Busy Sunday...

Finished up the Potes that I had going...ok...I still have 4 more that need to be free-motioned...BUT...I was able to FINISH (and yes, those are capital letters, because finishing seems to be such a rarity in my little curious compulsive creative world) 7 Potes.
Next...onto the fact that I am going to be spending many hours in the lovely surroundings of the Minneapolis Airport...what's a crafty gal to do? Comfort Dolls. So, today is all about making as many doll flats that I can. This includes crazy quilting to muslin, drawing faces and then securing them to the flat, wonder-undering words, and then outlining the form itself...I'm hoping to have....I'm reaching into the sky to pluck out the magic number...and the winner is.....5 ready for the traveling adventure...
Also, "the ladies", my wonderful chickens, are going to their winter home today! Dr. Janelle has offered to foster them until next summer when we can be reunited again. I need to work on getting a "2 chicken production pet" zoning law passed in Valpo. I really have enjoyed the gals this summer.
Wednesday is rapidly approaching...3 days!
Smiles to All,
Brenda

The Little Pote That Could!

Here is #3

This is the second "pote": smaller than a tote, structured like a purse.
This time I used a painters canvas as the base structure and pockets...but I'm not starting at the beginning. First, I've painted with your basic cheapo acrylic paints with a textile medium added and watered it down for a softer feel, on cheapo muslin. After it dries, heat set with an iron. Next, more fun! drawing with the free-motion quilting. This part is always a brain shift for me. If I try to "control" what I'm doing, I make a mess of things. Just go with the flow of what you've painted, click those heels together and believe.

Onto the pote construction. Eh...I'm tired of writing...just take a look. I will say, it is pretty cool watching how the pote is evolving and what I'm happy with, and what I don't like.

Thanks for the read.

Smiles to All,

Brenda

NM count down...7 days!!

Tote #2

So, here is the next tote. I learned a bunch from Nancy Baker, we were both at the Culver Farmer's Market together. She designs and makes wonderful jackets and totes, jewelry and diaper bags, just to name a few of the things she does. Her totes use zig-zag stitching combined with a crazy quilting...love it...right up my alley...AND biggest thing of all, helps me loosen up and not worry about doing things "right".

Now I have the next platform to jump from and grab DH's old jeans, three pair have mysteriously shrunk. I'm using these for the stability. I didn't like that about my first tote, I wanted more structure, and denim has definitely provided that. I still need to put a velcro closure on. I cut out the back pocket of the jeans for the interior pocket for keys and cell phone...yes, it's amazing what can fit in the back pocket when your rear isn't filling it up!

I'm looking forward to the next tote...I bought a painting canvas for the interior this time...should help on making a "cleaner" interior for the tote.

Smiles to All,

Brenda

Painted Muslin

PA I N T I t B A b Y P a I N t i T! !

Here are the next 5 pieces to quilt. I think that I am going to make these into jean totes. I didn't water down the acrylic as much as I have in the past, so the fabric is a bit more stiff. I think this should add to the structure of the tote. What I have found with the first tote...the testing tote, is that I'm not a lover of the flimsy. I seem to like a firmer construction. Who da thunk it, me, Miss Lucy Goosey, me, Miss GoWhereverThe Wind takes me..structure. I guess I need it in some places of my life.


Smiles,


Brenda


(Kvitova vs.Williams is on...AMAZING athletes)

technology and history...or...simplicity, yeah, simplicity

I was breaking down my booth at the Farmer's Market in Culver on Saturday. What a beautiful day, it had stormed earlier in the morning, but that blew through and left us with a nice clean day, with actual lower humidity, a brief intermission from the norm in Northwest Indiana. It was a good sales day too. It isn't a big market, but some vacationers will come through, and the locals will stop and visit, and it's just nice. (I know that isn't the best descriptive word, but, "nice" it was.)... What brings me to this post is, while I'm packing up, my cell phone rings, it's my sweetheart, he's waiting in a parking lot in Wisconsin for our grandson's folks. So, while I'm loading up my van, talking on my phone in the middle of Culver with my DH who is 245 miles away, another vendor walks by with his engine to his transportation...a horse.
I cannot describe the oddity, and wonder this brought me. It made me stop. And then...stop some more.
I knew the vendors in the corner came in with there wares on horse and buggy...but to watch the horse walk past me, and then to watch them hitch up, all the while talking on my cell phone to my DH... it was just...odd. Odd in a wonderful sort of way.
How wonderful is it, that we live in a place where lifestyles are SO vastly different and all of us still so very much alike. I think sometimes that they've got it much more together than technology. Granted, there trip home will take longer, but..really, how wonderful if that! A wife and her husband driving home together in SUCH a different fashion that the majority of us are accustomed to. No phone, no radio, no GPS. Just the steady cadence of the horses hoofs.
I think there is something there. If I'd venture a guess, it'd be like exhaling after a deep breath.
Smiles to All.
Brenda

Tote'n Takes Time!!!

Well, this has turned into more of an in depth research problem than I thought it would be. Yep, I've always had a problem with KISS. (Keep it simple, silly). My simple free-motion quilting experiment morphed into this.

I added some cool bold colors to border the painted work, and then finished out the front with the fabric that I'm going to use as the back.

Now, of course, I couldn't just line it. Really, what good is a tote without proper pockets. Now, I don't know if my pockets are "proper" but I think they will have no problem holding my ipod, phone, reading glasses, and note pad, or check book or wallet. On the other side of the inside, I made a single large pocket. I'm hoping it is big enough to hold an electronic reader, if not no biggy...I was too pooped, ok...lazy, to run downstairs to get mine to measure it.

So, with all that, I have only finished the front, inside liner with pockets and started the back. The back will mimic the front with the square quilting without the actual different colors...thought that would bring the whole piece together.

Now, for all you toters out there...phew, how do you do it?!? Tommorrow is mowing and actual housework, I'll see if I can make it make to this in by the afternoon. I am curious how it is going to turn out.

Smiles to All,

Brenda

free motion quilting

I got a chance to take out the dyes yesterday. Here are a few that I painted. Today I am working on free-motion quilting them. I don't know what it is about the free-motion quilting...it is just fun to watch the outlines emerge. Its a quick trip to the right brain. I love it!

It's a wonderful little vacation that I can take without even having to bother with traffic, let alone the metal detectors!

Smiles to all, Brenda