Month: June 2023

Posted in painting, quilting

100 Day Project: Days 32-35

Posted on by Laura Kate

I’ve figured out which day I am on, AND,

The process of painting dragonflies on postcards broke open my mental block.

I started painting fabric right away, after swatching the colors I want to use.

Using these colors and a variety of techniques, I painted backgrounds on rectangles of white quilting cotton. Earlier I had cut out dragonfly body shapes from craft foam. These shapes and an assortment of leaves were laid on the painted fabric to serve as masks. Laying the pieces in the sun printed the masked shapes.

The next day, I did more fabric painting, just to make sure I had enough selection.

With the backgrounds prepared, I began inserting the dragonflies into the pieces.

Day 34:

Day 35

I’m in love with this last guy. He will be the focal point of the finished product.

In the next week I plan to add finishing touches to these two paintings and begin work on the rest. My layout calls for five paintings sewn together with blue borders in between them. What happens after that is done will take a bit more cogitation.

Posted in knitting

Friday Finish

Posted on by Laura Kate

As promised, here is my purple shawl. The close-up photo shows all the sections: neck area, mosaic section, lower section and finishing band. I like the colors very much, especially the purple.

Stretched across a chair, the pattern looks just fine.

But once the shawl is wrapped around one’s neck, it become obvious that the neckline area is far stretchier than the mosaic, so it turns into a little collar.

The collar then covers over the patterned section. So, it ended up being a waste of time and energy to design and knit the mosaic pattern.

I’ll probably hang on to this shawl, at least until I get a chance to wear it a few times. It looks kinda pretty draped over my tomato cage.

Off I go to my yarn closet, for the next stash-busting project. In a future post, I’ll share my plan for how I am organizing projects from stash yarn.

Posted in painting

More 100 Day Project artwork

Posted on by Laura Kate

Okay, I’ve lost track of which day I am on. (6-10-23: it’s days 28, 29, 30 and 31.)

What I can say is that Bill has given me about a half dozen photos of dragonflies.

Here are five:

While I have an idea for making a wall hanging; quilted, embroidered, and with painted dragonflies; for now I’m painting postcards. The purpose is to warm-up and to break my funky creative block.

In the process I’ve discovered that painting these beauties is like eating potato chips. It’s hard to stop once you get started.

I’ve tried to keep the dragonflies light and loose. They are so jewel-like in real life, the painted versions are but a poor imitation.

Made on Fabriano Studio cold press using watercolors, a micron pen for linework and Dr Ph Martin’s bleed-proof white for some highlights. I experimented with a silver pen on no. 3, but the shiny bits never show up in a photograph.

Posted in knitting

Cast on Monday – Back to my studio

Posted on by Laura Kate

Since I returned from the cruise to Alaska, It’s been pretty hard for me to keep up my posts. First of all, we both came down with Covid. Recovery took 5 plus days. And then I found myself dissatisfied with my past work. It’s been a hard few weeks.

I thought an easy cast-on would help ease me back into things. So I chose a two-color cowl that will use up some stash yarn.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/spinal-twist

Spinal Twist, by Rebecca Marsh, starts with a crocheted provisional cast-on.

I have chosen some very soft single twist yarns. Labels have been lost, but it feels like there is some portion of alpaca.

Knit in the round, on large needles, with thick yarn. This could be finished in a week. By then, maybe my creativity will be unblocked and body fully healed.