Promptly Being Creative

HAPPY MAY BASKET DAY!!! As a  young girl we used to take pillow mints and mix them with salted peanuts. We'd decorate a little paper drinking cup with drawings of flowers. We'd use a pipe cleaner to make a handle. Once filled with the mints and peanuts, we'd share them around the neighborhood. Ahhhhhhh, such fond memories from over fifty years ago!!!

A few weekends ago we went to our annual renaissance faire in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Hubby and the Young Mister were on the news that night!

A few days after the faire, it was Earth Day. We planted three new trees to go along with the Mimosa we already planted two years ago.

 

 I finished another block for the "My Favorite Things" block of the month:

I have some lemon sherbet yellow fabric around the charity quilt:

I followed all this up with doing a Creative Prompt! I haven't done one in maybe a year or so now. I combined a little art with a little writing. It was fun to do this again. I should try to be more consistent with it!

I am currently sandwiching four charity quilts to quilt for guild. I am woefully behind on projects, as I've needed to handle other issues in life. I hope to get back to doing fabric therapy soon! Till then, I hope you all are sewing-on!

Creative Prompts Times Two

I've been busy cleaning up my studio and house for expected company next week. As often happens, the Creative Prompt Project is the only artistic stuff I can do during busy times! I have recently finished two of them.
The first one is #123 - Butterfly. It is patterned somewhat after a tattoo I have on my wrist.

I also finished #128 - Candy. I recently rediscovered Edward Gorey online and purchased a book about him with lots of his art works in it. This creepy drawing is inspired by Gorey's artwork. Please believe me when I say that the man really isn't a bad man in this drawing...just very creepy! I hope the little girl runs away!










Speaking of Edward Gorey, I have pre-ordered some Ghastlie fabrics that are coming out this year! I have last year's Ghastlie's too. I still am not sure what I will make, but it should be fun!






I am mentally working on a quilt with a lot of teal/aqua color. I am thinking about paring it up with purple or tangerine or both. I probably won't start cutting it out till next year though! lol

I have finally finished remaking one of my dresses for our performance at an upcoming renaissance faire. I only have two more to do! In between I did manage to sew one more strip on the Leafy Cabin quilt blocks...all 33 of them!

Off to sew more on these dresses so I can get back to fun sewing! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend, no matter which way you celebrate it!

Just Messin' Around

All this year I designed blocks for our guild. I always made more than one. Now I have put the 12 blocks I kept, together. This is my Calendar Quilt top, ready to be sandwiched and quilted:
The very last block was the December star block. I made a different one for the guild and used the Tree Topper pattern for my personal quilt. I got the pattern from Twiddletails Blog.

I even got a Creative Prompt done! This is number 108 - Abundance:

Tomorrow is our guild's party and auction. I also have some shopping to do afterwards. I love this time of year! I will have to take photos of my studio soon. We have our little tree put up in there, to keep the cats out of my favorite ornaments! They always think it is a tree of cat toys!

I think I will go sit and sew a bit before bedtime. I hope you are all doing well out there! Now go sew something!!!

Neglected Duties

I am taking care of some odds and ends that I should have taken care of a while ago. For various reasons though, I didn't get projects done or caught up and didn't write about a gift that I received. Shame on me!!! I shall attempt to catch up some tonight.

I am still behind on some of my Creative Prompts. I managed to knock two more of them out yesterday and today. The first done is NUMBERS. I used a variety of numbers that had meaning to me:
The main one is the big #75. This signifies that I've lost 75 pounds! It's been quite a journey of sorts. I'm not quite sure why it is working this time. I have some ideas though and I am sure happy about it!

The next word I did was NORTH. I think the picture explains itself quite well.
I really enjoy doing the Creative Prompts. Sometimes it is the only creative thing I get done! You can join any time and you don't have to draw your responses. Visit Jaye's blog for more information.

The next thing I have neglected to do was to review this gift I won:
It shouldn't surprise you that I won it through Jaye's blog too! She really is a sweet lady and knows so much about artsy things, including quilting! I am happy to be able to call her a friend.

I wasn't too sure what to do with this 'whack pack' as you don't play a game of cards with it! For me, I like to take a random card out of the deck. I give myself at least a few minutes to read and absorb any meanings I take from the card I drew. When I am stuck on a project, these cards seem to get the brain cells working again.

I just drew a card from this deck, to use as an example here. One one side you get the 'insight' part of it. This particular card says "Those who approach life like a child playing a game, moving and pushing pieces, possess the power of kings." There is a drawing of a child wearing a crown and playing on a chess board.

The reverse side of the card gives several interpretations of the sayings. The message I took away from reading this card was to play more. You need to give yourself permission to play and not get bogged down in the seriousness of your creations. It ended with this saying "What can you play with in your situation. What can you laugh at?"

Whether you are working in artistic things or just contemplating life, these cards suggest different ways of looking at things. It really helps open your perspective on whatever your brain is working on or whatever answers you are looking for.

I admit, I don't use the cards as often as I probably should. Every time I have taken a card or two out, I have gained insights on things. It is a nice tool and a fun one because it has a sense of humor. I would never buy this for myself. But then I never realized its potential to expand the mind.

Okay, I have gotten a little deep here! I will finish by saying the last 'duty' I took care of was the last charity quilt I had to do. I finished two others and turned them in on time. This one will be a little late. It didn't matter that much, but having it sitting, waiting to be done, cluttered my mind!

Now that my mind is de-cluttered and stimulated, it's time to tackle some serious sewing!

The Production Line is Open Again

I am busy in the studio again. I am altering several renfaire costumes because Jingly Bits will be performing at the end of October and their lead lady musician has shrunk out of her clothes!!! (that would be yours truly, me!)

I have finished the goodies for my swap partners on the Fluffy Sheep swap. I can't say who they are yet though. I first made the mug rugs that I showed you in my last posting.

To go with each of those, I made little pouch bags. They have a flap over the top with a Velcro closure and a zippered pocket to boot!
I made one out of lime green and polka-dot fabric, with a bright orange flower appliqued on.




You can see the Altoid tin I put in the back pocket. The zippered pocket is in front.








I made a second bag out of this colorful batik. It has the same opening and also the same zippered pouch inside. I appliqued a heart on the outside of this one.






I also finished two Creative Prompts last night. The first one is #111 - FORWARD. I used a pushy cowboy trying an old pickup line on the girl for this one.




The next one is #112 - HEAT. I thought of someone crawling through the hot desert.




I have three blocks in the works from the My Tweets BOM. I am in the process of assembling all the bits and pieces and hope to be gluing them down soon so I can get back to the actual applique work!

That's all for today! Hope you are sewing up a storm where you are too!

Creative Prompt: Arches

It is a love/hate thing when I get the CPP word done so fast. I love that the idea came to my head and onto paper so easy. I hate that I have a whole week to wait now, before the next word is posted!

This week's word was ARCHES. I did not do the "Golden Arches" as that would have been too cheesy and my mouse would get too fat. :)
There are several arches in my drawing. The mouse hole is one. I embellished it with stones. The stand has arched legs on it and a statue of a foot with an arch. I suppose one could say the flower has an arch but to me it is more of an arc, so I didn't count that one.

In other news, I made a skirt out of old kitchen drapes and am wearing it right now. I love it! lol I am off to finish sewing the blocks together for the guild challenge quilt that is due on the 10th. I hope my last minute fabric comes in today's mail so I can get the borders on tomorrow and load this puppy onto the big frame to quilt it.

LOTS of storms last night and tornadoes all over the state, especially in our area. We never lost power though, nor did we have to go to the storm shelter. I am very grateful for that!

Ok, everyone, go sew and create something!

Make a Wish!

I finished my Creative Prompt yesterday. It is WISH, and I did a mouse making a wish upon a star. :)

Creative Prompt: SPIRAL

For SPIRAL, I decided to make spirals of ribbons.

For my Post Spooky I have a progress shot of the doll's face:

Creative Prompt: EVEN

I struggled with this one too. All I could picture in my mind was a bunch of even lines drawn on the page. I couldn't think of how to draw something showing 'revenge' as in 'getting even', which was another thought. Since I had recently discovered some plastic designing tools, I decided to use them to make my lines more EVEN.

Of course Quilt Rat's blog had NOTHING to do with my inspiration. :)

Wide Awake!

Creative Prompt: Awakenings. "...and a thousand stars awakened when life first burst forth"

What's the POINT?

I finally got caught up on my creative prompts. The last one was POINT.

I will let you figure out all the points of this drawing. lol

Blue and Window - Creative Prompts

I have been having trouble with the Creative Prompts of late. I don't know if they are especially hard or if stress is getting to me or what! So these are a little on the lame side.

The first was the easiest smallest thing I could think of that had anything to do with BLUE. Those little blue pills. (and NO we don't use them in this house!!!)

WINDOW was a tiny bit easier. Perhaps since my daughter just got back from her honeymoon cruise, explains why it came to me.
Otherwise I have been doing lots of hand work on the hexagon quilt. Progress is very slow. I DID do some work on the U is for Unicorn blocks too. Nothing is finished though, so no photos.

Creative Prompt: MAGIC

Here is a bit of magic for my creative prompt project word of the week.
I had so many ideas but this is the one that flowed from my pens and pencils today!

Creative Prompt: LOOK and REMEMBER

I have struggled with both of these creative responses these past two weeks. Perhaps there has been just too much on my mind these days. Sometimes that happens and all the creative juices get stopped up. lol

Here is my drawing for LOOK:

REMEMBER wasn't easy either. I started working on it several times before giving up and just doing an impromptu map of one of my most favorite places to live. As a teenager I spent many years around Rose Lake. I canoed all over it, swam in it, fished in it, sat with my father in the duck blind, and hunted for shells on the beach. It was a good life. I am lucky to have had a pretty good childhood and that is what I wanted to REMEMBER for this creative prompt.

Creative Prompt: TIME

I am migrating my old blog over to this blog. Here is the first Creative Prompt on this blog! Also, for those who use "Clara the Cow" as a link photo for the Creative Prompts, it is in a smaller size on this blog. Please feel free to borrow the newer, smaller picture.

I had too many ideas for this week's word, so I did most of them in doodle fashion. I made Jaye an hourglass too. :) The time tree is like a money tree...non-existent! You can see time flying and time in a bottle. There are also some melting times and wake up times. Other times are left to one's imagination. Remember you can click on the picture to see a larger view that shows the details more clearly!