Finishing Up a Visual Journal

I have been trying to put the finishing touches on a 9" x 12" visual journal that I started last year.  It is a Strathmore Visual Journal for Mixed Media. 

I used some of the printed/painted papers from the Traci Bautista Strathmore Artist's Workshop to make the front and back covers and inside covers.

Front Cover

Inside Cover and Title Page

This spread had remained half done until today when I added a lot more collage elements to make a "Spring Fever" spread.  There are more of my printed/painted/stamped papers at top. Hopefully the photo will enlarge if you click on it.

This one features a print of one of my watercolor figure paintings on the lower left and a silly painting doodle on the right.

This one is a hot mess.  Had too much stuff going on in the background, so I added some white elements (dogs and clock) and large text on vellum.  Still not crazy about it, but it looks better in real life!

I've been adding finishing touches to a few other pages.  Forgot to take pictures of the back cover and inside pages.  Next time!

Artsy Stuff

With all our travels and company this summer, I have not been very productive.  But here is a little watercolor page from my journal.

I worked from a painting by Karlyn Holman in her book Watercolor:  Fun and Free.

And yesterday I got my Marsh Sunset painting back from the framer.  It looks so great in that gold frame!  I hardly recognized it!

Here is a Peace Pole that I gave my husband for our anniversary.  It is in the rose garden at our mountain cabin.

I love the colors and whimsical designs.

Baby Quilts

Hello out there!  I'm still here.  I actually did some long-arm quilting recently!

First up is a baby quilt that a friend asked me to quilt for her.  It is what is known as a "cheater panel" because the top is actually just printed with the quilting design.

I love the colors and the Noah's Ark theme.

I decided to use swirls and curls free-motion quilting.  I try to find something in the quilt top to echo in the quilting.  In this case, both the sheep and the clouds had the curly design.

Love these little cuddly animals!

The backing is a pastel stripe.

Next is a baby quilt for our mountain neighbor's new grandson.  His father is the one for whom I recently repaired the binding on his high school graduation quilt.  The baby's nursery decor is puppies  with lots of light blue and tan.   I had the perfect top...which I did not even have to sew!  I purchased it online a couple of years ago.

This one is not a cheater cloth.  The top is actually pieced from Minkee, flannel, cotton, and some sort of soft fleece for the puppies.  But it came already assembled.  Woo hoo!

The puppies are adorable.

This quilt is so soft and cuddly!  I just did some loopy free-motion quilting since the border print had big dots.  The back is blue Minkee, and I chose not to use any batting so it would be super soft.

We have been gone so much in the past month.  We spent ten days in the mountains over the Fourth of July.

 We took the grandkids up Grandfather Mountain, about an hour's drive from our cabin.  It is famous for the mile-high swinging bridge.  Here are my hubby and I just after crossing the bridge.  It was so gusty and cold up there that I had to stop at the gift shop and buy myself a warm hooded sweatshirt.  My husband Nanook, on the other hand, was perfectly comfortable.

We all had a great time at this fun family attraction.

The next weekend we went back to the cabin, this time babysitting for our youngest grand baby.  Her parents were at a destination wedding in Mexico.  We had such a good time with little Charlie!

I have lots more to show you and will try to be more faithful about blogging.  It was kind of hard while playing with the grandkids non-stop for a couple of weeks!