Paisley of the Week!

Hello out there, Paisley fans!  I am starting a new feature right here on this blog called "Paisley of the Week!"  Each week, I'm going to feature someone's paisley--it might be a fabric, a drawing or an article of clothing.  It might be a well known artist or designer, or it might be someone who's been hiding their light under a bushel.  Just about everything paisley catches my eye--so it could be anybody's!

This week's Paisley of the Week is a gorgeous mosaic wall hanging by Christina Colwell.  This is not the only paisley offering in her Etsy Shop either.  Go take a peek if you get a moment!

Oh!  And don't forget to vote for my fabric "Daffy o' Dillys" in Spoonflower's Fabric of the Week Contest, you have until the 31st,  Thanks!

Daffodils

Spring is almost here!  To celebrate, Spoonflower has made Daffodils this week's Fabric of the Week Theme.  This is my entry, an ogee with an art nouveau/zen flavor.  Well, if that sounds a bit pretentious, it's still an ogee.  It's amazing (and intimidating) how many talented designers enter Spoonflower's contests.  If you get a sec, go and vote for my daffodils :)

Workspace Peek

One genuine way to root around in someone's head is to see what sort of workspace they keep. Especially if they're someone well known. If Amy Butler or Mary Englebreit are letting me peek into their studios I am all over that! One hopes that by looking into their workspace and seeing how they arrange their pens (pencil cup or basket?) or their fabric stash (by color or by weight?) we might gain insight to their success.

I don't exactly have a set workspace.  Since I have kids and they move around a lot, I usually need to be where the action is.  I have a sewing room, but it's in the farthest part of the house, it's usually the dumping ground for everything we're not using (and everything we're not putting away) and it's COLD in there 5 months out of the year--well you get the picture.

Below is my favorite workspace. It's my Grandfather's old desk, an actual genuine writing desk and it's perfect for me.  It has all these great nooks and crannies to put stuff in and as it's in my dining room it doubles up as a sideboard during holiday dinners. 

1. My Toshiba Satellite. 

2. Dorky mug with half-drunk cold tea in it.  My husband teases me that I can never finish a whole cup of tea.  It's funny because it's true.

3. Uniball Signo 207, my pen of choice.

4. Work in progress.

5. Wacom Tablet.

6. Prismacolor markers.

7. Sketch ready to be colored.

8. Scrap paper with my daughters little doodles done in pink pen.

9. Barbie DVD, for K to watch if I'm just drawing and she wants company.

10. CD of artwork to be sent to a prospective company or agent.

11. A pull out writing/drawing space, best feature of this desk!

12. Small drawer perfect to fit my iPod.

13. Piece of scratch paper with calculations on it for using the offset filter.  I just keep using the same one until there's no space left.

14.  Other small drawer to keep post-it pads, paperclips and rubber bands.

 

Inadvertently Inverted

Sometimes I sketch something and I don't really like it all that much.  I liked the bold lines of this and the fan-flowers but this sketch went ignored for some time.  I always thought it was too un-balanced.  It's all spiky on one side, bubble round on the other.

I've scanned most of my old notebook into my laptop.  When I'm scouting around for inspiration, I'll open one of these scans in Photoshop to see what I can do with it or what elements from it I might use.  By accident, I inverted this sketch and it looked so different--wow!  After deleting the black negative space around the drawing it looked like a stamp or a woodcut and now  I really like it.  I moved some of the smaller paisly elements around and rotated things to spread it out a bit.  I'm still fiddling with it but it's going to be a toile or batik design. 

Are YOU a fabric hoarder?

You can't have your fabric and cut it too!

I used to have this funny little cartoon that I clipped out of Quilter Magazine on my bulletin board:  Two farmers are looking at a silo and the caption reads, "Corn!  Heck no.  That's for my wife's fabric!"

The scenario goes like this: I have a sewing project I want to do. I think about what fabrics I want to use. I look in my fabric closet, pull out several appropriate looking candidates in terms of color or pattern--and then I end up going to the fabric store and buy something new because I can't bear cutting it.

With some people it's shoes.  Or cats.  Or old magazines.  For me--fabric (I also hoard paper but that's a whole 'nother blog entry!)  Some fabric, like the pieces in the pic above, I have had for about 20 years.  That's right, before I had children, before I was married, before I even had graduated from college I owned this fabric.  Someone, I forget who, gave me this lovely bunch.  It was from a set of interior decor samples.  It's heavy, satiny, polished cotton and the picture doesn't begin to do justice how gorgeous the colors are. Often my Mom and I will email eachother with fabric finds from the internet.  She always asks "Oh, what are you going to do with that one?"  My answer is usually, "I just want to have it."  

This particular one above, is my favorite from that group.  It looks like it was done from a colored pencil sketch complete with underpainting and pencil-y texture.  So, how about you?  You have any secret fabric issues?

It's the middle of March...

And I've now gotten one thing crossed off my UFO list. 
At this rate, I should get 4 things done all year...

This was what my son's gamer chair looked like.  He, and his siblings, have a habit of standing up on it and eventually it popped a hole right through the seat.

 

The thing that amazed me most was how cheaply made this chair was.  It was basically hollow inside. 

I shored up the seat with this piece of pine which I screwed into the frame.  Then on top of this I put a block of foam rubber for extra padding.  I cut off all of the vinyl and reused the foam from the original covering.

After visiting JoAnne's remnants table (twice due to not paying attention to how I cut my side pieces) I used the original vinyl as a pattern to sew these tweedy bits of upholstery, added a little headrest pillow and then stapled it all in place.  I have another vinyl gamer chair that is going to need the same treatment.  #2 son says he wants royal blue and black.  We'll see what the remnant table holds :)

Bean Soup Recipe

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It's pretty rainy and dreary here today despite being a LOT warmer than it has been.  One of my best cold weather comforts is  hot soup.  This recipe was given to me by my Mom she called it "Fat Burner Bean Soup."  It was a favorite of mine when I was doing Weight Watchers and still is!  I haven't done WW in a while so I don't know how their point system is working nowadays but using the one I used to know you can eat this whole pot of soup for 2 points!  It has tons of fiber that totally cancells out the fact that it's flavored with bacon.  How great is that?!

The B52s claim "Everybody likes butterbeans!" but by all means, substitute a can of your favorite beans here if you don't care for them.  I like to eat this soup with cornbread.  Mmmmm!

2 slices of raw bacon

1/4 C chopped onion

1 clove chopped garlic

1 chopped carrot

1 stalk of celery--chopped

1/2 C sliced mushrooms

1t dried Italian herbs

1 15 oz. can of butterbeans (use all the juice)

1 8 oz. can of diced tomatoes (use all the juice)

1 can of chicken broth

Cut your raw bacon into little 1 inch bits, fry over medium heat in a 2 quart saucepan until it's crispy but not dark.  Add your chopped onion, garlic, carrot, celery and mushrooms.  Sautee in the bacon drippings until slightly soft, add Italian seasoning.  Add the chicken broth, diced tomatoes and the beans.  Bring to a boil and the cook about 15 minutes or so on low heat.  If you can wait tastes even better the 2nd day!

Free Desktop Background #1

Enjoy!

The first of a set that I'm working on.  Inspired by the fact that I wish it would hurry up and be summer!  To use click on the picture for the full size, then right click to save as your desktop.  For personal use only, copyright March 2010.

Random Drawings

 

I save all my doodles.  Even the ones I do in margins or at work when it's slow.  This one was hiding in the side pocket of my purse.  The reason being is that once you get them home and into Photoshop, you can do all sorts of things with those random sketches.  I thought this doodle had potential. 

I just love these colors.  They remind me of sherbet or yogurt.  This particular drawing was inspired by my friend Amy Hooton who uses gold ink in a lot of her drawings.

I wonder who would live in a paisley house--besides me I mean?