Ready, Steady, Go ...1,2, 3

It's that time of the year again when I participate in the global art challenge #the100dayproject .... I have done this for the last five years and I love doing it. Sometimes, the idea of creating something for 100 consecutive days just seems ridiculous, but I've learnt over the years not to do something too ambitious, and to have an idea or theme which is entirely achievable. Today it all seems easy - it is only Day 3.

This year, 2024, I have decided to follow colour prompts curated by artist, EsteMacLeod. - Este publishes these colour palettes each week, and I thought using these means that half the work is already done. My 100 day project will be then to make responses to these prompts and work on each palette for a week for the duration.

1/ #100daysofcolourcombo - Bubblegum Cat

Day 1 Bubblegum Cat .... a Laurel Burch print , overstitched in bubblegum coloured thread. This particular technique follows these steps:

- stitch around the shape ( two pieces of fabric together)

- make a slit in the back of the figure, through the one layer of fabric only

- stuff the figure being careful to fill the extreme points

(I use wool stuffing, but polyfill is fine)

- cut carefully leaving a small seam around the edge of the figure

- paint the border of fabric beyond the stitched outline - front and back). (I painted the lighter colour first, and then painted stripes in black paint) . Acrylic paint is fine.

2/ #100daysofcolourcombo : Bubblegum Landscape Dreams

Day 2 : Bubblegum Landscape Dreams is a collage using recycled paper and postage stamps ... Apologies to all the philatelists - I was given a set of 4 Van Gogh [postage stamps and have kept them in my stash for years until yhesterday - I found a use.... the burnt orange and egg yolk colours were irresistible. The theme of people looking through windows is common in my work.... that's an interesting observation in itself - I wonder if this can be interpreted to have a deeper meaning, as in dream analysis. The background fantasy forest is a stitched magazine cover.

Day 3 : Bubblegum Celebration is an explosive circle of colour comprising more circles.... they are raw edge appliqued and reverse appliqued in the colours of the palette. As I was teaching a friend to free motion machine stitch, I extended my demonstration of the technique to make this sample. I have mounted it into a square greeting card and think it would be suitable for an happy occasion or wild event! All these fabrics were in my scrap tin, so they have been rescued from landfill. There is no special meaning here, just a celebration of colour!

What have I learnt over the last 3 days :

1. Setting some time aside each day is still a challenge

2. Working with set colours can be very restricting

3. Working outside my comfort zone of colours was quite a lot of fun.

4. Process not perfection counts!

Please follow my 100 day artful journey with me - here on this blog, or for a daily fix on my Instagram page.

"Temari Or Not Temari?" Tutorial

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There are many songs about fruit cakes - not all of them referring to the Christmas cake we know and love.It is really surprising to learn via Google that there are 89 listed songs with references to Christmas cake or fruit cake - not all of them complimentary. Probably one of the most famous folk songs about Christmas cake is Miss Fogarty's Christmas Cake (a favourite sung by The Irish Rovers). This first recorded comical Christmas song was written by C Frank Horn in 1883 in Pennsylania, as a variation of an Irish folk song, 'Miss Mulligan's Christmas Cake' . The chorus might give you the hint that Miss Fogarty's cake was not for the faint hearted or those who suffered from a weak stomach. Chorus : There were plums and prunes and cherries, There were citrons and raisins and cinnamon, too There was nutmeg, cloves and berries And a crust that was nailed on with glue There were caraway seeds in abundance Such that...

Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

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