Bits and bobs, little progress, but lots of fun!

Yesterday I promised an update on the gessoed plastic bags I ironed together the day before. Not sure it shows in the photo, but this project has turned into a MESS. However, as promised when I started this blog, I show my failures along with my successes.

The gesso didn't stick to the bags. The small colored areas in the center are bits of bag colors showing through. The gesso flaked away like crazy.

In fact, you can see the flakes of dried gesso that fell onto my craft sheet when I was trying to clean up. I just kept making more and more messes until I decided to try a different tactic.

Why I thought using these color mists would make everything OK was beyond me. I guess I was just using them because I didn't care about them.

Here I've added yellow and green to the mix and they are starting to puddle into an ugly mix!

Next I added blue and a bit more green to the mix. They were so wet, I couldn't add another thing! I laid them aside to dry, which ended up taking all day.

After working in the yard for awhile, it was time to move on to new things. I wanted to get free and loose with my sewing lines, so started this piece, which may or may not make it into a completed quiltlet. It was turning into one of those days. The only productive thing I had done so far was work in my yard!!

By now it was early evening and the color mists were finally dry, but they had faded to a dull pastel. Looking back, I keep wondering why I even messed with this piece.

To add more mess to the mix, I decided to use some Shiva PaintStik to the bags. Since these are oil paints, I thought they might work. I ended up using a lot of PaintStik and not getting a whole lot of bang for the buck. The instructions are to paint in one direction, but that turned out to be impossible because of the bumps and lumps left from ironing the bags.

It was time to switch gears. I sewed around a winter scene,

then used a paintbrush and "Warm Milk" acrylic paint to add splatters of paint to the piece.

Next came the beginnings of another quiltlet using an original image from a child's book from the 1920s. The little girls have the biggest Christmas stockings I have ever seen!

One final piece h

Publish Post

as an original book image from yet another book from the late 1920s. This piece will go onto another, larger piece of fabric.

Although I had fun in the studio yesterday, most of my work (and sense of accomplishment) was in the yard. Maybe I'll have a chance to finish something today!!