Update on my Hoffman Doll challenge

Well I'm coming right along!  Because I have two young boys I'm not able to devote as much time to working on her as I would like but "where there's a will there's a way!"

As you remember these are the Hoffman Fabrics for the 2013 Challenge (except for the teal one):

Step 1  Body finished
After sewing her body I decided to add lace around the bust line to give her more curves.  Her necklace is made out of seed beads and an old earring.

 

Step 2 Legs and shoes finished
The legs are made out of one of the Hoffman challenge fabrics then I painted the shoes and laced them up with gold ribbon.  The soles and heals are painted brown.  Later I may add more embellishments to the top of her boots.



The most fun I've had with this challenge is creating the skirt. I first thing I did was to create a crazy quilt with the challenge fabrics. I then started embellishing the seams and creating decorative designs within the blocks.

 

 

And just today I finished her arms, hands and shrug around her shoulders. I have taken these photos because I'm so excited about her but her skirt isn't finished and not even attached yet! And of course she needs a head (which is still waiting to be stuffed). But this is a first look at what I've been working on these past few weeks.

 

 

Her left hand is "palm open" because she will be feeding an animal but I'm not going to tell you what it is yet incase it doesn't turn out.

My art room

This is a corner of our spare bedroom that I have set up as my work space where everything is at my fingertips, almost.  The open door leads to a finished off attic where I am able to store my larger art supplies like fabric, paints, beads and buttons.  Now you may laugh when I call my beads and buttons my "larger" items but I have at least 15 plastic bins for each (beads and buttons) organized by color so they actually take up a lot of shelving space.  I absolutely love buttons, mainly vintage and most definitely fabric covered.

Sneek Peek of my "whimsical" dragon

When I decided to do another "art doll" I started to look around my house for inspiration.  My boys were watching Mike the Knight cartoon and I thought, I'd love to do a dragon and then maybe have a little girl sitting or riding on it like they were friends.  So I started sketching (something I rarely do).

In my stash I had the perfect orange and gold fabric for the dragon and then I found a dark red print for the girls dress.  He is completely stuffed and the girl has a soft body with a polymer clay face and hands (then I painted the face).  I created both patterns.

While I haven't finished the dragon yet (he still needs hands and horns) I really wanted to show you all some pictures of his progress.  There will also be a gold cord around him somehow that the little girl will be holding onto.

In the next pictures I take I'll get a shot of her hair because it's rather long and she has a jewel in her hair that matches the one on the front of her dress.  Plus a picture of her hands because she has some wicked long red nails.

New Fabric Bowls!

I have been working hard on my art dolls but I've also come up with some new fabric bowls as well. I got tired of just using 100% cotton so when I went to the thrift store I looked in the linen section to see if I could find more "texturized" fabric. I came across what I think used to be curtains; I would not have hung this color in my house but doesn't it made the cutest looking shabby chic basket.  (The top three rows are 100% cotton)

Then I had another idea, upholstery!  This bowl could be named "The Sound of Music" because it reminds me of the drapes that Maria used to make the children's play clothes out of.

And this last one is really not new but has embellishments added to it.  I plan on doing this a lot more with my fabric bowls, adding found objects, beads, wood, seashells, anything I can get my hands on to create one-of-a-kind fabric bowls.

With most of my art I have to let it sit for a while to decide if it's finished or it needs anything else.  With the above wood and fabric bowl I will be adding some kind of handle, maybe even more greenery, I'm still in my thinking stage with this one.

The Hoffman Challenge

Last weekend my mom and I attended The Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in Hampton, VA.  My mom and I go every year and I love the new and innovative ideas I walk away with.  Not only is there a quilt show but also vendors, lots of vendors, selling everything from fabric turners to dyed silk pods. 

Also there is The Hoffman Challenge.  Every year I am intrigued by this competition.  There are six categories: Pieced Quilts, Appliqued Quilts, Mixed Technique (pieced and appliqued), Doll, Clothing, and Accessories.  There are many rules for this challenge but the main one is to use the Hoffman fabrics they have selected for this year.

I am most interested in the doll challenge. Here are a few pictures from this years competition:

And check out the detail of her toenails!

Here are a few more:

 

 I have dedicated a board on my Pinterest page to the past Hoffman Challenge entries here.

Every year I am inspired by something at the Quilt Festival and this year it was The Hoffman Dolls.  I love a good challenge don't you?  Four days ago I bought the fabric and have quite a few ideas I'm knocking around in my head.  Here are the four fabrics I bought:

The design that is prominent is the main fabric for the challenge.  The only one that is not listed for the challenge is the teal one but I wanted more blue in the palette.  One is allowed to use other fabrics but the top one has to be incorporated into your design.  My picture doesn't really do it justice because each one of them has this gold shimmer to it that I love.  I've also bought gold and teal ribbons and beads to embellish later.

I will try to post pictures as I go along but I am also working on two other dolls that I want to show you too so stay tuned!

Oil painting!

I have never had the desire to work with oil paints, maybe because it was the drying time that turned me off.  Maybe because I knew that all the Masters painted in oils and it was very intimidating.   I started out with acrylics probably because that's what my mom paints with plus sometimes she gives me her extras.  Most of my first brushes were from her also (she calls them her "scruffy brushes").  So I started out in acrylics.  Then a few years ago I decided I wanted to teach myself watercolors so I checked out books at the library, bought books online and practiced.  I loved watercolors.  Just about a week ago I decided that I wanted to try oil paints.

I have always been a big fan of Georgia O'Keeffe.  I have a board on Pinterest of some of her work here. Most of her paintings are extreme close ups of flowers just like a lot of my photography.  So that's where I started, books from the library on oil painting and my photography pictures.  My favorite flower is the black-eyed susan so I found a picture and started sketching.

Start with the lightest color first

Then the darker colors and here is the finished product

Before this one was completely finished I started sketching my second one, two little Amish children watching the horse auction in Lancaster, PA.  I took this picture last year among  hundreds of others so I think I may do an Amish series.  Anyone that knows me knows I am slightly obsessed with the Amish (and I'll be going up there again this year, I can't wait!)

Still under construction

Well I've changed the name of my blog back to KIMagination (for the moment).  If you check in at any point this week it may look different because I'm trying to coordinate this blog with my new website which hasn't gone live yet but hopefully the next post will be a link to my first ever website!  Thanks for your patience.

Yes you've made it to KIMagination...

but after three and a half years I have decided to change the name of my blog.  I am also in the process of creating a website and I needed to find a web page name that isn't already taken and there are a few KIMagination's out there.  It's still an ongoing process though.

When I was a little girl my family and I went to the Appalachian Mountains.  The trail we hiked was called The Riprap Trail.  I remember saying "That is a cute name for a cat... when I get older I'm going to get an all black cat and name him Riprap".  I have always loved solid black cats.  In August of 1992 I got Rippy, as he was affectionately called, and his sister was Eureka.  A few years later I got a third cat named Lefty.  They all lived a very long and happy life.  So this blog has been renamed in honor of my Rippy, the black cat.