Deadline for Today - DONE

YEAH! It feels good to have accomplished what I set out to do today!! Below is the piece which is mainly green as it started out. I scrunched up the SA soaked PFD on the screen, packed snow on top of it and squirted the green and blue dye on it. Then, I sprinkled some dry Bronze onto it. Got a bit heavy in spots but we'll see what it turns out like.

Here it is beginning to melt! The hardest part about snow dyeing is waiting for the snow to melt!! (Patience is NOT one of my virtues!!) So far it looks pretty good. There are two FQs in all that green snow.

Here are the mainly purple two as they started out. Fun part of this one was that later in the day I discovered that the plastic bin lid I use under the screen to collect the runoff was leaking!!! I had a huge pool of purple water all over the island! Changed containers, cleaned up the mess (ended up with some AWESOME purple paper towels, too!!) It is now continuing to melt.

Wanted to try a slightly different approach this time. I scrunched the FQ into the bottom of a cottage cheese container, packed snow on top, squirted on the purple dye.

When all the snow melts I'll let them batch overnight and rinse, wash and iron them in the morning! Stay tuned!!!

Nurturing Creativity week 2

Another re-shuffle of the cards..........picking one...............and the winner is............

Give Yourself Deadlines!!!

Very timely I think. I have Adaptations to complete before the end of the month. This morning while writing my pages I set down that I want to get it done by the end of this week. That is because I have several other things to work on but want to get this done without having to scramble at the end of the month.

Oh, and I had another idea. One suggestion was to have the numbers coming off the clock go across the piece. I bought several different sizes of number stencils hoping to have the smaller ones next to the clock and getting larger as it goes across the piece. Here is what has been holding me up.......The background that I have chosen for this piece (and love because it fits the concept so well) is a one of a kind CCRR piece that couldn't be easily duplicated - if at all. Then I decided to stencil the numbers on a test piece to see if it accomplishes what I'm looking for. Then this morning it hit me!!! If the test piece turns out OK, it would make a wonderful backing for the quilt!!!! YEAH. Next challenge..........I don't currently have a piece the size I need for this project. SOOOOO.....I've been wanting to do some snow dyeing anyway and decided to do it today and use some colors that I want for the backing of the quilt! Now instead of stuck, I'm excited.

Fabric is soaking in the soda ash as I type. No problem having enough snow!!!! Now I'm going to go mix dyes and start playing!!!

So, here are my deadlines for the week. Complete the snow dyeing this morning (batching overnight). Tomorrow morning I'll finish the fabric and start stenciling. In the afternoon I'll pick the piece if it works out (I'll just use a different snow dyed piece if the stenciling is awful). Then do the window. Wednesday - start the quilting of the piece and hopefully finish it. Thursday and Friday, start putting on the other pieces and stitching them down. Saturday, add any painting or other embellishments I need and start the binding. Sunday, sew on the binding and take photos!!!

The challenge with deadlines is the limbo in which I live these days. Ever heard of the Tyranny of the Urgent???? Yep, that happens on a regular basis. It comes from trying to coordinate the lives of a minimum of 4 adults and 3 babies!!! We'll see how it goes! Keep your fingers crossed!

And the NOT SO Mundane!

Had a blast in my studio today. I completed the February ATCs for the birthday swap I'm in this year. My little attempt to stay creative so matter what else comes down the road.

For the February birthdays I chose the color purple because of the month's gem (Amethyst) and flower (violet). Also, it is National Heart Month and Friendship month!! How cool is that?!!

I used a technique I learned a little over a year ago working with Lutrador, cheesecloth and lace. There are several layers of paints ending with Jacquard Lumiere Halo Violet Gold. I also love to collect old costume jewelry and add bits and pieces of it to my artwork sometimes. Each of these ATCs has three gold heart charms from a bracelet I bought a while ago on E-bay. Each ATC has different heart charms. The title of these little gems is "Passionately Purple"

Then I made the cut out cards and stamped them with purple hearts. Used the same windows so the ATCs could be removed from the cards. Here is the outside of the card.

And the inside of the card.

The envelope was a bit trickier this month. All I can say is THANK HEAVEN for free clipart websites!! The envelopes aren't as purple as I would like but hey -- it still works!! They are all addressed and ready to put in the mail closer to the end of the month!

I already have the fabric chosen for the March birthday (only one other besides mine). Now I'm just waiting for something I just bought on E-bay to add to it.

The additional challenge I'm making for myself in this swap is to make the ATCs relevant to the month. It takes some research but I'm enjoying it! It's quite a learning experience!

Being Creative in the Mundane

OK, so it seems this is more difficult than one might think!!! My current experience is that I'm so anxious to get back to the studio that I spend as little time on mundane tasks as possible! This doesn't lend itself to even considering how to make it creative. I just want it over and done with. Other observation -- The other option I take is to just not do the mundane task!!! LOL! And I must admit that is my most often chosen option. The most regular mundane tasks I do are cooking and cleaning up the kitchen. And it seems I put it off until I just HAVE to get a dish started and then I just want to get the meal on the table.

Now, as for cooking. Could I count planning new recipes as creative??? We've decided to try at least one new recipe each week. We being Annette and myself. We are developing quite a cookbook of things that are real hits with the family. This week we tried THREE new recipes. SOOOOOO I'm counting that as being creative.

The other cooking creative thing is making meals with what we have on hand. Cooking for 7-11 people - three of whom are under three years old - one can't afford to waste food!!

Ok, so now I've talked myself into thinking I AM being a bit creative in the mundane....at least a little bit.....................

Let's Try This Again!!

As some of you will remember - at the beginning of last year I started going through the "52 Ways to Nurture Your Creativity" cards. One per week. Then life fell apart and I hardly had time to breathe, let alone be creative and post on a blog!!

Now, with 2010 starting, I'm going to give it another go and hopefully keep more on a creative track this year. There are several exciting projects already in the works that you will read about in the coming months.

So, here we go......the deck of cards is shuffled and the first one out of the box is....................

Everyday Life As Art - the concept is to find art in everyday seemingly mundane tasks (and who among us doesn't have a load of those????) Hmmmm. I'll let you know how the day goes today - making mundane into art! How artistically can I prepare Tuna Bagel Melts??????? I'll let you know tomorrow!

The Coming Year

Life here is rather in limbo these days so I am currently not signing up for any quilt swaps or challenges (although I plan to complete my Transition one by the end of January). Then I was sent an invitation to join an ATC birthday swap. There are 32 people signed up so that is a good number. I decided that little pieces would be something I could do and still keep my hand in the creative side of my life. There is only one birthday in January. Here is the ATC I made for her.

This is the ATC. The name of it is "Winter Night Snow". The background is blue Tyvek melted with a heat gun. Then it is sprayed with silver glitter paint. The snowflakes I had left from an art quilt I did previously called "No Two Alike"

I encased the ATC in between two layers of sheet protector and sealed it with an iron (between two Teflon ironing sheets!) Then I stamped white card stock with blue snowflakes. I folded the card and cut the window out. I glued the sheet protector package to the inside of the card fold, sprayed adhesive on the inside and folded the card. This is designed for the ATC to be removable. This is the front of the card (obviously!)

This is the inside. The writing you see is on the back of the ATC.

Then I made printed a white cardstock page with this snowflake pattern, cut out the envelope form, folded and glued the edges. Then the card was placed in the envelope and it is ready for the mail! I covered the mailing label just so the address would not be posted.

Fractured Flower ready to send

Yep, it's been a while! But finally I've completed the four sections of my part of the Fractured Flower!! These are the four pieces on my design wall. Obviously, the seam allowances make it look a bit wonky but there they are! Whew!! It was a great learning experience. Especially for someone who doesn't like "rules" that much and prefers to just "wing it". But it was worth it in the end. Now, I'm just waiting to get back the four pieces I'll have for making a completed piece. I'll post them when I get them and we'll see what comes of them!