Photoshop play

Today I decided to play around a bit with Photoshop to learn how it works and see what I might be able to do to use it in my quiltmaking for images.

I'd used it to edit, mostly enhance the colors and cropping of photos I'd taken before posting them. But I have never really played around with the paintbrush options.

OMG! What fun it is! Easy to use and the possibilities are almost endless.

I started with a closeup shot taken with my webcam.




I cropped the photo to include just the eye area.




Then I tried the different artistic options.


First I clicked on the colored pencil option. Geez! I thought, "I can't use that my family will worry I am suicidal.." Nothing could be further from the truth.



Next I clicked to try the Cutout option. I really like this one and think it can be used to create a self portrait.





Here is the Watercolor option. Mmmmm...what do you think? I think I have a lot more photoshop play to do....



The next option employed was the Drybrush tool. I also like this one very much.





Neon option was the next image I created. Its pretty cool, don't you think?





And finally, this one is the Paint Duabs option that most things look like to me sans eyeglasses....LOL




I encourage you to play around with photoshop and see what kinds of wonderful images you can create using simple pictures taken with your webcam. I believe you will find many new quilts hiding inside.

Selvage Quilts

After having been home for more than two weeks and making fabric covered clothesline baskets like crazy, I decided it was time to sew a quilt instead yesterday. I set out to make a selvage quilt because I have been saving up selvages for a long time and the pile is quite large. It not really a pile, its more a pile of large gallon size zipper plastic bags filled with the selvages cut off fabric ends. The selvages are quite interesting in themselves, they come in all colors, sizes, widths and prints. They have printed words on them, some of them are quite funny to read. Often they have color dots to show the colors used to print the textiles themselves. Example below:


I took numerous selvage edges and sewed them down to a muslin strip. It went pretty fast, because I did 4 strips at a time in a chain piecing fashion. Once I had the strips done, then I trimmed them up to the same side, with nice even edges. Next I needed to decide what to put in between them to set them off. I used dove grey shot cotton jelly roll strips from MODA. I really liked the way it turned out. I decided it needed to have borders, so I created 4 more strips on muslin to use outside the grey inner borders and sashing. I had to make these outer strips longer than the original strips due to the inner borders, but eventually I got them to the right size and here is the resulting quilt top.






Now I just need to quilt it, but I am waiting for my Gammill to get back from the spa. I may end up quilting it on my home machine in the interim...

My Plan B

Those of you that know me have probably heard me talk about My Plan "B". Plan B refers to my own business, a quilting, teaching, crafting, writing and creative business. I have been working on developing and moving towards my plan B for more than 12 years now. Here is how it began. I found myself unemployed after 9/11/2001, almost 12 years ago to the day. I decided I was done with the corporate life and purchased a long arm quilting machine to start my own business. I was single, financially comfortable and well, looking to be self employed. That lasted about 2 months because my former boss came after me to join a new company and work for them. At first I said no to the request because I wanted to live my dream. Then my practical side kicked in and I realized I could work a 3 month gig full time, pay for the machine without touching my retirement savings and get on with it. Long story short, the 3 month gig turned in to an almost 12 year job at an internet portal for ocean shipping. I enjoyed working there because of the people, but in the background in my spare time, I still longed to have a more creative job and not work for someone else. Two weeks ago, I was downsized from my job that 'was eliminated for cost savings'. And I welcome this change. I have been getting tons of things done that I put off to make Plan B a reality. I purchased websites to be used to create an online presence, I've been cleaning and organizing my workspaces in the house, and looking at changing my expenses to more economical means. In addition, I have been networking in the creative arts with like persons who are successful with their own businesses and brands. Its been a very fun adventure so far. My long arm is having a spa visit, to be serviced and upgraded so that I can put it back into quilting for myself and others. I have been working on writing a couple of books and gathering ideas on whether to publish e-books, online, hardcopy or all of the above. So many choices. The world is my apple and I look forward to springing forward into the autumn season with a sense of renewal, creativity and flexibility unlike anything I have felt in the last 12 years. Life just keeps getting better and better.

Stress - Does it affect your quilting? or not?

I am just pondering how many of you feel or believe that stress in your life (job, family, health, financial, etc.) affects your ability to quilt or not? For me, I have found that the more stress I am under lends itself for me to quilt more! I guess quilting is my escape from the things that cause the stress and the actual physical movements and concentration on the art of quilting allows me to put those situations out of my mind and body while I am quilting. Many of us think of quilting as our therapy. Taking needle and thread to cloth, albeit an electronic needle, seems to melt away the strife in my life. The time passes very quickly and I find that when I am quilting, I eat less. I know that I am also a stress eater, and quilting allows me to stop that unwanted behavior. I often find that some of the most beautiful quilts I have created were done during some of the toughest spots in my life. I really began serious quilting many years ago when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time I was working two jobs, going to college full time and helping to take care of her while she battled and recovered. I am lucky to be able to say that she is still with us over 30+ years later and I am still quilting. Perhaps that is one reason I quilt, it started then and I realized how much I enjoyed it, all of it. Back then I was not a good quilter. I learned via the lap quilting method by Georgia Bonesteel. I checked a book out of the library and found a way to take the quilting with me. I worked on it everywhere I went because it was portable. I was really proud of that first big quilt, slept under it for years in fact. It has seen its better days by now, but as a sampler that was hand quilted, I learned alot and haven't looked back.

Hot Hot Hot!

The weather so far in July has been incredibly hot. We are at the end (I hope) of a 7+ day heatwave, meaning the daily temperatures have been well over 90 degrees Fahrenheit here in Northern NJ. The intense rains from June are all but forgotten and the dryness and heat have taken their toll on the yard, flowers and plants outside. I'm lucky to have an irrigation system that keeps mine watered gently in the middle of the night, but I can see the dust everywhere where the landscape has cracked and dried up where there has been no water. The heat has made alot of people sick and keeps us and the pets inside when we are home. Even my pups don't want to take long walks, they do their thing and come back into the air conditioning and sleep, alot. I have tried cooking using the stove top and microwave, so as not to heat up the house with the oven or have to stand outside to grill in the heat. I should be in the basement quilting alot while its hot outside, but I haven't been in the mood to sit and sew. Today, I finished 7 new fabric wrapped clothes line baskets. I had already completed the wrapping and just sat and shaped and sewed the baskets. I endulged in finding some very cool jewelry items recently to replace those that were stolen a few weeks back and used those to embellish the baskets. I am quite pleased with the results. Some new shapes, colors and designs were finished and I expanded my technique to include a basket with a lid, which I had never done before. Its pretty cool. I will have to post some photos of the new ones soon. Stay cool. If you have a pool, use it and think of me. I have a new bathing suit, I just don't have a pool to wear it in yet! d

Memorial Day

As I sit here on Sunday evening I thought it might be nice to pay tribute to our armed forces on this Memorial Day weekend. Although my family was not a military one growing up, we lived in the Washington DC area and many of my friends growing up had parents that were in the military. Those families would come and go as the dad got stationed in our area and then again somewhere else 3 or 4 years later. One of my closest friends growing up had a dad that was in the Air Force and he was MIA during the Vietnam war. Her mom raised her and her little brother as a single parent and I really didn't understand why she didn't have a dad until I got to high school. He made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could be safe and secure at home. I remember years later running into someone that had a metal MIA bracelet with his name on it. Small world. I know what they all wished for when they prayed at night was that their Dad would come home again. I also know a family here in Nj that lost their oldest son in Afghanistan in July 2012. It was very difficult for them and still is to think he was killed doing his job. I know they are proud of him, but I can only bet that they would give anything to have just one more day with him and to tell him they love him and how proud they are of the man he proved to be as a soldier. I know there are many veterans that came home from their overseas positions and found it difficult to get into the civilian life after serving in the military. I am disappointed in how little we do for them when they get out. We should do more. I personally make sure that my company does at least 1 charitable event every year for our active military? We want them to know that we know they are there, we are glad and grateful they are serving overseas for us and that we appreciate the hardships they face every day so that we can live in the Land of the Free. I always thank active duty personnel when I encounter them at the airport, shake their hand and tell them how much seeing them in uniform makes me proud to be an American. Memorial Day isn't about picnics, shopping for bargain sales or having the day off. Our military never take the day off. Fly your flag, pray for their safe return and be thankful to those that wear uniforms, face combat, train regularly and leave the comforts of their homes and the loving sums of their families so that we can LIVE FREE and enjoy the USA. Hire a vet if you can. Go visit them or the place where they came to rest if they are no longer with us.

Sharing the Love for Quilting with Others

Last Friday evening I had the opportunity to 'teach' a workshop at a local girl scout troop meeting.  There were 12 girls signed up and I had spent all day Saturday cutting out 12 kits to make a little Mother's Day Bouquet Wallhanging.  It had to be colorful, easy, and pretty enough to keep the girls busy for a couple of hours.

I am lucky to have a wonderful colleague named Joyce that volunteered to help me on Friday to get the girls sewing.  I am so glad that she did!  I couldn't have done it without her.

It turned out that only 8 girls showed up.   We had 4 sewing machines, 1 iron and 3 moms that didn't sew to help.  With all of the pre-cut kits in zipper lock baggies, we started by showing them what they were going to make that evening before we dove into the creation process.  See below.

We laid the different pieces out on the table and allowed them to select the flowers, stems, leaves, flower pot, background, backing and borders from what I had cut out already.  They really enjoyed that part, looking carefully at each one to determine if they liked each piece and wanted to use it.

 In hindsight, I should have had them add the borders to their background first, before putting all the smaller fused pieces out so they didn't end up on the floor.  Then we taught each girl how to machine piece the seams to add the borders to their quilt tops.  We did the sides first, got them pressed and then added the top and bottom borders.  None of the girls had ever sewn before and it was fun teaching them how to run a machine and keep the pieces straight.  My old 'MOLEFOAM' trick helped them to line up the pieces nicely with a little help from the adults.

Once the tops were pieced and pressed, we then took the pre-fused flowers, stems, leaves and flower pots and laid out each quilt.  Each girl was allowed and expected to decide what her flower bouquet would look like.  Once they had it laid out to their liking, they then peeled the paper backing off the pieces and pressed them down on the top to finish the 'applique'.  Fusible applique is a great starter project for girls in the 6-8 year old range.  They can pick up the pieces and move them around until they are ironed down to the top.  One by one they took their tops over to the ironing station where the flowers were pressed into place.  We then took the quilt tops and sandwiched them 'pillow case' style with batting and backing.

We were running a bit short on time, so the adults cut, pinned and sewed the quilts to get them finished.  Joyce pinned, I sewed, another mom unpinned, trimmed and turned the quilts right side out, Janet ironed and then I closed the hole and finally Amy took their pictures with their finished quilts before they left the meeting.

It was fun, it was creative and I believe the girl scouts had a great time making something beautiful that they could take home.  I suspect we even have a few future sewers and maybe a quilter or two in the group.   The troop leaders have already asked if we would have a mommy how to sewing class sometime over the summer. 

Note: If you look at the pictures closely, you will notice as I did after the fact that most of the girls selected border fabrics that matched the tops they were wearing, green, pink, stripes, flowers, etc.  That was really cool!