A pile of pillows

Someday, some time soon, I will make more than throw pillows but right now, I'm in need of instant gratification and two fat quarters of Spoonflower fabric, stitched together and stuffed, gives me stylish and artsy throw pillows in no time at all.

The pile of pillows pictured below went to my daughter-in-law for her birthday.

Left to right:  "My First Mardi Gras . . . I Had No Idea!"; "The Fierce Line of Symmetry"by Logan, (without my grandson's school photo; Spoonflower designer Mezzime's "Audrey Hepburn black and white;" "Monsterscape" by Alex; and last but not least, "I'm Not Nice, I'm Pretty!" by Kaitlyn.

Colorful and Bright: Paysmage on Spoonflower

 

If you like bright, colorful designs, check out Sylvie Chantraine's shop on Spoonflower.  I have mentioned before that Spoonflower designers are from all over the world.   Sylvie is from France. Pictured above is a throw pillow I made from two fat quarters of Spoonflower basic cotton Ultra printed with two of Sylvie's designs:  "Constellation Car" and "Greek Paradise Cartoon."

The little yellow car button is something I found at Wal-Mart!

Something a little different

I made a little film clip using Muvee Reveal (the trial version).  The film features the designs I sized at four fat quarters per one yard of Spoonflower Kona cotton.  Also, "Only the Cat Saw" is on this film clip.  "Only the Cat Saw" is my entry in the Spoonflower zigzag cheater quilt design.  Hope you enjoy the clip.  I had fun making it.

Just click on the link below to Flickr and the film should come up.  It's just a minutes in length.

Flickr

Meditation

There is a willow tree by our red handled water pump by the kitchen door.  It planted itself and it appears to be a very intelligent tree having taken root next to a dripping water source.  I enjoy watching it change through the seasons.  In spring, its leaves take on that new green that only newly unfurled leaves can have, then the willow's leaves grow into their beautiful summer green until the blast of July.  Now my willow is losing leaves.  It isn't dormant yet but I can tell her energy is focused into just staying alive in these 100 plus degree days of high summer.

On Spoonflower there is a design I created to honor this wonderful willow. It's a photograph of the beautiful willow leaves taken into a posterized view.  On top of the leaves is a poem called "Meditation."  The companion fabric design can be seen here.  These designs are part of my "Fat Quarters Collection" on Spoonflower.

I made a pillow using two fat quarter of Spoonflower Kona cotton.

Repeat design of willow leaves for "Meditation."

Pillow made from the "Meditation" fat quarter on Spoonflower.

Golden Lily

This morning I made two fabric designs available for sale on Spoonflower .  They are part of my Fat Quarters Collection.

The two designs started out based on a photograph like this:

It's a "shaky hand" photograph taken of the yard light down by our sheep shed.  I never intend the "shaky hands" effect.  I'm usually intent on catching some image that never comes out.  However, in working with this photograph, many colors were discovered as the "bumping" effect was used.  I really had to work with the image, though, to get the design just right.  At first, too many actual pixels showed up along the edges of my design giving it a rough edge.  I had to work to get those rough edges to disappear.  Sometimes the rough edges wouldn't be so evident on the digital image I uploaded to Spoonflower.  It wouldn't be until I ordered a proff of the design that I would see those rough edges. I wanted the "Golden Lily" to be smooth.  My plans were to size it for a fat quarter.  Eventually, I downsized the design so it would be centered on a fat quarter, rather than stretching all across the fabric.  The rough edges disappeared and the design looked like a smooth golden lily.

The Golden Lily designs can be seen here and here.

Aviation

Spoonflower is having a contest I can relate to.  Some contests don't appeal to me, but then there are others like the Extinct Animals contest or the Cake Collage contest that I find exciting.  There is an upcoming contest about aviation which I knew immediately I wanted to enter.  I have an old picture of my great grandfather's showing him and other relatives standing next to an airplane that had landed in my great grandfather's pasture in Cowley County, Kansas.  The picture is from the first or second decade of the 1900s because my grandmother saw it when she was a young girl and she was born in 1900.  I created a design using that picture and the pillow shown above is what I made from the fat quarter of "Look What Fell from the Sky."  The designs can be viewed in my "Carson" collection on Spoonflower.  

I made this video about a year ago built around the photograph featured in my "Aviation" design.

Change of Life

I have a collection on Spoonflower called "Change of Life."  Even though women of a certain age are told to embrace this new chapter in our lives and that 60 is now 50, 50 is now 40, etc., I really feel this is being dishonest to women.  We might be healthier and have longer life expectancies than our foremothers, but, frankly, most of our foremothers didn't live long enough to go through the "change of life."

A design I did for this collection is called Hot Flash.  The fat quarter version can be seen here  and the Hot Flash repeat (I think Hot Flash repeat is just funny -- who really wants a repeat of a hot flash!!) design can be viewed here.

The whole collection is based on a single mask I created a few years ago.  Freaky, huh? At least that's what my husband thinks.  It's covered in bleeding tissue paper.  The eyes are photographs of my eyes.  I made the mask to represent the many changes I was experiencing:  children leaving home, going to college, getting married, and having children of their own.  My husband and I have become the spectators instead of the participants in our children's lives.

I appreciate that I've lived long enough to experience the change of life.  Can't say I'm particularly enjoying it, but there are worse things, aren't there?

I think every gynecologist's waiting room should have a throw pillow of "Hot Flash."  They could then ask their patients, "Is this how you feel?"  :-)

I just noticed the last time I published a post to this blog on July 3, the topic was the same.  Ha.  Now that's freaky!

Su_G's Designs on Spoonflower

When I first saw the design "Manly Lines of Chalk" on Spoonflower, it immediately reminded me of the abstract artist, Paul Klee.  The vibrant colors combined with the design really came together.  Su has several other fabrics along this line that be coordinated with this fabric.   I ordered a fat quarter of the design printed on Spoonflower's Kona cotton.  The colors are very vibrant.  Check out the rest of her designs on Spoonflower.  Her shop can be found here.

Throw pillow made from Su_G's "Manly Lines of Chalk" design on Spoonflower.

Something New on Spoonflower -- Pillow Poetry

It was with great trepidation that I posted my latest offerings on Spoonflower this afternoon.  Trepidation because this time my new collection "Fat Quarters Collection" contains not only my designs based on my artwork and photographs, but also my words.  I have written stories and poetry since I was small.   Recently I wondered if perhaps some of my written creations would work well on fat quarters, a nice size for pillows. As I said in a previous blog entry, creating is wonderful, showing one's creations is risky business for I think all of us who create -- no matter what format -- view our creations a little like our offspring.