Button Flowers And New Block

I only had a small amount of stitching time yesterday but it was enough to decide on what to do next with this little spontaneous button flower design:



I filled in the background leaves with the Buttonhole stitch and then added a line of beads down the center of each one.

I've already decided what my next step will be. I'm not sure if I'll have time to work on it later or not. I need to get into my stash and pull out a piece of black velvet or black velveteen. I have something really cool planned for this!

Is anyone going to take me up on my design challenge from yesterday? I was kind of hoping I'd have a few takers.

As for crazy quilting, I've chosen my next block:



Does anyone know who the man in the image is? This is not just a random photo that I chose. This is (was) a real person. Leave your guesses in the comment section!

I'm sure you've noticed by now that I like to work with themes and focal points. When I first pieced this block, I wasn't 100% thrilled with it. Scott however, felt that it was quite workable and would be a good challenge for me so I'm going to go with it.

I like crazy quilting for the challenging aspect of it. I approach it sometimes with several questions running through my mind:

In this case, the piece has to be very specific. I'm assuming that unless I make it very clear as to who this is, anyone who looks at it won't "get it". I'm sure they'll see the beauty in in, but they won't know who that is so I have several things in mind that will give the design clarity.

Another question that I ask myself before starting is in regard to color. What colors will convey the mood of this piece. So far, I think it's clear as to what era the man is from but I also want to insinuate the region in which he lived and the overall "style" of that time-frame and region. He is not an American and this is not a patriotic piece so there will be no red in the design other than what you see in the image.

Part of the challenge in this piece for me is that it's not my typical "garden themed block". I have to think about this man's profession and what it means to me. It can't be completely abstract because his work was not abstract. It was very structured. Once you know who this is, you'll understand where I'm going with this.

First and foremost, this piece must be absolutely elegant. It cannot be cutesy, it cannot be whimsical, it cannot be abstract. It must be elegant.

Stay tuned for my next journey....

Spontaneous Designing Challenge

It was a beautiful sunny and warm weekend here in Northern Illinois. Scott and I spent the entire weekend outside getting our yard ready for plants. We still have a few little things to do and we need to clean and reseal our deck but by the end of this coming weekend, we expect to have everything completed and ready for planting.

Despite so much time outside, I did manage a bit of stitching time. Rather than starting another crazy quilting project, I decided to do something completely spontaneous, a sort "design as you go" project:



If you're interested in increasing your artistic abilities, this would be a good Challenge exercise for you, an excellent starting point!

Gather a piece of fabric, some buttons, some beads and some threads. To make a circle, I used a drinking glass and traced it onto my fabric. I then sewed on some vintage glass buttons and beaded around them. I drew on some leaves and beaded those. Next, I will add some embroidery.

Give this a try! Use what you have on hand and start the same way I did, with the intention of creating 3 flowers. And then expand on it. What sort of fancy stitches do you know how to do? Use them! And don't confine yourself to the inside of the circle. Once you fill in the circle with beading and stitching, think about what you can do beyond the circle. You can create an entire garden if you want to!

I have no idea where my piece is going to go. I can finish stitching within the circle and then stitch or bead around it and leave it at that, but I really want to see where spontaneity takes me. This may remain as a small piece or it may expand into a larger piece. The point is to design as you go.

Many times, some one will look at one of my crazy quilt pieces and tell me that it's beautiful but they could never do anything like that. They're not creative or artistic. Do you know what they're really saying to me? They're telling me that they don't want to. For whatever reason, they're telling me that they don't want to try.

We are all creative! And we all have the ability to be artistic. So if you're interested in getting your artistic juices moving, start with my suggestion and add your ideas to it. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take one step at a time and have fun with it. There's no right or wrong way. Many times, I have no idea what a design will look like until it's complete. That's where the fun is!

If you decide to give this a try and have a blog or Flickr album, post the link in the comments section of this post so everyone can see your what your doing. That will inspire others and then you'll see how inspiration is everywhere and you will see that you do have the ability to be artistic!

Source For Design Inspiration

I'm sure you've noticed that quite often, I use vintage costume jewelry in my crazy quilting. These pretty and interesting pieces are a wonderful starting point for abstract needle-art as well as an instant focal point to work around. They are also a great source of design inspiration!

While wandering around Borders bookstore earlier this week, I came across this little book on the subject:



Yes, this is the image from Amazon.com. If you're interested in this book, click here to go directly to the book listing at Amazon.

The many photographs are amazing and I'm sure you'll find great inspiration for all sorts of design possibilities with the use of thread and beads as your medium.

I'm off to get my yard ready for plants! It's a gorgeous warm & sunny here so I'm feeling the need to dig in my garden!

Being Creative vs. Being Artistic Continued.....

Yesterday, I explained the difference between what being creative means vs. what being artistic means.

Today I will share with you, stitched examples so that you can see the difference in terms of needlework.

The following embroidered peacock is an example of being creative:



I re-created a pattern from an embroidered piece in Gina's collection of vintage embroidered linens. This is not one of my original designs. I simply made a copy of the design (with Gina's permission) from a photo of the stitched piece. For all practical purposes, this is copyright infringement. We have no idea who the designer is. We do not know who the copyright owner is. We do not know when it was designed and we do not have the designers permission to make a copy for our own use or for the purpose of distributing it. Based on my own knowledge of embroidery design styles, I would say that it's from the 1940's. Well, anything from that era is still protected by copyright law.

Since my article today is not about copyright law but rather to share stitched examples to show the difference between being creative vs. being artistic in regards to needlework, I will continue on with the topic at hand.

From the pattern that I re-created from Gina's vintage linen image, I traced the design onto a piece of muslin that I myself hand-dyed:



I then embroidered it using my choice of threads which are Overdyed Floss from Needle Necessities and black DMC embroidery floss:



I embellished it a bit with some beads and some sequins to enhance the eye feathers.

This is an example of being creative. I created a stitched duplicate of the pattern. There is nothing artistic about it on my part. Yes, I chose the fabric, yes I chose the special threads and the beads but in all honesty, this is simply a duplication of someone else's artwork.

The following image is of my Bird Purse. The stitching is complete and this is most definitely an example of being artistic:



You may remember from yesterday's post that I said, "inspiration is everywhere". This piece is an excellent example of seeing inspiration in many places and using that inspiration as a starting point, expanding on it and adding much of myself and my own ideas to it.

First, I have to refer back to Sharon B. who's In A Minute Ago blog inspires me constantly! It was Sharon's beautiful and heavily embellished Unicorn block which appeared in the Winter 2002 issue of Quilting Arts magazine that inspired me to try my hand at crazy quilting. I was quite taken with the intricate stitching, the extreme amount of embellishments, the colors and the composition of the design. I was also intrigued by the free form and abstract style of crazy quilting. That was my first inspiration.

If you look closely at my embellishments, you may be able to see where some of my other inspiration came from.

The vintage bird pin for example is what inspired my color choices. I did not design nor did I create the bird. It's a vintage piece that I found at a flea market but it is the basis and focal point of this design. I simply started with the bird and using it as my inspiration, I chose my colors and I worked my art around it.

The Buttonhole stitch beneath bird was indirectly inspired by Sharon. I had attempted to learn the Palestrina Stitch which Sharon named as the TAST focus last week. Due to my frustration in not being able to get the hang of doing the knot, I opted for the Buttonhole stitch instead. That produced the look that I wanted but without the cool knot on the edge. To compensate for that, I used some seed beads.

Moving to the appliqué above the bird, I did not design the lace appliqué. I used it as a starting point to add movement. I hand-painted it, I added the sequin flowers to the centers which were inspired by Jo in NZ and then I added more beads and sequins to the vines on either side of it.

A bit more inspiration comes from Pat Winter. She does beautiful Silk Ribbon Embroidery and although I never cared much for doing that technique in the past, I am so inspired by Pat's work that I'm am now adding more of it to my work. This is not a copy of anything that Pat has done. I added my own artistic interpretation of sunflowers to this piece using the technique of SRE.

I think it's safe for me to assume now that you understand the difference between what being creative means vs. what being artistic means.

I will leave you with some words of wisdom that came from my dear husband.

If you look closely at the dragonfly charm in the top right corner of my Bird Purse design, you'll notice that one of the yellow rhinestones is missing. I didn't see that until I had the charm sewn on.

For 1/2 an hour I had a little tennis match going on in my head, should I replace it or leave it on?

Scott then reminded me of a Swallowtail Butterfly that we saw in our garden last Summer. This gorgeous creature had a slightly broken and quite tattered wing. Scott asked me if the tattered wing made the butterfly any less beautiful. I said no. He then asked me if it made the butterfly any less able to fly. I said no. Here are Scott's words of wisdom:

Sometimes nature causes imperfections on purpose, so that we notice it and stop what we're doing to focus on it's beauty.

I will be leaving the dragonfly charm as is.

That has to be one of the most profound things that my husband has ever come up with! Of course, this is the same man who woke me up 3 times from a sound sleep that night to tell me about all the available ringtones that he had to choose from for our new cellphones! Go figure!

Being Creative vs. Being Artistic

Today, I would like to talk a bit more about the "creative process". There's a huge difference between what being creative means and what being artistic means.

As I mentioned yesterday, everything begins with a thought. We think, therefore we are. Thoughts become things. Here's an example:

Imagine that you are sitting on your sofa, watching television and you suddenly feel hungry. You determine that what you would like eat is a cookie. But you don't have any cookies. So you decide to get up off of your sofa, go into the kitchen and bake a batch of cookies. You gather your ingredients, you mix them all together, you put them on baking sheets and bake them in the oven. You have just created cookies.

The thought of wanting a cookie gave you the urge to get up and make some. This is the "creative process". Every person on the planet uses this process to accomplish every thing that they do. It doesn't matter what it is.

Now, unless you decorate the cookies, there's nothing artistic about them. You created them, but they are not a work of art.

Here's another example:

You see one of my counted cross stitch designs. You determine that you really like the design and that you would like to stitch it and hang it on the wall in your house. So you purchase the design and all the supplies to make it. You follow the pattern and duplicate the design according to my chart and directions. You have just created a stitched version of my design.

Again, there is nothing artistic about duplicating a pattern exactly as it is written. You indeed created something. You created a stitched version of my design. Of my art. But it's still my artwork, not yours.

I spoke yesterday of inspiration and where it comes from. I said that it's everywhere and that we just have to open our minds and see it. Being artistic means to take that inspiration and use it as a starting point but then to elaborate on it, adding your own thoughts and ideas to it. Expanding on it. Taking it a step further.

The image of the 9 bands that I shared with you yesterday based on Sharon's trim piece is not only a visual example of "the creative process in action" but also "my artistic interpretation and expression" of the inspiration that I found in Sharon's Jewel Tone CQ block.

Do you see where I'm going with this discussion? I want you, my readers to understand the difference between being creative and being artistic. I'm assuming that many of you come here to my blog for inspiration, for my ideas and for my thoughts. But what do you do with them? Do you stitch with the intention of taking my ideas a step further? Or do you prefer to simply duplicate my patterns? If you are content with duplicating patterns, that's fine. You are creating and hopefully having fun doing so.

If you want to feel the joy of being artistic, then you have to take the ideas that I share here and add something of yourself to them. You have to breathe some of your life into them. You have to take my idea, interpret it and then expand and express yourself through it. The needle & thread is only the medium through which you express your thoughts. If you duplicate one of my designs, you are expressing my thoughts. But if you find inspiration in one of my designs, if you expand on it, adding something of yourself to it, you are then expressing your thoughts. You are then being artistic.

More tomorrow.....