ELLA GAJEWSKA HATS AGAIN

So the hat logo story continues. Like I said "the first attempt" was fun but I failed to notice that it was to be black and white only. This time around I remembered:)

I also got a new picture this time so not only was I starting over but I was starting completely anew which I liked because I don't really care for painting the same thing twice. 

Here's the picture that Ella sent me: 

Her instructions this time were: black and white only, no shirt, very long neck and hat going across one eye. So here you go. What do you think?

I just mailed the original to Ella today and now I'm looking forward to seeing how she incorporates this painting in her store design. Very exciting.... 

ELLA GAJEWSKA HATS

I love Ella's hats. I have actually painted one of the of her hats in the past and blogged about it here:) 

This time she's contacted me to paint one of the pictures featuring her in one of her hats so that she could use it as her logo in her shop banner. She sent me two pictures - one of what she wanted me to go by and another of what she wanted it to look like style wise. Here they are:

So I got really excited and pretty much immediately got to work and this is what I came up with:

I have to say I had a lot of fun doing this and I really liked it. There's only one problem with it. Ella asked for me to only use black and some kind of way my blond head completely missed that "small detail" when I used red and yellow:)

On the flip side - I get to do another one:)

IF VOCAL

This week's topic is Vocal. Taylor Swift is a great vocal artist and I just finished this one so I figured why not. It's a watercolor painting on Arches. 

QUILTING. PART 2

I ended up not having to cut 160 triangles. Instead the book taught me a trick on how to go from 80 squares directly to 80 squares made out of 2 triangles each without having to cut the squares into halves first.

Do you want to know how to do it?

First, you put two squares on top of each other - the right sides together.
Then you draw a line diagonally thru the middle, pin both pieces together and sew on both sides of the line (about 1/4" away from the line on each side - you can barely see the seams in this picture).
Finally you cut along the line and when you open up the pieces you have new squares!

In the end you just iron the seams to one side. I felt like this was an awesome trick that saved me a bunch of time. So now I have 80 squares made out of 160 triangles:)

Whats next? The fun part! Putting all of these together to create one side of the quilt!

QUILTING. PART 1

I'm trying something new. I decided to try quilting. My friend and I are making a quilt for another friend's of our who is an absolutely wonderful lady. We're using T-shirts from all the Habitat builds we've done together and then some fabric for the spaces in between them. She's doing the front and I'm doing the back. Less pressure on me I guess:)

I've gotten several books from the library to get a grasp on how quilts are made and really liked "Little bits quilting bee" by Kathreen Ricketson.

I chose one of the patterns that I liked best and felt like it would be a good one to utilize the different color T-shirts and started cutting. It took me 2 nights. The first night I was cutting the fabric into 40 squares and the second night 40 squares out of T-shirts. Cutting the T-shirts was double work since first I had to cut the fusible interfacing, fuse it and finally cut that same size out of T-shirt.
Have you ever wondered what 80 squares of fabric look like? Quite frankly, they don't look like much:

What's next? 80 squares will become 160 triangles:)

PHEW...

My goodness! I've been seriously busy lately. Haven't been posting here at all. As a matter of fact, I have blogged 5 times as often as a guest on the Poletsy blog than here on my own blog! Bad, bad, bad girl!!!!

Anyway... I just finished this cover featuring Kate Moss as vintage Bowie. I'm so glad that I got to do this. True, I've been painting a lot lately but as much as I love doing commissions, painting just something, anything out of pure desire to do it feels so good. 

I'm also quite ashamed to admit that tomorrow is the due date for sending in the sketchbooks and I won't be sending mine in. I've only done one more drawing since that last one and just couldn't find the time to fill it up in time. It feels terrible. Hopefully I'll get to try again next year!!!

IF ROUND

I finally started working on my sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project. My topic is Forks and Spoons and this was the first idea that popped in my head and I just had to do it. It also seems round enough to make it my this weeks IF submission:)

IF SILENT

I'm sort of cheating out here because this is not a brand new drawing but something I did several of month ago. Couldn't resist though when I saw this weeks topic.

THE SKETCHBOOK PROJECT

It arrived!!!! My Sketchbook arrived...

What is The Sketchbook Project? It's like a concert tour, but with sketchbooks. The tour will start in New York in April 2012. Thousands of sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the world. 

It's an annual thing. I've been wanting to participate in the last 2 years but then I've always decided not to, too worried about my busy schedule and whether I'd be able to do it. Not this year. This year I'm doing it!!! Paid for my book and it's already arrived!!!! 

There are 30 themes you can choose from for your sketchbook. I chose "Forks and Spoons". Not sure where it'll take me but I'll post photos on facebook as the ideas start to unravel. 

I have to mail the book back by the end of January. There are 32 pages in the book plus 4 cover pages - 36 pages total, meaning I should complete a drawing every three days! 

The best part? After the tour, my sketchbook along all the other ones will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where it'll be available for the public to view. I may need to take a special trip to NYC...

EVERY MOTHER COUNTS

Every 90 seconds, a woman dies from childbirth. Fully 90% of those deaths are preventable. The Aid organization Every Mother Counts is training midwives in Afghanistan, opening health clinics in the Democratic Republic of Congo and shipping unused medical supplies to South Sudan. These are tangible, practical projects designed to combat maternal mortality and injuries worldwide.

Daily paintworks is having a fundraiser for Every Mother Counts and I've decided to auction this painting (one of my favorites actually) for the cause. Please click here to see all the works being auctioned and to find out more about the fundraiser. 
I'm going to donate all my profits from this sale to Every Mother Counts. I'm also planning to donate 50% of all my profits of all prints of this painting to the same organization.