...gold rick rack, free motion writing, ribbon. You are supposed to quilt BEFORE adding on the binding but that didn't stop me. I may still return with that gold puff paint and sprinkled gold beads. I will try to restrain myself. I also learned how beautiful batiks are with contrasts.

Fortunes for the fabric cookie

     Yesterday I posted about the snap bags I made and the fabric fortune cookies without their "fortunes."

Click on both photos to enlarge

     Today I printed "fortunes" to printable fabric. Although you can iron fabric onto freezer paper and carefully run it through your printer, I used Printed Treasures, Sew-On Inkjet Fabric Sheets which are colorfast and washable.

      I used my Comic Life to print the short "fortunes" and after peeling the back off the fabric, rinsing off any excess ink and drying, I used a rotary cutter to cut the strips.

      After playing around with the cookies, I sewed the strip onto the cookie exactly where I had joined the fold yesterday. Look at these photos and then look at yesterday's posting by scrolling down. Now to mail them to Patsy.

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Graduation in the 'hood": security blankets and more

click to enlarge

      Days are wildly full now, but I wanted to make something festive to take to a graduation dinner on the harbor. Good friend and neighbor,Jean and her daughter Anna, were both graduating...Jean with a Masters in Public Health and Anna with an undergraduate interest in international health.
      First I made graduation cards using Comic Life and then added quotations on commencement to the backs of the envelopes. I learned this afternoon how to used the embroidery attachment on my sewing machine so I could put their names on "security blankets." I had many missteps in my education but succeeded after using a stabilizer ironed on the back of the fabric. I wrote the names and class and then made "pillow cases" with batting. turned and stitched on gold wings and around the edges. Of course the Kaffe Fassett fabric "made" them; and I listened to the graduation speeches as I sewed.The back was a complimentary exciting fabric by the same designer. I picked up some light-up rings for the graduates to be easily identified and had little gifts to pull out of my bag.

Worlds of Worry

    Sometimes I make journal quilts about phenomenon occurring in the world. Not only are extraordinary events happening in the world, one knows big changes in people's lives. There are the daily shocking newspaper reports as well as major alterations occurring in the lives of friends and family. Although we have many blessings and reasons to be thankful and to have faith, the worry in the world and neighborhoods is palpable. I thought I would say hello to WORRY in my journal quilt: time wasting, but around the clock worry. Hoping not to trivialize, I recommend several sites of worry quotations: Worry Quotes, Sayings about Anxiety, Worries, Worry quotes, Don't Worry, Be Happy Quotes  These are just a few of the sites you find when you Google "worry quotes."
    You asked about the fabrics: The black and white background I picked up at JoAnne's Fabric for use as hair on a portrait, but thought it chaotic enough as a backing for worry. I worked in the Text part of Comic Life software to write lots of "Worry" words and to distort them. I printed that graphic on an inkjet fabric "paper."The clock faces were from a Ben Franklin fabric of antique clocks which I thought were too baroque for this piece. So I cut out the clock faces, fused and stitched them on. I don't particularly like the white trim stitching, but I wanted more white and thought this seemed bursting chaos. A puff paint would be preferred, but I couldn't wait.

Homemade craft kit as a gift

    Trilla had a big birthday this year and her daughter flew her home to hear Joan Baez (who at one point lived where I live now). Of course I could not compete with such cleverness, but knowing Trilla is a book lover, I took Abby's advice from her  June 28, Weave a Rainbow blog to make a gift kit from a pleasurable craft. I had loved making Neal's bookmark and happily found a design attributed to Virginia Woolf or Vanessa Bell (see the beautiful Bloomsbury Needlepoint: From the Tapestries at Charleston Farmhouse by Melinda Coss), I mailed Trilla a Comic Life birthday card with the idea, the canvas, needle and threads to sew. What I enjoyed about the Bloomsbury pieces, was that the people didn't fanatically stitch everything perfectly exactly balanced, but perhaps made up the designs as they went. Coss thought this might be a design for a pen holder or an eyeglass case. But I am into bookmarks and Trilla is a supreme reader, writer and clever friend. Comic Life is an inexpensive software I use all the time. (click on links to read more and photo to enlarge)

Jean's birthday

My neighbor's birthday is a few days before mine, ten years apart. Jean is a challenge to treat. Husband Neal has a big surprise party planned for tonight, but I could not think of a gift. I know Jeanie is 60 and Judith Viorst always has a decade book. For this time, Suddenly Sixty and other Shocks of Later Life is the one I bought. Jean loves aprons and is finishing another degree this year. (click on the photo above)

So finally the muse visited me at the last minute: After buying the book, I dropped in JoAnne's fabrics and saw a vintage material that spoke to me (vintage). Lo and behold there were file folders and sticky notes for the scholar that matched the apron I would make from Simplicity pattern 3752! I had hoped to stitch the multi-ruffled one, but I had a time constraint and was wise for once. I also earlier designed some cards for the birthday girl, but they don't really match. One card combines sculptor Niki de Saint Phalle's Nanas w Jean's visage, celebrating Jean's spirit. The other is from Comic Life. The National Museum of Women in the Arts had mailed that postcard I collaged.

Party Postcards and Comic Life

On July 20 I will be a year older, and at this point I seem to be celebrating all month. Today, my good friend, an artist, took me to Fugaku for our annual birthday lunch, cake and presents.

With my recent foray into no-sew postcards (see June 29 posting) , I had Kathy's thank-you note in the mail a few hours later. The Post Office seems to get excited to see my fabric cards when I go to have them hand-canceled. I bought a self-adhesive stamp and rubbed it in, however slightly crooked. I said, "You would think I could put it on straight," and the post-mistress said, "That is why I gave it to you to do!" :*) Anyway, she put a pretty red cancellation stamp on the fabric postcard, and it is on its way to my artist hostess. P.S. I think it is a good sign I didn't have to review how I made the cards before.

To show all the images at once, I downloaded Comic Life, a software program that is fun to use. This version is for Snow Leopard on my Mac, and I have much to learn. (click on the collage to enlarge)