Laura Kate

Whimsical Wednesday

Posted on December 9, 2020 by Laura Kate

Lately, I have been a little too serious about my fiber and art pursuits. This realization came to me after reading the following book by Rayna Gillman.

She has been quilting and writing about quilting in the improv style for more than twenty years. I am enamored with the quilt on the cover of this book. And it reminded me about an idea I had some time ago for a playful, dare I say it, Whimsical quilt using the fabric pictured at the top of this post.

First, a little story about how I came to acquire the dog and cat print. Two years ago I was teaching fiber arts to a group of homeschooled kids. For our lesson using fabric paint, I purchased this and a few other black on white prints that were suitable for over-painting. When the students were asked to choose a fabric, no one selected this one. I was mystified. Don’t all little children love cats and dogs?

Fast forward to this year. During a fabric rummaging session, I came across the print and thought about using dogs and cats as the center patch of a log-cabin block.

How cute would this be looking out of a child’s quilt?

I decided to pair it with this print, giving me the project’s color scheme.

So last week I got busy cutting strips of many colors, stripes, prints, dots, etcetera. The more I cut, the happier I felt.

I followed Rayna Gillman’s general suggestions for sewing the strips into sets.

…….and then cutting them up and sewing them to background fabric. After a few hours of stitching, cutting and stitching some more, I had my prototype block.

**A little dog in his house under a peaked roof.**

The working title for this project is “Dog House, Cat Barn, Animal Friends.” In addition to dog house blocks, I intend to make a block with a cat in a barn. Some of my blocks may have both animals in the centers. Who knows how far I can push this idea?

This may be the start of a jolly, fun, playful and whimsically fibery love affair.

painting

Two more water color exercises.

Posted on December 5, 2020December 3, 2020 by Laura Kate

These are fifteen minute improvisational watercolor sketches that I completed this week. I am following the daily practice book “Watercolor is for Everyone,” by Kateri Ewing.

DREAM FEATHERS

Draw a curved line with a pencil. Using three different colors of your choice, paint each side of the feather with quick, light strokes. When the painting is dry, use a pencil to lightly draw lines along the paint strokes and also on the feather shaft.

THREE COLOR LANDSCAPES. Using three colors of your choice, make a quick landscape from your imagination.

Colors for both landscapes: Winsor Yellow, Burnt Sienna, French Ultramarine Blue. In addition to my Sumi brush, I used a no. 2 round and a rigger brush.

Here is a link to Kateri Ewing’s website.

Portfolio | Kateri Ewing

quilting

Jackie’s Pandemic Quilt

Posted on December 4, 2020December 8, 2020 by Laura Kate

While visiting my mom last week, she showed me this quilt, just come back from the long arm shop. She called it her Pandemic Quilt. Apparently, in order to earn that name, a quilt must be made entirely with materials you already have in your stash.

**Close up of nine blocks, including Spring and Summer.**

She told me that the inspiration for this improv, scrappy quilt came when she was experimenting with embroidery patterns available on her new, very fancy, baby lock machine. Take a look at the flower in the upper left corner block, above. After working this center she cut it into the shape of a pentagon. This allows for the crazy log-cabin piecing to take place. After a little experimenting, she embroidered the block centers first, made her cuts and then did the piecing. The centers include the words “Spring” and “Summer.”

The white sashing and black cornerstones give the quilt a fresh modern feel.

Good work, Mom. I love to see you get creative.

Addendum: Jackie says,

” I think this quilt is a good example of combining techniques. The embroidery is strictly modern and surrounded by an old technique of crazy patch piecing. A purist would hand quilt this but my old arthritic hands no longer hand quilt so it was finished on a long arm machine which is also a modern invention. “

knitting

Wednesday WIP

Posted on December 2, 2020 by Laura Kate

Here before you is the glove I cast on a little over a week ago. I had expected to make faster progress. It was my travel project for a recent car trip to Ohio. My biggest roadblock was light. When I had time to knit, I found myself in locations with poor lighting. I had underestimated how the lack of contrast in value between the solid yarn and the variegated yarn would slow me down. So that’s my big excuse.

Another problem arose because I wasn’t working from a pattern or chart. This proved troublesome on the thumb gussett increases. Fortunately, here the lack of value contrast turned out to be my friend. Inconsistencies in the stitchwork are not obvious to the casual viewer.

**I love the texture created by working purl bumps on alternate rows.**

Now that the palm section is done, I will drop the blue yarn and complete the fingers using the variegated. That means one less element to deal with. Perhaps my knitting will go more swiftly.

painting

Indigo and Rust

Posted on November 28, 2020 by Laura Kate

This exercise explores the complementary hues Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna.

The paintings are done with paper in the landscape form. The brush is double loaded: first dipped in the blue, then the sienna. After stroking it in long stripes, a little water is added at the bottom of the stripe. Alternate striping with blue and sienna hues are continued until reaching the bottom of the paper. Metallic paint is added and then a light sprinkling with clean water to encourage mixing and mingling.

For my last sample, I was inspired by a photograph of the Irish coast. First I penciled a few lines on the paper to guide my color into the shapes of sky, water, sand and rocks. Then came the paint, followed by the sprinkle of water.