I've gotten a lot of questions from family and friends about the paintings. Primarily they don't remember me drawing or painting in my past. Well this isn't a new hobby, just one I've chosen to share for the first time. All artists are critical of their work, regardless of the type of artwork most artists never see a piece as finished, or perfect. I'm no exception. Even though I may "finish" a quilt, and have the customers love it, I always see it's imperfections. That one spot where the pieces didn't line up perfectly, or where a seam didn't lay flat and there's a bulge. You learn to look past some imperfections knowing that you are the only one who is going to notice those things, or you go back and fix it because you're a perfectionist. The fact is I have learned to look past many imperfections in my cards, quilts, photographs, scrapbook pages, and various other crafts. I've never been able to do this with my paintings though. For whatever reason I am most critical of them than any other craft I do.
So even though I've been drawing, and painting since I was in high school. I'm only just now learning how to share them with others. In the past they have been trashed, given to goodwill, or family has taken them. (My sister still has 2 Mixed Media pieces I did ages ago hanging in her living room it pains me to look at, but she loves them.) I may never be able to look at a painting and truly love it, but I am beginning to see the beauty in them even if I don't always see it. So here are a few of the pieces I accomplished this past month, some are even still for sale over in the Etsy shop (click the big orange circle on the left if you're interested in seeing which ones).
In other crafting news I was finally able to complete and deliver a baby gift in the making since November. A good friend of mine got pregnant and I wanted to make a special gift for her, so I decided a personalized baby quilt was the way to go. The issue, well she and her husband decided to wait to share the baby's name until she was born. So I told her that even though she was receiving all kinds of baby shower gifts before the baby's arrival, she had to wait for mine. On December 4th Mary made her arrival and I went into quilting overdrive. I had finished the quilt top with the exception of adding Mary's name, so I added that and then sent it off to the long arm quilter since it was too large for me to quilt in my small space. The long arm quilter I use usually has a turn around of about a month so around the end of January I got notification that they had completed it and sent it back to me. I could not have been more happy when it arrived, it was perfect! I added a binding, and this past week was able to hand deliver it, something I don't get to do all that often. Everyone seemed to love it, and I'm so happy that Mary will have this quilt for years to come.
This month has already proved to be a crafty month as well as I'm trying to move back into my other crafts and let painting be for a while. Be sure if you haven't already to "like" the Facebook page for the most recent updates. <3 br="">
