Empress Wu Designs with Wilma

At Tag Tuesday the current theme is cats ... my first thought was the famous riddle.  While on my way to St. Ives, I saw a man with 7 wives. Each wife had 7 sacks. Each sack had 7 cats. Each cat had 7 kittens. Kitten, cats, sacks, wives, How many were going to St. Ives? Was that 49 cats total ?  Anyway I decided to make a Mr and Mrs  Cat tag  for the  Tag  Tuesday challenge using the colour combinations for this week in my #the100dayproject. - forest green, saffron, dusty pink  and sea foam. These are  weekly colour prompts #coloricombo, curated be artist Este MacLeod ... I think I got most of the colours into the background with a predominance of the forest green and saffron in the cats.  In case you were wondering what is the real answer to the riddle  "how many were going to St Ives?"   Answer : one , only me! 

  These were days of scarlet cheeks, candy pink and blush grey hair and mocha mushrooms!  This combination really stretched the imagination, and the first day I resorted to a pre-stamped embroidery which I think summed up the week - wandering from colour to colour, subject to subject .. ..  First came a couple of mushrooms - the background of these are machine stitched. Scraps of fabric are laid down on a base fabric and , using the decorative stitches on a sewing machine, rows and rows of stitching create the effect of a new background fabric. I often use this technique to create unique backgrounds for applique and feature stitching.  The mushrooms are raw edged appliqued onto these essentially pinky red backgrounds. Do these colours  make them fairytale like or just a bit sinister?  You might have noticed a theme of red polka dots in these little works .... that just reminded me of red cheeks, and so a series of quirky characters was born .... a party gir...

  4/#the100dayproject  What a great colour combination - some favourite greens with a touch of mustard!  Add in Payne's grey and then in my head, there was a forest.... trees, grasses, plants  After the first day  blending  some water colours, and matching  my threads. I wasn't exactly sure I might do over the next week - some leaf studies? some collages based on the bush? ....  Luckily, I have a great stash of unfinished projects. A piece of abandoned canvas with splotches of green seemed to jump out of the drawer to be used. And then there was the piece of calico which had blank ink marks - Once it was torn into strips, brightened up with a bit of water colour, the small strips, ended up making perfect tree trunks,  5/#the100dayproject  Above moss and grass, Nature marked towering tree trunks Forest colours sing.   The next few days were a bit like a Mr Squiggle challenge - making something of the  pre-made marks and splotche...

I t'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 ...