wise craft

make a scrappy necklace

Here's an easy necklace to make from scraps!

 

friday favorites: little scraps of paper

 

 

 

Today I bring you creative inspiration from all directions. A while back, Jennifer, my sister-in-law and constant source of creative inspiration, sent me a link to little scraps of paper, a website full of short documentary films of artisans in their studio, working and talking about how they work. Short little jolts of inspiration in video form, any time you need it.

Everyone should have a video of themselves in their creative workspace, talking about what they do.

And I give you permission to fall down the rabbit hole today. Enjoy!

 

Happy weekend!

friendship bracelet quilt revisited

I've been wanting to play with my Friendship Bracelet quilt pattern again. Someone once asked if this pattern could be done with pre-cut jelly rolls, and after the Jelly Roll Race quilt and the Echo Star, I decided to actually try it. I thought it should work, but wanted to sew one up to be sure. Plus, this quilt is so quick to sew up, I knew it would be a relatively fast project.

winner of expressions in mixed media portrait painting ecourse

Congratulations to Tara, the winner of Regina's ecourse, who commented,

Tara said...

I am a completely self-taught artist and have thus far been terrified of figural work! I'd love the chance to take this class!
thank you...

Reply 09 March 2013 at 12:12 PM

For anyone else who is still interested in this course, Regina has generously offered a special discount for wise craft readers, $20 off be entering WISECRAFT at checkout. Thank you Regina! I can't wait to start your class!

how i now pin baste my quilt layers together on a tabletop

Thank you all so much for all the kind words on the Echo Star quilt! The quilt pattern for it is currently in work and will be available very soon, I will keep you posted. And I can't wait to see the Echo Stars you guys make!

I already mentioned wanting to try out a new way to baste my quilt layers together. After some research, I have basted 2 quilts using this "new" method and I decided to write up a tutorial for it, in case anyone else would like to try it out.

friday favorites: echo star quilt

Updated to add: The Echo Star quilt is now available as a PDF pattern here!

 

 

 

 

Sometimes making a quilt from my head is all about exploration of what looks right together, or what type of patterning might seem harmonious, really just playing with the possibilities, hoping I will like the outcome. (That was definitely the case with Sunshine Medallion.) But there are times when my mind's eye has a crystal clear vision from the very beginning of what I want the end result to be. That was the case with this quilt, Echo Star.

expressions in mixed-media portrait painting, an ecourse giveaway

Update: Giveaway is closed and winner has been chosen, thanks to all who entered!

 

You may remember my week of sketching faces on our family's sketchbook blog. They are challenging to say the least (the faces, not the family), and I need many more weeks of challenging myself this way, to say the least. I would love to learn techniques and methods to effectively sketch expressive faces. Maybe you do too? If this is you, I have a treat for you today. Regina of Creative Kismet is a prolific artist, using mixed media and incredible color to create beautiful portraits. She has a new ecourse called "Expressions in Mixed Media Portrait Painting", the act of expressing feeling, spirit, and character through artistic play and exploration starting in April. For 4 weeks, she will guide you through different mixed media materials, and methods of creating portrait faces, and will be covering a wide range of techniques in drawing, painting and use of color and texture.

echo star quilt progess

Updated 5/6/13- This quilt is now completed, and available as a PDF pattern!

Oh...this quilt.... I love it so much. What began as a painting, then became a pillow, and now this large version. It has been so incredibly nice to just hunker down and work feverishly sewing this up during the drear and drip of winter. Somehow it feels so cheerful to me.

march 2013 desktop wallpaper

Hello Monday! And whoa -hello March!

If we can't have flowers outside just yet, we can at least have flowers on our computers.

Download your desktop wallpaper here. See all past desktop wallpapers here.

Hope you all had a nice weekend. Back tomorrow with some quilt progress.

 

art doodle love giveaway winner

The winner of a copy of Art Doodle Love by Dawn DeVries Sokol is Cynthia-

Cynthia said...

This is the perfect, long , rainy weekend to read, reflect, draw, doodle, dream and write in this lovely book. Thanks for the chance!

Reply 22 February 2013 at 09:03 AM

Cynthia, please send me your mailing address (to wisecraftblog@gmail.com), the link in your comment doesn't seem to work.

Thanks to everyone who entered!