Shopping

A friend and I went for some retail therapy last week. Two art stores, two fiber stores and lunch. A pleasant day. The one art store had buy l get l free, so I stocked up on drawing paper.

Two rovings and yarns for two sweaters-not bad. The yarn was on sale. Of course I picked my colors.

Circles

 

The photograph is one I took in the summer of a Dahlia in our front flower bed. It's the inspiration for the design. I decided to do it off center and make the flower the negative space.

 

This is the same photo using the negative feature in the Microsoft Picture It program. I love what that function does to photos.  The ring is a painted paste paper cut out with the Sizzix Big Shot machine. The rest is pen work. The ink makes a sort of flower shape in the middle.

Beading

This is probably the last woven bracelet for a while. I'm tired of doing them. It has my hand painted thread, so I didn't want to cover it by putting more beads on it.

Circles

 

 From a long ago design class, I remembered that we cut and "exploded shapes. The top is some hand painted paper cut in straight lines.

Then I decided I needed to try curved lines and this is the result. The cuts didn't show very well, so I inked them and extended the lines. To add interest, the checkerboard was colored in. The paper is a marbled one.

Jewelry

This is another of the woven bracelets. On it, I put a beaded edging. They are relaxing to do and make great gifts.

Knitting

These mittens were a blast to knit and are crocheted together. The pattern is free on Martha Stewart's website. There's even a video on how to seam them. They are knit in one piece, so one thumb is on one side of the main pieces and the other upside down on the other side.

Crochet Class

This is the Crocheted afghan I made while taking the class for joining motifs at www.craftsy.com from Edie Eckman. She explains how to join each Granny Square by a different method and shows how to do it very clearly. I always hated sewing the pieces together and found this to be the perfect solution. Each section is 17" square, so the entire piece is about 60" square.

Circles

I decided to try a couple of exploded circles. The first was cut with all straight lines. The paper is one I painted and put cling wrap over the wet paint to get the random lines.

Next, I thought: What would happen if all the cuts were curved? The divisions didn't show very well, so I inked them with a gel pen and extended the curves and made a checkerboard. The paper was some I marbled with shaving cream.

To marble with shaving cream, put some in a flat container, smooth it out. Drop paint on the surface, then comb it into designs. Lay a paper on top and gently press to make a print. I've seen two was to dry it. One leaves the excess shaving cream on it until dry-clearer print-and the other scraps it off right away-more muted.

Bead Journal Project

This is my February button for the Bead Journal Project. It has a facebook page this year rather than a blog, so I don't know if non-members can access it'

The button is 1 1/2" across and has a cab glued to the center.

Design

More circle designs I did for the class from Gail Harker's Creative Design Center.  The backgrounds are a paint wash.

Being left brained, I decided to use a circle template to make this design.

Gift

At quilt group the hostess gave me this wonderful wooden box for knitting needles. I'm crazy about containers and love to knit with straight needles, so it's perfect. I put the wooden needles from my great-grandmother in it. Thanks, Rita

Art Squared

Illuminate was the word for this challenge for http:artsquaredgroup.blogspot.com    I've wanted to use foil and also some of my gold cords and threads, so this was the perfect challenge. The button is an antique. The background is painted, but I don't remember what I used, since it was ages ago.  The piece is 17" by 17".

Here's a closeup of the button. The background washed out, but the button is clear this way.