Home Ec

Found the cutest fabric store ever in Iowa City:

And found a few pieces to take home

Kry / Sunflowers

It finally arrived! 

I ordered this brooch from Kry Embroidery in Russia.  I've been patient (not really), but now it is here and I can't wait to wear this beauty!

Rose

Today was a good day for a little Swedish Death Cleaning.  My sister is having a yard sale in the fall, and I plan to have a few boxes filled for the sale.  Decided to start in the bedroom.  This beauty has been beside my bed since my dad died 2 years ago.  I don't think I can part with it yet...

Art with my niece: String art

Corinne and I are working on string art to sell this fall at a local craft sale.  I am doing the backgrounds and she is doing the string art:

journal cover / squares

At the quilt show in Rosemont this spring, I was taken by quilts with squares.  That sentence sounds stupid!  Anyway, I am working on a series of journal covers with squares...  Finished this one yesterday:

Chicago Art Institute

I very much enjoyed taking a bus from our local library for a day trip into Chicago to visit the Art Institute.  This painting by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva caught my eye:

When I first looked at it from a distance, it looked like rows of sandwiches!  I enjoy looking at art that I find inspiring for quilt designs.  Do you see a quilt?

Journal cover

Each time I finish writing in a journal, I make a fun cover for it.  Well actually, I am a few months behind on journal covers, but who's counting... 

Crazy woman

I haven't worked on my 2020 project for awhile.  With the heat and humidity driving me inside, it seems like a good time to pull this out of the closet and create a few little crazy women.

Butterfly inspiration / carve a stamp

I took a photo of a butterfly when I was in Carbondale with my son.  Having not carved a stamp since "Carve December", it seemed like a good medium for today. The stamp is 2" x 4".

Beautiful butterfly

I was in Carbondale this weekend with my son.  We stopped by a little garden for a walk and this butterfly caught my eye:

Now to start looking at parts as design elements...

inspiration: picasso

"It took me 4 years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child."

 - Pablo Picasso

I have been watching the National Geographic Genius series on Picasso.  A painting popped into my head when a dear friend told me that he was spending time in Venice this winter.  I quickly learned that, yes, it is very difficult to paint like a child. I struggled with forgetting design elements and just enjoying creating for the sake of creating.  

After a spider ran me out of my art studio, I decided to post and let the canvas just sit for a few weeks.  Maybe a morning of play dough and kool aid will get me in the right frame of mind!

inspiration: marc chagall

Last year, Jes and I visited the Marc Chagall Museum in Nice, France.  What a fabulous museum!  I have been working on this little piece, inspired by Chagall, as a memory from our trip.  The bird is plaster gauze on a cereal box.  If you haven't played with plaster gauze, you must!  It dries quickly and takes paint well.  I ordered mine online - not expensive, and gives you hours of fun play.

more sticks

Yesterday, the girlfriends got together to make more stick dolls. 

Bark

On our river walk in Naperville, a cottonwood tree caught my eye.  The bark is very much a quilt...

Sorbet

I got home earlier today from a 2 day trip to visit my brother.  Last night after dinner, we walked along the river in Naperville and discovered a gelato shop that we couldn't pass by.  Lucky for me they also had sorbet (dairy free and fat free!).  I ordered mango and Arrianne had raspberry.  The sorbet was delicious, but I also admired their product case presentation: