May
3
A look inside my (unfinished) head
Filed Under Drawing, Geeking, Nothing | Leave a Comment
Today I have for you another drafted post come to the light. Excuse the crummy photo. Also excuse the rambling that is about to commence.
Back in my experimental art days (you know ages ago in 2007?) I drew this sort-of self portrait based on some doodling in my sketchbook. I started the whole thing by enlarging one of those silhouette profile thingys that Chris and I had done on our honeymoon. Then I started doodling in pencil. The whole thing is really just several evenings of doodling. When I’d filled the entire area, I spent another week of evenings inking. That was BORING. Boring. Did I mention it was boring? And it made my hand hurt. I think I forgot to mention that this thing is something like 16″x20″. It is not small.
For the most part I really like how it came out. There are, however, a few areas I’m not crazy about… the eye, for example, just seems off to me. Or perhaps it’s really too cliché. Gears turning in my head, light bulbs popping in the forehead and all that. But you can tell how much I like organic lines and shapes. Especially fractalish circles. Probably my inner math geek showing through. So in that respect I think it’s a decent representation of myself from the inside out. For a perspective from the outside in, you can refer back to my headless self portrait.
I don’t think it’s finished. I’ve gone back and forth on adding color, but can never figure out how… Watercolor? Marker? Coloring in specific areas? Or a general wash over the whole thing? Maybe something entirely separate from color? Maybe more stuff on the “outside”? It’s just so black and white. Not like me at all.
Anyone have any suggestions, critiques, jokes, comments, accolades, rebukes or side stories?
May
2
Sasha’s Quilt
Filed Under Quilting, Sewing | 2 Comments
I finished this little beauty more than a year ago. I even started the draft of this post back then too, but I guess I got distracted having my own baby. Anyway, Sweet Sasha is now a big one year old… and I still haven’t met her in person! That makes me so sad. They grow so fast. I hope she loves her quilt though.
I chose solids again for this particular family, because I have this overwhelming need for things within a family to “match”. Or maybe it’s just me trying to be fair (even though my ultimate philosophy is that life isn’t fair). You’ll recall her sister’s quilt. Only, I didn’t know her sister would be a girl. I’m glad her parents didn’t put me through all that guessing again. Picking gender neutral colors is a big pain in the butt!
So this time around knowing it was a girl, and knowing that I would use solids again I went looking for inspiration. I think I knew I wanted “girl colors” without being TOO girly. So I chose the orange/yellow/pink combo. And I found this quilt on flickr to use as my inspiration. I had planned to do the same layout of the blocks, but got to playing with them and accidentally came up with the layout above. I love it!
You can see the hand quilting in the above photo as well. I’m really pleased with the way it came out. I’m also glad I didn’t go nuts and try to do some sort of floral motif in each of the big white squares. I think that would have been over the top girly.
I also struggled with the backing for this quilt. You might also remember that I originally had chosen a different backing fabric. However, the dots and circles just didn’t have the right vibe to me, and I found this lovely floral flannel in my stash. There was literally just enough of it for the backing. I think I trimmed one inch off of on of the short sides when all was said and done. I’m so pleased to have come up with the perfect use for one of my favorite fabrics of all time!
It’s interesting that I was so apprehensive about using solids when I did the first quilt. I think I was worried that they wouldn’t provide enough interest for the eye. But they have really grown on me, and I’m about to embark on my next project using solids. A quilt for one of my own kids! Gasp! Yep, Alexis has grown up in to quite the little lady, and is ready for a move from her “baby” decor. (Ha! I say “baby” because the fabrics I chose for her room before she was born were lovely Laura Ashley fabrics without a single hint of baby in them.) So we’re still in the planning stages on that quilt, but we have a good start. I’m sure she can’t wait to see it posted here!