In the middle of some sewing

I have managed to do 2 paintings.

They are Christmas themed and copies of ones I have seen on the web.  But I still consider them originals - cause I made them.

This one I did first - starting out with the easiest - sorry about the glare in the pic.  It's not very large - only approx. 10" x 8".  It's companion piece is the same size.

Again more glare...  That's what I get for using gloss varnish.

This guy's face took me a couple of goes to get right, but I am really happy with the way he turned out.

They are both being donated to the cali clubs my girls are associated with as part of their concert raffle hampers.  With a bit of luck they won't be buried underneath a pile of other stuff.

On the sewing front - I have been making more Angel Gowns. 

The current wedding dress has revealed 30 angel gowns!  I am nearly finished with this lot.  I only have 10 more to sew up and then 14 pairs of bootees to knit.  Once that is all done, all that is left is to photograph each gown by itself and then as a group and send it all off back to the organisers.

I will be glad to see the end of this dress....

I have also managed to do a bit of crochet - a few butterflies as angel keepsakes as well as an angel done with 2 granny squares and some pipe cleaners (chenille sticks).

I got the urge to Paint

again recently.  I have done some internet searches for ideas and inspiration.  Went thru my stock of canvases to see what I had - mostly large ones.  Even found my watercolour supplies (that I had yet to crack open).

There are many paintings with sayings on them around these days.  I like the idea.  It seems to be quick and fairly easy to do.  So I came up with m own.  I was a bit unsure about the underpainting at first.  I used different blues, some purples a couple of oranges and some white.  Then I added in some iridescent purple.  Whilst mixing the paints all over the canvas I did make 'mud' - oops.  That's what I get for combining orange and purple.  Oh well.  I was also unsure if the letters I had would a) stick to the painted canvas, and b) not pull of any paint when I took them off.  Luckily they didn't.  They didn't stick down very well at the edges, so there is some bleed under.  Must remember that for the next one I do. 

This is what I came up with......

  It kind of reminds me of winters first storm - snow and all.  The phrase is from a book I have been reading lately - or rather a series of books (I'm onto #2) - you can probably guess which one.

The canvas is 61cm square - a good size for this.  Now I want to do 'you are my sunshine' with a yellow top coat, 'love is in the air' with maybe a pink top coat.

Still not having satisfied my paint urge I got out the watercolours and had a play with them.  I think I like them - the paints that is not necessarily what I did with them, though the red flower is not too bad.

I have since outlined the green splotch on the petal and given it legs - now it's a bug.

I have packed all my paints away for the time being, but they will come back out soon.  I would love to be able to run paint classes from home - ones where everyone is given the same pattern and uses the same paint colours.  We'll see about this venture......

Craft Rooms Thoughts

I am lucky enough to have a spare bedroom all to myself for all of my crafting stuff - well except for any scrapbooking or card making, that's stored elsewhere.  I appreciate the fact that whenever I like I can disappear into my girl-cave, shut the door and generally not be bothered - sometimes for hours on end.

It's only a small room - 9 foot by 10 foot and it has an inbuilt wardrobe.  There is 1 small window on a short wall.  I have squeezed in a large desk, a bookcase and a LARGE set of industrial shelves (they must be 8 feet long and nearly go tot he ceiling).  This space is also where I iron ad I tend to use the ironing board as an extra bench.  I am sure I have talked about it before.

When we put in the shelves I did do a bit of a clean up.  I labelled tubs with their contents.  I got rid of some bags of fabrics and bits and pieces.  Things looked tidy for a little while.

But now it is back in a mess again!  There is basically only enough space to walk to the desk and back out again - barely enough room to swing a cat as they say.  I can't get into the wardrobe with all the items laying on the floor in front of the doors.

I was sewing a knitting needle roll yesterday - a quick simple project - and a set of drawers on the desk was getting in the way.

So now I think it is time I go thru it all properly and get rid of stuff.  There are a lot of projects and kits I have purchased over the years that are half buried and not being made up.  There are tubs and tubs of fabrics, paints, cross stitch paraphernalia, etc.

So what to do with it all?

I have done a quick count of the things I have listed on the blog - 57.  That's a lot.  To make it worse, I have even bought a few more kits/boms since making that list.  There must be 70 different things!!

I am heading towards getting rid of everything that is not already packaged up - and I mean everything!!  Perhaps try to recoup some of the money I have spent on them by having a garage sale.

Considering I have diverse interests in all things craft that's a large garage sale.

What do you guys think I should do?

More of my Garden Quilt

Took some time off from calisthenic costume making to have some me time.  And this is what I did with that time - some more blocks for my Pam Bono quilt.

A pretty peachy one....

A bright Pink one....

And a rich Purple one....

I also made a cushion for youngest daughter's buddy.  It's in the club colours.  I hope the buddy likes it.

The buddy's name starts with a E.

And I started a painting after reading my current issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors.

It's actually a lot darker than the pic shows.  When I get the next layer of paint on, I'll show you.

Painting

I bought a monthly magazine the other day just because it had instructions on how to paint a beachy/sea scene.  Like I don't have enough mags and books on the subject!

But it got me inspired to bring out the paints and the brushes again.  I think the end product is not too bad.  I used acrylics on a stretched canvas.  I will be donating it to one of the girls calisthenics clubs for their end of year concert raffle.

Then when I went shopping a few days later I came across a canvas with a frame and a pic lightly drawn on it.  Pic looked ok, so I bought it - $12 only - and have this morning finished painting it.  Way brighter than the pic given.  The paints given were terrible to use - great if you were dabbing them on but not if you were trying to sweep them on.  Not entirely sure I like this one.

Maybe it will look better once it is in it's frame.