Bi-Monthly Report

Shall we try for a Quarterly Report next time?  Semi-annual?  Heck, let’s just jump right to Annual!  Or . . . maybe not.  I don’t really want to lose all my readers – all three of you that are left, anyway!

I’m going to skip the excuses (there are many) and get right to showing what I’ve done recently – of which there are many as well!

Quilts:

This was a kit from the local quilt shop.  I’ve had it for awhile, but it went together pretty fast once I decided to work on it.

This is from a pattern called “Take Five On-point”.  The package says you take 5 minutes to choose 5 fabrics and in 5 hours you’ll have a finished top.  Well, it took more like 10 hours, but that included coffee breaks and gossip time, so I’m thinking that’s about right!

This table runner was a quick project after a friend showed us how to layout charm squares for a simple runner.  I wanted something for Fall and I happen to have this charm pack from a Shop Hop – who knows when!  For awhile I was buying charm packs a lot, until I realized I didn’t know what to do with them!  I’m getting more ideas now.

Art Journal Emporium:

August was pretty busy, but things slowed down in September somewhat.  At least in my Art journal!  Here’s a couple of exercises from Pam Carricker’s “Creating Art at the Speed of Life”

Digital Scrapping:

Dolls & Other Things:

A couple of projects from my doll club’s August and September meetings.  Top picture is my box “totem”.  We collaged and embellished boxes or square cubes with symbolism that had a personal meaning.  I made mine so there are three storage compartments.  You know – for secrets.  Ha!

The bottom picture is two cone dolls.  These are literally cardboard cones that I’ve collaged onto.  We had a selection of clay faces to choose from, and multiple face molds.  I used several of the molds and I have a couple more cones, so I can do more dolls.  These are too much fun!

That’s about it.  Two months gone by in a rush – but fun projects got done anyway!

Want to see what I’m working on next?

It involves this fabric.  The fuchsia flowers match the trim in my sewing room.  Sarge was sooo nice to paint it since he really dislikes fuchsia! 

Now to get back to sewing and scrapping!

April Recap

Almost a month since me last post . . . now where did that month go?!?  Well, I have been busy, so how about a little summary?

Art Journal Emporium

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but I subscribe to Tangie Baxter’s AJ Emporium and we have a lot of activities geared to inspiring creativity.  Plus, it’s a lot of fun!  Check out the box in the right column if you think you might like to join, too.

One of the activities I take part in is a monthly Artist Trading Card (ATC) swap.  Here is what I received in April:

The Daily Art Dose

I decided to do lettering practice for April – here are some of my favorites:

Emporium Book Club

Yet another activity is the Book Club.  This month, our book was “Art Journal Courage: Mixed Media Techniques” by Dina Wakley.  Check out some of the things I created with the help of this book!

Digital Scrapbook

Since I’ve “discovered” the joys of Photoshop Elements, I’ve used a lot of family photos to create layouts suitable for memory keeping.  One way I keep focused is by joining on-line challenges.  The challenges mean I’m not doing things in any kind of order, but that works for me just fine!

Quilting

In spite of how it may look with all that, I DO have time for a bit of quilt making – just a bit!  These blocks took most of the month, but they are mostly done.

And there are three rows ready to be stitched together:

This is just a sampling.  Whew – makes me tired to look at it all together!  I’m ready for May, though.  Bring it!

A Couple of Finishes

You have seen pieces and parts of these two projects and now I can show you finished!

First, here is the Botanical Gardens:

You might remember the flowers from last year’s Serendipity Sunday posts.  I have been working diligently to get all four seasons assembled and embellished.  Truth be told, I was getting tired of it lying around and getting in the way.  This sucker is heavy, too, so moving it was getting to be a big deal!

Here are some close-ups:

Winter

Spring

Summer

Fall

Now that BG is off the design wall I could finally get a photo of this one.  You’ve seen it’s pieces and parts on the Wednesday WOW posts.

The Disney Princess quilt is a completed top and I have pieced a backing for it.  Just need to set aside some time to quilt it.  There is one princess block left over and I think it will make a nice pillow – or maybe a bag to store the quilt in.  I can think about that while I’m quilting.

By the way, I got the princess patterns from Fandom In Stitches and I believe they are all by Michelle Thompson.

I’ve been doing a lot of collage and paint work lately, but nothing quite ready to be shown.  Soon I hope.  I saw a photo today of a finished doll from an on-line class I took.  It was so cute and now I am anxious to get back to work on mine!  Tsk.  A dollmaker’s work is never done!

The Year in Review

I’ve noticed a lot of bloggers have posted photo montages of their accomplishments in 2011.  Of course, most of those “review” posts were done on January 1 or very close to it.  But, I’ve been running to catch up all my life, so I figure mid-January is “on time” for me!  LOL!

Apparently, 2011 was the Year of the Quilts for me.  A year ago I don’t think I would have considered myself a quilter, but looking at these photos it looks like that is what I am!

It’s funny that I mostly consider myself a dollmaker, but there have been only two dolls this past year.  I spent a lot of time dabbling in art journaling, and of course a lot of swaps.  This collection doesn’t include postcards since I have already done reviews of them here and here.

The most productive part of my year, however, has been the Sunday experiments.  This is a pretty impressive collection of small art.  It’s been a lot of fun and very educational.  And the best part is that I will continue them through 2012!

It’s good to take a quiet moment for reflection.  It not only helps determine how you want to go forward, but it can surprise you with just how much you can accomplish!

Oh boy!  I can’t wait to see what I get into next!