From dandelion to lotus

I took a few pictures before cutting up my dandelion quilt.
I made a very quick sketch inspired by lotus pictures taken in Japan in summer 2010. As you know, the lotus flower is an important symbol in Buddhism.
With this sketch, I just wanted to get a rough idea of the colour distribution on the new quilt. I'm even not completely sure yet of all the colours I will use, and I also want my design to get much more abstract than this.
But now, I know how to cut up the dandelion, and I'm going to do it as soon as I'm finished with this post.
Then I plan to build my piece rather freely on the design wall. I want to get away from my landscape quilts where I had to follow my sketches closely and measure almost every piece of fabric.
As a little recreation, I couldn't resist playing a few minutes on the computer with my source picture. I saved these two versions. I don't plan to use them for this quilt but they might prove useful for another one.

Grisaille

I chose a few grey pictures in my photo albums and played with them on the computer. I rather like this one, after a few filters and effects.
But I'm not sure I will go this way, because it reminds me a bit too much of my BlueWhiteBlack 12x12 piece.
I also picked these two...
I think they have potential.
I've got a few more of these, but first I want to show you what I did this afternoon. While cleaning my studio this week, I found my old tiny wooden loom. I chose some grey thread and yarn from my stash, and today, I spent a couple of hours playing...
I couldn't resist dressing up the second piece as a smiling little creature.
I've been spending a lot of time with my cute little GD these days. Does it show?

Painted paper

Some close-up pictures of painted and printed paper...
I like this one, printed with bubble wrap...
The next one is not paper. It's a digital image I created from a photo of tree foliage, but I think it goes very well with the previous picture...

News from my garden

We spent some time working in the garden these last days...
I thought the rosemary bush was going to die because of the strong frost we had last winter. But, no, it's still alive, and it's blooming now...
Myosotis (forget-me-not) are going strong as usual...
Little cornflowers are starting to grow, as are the tiny poppies, salad rockets, lettuces and tomatoes. 
And of course, the dandelions are back again, despite all my efforts to get rid of them... 
I played a bit with this last picture...

Creative Computing

At last, I'm done with my first assessment piece for my Creative Computing course....
I had to produce a digital image to be used for the cover of a sketchbook.
The image is entirely computer generated with PSP, using my seaside pictures as inspiration. I didn't have to make the sketchbook myself, but I did. The book with be used to store my favourite pictures of the sea.
Yesterday, I worked on the images I plan to use in the next module of the course (only 2 modules to go!). These are pictures I took in China last year, and sketches and prints I made from them.
When I was finished, I had some paint leftovers. So, I played a bit more with my brushes and watercolour paper...

Greetings

I had a little playtime this morning with my pictures and PSP...
and now I can wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Experimenting

I'm experimenting with my paints to see which ones are okay for printing with my new screens.
The screen I used in the next print is really my favourite up to now.
I made the screen from a picture of water reflections that I took some years ago at the marina...
I manipulated the picture with Paint Shop Pro to get a black and white image with good contrast.

Illumination

Our new theme at Twelve by Twelve is "Illumination". It was chosen by Brenda.
To me, it says buddhism, meditation, awareness...
So, yesterday, I worked on the computer with one of my new pictures. Here is one of the results...

And another one...
I also carved a few printing blocks. I have to do this for the Creative Computing Course I'm taking at DesignMatters.
One of the shapes I did is a very simple sitting buddha... I did lots of prints with this block. One of my prints is posted on the Twelve by Twelve blog.
And here's another one...
Next, I combined it with my digital images.
This is one of the pictures I've saved... I rather like it...

Droplets

This is my 12x12 water quilt. I took a picture of dew droplets some time ago in my garden. I liked it so much that I played a lot with it on my computer. For this quilt, the manipulated image was printed on banana paper. I then bonded the paper on homedyed blue green fabric. The background fabric is also homedyed. I added a few silvery beads, because they made me think of tiny droplets.
I've printed the picture and other versions of it on several different surfaces. But I didn't have time to work with them, because I was preparing my trip to China. Maybe I'll do it later.
Here's a detail of the quilt...
More pictures on the Twelve by Twelve blog. And of course all the other 12x12 quilts are there too!
And because my brain is still in Beijing, here are a few pictures of water I took there...

Droplets

I've been working on my Twelve by Twelve quilt. Our new theme is "water". I printed my manipulated picture on different materials. The first one is white cotton fabric. The next one is organza. (There's a green fabric under it for the photo.)
Next, I've printed another version of the image on cotton fabric and on banana paper.
And now, I just have to make a quilt or two with these... Mmm... a few more sleepless nights.
:-))

Digital images

I didn't have much time for sewing these last days, but I did make some progress in the Creative Computing course I'm taking at DesignMatters.
These are some of the pictures I created for the module about texture.

Take it Further

For the Take it Further challenge of March, I played with PSP and my picture of lichen. I saved this image...
and this one...
Then I remembered a picture of droplets that I took some time ago in my garden...
After a little colour play, it became this...
I think I'm going to use it for the TiF challenge, as soon as I'm finished with my Twelve by Twelve quilts.