Weekly Inspiration Linky Party April 17, 2015

Happy Inspiration Linky Party Friday!!

Guess what's been inspiring me lately? My very own self!! Yeah, I know, how'd that happen? I have been so busy with ideas lately that I haven't had to look to the Universe for any inspiration at all(although I've been asking the Universe for inspiration a lot, so I guess it's the Universe after all!). I have been learning, learning, learning and apparently that is just what I needed to get my wheels turning. I had some fails,  and I would do some stuff different, but the best part is I learned from everything I tried, so really it's all a win! I've had a pretty awesome couple of weeks!

I took a workshop offered by my quilt guild, Camaco Quilter's Guild from Teresa Fusco who is a walking talking bunch of inspiration, I learned a technique for raw edge appliqué without using fusible stabilizer. She is a talented lady and great teacher, if you get the chance to learn from her jump on it!

This is still a work in progress, I have quilting to do in the background.

I went to a local florist with my photography club, The Photography Club of Cape May to take photos of flowers. Most of my photos were blurry, but I know why, I should've used a tripod and was too lazy to bother. That's a big lesson to learn, what a bunch of blurry, there's only one or two pics that were half way okay, no award winners here, but that's okay!!

My photography needs work, but I learn something every time I try, so I will keep on shooting!!

 I signed up for watercolor classes at my county library,  I am out of my element and it's a big ol' learning curve, but the teacher is good at step by step direction and I can handle that! This is my first try at a daffodil, it too needs work, but that's my specialty, trying again!!!

I drew the daffodil myself, not bad for a first try at watercolor!

So what's been inspiring you? I want to hear all about it!

Go make something! Nini~

An InLinkz Link-up

Drawing Tommy Kane

I follow a lot of sketchers, journalers and artists because someday I want to be one of those people who chronicles their everyday life by mostly drawing. I have been avoiding sketching and drawing because I'm not as good as I'd like to be.

 Lately the universe has been sending me a message LOUD and CLEAR,  "practice is the key to whatever you want to do well". So in spite of not being good at free motion quilting and sketching I am jumping in and practicing both. Truthfully I admit my sketching has improved immensely since I started in 2005, so although I complain about my sketching, it's in comparison to the pros. As an amateur with limited practice I am happy with my progress and hope to really enjoy the process of getting better. 

I found this challenge on line, an artist, Tommy Kane, will send you a high resolution picture of himself, you draw him and send it to him. He has all the portraits on tumblr.  So, you know I had to take the challenge! Here's the pic, and below it is my sketch. I think I did a pretty good job, especially for not sketching in ages! Of course I looked at the tumblr pics before I sent mine in, so I didn't totally embarrass myself! It's fun to have a record of my progress, I think I'll draw him again in a few months so I can see my improvement.

This pic is the one he sent to me, I didn't take this picture, I don't know who did.

 This took me a few hours to do after Easter dinner, I hope to be able to speed up the process a bit with practice.  

Thanks Tommy! 

Go make something!!

Nini~

                                     

Weekly Inspiration Linky Party

Happy New Year! Here's my first weekly inspiration for 2015! I plan on making it a great year! Here's what's inspiring me lately, Nini~

1. Inspirational Quotes

"If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." Marc Chagall

Yup.

2. Kindle

I got a Kindle HDX7 for my birthday back in October, thank you Chelsey and Rob! I didn't know anything about tablets when I got it, but I figured it out! Well I've been figuring lots of things out! I love it, it's so light to carry and I love Kindle Unlimited! If you're wondering what Kindle Unlimited is check it out here. It basically gives you a borrowing library of thousands of ebooks for $9.99 a month. I have access to all kinds of subjects I never realized were ebooks like quilting, journaling, self help, DIY's, and art! Don't know why I thought it was just for novels, silly me!

This was one of the first books I borrowed...

The Art of Whimsical Lettering,  by Joanne Sharpe. 

3. American Flags

You can find a pattern for a rag quilt at Lizzie and Co Patterns.  I like the colors and construction on this flag quilt!

This is a great version of the american flag that I would love to make!!! This one was offered as a give away on the Free People Blog back in 2013, I'm sorry I missed it! The shop  Free People offers lots of inspiration.

I love this flag obviously inspired by the American flag made by Sara Rahbar, artist.

Please share what's been inspiring you?  Nini~

An InLinkz Link-up

Guild Challenges for Fun and Nurturing Creativity!

I belong to Camaco Quilt Guild and they held a challenge last spring: to make something that is 90% rectangles and it had to be quilted. Easy enough you would think.  I've always wanted to make a friendship braid quilt so I looked around and saw some good tutorials and ideas I liked.  I cut some fabric using the binding tool as my guide and started sewing it together, nice long rectangles! Then I looked up the definition of a rectangle and they have four 90 degree angles!!!!! As I sewed the braid together I realized there are corners that AREN'T 90 degrees!! Uh oooooh!

This is the binding tool I used for cutting the "rectangles".  As you can see, there aren't four 90 degree angles.

NOT 90 degrees!

90 degree angles!!!

I also belong to Jersey Shore Modern Quilt Guild who participated in the Michael Miller Challenge at  the same time, they gave us fat eights of Michael Miller fabrics to use, you could add any solid or Michael Miller fabric to make something, it had to be quilted were the only rules for MQG challenge.

Michael Miller Challenge Fabrics 

I thought I could make one project for both challenges until I realized the 90 degree angle problem. I had plenty of fabric for the Michael Miller Challenge, so I decided to use the friendship braid for that and I used the rest to zip up a zipper quilt for Camaco's challenge. Whew!! So glad that worked out!! I love the brightness and the color scheme for both.

Table runners for my porch, nice bright summer colors!

A little straight line quilting.

I hope this inspires you to go make something!

Nini~

Quilting in Layers Workshop....Learning New Techniques is Good!

Terry Kramzar's Quilting In Layers Workshop

Camaco Quilt Guild held a lovely workshop a few weeks ago with Terry Kramzar, Quilting In Layers, An Art Quilt Technique. There were many techniques in this workshop for me to learn, it really sparked my creativity thinking about how I could use the different techniques for making other art quilts.  There's quilt as you go, thread painting, appliqué, basting with white glue, finishing with facing instead of binding. I was out of my comfort zone using monopoly invisible thread along with metallic thread. I like learning or trying something new and the challenge it presents. I found many challenges with using unusual threads in my machine, I had to make adjustments as I went along, but an art quilt is the artist's representation and doesn't have to be perfect, it's my kind of quilting!

 I recommend Terry Kramzar's lectures and workshops for a great spark of creativity, her love of nature is contagious and understandably so! In fact any time you can learn something with a group of people you're bound to learn many things...not only about the subject,  but about the people you're learning with!

Facing instead of binding, I added hanging corners. Awesome non mitered facing tutorial by Susan Brubaker Knapp.

With facing there's no visible binding on the front, I like the look for art quilts and sometimes for other quilted projects, there's times when I don't want to add another element to the front and that's when facing works great, it's my new best friend. I'm still practicing, I haven't gotten it down yet, but it gets easier each time.

 Go learn something!

Nini~

Linking up with Anything Goes Monday At Stitch By Stitch