Jonah's quilt

 So I made Jonah a quilt for Christmas. I got it done only two days before, because I didn't want to work on it while he was home, and I had to get all those portraits done before I could finish it! For the record, I did work on it off and on over the last year or two.
As with other quilts I made, the technique is not that great, but it's fun and warm, and made with his favorite color: green.

I am happy with several parts of this quilt, such as the following:

This was a patch on Josh's jeans when he was about five. I wanted to put it on his quilt, but didn't find it until now. So cute.

 
















I like these examples of two patches on top of each other. Yay. (these pictures make the green thread look much more yellow than it is in life.)

 
 


And it's always fun to use sections of jeans that already were repaired when they were pants: its nice to remember the little pants from which they came.

 

 

 For reference, here are the other three quilts I have made previously.
Last time, I made one for Joshua. I liked the different design of sewing it over the top and the long strips instead of squares. Because of this design, I was able to finish it really fast! That underside color is not nearly that bright anymore, but he loves it on his bed, even in the summer. I saved all the black jeans so they could be together on this quilt.























In 2014 I made one for Elora. It was really similar to the one I just made for Jonah; I loved the idea of the colored patches on the top, so it's no surprise I tried it again this time. Obviously, red is Elora's favorite color. Her's has really thick batting inside, so it's so warm!






















This was a patch she really had on her pants, and it worked so well with this quilt.

 

    And the very first quilt I made goes on my bed in the winter! It has, by far, the worst sewing job on it, because I just couldn't figure out a way to make the patches look random instead of orderly rows, so there's a lot of messed up bits, plus I didn't want to work on it very often. But I love it because it has pants from when Elora and Josh were really little, and it's super warm. It took me like three or four years to get this first one done! It's funny because I can see the line where I suddenly figured out a better way to do it, and it went much more smoothly.

 Now I have to make some for Eli and River!

My favorite part of making these quilts is feeling like I'm making something that will last out of all of our piles of jeans which would otherwise end up in a land fill. My town may not have recycling, but this is a way to recycle that is worth keeping.

September Challenge

 So, these are the pictures I did in September for a Creative Challenge. Originally I was only going to post the ones I liked the best, but I guess I'll post all of them. These aren't in order of when I drew them. The titles are the words I had to draw.
  I worked on this even during my trip to my brother's wedding in September, so I had to find ways to work faster and simpler, which was kind of the point anyway. For some of the drawings, I used some small "artists trading cards" which are only about 2.5 by 3.5 inches large.The following drawings were all done on this size, and I love how they all turned out:

 1. cozy shed (other participants that didn't speak English interpreted the shed as a tent, and so I did too.)

 

2. Honey rain






















 5. lunar landscape
 

 4. Striped evening






















 5. ghostly bouquet (it's supposed to be flowers along a pioneer trail grave or a ghost town.) I saw these ones at Independence Rock, WY.



I also did a few watercolors, with mixed success:
6. autumn rabbit (this was the second drawing I did and it was very popular- I guess people love animals.)






















7. Gray wind.

8.pumpkin fog. I was thinking of the Great Pumpkin, but I didn't want to actually draw Charlie Brown characters; instead, I gave the mouse a blanket like Linus'. I like the trees, and the foreground, but the whole middle of this picture just needs to disappear Or I need to learn to paint fog.



I also wanted to try using some things I'd never used for drawings, since it was just a fast experiment. For this one, I used some cool scrapbook paper I'd recently bought, for the background. The rest is drawn with marker.

9. apple jam

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 And for this one, I used some colored bic pens to draw the whole thing. It took a lot longer than expected, even though it was small.

10. cold traveler (I was thinking of the kid from A Christmas Story, who can't put down his arms.)

11. Forest plaid. I was a little disappointed with how this turned out compared to how long it took to put together. It's hand drawn plaid on paper cut in the shape of a forest, then glued together.

 I did a few with  minimal color, thinking that it would help me finish them faster. I forgot that doing things in just black pen actually takes longer because you have to do more line work details to make up for the lack of color. And pencil takes forever to build up shading!

 12.secret sweater.  This one took a few days to finish. I liked the idea of it, but not sure if it lived up to my plans.
 
 
13. morning dress. (this was the first drawing I completed..it's my three boys fighting over blankets while they watch cartoons in the morning)



14.  river city. This was after the style of another artist I admire...which is probably while it was the most liked of the whole month. The artist's name is Ian Miller; he draws really cool buildings and fantasy worlds.



 I had a lot of fun learning from that artist while creating this picture, so when another prompt made me think of a second artist I admired, I decided to have fun trying out their style a little too. Patrica Polacco is one of my favorite illustrators, she draws lots of Russian type Babushka characters, using fun patterns, markers, and pencil.

15. kind scarf

 






16.  Festive umbrella. A little fan art involving Totoro and Firefly...so it would only appeal to the small audience that was familiar with both shows.

I did a few on tan paper which works well for portraits, but not so much for these,, so they didn't turn out as bright, 

 17. fiery beetle

 18. soft cloak. This was based on a photo of Elora, though it isn't really supposed to look like her.

I wanted to try a few Halloween inspired pictures, since it was coming up soon. 

19. magic coffee and sunny fox. This was harder to draw than I thought, but I like the idea of it. This is the one drawing where I combined two prompts, because I knew I wouldn't finish in time otherwise.

20. unusual pie. I had the idea for this one planned from the beginning, and I was really excited to do a pulp-fiction inspired picture. There are a few things I'd like to fix on it, but overall, this is one of my favorites.

 21. musical cat. I really wanted to try to draw neon lights for one of the prompts, and this one was perfect for that idea.Also one of my favorites, drawn on black paper.

 22. red ornament. These crab apples were from a photo I had taken,and it was fun trying to figure out how to draw them with marker! Another favorite.

I was able to make a few faster drawings by leaving the white around it instead of coloring in all the details; something I admire with other artists' work, but have a hard time making myself do.

 23. strange house

24. terrible mushroom (probably the fastest drawing I did. Totally something Eli would draw, too.)

 25. Warm kettle. This one didn't turn out as nice as I pictured it (probably because it was too small to do much detail) but it's based on the landscape on Cedar Mountain. See the kettle?

















 And this one was a very small one. almost as small as those artist cards.

26. Yellow sunset. I didn't want to draw another sunset, so I thought this worked too, with the yellow flowers and girl, facing the sunset.

 Finally, here are the ones that really didn't turn out that well, and I wasn't happy with.

 27. Flower soup. I loved the idea of it, but didn't notice till I was taking the picture that A. the circle was off for the plate, and B. The lines on the background are incredibly off, with the size and spacing changing all over the place. I'm sad it didn't look as good as planned.

28 Fragrant druid. I spent a long time changing ideas for this one. I liked the idea of drawing an ancient Celtic warrior for the druid instead of a guy in a black cloak. The flowers are the fragrant part, it just didn't quite turn out as I wanted.

 29. Probably my least favorite; it's supposed to look like a label for a mens scent or something. Meh. I guess that's what you get when you make it all in one day.

 Next time, I'll post the pictures I did for October! Which do you like?