The Second Quilt for Stella
In the post from May I wrote about modern quilting and showed a quilt that I had made for my new puppy Stella. Even if I have not written a lot about quilting, I have spent quite a lot of time browsing modern quilt blogs and even sewing a little. Now I have finally something to show, it’s a new quilt for Stella, a modern quilt that also has some ribbons and lace.
I am so pleased with this. First, I love the colors. Second, it was a good choice to use double wadding to make the quilting more visible. Third, I think I was able to incorporate laces and ribbons in a creative way. Fourth, I so enjoyed the process of making this! I did not use a lot of time for planning. I had a vision of expressing vintage childhood and vintage linens and it lead the way.
This is a little detail that I love the most: I hand embroidered Stella’s name to a small antique lace square!
And she loves the quilt, of course!
From Art Journaling To Fabric Design
This time I want to show how I use my art to make designs. Some may think that art journaling and art in general is very far way from design. But that’s not true. You can grab inspiration and ideas from art and it can be very straight forward.
Remember the art journal page I made about women loving historical dramas? It grabbed my attention while I was searching for ideas for a new fabric design. See the yellow-orange ornament on the right corner? I liked the way it was structured.
So I redraw it and tried how it would work as a repeat.
After that I opened Adobe Illustrator and created a digital version of it. I do not usually scan my doodles even if you can do so. I like to understand the structure of the ornament first and then fine-tune it while re-creating it.
Another thing that I like to do is to leave some asymmetry to the motif. I think it looks more interesting that way.
When choosing colors I decided to imitate the contrasts in the art journaling page. I created two colour combinations and three sizes for test prints.
This is how they came out! See my Etsy store for more photos!
When art journaling I am often filled with ideas and details. I have found out that it is not a good thing for me to try to control the creative flow then. To design is to simplify. Later one image can offer jumpstart to many designs. I still see many details on this page that I could use for designs.
An art journal can be your mini world, the best sourcebook for any pattern design!
Fire With Water(colors)
One Friday evening I was so fed up with seeing white and grey all week. In Finland all the public places, offices, most homes (excluding mine!) are white or pale grey. And now when the colour starts to fade from the nature too, it’s just too much, or should I say little, for me!
I needed this – to play with colors:
I was not interested in the composition or shapes this time, I yearned for color and spent hours mixing water colors. Then I added small details with pens and color pencils.
The end result reminds me of wood that is burning in the fireplace! Using water colors can be a really fun way to set the colors on fire!
New Site, New Folk Bag and Other News
A lot of things have happened recently, along with the new web site and the location of this blog! I am going to expand the web site within the next months and hopefully you’ll already have bookmarked the new location of the blog.
Participating in an Exhibition
From October to the beginning of December my work is displayed at a knitting themed exhibition in Tampere, Finland. At the crafts centre Verkaranta you can see my printed fabric Botanical Garden and a new folk bag there.
Botanical Garden, turquoise colorway
Here’s the new folk bag.
I think that crocheting the bottom part with many colors looks pretty!
Great Time at the Craft Fair
In september I attended a craft fair in Helsinki, Finland. It was organized by a small group of local small businesses. I mostly sell online so it was fun to talk people in person for a change.
I am holding the fabric Summer here.
But now it’s nothing like summer in Finland, it’s cold and dark and we have already got some snow too!
This was the day Stella saw snow the first time. She loves it!
I am sorry about the few week’s break in blog posts! Now when I am settled here in the new location, I will get back to regular posts. Lot’s of new creative stuff to come!