Valerean

Last Friday my guy and I took a stroll through the historic district in Kissimmee, Florida. To see some amazing street art, check out my album of pics here .

I'm almost ready to start work on designing my summer art quilt for 2025, which will be the pink-only Art quilter's bingo challenge quilt (say that ten times really fast, ha.) I usually make what I like during summer, as it's my favorite season and I tend to indulge myself, even with new projects. Projects I make from challenges or patterns, however, put me a bit more on edge. This t-shirt quilt turned out to be a bear to piece and quilt, but it's also become my favorite quilt to snuggle up with. I also really like how challenges inspire me. Making this quilt out of a one pound bundle of vintage fabrics chosen by someone else pushed me to consider how to use lace as fabric, with lovely results. My last one-color art quilt challenge helped me get over my hatred of yellow, so it's good for me (I still dislike it, but I'll use it now, versus completely avoiding it altogether.) I've had a long and unhappy history with the color pink, which I associa...

Writing poems with a free concrete poem generator is fun. :)

Yesterday my guy and I went wandering, and we stopped at The Old Packing House in Umatilla so I could pick up more pink fabrics for my pink-only quilt. I was insanely lucky to find five yards of a dark and light mottled salmon pink fabric that I can use as backing, as I want all the rest that I've acquired on the front of the quilt. This will also let me make the quilt as big as I like. Here's everything that I have so far assembled on my sewing table. I'm just waiting on some beads and then I can get started. In the meantime, I'm finishing up the poem for the quilt today. It's a lot! Ha. I'm really looking forward to it, though -- and I've already lost all of my dislike of pink while gathering everything. :)

On my art quilter's bingo card I have pink only . Pink is my second least favorite color for reasons I won't get into because I'm done with all that. As I did last year with yellow I want to do something positive to help me get over my color angst, so I decided to make an all-pink art quilt this year. My idea was inspired by the École des Nouvelles Images' short film Code Rose , which really spoke to me as a Floridian, an artist and a veteran. Based on the video I came up with the above mockup. Basically I want to write a poem about my sentiments and shape it via embroidery it into the aircraft carrier, and then cover it with flamingos. It's pretty ambitious for me, but I also love the idea, so why not? I have ordered some new flamingo fabric from Spoonflower, and I'll update you all on the project when it arrives and I have a poem to share.

One day back in April I had a memory blip that left me a little upset; I thought I'd accidentally thrown away my medic alert cuff and a vintage bracelet I thrifted and really like. I made myself dig through the garbage can, all the while kicking myself for being so careless. I actually didn't throw them away; I finally discovered the missing items next to my laptop in the sewing room. I had absolutely no idea when I put them there, and still don't. That upset me even more. To just heap more depression atop my worries, this was also the same day I had to say goodbye to our last living cat Jericho some years ago after losing his brother Jak a few months before then. It's part of ageing, and being a pet owner, but I got very depressed, so I decided I needed some junk therapy. I asked my guy to take me to The Old Packing House in Umatilla, my favorite place to find vintage fabrics, household items, and art pieces like these two painted wooden cats ($5.00 each) tha...

Back in April my guy and I paid a visit to Brooksville, a historic town with gorgeous houses and amazing art. To see my photos of our day there, check out my album here .

One year when I was an elementary school age kid we went to the county fair. I don't remember why; it was my first time at a fair and the whole experience was a muddled rush as my mom tried to keep all of us together. On our way out of the fairgrounds I passed by an artist's booth. There was one painting of a forest waterfall spilling from earth into outer space that enchanted me (not that I had any money to buy anything.) I saw it only for about thirty seconds, but for over 50 years that one painting has remained branded on my brain. I've looked for it everywhere, but never again found it. It inspired me to no end as a writer just thinking about it. People have very little good to say about AI art, but one thing I've discovered is that it can put bring my memories to life. This is the first time I've seen anything close to what I remember, and I actually generated it with an internet search. This is about as close as I can get to the original imag...

Generally speaking an art quilt, especially one that has been embellished with hot fix pearls and crystals, should not be washed. Thread painting and applique work like the kind done on both can be delicate, too. That said, the pair I just thrifted needed a bath. I decided to roll the dice once more and see if I could clean them (anything of value should only be cleaned by a professional textile cleaning service with experience handling such things.) They were both a bit too big for my hand washing basin, so I soaked them in cold water and some mild detergent in the bathroom sink. I'm glad I didn't wash them together, as the green and violet runner shed a bit of dye in the water. The panel quilt's dust and storage residue came out in the water, turning it a light beige. I didn't soak either piece long; just about fifteen minutes. I then rinsed them out in cold water and hung them to dry. The green runner came out brighter with no damage or loss of ...

The second art quilt that came in the duo lot is actually a gorgeous applique runner. Like the first quilt the maker used thread painting and crystal embellishments to accentuate the quilt. You can clearly see the thread painting on the back. So, how much did I pay for these two lovely pieces of art? Believe it or not, $9.99 for both.

I had a feeling that two small quilts I saw go up for auction would be special, so I bid on them and won without any challengers. They arrived last month, so let's see if my hunch was correct. Yes and then some. This is an art quilt, quite well done by someone with considerable experience with thread painting and dimensional fabric manipulation. Alas, there is no maker label, or I would give the maker credit. The panel is embellished not only with different colors of thread painting but also crystals and pearls. Since I love all things Asian I am absolutely delighted to own this beautiful art quilt. The dimensional flowers are simply awesome. But what about the other one? Stop by tomorrow to see that surprise.

Back in January I realized I was thinking about the beach all the time while I was working on my projects. Nothing soothes me like the seaside, so that's why I picked out sea, surf and sand colors for my crochet blanket. When I improv'ed a landscape for my third mini-quilt, naturally I thought of sunrise on the beach. Repeating symbols often crop in any any artist's work. M.C. Escher spent his career working out the principles of tessellation. Keith Haring used interlocking bodies in his street art. Dali used melting clocks, ants, crutches and elephants to symbolize different aspects and ideas he wanted to communicate. I know why the beach keeps showing up in my art. It was a place of sanctuary for me as a child. When I was at the beach I was in my own church, and no one knew. That was where I communed with the universe instead of sitting on a hard wood bench being lectured to in Latin. Because I still feel so safe there, I am never as much myself as I...

AI certainly has an interesting way of generating an image with a name prompt. I used my old professional byline and got this very pretty girl who looks absolutely nothing like me. Using another filter this is how my name looks as a logo. I did have long hair something like that a looooooooong time ago. :) This was my favorite AI-generated image based on my name. Maybe my spirit looks like that. Sure wish it did. All of the images in this post were created by Hotpot AI's art generator .

I thought I'd photograph my first art quilt of the year in stages as I improvised the design and post pics of how it went. At one point I used a reference silhouette while cutting out my koi, and some printed words on paper as reference to the embroidered poem, but otherwise it's entirely spontaneous and free hand.

Back in November I came across a lot of art supplies with a set of paint I wanted, and won it for the minimum bid with no challengers. Let's see how I made out. It's an eclectic mix of painting, sewing and stenciling items that are even more intriguing unboxed. The project bin was full of painting and embroidery stencils, sports stickers and some miscellaneous things. The 72 watercolor paints set was never used, as the tubes are still sealed. It retails for $20 to $30. It had a lot of colors, which is why I was okay bidding on this lot. There's a Fons & Porter wool table rug kit with no instructions (evidently they were in an issue of their magazine) from 2002 marked $25.00. It's completely intact, so if I can find the instructions online somewhere I'll make it. I also got seven yards of this brand-new cotton cheater cloth. Altogether the lot is easily worth $150.00 retail. I paid $20.00 for everything. Savings $130.00.