Blue Background

Thought I'd take a break from the other things I'm working on, and made this blue background. I'm going for the look of water, and am thinking I'm going to quilt it as is, then embellish, and use a facing to finish the edges.

( It only took a week to get this post done and uploaded due to blogger problems and computer problems - blogger said it is done uploading the photo, but refused to have the DONE link for me to click on to get it inserted into my text, and it hadn't wanted to autosave for a day or so either! At least everything seems to be fixed now!)

A page from my sketchbook

As you can tell from these pages from my sketchbook, I started out with very rough line drawings that were intended to be ideas for a black and white challenge, and then took a detour and started adding color. I'm not sure if anything will come from these at this time, but I never know. When I'm hunting for ideas, or in need of inspiration, I'll flip through my sketchbooks and sometimes I'll find a treasure to work with.

Website progress

Well, I'm starting to feel restricted by the templates I'm using to design my website, but hey, they're the only way I can get up and running right now, so I'm learning to work with them, and will have to learn how to adapt them or re-design the site later. In the meantime, I've changed to a more pleasing template. So far I haven't found a way to change the pictures that come with the templates, other than changing colors when choosing a template, so temporarily, I have a beachy template that reminds me of Florida. I've been trying to upload a quilt photo for the home page, but have been unsuccessful so far - mostly it is just errors with the site I'm using, so nothing I can fix. If you'd like to check out my progress, come visit lynnmajidimehr.com. I've also added a link to the sidebar, so it will always be easy to find.

Quilt in local paper

My local newspaper printed the press release for Janet's Influence being accepted into the Pacific Northwest Quiltfest, and it can also be found online, at NW News, including a photograph of the quilt! This weekend I'll be delivering the quilt to them for judging, and keeping my fingers crossed!

Website in progress!!!

The name is lynnmajidimehr.com and so far I've managed to create a welcome page with links that are in progress of being created. If you visit now, you will see a temporary welcome page that I have created (most of the information will be moved to the links), and there are links that will go to my patterns, and a gallery, along with the usual links found on other websites like links, contact and about me (currently on the welcome page). It's a work in progress, and I'm learning as I go, but eventually it will be a fully functional website where you can find me.

Another journal page

Just another quick peek in my sketchbook. This page has ideas that could be used as crazy quilt embellishment.

Watercolor sketchbook page

Here's just one of my homework assignments (I have photographed more, but they still need to be cropped). This was a simple watercolor page that has been texturized with plastic wrap, adn the color wants me to make it into an underwater scene, but that will have to wait.

It's another class at Joggles, and this one is Studio Journals: A Designer's Workhorse with Sharon Boggon. She is teaching us different ways to use a studio journal, learn some new techniques to get the pages and ideas flowing, and new ways to record the world around me Even though I've been trying to jot things down, paste things in, and make sketches in my sketchbook (sometimes after the fact), I really need to be more diligent at working with it every day.

Butterfly quilt progression

Since I can't show what I'm working on right now, I thought I'd show you the journal page that I created from the pictures of my quilt. It is easier to compare the different versions when they are similar size and right beside one another. I've also made a few mor changes in EQ, so here's another exported picture:

And also minor changes on the design wall (the brown butterflies were only place holders for size, and placement). I've also croped out the butterfly in photoshop so that I can try out smaller paper butterflies to see how it would look if I appliqued smaller, matching butterflies. If I decide I like the way they look, I can always print them on fabric and add to the quilt.

I think I like this the best, but will need to make up the flowers in fabric to see how it will really look.

Mountain Meadow - landscape

With just the illusion of flower fields, I think it's finished. What do you think?

Butterfly quilt - a better option

Those large flowers just weren't making me happy, so after sleeping on it, and still not liking it, I decided to try out some coneflowers that I had designed in the EQ6 program (Electric Quilt). The photo of my quilt (before the flowers were added) was imported, then on another layer I added my coneflower motifs. I think I'm happy with this, but will still think on it while I do some other things that really need to be done first.

Butterfly quilt - more progress

While I did consider just cutting up my fabric without a sketch, I thought that the flowers might look better if I sketched them first because I could use freezer paper to position the petals on the fabric for shading. So.... I laid my paper over the bottom of the quilt and lightly marked where the edges were, then roughly sketched a couple coneflowers and numbered the parts.

I really wish I had more of the golden yellow fabrics (my stash of yellows is pathetic when compared to other colors - is it because it is hard to find, or do I keep using them up?). This is going to hang on my wall while I look for more fabrics, and think about it.

The start of a landscape

Over the past few days, I've put gesso and texture pastes on some canvas pieces and then a bit of color for backgrounds. The texture of this canvas just said "landscape" to me, so I added the hill, and then an area above suggested a mountain, so that was added. I'm thinking that maybe spring flowers should be in the field, as spring blooms should be in full swing on Mount Ranier soon (and no, I haven't seen it in person yet - maybe this year).

Burgundy-Teal socks finished

Yeah, another UFO finished! The second sock was fighting for attention while I was knitting the lacy pair, and I kept switching which one was going along with me. During yesterday's road trip I was able to knit up to the toe (had to stop, until I could try it on for size), and I just had to finish it before I went to bed. Now it's done and I can get some rest.

Just in case any of you would like to make a pair of your own, I used Berroco Sox yarn in color #1474, and the edinburgh pattern from the Berroco feet first booklet #275.

Butterfly Quilt in progress

Not much progress here, although I did manage to find the golden yellow fabric that I used in the butterfly and a couple fabrics that I can use for a flower center. The butterfly was made in a collage manner, with only a sketch for the outer shape, so I'm considering doing the flowers the same way.

Sockotta Mock Cable Socks - Finished!!!

The past three weeks have been super busy (yes, it's an understatement), as we've had two families of houseguests, which overlapped for a week. Adding the nine of them to the five of us, means there were 14 people living in the house, but it also meant that we could all visit with one another, and we still had time alone with each of the visiting families.

Of course, we still have two houses being renovated (thankfully, a builder and his crew are doing the work), as well as our baby orchard to check up on, and all are doing well, despite being mostly neglected by us for the past three weeks.

Sometimes, I'd have time to knit while everyone was relaxing and chatting, and then yesterday's road trip gave me a large block of time to knit, so now they are complete and ready to wear!