Starting a new project

From my Estonian folk textile bible I chose a very interesting pattern. There is another wool embroidery which covers the fabric almost entirely. This one is a sleeve decoration. I use the linen towel as a background. Wonder what this will be. Hardly a towel. A cushion cover?
I love this design. It is bold and modern beyond what you expect from traditional costumes. I wonder if I will integrate all of this in my project. My vague idea is to make a bold border on each short side and a center ornament using the design in the 2nd picture.
Would you start a project without knowing what it will be in the end?
I do.
Update
The book: Eesti Rahvaroivaid and more

Preparing for vacation in a few weeks

I won't take a computer with me, and I don't think I will visit an internet café. Just as I did during my vacation in past years, I'll start an embroidery project. Among the things I got from my Mom, I found an old towel, I presume it is linen. I tried a bit to embroider it with wool. Hm. Not as regular as I was hoping, but that's the challenge of the material. I started sketching patterns from my old Estonian folk art book from 1957. My plan is to make a geometrical border and an inner border with flowers. It is a bit of a guessing game how much crewel wool of each color I should take with me. Well, if I can change my own patterns, I can meet the demand in case I run short. But maybe I can buy crewel wool in Turkey more easily and cheaper than in Germany. Women in Turkey are very skilful with crafts like crocheting and embroidery. My sisters in law had a little case with a glass window where they kept their collection of head scarves with crocheted and seed bead embellished edges.

Sketchophrenia

Who am I? This one or the other? How can these different things spring from one brain? One from each half?

I guess I should give each of my multiple artist personalities a different name and publish separately what each one does.

Painting like mad...

... but nothing really innovative. On the other hand it is so wonderful to paint these vintage patterns. I feel that drawing and painting spirals and stylized vegetable forms is kind of soothing, it puts my mind into a state of dream. I paint late at night, listening to jazz, never growing tired... J says, "don't stay up too long", I say, I won't, and then I switch off my light at midnight.

New method

I guess it is time for a little shift in style. The palette is limited on 7 colors: Chili, vanilla, mint, eggplant violet, clay, deep sky, stone grey. Most of it is handpainted with gouache. Digitally finished. Inspired by modern classics like Paul Klee. The panel on a fat quarter: here
One of my readers wrote to me that she wasn't able to send a comment. If this happens to you, please let me know, I'll ask Blogger to fix it.

Surprisingly popular

So this is what you see on position 3 in the Spoonflower shop, and so it has been for a couple of days. "What's hot" -- obviously also this one. A--ha.

Thank you for putting orders for the fabric or marking it as a favourite!

It is so tempting to upload one design after another, but in order to have my design in the shop, I have to order my own fabric first, for at least 5$; for every order of my fabrics, I get 10% margin. This means that I have to sell 3 yards of one design to make my investment return.

That's why I'm grateful to know your opinion.

What do you think? Should I offer the darker version of the design as well?

Walking through Eppendorf (Where the Buffalo Roam)

A golden buffalo skull! This was one of the things we saw on our walk through one of the beautiful and interesting parts of our town. It was J's day off because he had to work on Saturday.
A gilding shop, frames and art objects. The owner saw me taking a photo of the buffalo skull and asked me what I was taking the picture for. I said that it is for my blog, and gave her my card. There is a copyright on her art objects. We had a very nice chat about art&craft.

Lots of lovely design objects are in the shops, sophisticated and whimsical art. There are romantic places that you would not expect in a 1-mile-distance from the center. There are street cafés where you can have a Portuguese coffee or a meal, we were lucky, the sun came out. At last.
The weather was cold and unpleasant until this weekend when we could start sitting outdoors. A very late spring. More pictures from our walk in my little galery.

Finished at last

It took me months to do this quilt. Not a new experience for all hand quilters; but I was getting so yarn bored with quilting the reverse. And the rayon backing fabric caused some problems, being so slippery that it was hardly ready to stay where I wanted it to be. This is my second quilt with a binding and the first one with a batting. Now that I won the battle, I'm rather proud and looking forward to give it to my husband tonight, almost six months after his birthday for which this was meant to be a present. I hope it will give him a pleasant and deep sleep.

the next generation

7 new designs have arrived from Spoonflower. They have been available for a few days already. It is fun to see one's fabrics printed.
It is so much more "art" to print by hand; and I made a few attempts to do so. But the paints I used make the prints look raggy and dirty. I find this rather unpleasant; and the things I made do not really look attractive.
That's why I made another version of the "chickenshack". If you compare with the hand printed version, the latter may have the charm of a typical hand print; but often, I am not satisfied with the quality of my prints, whereas with a hand painted matrix I don't have the problem. Of course, I think of trying something rougher, less refined. My first attempts were rather conservative, but I don't feel like running with the pack by making modern design as it is mainstream now.
The yellow chickenshack fabric will be for sale in a few days.

Not enough Floral Fabrics?

I'm so much into florals. Although there might be enough of this kind on the planet already. Are there enough? What do you think? And what direction would you like to be more on the market: Modern? Vintage? Nostalgic? I'm grateful if you bother to let me know.



Replies:
Jude, a good idea. I did it, uploaded to Spoonflower. -- Eileen, this reminds me of the cathedral of Tomar in Portugal where they have belts and chains and ropes within the stone carved ornaments around the windows.
-- Esther, my work is not to replace quilting, but to support it! My intention is to serve quilters.

Another Harbour birthday

Normally, I'm not a lover of great masses of people; I rather feel uneasy in the flock. But today I suggested to J that we should take a walk to the harbour and see the historical boats and have lunch there. We had a wonderful grilled salmon in a very traditional Portuguese restaurant in a side street, 5 min. away from the water. 13$ for the fish -- and it was a huge piece. Then we walked back to the harbour. You see a Russian boat on the right, a replica of a 1706 ship. I'll make a little galery to show you all the pictures. I came home with a traditional fishers' shirt in which -- as I see now -- I look terribly fat. But it is tradition. It feels good.




Update: Galery is added.

I promised I would

The other day, I saw gorgeous indigos on Wanda's blog. I knew I would have to use the flower motif. The way I did is hopefully so different that it cannot be called theft anymore; I try to give at least as much as I take.
It is a shame I have to wait so long until I can offer them for sale, but that's the rule.
Any day, the next samples may arrive. But they can be ordered right now.

These patterns are for sale now in my Spoonflower shop:

Tallinn Galery

Recently, I was lucky to sell this small picture to a person whom I greatly admire and who keeps inspiring art quilters all over the world: Jude Hill. Some of her readers showed interest in the place the picture shows, so I add a galery for your pleasure:
A Tallinn galery for all the lovers of romantic places in Old Europe.
The name of the place seems to come from "Taani Linn", which means "Danish Castle".

Und hier eine kleine Website in Deutsch.

Sunday in the Outback

If you take a ride to the southwest of Hamburg, you see the mighty levees of the Elbe river. People take walks on them when the weather is fine.
Right in this rural idyll is the town Stade where my PIL live.
After having lunch with my parents in law and a nice time sitting in the sun, we went to the center of the place and saw an exhibition of excellent modern art. German modern classics like Emil Nolde and other "Die Bruecke" artists were there, but also Klee, Baumeister, Edvard Munch. Most of this collection were graphic arts like woodcuts, drawings, watercolor or etchings. One absolutely magic little painting by Max Ernst, "L'oiseau nocturne". Taking pictures was strictly forbidden. Sorry. But at least, the wonderful old house can be seen in this galery.

After this visit, we took a walk through this lovely romantic town. My husband grew up here; he knows every cobblestone.

This is the oldest still existing gym in Germany from 1860, from the early years of sports movement. It is being renovated now. The door was open; a lady invited us in, and there was a guy who explained that it was used as a culture center even now in half-renovated state as means of fundraising for the coming work.

We returned to my husband's parents and enjoyed the sunny afternoon in the lanai.





On our way home, we stopped to take a look on the river. It was windy -- northeast -- and so cold! We hurried back to the car. It was almost 8 p.m. when this photo was taken.

The production is going on

I could write "new design" on most or all of my postings, ideas are coming to my head in violent violets and raging reds, moody mauves and marons. Hope it is not too heavy, definitely autumnal (funny!) or whatever reasons there might be to discard it again. I think of combining florals and geometrics in the same color combination. As the colors seemed too heavy, I tried another set. Haven't uploaded them to Spoonflower yet, because I have to work a little more on them.


J is having a vacation week now. He deserves it! He was working so hard since November. In a new job, you feel under observation. In Germany, we have 3-6 months trial time before anyone will get a firm contract. This is because the law makes it difficult to sack people, it is almost like being married; so the companies demand this condition.
Now, this kind of engagement is over, and he can relax for a week. If he is not asleep, he keeps me busy.
This means that I'm on duty for a week (haha).