Playing at Dana's

Yesterday I played at Dana's. It was probably a lot more fun for me than for her, because she kept trying to start making jewelry, and ended up talking on the phone most of the day to her two sons, or answering my questions.

Why do I start my blog photos with the worst one I can find? I know that some people show my blog on their Google reader thingy (such a technical word) that shows the first photo, so I keep thinking I should start with a photo of something completed, but I always seem to start at the beginning. Today was no exception.

This is a piece of canvas that had been used to wipe paint and color mists a few days ago. It is relatively square.

As I started painting, the cheap-o brush from Michaels broke. Too funny.

By the time Dana took this photo, I was in the throes of paint.

How many colors I could get on these two pieces would be anyone's guess. At this point, I was working from that inner child they talk about. It was pure abandon, and I don't often get to "that place."

This is one of many photos of Dana I took yesterday, but I only kept one for the blog.

My original quiltlet I started the day before had now changed radically. The original material was practically obliterated,

but the strings of black thread were still sticking out.

At this point, Dana had to run to the bank, so I took time to try to lay out some projects. I'm not really good at this, often changing my mind as soon as I've decided on a design.

Using all the scraps also became an obsession. I turned the piece on the right of the photo into a heart.

I was working on the heart when the thread came out of the needle. It was now time to go upstairs and check on lunch. I must admit, I'm not fond of sewing the fabric on a sheet of printer paper, but Dana said it would make my stitches go smoother. So, deferring to her, I did. I had a terrible time trying to remove the paper, though. I think this must be why people use stabilizer.

Dana laughed when she saw I took photos of our pizza. She left it in the oven 10 minutes longer than it should have stayed. Needless to say, it was rather well done!

Like many things I make, I'm not sure how I'll use this piece, but I really love it. Not sure you can read the writing, but it reads "The heart holds windows to the soul." Like I said, I was trying to loosen up with my art, which included the windows. Of course, I had to keep remembering where Dana's back stitch was, since mine is a button you push and hers (a Bernina) has a lever you push up and down.

I fell in love with this piece of canvas that was finally dry. Dana wanted to do some free form stitching on it, which delighted me. She cut batting and muslin which have to be larger than the top piece (I learned) because the batting will bunch up a bit as it is sewn. Not sure how you finish it, since she'll have to show me that another day.

This top piece is finally finished. I'm thrilled. It reads "He tugged the strings of her heart." The large piece of muslin behind the cloth will go in back of the batting and I will finish it at home. She showed me how to finish it, even though I didn't include the batting in the original sewing of the piece.

Before I left, I took a photo of one of Dana's trees. She kept saying it looked so much better from the highway that runs behind her property, but I think the other side has finally come into its own beauty.

When I got home, my day was not finished. I had bamboo to cut and tie in bundles for disposal on Saturday at our neighborhood cleanup. I was exhausted, wet, cold, and tired, but when a friend came by and asked me to make a sleeve for a Halloween costume, I agreed. The material was still wet, as was the glue in this photo. He wanted a brown tint, so I grabbed the walnut ink and dampened a piece of material, then sewed it. He even wanted it to look old and battle worn, so I didn't have to be too careful.

And finally, he asked me to make theta and epsilon symbols on his sunglasses. He asked if I knew what they looked like. As many times as I had to write those symbols in trig or calculus classes, I didn't even have to practice making them!!

By this time it was nearly 10 pm, so I felt like I had made enough art for the day. It was fun, but I forgot to download the photos from my camera. That's why this post is so late today.