Watercolor Pencils -

Are FUN!! - ;))

First let me clarify -

I am NOT an artist -
But I DO appreciate what they can do -
And my friends, Gene and Barbara, are always painting something AWESOME -

But I hesitate to join them - because I can't draw -
And I don't look forward to the "clean-up" part - LOL -

So - anyway -

When Barbara mentioned Watercolor Pencils a while back - HERE -
I thought MAYBE that was something that I could try -

So I ordered some stuff from Joanns - HERE -

And today - I just played -

And had FUN!! - ;))

I haven't done watercolors since I was a little kid and had the "palette" with all the colors in their little "wells" and a paintbrush or two. I have bought some "art how-to" books in the past and never got very far with any of them -

But this "kit" is pretty good - the instruction booklet is VERY basic - and goes step-by-step. It's written by Kathi Hanson - and covers several different techniques -

It also includes some practice sheets that tie into some of the "lessons" - so I pulled off the top one - and just went for it. The second photo below shows the practice drawings better than this one - but there is a flower - a birdhouse - and a leaf to "paint". The instructions actually made sense to me - and it was FUN!! -

Here's a LEFT-Handed funny for you guys -
In this RIGHT-Handed world of ours -

I did the first step on the flower -
Then grabbed what I thought was the BROWN pencil for the birdhouse -

Went to check the color "name" -

And yeah - it's BROWN - upside down - LOL - ;))

So I finished up the flower -

And the birdhouse -

And the leaf -

The birdhouse "wood-graining effect" is sort of pathetic looking -

But the shading on the flower and leaf are not bad -

Considering that I don't have a clue -

But I CAN follow instructions -

And I CAN try to copy what I see - LOL - ;))

Tomorrow I'll play some more -

And since I have to wait for some of this stuff to DRY between steps -

Maybe I can also sew some sets of strata that are all ready to go -

Or do some of those "chores" -

That flat-out refuse to do themselves - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Back step -

I decided that I didn't want the silver strip to be "dominant" -

In the Upstairs/Downstairs - Winter's Grandeur - Champagne
Robert Kaufman Winter's Grandeur - ©Studio RK -

So I unrolled the bundles -

And put the silver strips in the middle of the sets -

"Value-wise" they should be fine -

Most of them are "medium" anyway - with the exception of the white ones -

Then I sewed two sets of strata -

For the - Upstairs/Downstairs - Gleaned -
Gleaned - © Carolyn Friedlander - Robert Kaufman -

They still need to be pressed -

But before I do that -

I want to play with my new watercolor pencils -

So stay tuned - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

New stuff -

While I'm sorting stuff -

And trying to get myself organized -

I got together some other stuff to play with when I want to take a "break" -

In addition to the Gleaned - jelly roll -
Gleaned - © Carolyn Friedlander - Robert Kaufman -

All sorted - and ready to sew into strata -

I dug out another pair of jelly rolls -

Robert Kaufman Winter's Grandeur - ©Studio RK -
I got the "Champagne Duplicates" version - no longer available -

Sorted them into 8 different sets -

And rolled them up for another batch ready to sew into strata -

Then - I got some new toys from Joanns -

Canson - XL Watercolor Paper Pad - 9" x 12" -
Item 10985547 -

Learn Watercolor Pencil Techniques Now! Kit -
Item #6021059 -

Crayola 24 ct. Watercolor Pencils -
Item 12849709 -

The Kit has 6 pencils - a paint brush - pencil sharpener -

A 32 page lesson booklet and a pad of 12 practice sheets - ;))

I was inspired by my friend Barbara -

And since I have NO idea what I'm doing -

I'll just start at the beginning - ;))

I don't want to share the "how-to" -

That's not fair to the artist/author -

But I can/did link to the stuff I got -

And I can show the results -

And hopefully learn something and have fun at the same time - ;))

Then BOB wants to know where I'm going to find the time -

To play with this when I have "chores" to do -

BOB can be such a pain!! - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

A little housekeeping -

Is definitely needed around here - ;))

Most of the time I know exactly where something is -

Or where it "should be" -

I have "zones" -

And it's more than likely in the proper "zone" -

But when the "zone" gets cluttered -

It takes a while to find stuff -

And I have a bad habit of setting things aside for "later" -

Then they pile up and I need to sort them out - ;))

I like to save the scraps from a project -

And make a "memory" heart for a "someday" memory quilt -

And I like to keep all of the fabric together -

For backings/bindings/labels - until then - ;))

Since my "roll" last month -

I have project "ends" stashed everywhere -

And I need to update my UFOs/Squirrels/Projects page on my blog -

That poor thing is SO out of date - ;))

I'm going to start with these baskets -

And then these bits and pieces -

Which don't look as bad if I look at them THIS way - LOL - ;))

I really need to get a handle on all of this -

Besides -

I'm running out of baskets - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

No sewing today -

About all I got done today -

After my "chores" -

Was to roll up the sets for the strata -

That I need for the Upstairs/Downstairs - Gleaned top - ;))

I need to do some tidying up around here -

It's getting out of control -

Half of the time - I can't find what I'm looking for -

And the other half of the time - I don't bother looking -

Because I figure I won't find it anyway - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Sorting strips -

Is always fun - ;))

This was the first jelly roll -
Gleaned - © Carolyn Friedlander - Robert Kaufman -

I need five strips per strata -

So the top two in each of the five piles would be one set of strata -

The second two in each of the five piles would be the second strata -

And so on -

The last pile has the "singles" -

So I added the second roll to fix that -

And mixed them up a bit -

Then I realized that I was paying too much attention -

To spreading out the colors -

And not enough attention to the "values" of those colors -

This photo shows that the "values" are all over the place -

Do-over - LOL - ;))

Then I decided to make one pile for one set of strata -

It seemed to make more sense than the other way -

Re-do of the first four sets on the left -

And the second four sets on the right -

I swapped a couple here and there -

And this is the final grouping -

Each pile will make 2 strata - and 6 identical blocks -

Eight variations - for a total of 48 blocks -

This version may not have the same distinctive "lines" as
Upstairs/Downstairs - Meredith -

But the "value runs" should help them play together nicely -

We'll soon see - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

What if -

I made another Upstairs/Downstairs top using a different sort of jelly roll? - ;))

The Meredith - by Robert Kaufman - jelly roll -

Was a beautiful blend of PURPLE and GREEN -

And made one beautiful top -

But what if I made one using this jelly roll? -

Gleaned - © Carolyn Friedlander - Robert Kaufman -

I wonder what that would look like -

I wonder if it would look as good -

Or not - LOL - ;))

I have two rolls in my stash - so I have the 80 strips that I need -
And I can make the same 48 blocks - 6 x 8 layout - 60" x 80" -

But the number of "same" color strips is different in this set -

Some of the strips are singles - the ones in the top row -
And some of the strips are doubles - the ones in the bottom row -

I need 8 "dominant" center diagonals from each roll -

So I pulled out these four "doubles" -

Value-wise - they are some of the darker ones -

So it should work -

I doubt that it will be as beautiful as Upstairs/Downstairs - Meredith -
There's just something about PURPLE and GREEN - LOL -

But it might not be that bad and I might be pleasantly surprised -

There's really only one way to find out -

And that's to give it a try -

So that's the plan -

Let's see what this puppy is going to look like - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Webbed -

Since the corner design wall in my studio is slightly larger than 50" x 60" -

It only holds 5 columns and 6 rows of 10" blocks -

Not all 48 (6x8) - 10" blocks for Upstairs/Downstairs - Meredith - ;))

I was hoping that the extra column and rows -

Would work out "in real life" as well as they did in my head -

So after I had the columns webbed -

But before I sewed those long vertical seams -

I had to check that top right corner -

And it looked good to me - Whew! - ;))

When it was all sewn - I gave it a good pressing -

I love how the seams are so easy to press when they nest so nicely -

And then I took it to the kitchen to lay it out for its glamour shots -

Ta Dah!! -

That top right corner looks fine -

And the bottom left corner matches the top right corner -

For a nice "balance" -

The bottom right corner looks good, too -

It even looks good upside-down - LOL - ;))

Now I'm "between" projects again -

And right back where I was a couple of weeks ago -

Except that now I have one more flimsy on the Mountain To Be Quilted -

Maybe it's time to tackle that pile - LOL - ;))



Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -

Tweaking -

The layout of my Upstairs/Downstairs - Meredith top - ;))

First I tried grouping the same blocks together - diagonally -

Four for one "big block" with the other two as part of the next block -

OK - but I didn't like the big GREEN center in that one on the left -

So I moved some around -

And then some more -

I liked the strong PURPLE diagonal on this one -
But I didn't like the "rectangle" looking thing in the bottom left corner -

So I moved some more around again -

And moved the PURPLE diagonal down one row on this one -

But then I didn't like the top right corner -

So I moved some more -

And I didn't like that either -

So I moved some more -

But still didn't like that top right corner -

Then I moved some more -

And I think this is as good as it's going to get -

I have the PURPLE diagonals -
And the dark GREENs are spread out pretty well -

So I'm calling this the FINAL layout -

It will have one more column -
And two more rows -

So the final flimsy will look a bit different -
But it should be OK - ;))

Now I need to sketch out the block sequence -
And number the block sets -

Then web it together -

Maybe I can get the flimsy done for my post tomorrow -

In the meantime -

Here's another photo of my gorgeous PURPLE/LAVENDER roses -

This one is much more true in color - ;))

Talk to you later - gotta go - gotta sew -