Quilting

Hi Everyone! Recently I pulled out the blocks for one of my quilts which had been stashed away for a very long time in the hope of finishing them soon. I finished this little painting using fountain pen inks, looking forward to sharing my findings with you. To wrap it all up, I have a pair of little wild flowers.

Unfinished Garden Path Quilt

Let’s start with the Garden Path quilt. I had the quilt layout design done long ago. It was inspired by the gardens I had visited in the UK. Some of those gardens really look like fairies live there.

Please click on the image thumbnails to see the pictures –

Selenite Clematis, Olivine Tulip, Kyanite Iris and Garnet Primrose

These are all 12″ flower patterns that I designed with stained glass motifs in mind.

If you are wandering about the names – I love geology and the flowers started looking very much like they were made of crystal. So, I decided to name them after my favourite minerals.

Here is the full stack of finished blocks. Only five more to make. I am hoping to finish at least two more blocks within the next two week.

A Little Experiment – Painting With Fountain Pen Ink

Fountain pens and I go a long way back. In school, from third year onwards, we were to use fountain pens only. I still remember the anticipation of getting my very first fountain pen. Since then, I have only ever used fountain pens for writing. This is a quilt block I designed based on one of my pens.

For my birthday this year, my husband gave me a fountain pen and couple of bottles of beautiful inks. I was curious to see how fountain pen ink would behave as paint, so I set out to sketch a quick painting with them.

Please click on the image thumbnails to see the pictures –

The blue ink is Pilot Iroshizuku Moonlit Night, the red is Diamine Dragon Blood Ink. Love the names. He really knows me well!

I left the ink on my palette for a few days. I was afraid that once the ink dried, it may not rewet well. To my surprise, it was as good as fresh ink with a drop or two of water.

I tried sploshing a little ink on wet paper in my little book. It spread out just like watercolour.

Although these two inks are from different companies, they mixed very well and I was able to create different shades of black, grey and purple.

The Dragon Blood ink is infused with gold coloured particles which gives it a slight shimmery effect. That part is only seen in the undiluted ink.

With watercolour, I can lift and move paint easily as long as it has not dried completely. These inks, however, would not budge at all.

I started with extremely diluted paint, and slowly built up the colour intensity by layering. The inks did not lift off when I applied the next layer. It was really easy to work with them, and I needed very little ink for this 6″ x 4″ painting.

Even the diluted colours dried with a soft but vibrant effect. I found that to be very unique to these inks.

Fountain pen inks can be quite expensive. Goulet Pen Co. sells ink samples for a very reasonable price. Jet Pens also has a very good collection.

Little Book of Dragons

This moss green journal was the very first 3″ x 4″ journal I made. The early editions of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Hobbit was bound in light green cover. As soon as I made this book, I wanted to make it a book of dragons. I am glad I waited. Now the first painting is special, made with the inks I got for my birthday and inspired by the weather on my birthday at Yosemite Valley.

Dragon And The Little Boy

This little boy can befriend dragons very easily. Not to control them mind you, but to talk to them. Dragons always have such fascinating stories to tell. While everyone else thinks he has special powers of making dragons listen to him, he would tell you that he is simply being nice to them and listening to them.

Little Wild Flowers

Last Sunday, despite my deadly pollen allergies, I hazarded a little outing on a trail. Although I paid for it dearly afterwards, I found the most beautiful flowers there. These are Golden Fairy Lanterns. I found these two tucked away beside an oak tree. More on the next Wandering Camera.

I always get asked – The quilt patterns and the journals, designed and hand made by me are available in my shop.

I think we all can use a little helping of fairy tale inspiration every now and then, don’t you?

Until next time,
-Soma

I am linking up with the linky parties on my Events And Links page. Please pay a visit to some of them.

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This is a story about Charlie’s adventure. I shared this story once before when I made the quilt top. That was so many years ago that I thought would share the story one more time, along with the finished quilt.

Charlie is my sweet little orange kitty who, contrary to everyone’s belief, has a sweet tooth that would rival anyone. He would do anything to get a lick of ice-cream, watermelon, sweetened cream, or anything else sweet you can think of.

One day, Charlie learned that on All Hallows Eve, if he puts on a wizard’s hat and a bow tie and sits very very quietly amongst the Jack-O-Lanterns, magic leaves will come and carry him to the Land of the Seven Sisters who would give him lots and lots of sweets to eat. So he came to me and asked if I would make him a hat and a bow tie. I was happy to oblige.

As the evening approached, he donned his starry hat and bow tie, smartly walked outside, sat down in the pumpkin patch and waited very patiently.

Charlie has a very bossy sister and two very clueless brothers. They all love to play with Charlie. His sister specially loves Charlie and keeps a wary eye on him at all times. Charlie excitedly told her all about his plan. She didn’t really believe him, but she was not about to let him sit outside all alone either. Who knew what peril would befall her brother! She was also not going to leave the other two out of sight, because then she would have to spend the rest of the night looking for all of them if they got lost. So the bossy sister pushed the disgruntled brothers out the door and all of them surreptitiously waited a little distance away from little Charlie as the sun sank below the horizon.

They waited and waited and waited some more. Then, when everything had gone quiet, all the kids had gone home after their Trick-Or-Treat runs and the Jack-O-Lanterns were about to go out, they heard a rustle and a swoosh. Suddenly they were off, all four of them, carried away on gigantic leaves! These were no ordinary leaves, of course! On each one of them, a different adventure awaited the little kitties. They stayed together, hopped around and rolled from leaf to leaf, played, and had amazing fun.

All this time, while they were busy playing, the leaves carried them onward and upward to the Land of the Seven Sisters. By the time the little kitties got there, they were exhausted. They sat in the midst of stars and each had their favourite food to eat while watching the Jack-O-Lantern-lit Earth turning down below. Charlie had his most favourite sweets to eat that day and nobody was going to stop him. Slowly as the night got deeper, they fell asleep on top of each other and were carried gently and silently back down to earth, down to their soft, warm beds.

I had a wonderful time drawing, creating the layout, and designing the patterns for Charlie’s Adventure. I definitely had just as much fun as my little kitties. Charlie was all right with sharing the story with all of you as long as he and his beloved Papa could have the quilt.

Now I am really glad to have finished the quilt so that they can huddle under it together and dream of sweet things.

For the most part I did wavy quilting to depict the wind that blew them all to the Land of the Seven Sisters. I didn’t want to purchase new fabric for the binding, so I used some lime green material that I happened to have at hand. Although I had originally had a purple binding in mind, I rather like this one.

One day I would love to illustrate this story for a book.

As you know, Charlie does tend to come up a lot in my stories and artwork. This is a sketch I made of him trying to climb a wall. “Trying” being the operative word.

Last week I shared a little story about how he was one of the helpers of the Winter Fairy. You can read that little story here.

Charlie sat and supervised as I wrote the story. Actually, he was trying to convince me to give him some sweet treats. He was most disappointed when that didn’t work, “Nobody at home ever gives me anything!” So he went off to bed to dream about his special All Hallows Eve adventure while snoozing with his pumpkin. Supposedly the pumpkin gives him sweet dreams.

Although he is now 17 years old, he is still the perpetual kitten of our home and continues to make us laugh with his antics. Also, much to his chagrin, he gets smothered in hugs and kisses all the time, despite loudly claiming that “he is a grown-up boy who should NOT be hugged and kissed”.

Whether you read it today for the first time, or re-read it, I do hope you enjoyed the story, even though it is out of season.

Until then,
-Soma

P.S. I always get asked – the patterns are available in my shop.

I am linking up with the linky parties on my Events And Links page. Please pay a visit to some of them. They are a fabulous bunch!

Little Stories – Fairy Tale Inspired

Unfinished Garden Path Quilt

A Little Experiment – Painting With Fountain Pen Ink

Little Book of Dragons

Dragon And The Little Boy

Little Wild Flowers

Charlie’s Adventure