pamgarrison

some summer flickr faves

1. vaso rosa, 2. Every home should be made of quilt, 3. Vintage Rose Piece, 4. Untitled, 5. fan, 6. will she show?, 7. IMG_04152, 8. anticipation, 9. calendrier n26, 10. my nest, now im home, 11. little birdies hangy-me-jig..., 12. Untitled

beautiful day

A new sampler of sorts. Or really a cross between some of  the samplers I make and the stitched bits, I suppose. It's close to 12"x13". A fun project. I think I'm close to finished on this one, but then again, not sure about that. It's a fine line between just enough and too much; I can see lots more stitching, or embellishing with buttons and beads as well. Do you have an opinion? More? Less? Embellish? Stitches only? I guess I'll have to make a few more and try them different ways to really figure out where I'm going on these pieces. But I'm having fun, so I'm sure to keep up the experimentation. That's one gift I wanted to give myself when I decided to take a year (or more?) off teaching: to follow my heart's desire and make anything I want, whenever I want, no matter where it leads to (even if a dead end). Time to experiment, play, stretch, with no thoughts (ok, no pressure filled thoughts) as to result. Open ended creative play.  And that, makes for a beautiful day!

stitching stamps

 

Stitching, stitching, stitching...is that all I blog about lately? Seems like it's all I'm doing over here, as the big-summer-journal-crazy-quilt is an obsession. A constant grabber of little moments that should add up to something fun when all is said and done (I'm hoping). My daughter's friends come over and comment on the progress as it is almost always spread out on either the living room or dining room floor. I promised one of her friends that it should be done by the time she returns home from college for Thanksgiving. That's right, I'm still thinking positively, it hasn't eaten me alive yet!

So yesterday, as we were heading off to the beach in the late afternoon, I remembered how Jenny had used the  stamps I designed for Crescendoh as a pattern for embroidery, so I grabbed them and stamped them onto a scrap of  tea towel, shoved them in my bag, and called shotgun for the ride.

You might notice that I am too unorganized to find the acrylic block to use for stamping, so had to make due with the top of the stamp pad. Good thing those stamps stick to any plastic! (You may also notice that I never clean my stamps, lazy lazy me.)

I'll be sure to point out where they get used on the quilt, when they do...more stitching on the blog ;) . I will become a more well-rounded craft-blogger soon!

 

working a little larger

I've gone a little larger with some of my stitched bits for sale over at my etsy shop. These medium pieces have more free motion stitching than most, but there are lots of small ones too, even some medium sized beginning stitched bit bases for those of you that want to make your own with a little kick start.

 

big-summer-journal-quilt update

 

The saying that comes to mind: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

my head is full

As these recent journal pages show, my mind is rather crazy, loud and disorganized these days. Not sure that's any different than it usually is, just feeling like I need some time to think. So many ideas, dreams, fears, lists, worries, wishes, questions etc. and all that without organization feels like I'm living in these pages above and below. Often when creative projects capture my mind, it feels like the rest of my life gets more and more out of control. So today, I'm taking a break from the big summer quilt and stitched bits and doing laundry-folding and putting away, getting groceries, general house picking up and putting away and hopefully I'll feel a little less chaotic and crazy tomorrow. 

saturday morning

 

saturday morning from Pamela Garrison on Vimeo. {music: Everybody by Ingrid Michaelson}

still stitching

true beauty

Adding a few more stitched bits over at my etsy shop. Stitching seems to be my creative outlet so far this summer. I'm still hard at work on the big summer crazy quilt and I'll show you an update soon. When I get tired of where I'm at on the giant project in process, I turn to the little pieces and focus on a smaller scale. Back and forth I go between the two.

best friends

   mr. wonderful

the latest batch at pamg.etsy.com

stitched bits on etsy

As I continue with the giant summer quilt project, I've been stitching on different things here and there and practicing stitching while I go. I'm not one who worries about perfection in the things I make by hand, I'm fine with leaving the oopsies in (proof above and below). It adds soul and authenticity in my book. I truly enjoy the process of it all. And whenever I see Jude Hill's work I am inspired to try different things. This photo here was the inspiration to try some smaller spots and circles. I just love every single thing she did on her piece and could stare at it for days and still find something new to be inspired by.

And while I've been working on my crazy quilt journal project, I picked up some stitched bits I started so long ago and gave them some needed attention. I've "finished" a bunch (are they ever really finished? you might want to add to them after all), and have listed them for sale over at my etsy shop. Their little fabric collages, postcard sized generally. I'm thinking you might want to pin one to an inspiration board, make a sachet or itty bitty pillow out of them, attach them to a journal cover, sew on a tote etc. (They aren't washable though.) Here's the pile that I just listed:

 

 
       You can see the individual pieces over there. Thanks for looking if you do!