How time flies...

when you are having fun.  Isn't that how the expression goes?  Working through my colour study course, I hadn't realized how much time had past since I last posted.  Despite being totally immersed in colour, I've had a wonderful time.  I now view colour in an entirely different light.  You saw exercises I did regarding value in a previous post and monoprinting.  Along with those we explored tints, tones, shades and various colour schemes.  Here are a couple of colour scheme examples from my sketchbook.

 

We experimented with colour proportion by examining pictures of nature and the world around us.   All in all it was a wonderful course, and all from the comfort of my home.  You can check out the various course offerings at the Gail Harker Center for Creative Arts, here.

 

I also had the opportunity to explore my new community and discovered a thriving quilt guild here.  Their website is here.  I joined this friendly group, was given a "new member" button, instructions to help me make the Guild's standard name tag and an invitation to get together with a member of long standing that would act as a "buddy".  Nice to meet you Nancy!  I managed to complete my name tag in time for the meeting tomorrow.  Here is what it looks like.

 

Oh and let's not forget that along with six others I have also been studying with Catherine Nicols, where we have been learning various different techniques to add to our artistic toolbox.  We've covered such things as the elements of design, pointillism, and paper & stitch to enhance our work, and there is still more to come.  In the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture of one of the samples I created from Catherine's class.



 

Like I mentioned, time flies when you are having fun.  Till the next time, stitch creatively.

Monoprinting

One of the things I am discovering during my colour studies course is monoprinting.  I didn't really understand what it was, but as it turned out, I got a chance to try it.

It was simple really; don't know why I hadn't tried it before.  We usually have left over acrylic paints when we've completed our exercises, so the instructor gave very explicit instructions for what to do with left over paint.

Add sufficient water to the paints in such a way that they do not mix together very much and that they flow more easily than straight out of the bottle.  Press a blank sketchbook page onto the palette containing the left over paint; lift the paper and presto, a monoprint.  So here are some of the ones that I tried.  The paints I used were Golden Fluid Acrylics.

First attempt I had left over blue and yellow acrylic.

As you can see I added too much water and the paint mixed so much that you can't see the yellow at all.  It mixed with the blue and gave that greeny look.  There just a tiny hint of the yellow in the upper right hand corner.

Okay, so how about using no water at all.  This was my second attempt. 

Clearly you can see the colours that I used and there are a couple of spots where they mixed.  In case you're interested, the acrylics used were Golden Fluid Acrylics in Diarylide Yellow, Pyrrole Red, and Ultramarine Blue.  This one turned out okay, but now it was time to add some water. 

Very carefully I added just enough, I thought, to get some flow going.  What do you think?

I kinda like this one, but it was worth one more try because there was still sufficient paint left over, so here is the final attempt. 

This one is my favourite.  I've got to give this a try with fabric!!!

Investigating colour

I have periodically had trouble recognizing differences in value.  Those differences are sometimes quite subtle.  Perhaps some of you have too.  For example, is red darker in value than blue; is blue darker in value than violet.

In a previous post I mentioned that I was taking an online course from the Gail Harker Center.  It is absolutely amazing what discoveries can be made when you play with a bit of paint and start mixing.

An exercise that we had to do for our studies involved creating a gray scale.  It will help with deciphering value of different colours. Here is the scale that I created.

I have nine values from white to black.  The holes punched in the scale will help when placed over a piece of fabric.  If the fabric is very similar in value to one of the scales, I will be able to determine the value of that fabric in comparison to another.  Something that will come in very handy when selecting fabrics for .... hmmm...let's say a Lone Star quilt.

Must get back to playing.  Till the next time.

Missing in action!

Yes, yes I know!  I have not been around for a while.  Did you miss me?  Well I had a rather busy month in May and did some shuffling around, some packing of boxes, some "reducing, reusing and recycling".  All that packing required a truck. Yup that's right!  I retired and moved up country to the sunny Okanagan.  Did I say sunny?  It wasn't at first.  It seemed that the area had been receiving an unusual amount of rain.  Not as much as Calgary, but enough to ensure that the grass needed cutting every four days.

One month later I'm still unpacking, and this is what the sewing room looks like at present.

These pictures were taken two and a half weeks ago.  You can see that there is not a place to set up the sewing machine.  There is still some unpacking to take place, but it is taking shape.  I have managed to get enough room to set up the Pfaff.  Once it's all set up, I'll post the finished result.

I've also been taking an online Colour Studies class from the Gail Harker Center for Creative Studies.  The studies and exercises have been a real eye opener.  Now if I can just apply what I am learning to some of my projects, that would be great.

Well I best get back to unpacking.  I have a postcard to finish for a class that I'm attending next Sunday, and as usual I have left it till the last minute.

Till the next post, keep stitching!

Time flies...

and before you know it an entire month has gone by.  It has been that long since I posted and my only excuse is that my muse took a vacation and then I took one right along with it.

So now that Spring has finally "sprung" and the muse has unpacked, it's time to get back to creating.

I attended Empty Spools Seminars again this year and enjoyed a class with Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry.  Yup that is an addition to her name; she recently got married, but I digress.  I also took a class with Lonni Rossi, but more on her class later.

Caryl was an amazing teacher.  She shared her technique for piecing curves, designing curves with flying geese and ultimately explaining how she came up with her various abstract design ideas. 

She took us through a series of samples that we were to make before we attempted our final piece.  Here are some of the samples I did.  The first one was to test the placement of colour to create "luminosity" and stitch multiple seams together.

 

I wasn't as successful as I would have liked.  The second sample was to test piecing multiple curves within a piece.

 

Having used Caryl's piecing technique it was time to try several other piecing samples. 

Caryl had us draw a simple curve and add triangles to it so that they appeared to float within the curve.  I had a bit more success with this one.

For our final sample we were to select a picture from a magazine and using the colours within the picture, create a sample that included a curve and luminosity.  This is what I did.

 

I'll post later this week to show you what my final project is looking like.  Till then,

 

Enjoy each day, sing like no one is listening, dance like no one is watching and create like you dream.

Exciting News!

I recently sent a submission for the Canadian Quilters Association National Juried Show.  I have been waiting to find out if my quilt had been accepted.  It was the first time I had entered a quilt into a national show and one that is juried.  Imagine my excitement when I found this in my mailbox:

"I am pleased to inform you that your entry has been accepted in the CQA/ACC National Juried Show 2013"

Let's just say, I spent 20 minutes dancing around the house!  Now I just have to calm down enough to fill in the required additional documents and figure out how to package the quilt so that it arrives safely for display.

On another note, I finished up a quilt that consists of blocks made by some friends.  Here is a picture.

I've called it Scraps of Value.  Each of us were given instructions to select dark and light scraps; we could choose any colour and had to precut our scraps to predetermined sizes.  We also didn't know what colours the others had chosen, nor were we given the pattern for the block until we got together.

After setting all of our pieces out to share, we discovered that the majority of the colours chosen were within the "cool" spectrum.  We were given block piecing instructions and each of us made a "dark" and "light" block.  Here is a closer picture of what I mean.

 

Look closely... the block with the dark star has a dark border; the light star, a light border.  Initially we thought that the blocks wouldn't work well together, but when put up on the design wall all of us noted it was the value that created the pattern.  Of course it helped and was an added bonus that we had picked colours from the cool side of the colour wheel, but I think it would have worked even with multi colours.  It just would have projected a more vibrant mood rather than the calm one these blocks did.  Its the value that did the work!  Who would have "thunk" it.

 

Till the next time... pieceful sewing!