GREEN Man

Let me introduce you to the Green Man - subject of my latest Material Mavens Challenge. The Challenge word was GREEN, I thought about this a bit and while walking in the woods the other day, got my final idea.

Luckily it was finished yesterday, right on time, but I still feel like I skidded to a stop at home plate, breathing hard to get this done :)

This is my second rendition (the first I just wasn't happy with the outcome,) so this time I did some mono-printing of the leaves I had found on the trail. 

His face was fairly easy, but the "feel" of him being a part of nature just wasn't there. He looked more like a green sun to me, so I just had to think a bit harder.

He is also posted on The Material Mavens site with all  the others.

AND of course, there is great funs work at Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday!

He Sees FISH!

I just posted this over on the Material Mavens site - it is reveal day again!

Yes, an odd name for something in the cell category, but my son works in a Pathology Lab and this is his view of the microscope in a dark area with a color florescence that can be changed depending on what you need to see/know.
He posted this pic on facebook one day after the "word" went out and I said that is a cool picture, and proceeded to make it.
I used cottons, fabric paints, inktense pencils and of course thread.

Check out Off The Wall Friday over at Nina's!

And a week later....

I actually have been working on the Statler Fountain. I do a lot of my work in my head, I am sure others do too, then I execute the ideas I come up with. So far I am happy with the progress too.

The next two weeks I have to go back to the real job again, writing 80+ letters of acceptance or regret to the artists in or not in the exhibit in the fall. (I haven't told my printer yet, but she is new and can handle the job) I still need to find two sponsors for two categories of awards - once that is done I can relax for a couple of weeks. It should be the end of August by then - time flies when you are having fun :)

I am going to get my self a new bicycle. I tried it again after trying to bike about 10 years ago and now that I have been walking on my treadmill, I can so flat or gently rising surfaces - so why am I not? Tried one of my sons old bikes and had a blast, but it doesn't fit me right, so now I get my own again.

Don't forget to go see the wonderful work of other folks on Off The Wall Fridays!

Long, long time, no post!

It has been since May! I have been steadily working on my "real job" since then and it has been pretty intense.
I finally have a little time to work on things, so picked up the Statler Fountain and started quilting it. The thing is, that I was also procrastinating about some of it. MY PROBLEM is that I'm always trying to make everything PERFECT, at least to my eyes.

I have to try to remember that I really enjoy the making of art and not think of it as "will someone else like it?" At this point, I shouldn't give a flying fig, but it is a hard habit to get out of.

So how many people do you know that have seen a flying fig? LOL!

Anyway, I put extra stuffing behind the fountain figure in order for it to stand out more and then went to the store for some grey thread. One of the colors I never have, along with beige. I keep forgetting to get some, so I bought four spools of successive color gradations.

I also went to my local quilt shop on Saturday morning for their Yard Sale, which was not in the yard. Didn't find anything there, but then went up to the store and got fabric and batting for the next and future projects.

Got my jury review work back and hung a piece in my kitchen next to the tree quilt - looks good too.

I'm looking forward to the NE Quilt show in Manchester in August :)

Check out other talented people's work at Off the Wall Friday!

Canyon - Sue's Cousin

I always wanted to find a dinosaur skeleton. When the new word went out for "Canyon," what

else could I do?
So I went to a very nice canyon and did a dig and found a huge T-Rex I call Sue's Cousin. Sue is the biggest T-Rex skeleton found yet and she was found by a kid too! I'm a big kid!

I used a lot of strips of fabric to show soil layers and to give you that feel of age. Then "dug" some of the fabric away to reveal my find. I used an outline stitching to achieve this and then painted in the dino.


You can go to The Material Mavens to see the rest of the Mavens "Canyon" quilts.

AND don't forget Off the Wall Fridays!

I hate it when that happens!

So yesterday morning my DH and I went out to cut some branches from a couple of trees. Fine, while he was up on the ladder, I was goofing around with making rock sculptures. I was supposed to be holding the ladder. I was called to task :-P

Off I rushed to stand holding the ladder like a good helper (who would rather be playing with the rocks.) Occasionally looking up to see the progress being made. Last time I looked up it seemed like I may have been standing in the wrong place. Because DH gets a bit cranky if you don't follow directions, I said nothing and just sort of cringed into myself waiting for the branch to fall. Did you know that from 25 ft. up branches look a lot smaller then when they crash down and hit you?

Yup, luckily for me, I the cringing and ducking my head in towards the ladder made the branch hit me in the shoulder instead of the head. I'm pretty happy about that, and now have a technicolor shoulder. Luckily it hit on a muscle and did not break anything - I'm VERY happy about that, but do have a sore shoulder. Could be that way for a few days - we'll see - I did ice it immediately and a few times thereafter, so it does still work, just not as smoothly as before tree fall.

The roofers come today to put on a new roof - but first take off the old one to see how bad/old the base layer is.

Purple Tree Process 1

Here's a pic of the Purple Tree I started last week, in between house repairs and other goofy things that need doing.
Any opinions as to the shading? I am not sure yet, but keep cutting up fabric and disgarding - you know, the planning stage.


Check out other work at Off the Wall Fridays