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Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Australia Bound in my mind

It is halt time on my Israel souvenir. I've finished it except for the facing. I'm not happy with the sampling I've done for nice, sharp corners for facings so until I can figure it out, I must move on. A traditional binding just isn't going to do it for this one.

I've been drawing and drawing and drawing and erasing, removing and redoing Australia until I think I've nearly got it where I want it. Now, the hardest part is to print my drawing life size and see if what I've drawn is going to work, what needs refinement, enlarging, reducing, or removing. It's the part that shows me what is and isn't going to work. I sure hope everything works on this one because I'm really loving how it looks in print. On this souvenir, I'm throwing in everything including the kitchen sink! There will be a lot of painting, applique, and lots of hand embroidery embellishment. I spied a new-to-me cotton fabric that you must get some if you haven't already done so. It is going to be perfect for Australia because you only need small pieces so buying a 10 inch square package that includes all of the colors will do the trick. It's made by Maywood Studio and is called Glitz. It's 100 percent cotton with a foil face. It's incredibly luscious in rich, wonderful colors.

I so want to share my conceptual drawing with you, but until I know whether it is doable, I think I'd better wait. Thank you for continuing to travel with me!



Friday, May 5, 2017

Tsukineko Ink Sampling

A few weeks ago, hubby asked me if there was anything I'd been wanting and initially, I said no to which he then said 'nothing.' I thought about it for a while and then said that I'd love to get some more paints/inks. I really like the Tsukineko inks and had a few bottles from a class that I'd taken years ago. These inks never go bad and it only takes a tiny amount so the bottle never seems to empty. Isn't that cool! Well, hubby gave me the entire collection! Our 35th Anniversary is in July and this present is a wonderful present. Thank you honey!

I thought I'd do something I've never done with any of my paints and that is make a sample showing all of the colors. My goal was to show full saturation of the inks on one half and a light shading on the other half. This sample aided me in learning just how much pressure I needed in order to get a light shading. The fabric I used was an inexpensive white, bleached cotton called Roc-Lon. I think the results would have been even nicer on a nicer fabric. I could feel the ridges of the fabric pulling and in many cases causing a streaking of the ink when shading.

On the last square at the bottom, I used the green, #10 ink but before inking the box, I spritz the square with the #9 potion to see how it would react. I love how it looks but it will take some practice to know how to control the spreading of the ink. I inked the center and it immediately spread out and gave a beautiful watercolor effect.

I finished quilting my Hoopoe and am ready to cut, bind, label, and put the sleeve on it. I can't wait to post a finished picture.

I've been working on and off on my drawing for Australia as well. It's not quite where I want it yet so I'll keep working on it until it tells me it's done and to get stitching!

Enjoy your weekend! We had 2 full days of summer this week and it nearly killed me. Seriously, we've had 50 to 55 degree days and 40 to 45 degree nights. And then just this week, we had 2 days of over 80. My body did not react well to such a sudden change, but I will adjust if the temps stay put and quit varying in 30 degree increments.