Can I Draw it?

Made two bowls

 I did get into the sewing room this week.  I made two of my clothesline bowls.  One is a gift and the other is for my Etsy shop.

I can't believe that I ripped both of my favorite pairs of pants in the exact same spot.  And it is a tricky one to repair, right at the seam of the back pockets. I dislike mending so will probably put it off for a while.  But dang, they are my two favorite pairs of pants that I like to wear that aren't sweats.  

My drawing

My original drawing

Inspiration

Last week sweetie and I went on a camping trip for our 33rd Anniversary.  We went to Canyonlands National Park.  It was so beautiful!  I can't believe that I have never been there before!  We did a lot of driving around the two sections of the park.  There was a rock formation that really intrigued me and I didn't have sweetie stop so I could take some photographs.  So I got out my little notepad from my purse and drew a little sketch.  We did happen to drive by that formation again, so this time I made him pull over several times.  What I loved about these three sections is that you can see the strata continue from one formation to the next.  I am into strata right now.  I am trying to draw out my ideas first.  Not my strong point.

This is my off the wall post for the week.  Check out Nina-Marie's blog to see what everyone else is doing.

Red Rock State of Mind

I loved the red rock!

So cool!

The little guy!

The full view

We went to Canyonlands National park for a long weekend.  I just love the Red Rock formations!  I took a ton of photographs. I was intrigued by this formation.  I have a small drawing, but will do a larger one to be the pattern for an art piece. You could see the earth's strata continue from one formation to the next.  I am into strata right now.  Stay tuned for more progress pics later this week.

This is my Design Wall Monday post.

Sun Printing

Painted fabric

Aspen leaves

It doesn't really look like leaves

Blobs

This one kinda does

These had cracks in the leaves

I finally got my sun printing experiment done. It was too breezy to do it outside, so I did it inside.  I didn't realize that you really had to smush the leaves into the paint.  So I got mostly blobs.  But then Aspen leaves don't have much of a distinctive shape anyway.  I will try this again.  I will look for some leaves that have more character to them.

This is my Design Wall Monday post.

Trunk Show at Springville Art Museum

On Tuesday I went to a sleepover for a local quilt group.  It was held at Brenda's family cabin up Fairview Canyon.  The cabin is at close to 9000 feet elevation.  It is beautiful up there!  They have a wonderful swing.

Tractor Swing up the mountain

On Wednesday afternoon I drove to Springville. My good friend Florence and I were invited to show our quilts at a trunk show held at the Springville Art Museum.  It was in conjunction with their annual Quilt show.

Good friends

Florence beside her  "Firebird"

I just love this quilt!  I had dropped it off for the show.  I knew when I saw it that she was going to win a ribbon! And she did!

My first quilt

I showed my first quilt. Funny how it looks not too bad from a distance!  We still use it camping.

My Pepto quilt

I showed some of my hand quilted pieces.  I still love this quilt!  It is one of the ones I hang in our bedroom. I rotate quilts on that wall whenever I get bored with the quilt that is there.

Salt Lake Album

This quilt is featured in a book.  Jeana Kimball's "Forget Me Knots" book.  I really should get it finished.

Dancing Rings

I rarely make two of the same quilt.  I needed a class sample so my daughter could have her quilt back, so I did the same layout, but the fabrics are a bit different.

Double Wedding Ring

I have always wanted to make Double Wedding Ring.  This is a wedding quilt for my daughter and her husband.  I ended up making it smaller than I had planned, so I have a lot of extra pieces.  Maybe I will make a smaller quilt out of them.  I don't think I have another full size DWR in me.

Collaboration quilts

Last year I did a collaboration with my good friend Anne. (she is the person standing at the back of the room in the Dancing Rings photograph)  We each pieced a top and then switched.  We had to "expand" from within and quilt the piece.  I don't have photographs of the "before" handy.

My Desert Quilt

This is my most ribboned quilt.  It won "Best Use of Color" at the Utah Quilt Guild show (probably 2003, it might have been 2004). It won a ribbon at the River City Show in Sacramento.  Also two ribbons at the Dixon Mayfair.  And two years ago it won viewers choice awards at both of the local little shows (I only entered it as filler, we were shy on quilts)

This is my Off the Wall post for the week.  Check out what everyone else is up to at Nina-Marie's blog.

It started out as a Sunny Day

Supplies

Fabric soaking

One of the Off the Wall blogs this week talked about Sun Printing.  I have been wanting to try it for a while now and thought, sure, why not? It is sunny this Friday morning.  So I get out the plastic drop cloth and set it up outside and turned the water on the strawberry patch.  I then tore two fat quarters and put them in the sink to soak.  I got out my blue bunny ice cream buckets, my sponge brushes and craft paint.  And I then went out to get some Aspen leaves to do the printing.  Small ones from the back yard.  And then went to the front where one of the trees has larger leaves.  Hmmm, it is getting a bit windy.

First Cloud

Sure enough, a storm cloud rolled in from the South.  Man oh man!  What thunder and lightening!  I swear it was flash-boom!  Repeat for about half an hour.  Okay, it is looking like blue skies to the South, maybe I can try again.  I took a few more photos of the storm, now to the North of us.  Got a chore around the house done and then look what showed up to the South!  Another storm cloud.

Second Cloud

This repeated for the rest of the afternoon.  The puppy dogs were scared and hiding, the power flashed and my computer restarted with issues and I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to fix it.  Where is a nerd when you need one? It is still giving me issues.  So I am working on the laptop.  I never did get to try out the Sun Printing. 

Today Sweetie, the pups and I went on a hike Up the Mountain (which is local lingo for driving up the canyon and doing something up there) It was nice.  I am glad that I went along.  And we were lucky to get done just as the storm clouds started to churn.  So once again I only have inspirational photographs for my Off the Wall post this week.

Thistle

Some sort of fungus, or is it fungi?

Up the Mountain

Weird to see a meter in the middle of nowhere

Eddy

Peaty

Colorado Beer

Also check out yesterday's post. I joined a blog hop which everyone wrote about their start in sewing and quilting. 

The 'How I started sewing/quilting' Blog Hop

My crafting start was in 1975. I had gone to visit family in Germany and my Aunt Anita taught me how to crochet a shawl.  I still own that shawl.  I also did a little bit of sewing in Home Ec classes.  When I got married in 1980 we bought an el cheapo deluxe sewing machine.  I made some simple kid's clothes, curtains and a whole team of Raggedy Ann's and Andy's.  I don't know if any of those have survived the years.  We bought a van in 1981 and my husband wanted a quilt for the bed.  I remember seeing an article in a magazine, either Woman's Day or Family Circle, about a teacher showing how to make a Trip around the World quilt in one day.  They had torn strips of fabrics into 6 inch squares and sewn them together. (I am pretty sure it was about Eleanor Burns.) Since I couldn't find the article, I faked my way through it.  And for a bonus, I "designed" the back of the quilt using the leftover squares.  I had no idea how to bind a quilt.  I bought extra wide double fold binding and tried to wrap it around the edge and sew it on at the same time.  I am sure the fabrics were poly or poly cotton.

  
I got into knitting and some cross stitch.  I tried to get into quilting.  I had a craft book club account and had gotten some Maggie Malone books in the late 80's.  I made a block from one of the "easy" patterns.  It was awful.  I showed it to my sister-in-law (who is a quilter) and she said "that isn't an easy block, it has set in seams".  I gave up, gave her the books and went back to knitting.  About 1994 or so I was watching Quilt in a Day on PBS. Yes, she is hokey, but she really made it look like anyone could try it.  My husband bought me a quilting book for my birthday and I got hooked.  I joined Quilter's Holladay in Salt Lake and met a bunch of wonderful, supportive women.  Many of whom are still wonderful friends and mentors despite 2 major moves across state lines.  While I was living in Sacramento from 2001-2007 I discovered art quilts. California is so colorful, the shops have color, the scenery has color, the people have color.  I do still love traditional quilts but my heart is leaning towards making art.

1995

2006

In April of 2012, I was invited to participate in an art project at the local Art Center.  Icelandic artist, Huginn Arason came up with the idea of this elaborate two-sided chalkboard.  Quilters to draw quilt patterns on one side and graffiti artists to draw graffiti on the other.  Every week or two the images would be erased and then redrawn by other artists.  With the previous image ghosting through.  I was the first Quilter to draw on the chalkboard.  It was my first time exhibiting in an art gallery!  It was very exciting to be treated as an artist by everyone at the gallery.

Me and my board along with Huginn Arason

And my last photograph is the last piece I have completed. It is hanging at the Springville Art Museum in their annual quilt show.  I will be presenting a trunk show on the 14th of August in conjunction with this show, along with 4 other Quilters.

Little Hampton

I want to thank Cheryl Sleboda for letting me crash this blog hop! It has been a blast and an honor to be associated with all these wonderful artists. If you missed any of the posts, the list is below.
Aug 1. Cyndi Zacheis Souder - http://moonlightingquilts.wordpress.com/

Aug 2. Becky Glasby - http://bumblebzs.blogspot.com/

Aug 3. Cheryl Sleboda - http://muppin.com/wordpress/index.php/blog

Aug 4. Barb Forrister - http://www.barbforrister.com/category/blog

Aug 5. Jackie White - http://jabotquilt.blogspot.com/

Aug 6. Tracy Mooney - http://www.3littlebrds.com/

Aug 7. Lisa Chin - http://somethingcleveraboutnothing.blogspot.com

Aug 8. Laura Krasinski - http://laurakrasinskisartontherun.blogspot.com/

Aug 9. Catherine Redford - http://catherineredford.com/blog/

Aug 10. Sylvia Lewis - http://bunchberrystudio.blogspot.com/ ---->ME!