Stitching My Story

Back To School Ranger Cookies...

Yippee! We are headed back to school this week. Three of us in college means a wide array of classes and books and fees and supplies and snack-needs. When it comes to classes, one or another of us will be taking the following:

Raster illustration, vector illustration, history of graphic design, creative writing, poly sci: contemporary issues, intro to astronomy, statistics, medical anthropology, and an english class that's focused entirely on anthropology. Sheesh!

When it comes to snacks, the following will do nicely:

Mix Dry: 2c. flour, 2c. oatmeal, 2c. coconut, 2c. cornflakes, 1t. salt, 1t. baking soda, 2t. baking powder 

Mix Wet: 1/2c. butter, 1/2c. shortening, 1c sugar, 1c brown sugar, 2 eggs, 1t. vanilla

Mix wet and dry together.

Drop by spoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 9-10 minutes.

Some of my Projects from Summer Typography...

 

 

(p.s. thank you for sending the poem, debbie)

Living and Breathing the Alphabet...

Whew! I just finished my typography class. I've got two weeks left on another class, then almost a month off before classes begin again. In the meantime, typographic goodness fills my life, including...

 

Letters picked up at a craft fair to mark the way home (longer lasting than bread crumbs)...

College catalogs EVERYWHERE (along with dreams of fitting in a Master's degree one day)...

The world's sweetest herb markers (made by my super talented BFF)....

And a book I picked up in celebration of my finished typography final.

Using Blind Contour Drawings as Embroidery designs...

"An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory."

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love being in school again, but I find myself CRAVING fabric, needles and thread. Funny thing is, after having been immersed in brushes and paint, drawaing pads and pencils, and a LOT of Adobe Creatvie Suite these past six months, fabric INSPRIATION has been elusive.

Today, cleaning out my school bag in preparation for summer classes (photography, typography and visual dialogue), I found a gazillion blind contour drawings-- many of them of my hands, which were unfailingly nearby when I needed something to draw. Even though these drawings are out of proportion and wonky (and maybe even BECAUSE they are), I like them! I like the freedom they represent. Nobody expects blind contour drawings to LOOK like what they are and that quiets the noisy little critic in me.

Inspiration hit! I grabbed my grubby, plain art apron and started transferring the hand drawings onto it. I find that both using a light table and drawing directly on the fabric, and using embroidery transfer paper to trace designs work quite well for this purpose. The plan is to fill the surface of the apron with these drawings and embroider them in a rainbow of colors.  My fingers feel so happy to be stitching again, and the experience was a reminder that sometimes finding one's inspiration is as simple as just BEGINNING.

Yarn Bombing and Photoshop Frustrations ....

{dear cowboy} and I took a stroll through the neighborhood yesterday evening. We were admiring all the gardens and chatting, when we came upon the above ... YARN BOMBING taken to a whole new level! This creation is wrapped around the entire tree and was held on with a purple button-- It is actually BUTTONED to the tree. Fabulous. I felt almost GIDDY the rest of the night.

On another note, I love working with with Photoshop CS5.5, but crud..... so frustrating when I just want my old simple steps for editing blog photos. I could edit in my sleep with Elements.

Fall quarter I have an entire class devoted to working with Photoshop CS5. I can't wait!

(Forgive the blurriness. My cell phone camera didn't quite capture the image the way I'd hoped.)

 

Images from Spring Quarter

In one of my classes this quarter, we started learning how to manipulate photos in Photoshop. Below are some of my altered photographs. Most of these photos were taken with the camera on my Blackberry Bold cell phone.

Warm/Cool/Complementary Baby O

Grainy Cup and Hands on Burlap Texture

Unit Two in a Garden

Linen Cloth Textured/Bordered Cup

Studio in Spring

High Contrast Baby O...

 
Garden Visitors...

Grainy Coffee Shop in Color...

Finals week.... Simplifying sounds sooooo good.

21 Small Habits That Will Help You to Live a Simpler Life.

Sneaking away from the computer and photoshop for a bit this morning to go to the gym and have coffee with friends. One big project and two portfolio turn-ins to go....

The View From My Desk Chair....

Happiness looks like this. In a round-a-bout way, a gift from dad.

Perfect for what I'm doing at school.

Notice the reflection of Syd's paintings in the screen? I love that. Even when the computer is off, it is colorful and fun to look at.

Now.... I just need to get used to all these little MAC quirks. It's like my fingers are having to learn a new computer dance!

Horizon Lines and Vanishing Points....

Linear perspective: a system for creating the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface. The system is based on a mathematically derived series of lines that intersect at a vanishing point on the horizon.

Thank goodness for a patient drawing teacher. I think it's starting to make sense!

Small Paint Sample Books

I made these little notebooks for my table-mates in my color class. Only three weeks left until the end of the quarter. Whew... seems like time just FLEW by!