Play time at last!

I had an unscheduled weekend for the first time in a long time, and spent most of it playing.


First, I had my weekly date with Jonathan.  He's a ham, since his mom and I have taken so many pictures of him being adorable.   As soon as we take pictures, he says, "Can I see?"  Today he made funny faces.  I tried to make faces, but couldn't see to push the button on the phone. 













At the February ArtCGirlz meeting, we played with fabric collage and made faces, using a technique from the book by Melissa Averinos. Personally, I want to take her cat collage class!!


This is the face I drew, and where my collage ended that night.  Some of the ones in her book have no more than this, and are then enhanced with the quilting.  I didn't leave enough background on mine, so was thinking of how to add the face to another project, when I saw an image of a painting by Gustav Klimt. And just like that, I knew!




I added collaged hair, using flowers , a rabbit and a cat.  Then I dug through the stash to find fabrics I knew I had that I bought because they reminded me of Klimt's work.   Here's where I left her- masked with batting to create the margins of the piece. 

 And this is what the floor of the studio looked like while I was working.

At the most recent ArtCGirlz meeting, Lori shared some techniques for making landscapes.  I was working from a photo I thought was near Sedona, AZ, but was really taken somewhere in Utah.

 I had tacked it up on the design wall when I got home, so spent a few minutes adding some foliage to the scrub pine. It's only pinned, so I have to get the glue stick out next time I'm up there.   I'm taking a class in thread painting on landscapes in April, so may take this with me to work on in class!

 I also got the beast back under the machine to try and finish it before the old quilt disintegrates completely.  I had been fighting the bulk of the quilt and a friend suggested that might have been some of the trouble I had with the quilting.  I remembered a post I saw years ago on Leah Day's blog, and decided to try some "sky hooks".  It's not as fancy as hers because I don't want to drill holes in the ceiling, but it seems to be helping me. 

The days are getting longer, and it won't be long until gardening season begins.  I stopped and picked up a few dead stalks yesterday after I took a walk.   I'm going to shrink my gardens again this year.  I just can't keep up with it all.  I fall further behind every year.  So the big garden will be mostly "wildflowers" and some punkins and zucchini.  I'd till it under.but there are some nice trees and shrubs out there I'd have to kill in the process.  I may try to encourage some native species to help the butterflies.  We lease the field to a guy who grows corn and soybeans (probably GMO), so I need to do a little bit to make up for the damage the farmers do. 

I am grateful for:
Aches and pains that remind me I am lucky enough to be growing older.
My grand babies.
My talented and generous friends.
A new series of books to enjoy in the car.
Time to exercise my artistic "muscles".