JOOT

watercolors and patterns

2011-06-05T13:39:00.003-04:00

Lately, I've been inspired by the work of Alisa Burke. She is an artist that utilizes watercolors, markers, fabric, pencils, pattern, and graffiti to create stunning works of art. She is listed under my blog roll if you want to see any of her work. With her inspiration in mind, I created this during the moments I needed to stop packing! It's called "in the garden."

I think with some digital editing this watercolor could create a unique piece of fabric for quilting. What do you think?

Watercolor carrying case

2011-05-29T16:15:00.004-04:00

The dilemma!! Haha! I'm packing to move and will soon be taking a 7-10 day road trip across the US. We will stop at many beautiful places so I wanted a way to carry some extra paints with me.

The inspiration -- my old watercolor carrying case (with not enough colors available)

I've been reading lots of tutorials all over the web about converting Altoid boxes into miniature paint carrying cases. If you want to read about other carrying cases, just google "Altoid box watercolor carrying case."

Some of the colors I would like to have with me, but I don't want to carry a palette and this whole box. Space is a premium in our little car with four people and a dog!!

All done!! 6 more colors -- Yay!! I just pushed Sculpey clay into the bottom and made miniature indentations into the clay with back of a pen. I baked it at 275 degrees for 15 minutes. When the box was cool, I added my new colors.

As you may or may not know, we live on the outskirts of Philadelphia (well for the next 12 days we do).

During a recent trip to the Philadelphia Zoo, I spotted these doors. I want to make these for my dream home someday -- check out the handles.

A perfectly bonsai'd Moutain Laurel in Wissahickon Valley Park

A beautiful old home in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia.

My backyard Eden is a website that allows people to post all their handmade projects. If you want to check out all kinds of neat new DIY projects, click on the link below.

new and old

2011-05-27T09:53:00.000-04:00

A new quilt -- the perfect size for a picnic. This quilt was an attempt to use up most of my fabric. I am moving in two weeks, and would rather move the fabric as a quilt, than in boxes. I didn't buy any fabric for this quilt.

The back of the quilt

A new sketchbook page -- playing around with watercolor washes, markers, gouache, and yarn.

An oil painting from when I was 18.

Stained glass stars I made two years ago.

2011-04-23T18:19:00.001-04:00

A painting for my friend's birthday. I actually painted two, but the second picture was too dark.

2011-04-11T08:40:00.001-04:00

I made my sister five owls for her birthday. This is the picture she sent me of them hanging in her room.

design seeds: leafy hues

2011-03-24T14:24:00.002-04:00

Design seeds is an amazing blog for choosing color schemes. Check it out if your looking for some inspiration!

design seeds: leafy hues:

new sketchbook pages

2011-02-26T11:08:00.000-05:00

the lighting for these pictures wasn't too great -- another cloudy day!

Is there a theme here?

2011-02-24T16:03:00.004-05:00

A new friend I made at the thrift store. He was marked down to 50 cents because he has a little chip on his ear. It was a very sad story.

My most favorite pencil holder. Another 50 cent find

My sister wanted owls for her birthday -- unfortunately, he didn't have his beak when this picture was taken. I guess he's speechless

I don't have anything to say about this

I was watching the show Portlandia last week. They did this one skit called "put a bird on it." Basically, everything the two actors came across they stuck a little paper cut out of birds on. It was really funny and so true for the modern crafters -- believe me as you can tell from above, I am completely guilty of this. Maybe I need to 'put a fish on it', or a hedgehog or a cucumber or something.

Some new elephants -- the elephants across the bottom row are starting to move towards a henna theme. I think that they work much better.

Elephants, elephants everywhere I look

2011-01-02T11:45:00.000-05:00

Finally

2010-12-28T21:00:00.002-05:00

I'm going to start posting again! Look for a new post this week.

new stained glass piece

2010-05-07T15:41:00.001-04:00

new stained glass piece, originally uploaded by handmadejoot.

My stained glass studio time ended two weeks ago -- this is my very last piece. Hopefully, in the near future, I will have a studio space I can cover in little shards of dangerous glass. Somewhere, my kids know to beware of - "this mommy's space." I'm going to miss working with glass all the time....

new projects

2010-04-17T11:38:00.001-04:00

Drake went to a birthday party at a - paint your own pottery - shop. I think the dog he painted looks just like our border collie.

One of my friend's birthday was in March. She has wanted me to make her a market bag for a while from an original pattern created by me. I have been making these bags as gifts for about 6 months, and now use my bag as a purse. I have almost eliminated my need for plastic bags when I go shopping. It holds so much stuff and I think my bag is really stylish. The bag I made for myself uses completely different fabrics, I'll post pictures of it one day soon.

Last summer, I was walking a couple of Jack Russell Terriers when I spotted a table of free items in someones front yard. It appeared that the person disposing of all the free items had traveled all over the world and found all kinds of neat knickknacks that didn't look so great in their living room in America. I got two glass bottles from Spain, a puppet from Mexico, a throw pillow cover from China, and this whale from ?. I have always liked the drawings of killer whales from the Pacific Northwest tribes. I have begun painting this whale in that manner.

the very beginning of a tribal whale using oil paint

the inspiration for my whale

Thanks for reading!

stained glass owl

2010-04-17T11:18:00.001-04:00

stained glass owl, originally uploaded by handmadejoot.

I finished my stained glass owl from this post http://jootjoot.blogspot.com/2010/02/my-week-in-pictures.html

I hope the birds at my feeder aren't afraid of him!

New Font

2010-04-09T13:37:00.004-04:00

I was looking on www.searchfreefonts.com and came across one I really liked. I think I could use this one on a t-shirt or even a gardening poster. Maybe something for a child's room.... The font is called 101 my yard. If you have any questions about how to install the fonts on your computer, just ask me.

live nesting owl camera with baby owlets

2010-03-24T10:18:00.004-04:00

http://www.sportsmansparadiseonline.com/Live_Owl_Nest_Box_Cam.html

If you have time, watch this. It's very soothing and cute.

Nice Things To Do

2010-03-17T11:02:00.000-04:00

--listen to the birds
--drink coffee and read a book

--sew hexagons for a quilt -- it will take me approximately 3 years to sew enough!
--cook a long, vegetarian complicated meal with fresh bread
--listen my kids tell stories about their dreams
--meet new people
--watch lots of Jon Stewart clips
--sit outside in the sun with my eyes closed

--talk to my husband about politics (watch any Michael Moore movie)
--cut stained glass for a new project
--plant seedlings in warm, moist soil
--reminisce
--cuddle with a pet
--sit by a river

More circle quilt blocks

2010-03-13T14:37:00.001-05:00

Today I made a couple more circle quilt blocks. I fussy cut an owl block then made the block using this tutorial. I, also, finally made a block out of an embroidered worm I made a while back.

Spring Break!

2010-03-10T09:24:00.002-05:00

Today we are off to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. It will be great to be outside for a bit spending time with my two little boys.

Sketching

2010-03-05T12:15:00.003-05:00

It seems like I have had the flu forever! I'm slowly starting to creep out of the funk... In the meantime, I've been trying to take 30 minutes a day to sketch something new. Ideally, I would like to complete my still life sketch (required in all art portfolios for entering school) within the next two weeks. I keep on putting off the still life sketch -- it sounds so boring! These are my first 3 sketches.....

-- have a nice day!

My dog

2010-02-24T21:21:00.003-05:00

Ummm, how cute is my dog?

She's a very pretty border collie mix who just finished a bath.

One block wonder quilts

2010-02-24T09:41:00.000-05:00

Since I am moving across the country in 3 months, buying books, fabrics, or anything really is not going to be very wise. I can still dream of buying fabric and books and starting a new beautiful quilt. Maybe in my next house I will actually have a studio space instead of dragging my sewing machine around my house so I have room to sew. This is the book I am dreaming about right now.

The quilts: (from flickr)

Joy Pelzmann one block wonder

Mary's One Block Wonder

Kaleioflower by Cindy Wilson

Marie's Quilt

WOW!!! I am dreaming of making one of these! The one block wonder is made from a single piece of fabric! Let me say that again - you only have to buy one piece of fabric to make these quilts. I couldn't believe it. I guess there is a lot of waste fabric because of how you have to cut the fabric, but from the looks of it, it is completely worth it. Plus, I always need new fabric for my stash! I finished my paintbox quilt this week -- I really need to take some pictures of it now. I, also, made two stained glass stars. I must take pictures!!!!!

My week in pictures

2010-02-12T15:51:00.003-05:00

thrift store find

lots of snow - the kids were home from school

finished my quilt top

the pieces for the back of the quilt

I've been wanting to try string quilting so I made a change purse

the inside of the change purse

my stained glass piece I need to solder

Tutorial: a technique for circle quilt blocks (non-applique)

2010-02-12T15:46:00.018-05:00

The materials you need are shown below; a rotary cutter, ruler, and cutting mat would also come in handy. The square on the right was made with this tutorial.

Glue stick, scissor, paper, fabric, circle template. Choose two contrasting fabrics for this project. I prefer card stock paper so it can be re-used, but normal weight paper would work as well.

1. Cut your paper and your background fabric the same size - I chose to make 7" squares for both.

2. Trace a circle on your paper. Center your circle as much as possible. Cut out the circle.

3. Put a dab of glue at each corner of your paper. Sorry about the horrible picture.

4. Place your fabric on the paper (right side up) and pin at each corner. The glue and the pins should hold it in place.

5. Cut out the interior of your circle leaving at least 1/2" from the edge of your fabric to the edge of the paper. It should look like this. Don't worry about making it perfect - it really doesn't mattter.

6. Cut into your fabric all the way around the circle as shown above. Leave about 1/8" - 1/4" between your fabric and paper. Along the dotted line rub the glue stick very sparingly. Mostly just dotting in places. You'll understand this better in the next step.

7. Now iron the cut edges back along the paper. You are looking at the paper and the backside of your fabric.

9. Remove the paper. This is the reason you wanted to glue along the edge as sparingly as possible. Once the paper is removed, iron the little tabs of fabric back down.

10. Cut out the fabric for your circle (the white fabric). Make it another 7" square - it doesn't need to be perfect since you are going to be removing a bit of it later.

11. First pin the fabrics together. Make a sandwich; on the bottom is your circle fabric (the white) right side up, and then your background fabric (the sand dollars) on top of it with its right side up - it should look like the picture in step 10, except the white is now cut into a 7" square. Now sew along the edge of your circle - the sewing foot should be on the background fabric - 1/4" from the circle's outer edge. You are sewing your square right side up when you are doing this step.

12. Flip your square over. Cut away your circle (the white) fabric - leaving about 1/2" of fabric.

All done! Perfect circles every time.

I made this fish with the method above. I hope you found this tutorial use-able. Please comment with any questions you have. Thanks for looking! martha

This is linked to:

books and blogs

2010-02-10T10:27:00.000-05:00

Sometimes it is so hard to find a good book! I will read my way through every author and go through these time periods of having nothing to capture my mind during a cup of coffee. I will carouse the internet with a hot cup of coffee, but it isn't the same.. Lately I've found myself reading Mothering Nature, a blog about a widowed mother and her life since she lost her husband Jeff. She has captured my heart with her beautiful writing and I have found myself crying more than once reading her blog. I also read http://www.stillafamily.net/; another blog written by a widow. Since I've been reading both of these blogs, I have appreciated my marriage and my husband more. I have gone through times when I don't appreciate him enough, but these two mothers have made me realize it doesn't matter when he tracks mud through the house, leaves crumbs on the counter top, shaves his mustache into the sink, or doesn't vacuum. Such small tedious things when I am reminded how I still have him to love and can call him to change the sheets when the boys have thrown up, or wipe the bum when I don't want to.
Since this post is called books and blogs, you must be wondering about the book part. Right? (ha, ha). Surprise, surprise the book I am reading is also about a widow and her two young children. I am only 90 pages in, but I haven't been able to stop thinking about the story and find myself wanting to drink more coffee and tea so I can sit down and read it. It's called Shelter Me by Juliette Fay; I found it in the new book section of my library.

Better late than never, right?

2010-02-06T16:16:00.001-05:00

These are the decorations I made for a few lucky people at Christmas. It is designed after an owl ornament the pottery barn sold this year.

For the last few weeks, I have been working in a stained glass studio a few hours a week. I am almost finished with an owl and a star sun catcher. I am hoping to finish a window before April (when my studio time ends), but wanted to work on something a little easier till I get the hang of cutting and soldering the glass again. The paintbox quilt I have been plugging away at is almost done! If you want to see any pictures from the group or my quilting squares visit me on flickr, my name is handmadejoot. Thanks for visiting!

Photoshop fun

2010-01-30T12:32:00.000-05:00

Last night I was playing with Adobe Photoshop. This is what I did:

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

A card

2010-01-24T18:56:00.003-05:00

I made a card for my friend using markers and gouache paints....

The quilt I finished after years of procrastinating!

2010-01-22T11:10:00.005-05:00

About 5 years ago, I started piecing the stars for the quilt pictured. Over the years, I would decide I wanted all the stars to be blue, then I would decide they should be all black, then I would decide to just quilt one out of my scraps. This is probably why I ended up with a wide variation of un-matching stars; it seems I always do this with quilts. Eventually, I will decide that I have enough boxes made in a particular pattern and arrange the quilt then. One day, I am going to go buy all the fabrics for a quilt and start with a plan. I guess I will need to have a bit more money to buy all those fabrics! I sent this quilt to my mom for her birthday last year; even though it is very multi-colored it somehow works...I guess. I machine quilted it in a spiral.

Paintbox quilt

2010-01-21T15:41:00.001-05:00

I joined my first online quilting bee!! Oh, Fransson created a quilt based on a watercolor palette and generously provided the pattern for all of us to use! Since I love bright colors and have lots of fabric I have been collecting for years (yes, I moved fat quarters across the country), I decided to quilt along with her group on Flickr. Click here to see lots of inspiration and the quilts other busy "bees" are making. My name is Handmadejoot on the site if you want to check out some of my other blocks. I am trying to "bust my stash", so to speak. My 5 year old will be the lucky recipient of this quilt, so I am cutting up some of his shirts from when he was little. My newest venture shall be a stained glass workshop starting next week.

Washer necklaces

2010-01-16T16:10:00.000-05:00

Recently, I've noticed quite a few tutorials for washer necklaces. Believe me, they are really fun to make and really easy besides. You can find tutorials on how to make them here, here, or here.

I used fabric, scrapbook paper, markers and a bubble gel created for rubber stamping. The gel created a rounded, glass-like effect on the top -- most tutorials recommend using diamond glaze, but I couldn't find any in my local stores so I decided to try the gel instead.

I'm going to send the large green and orange necklace to my sister for her 28th birthday and keep the tree one for myself. The tree on the rice paper backing is my favorite of all; though, I could see a possibility of some of the text ones becoming my favorite. The larger of the text washers talks about witchcraft and some of the readable words are "witchcraft, airy nothingness, brew of words, elderly, women regroup, cursed." Maybe the next time I am brewing up some of my herbal remedies I should wear this one for good luck!

2010-01-13T20:09:00.000-05:00

Today I embroidered some pockets for a market bag I am making. I always enjoy embroidering birds that look like weird chickens. I tried something new today with the momma and baby bird pattern; I think I like it, maybe next time I will add a beak to the mom.

Tutorial: Recycled wool potholder

2010-01-11T11:49:00.012-05:00

Pictured below are the fabrics I chose for the batting and the body of the potholder - they are both 100% wool. Both fabrics were bought at the Goodwill on the 29 cent rack; the body of the potholder was cut from a pair of men's wool slacks, and the inner batting is from a wool sweater I felted in my washing machine. For the teapot design I used some scrap quilting fabrics and scrap interfacing - felt or wool could also be used for the design.

Step 1: I decided my potholder would be the same size as my embroidery hoop - a small plate could also be used as a template.

Step 2: Cutting wool. I traced around the hoop, then cut leaving a 1/4" seam allowance. I did the same to the sweater (used as the batting for this project). I made a mistake at this point, and would have done this a little differently next time. MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE AT LEAST 1/2" TO STRETCH AROUND YOUR EMBROIDERY HOOP! My project was not stretched quite as tightly as I would have liked because I didn't have enough fabric. Oh well, better luck next time, right?

Step 3: Place on embroidery hoop and cut design. I stretched one cut piece of the wool slacks over my embroidery hoop. I then cut a teapot design I liked out of some of my scrap fabric.

Step 4: Cutting the tag. I cut a piece of wool 3" long and stitched a binding border on either side so it wouldn't fray. See below.

Step 5: Lettering. I chose a font I liked (size of 150) and printed it out. I then traced it with a soft charcoal pencil.

Step 6: Transferring the lettering. I turned my lettered sheet of paper over onto the wrong side of my cotton fabric. I then took the back of my charcoal pencil and rubbed heavily over the back of the paper with the lettering. This transferred the charcoal to my fabric. Just to be on the safe side, don't choose an extremely light fabric or the charcoal pencil may show through on the front side of the fabric. Alternately, you could use a fabric tracing pencil sold at a quilting store. All I had on hand was a charcoal pencil and it worked fine for a project like this.

Step 7: Cutting out the lettering. I used an 18mm rotary cutter and a cutting mat, but a small pair of scissors would also work.

Step 8: Iron on interfacing. Once all the pieces of my design were cut, I ironed on interfacing so they wouldn't shred when I sewed them to my wool potholder. I simply layed them all out on the interfacing, put a piece of plain paper over them and ironed it on. Then when I cut out the letters, I pulled off the paper.

Step 9: Layout of the design. Self explanatory. Make sure to pin in place. I liked the idea of my teapot lid being opened.

Step 10: Sew in place. Using embroidery thread, sew all pieces in place. As you can see, I didn't try to be particularly neat with this project.

Step 11: Sandwiching. First put your bottom wool down, then middle batting, then the top with the design sewn in place. Make sure to pin the hanging tag in place. Sew all the way around the outside. Note: this potholder is going to have an unfinished look to it. I used a whip stitch first, then used a straight stitch over that.

All finished.

Later this week, I will post pictures and a tutorial of how to make a recycled wool potholder with a finished edge. I hope you enjoyed my first tutorial. If it didn't make sense, please comment with any questions you may have. Thanks, Martha

For more crafty ideas visit:

http://asoftplace.net/2010/01/diy-day-with-youcanmakethis-com/

Trash to Treasure - Reinvented

Art Journaling

2010-01-08T13:17:00.002-05:00

My friend and I are art journaling again today. We like to get together every few weeks or so, eat something wonderful - and hopefully easy so we have more time to sketch rather than cook - and create. It gives us time to relax, come up with new ideas, and catch up on all the latest gossip in our lives. I wanted to share some of my doodles from our last session. Maybe I'll have some new ideas to share after today.

Eye Candy

2010-01-06T22:23:00.001-05:00

I thought I'd share some pictures of a lovely dinner I made last night. Pictured below are beet greens and homemade cranberry sauce. We also made Gado Gado from the Moosewood Cookbook, but it didn't look nearly as pretty as the greens and berries.

Delicious!

A great pattern from mr. monkeysuit

2010-01-06T11:24:00.002-05:00

I am definitely a blog "lurker" - meaning that I read a lot of blogs but rarely post. I am trying to get better about that! One of the blogs I lurk at frequently is mr. monkeysuit. She has some great tutorials for crafty little gifts. I recently made her traveling art show pattern, you can find it here.

Pictured above are the art shows I made for my two little boys - ages 5 and 7 - as a small Christmas gift. I only "allow" the boys to use their art shows in the car to keep them interested in being quiet and creative while we are driving here and there. The blue one on the left is made out of a flannel, and the green one on the right is a quilting cotton. The really exciting part is unfolding the art show to find all the little treasures inside.

Thank you mr. monkeysuit for your great pattern! Cheers

An inspirational visit to the MOMA

2010-01-05T16:31:00.004-05:00

If I don't know you, please comment! I am new to blogging and would love to hear from somebody.

For the last few days, I have been painting using gouache, masking fluid, and a grid. I was inspired by a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City on December 29. I enjoyed the oil paintings by Picasso (Girl before a mirror), Monet, Cezanne, Warhol, Miro and many others; the Bauhaus exhibit was amazing. Learning about the Bauhaus was completely new to me; it turns out they based most of their architecture/painting/fibers/stained glass on a grid system. The entire 6th floor (pictures weren't allowed) was dazzling with little squares of color everywhere I looked. I came home with a whole new appreciation and application of a grid in fine art paintings. Three days ago, I made a grid a little larger than 1/4" by 1/4" on an 11 x 14 piece of watercolor paper and have been merrily painting away. In my painting I have also decided to include circles and some natural shapes. I am terrible about finishing my paintings and drawings, but I'm hoping this blog will help me with that. Maybe if I am more accountable, even just to myself by writing about the painting, I will be able to finish it.

Does anybody recognize the painting above? I am loosely basing my painting on this photo I took at the MOMA, but I don't know who painted it! I spent over an hour today browsing the MOMA collections, and it's not listed!

Choosing a blog name

2010-01-04T12:59:00.002-05:00

JOOT. For a while I have been trying to think of a good craft/art company name. I wanted something simple, kind of cute (I abhor the word cute but I'm going to use it here), and whimsical. I have been obsessed with owls for a long time. In 1998 when I met my husband, he packed around a large plastic owl used for scaring animals out of gardens. A short while later, I found myself creating owl crafts and adding a significant amount of owls to my already zany sketchbook drawings.
Three weeks ago, I was working on yet another owl project - this time a pottery barn inspired owl ornament - when the word JOOT came to me. It is a combination of "hoot, hoot" and the first letter of my last name. I immediately started looking up URL's with JOOT. Someone had registered both the Etsy account, and Joot.com so I chose JOOT JOOT. I am actually happier with the choice because according to Urbandictionary.com to joot joot is to take a pen or toy and use your imagination with it. So that's how it happened, I hope I end up liking the name in years to come.