Quilting and other Things

 My sister says I'm falling down on the job.  I've had create blog post on my todo list for ages.  Not sure why it hasn't gotten written.   I was thrilled with the results of the Form, Faces and Spaces Show.  Both my pieces sold!  My first two sales.  I'm over the moon.  Elaine bought Growth and blogged about it here .  My description of the Growth  piece is here .  The other piece (Rooted) was sold the day of the opening.  As my sister and I were about to leave the show, the organizer said she was writing up the receipt and was about to put a sold sign on the piece so we stayed to see that. We stopped at Demetre's for a very decadent ice cream sunday on the way home.   Pointing at the sold dot!  Rooted Top picture is Growth.   This is my Cherrywood Challenge Piece complete with rulers to show that it is the correct size for the challenge. Detail 1 Detail 2 Unfortunately it was not selected as a fi...

 In March I saw a call for entry to the Form, Faces and Spaces, Figuratively Speaking Show and decided to enter two of my digital pieces.  I was thrilled just before Easter to get an email saying that both pieces had been accepted to the show.  There are 120 pieces from 39 artists in the show.   Rooted is a 12 X 12 inch canvas piece. It is one of my Spring pieces and is a response to a statement that someone needed to be rooted and centered. Growth is a 20 X 16 inch canvas piece.  It is a response to a question about how I had grown as an artist over the last year.  I blogged about this piece here . The show is a Satellite Site for the Scotiabank Contact Festival.  On Saturday morning I dropped both canvases off at the Parish Hall in Norval and saw some amazing pieces being delivered.   There is a variety of events over the course of the month  (the image below is a snapshot of the linked PDF). I am looking forward to seeing show ha...

 Over the last 18 months I've been learning to create digital art using photoshop.  A lot of what I've been learning is based on Sebastian Michael's courses on My Photo Artistic Life   Its been a lot of fun.  This month, one of the lessons asked us to think about our artistic journey over the last year and how we have grown and how we have approached living a life that embrace being an artist and celebrating our creativity.  Then to create a piece of digital art about that journey.   This piece was my answer to that exercise: If you look carefully, there are three models.  The one furthest back is hiding behind the wall and peeking out.  Not sure if she wants to share her creations or not.  The one in the middle is out in the open but still a bit afraid and still hiding a bit.  The one in front is embracing her creativity and sending out creative beams, ready to share her work.   I definitely started out last year being th...

 Lots of good intentions for March but not a lot of progress.  I was side tracked by other things. The blocks for the Longtime Gone quilt did get completed I'm having fun with this quilt.   When I traced the shapes and cut them for the applique on Love Entwined, I made a fundamental applique error.  I neglected to number the pattern and the tracings.  So I spent all of one Monday Sewing Session sorting the pieces out and numbering.  In the end I couldn't find a couple of pieces or figure out were a couple went so I tossed them and traced the missing ones.  Everything is numbered now and I did get a few pieces prepped and pinned in place but I still have a bunch more to prep.  Baby Steps.   I can get a long way with baby steps. The guild BOM went back on the design wall in the layout for the smaller of the two options.  The more I look at it, the more I don't like the row of northwind blocks down the left side.  They are no...

Yvonne  has a mid year review link up this month.  My wrist healed well and I've been back quilting since the end of February / early March although it was limited at first.   Quilting: 1.  Clean and organize quilt room (and office since they are in the same area). Despite staying at home for the last several months, its still not as organized as I would like.  Parts are tidied and parts are still a mess.  Some things need to be taken up to the recycling station now that its open and that will help the cleanup.  I did move part of the office to another area of the house which will free up a bit of room and may result in a bigger reorganization. 2.  I'm going to continue with the Motivation Monday ideas.  I'm still working on the list I created for 2017.  The goal at the time was to move things forward.  I think that will still be the goal for some things as they are quite large.  The list still includes Canada BOM from Gui...

While I had great goals for April quilting I got sidetracked by a Photoshop virtual conference, sketching and transcribing old diaries.  Some libraries / museums online have handwritten journals that they are trying to transcribe.  They've put images of pages up and asked for help transcribing them to make them easier to search.  I also have access to some old family journals that I'm looking at.  So many possibilities for working on.  I also did some reading and have been able to get out for walks.  Most days I try to get my main walk early in the morning as there are fewer people out walking so maintaining my distance is easier. I did spend sometime on the Milkweed 3.  Most of the components now have their internal stitching done.  I need to still make the caterpillar and the butterfly.  I had fun(?) pulling potential backgrounds out of the stash.  I pinned one to the design wall and pinned all the components to it.  I did not wan...

As I mentioned previously   a goal the last several years has to been to learn Photoshop .  I realized this year that part of my problem was I hadn't really defined what that meant so came up with a high level idea.   Through my library, I get access to Lynda.com  In January, I watched Julianne Kost's classes on Lynda.com called Photoshop CC 2019 Essential Training: Photography and The Basics .  While watching these I realized that I needed to step back a level.   I do basic editing in Lightroom, having learned some formulas but I don't understand why they work or what to do when they don't work.  I'd like to understand all the panels in the develop modules of Lightroom (or camera raw) and know how and when to use the tools.  Then when that still hasn't gotten the photo where I want it, how to continue in Photoshop .   So I stepped back and started watching her course on Camera Raw .  While its not Lightroom itself, th...