Sunday Snapshots #48

Stash from my studio...

grass and treelines

sky & water

clouds and snow

crops & fields

Happy Sunday!
~Monika

Another Fabulous Friday

There's something about the moment where you hand your hard work over to it's new owner.  I've done it several times now, and it's always a life altering experience, even if it's a small alteration.  I don't know how to explain it.  Each time it's a little different.  Sometimes it's thrilling when the buyer is really excited, sometimes it heartfelt when they just want to hug you and say thank you.  It's always a very meaningful moment.

Boundless II (detail) 2011 - sold

Yesterday I delivered this baby to it's new owner.  Haha - that about sums it up!  I feel like a surrogate some days as I work on things while the people in it's future home await it's arrival.  I take lots of photos of my work, so I feel okay about passing them on, especially when I get to meet them and see how loved my art will be.  It's completely humbling.  I was invited in to the most recent buyer's house.  There was color and art EVERYWHERE.  I mean everywhere.  Each little space of wall had something.  There were teeny illustrations, brilliant watercolors, portraits, framed photos, rock carvings, and even large abstract sculpture.  Incredible.  I was constantly drawn here and there around the rooms to take closer looks. 

Then I saw it!  A little bright prairie with a dark sky!  "Oooh I like this one!!" I said.  I got up close - and of course, it was a photo of the late Courtney Milne's.  I should have known.  And I turned around to face the man of the house and I said, "I am so honored that you bought my art".  That's all I could say.  I was suddenly overwhelmed and a little choked up.  He told me little stories behind some of his favorite pieces in the room.  And then he sat down and said, "you artists really bring us to the place where the world is a better place", and then he didn't know what to say after that.

I drove home and everything in my mind slowed down, and I just felt... ?  honored - content - humbled.  That's the word... humbled.  Honestly, the same thing happens to me when I'm reading your comments.  I just get excited snapping photos and truly enjoy stitching them up.  I so easily get immersed in my work.  I guess I'm never really thinking about how anyone else will react to my art, so when I do have to stop sewing and be present for them, it truly is a show-stopping moment for me.

Lily & Butterfly, 2011

Thank you!
On to the next project...  : )  Thanks for listening.

~Monika

Things I Love Thursday

 I love to snap photos while we fly down the highway on a hot summer day!

I love taking a chance by turning down an unknown dirt road to find treasures like this:

I absolutely love to stop on the road and roll down the windows

because

I love the way the air smells when I'm by a field of sweet clover.

I love to come home again and pick out the colors and fibres to recreate these memories.

I love to hear the hum of my machine as I lay down the colors of thread.

I do love how satisfying I find this practice.  

If you know anyone who wants their favorite piece of land done in up like this, please send them my way!  : )

Happy Thursday!

~Monika

Works in Progress Wednesday

Slowly, but surely, I am getting Jesica's quilt done.  I cleared the big kitchen table and basted it.  I used 100% low loft cotton batting, and the backing is flannels.  The triangles have been quilted.  Work on quilting the border is next.  I chose to do ditch quilting in every seam, and then added some variegated straight line quilting through the long sides of the triangles.  It reminds me of prayer flags, or party garland depending on how you look at it.  Either way, it's happy and feels like it honors the woman who owned that fabric stash.

I decided to save the Flax at Jackfish piece to hand stitch at on the 14th of August.  I'm booked to do a live demo at the Showcase of the Arts, along with many other artists showcasing several different crafts.  Since I've been told not to count on electrical hook-up, I'll bring some hand stitching.

Remember this? 

the photo (left)... and the art in progress (right)

Well, I sat down at the machine totally on a whim right when I SHOULD have been cooking supper, and got all this threadpainting completed instead.  : )

YEAH!!  : )  That's what you get when you go camping for a few days and end up with a serious case sewing machine withdrawal.  Ha!  I'm super happy with this.  I looking forward to hand stitching alfalfa, sweet clover, and blanket flowers into it.  Right now it's super soft.  I remember stroking a gigantic piece of Jane Kenyan's abstract threadpainting (she told us to) and was surprised at how velvety soft all that thread feels!  Incredible.  So now I have another piece I can bring along to hand stitch on August 14th. 

Head over to Esther's to see what other bloggers at stitching, or Lee's at Freshly Pieced to see the quilts.  : )
See you tomorrow!

~Monika

Checking in, Checking out

Hi!  I'm just stopping by for a quick hello, and to welcome the new followers here and on facebook.  On Sunday I dropped off my entries to the Showcase of the Arts.  I got to visit quickly with my friend artist-friend Gloria.  She mentioned how hard it is to get much art accomplished in the summer.  Another artist chimed in and said, "summers are for photographing, and winters are for doing art".  What great advice.  Both Gloria and I were whining about how unproductive we are feeling, even though we are always working.  After hearing that liberating wisdom, I headed out to Jackfish Lake with my family to camp for a couple days.  It was a last minute decision, and an excellent one at that.  I took no paints, no sewing, no sketchbook, and NO CAMERA.  I did that on purpose.

I almost couldn't handle it.  There were so many incredible scenes and amazing colors.  The land was canary yellow and electric-celery green far out into the distance where the sun shone through the spaces between the clouds.  The skies were purple and champagne at dusk, turning to fuscia and violet and tangerine just after sundown.  The lake and hills in the distance were deep silvery blue.  I took some crappy cell phone pics on the highway before the batteries died, so I have none of the lake. Here is a picture that turned out pretty well without editing.  I love the lines and the shapes and the bright colors.

Want to see what I do with crappy cell phone pics?  Take this one for example.

Not the best, but totally usable.  We were driving fast.  There were bugs splattered all over the windshield.  I was being bounced every time we hit a pothole, so horizons were not always horizontal! lol  Still, there was something about the bright yellow before the dark horizon that I really loved, so I snapped this anyway.  After some playing with the contrast, saturation, and cropping, I end up with a very tempting idea for my art.

Check out this next one.  It's also from the first photo.  I had look twice to match up where it came from after editing them all!  You never know what you can find when you crop things out and look closer...

I can totally use this.  And remember this drawing?  I was 7 and I lived right across the road from it.

Well look at the old acreage now.  I took this as we drove past it.  It looks so different with the new structures!  I know these make people grumpy because so many of us are nostalgic for the originals.  But do you think we will forget and learn to love these too??

The new landscape, like it or not.

~Monika

Sunday Snapshots #47

Here are some of my captures from the week.  ENJOY!

Red Clover at Sundown

Leaning Into the Wind

Pretty Little Blue Birdie

The Town of Harris Grain Elevator ... Prairie Giant

oooh I love this texture!  Everything is so lush and soft looking right now.

Happy Sunday Everyone!
~Monika

Rainy Day Today

It's been cool and rainy and today it a good day to work on little projects while there's baking in the oven and bread rising.  I even went out yesterday and bought hot chocolate!  : )  It feels so good to have some down time at home and just reflect on things.

Pike Lake yesterday

I did do a major road trip yesterday with my kids.  We saw lovely things and I was armed with my camera.  Today I mount and mat some of them for the Showcase of the Arts deadline on Sunday.   See you tomorrow for Sunday Snapshots! 

What do you work on when it's blustery out?  (Here's a chance for all you lurkers to step up and say hello! hint hint) 

: )
~Monika

Fabulous Friday (and winners announced)

To me,  fabulous is a particular color of green.  It gets me excited and makes me want to create.

zing!  what came in the mail

The fibres and embroidery floss is hand dyed.  I found it on Etsy, marked it as my favorite, and then jsut couldn't stop thinking about it... so I bought it.  It came all the way from the UK and was dyed by The Rainbow Girl.  Truthfully, I wish she was my neighbor, or my sister or something.  lol

The Twinings green tea sample is a Postcard!!  Isn't that cool?  I am in a "recycled" swap at PostCardCottage, and that's what my swap partner made me.  It's all stitched on, and it's extra cool because it also happens to be her last name.  (Thank you!!  I love it!)

I also want to show you some more 'fabulous'.  It's the blog of Nicki Ault.  I met her at the last art exhibit I was in, and I really love her art.  She has a whole series that are very small, but so rich and loose all at the same time.  Every once and while I need to go look at her work and it gives me new ideas on how to sew things.  I bet she doesn't know I do that!  But it's true.  Her 6x6 works are a real inspiration to me.  I kind of calm down and get lost in them.  That's a good thing when I have too much to focus on in other areas of my life.  Look at this one... click here

And OH! Before I forget, the winners of the ANPT magazine draw are:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

FELICITY  &  JOYCE!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

whoop whoop - send me your mailing address : )

Thanks everyone for all the color combo inspiration! I'm off to search for flax this morning.

Have a fabulous Friday.
~Monika

Things I Love Thursdays

Dragonflies!  I love dragonflies.  They came in hordes over the weekend and have devoured every single mosquito in sight.  It is a miracle : )

hanging in trees

hanging on the swingset

some are red

some are orange

some come in pairs

some ...  well, you know.

Anyhow - they ate ALL the mosquitoes... and so I love dragonflies.  ; )

Happy Thursday!
~Monika

Works in Progress Wednesday

I feel like things are going really slow, but I am managing to accomplish a lot when I stop to look!  I'm preparing art, quilts, and photos for the Showcase of the Arts at Prairieland Park.  The drop off date is Sunday.  So I have lots of paperwork and finishing touches to complete.  This piece will be there!

6x8" stitched art, double matted & framed

I think the toughest part will be deciding which categories to put them in.  It's not quilting.  It's not embroidery.  Maybe miscellaneous?  That sounds so boring.  I'll put a quilt in too I think.  I was going to Enter Daisy Daisy, but I think she needs a bit more work.

Daisy Daisy, my orange & white dresden quilt

The theme is "Blast from the Past", and the Dresden is nearly one hundred years old since it's first published pattern.  I think this modern style will be very cool to represent it.

I am still working on this, and I don't think it will be done for this particular exhibit.  It's the flax field, and i really should wait and work on this when I go the the Bridge City NeedleArts stitch group.  It's been easy to tote around to the waterparks this summer and work on it while the kids play.

flax, tree line, Jackfish lake, horizon, sky (you are seeing it sideways)

Jesica will be so proud of me.  I have the back of her quilt all pieced!  Here's a little sneak peek.  It's all flannelette and includes some special fabrics of hers.  It's all blues and purples and soooo pretty!

I do need to get going on this one.  Jesica is coming to town in September, and I believe that marks the anniversary of the passing of her grandmother.  This memory quilt is all about that.  So I know she's getting very excited to have it to take home.  This will be the one with the wildflowers stitched into the border.

I also have some kits made up with and without the magazine that the pattern is published in.  If you are interested, you can get it through my Etsy shop.  There are only two listed, but I'll replenish the ads as the items sell.  You can peek HERE and HERE to see.  ; )

fabrics for my embroidered patchwork quilt in A Needle Pulling Thread magazine

To see more of what other bloggers are up to, head on over to Esther's Blog, Or Lee's at Freshly Pieced.  :)

See you tomorrow!

~Monika

It's Give-Away Time Once Again!

Okay folks, I now have extra copies of A Needle Pulling Thread!  To celebrate making the cover photo, I'm giving away a copy of this issue to 2 lucky people.

win this issue!

That's right, "17 summer projects"!  It includes patterns for cross stitch, rug hooking, crochet, beading, Hardanger, machine embroidery, canvas work, knitting (gorgeous pillow covers), and Swedish weaving.  Oh gosh, have I forgot anything?  Doll making and pretty little free motion stitched bags!  It's pretty terrific, and showcases some great Canadian talents.  Also, the pattern for my quilt is in there.  It's a child's summer quilt, featuring buttons and embroidered patches of my mushrooms, dragonflies, and snails.

If you are needed more information on making and attaching bias binding, or how to construct a proper hanging sleeve, you can find tutorials for those at the top of my blog just under my banner. If you already have this magazine and are interested in getting your hands on these specific fabric solids, I have them in my Etsy shop (link at the top of the page).

very fun binding

To put your name into the draw for this, just leave a comment - including your favorite color scheme at the moment.  : )  The draw will close Thursday night, and the winners will be announced Friday July 22.  One entry each please.  Good luck!!

~Monika

It's Good to Be Sketchy.

What better way to spend a hot summer than to lie around outside and draw flowers?  Yesterday I laid on the deck after supper and worked on these drawings while sipping ice cold pear cider.  (mmmm!!!)  I now offically have a good selections of wildflowers ready for Jesica's quilt.  Nailing that Lady Slipper made it all easy after that.  Here's snapshots of the pages if you want to see.  They are all worked from photo to sketch to continuous line drawing.  When I got to one I liked, I drew directional sequence arrows to remind me where to start when I free motion stitch them.

Prairie Lilies

Crocus

Blue Bells / Hare Bell

Blue Bell / Hare Bell with #s  (and dandelions I won't use)

Shooting Star

the Lady Slippers from last week's post.

So there they are.  You can click on any of them to see them bigger.  All of the plants are native to the prairies.  There's a few more, but I won't bore you (Rudbeckia and Lady's Mantle).  Now to work on an arrangement.  I'm not sure if I will link them all.  I suppose I could work each one from the edge of the quilt, so the start points will be eventually under the binding.  hmmm.  One thing for sure - I feel really great after each hurdle.  I was pretty nervous about all this.  Want to see how I manage my anxiety?

Flax at Jackfish (WIP)

I put together this background on Friday.  It's based on that photo my mom got me.  The lower 2/3 of the piece will be periwinkle-colored French Knots. 

after 2 days of stitching...

So far I have half of that blue covered with hundreds and hundred of knots.  lol  It's something small I can take along to the waterparks and work on when my kids play.  As I work my way down the piece, the green will show and the knots will be bigger as well as less dense.  So far so good!  I love the sky and the hills on the other side of the lake.  I couched a lot of colored strings onto there.  : )

See you tomorrow!
~Monika