Author: Laura Kate

One of six children, I was raised by a busy mom, who instilled in me a love of fabric. Though I learned to sew and knit at a young age, it was the arrival of my first grandchild that pushed me into action. A long-time knitter, I am now ready to explore all things fiber.
Posted in painting

Admirable Weeds

Posted on by Laura Kate

My inspiration for this painting happened during a camping trip to Kansas in late March. At the site, I noticed a dozen or so Red Admiral butterflies floating around an open area near some trees. After following them around for awhile, I realized that they were taking nectar from two weedy non-native plants: henbit and dandelions. My thoughts went something like this: Those two plants are disdained by gardeners and the general public. Yet one of our most beautiful native butterflies found them attractive. There is something to be valued here that I wish to explore.

The henbit was lush and blooming profusely.

I grabbed another photo in my backyard, which I used to create my drawing.

For the butterfly reference, I went to Unsplash.com for this lovely by Don Coombez.

https://unsplash.com/photos/a-butterfly-sitting-on-top-of-a-metal-pole-PLyR1XIwcsU

Reference in hand, I started work, first by testing colors in my sketchbook.

Next came a pencil sketch which was transferred to Arches cold press paper.

Stages of the painting:

Masking fluid applied and Initial wash laid down.

First round of colors dropped in.

Foreground painted and additional layers added.

Masking fluid removed, some shadows and details painted in.

Finished up by adding highlights and cast shadows.

I’m relieved to have finished. These complex organic scenes are still very difficult for me. And while I can’t say I love every bit of my painting, I did achieve my objective.

Posted in quilting, sewing

Here’s what came today

Posted on by Laura Kate

Earlier in the week, Quilting Gail had let me know that my name was randomly selected to receive a door prize for participating in this year’s Stay At Home Round Robin quilt challenge. I was thrilled to learn that the prize was Aurifil thread! Of all the gifts that were sponsored this year, the thread was the one I had my eyes on. I’ve been wanting to try this superior brand of thread for several months now, ever since a certain big box store discontinued offering its line of quilting thread – I’m pointing at you, Hobby Lobby!

The Necessities House Collection includes four neutral shades ranging from white to black. For piecing one’s quilt, this covers all the colors that one would need to get the job done. I can’t wait to try it out in my Bernina machine.

So here is my shout out to Gail and her cohorts for organizing the challenge.

And here’s my shout out to Aurifil for its generosity in sponsoring SAHRR 2024.

To see the quilt I made for the SAHRR 2024 challenge, click here.

Posted in painting

Watercolor Wednesday: Playtime

Posted on by Laura Kate

There was quite a crowd at today’s Open Studio. Cheryl Bryan decided that this session would be focused on playing with our paint. She brought examples of daffodils rendered in a stylized fashion using watercolor and pen.

Watercolor painted and photographed by Cheryl Bryan

I have been struggling with painting lately, so it was very therapeutic for me to let go and try stuff. Here is my 3 by 5 1/2 single daffodil based on the reference image.

After making the drawing with pencil, the panel was taped off and splashed with water Three colors were selected, dropped on the wet paper and encouraged to run. I used Winsor yellow, transparent orange and Prussian blue.

The paint was allowed to dry, then additional paint worked in, mostly around the edges and into the background. After drying thoroughly, the tape was removed and lines worked over the painting. I used a dark blue Micron pen. It was fun to let the elements of the image slip outside the border.

Next, I pulled out one of Bill’s photographs. He loves shooting images of the daffodils in our front yard. This variety is called geranium. They have tiny clusters of three or so flowers topping each plant.

copyright Bill Riley

Using the same technique, I worked these cuties in a cool palette of carbazole violet, quinacridone magenta and Prussian blue.

I intensified the color in the short trumpets with some watercolor pencil in gold and dark magenta.

Despite the crowded room, I ended the session feeling relaxed and confident. Now I am ready to return to a slightly bigger painting that I have started, which features a butterfly and some spring weeds. Stay tuned.

To see some of Cheryl’s gorgeous watercolor paintings, you can visit her website:

https://cibstad07.wixsite.com/mysite-1/about

Posted in quilting, recycling

SAHRR 2024 Finish: Migration World

Posted on by Laura Kate

This is the week that Quilting Gail has designated for challenge participants to post pictures of their finished quilts. The Stay At Home Round Robin challenge is in its fourth year. It’s been a fun ride for me, and pure pleasure to see the work of other quilters as they add a border week by week.

It started for me when I chose a center block from a group of experiments that I did almost five years ago. Back then I was teaching fiber arts to a group of home-schooled children. One week I had the students experiment with fabric paint on pieces of a cut-up sheet. The panel I used in my SAHRR came from the example I made, to show the students some of the possibilities of fabric paint.

Four colors of paint were applied in bands horizontally across the fabric and allowed to bleed together. When the panel dried, it looked like a mountain scene to me. I enhanced the image with opaque white paint, paint pens and stencils of pine trees.

The painted panel set the color palette for my SAHRR.

That choice led me on a path which resulted in a quilt about migration. For some time, I had been toying with designing and sewing paper pieced butterfly blocks. Could I make a quilt about the monarch annual migration to Mexico? The time I spent researching this migration led me to think about the wider issues of habitat loss and climate change. Now I had a broader story to tell with my quilt.

The weekly challenges offered by SAHRR quilters helped me to build some structure around my ideas. For that I am grateful.

Here are some close-ups of a few details I added with applique and micron pens.

And here is my finished quilt:

Just a word about the materials used: I was determined to buy nothing for this project, making it entirely with stuff that I already owned. I mentioned the cut-up sheet. In addition, I recycled pieces of clothing such as dresses and men’s shirts. The main fabric, which was used as sashing, was also divided up and painted various colors to carry it into most of the borders. Ultimately, I did have to buy a few quarter yards of black patterned fabric and the quilt’s batting.

Thank you to organizer Quilting Gail and her fellow designers who put together this year’s SAHRR challenge. You can find their work here:

And to see the finished quilts, follow this link.

https://fresh.inlinkz.com/party/7eab5849658e4307bf5cfcff8e69c998

Posted in knitting

Finished Object: It’s been a minute

Posted on by Laura Kate

It just now occurred to me that I cast on this stash-busting brioche stitch hat more than a month ago. Time to show the final product.

In my first post about the project, I noted that working brioche stitch was quite new to me. I elected to knit this little beanie because it was advertised as an easy pattern for beginners.

Yes it was. But I still made mistakes. Notably, every time that I knit back to the beginning of a round, I became confounded when picking up the second color and starting the next round. Consequently, I have some weird-looking contrast color bars across main color stitches in some rounds.

Thankfully, they are visible only on the inside of the beanie. (not shown in the photo……..why advertise one’s mistakes?) So I don’t recommend that the hat be worn flipped to the reverse side. Trust me on this.

On the plus side…..

  • It is very soft and squishy
  • It is comfortable
  • It will probably be very warm on a cold day.

On the down side……..

  • It is pretty loose on the head.
  • It shouldn’ be worn on a windy day
  • It probably doesn’t match your school colors.

Winter is quickly drawing to a close. Despite the fact that Spring is my favorite season, I’m a little sad to see Winter go. I’ll be taking a pause on knitting warm accessories for the hot months ahead.

What’s next in store for my yarn stash? I’ll take stock of what sort of fiber is left and see what I can craft out of the much-shrunken remaining inventory.