Creativity comes in all shapes and sizes!

This weekend has been a little odd - I'm writing this on Sunday morning - as Adrian has been away, leaving just me and the little guy to amuse ourselves! So what did we do, and did it involve creativity?

No smoothies for a start! I joined the boy and had cereal and toast breakfasts, but I think I was less messy than him! (I hope so anyway!)

No dinners either! Fish and chips on Friday - Simon loves both! And leftovers on Saturday.

Trip to the park Saturday morning with Aunty. Good conversation and fun, which always energises me. Somehow, for me, things seem better, funnier etc if you can share them with some one, either at the time, or afterwards! Perhaps that's why I like to make art? I like to share my feelings and experiences!

And my evenings?

Friday was creative in that I worked in paperwork for my childminding business. I don't really call writing policies creative, but it is working towards the life I want to create I suppose. I'd still rather not be doing it though!

Saturday was fun! I'd set that aside for creativity and did the following...

I finished the I spy quilt! Yay! I'll try and get some better photos, but this shows that I gave it a test run and snuggled up in the sofa to do...

These are blind contour drawings, where you look at the object, not at the drawing! I've recently started following this blog http://taraleaver.com/ and she offers a free drawing course! Free! Drawing! Got to be worth a try, right?

So this was the first lesson, and it was fun. It reminds you to look and frees up your hand to move. Drawing definitely needs practice to get better.

Tomorrow's post will include food...I'm welcoming my big fella home with a nice meal! 

Support and permission

After a busy week, me and the little guy had a stay at home day. It started with the groceries being delivered and ended with a night out for me and my big guy!

And in the middle...no housework! 

We all need days like this and it was possible due to support and permission. Adrian said 'don't worry about the housework today' so I didn't! I let it go. And I gave myself permission to do on online shop, rather than drag myself and little one round the supermarket. And Aunty came to babysit so we could have an evening out.

Support and permission - it helps creativity!

Because I didn't have to go to the supermarket, or cook dinner I was able to

Do a couple more lines of quilting on the I spy quilt

Paint my toenails...sorry for the fuzzy close up of my feet. I couldn't decide on the colour so I went for all three that appealed!

Make chicken smoothie! No, it's not a new breakfast smoothie for us, it's pressure cooked chicken, leek, celery and potato which I blitzed in an attempt to get fussy toddler to eat some meat. I even split it into three batches with different flavours. And did he eat it? Of course not! He squished it through his hands until I took it away when veggie Aunty arrived to babysit!

I made Star Wars space ship biscuits using my new bargain cutters from Lakeland. As you can see, some of them have the details showing, but not all. I think I haven't found the right recipe yet. This was a Mary Berry one from her Christmas book, but, unwilling as I am to criticise Mary Berry, it uses self raising flour which meant all the details got lost. Love the shapes though!

To end the day I went out to dinner here http://sabaideethai.co.uk/ with Adrian.

The food was delicious and beautiful. Here's my Pad Thai, with a delicious eggy net across the top!

Plagiarism and getting messy.

Ok, I admit it...some of the creativity I'm posting today is plagiarised from an up and coming young artist. Tuesdays are always an easier day for creativity as Adrian is out at an evening class, so my time is all my own.

Here is 'my' first bit of creativity from yesterday 

I took Simon to Tiny Towner which is happening every Tuesday morning during July and August at the Towner Art Gallery (here's their website http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/)

They had a great sensory room with mirrors and fabric and books and cushions and lights, and a messy room with the chance to paint with your feet, hands, fingers, bottom, elbows, nose etc etc

As you can see Simon had a great time...and he got messier from here! He loved squishing the paint between his fingers more than mark making, although it was interesting to see his reaction to the cause and effect of paint on your hands being put on paper.

My reaction to his getting this messy was also interesting. I've worked hard on being a relaxed parent, but this made me twitchy. I worried about staining and about me getting messy too. Whenever I do anything like painting, dyeing fabric etc I try and wear old clothes or an apron, and now I don't do too much of that I don't have 'art' clothes that can get messy! I need to remedy this, for myself and for Simon. He needs to be able to just enjoy these experiences, and getting muddy at the park or in the garden and SO DO I! Removing blocks to creativity is essential if I am going to have it in my life.

What else did I create?

Another khaki breakfast smoothie - banana, mango, spinach and almond milk. Very yummy as the mango was really, really ripe, but not pretty, so I will spare you another khaki smoothie photo!

Spinach and cheese filo tart - forgot to take a photo till we'd eaten most of it!

According to the recipe book, it was supposed to be ideal finger food for Simon, but I don't think he read that page as it was rejected without tasting it! Adrian liked it though!

I also unpicked and redid the stitches on the I spy quilt, no new photo as it's the same as the other day! I hate unpicking, but it definitely looks less wrinkled.

I also did some what I call 'colouring' (it is colouring) while watching a couple of episodes of Miranda - such fun! 

Creativity on a busy day

Yesterday was crazy busy...swimming lessons, lunch with Adrian, a play date with a friend and then popping in to pick up a bib I'd left at another friend's house.

So did I do anything creative?

Yes!

I made a strawberry, banana and kale smoothie! We've been having green smoothies for breakfast for a while. I guess they are called green because of the kale or spinach because they always look this colour! It's a shame because this one started out a beautiful pink but once the kale got involved, it was khaki breakfast time!

Simon had a brief nap before swimming (as in I put him in his cot and he burbled for 20 minutes before I decided a nap just wasn't going to happen!) so I did a couple of lines of quilting on his I spy quilt....which I now have to unpick as they ended up horribly wrinkled and even a good press did not solve the problem! Oh poop! Such is the challenge of using 4 way stretch fleece as a quilt backing! But it's just soooo fluffy and such a cute design that I will just wield the seam ripper and sort out my stretchy wrinkles! (On the quilt not on me...)

I decided to do my blog about the previous day so if I sneak in any cheeky creative stuff later in the evening it can all be included. So bring on Tuesday and let's see what I can create today!

Where on earth have you been?

Ok, so it's been a looking while since I posted on this blog...as in over two years! Do I have an excuse? Well, my creative energy has been going into this little project!

This is Simon who was born last year. He now looks like this!

He is a gorgeous, cheeky guy and takes up a lot of time. There is still time to be creative though.

This is a quilt panel that I stitched into some blue fleece. It's a comfy play mat for the floor. (Excuse the creases, we've been playing on them today!)

This is another play mat, a construction site panel, which was Simon's Christmas present, along with some little vehicles that sing! (Yes, they drive you crazy!)

There are also some clothes I've made, and of course purée!

This is today's project - a sensory bottle, made with buttons, loom bands and glitter. I glued the lid shut, just to be sure!

As you can see, little one was interested!

Here it is in action! Whoopee! I love how the buttons and bands start at opposite ends of the bottle, and all three ingredients take different times to settle! 

Special seam stitches

I'm going to do a post on the stitches I'm using on my USA flag crazy quilt seams, as that's really all there is to do now, apart from backing and binding.

Yesterday I rewatched How to make an American Quilt - which you can buy on DVD from Amazon here

http://amzn.to/1b6D2wU

Towards the end of the film they show the quilt that the character have been working on - maybe this needs a spoiler alert! - but there is a crazy patchwork piece. Despite crying like a sentimental fool by this point in the film, my inner quilter kicked in and I paused the DVD to look at the stitching and discovered a variation of blanket stitch that I hadn't tried yet!

Here it is on my quilt.

So you're thinking 'which stitch?' It's the one at the top of the gingham piece, that forms triangles. It's basically a blanket stitch, so here are some other variations of blanket stitch.

Here (above) the blanket stitch forms a fan shape.

Another very similar stitch is this one that forms a bow.

On this stitch (above) the blanket stitches are crossed over each other.

Here the blanket stitch is worked on alternate sides. 

It's amazing how many variations you can make with just one stitch!

By the way I finished the stitching on the seams tonight! Hurray!

Meet Bartholomew J Mouse!

Since term began in September I've had less time for making than I would like, but I'm keeping my USA crazy quilt ticking over, and because I made a lot of progress over the summer, I am now on the penultimate stage of doing the blue stitching on the red and white portion. Of course, that's most of the quilt, so it's taking a while. I still aim to be finished by the end of the year!

Then there are the creative distractions, like deciding we needed a mouse puppet to use for the Christmas Eve service at church. Cue some sketching of ideas, and then re-watching of videos on YouTube to remind myself how to make a puppet using the Project Puppet pattern I have. (I'll try  and add links to these at some point, when I'm using a proper computer, and not my iPad!)

The Roly pattern from Project puppet is very easy to use, but has a round head, not mouse shaped. It's what I've used for Crockford, Brookland and Dexter.

Dexter the rock star!

Crockford with two camels...unusual for him as he prefers crocodiles, as he will happily tell you if you spend any amount of time with him!

I obviously had to make a mouse nose shape for this pattern, which I did using a cone shaped piece of paper. I decided to keep the mouse body thin, and his hands and ears big. I went for a grey tail, not pink, as that screams rat, and that makes me scream!

So here he is, posing with me - Mr Bartholomew J Mouse!

I was concerned he'd resemble Roland Rat (yay, hello rat fans!) which, as much as I like Roland Rat wasn't what I wanted. I wanted him cuddlier than Rizzo from the Muppets, and I guess he's turned out a bit like Tutter from Bear in the Big Blue House. I think he's his own mouse though, and I have some firm ideas about his personality.

I have a puppet board on Pinterest, so follow me on that to see what my favourite puppet inspirations are. (here's some clues...one is small, grey and squeaky, and is best friends with a bear, the other is green and has an 'it's complicated' relationship with a pig!)

Just got to write the script now!

Short burst of speed!

Having posted only last week about the current state of my USA themed crazy quilt, I am now about to post again! This is mostly thanks to the school holidays which means that I am able to get on a little more. (But only a little, as my mornings, a couple of afternoons and a weekend day are taking up with teaching English to foreign students!)

I was very pleased to finish all the red patches, and I made a start on putting the red pieces onto the backing.

As you can see my fabrics are mostly red, with hints of white, and include two fabrics that incorporate other colours. I wasn't sure if this was going to work, so I've just done a small section, and it's only tacked down at the minute. Actually this caused a crafting dilemma for me - all the fabric I've used so far has been from my stash of fabrics. I have only bought thread. I was battling with whether to try and stick with that, hence the fabrics with other colours, and the dominant red, or whether to try and find some white fabric with a red print or pattern. In the end I decided to use what I've got. It looks good, there's variety of pattern, and the white patches really stand out. Crafting can be a very expensive hobby, and I like to try and limit what I buy to stuff that I really need and haven't got in my stash already.

I also started adding the decorative stitching to the blue section of the quilt. My original idea was to use blue and white variegated thread on the blue section, and red and white combined on the red section. (Red variegated thread is inevitably pink...not the look I wanted!) However, when I made a start, I soon realised that you couldn't actually see the stitches. I think it's important that this detail stands out, so now I am using red on the blue section and blue on the red section. As an added bonus it helps the embroidered patches to stand out more.

Here's the first few borders!

Green Knowe Quilt

My penultimate project is due in on Tuesday and is not quite finished, much to my frustration. I am discovering that textile art finished to the quality I want is very time consuming, and I could quite happily spend another month on this piece.

The starting theme was Landscapes, but the discovery of crazy patchwork mid way through the project led me down some unexpected paths. And here is the end result. It's a crazy quilt based on the Green Knowe books, by Lucy Boston. I created a special piece for each of 16 patches using a variety of techniques; cross stitch, fabric crayons, printing using a pc, crewel work etc. I then used fabrics suggested by the books, especially The Chimneys of Green Knowe where patchwork features in the story. I included velvet and 'satin', printed cottons and linen.  The photos show the patches in blocks of 4, then all sewn together. As you can see I haven't managed to embroider all the seams, and I have ideas for further embellishment. Backing and binding would also be desirable but way out of reach for Tuesday!

If you want to read the books they are available from Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/green knowe books

Topiary and Roger and Toby's patches

St Christopher, Alexander and Susan and Jacob's patches, the peacock's tail feather

Oscar, Ping and Ida and Linnet's patches with topiary animals

Tolly's rocking horse, Neptune the carp Chinese style, the witch ball and Hanno the gorilla

the whole quilt, as yet unfinished but you get the idea!