Merry Christmas

Only a few days left until Christmas.  I got my tree decorated this last week and lights up outside.  It really comes fast and then over so quickly. When I was kid, Christmas was really a joy.  I lived in Chicago and it was always snowing when we went to church on Christmas Eve.  We played in the snow, made angels, ice skated and dug tunnels along the parkways. Shopping for special gifts and baking was a very wonderful time of my life. I now live in Southern California, so no snow but has really be cold lately. I miss too that the real meaning of Christmas is disappearing in our society.  May we remember it is the birthday of Christ and that is what we celebrate.  Most of my family is gone or moved away, so it's just husband, daughter and grandson.

Today is my birthday- a  Christmas baby I am,  and not feeling old at all.  I keep very active, creating and quilting.  Walk every morning and being successful in a good weight loss this year.  Got the best card from my sister-in-law that said "Forever 39" and that's really what I feel like.

A Very Merry Christmas  to everyone and much peace for the New Year 2012.

New Fabric

Doing something I have wanted to do for a long time with my art quilting. This is a piece of my new fabric I am having printed at Spoonflower.  A yard contains 3 different blocks repeated 3 times.  They are some designs I made in my fun program "Kaleidoscope Kreator" using some of my flower photos.  I am anxious to get my order and design a fun art quilt for some new one day workshops I am planning.  Anyone can purchase this fabric, or fabric from other designers, on the Spoonflower site. I have purchased fabric from them from other designers and have been very impressed with the quality of the printing and service.

My fabric is called "Kaleidoscope Blocks".  I'm having fun with this and have several more things on the drawing board for classes and having other fabric printed. 

Christmas is almost here

I know Christmas comes so fast and all of a sudden I need to be ready.   Since I have been doing watercolor classes, I decided to paint our Christmas Card this year.  Well, after countless of tries I was not happy with any of them. So, I cut them up and did a collage with the pieces.  Our last class in October was textures.  I tried saran wrap, salt, stamping leaves, negative painting, and several washes. I think it has turned pretty neat.

I like working with the watercolor, but find controlling the water very difficult. I am seeing some practice paying off with my washes.  Drawing seems to be my most difficult part of it all.

Now to see about printing them and on to creating some gifts. Have a couple of purses I want to make for family members. 

Another Postcard

Here is another postcard  playing with the negative technique.  Did several and I think this one was the best - watercolor does take a lot of practice, practice -- just like free motion quilting.

Latest Painting

This is my latest sketchy/painting with watercolor.  Oregon has flowers everywhere, in every town in hanging baskets on corners and planters.  I decided to try sketching these beautiful  Nasturtiums in oranges.  I am getting more comfortable with the water color paints and think my sketches are improving.

Postcard

This is postcard I did with the negative painting technique.  Added a few tendrils and some shavings from my water color pencils on to a wet surface. Fun technique.

Practice Watercolor

I am learning a new technique of negative painting, in my watercolor class.  It wasn't as easy at it looked on the demo.  Practice is key, and these are my practice pieces.  With each one, I learned what not to do and some of what do.  Composition is not the greatest, but I think planning a bit better would have given me a better perspective of a composition.  I learned, each layer should be very dry is the key to success - I used a hair dryer and I think some of the times it was still a little damp and I didn't get the expected result.  My last piece is not shown yet as it is a postcard the class is doing on an exchange, and I can post it later.  Was a great fun technique to do.