Watercolor and Ink - Lavender harvest

Lavender harvest time

I love Lavender and at this time of year, it's ready to pick and harvest.  I have 3 large plants in my yard so, every year, I cut them down and leave about 1/3 or more of the plant for next year.  I have been doing this for a number of years, plus, bought even more at Lavender festivals etc.

Today, I started bundling up the plants with rubber bands.  I have a hanging rack in my garage so, I suspend them upside down, using the rubber band and hooks I have lined up.  Once the bundles are dry I rotate out old dried flower arrangements and put in the freshly dried lavender.  I never throw any of the old lavender out.  I use it in sachets, bath salts and today, I'm making a batch of carpet deodorizer.

With my oldest dried lavender, I take about 1/3 - 1/2 cup of ground up seeds and add them to about 2 plus cups of baking powder.  As you can see, I'm not using exact measurements but, I go off the scent of the lavender when determining how much to use.  If the scent is weak, I'll use more and if it's strong, less.

Once the mix is done, I put it in a mason jar.  My husband drilled holes in the lid of one a couple of years ago and it works great as a shaker.  I shake it onto the carpet and vacuum it up about 1/2 hr to 1 day later.  Scents are absorbed by the baking soda and pulled up into the vacuum.  It works great!

I also like to paint Lavender so, I have it though out the house in many forms.

First batch of fresh Lavender.  I had to stop picking it when the rain started.  I'll get the rest tomorrow

Here is a bag of my oldest dried Lavender seeds.  I put them in this coffee grinder (another great garage sale find!).  I grind it to a powder, mix it with baking soda and put in all in the shaker

One of the sachets I made.  It's an old quilt square that I just sewed around the edges.

Quilting and drawing

I finished the t-shirt quilt today.  I used diagonal lines across the quilt so each square has a quilted X in it.  I gave it a final washing to get rid of the basting lines and the basting spray.  It also shrinks the quilt a little for that lovely antique cozy look which I love.  Here is the final quilt

 I've also been working on some charcoal and graphite portraits.  I'm trying to improve my skills in that area.  I heard about a book called Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis.  The book is out of print but still available through multiple sources.  I got mine off Ebay.  It is a great book which I've slowly been absorbing but I've already seen improvement.  He also wrote a book on drawing the human body so, that may be next on my wish list!  I've mostly been practicing on faces of family and friends but I also tried one of Marilyn Monroe.  I'm not completely capturing her image but I think I'm much closer than I was 6 months ago.  I asked a fellow charcoal artist to recommend pencils because I just had some cheap stuff.  She recommended several but, I'm already familiar with the Derwent brand so, I went with that for the graphite and the General brand for charcoal.  I was so excited to see a fantastic deal on Dick Blick's art site so, I got them for a wonderful discounted price.   Here is my Marilyn picture.  I'm always open to constructive feedback if you have suggestions for me.

Assembling the quilt "sandwich"

I completed assembling the quilt sandwich which includes the quilt backing, the middle batting and the top pieced t-shirts.  For the batting, I'm using 100% cotton.  I like to use the warmer type but, still fairly thin. (It cost $27.00 at JoAnnes but wait until it goes on sale or use your coupon.  I got it on sale for 50% off and then I had an additional 20% off coupon).   If I get batting that is too fat, it's almost impossible to get it under the arm of my sewing machine.  The backing is all the same and is 100% cotton material for quilters.  It took about 4 3/4 yards to piece together the backing.  I make it slightly bigger than the top to allow for some potential shifting during the quilting process.  Some sites recommend as much as 6 inches extra on all sides but, I found that to be excessive and wasteful.  I usually do about 2 inches, more or less.

A number of years ago, I switched from pinning my layers together to spraying them with temporary quilting adhesive.  This product is made especially for that purpose.  I use the JoAnnes brand.  There is one that is more expensive but, I have always been very pleased with the JoAnnes version.  There are a few tricks that I learned along the way though

1)  You will generally need almost a full can to do a lap size quilt (a little smaller than a twin.  I would get 2 cans if you go larger than a twin.

2)  Spray in small sections!!!   If you try a spray a huge space at once, you will have a nightmare on your hands.  Spray about 24 square inches at a time.

3) Start in the middle of the quilt, spray the section then smooth the layers with your hands.  Make sure you have no bumps and wrinkles.  Once it is smooth, move onto the next section.

4) Spray the batting and either the top layer or the bottom layer.  If you start with the top layer, complete the whole thing and then flip it and do the bottom layer.  Do not attempt to spray both layers at the same time.

The spraying process takes a little time but is well worth it.  The layers stay in place while sewing and the adhesive will be washed out at the end once you complete the quilt and do the final washing.

Process of spraying at smoothing.  The bumps you see at the end will eventually be smoothed out when that section is completed.

T-shirt quilt top completed

I made my goal and finished the top of the quilt today.  It measures 60 by 86 inches.  I will have to piece the backing so, my next steps will be to calculate the yardage I will need for the back, buy the material and the batting and make the quilt "sandwich"    It's nice to make steady progress on the quilt.  I'm already thinking ahead of how I want to quilt the pieces together.  On my last t-shirt quilt, I did a free hand stitch on the machine.  I'm thinking of doing a more structured one for this one as the other one did result in some additional stretching and frustration.

T-Shirt quilt continued....

I made some more progress on the t-shirt quilt.  I bought material for the sashing which goes between each square.   I assembled all of the rows with the sashing in between them.  I lay everything out on a bed and move the squares around until a find a design that pleases me.  I then assemble the rows.  Here is the picture of where I'm at so far:

I picked a neutral gray tone which I think will look nicely with the shirts.  The backing will be a maroon.  For the next step, I will be ironing all of the seams and then I start placing the horizontal sashing strips.  This quilt is 6 squares tall and 4 across.  It's a little longer than other quilts I've made since I had plenty of t-shirts and one of the persons this is going to is tall.  My goal is to have the top completely done and the layers assembled by the end of the month.  I hope to start quilting by no later than 7/1 (if not sooner).

Watercolor paintings 5 x 7

I am working on a different size paper than what I usually do.  Most of my art work has been either in journals or ATC's.  I recently joined a group that specializes in making hand painted and hand drawn 5 x 7 pictures for trading.  So far I've done 4 of them.  I enjoy working on them for a change.  They are easier to paint with than the ATC's which can sometimes be difficult to draw with when having to do a small scale.  The four pictures I've done so far are 3 in watercolor and 1 in mixed media.  For the watercolor ones, I would like to work further on improving the intensity of my colors.  I think I may be adding to much water to the paint.  Here is what I've done so far.  I plan to stay in the group to continue to develop my skills in drawing and painting.

Progress on the t-shirt quilt

I finished step two today which was to cut out all of the t-shirts into their exact size for the quilt.  I used a square ruler to help make this easier.  All the squares are cut and prepped with the fusible interfacing.  The next step will the the sashing between the squares.  I have not purchased that yet so, a shopping trip to the fabric store is in order.  Just have to get my hands on a coupon and I'm ready to go.

24 squares ready to go

I have also worked on some artist trading cards.  Here are some of my latest:

 More to come on the quilt
Happy crafting!