Recycled Denim #Trending

Denim throw pillow made from recycled pants for Louis Donaghey's #trending theme. Demin's always trending and I'd like recycling to always be trending too! After sewing several strips of demin together (pic 2), I played with ideas of how I'd sew those strips together, thus the other pics included.

Heidi's "Random Objects" in Jeff Pabotoy's Book

Heidi's Throw pillow for Robin's book

Recycling some jeans!

This is so not artsy, but totally crafty. My theme for my journal is recycling/upcycling. I decided to work on recycling some jean material I had. These are my first attempts. OK, but not really making me super happy....so I went to pinterest for some more inspiration....

This is where I went next. I decided the 3D stars were much better. The first star on the left took me about 45 minutes, all the trim was hand sewn on. Not practical for a small Christmas tree decoration.Then I got smarter. The second and third star took me about 15 min each. So, here's my best Christmas decoration recycled from an old pair of jeans!

Guilty Pleasures for Leigh's Book

Guilty Pleasures for Leigh's book. Got this idea from an online source. I have an old iron and I burned the white background, but in the end, maybe the burns add something???

Tangled for Jill's Book

Quilt "Life is Delicious" and Sweet Potato Recipe

Jeeyoung's theme is What "Life is Delicious" means to you. Thanks for this theme Jeeyoung, you motivated me to make a quilt for our new upstairs neighbors, who are having a baby in December. But...I also had to add this killer Sweet Potatoes with Crispy Walnut Recipe. I only make this dish ONCE a year, at Thanksgiving, it is so rich. I make enough so I can eat leftovers for at least a week! This dish makes life delicious too!

SWEET POTATOES WITH CRISPY WALNUTS Combine with mixer: 4 Tbsp. butter 2 eggs 1 tsp. vanilla ¼ cup (or less) sugar 3 cups cooked mashed yams or sweet potatoes (about 3) Put in greased 9X9 casserole pan Combine and sprinkle over yams: ½ cup brown sugar 1/3 cup flour 1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans) Dot with MORE butter! Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. EVERY THANKSGIVING!

Shadow Quilt

This is my attempt at creating shadows with my quilting, as "casting shadows" is Leanne's theme. One fun thing I enjoy about quilting (as I'm sure other artists discover in their own medium) is that your work never turns out quite like you think AND when you make mistakes, sometimes you learn something new or even improve your skills through your mistakes. There's also something I enjoy about making a mistake. After I get past being annoyed at myself, I often see if I can leave the mistake. Once I've decided to leave the mistake, I feel so free. What's that about? Do I live in an environment where I'm concerned about perfection? Mmmmmmm. I've made a little "shadow" error. For fun, see if you can find it! =) Thanks Leanne for the shadow challenge.

Heidi's Empty Nest

This is my own "literal" empty nest for my empty nest themed book. The description, "empty nest" has a sad, melancholy feeling attached to it, but, it isn't all bad, just an adjustment.  I started with the nest, zigzagging the frame, then using strips of black fleece cording cut along the stretch to raise the dimension of the nest, as a new dimension is emerging in my life. I left ends of the fleece cording out to represent twigs and loose ends, all good things that make up a sturdy nest. I spent a bit of time stitching the center of the nest round and round, maybe imagining where my energy should go next now that my girls are gone from the nest. Likewise, the blue stitching radiates from the center of the nest away, giving off energy, that is being captured by lots of new adventures. 

A new chapter. A new beginning.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.

Meaningful song into art...turned into a meaningful quilt for my eldest daughter. I have kept shirts, dresses, favorite worn shorts, patches and ladybug backpacks from my 2 daughter's growing up years. I've carted a bin for each of them from Oregon to Tunisia to Singapore. Last December, I hauled my oldest daughter's bin to BC where my folks live. While I was there, I put together this kaleidoscope quilt for my artist daughter. I pondered on it for ages before starting, trying to imagine how to put together all these memories and colors into an attractively arranged quilt, but then the kaleidoscope idea hit me. I filled in extra spaces with rich velvets and trimmed the edge with black velvet. There are little pockets of shirts and shorts in the quilt that my parents (Alix's grandparents) stuffed little love notes in before we gave it to her. My mom machine quilted the top with her amazing abilities. One corner reads, "You are my sunshine..." as that was a favorite song Jim and I sang to her as she fell to sleep when she was a baby. My mom and I sewed all her nicknames into the quilt. There are even some favorite sock pieces in it. I LOVED doing this project and can't wait to have time to work on Abby's...maybe next year after she leaves for college- boo hoo.

Unfortunately I wasn't smart enough to scan my picture right side up. Fortunately, they are "cheery"-O's so they don't really have a right side up! This piece was for Jeff Koltutsky's O Book. Cheery cheers to y'all.

The Elements for Michael's book

I'm having fun with freehand stitching and learning how to create representation with this method. It's hard, can I say. It makes me want a quilting machine that give you serious control over your stitching. I don't have that. Anyway, the square represents fire, earth, air, water. Great theme Michael, thanks!

Heidi's entry in Jonaca's book, "At a Crossroads"

Jonaca's "At a Crossroads" led me to this path intersection. I enjoyed trying to make "rocks" for the path and "wind" in the sky behind the trees.

The theme of Linda Blaize's book (Jonaca's mom) is "What's in your backyard?". I LOVE gardening and have two patios plastered with potted plants. Jim and I chose this particular apartment partly because of the two massive patios. Jim knows that I need this kind of space to pursue a hobby that makes me very content. Anyway, the beautiful tree and chinese lantern on my lower patio inspired this quilt piece. In fact, I told Heather and Becky that I was so inspired by the theme that I think I'll go on to create an entire quilt with trees and palms and birds!! You can't tell from the pic, but the blue background is a gorgeous silk piece, so nice la! Anyway I'm all buzzed because I haven't wanted to start a quilt project since we've been overseas (this is our 10th year). Thanks Linda for your great theme and I hope I'll be able to follow through with a quilt!

What's your Mood? Yippee we're back!!

Heidi's Mood, September 2013

My sketch book’s theme is, “What’s your mood?”

My first piece is a reflection of my mood this fall. With my second daughter, Abby, getting ready to graduate this year, Jim and I are bracing ourselves for the next chapter. I chose ambers, golds and yellows to express my mood, based on the chart below that I found online from another quilter’s site. Some days I’m nervous and unsettled, some optimistic and accepting of our coming experiences sans girls. Feeling nostalgic and reflective, I added a gold threaded trim that I made from a scarf that the girls used to play with. The scarf still rests in our dress-up box, long forgotten (minus it's trim!).

Found at: http://daintytime.net/2010/06/16/mod-mood-quilt-1/

Color perception and our reactions to color are subjective. They are shaped through our personal experience as well as our cultural environment. Below is a list of colors and some of the emotional mind states associated with them. Notice how colors can have both positive and negative associations.

BLACK: tense, nervous, harassed, over-worked, emptiness, void, mystery, allure, fascination, independent, strength

GREY: anxieties, nervous, strained, depressed, forbearance, perseverance, patience, reflection

AMBER-GOLD: nervous, mixed emotions, unsettled, warm, rich

LIME GREEN: excited, anticipation, new growth, perceptive, motivated,

GREEN: average reading, active, not under great stress, growth, abundance, prosperity, gratitude, hope, satisfaction, contentment, fertile, envy, greed, jealous, heart chakra

BLUE-GREEN: charged but relaxed, calm, dynamic, refreshed, tranquil, patience, cool, motivated, fussy, egocentric

BLUE: relaxed, at ease, calm, lovable, sincerity, peace, tranquility, faith, trust, truthful, sad, arrogant, throat chakra

DARK-BLUE: very happy, love, romance, dignity, integrity, intuition, knowledge, fantasy, wishful thinking, third eye chakra

WHITE: frustrated, cold, confused, bored, vacant, bare, peace, innocence, purity, open, faith

BROWN: earth, comforting, nurturing, stable, grounded, cozy, secure, elegant, fertile, humble

BRONZE: jitters, anticipation, restless thoughts,

YELLOW: imaginative, wondering, ok feeling, optimism, understanding, cheerful, motivated, curious, self-assured, productive, solar chakra

ORANGE: stimulating, ideas, creativity, daring, wants, joy, enthusiasm, sexuality, busy, bright, cheerful, naval chakra

RED: excited, energized, adventurous, ready to go, passion, courage, power, will, desire, anger, root chakra

PINK: fear, uncertain, love, affection, harmony, gentleness

PURPLE: sensual, clarity, purpose is known, wisdom, spirituality, passion, meditative, awareness, crown chakra

Heidi exploring in Heather's book

I was so happy for Heather's theme of "Exploration". I'm really into trying to do something of my own design in quilting. Quilting usually has lots of formula and instructions, but I just love freestyle, texture, design. Anyway, I used muslin as a base to explore going crazy with my stitching. Then I topstitched with black. I wasn't sure when I should stop, and maybe I shouldn't have.... As I was sewing the black topstitching, I felt a little bit like I was playing "pong", that very first video game we played on our TV! Are you all old enough to remember that?

Synergy in art

Synergy: the power that results when the combined efforts of persons is greater than the sum of their individual efforts. Abraham Maslow

Since my theme is textiles, color, freestyle and synergy in art, I was thinking about this as I created my first piece. I chose fabrics that I might not put together based on their color/style compatibility and just started freestyling. I spent a bunch of time sewing the striped fabric in a funky way....not sure I like what happened, but I am glad to have made an attempt at a new style. My favorite thing about quilting is that the layering creates a synergy. First you sew the fabrics together, then you put a backing down and quilt on top of that. Somehow, magically, this layering allows just about any design and color to work together. Synergy! 

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