I’m not sure what happened to June but tomorrow is July already. I have had some computer issues this month which has left it turned off for the better part of the month, and I have made my first attempts at blogging from my phone.
Phone blogging is no less than an adventure I’d say. As I live in Norway and am a Norwegian, my phone is set up for the Norwegian language. This has been quite an interesting feature as it keeps translating English into Norwegian words totally unrelated to what I’m writing, and sometimes into English words which it thinks it recognizes from previous entries. The translations are sometimes funny and other times rather nasty. Sometimes I’ll catch them, sometimes I think I fixed it, and sometimes I’m just too fast – for which I apologize. I’ll be handing in my computer soon so consider yourselves warned; I’ll be keeping the posts short and sweet to stay clear of unintentional spelling errors.
Anyways, computer or no computer, life has been moving on and these are few of the June highlights:
Beautiful sunsets should never go by unappreciated
Painting paper towels with grandson
Urban sketching trying to capture the fascinating lines on some new houses down the road
Cuddle time
Watching the soccer stadium fill for a Mods concert
and listening to 25000 people singing Tore Tang which is kind of our city’s anthem
Realizing woolen yarn should not be couched onto cushions
Vacuuming the local thrift stores for new supplies for an upcoming class
Enjoying one of the statues from the exhibition Broken Column which I pass every Tuesday night
Spending a Wednesday evening with my sewing group cutting scraps into strings
Enjoying lots of time with this guy
The baby quilt made for grandbaby being published in Quiltemagasinet
Adding gesso to this mixed media quilt as an attempt to tone it down
which did not work. Really.
Cutting pieces from the thrift store scarves and leaving thread trails all over the house
Seeing my book in a book store
Toning down black in a mixed media piece a notch by adding paint
Continuing my mixed media quilting adventure with a size 100 jeans needle which leaves almost decent stitches
and some clearly visible holes when unpicked. Never mind, now it’s finished.
Thank you for all your well wishes regarding my toe woe, it is healing very well, thank you very much, and I’m back in shoes. That is the one pair of shoes which will accommodate my brand new silicone toe guard. Yes indeed, I am a silicone babe now and quite happy not to be walking around in one shoe and one sandal any more. I have 4 pair of new-ish shoes being stretched at the shoe repair place right now and one pair being ice stretched in the freezer. Not to worry, they are safely and hygienically packed in plastic bags. Will it work? Well, I don’t know but it’s worth a try as the shoes are unwearable anyway.
Ok, July, I’m ready. Hope you’re enjoying your weekend wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, I am spending mine with my guys.)
I have enjoyed revisiting quite a few of the previous themes for the Sketchbook Challenge.
Some of the sketches were super quick and others seriously time consuming - all good. Paint, markers, coloured paper – simple or elaborate depending on the day and wind and inspiration and solitude.
Highly prized
Playing with my new favorite markers on dark paper.
Do they shine?
Yes, they do.
Who doesn’t want to be No 1…
Opposites
Careful and fearless;
the fearless side much more dominant and vibrant than the careful side (wishful thinking…)
Pathways
Creating dept with simple lines.
Elements
Hours of totally hypnotizing play.
I think I might be a little obsessed sometimes.
Doodling
My first attempt at doodling Zentangle-style on a painted background
Flowers
Chocolate finger paint on top of painted background,
flowers made with bamboo skewer in the wet paint
Open
Let the air and light in.
Markers on coloured paper collage.
This month's theme is fruits and vegetables and I have no clue what to do. Yet. No worries though, May is still young and the most important thing (for me) is not meeting the deadlines but working through the themes and trying as many new things as I can in the process. I’m enjoying doing things I cannot do very much indeed although you won’t find blooper videos of me doing them on YouTube:)
Looks like I’m having tomorrow off and hopefully I’ll be spending hours at my machine come rain or come shine. My fingers are itching to stitch, including mending 3 pair of pants.
Have a wonderful Sunday!
The theme for this month is “Open” and I have played with an inexpensive little case of pretty markers in different colours with and without sparkle and shine and bling.
So much fun and surprisingly relaxing, like a teeny tiny drawn quilt.
I have spent the day rearranging my studio to make room for all my art supplies and chucking out lots of little bits and pieces and boxes I had forgotten I even had. Right now it’s a total mess, you know the way it gets when you pull everything out and nothing have found their new place, but the rest has to wait a couple of days. Yesterday I did the first Make a Boob workshop of the year and this weekend I’ll teach the Quilta Figurer class, so I’m repacking my gear and getting ready. A new class is always exciting and this one will be fun.
Have a wonderful weekend; I’ll be back soon with pictures from workshop and class and the results of my recent obsessive sketching!
One of the things I have been playing with during my sort of self inflicted quilting hiatus is making paper fabric. I learned of it first at MarveLes Art Studios blog and as I couldn’t find any step by step tutorials anywhere, I decided just to try. The main ingredients are fabric, PVA glue (trelim to us Norwegians) and tissue paper.
I dug out some of the inherited 80ies fabrics, the tissue paper I had laying around and the glue I used for the trees last Christmas. I am happy to say it worked like a charm. However, I did discover I actually had bought a Cloth Paper Scissors workshop during one of my hoarding sprees which covers – amongst other things – paper fabric. I’ll try it the “proper” way sometime, but I am quite happy with my own version.
I was no fan of Sunbonnet Sue (or Holly Hobby for that matter) back in the 80ies, so I was happy to cover her up. I used this fabric on the wrong side as the print is a bit on the dark side.
The next fabric had some pretty-ish flowers and stuff, and was covered with paper from a shoe box.
The last piece of fabric was covered with black tissue paper. I love all those crackles and the lovely shine. I probably won’t cover this one with lots of paint but use it in bits and pieces.
Now, what do you use paper fabric for? Well, not knowing better, I painted them with acrylic paints to cover up Sue and all her stuff.
The first finished piece is painted with water colours; a new version of the “trashed, ruined and decay” theme of the Sketchbook challenge. See?
You would never guess what’s on the back, would you?
I love it! It is too bumpy to glue into the sketchbook though; at least if I want to be able to close it.
The paint is quite sheer and you can see the brush strokes of the acrylic paint underneath.
The next step will be to paint another sheet and stitch it by machine. I cannot wait to see what happens!
Have a lovely Thursday! Easter has already started here; both Thursday, Friday and Monday are official holidays.
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