145 – Stitched, Ironed and Ready To Return
A lot of free-motion stitching has been done using my mid-arm Handi-Quilter Sweet 16 machine. I’ve put in the details, like smoke…
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144 – Now Showing
In previous posts, (136 and 137) I became aware of a design flaw so I cut out and replaced what bothered me….
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143 – Off The Wall
I’ve made decisions about how the ground on the left side of the quilt will connect with the middle and the right…
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142 – Toxic Spill
Progress is being made on big Fear Quilt, despite interruptions mentioned previously. Anyone who has tried to keep a blog going consistently…
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141 – Chaos
Chaos! Best description for the past several months. More on that later. Chaos is the word I chose as the graffiti that…
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140 – Laying The Groundwork
The sky has been composed above the “Not Yet Dead” attraction. Now to lay the groundwork. Again, I must keep in mind…
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139 – Good Thing I Like Blue
It’s a good thing I like blue and have so many to choose from! Of course, there was that recent trip to…
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138 – The Missing Selvedge
These are selvedges – printed identifying marks found on the edge of fabric. Nifty looking artifacts that might be useful in some…
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137 – Just Cut It Out
Precious creations are dangerous. Becoming attached to what you’ve made, either because of the look of it or because of knowing what…
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136 – Tangent Awareness Day
Every budding artist should observe Tangent Awareness Day! The ability to spot this space killing compositional flaw will improve one’s art immensely…
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135 – Threading The Needle
Tweezers are my best friend for threading a needle! I’ve gotten so used to tweezers for holding the thread close to the…
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134 – Spool Party: stitched fabric collage
How about diving into a little bit about thread? Do I have loyalty to any brand of thread? No, but I do…
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133- Sewing Begins!
Thanks for your patience in awaiting an update on how the big Fear quilt is going. I switched gears from collaging fabric…
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132 – Fun House Mirrors
I posted quite a mess of a picture a few days ago, and I wondered if anyone could guess what it was…
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131 – Can You Guess What This Mess Is?
Have you guessed what the mess in the photo is? Doesn’t look that great now, but keep watching. I am teasing you…
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130 – The Devil is in the Details
I’ve made graffiti artists in my fabric collage art quilt who were going to be spray painting on a mural, but now…
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129 – Struggles With The Man
I’ve been hard at work, and near the give-it-up point. But I achieved what I wanted despite the struggle. I won’t needlessly…
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128 – A Dog Comes To Life!
A dog came to life! It will be snapping at a child’s cotton candy, so it had to be menacing. I cut…
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127 – Suggest Motion
A gesture, a head turned in a certain direction, or the suggestion of movement can “activate” a scene. When adding a person,…
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126 – Stepping Off The Path
Now that I’ve created some people for my amusement park scene, I returned to work on the buildings. I had been thinking…
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125 – Two Bad Boys
Two bad boys are about to come to life. This should be fun! First, a hunt through Google images to find two...
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oops!
I just sent out a post that wasn't ready for prime time! No worries, that post will be sent out in the...
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124 – She’s A Character!
I do love when my fabric characters come to life! This sassy lady is someone I could easily envision on the Seaside…
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123- Not Dead Yet
Amusement parks have some fantastic signage, especially lit up at night! My scene is viewed during daylight, so no glowing neon here,…
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122 – Here’s What I’ve Got
You’ve seen many posts with unconnected sections, so thought you might enjoy seeing what I’ve got so far for the amusement style…
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121- Proportional Scale
Please excuse me if you are seeing a second copy of this post. I’ve been doing some website revisions, so this post…
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120 – Passive Observer
The amusement park dark ride that I’ve been working on has a large open front where people can get into the vehicles…
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119 – Tiny Pieces
A wheelchair is a complicated form. There won’t be an easy way to represent one in fabric. I’ll make my best go…
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118 – Fabric Palette
Even though I buy fabric in the smallest possible amount, usually ¼ of a yard, I still manage to support the local…
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117 – For Position Only!
What do you do when faced with a difficult step of a project? Get right in there? Or waffle around a little,…
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116- Step Up, Look Lively!
Art mannequins – we’ve all seen them, and you’ve got to admit, they look a bit wooden. I’ve never thought they were…
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115 – Please Wait…
…ase wait for assistance…please wait for assistance…please wa An endless digital sign implores you to wait for assistance – important signage for…
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114 – Taking Shape
The “dark ride” building is a large structure and I need to take care that the architecture doesn’t overwhelm the purpose of…
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113 – Big Blocks of Color
Big blocks of color are a fun change of pace from the tiny details I’ve been focusing on. As a painter might…
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112 – Tickets, Please
I’m liking this group of people! I know my fabric collage people are working well when I think of them as characters…
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111 – Templates and Logical Layering
Freezer paper templates serve as a way of getting the shapes and sizes mostly correct, although sometimes I vary from them as…
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109 – Ta-Dah!
Bet you’ve been curious as to how the separate elements of my amusement park scene will look together. Pinning the pieces to…
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108 – From The Mouth Of A Snake
A smaller snake slide is a fine idea, but now to make it real. Usually, I don’t number my templates, but it…
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107 – Drawing Too Many Snakes!
I spent quite a bit of time drawing and revising the idea of a snake slide as a feature in my amusement…
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106 – Steps of Instruction
My imagery of a funhouse with a rolling barrel entrance perfectly represents the inviting rabbit hole of the internet, but this amusement…
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105 – Nailing the Roof
Does the house top seem familiar? I modeled it after “American Gothic,” an iconic painting by Grant Wood that has often been…
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104 – Eyes Above
Above the swirling vortex/black hole/rolling barrel entrance to the funhouse of my quilt, I would like to have some eyes. This part…
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103 – Vortex People
Excited to make my first people for this quilt. Upon starting this project, I challenged myself to improve both drawing skills and…
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102 – Going in Circles
A swirling vortex will be inside the rolling barrel entrance to a funhouse in my quilt. At first, I thought to use…
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101 – Imaginative Play
I love how the trap came out so far. I’ll eventually talk about the collage process in more detail, but there’s plenty…
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100 – How Good is Your Color Memory?
My color memory is such that I can go to a fabric store and quite accurately remember the colors and patterns that…
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99 – Putting Reference Images into Place
Now I put my collection of reference images to work. Using the magic of Photoshop Elements, I make a quick photo collage…
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98 – Reference Images for Translation
Reference images are crucial for translating a line drawing into a realistic art quilt. With my intended plan for a 3’ high…
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97 – Rolling Along
I have three remaining feet of drawing to trace onto muslin. I taped foam core board to the wall as a temporary…
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96 – The Tracing Begins
A little struggle ensued between me and the 11’ long drawing, but we finally came to an agreement. The horizon line needed…
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95 – Let Me Get This Straight…
This design wall is made of two 4’ x 8’ Styrofoam panels covered with flannel. I won’t be able to work on…
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94 – I Spy a Camera in the Window
My studio overhead camera set-up is not set back far enough to capture the width of quilt area that I’ll be working…
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93 – Moving Along
My thoughtful husband put an overhead camera set-up on my studio ceiling. My work takes a long time to go together, so…
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92 – The Next Stage Begins!
I ordered a full-size enlargement from Staples Copy department and had it shipped to me as I’m not going anywhere to avoid…
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91 – Going Big!
My next quilt will be 3’ high x 11’ length. Truly a commitment, especially with the level of detail that is typical…
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90 – Quilting Fear
Intimidation by size of project and social media hesitation will not stop the forward progress of Susan Polansky’s art quilt.
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89 – Big Bang
Impact! Oversized “Flying Pins” by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen yell out and demand a look. This site sculpture wouldn’t be…
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88 – Giving thanks
I depart from my usual arty posts to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to all! I cooked up a feast for my social-bubble…
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87 – Primary focus
If I were looking straight ahead, my primary field of vision would be the blue area. I colored these areas to remind…
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86 – Coloring fun
Just for the fun of it, I colored in a bit of a drawing. I really don’t know how to “paint” on…
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85 – I want it all
I’m working on the center section, what will be behind the girl with the balloon, trying to figure out how to get…
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84 – Ditch the Snake?
I spent oodles of time on drawing a snake slide, but in this version, I’ve ditched it completely, and, well, I like…
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83 – Spot the difference
These two drawings remind me of spot-the-difference cartoons that always captivated me! There are many of the elements that I have shown…
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82 – How’s it looking?
I’ve got a lot packed into this, but I can’t say that I’m happy with it. There is no flow in the…
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81 – Kneading it to go away
You might be wondering what the silver thing is that is often on my drawings. It’s one of my favorite drawing, or…
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80 – Barrel of fun
Back to using the background grid and drawing boxes to figure out how a barrel would look lying on it’s side. Because…
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79 – Ruinous ruffians ruin ruins
Versions of what will be to the left of the girl with(out) the balloon. I liked the idea of a dog pulling…
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78 – Beginning to see everything clearly
My balloon people will be in the front of my story, so they will be a bit larger than some of the…
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77 – Of course you can have cotton candy
Here is another opportunity to have everything count – I could have both child and adult reaching up to the escaping balloon,…
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76 – I’ll never get it back
The loss of a balloon is another idea that has been floating around my imagination. Child loses cheerful balloon, adult reaching but…
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75 – Gotta get my hands on some fabric!
The amusement park is taking shape! I can start seeing colors in my head. After so much drawing I am really itching…
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74 – Cap / guns
I’ve drawn a shooting gallery in my amusement park and now I’m working on characters that are passing by, a man with…
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73 – Will they make the cut?
I like the idea of two people pointing and laughing at the bottom of the slide. I think it’s clearer that they…
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72 – Sizing up a bully
How do I know how large to draw a figure? It’s back to boxes and the perspective grid. At the start of…
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71 – Look hard enough and it will be found
Different versions of the same idea. Haven’t settled on the size or placement of the snake slide, but I’m figuring that if…
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70 – Re-appearing images
Colors! Paint! Creative Play! Oh the fun of being in my studio! My artistic life allows escape from current events, but I…
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69 – It’s not funny
I’ve got some idea of my snake slide drawn, so now what happens? I recall being slightly dizzy at the exit of…
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68 – The muscle memory of drawing
My husband will repeat a tennis shot over and over to get the correct form into his muscle memory. While I wouldn’t…
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67 – Bottled up meaning
I’m still on the subject of drinking and playing with how it will fit into my grand scheme of a plan for…
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66 – Fangs and functionality
This slide functionally works. It’s size or something isn’t quite right, but good enough for now. I am pleased with the person…
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65 – Ouch!
2 AM: Startled awake with a WTF moment! Last post I claimed to be getting better at recognizing errors with perspective. Yeah,…
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64 – Playing with boxes
WHEN DRAWING IS DIFFICULT, GO BACK TO BOXES! The snake slide that I envision is a tough thing to draw. Not only…
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63 – Making my recycle bin overflow
Man, I can really relate to this quote from Chuck Dixon, “Every artist has thousands of bad drawings in them and the…
Creative Chrysalis
62 – Re-thinking snake oil
Bottle…drinking…downward slide – connects in my mind to: insidious poison, sneaking, slithering, evil snake oil. But, snakes and alcohol are not all…
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61 – Sitting ducks
I don’t want to say directly “shooting at people” but I do want to make this suggestion with a shooting gallery. I’ve…
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60 – Same, but different
I continue to work out how my theme park will look by sketching out slightly different versions. One of my earliest sketches…
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59 – Something more to add
I think I will add some giant murals to the sides of the funhouse/amusement buildings. They have to be done in a…
Creative Chrysalis
58 – Promise of fun
Frantic, flashing lights, colorful neon, bold graphics!, A promise of fun and excitement, luring people to spend money and wait on lines….
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57 – It will be a quilt!
You’ve seen a lot of drawing, but have I mentioned that I intend to make the final piece of this project out…
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56 – Wandering through the funhouse
A tighter sketch with some different additions – a menacing animal beyond the mouse hole reaching out its paw. Maybe a jail-like…
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55 – Did you ever play Mousetrap?
Background ideas are formulating. I like the Mousetrap game’s ladder and basket and the diving board person. They kind of just found…
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54 – Beware the whirlpool
The rolling barrel entrance to a funhouse began with my thoughts on getting sucked into the internet, how I’m drawn into a…
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53 – What’s your position on this?
Position alters perspective, even more so when the type of perspective is distorted. Re-locating where an “attraction” is in my theme park…
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52 – Finding your center
A lot of geometry going on here. it will be no easy thing to draw a funhouse entrance barrel convincingly. It is…
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51 – Thoughts on fire
Detail added to the gingerbread house, adding some people and the Food Court signage. One of my biggest fears is fire, so…
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50 – backdrop? More like gumdrop
Planning stage for some other buildings has started. A gingerbread house would be tasty – not only for its colorful appeal, but…
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49 – Taking the paper training wheels off
I’m using a grid behind tracing paper for my drawings now. Newsprint was for quick sketches. Now I want to have a…
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48 – Eye see!
Here’s some crucial info that completely escaped me until lately: People of similar heights standing on flat ground, arranged from closest to…
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47 – 7.5 heads are better than one
The size of a human figure is often shown in “heads”. Height: 7 ½ heads, Width: 2 heads, Arm length: 3 ¾…