More Door Art

 

 

This morning I finished the door art for our front storm door.  This one is less intricate than the Garfield, but also significantly larger.  This time I used mostly interior wall paint.  The white is actually ceiling paint that we already had in the shed, left over from our renovations a few years ago.  The red, brown, and greens are from small samples paint containers I bought at Lowes.  We had some yellow left over from painting my quilting room, and I used that at first, but I decided that I wanted something brighter.  I painted over that yellow with some yellow acrylic I had left over from painting Garfield.  The outline is done in black acrylic.

First, I drew out my idea on an index card and colored it with markers.  Then I took the drawing to Lowes to match paint colors, which wasn't fully necessary, but I liked the idea of matching my original drawing.  I drew the same basic shape onto the door with a dry erase marker, but the proportions turned out a little different because the height to width ratio of the door was different from the card.  I painted a base layer of the whole drawing in white and let that dry overnight.  The next day, I painted all the colors, and a second layer of white where I wanted it to be white.  I had to be pretty careful because the white base coat would smear once it got a little wet from the new layer of paint.  No adding wet on wet!  This morning I added the black outlines to everything.  I think the outlines really made it pop compared to before I added them.  So with the exception of the yellow (because I changed the color), and the white (which has base coat and top coat) each color was just one coat, unlike with Garfield where everything needed 3 coats.

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Assuming that it isn't too much trouble to remove it, I'm thinking about doing different ones next year.  I'm thinking about either Christmas ornaments or wrapped presents.  It's been really fun to do some painting.

Christmas Door Art

 

 

On the day after Thanksgiving, I took my cat to the vet (like I do every Friday), and one of the employees was painting a mural on their front windows.  That inspired me to try doing a little Christmas window painting of my own.  When I was in high school, I used to draw Garfield all the time.  He was sort of my go-to doodle.  Also, when my kids were little, they loved to watch the Garfield Christmas movie.  So, I thought that painting Garfield on my door would be a fun way to tap into a little of my creative side with a nod to family history at the same time.  I think he turned out pretty good.

I started by finding a Christmas picture of Garfield online.  Then I sketched him out in my sketchbook.  I then scanned my drawing into the computer, enlarged the image to a size that would fit my window, and printed it out.  I had thought that I would tape the print out to the inside of the window and then trace it on the outside using a dry erase marker, but that didn't really work because of the nature of the window.  It has two panes of glass with blinds in between.  That made the image seem too far away to actually trace, so I just used it as a placement guide and drew it free hand with the marker.

We wanted the image to be seen from both inside and outside, so I went over the outlines in black first.  Then I added the color, and then went over the black line again last thing.  I tried chalk markers first, but I didn't like how that looked (too thin and runny), so I used artist acrylic paint instead.  All of the colors needed 3 coats to really show up nicely.

I'm thinking about trying something larger on my storm door at my front door (this door goes to the carport). If I do that one, I'm planning to try using interior wall paint and starting with a base of white.  It won't be viewable from inside, but that doesn't matter on that door, and I hope it will have better coverage that way.

Checkerboard and Diamonds

 

I don't actually have a name for it yet, but I call the pattern checkerboard and diamonds.  I machine quilted it on my long arm quilter, using Isacord thread in Chiffon color.  It is actually custom quilted, unlike the others I've done so far.  The border is done in a continuous feather.  The diamonds each have a flower motif.  The checkerboard center was quilted using the Elvira quilting ruler by Angela Walters.  The white space around the diamonds have a feather motif (I guess that's what you'd call it).  And the border and outside of the checkerboard are outlined using a straight-edge quilting ruler.  I finished the binding on it today, which was done totally on the sewing machine.

It was my first time using quilting rulers on the long arm machine.  I've used them a little on my domestic machine.  It takes a bit to get used to, but I feel like I was getting the hang of it by the time I was done.  It is far from perfect, but I'm happy with how it looks.  I don't know what I'll end up doing with it.  There is no plan for it at the moment.

This is my 8th finished UFO for the year.  It actually leapfrogged over a quilt that I'm in the process of hand binding.

A Bag for Ruthie

 

 

Today I finished up the last bag officially on my to-do list.  It's a bag for my youngest son's girlfriend, Ruthie.  She likes wizards and her favorite color is purple.  I made it the same size as the one for Gus, because my son said that she liked to be able to carry big things.

The fabrics that I used for the outside of the bag were fabrics that were already in my stash.  I bought fabric for the lining and thread for top stitching and quilting.  

I quilted the top fabric to the batting using my long-arm machine, just like I did for the last one.  This one is quilted in swirls to match the swirls in the fabrics. 

I'm planning to send it to her for a Christmas present.  Nothing says Christmas like wizards, right? LOL!

A Bag for Kim

 

When I was at Missouri Star Quilt Company, I saw this floral and skull fabric and it made me think of my daughter-in-law, Kim.  She paints flowers and she's into goth/morbid motifs, so I thought it was a good combination for her.  The accent fabric is from the same fabric line and has a spider web design.  The lining of the bag is black skeletons on a cream-colored background.  

I might try making a small twist bag with the leftover fabric, if there is enough.  I'll have to see.

Birds and Flowers bag

 

When I was at Missouri Star Quilt Company, I bought some fabric to make myself a book bag.  I used the same pattern as the bag I made for my mother for Mother's Day.  This time I decided to try something new.  I quilted the fabric using my long arm machine.  It's still just the outer bag fabric quilted to batting without a backing fabric, so I wasn't sure how it would do on the long arm, but it worked just fine.  The quilting is mostly a simple meander with a few flowers thrown in.  I'm happy with how it turned out.

Kitchen Towels

 

 

Earlier this year when my younger daughter was visiting, she saw a kitchen towel that I have which buttons onto the handle of the oven door.  She commented that she needed towels like that for her kitchen, because her toddler is always pulling the towels off, and they end up on the floor.  The one that I have was made with a hot pad and a towel sewn together.  When we were out in Washington, where she lives, I was going to make her some, but I couldn't find any towels and hot pads that I liked and thought would actually work in this application.  So I decided to use some left over quilting fabric and make little quilted hot pads (with regular batting, not heat resistant).  I think they turned out really cute. The way the towel is gathered where it is sewn to the hot pad, they almost look like little dresses.  Here are a couple of them hanging on my oven door.

 

I hope she likes them.  I hope that having them attached to the oven door doesn't upset my grandson too much either.  I'm sure he'll learn how to unbutton them pretty quickly if he really wants them down.  He's a real problem solver in situations like that.