Month: January 2017

Winter Sketchbook 2013

| Ami

Sometimes it’s illuminating take a flip through old work. Tonight I’m revisiting a rough sketchbook (not really an art journal yet) from the beginning of my art journey. Let me know if anything speaks to you.
I was cutting foam sheet stamps:

Doodling:

Doodling these corner mandalas:

Making full mandalas:

Working out this spiral thing:

And this dot thing:

And more detailed drawing…

…and painting. (I was scared to commit to watercolor paper, but you cannot get very good results on newsprint, no matter how lovely your subject.)

Hmmm. Gonna go see if I can recreate some stuff in my current art journal. My son just got a 120 pack of Crayola crayons for Christmas & I’m thinking those targetdots would be fun to do in lots of color schemes…

Til next time!

Work in Progress

| Ami


I thought this quilt top was all-but-bordered, but when I put it on the bed I decided to take a row off and change it from a 6×6 grid to a 5×7 so it would be rectangular. Still working, adding borders now.

Quick Sewing: Cloth Wipes

| Ami


I had two old flannel bedsheets that were no longer usable as such; one even had a big hole in it. I ripped them down to 10×10″ pieces. (Flannel rips super easy; just make a scissor nick at the length you want and tear.) Sewed two wrong sides-together using a zigzag stitch over the edge. I got over two dozen from each sheet. They’re great for diaper wipes, if you cloth diaper anyway, or for washing dishes (I use a different color for each so they are TOTALLY separate!). My son is 2 and a half and the set I made before he was born is still going. 

Art journal fun

| Ami

Yesterday I saw this picture in the most recent issue of the Smithsonian.

I love architecture like this- very intricate, yet made of individual simple elements. This example is from China, but I’ve seen a lot of similarly gorgeous Indian and Southeast Asian architecture. Some of the pillars looked like brushstrokes to me, so I thought I’d take a go at distilling the shapes into my art journal. Here’s how it’s going so far:

Scrap vortex

| Ami

A scrap vortex quilt, from http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2015/06/scrap-vortex-qal-week-one.html?m=1  

I will say, I didn’t like wrangling this through my machine when I tried spiral quilting, and it didn’t like me. The front was fine, but lots of puckers in the back and I probably lost some size going off square. The again, I’ve been working without a walking foot (!!!) so I bought myself one for Christmas and maybe someday I’ll be brave enough to try again.