Friday Favorites

I have had a great week.  I hope that you have too!  Got lots of little projects done and a larger project moved along.  I have one little project in progress that I can show. 

It is a reverse applique piece that I have then rolled with gesso and did some painting and stamping.  I saw the technique on one of those quilting shows recently.  I am kinda liking it so far.  This is my third attempt to turn the Goodwill silk dress with blue roses into an art quilt.  So far it is the most successful attempt

Friday Favorites
First, lets talk about tutorials.
Here is one from the Sketchbook Challenge on painting with watercolors.  The thing I really liked about it is the steps it shows.  My tendency is to try and get a finished picture all at once.  Those intermediate steps of letting the layer dry before applying another layer really  makes a difference whether you are working on paper or cloth.  And talking about layers, Judy heard an artist say he knows when his art is finished--it has 7 layers.  That is a lot of waiting and patience.

Does it count as tutorial if it is YouTube?  This is one on making a necklace out of a t-shirt.  My first reaction was...well....I.... lets not go there. But the necklace is kinda cute.  Maybe you will like it.

Strictly speaking this is not a tutorial but Nina-Marie has multiple posts showing her progress with a cross series.  I think there is enough information there to consider it a tutorial.  And don't you love the progress she is making?!

Second, lets look at pretty pictures and get motivated.
 Jane shows pictures from a class she is teaching at a National Park.  The results were enough of a motivator (and the umpteenth time I have read Jane talk about her watercolor pens) that  I have now bought some and will see how well they work as immigrant medium on fabric.  Here is the link it you are interested in where to buy them.

Pictures of flowers steeping to become dyes and the colors they produce.

 Now lets' see some interesting techniques to add to our ever-lengthening list of things to try.
 Kim is working with paper and fabric.

The Ramblin' Girl is playing with photoshop.

The Quilt Rat is working on thread stitching--something I definitely need to practice.  Here she shows a beginning and then the project a little further along.

Penny is doing more of her uncomplicated  hand work.  I really like her work.  It is not that the stitching is so magnificent when you look at each little stitch.  It is the quantity and overall effect that takes my breath away.

I was debating whether to put this in tutorials or techniques but decided here.  Jane is showing us a new (at least to me) product, liquid watercolors, and her results with it.

Last, lets end with a discussion about what is art.
First, Lynn asks your opinion about whether art has to have a purpose other than to be pretty.  Well, and these days that isn't even a requirement.  Her second question has more interest for me.  If no one ever saw your art, would you keep creating.  Now there is a question.  Let me see, if I have spent tons of money on supplies and all my free time creating art quilts and then I basically put them in a pile in the spare bedroom after I finished them, would I continue to do so?  Well, I have for a couple of years now so I guess the answer is yes.  LOL

The second discussion on art is from Jane Dunnewold and is the text from the lecture she gave at the SDA in Minneapolis.  It is quite long since it is from a lecture but is worth the read. She ends with this statement "Decide between you what matters, and then go out into the world and pursue it with joyful abandon."  
Basically that is my answer to Lynn about would I continue my art.  Yep, and with joyful abandon and no excuses.