CQJP 2024 Ellie Project

OK, SO.

I have sewn together the sides and top of my Ellie so when I get to the vines along the big seams I can just go do it and not worry where I'm going to connect them later.

I whent ahead and added my spiderweb roses

To the monogram

in a couple of places

all the way down

That blue stuff is the Water Soluble pen I use for marking 

It will come off with a quick spritz or two of water and maybe a bit of a rub

I have used these pens for close to 30 years now and 

have come to rely upon them, with out really ever worrying weather or not they have changed the formula or something, 

For me they just work.

I am sharing a bunch of my sketchbook pages today

I use my sketch books to keep track of my ideas and keep a record of my projects as I do them 

I want to show you all how I use them If blogger will cooperate with me today I might even manage to make it coherent!

CQJP Paris

I have colored somethings in when the mood moves me 

and darkened other bits with pen so I can trace them if I need to

These pages are from a prior CQJP For which I used Paris for my jumping off point and 

CQJP Paris

the colors pulled from the focus fabric I used that year were a magenta, pink, green, bright blue, yellow and purple

CQJP Fairy

I have many more ideas and inspiration pages scattered around the house and interwebs for perusing to catch an idea

I have a lot of books for reference and also for learning a new technique or just for the pictures

These pages are some of my oldest and 

I use the basic shapes from them all over the place

CQJP 2024 AKA Mara's Ellie project

Miss Mouse has gotten her tail and a fine tail it is!

Next up is what to do with all the space around her?

The Darling Daughter who requested this Ellie, 

wants lots of flowers so lets do the foundations of that,

as a chain stitch vine meandering all over the side 

and part of the top.

And to do that I needed to sew the top and other side together.

This makes it a little harder to maneuver around and sew 

through but makes for  a more cohesive design.

And on the other foot, I have stitched a bird shape to make

A cardinal as requested

Most of the thread I will be using throughout will be DMC

so in this project expect that from here on 

unless otherwise noted

I will be using several shades of red for the body of the cardinal 

I'm going for a fade to dark

using a staggered satin stitch the whole way through

And here she is!

And since there has been some discussion on the CQI Divas 

page about working from sketches 

Here's the page of my sketchbook where this one came from

I have used her in the past many times 

for anyone who notices that's the sketch for the gardens 

round robin from 2014

Here'show I transfer some of my ideas

The paper is from the tail ends of clothing patterns

In some commercial clothing patterns you can get quite a 

large swath of blank paper that is ideal for embroidery transfer

I like using this as transfer because I can see through it

it doesn't distort my stitches, when I go to pull it out from 

under my stitching, if it hasn't already shredded from handling

And if you sew it into the piece you will never see it again

because it is such a light paper it will disappear or disintegrate

CQJP 2023 Autumn Lampbox

Yes I know I haven't finished the Parrot side yet

Please bear with me, last month was......

                                                                    difficult

The concept

 

Fooling around with watercolors

there is a lot of doodling one must do 

with watercolor paints to get them to work right

There is also a lot of brushwork 

and water distribution

It's that last part that has been giving me the most trouble

to little and the paint skitters over the paper

 leaving skid marks and empty spots

To much and it leaves puddles of color in odd places

that pool and dry with hard edges

to much water will also thin out the pigment 

to almost invisibility 

in an already transparent medium

Then there is the paper itself to worry about

mixed media paper is good to practice brush strokes

and color mixology, which is completely different than color theory 

and your initial water retention on

 

but not good enough for actual pictures

because the paper will suck the water right out of your brush  till it gets pilly and weird

and any attempt at finesse will go right out the window

the leaning curve between too much water and not enough is

proving difficult 

But rewarding

and it tickles my colorbone

I will leave you with a cat 

or two

were Ideas come from

Isn't it funny were Ideas come from?
I get some of my best ones in that semi-conscious state between when you first wake up and don't realize you've fallen asleep again.





my latest brain storm for easter is Bunnies!
ha! go figure!
Janet Popish posted a picture, on FB yesterday, of the most ginormous rabbit I have EVER seen!






so bunnies are on my mind anyway.
and seen as easter is soon so I need to get cracken!

sketchbook cover done

I'm done with the sketchbook cover.
and it only took about a month from start to finish!
I love the way the sunflowers came to life here and

the fan turned out very nice, here's the back





I do like my spiders!

the front turned out very well i think and the inside could have been better, more notes for next time.