Jens Arty Life

Happy New Year! I finished some great projects last year, and I have some new ones already on the go. I thought I'd show some photos of what I am working on, which illustrates perfectly why this can't be a quilting blog or a painting blog, or whatever. Just recently finished: An art journal for my friend Linda in Canada. I have utilised book making skills, quilting, textile painting, stenciling and beading Also for Linda in Canada, a crochet scarf. Just for fun, a watercolour. The design isn't mine, it comes from a Dover colouring book  (Ed Sibbert jr) and I traced it onto watercolour paper to experiment. And this is what I am working on currently: A peyote beading project which was supposed to go on my Christmas tree, but probably won't hand there this year as it's taking longer than I thought. But I'll finish it even though the tree will go down so I don't lose momentum on it (it's quite a complicated pattern for me) ...

well the top of the quilt is done I'm happy with the way it turned out, and I'm happy it's done...well the top is. I plan to put it on my quilting frame over Christmas to do a custom job. And so on to the next one. I've been doing embroidery for a friendship quilt I'm making with a friend in Canada. I had my first go at crewel embroidery and I'm happy with how it turned out - which is good because I have a long term plan to make a piece of clothing with lots of it on there. That lotus is part of a larger embroidery piece which I will show when it is done - it will go on a quilt eventually. Thanks for reading.

So the hand sewn hex part is all done. Tomorrow I will be adding the coloured border and the appliqued corners and I will decide if I want to do any more borders, or call it quits.

I am so excited! My samples finally arrived. These are from spoon flower where I have been able to put my artwork onto fabric. The small berry like pattern in a vine is actually the art work of my friend in Canada Linda Kinsella. She was the one who gave me the inspiration to start this project, and she will be working with me too. So the idea is to put our art on fabric (printed here on 8x8 samples, but will eventually been on fabric in yardage). And we will each sew some blocks, then swap half of them and make a quilt each. I am also designing the quilt (haven't gotten that far quite yet. I ordered the samples to make sure the quality was OK - to test it by sewing, washing and quilting them to make sure they were just like the fabric in the shops. So far so good, I threw a few commercially available fabrics in the mix to go with our very busy fabrics.... ...and then quickly sewed up a checkerboard piece... I'm sure happy with this and I can't ...

This double page is in my art journal, but is kind of a mix of art journaling and scrapbooking, as i wanted something a bit quick because for me the most important bit of this page is the writing (which I hadn't done when this photo was taken). On this page i wrote all the things I am proud to have achieved up to this date. There were big things on it like having a book published in Germany and some small things like 'I'm proud I am much better at finishing things now that I am older'. I used to be terrible at starting stories or art projects, or quilts, or embroideries and never finishing anything. Don't get me wrong. i still have UFOs but there are less of them and they have a MUCH higher chance of being discovered or my passion rekindled and the thing getting finished. ANYWAY...to make this page I used some scrapbooking paper, tore it in half, stencilled in a few layers in a colour to match the purple bird and flower on the paper, stamped a few messy circles...

I have just finished quilting this great double sided quilt for my customer Rhonda. Not only did it turn out great, this one has a bit of a story to it. In this photo you get a pretty good look at the butterfly motif that is all over the quilt.  Rhonda is a prolific sewer. She keeps me busy all on her own and all her quilts are double sided (because she makes that many tops). She was a high school teacher and is now retired and confesses she had a bit of a stash habit, buying lots of fabrics from sites when they are on sale. But I think the most amazing thing about this quilt is that it's not new. Rhonda has so many quilts which she gives to family and friends. This one was one of a bundle that was returned to her by one of her friends who has gone up North and doesn't really need quilts any more and it was a bit tired, but really only lightly used. So Rhonda pulled the whole thing apart and gave the tops to me to 'do my magic' as she calls it. It has h...

Well I've been AWOL again, but for a good reason. I've been at TAFE (Technical and Further Education - the Australian version of community college) learning to be a Medical administrator. I wish I didn't have to go work outside the home again, but the house is falling into disrepair without my extra wage to count on. But I am still stitching, even if I haven't been posting. I just finished work on my first semi colon butterfly for a quilt I'm making with my Canadian friend Linda. We are both doing some and then swapping half the blocks. I designed the semi colon butterfly after seeing many tattoos on the subject. And my daughter is getting one tattooed for her 18th birthday. The semi colon project is an incentive to educate the public and support those with mental health issues to help prevent suicide. When writing a story, the author uses the semi colon as a pause, but doesn't finish a sentence, continuing on instead. So the semi colon has become a sy...

Today I am working on this lovely quilt by my customer, Wendy. I'm using an edge to edge design called feathered roses. my latest hexagon for my hexe quilt is blue and I finished it while waiting for my daughter at TAFE. I always get asked what I'm sewing when I take my work into public places...do you?

My lovely customer Rhonda is a prolific sewer. I just finished quilting this for her. She calls this a small quilt. it's 80 inches wide. And it is reversible. The interior is an old woollen blanket which makes this quilt super warm and super heavy.

I'm making steady progress on my hexagon quilt now. Here is today's offering, an orange hex flower And here is one row of flowers, plus cream/white row plus the four hex flowers I have yet to add (so you can see total progress); But this project actually has nothing to do with my one month goal. For that I have another pile of fabric; June 26th is my wedding anniversary. My husband has been asking for a new supporters quilt. His old one is looking very tired. So my goal for June is to turn this bundle of fabric into an Essendon (AFL) quilt. I plan to use the bomber plane emblem as a large applique (satin stitched on the machine) ...probably with the red as the background. I hope I can get it done as I would like it to be a surprise, so i can't work on it while he is at home. Wish me luck. And go check out the other monthly goals here; If you would like to follow me, there is a button on the left side of my page, but it is kind of well hidden....

Today's hexagon flower is purple And I also did another (double) page in my scrapbook while my stuff was all over the kitchen table. Not feeling the best today. I often feel a bit yuck on Sundays as I take my nuclear medicine on Sunday nights. Oh and I can also show off a page I made for my mum now that she has seen it; The beautiful lady in the centre is referenced from a birthday card, then I looked up art deco style lettering and patterns to create the rest of the colouring page. I hope the rest of the week is as productive.

Once a moth I get together with some of my friends for a scrapbook night. We don't always scrapbook. Sometimes one of us will bring colouring in to do, or stitching, or whatever we feel like. This is the mess I made tonight; We met at my house tonight, so I've left the mess out until tomorrow. I only managed to make 3 pages. My friend Nicole created 5 double pages! Here are the pages I made. I've started a new album which begins with the birth of my daughter. I'm not the quickest or most creative scrapbooker in the world, but I have about 10 albums that i have finished to look back through and enjoy the photos and memories.

I'm currently sewing hexagon 'flowers' together to make a new quilt. The plan is to sew lots of different colour ways of this tri colour arrangement.  I'm sewing them in rows and then spacing them with a row of white/ cream hexagons. I'm thinking i'll custom quilt it with feathers and other fun stuff. But that will depend on how my back feels at the time as custom quilting is seriously hard on my back. I get one of these flowers done every few days, so this is a slow process, even though they are large hexagons (three inch sides). I don't think I will ever do one of those tiny "insanity" hexagon quilts. This suits me for now as I do it while having the TV on in the background (usually something like a cop show my husband is watching). This project will probably take a good few months to complete the top.

I've had a long absence while I lived at Facebook LOL I struggled for a long time as I kept bouncing between quilting, colouring, and art works. well recently I've had an epiphany! This is my blog and it should reflect me... not cater to an audience. And as I am constantly creatively scattered...so will be the content of my blog. So I apologize if you only read quilting blogs, or only read mixed media blogs....or whatever. From now on I will blog about whatever I am doing. Over the weekend I finished a baby quilt for a lady at my husband's work whose baby shower is on Friday. It took 4 days to make. I'm pretty pleased with that. It wasn't tiny either. The pattern said crib sized, but I think it is too big for a cot. It is just a bit short on a single bed. But never mind. I'm sure the baby will enjoy rolling around on this on the floor looking at the bright colours. And today I finished a personal colouring page for a lady in America. She as...