Checking on blog

still working .....

Just checking to see if my blog is still working lol...I guess it is ....I shall return soon....

Time for another post lol.

Hassock/Tuffet

I have seen these Tuffets all over the web and decided to do my Hassock for a start. Here is what I have done so far. 

1..Measure across the top of hassock or tuffet or whatever. divided that measurement in half and that is your radius.

2..measure from the edge of the hassock to the bottom and add about 4 ins. for turning under.

3..measure around the hassock for the for the circumference, and divide that measurement by 8, This will be the measurement of your wedge. .add 3/4 ins on each side for the seams.

Add your radius #1 plus #2 and cut a piece of square paper that measurement plus a little over for safety.

The width of the paper will be the measurement you got from the wedge plus the 1 and 1/2 ins for the seams. ..so if your wedge is 10 ins, you will add 1 and 1/2 for a total of 11 1/2 ins for your wedge. 

Fold the paper in half to get the center line. Put a dot at the beginning of that line at the top. Now measure from the top of the paper to the radius number and place a mark. Draw a line across the paper square from edge to edge. Draw ¾ seam allowance along both edges of the paper square.

Divide the rest of your paper square into 8 strips, not including the seam allowances. The strips don’t have to be equal. Start at the center seam. On each side of the seam draw a half ins line, that will make that strip 1 ins. Then draw lines on each side of this center strip. Only draw the lines up to the radius line.

After all these line are drawn, the proceed to line up those bottom line with the rest of the pattern. For instance..place ruler at the line and angle your ruler to the dot at the top of the paper square and continue with each line this way. Then cut the excess paper and you have your wedge. Lay this on your item to check it out and make adjustments to whatever you want. When you are happy with it, make a freezer paper pattern from you original paper pattern but this time draw the lines with a sharpie pen.

You will iron that freezer pattern to your muslin and cut it out, draw the lines on the muslin, just like your paper. You are now ready to add your strips. When you start to sew the strips on and you come to the radius point, just try to sew it like a curve.

Rag Puppy Quilt

Hello, I'm back with a fun article.
I just finished this Rag Puppy quilt. Here he is with his ears down and then pinned back so you can see his whole face. I made him entirely of flannel and used as many prints as I could. He measures 60 inches long by 50 inches from paw to paw. His exact measurements are....chest 31, hips 33, he has no waist what-so-ever lol.

 He was a lot of fun to make and some kid will hug up with him by the end of this month. He is so cuddly that I am loathe to let him go. His nose and eyes are sewed on by machine, I don't applique. Then I used some Decoart SoSoft Fabric paint to add the highlights to the eyes, I used an Identi-pen to go over the smile lines. .


I washed him and dried him to make him rag up. The more you wash him the more his edges will rag up. If you turn him over, he has different fabric behind also. I might paint a cat face on that side.

This is a Simplicity pattern that is out of print now. 

Renewing the Blog

I am coming back to my blog. I will be posting most of my stuff here. I know it will take time for my friends to come back and that's ok. Facebook is fine but the blog was always a good thing. I will be back tomorrow with new stuff....food, knitting, quilts etc...

AFRICAN FLOWER CROCHET BULLDOG

Hello Bloggers, it’s been a while since I posted on here, so I thought I would return now and then for those of you who don’t do Facebook lol.

This is Max, a beautiful, colorful, African Flower Bulldog. He is crochet using the African Flower Motif, not a granny square. He is made with, hexagons, pentagons, triangles, octagons, squares, and the seven petal one…..

I know he looks complicated but he is very doable. The instructions and illustrations are excellent. Anyone who crochets can do this. The designer for this pattern is, Heidi’s Bears.

http://heidibearscreative.blogspot.com/

I will show you several areas of his body so you can see how he comes together. He is bigger than the pattern because I don’t listen very well lol.

He is supposed to be made with fingering yarn and a 1.75 crochet hook but I had all this needle point yarn and had to use a larger needle, so there you have it.

I love him! I love his large size, he make a statement and sure shows of all my lovely colors.

The Angel of Death

Painting the Angle of Death

Ok, I see I haven't blogged forever since last year November. Well, you all don't comment so I think you don't care, hahahhaha

Anyhow here is something new. I told my neighbor, who was moving, to just throw this grey angel in my yard if she decided to not take her. She promptly did so after her children told her they were scared of it lol.   

I sealed the Angel and base coated her with any color, doesn't matter as it will change. I just wanted to get some paint in her and cover the grey.

 

I will be painting the Angel using,

 http://decoart.com/cgi-bin/Products.cgi?Americana_Acrylics

 DecoAmericana bottled paints, in many colors and I will tell you how I am doing her.  I have a big tub of water out, a tub of Extender, and a tub of varnish, a 2 inch brush for extender and water and a 1 inch for painting, so far go good.

 I have pulled out many colors of reds, purple, blues, yellows greens, whites.

I will show pics as I go along with it for your enjoyment. I will also tell you how I am doing it, so you can grab a yard piece and do your thing too. I love lots of colors as all my painting friends know and lots of color is going to go on this piece

.

I am going to give the front of the Angel a coat of Extender and make sure it doesn’t puddle, I just wipe my hand over it and adjust here and there, I will include the front of the wings too. Any paint that falls on her foot, wings, face, will stay right there. I will just blend it in with the brush. This is going to be Artistic License and so fun for me. I love to paint this way.  

I have her on my cutting table (as I am not sewing for a while). I actually have three painting stations. One in front, one in the back and one on the side. Excessive? That’s the America way, I love it lol. 

This is the scene. It’s great to have everything I need at hand. I have one of those huge wet palettes and I will squeeze copious amounts of paint out, the darks first and apply those and then start with colors

First I dip my brush into the varnish and apply the color. I do this for every brush load. Here you see the bottom half of her after the dark has been added and then some color.

Here is the front at stage one and here is the back.

Next I will glaze on some tints with Decoart American glazing medium and the Traditions Paint with is a pure pigment. http://www.traditionsartistacrylic.com/

To be continued....

Large Chalk Owl

Some time ago, I made an exchange. A cloth doll for an old beat up Owl from the 50ties. It is made out of chalk or some substance like it. 
Even tho he was so pitiful, I loved him at first sight. He is huge! I decided he had potential. He had traveled all over the USA, New York was his last stay. He had been knocked around quite a bit. I fixed the very large hole under his wing, rebuilt his feathers on that same wing. Patched all his bruises and cracks and formed him some new ears

I then sealed him up with that Decoart Americana, Multi- Purpose Sealer and started to give him a new set of clothes and bright eyes. 
And then there was this pitiful little yard dog with his bone that I got from the neighbor’s garage sale, had to have him too. I rebuilt his tail and patched his cracks. He will get the same treatment as the Owl but his bone will be polka dots

I did a coat of Multi-Surface Sealer (Decoart) on the Owl, he looks so shinny now and his eyes got all clear. I then mixed the Sealer and some dark Primer and did the dog. Doesn't he look so sad? He is a dirty grey and black now lol.

 I put all sorts of tints and glazes on him and then painted the front of him Yellow. I just played with lots of color. Yellows, oranges, Burnt Sienna, purple, reds, on his back and wings and lots of White for high lights on his breast feathers.

 

I covered his breast with a coat of Extender, wiped it down and ladled the Burnt Umber that I had mixed with extender on him. Wiped him down and wiped out the high lights. I decided to then add some black under the feathers, which I also did to the eyes to make them recede.
Wiped that down and then added white to high light.

 

 

Here he is all varnished and the little yard dog with his red bone with polka dots

For those who have some statuary lying around and need fixing and painting. I used plummers putty for the fixing up and then I used the Decoart Traditions paint and Mediums. I couldn’t have gotten the effect I got with any other paint as these went on like oils and blended together without any lines etc. I had fun doing this

Pumpkin Floor Mats

Taking a break from Gourds but not for long lol.
 

I just finished painting six green pumpkin floor mats and they have been delivered already. The mats are vinyl samples and just perfect for this. I did all my base coats using the Decoart Americana line of bottled acrylics. The pumpkins got a couple coats of any yellow. Then I switched to the Decoart Traditions line to finish the pumpkins. I was aiming for simple and bright. I love that paint, it just does what you want it to do.

 

You can get the paint here.    http://tiny.cc/ci4g5w

 

You  can visit the Decoart website and watch videos and get information about all their products. If you can't find the paint or products in the store you can order directly from them.

 

 

For the leaves, I cut out some shapes in that compressed foam, called miracle sponges and flung it in water to plump up and then did the touch and press leaves. I just put some greens and yellow in a veggie tray and pressed the form all over it and then pressed on the mat. I got several pressings out of one dip as you don’t want them all to be the same.

 

These sponges are great, I have used them for years, you can get them here.

http://tinyurl.com/nbpxme5

 

I did some line work, let them cure overnight and applied three coat of varnish

 

Painting Gourds, The Red Gourd

The Red Gourd is finished.

It's the same procedure as the previous Gourd. The only difference is the back leaves underneath and the black pull out out leaves.

Painting Gourds, The Red Gourd

To continue with The Painting Gourd Series, here is the Red Gourd. Supplies used are the DecoAmericana Paint line and the DecoArt Traditons line.

I sketched on some strawberries and some grapes so far and based them in with the DA line of acrylics. I then switched over to the Traditions line.

The grapes are blue, pink, green and purple. These are going to be painted on a bed of black leaves.

Here you see the fruit with a coat of white to make the colors bright.

Here is the first shading and highlight. I think this Gourd will have a lot of tiny flowers added to it, those are fun to do.

Painting Gourds, Third Stage

Stage 3: The Pears and  were coated with extender and then shaded with Red Violet and highlighted with Hansa Yellow Lt. More White added and highlighted a second time. The same for the Cherries and Strawberries. Plums and grapes were shaded with Red Violet and highlighted with Aquamarine and more white.

Leaves: I used two greens. Pine Green and Yellow Green Lt and white. I used my round brush for the leaves. I did some curly cues with the #2 liner brush and stippled some fru fru here and there (load the brush with some green, dip in white and stipple here and there).

I dried the Gourd with the hair dryer and put a coat of glazing medium all over it (dilute the medium with a little water.) When dry, I will added some final highlights and tints here and there. Remember, each highlight gets smaller and smaller, leaving the previous highlights showing.

 

This is the results of all the above.

The fruit is nice and bright. The last stage is the antiquing. First I sealed the Gourd with the Multi Surface Sealer and let that dry overnight. Next, I mixed some Burnt Umber, added just a little Red Violet and black. The color should be mainly a reddish brown. .

 

 

 

I coated the Gourd with Extender, wiped it down with a cotton cloth and brushed the antiquing color all over the top, then it was wiped down, making sure to change the cloth around to a clean spot. Then the highlights were wiped out. On the bottom of the Gourd, I antiqued it in sections. Below you can see how the fruit has a mellow look now.

 

I will let that cure for a couple of days and maybe dry with the hair dryer and then give it a couple coats of varnish.

Painting Gourd, Second Stage

 

 

 

Second stage: I added some glazing medium to Sapphire Blue and a little water and pulled a wash over the plums and grapes. When this was dry, I pulled some extender over them and highlighted the plums and grapes with aquamarine+white and shaded with Burgundy. The shading and highlighting is not side loaded but instead is patted on and blended with the #6 filbert brush. I used my finger to pat here and there and it’s amazing how well the paint behaves, just like oils.

The Strawberries and cherries use the same technique. Highlight with Vermillion and then Hansa Yellow Light and shade with Burgundy.

I did the all the above at least twice. I will now add the leaves and some fru,fru, Glaze the whole Gourd, dry and add the final highlights and tints.