Trying to Keep Up the Good Work

First, I apologize to my readers.  I know I haven't been around - just haven't had time to post lately for many reasons - travel, bronchitis, and other projects have kept me busy.  I haven't had a ton of time to create, either, which we all know is not a zen-making thing (at least not for me - of course it SHOULD be a chance to practice, but we all know I'm zen-challenged.  That's the point.) Anyway, I sincerely hope you will forgive me and continue to read when I do post.  I will try to do better.

One of the reasons I haven't been able to post is that I went to Quiltcon in Pasadena.  As usual, I was really inspired and excited by what I saw.  I know others have posted a lot about it, but I will write a post about my impressions and share some of my faves with you soon.  I met some great fellow quilters, which was also fun.  

That's not to say I haven't sewn at all.  I did manage to make some minis from scraps from another project, kind of inspired by the amazing and adorable Gwen Marsden and the talented Chawne Kimber from Completely Cauchy.  I've never been one for patchwork, but I adore theirs.  

 Haven't quite gotten it down yet but am so inspired that I will keep trying.  I like them, though.  They are bright, cheerful, and fun AND they used up all the scraps from another project, which makes me feel all earth-friendly and superior.  (maybe that's an exaggeration - but it does make me feel better about scraps - I usually consider them guilt-producing nuisances.)  Now I have a whole new respect (use)  for them, after seeing Gwen's and and Chawne's work.  

I've spent a great deal of time on another project, too - and darn it, it's huge.  I say that because as we all know, large quilt tops mean a helluva a lot of quilting.  I like to quilt, really I do, but the large pieces are so goddam never ending.  Still, I'm pretty happy with the piece.  It needs a little tweaking, still, but I'm almost there.

This week, however, there will sadly be no quilting.  Not because I am decreeing it, but because I will be out of town.  Again.  I'm actually tempted to bring my small sewing machine to the hotel with me - think the maids will mind cleaning up scraps and strings?  I wonder if I'll actually have time to use it...well, I can bring it with me and if I do have time/energy to work, then I can.  (Lord are we quilters NUTS or what?)  I know I'm bringing some embroidery projects with me at least.  

I'm also a little miffed to leave at this time because finally the poppies I planted in the fall are starting to bloom and dammit I want to be here to enjoy them.  I sure hope they are still going when I get back.  They are so beautiful - I want to sit on my front porch and stare at them with a glass of wine in my hand.  (I will be here on Saturday, come and join me if you want...)

So please stick with me, readers, as I muddle through this incredibly busy time in my life.  I promise to post more regularly again soon.  And here's a couple of lovely parting shots of Spring, springing, for your enjoyment.

Luckily I won't miss the bluebonnets because the goats got in and ate them a couple of weeks ago, so they will be blooming late.  Never thought I'd be happy for that!

View from the porch: Ahhh - green, green, everywhere!

Joining in the Fun

It's late but I'm gonna link up anyway.  I haven't been able to participate for various reasons for a long time.  I am actually finally finished with the Glass Bowl piece.  It turned out well, although once again I don't have fabulous photos to show it.  (I really hate photography.  I just do.)

I did decide to straight line quilt it.  After all, the lines on the bowl were all straight.  But I added some silver thread and used a silvery fabric for binding to add to the "glow" effect.  And it did, but it's quite subtle I'm not sure it shows much in the photos:

The fabrics are so amazing, they are gorgeous (Frond Fabrics from Delve DIY).  Luckily I have lots more and several ideas for them.  

But for now I am working on a new, secret project.  Fun.

Going to join in with Sew Fresh to see what y'all are up to.

#at Quiltcon 2016

So much talent...

Imagination...

enthusaism...

Joy...

and beauty,

all in one place! 


 (And the quilts aren't too  bad, either!)




Absolute fabulousness.

WIP Wednesday - Groovin' on

There's been some decent progress on some of my WIP's  this week.  First of all, I made a pillow.  The pillow was supposed to take a couple of hours; it took a couple of days.  Mostly because I just had to make it more and more complicated as it went along.  But I'm quite happy with it.  It is going to go on a blue couch in our vacation rental, which we are calling MOD Haus because it is a mid-century modern house. ( I will definitely share photos of it when it's ready - we've spent a lot of time and thought on the thing, and it is going to be so awesome.  I'm so psyched I'm planning on having at least one quilt retreat a year there - it's got so much room!)  Back to the pillow, however.  The rug in the game room is a modern abstract with lots of primary colors.  I had wanted a yellow couch but couldn't find the right color, so I'm adding yellow accents.  Here is yellow accent number one:

Yellow really is a great color, isn't it?  I am gaga for all the fabrics in this pillow.  And I love the "plaid" effect - it's fun.

Next, I finally began quilting my glass bowl quilt.  I am so very please with the effect the Glide thread I am using has - it has a slight sheen, which makes it  almost "glow," especially under direct light.  I tried to show it in this photo:

And it flattened the piece out so nicely - I'm not going to have to worry after all about it being uneven, so I'm thrilled about that.

Lastly, I'm almost finished with my Sedona table runner.  I love the colors - it really does look like the rocks in Sedona.  This was a learning experience.  I have enough fabric to make another now that I know how, and I plan to do so - have a couple of other ideas I want to try on.  All it needs it binding and it will be finished as well.

Here is a close up - I wanted the edges to be craggy, like rocks...

I've also got the first five rows of Fly, Boy finished and I'm quite thrilled bout it.  I had to stop for a while, because the thing is so darn intense - it literally takes an entire day of sewing to do three blocks, if I'm lucky.  But slow and steady wins the race I hope.  I really want it to be special so I'm taking my time - when I get sick of it I work on something else so I don't screw it up.  

That's it for this week, can't wait to see everyone else's WIPs. 

WIP Wednesday - Back to Reality

This year I have set a few goals for myself and am writing down weekly/monthly in my handy Quilter's Planner what I hope to accomplish and I have to say, it is helping me stay on top of things a little better.  (Okay okay, I realize it's only the first month of the year, but we have to celebrate every little step forward in the quest for organization - at least I do!)  The point is that one of the high items on the list is the quilt I am working on for my son, called Fly, Boy!  (Because he is at college studying to be an airline pilot/engineer).  I put it away to work on a much larger quilt and other projects in October or so, but I am determined to finish it in the next couple of months.  So that is one of my WIP's this week:

Of course it is a challenge, because somehow, even though all of the squares were drawn the same size, some of them have turned out not to be the same size as others (because I hand-drew them, I'm sure) and so I am having to throw some away and remake them AND I didn't know how much of each color material to get so I have to order more os almost all of the background colors. But I like a challenge.  I just hope this piece turns out to be worth all the time and effort (and $$$) I am spending on it.

Next is my art quilt based on a glass bowl I saw in an art catalog (see Monday's blog) on finding inspiration: 

 I am looking at it daily, waiting for quilting inspiration...the obvious matchstick lines may be the thing, but I am giving myself some time to decide if that is really how I want to go with it.

And last is a little fun project I am also making up as I go along, based on the amazing scenery at Sedona, Arizona.  It's going to be a table runner, and I have enough fabric to make two of them, so I will.  The colors are so amazing. and I want to make sure I capture the uneven-ness of the rocks and the hombre effect of the colors.  I'm starting with the lighter ones at the top and am putting the orange-y reds at the bottom.  When I started it, I was going to paper piece it, but then I decided to piece and quilt it at the same time, which is  a lot easier.  I'm pleased with it so far...

Going to have to figure out how to do the edges, because I don't want them even, I want them to look craggy, like layers.  I have some ideas of how to do it, but I'm not worrying about that until I get the thing all pieced.  

So that's what I'm jammin' on this week - will go and check out all of y'all's doings, too.

Finding Inspiration Any and Everywhere

I love looking at magazines, decorator's catalogs, rug websites and other catalogs I get in the mail, because I can get tons of inspiration from them.  I thought I would share the evolution of my latest from the inspiration to its current state, which is awaiting quilting inspiration. This piece which I'm right now calling (quite unoriginally) "Glass Bowl," actually inspired by an exquisite art bowl that I saw for sale in a magazine:

It's so delicate and lovely.  I knew I wanted to try to reinterpret it as a quilt.  I quickly made drawings, and it just so happened that I had the perfect (I believe) fabric for it which I had just gotten at the Houston Quilt Festival.   It is a line of fabric that is designed by artists, and I went gaga for it.  (Don't worry, not the meat-wearing kind of Gaga, more the over-the-top excited kind.)  It's called Sumi-e by Karen Kurka Jenson for Frond Fabrics.  You can pick them up over at Delve MIY - lots of cool stuff over there.

Here is the flimsy finished top.  It was rather challenging to get the thing sewn together (meaning it took about two to three tries to sew each side piece on to get it not to buckle too much when I sewed each successive piece on.  In the end as you can see from the photo, I  had to settle for less than perfect:

but luckily now that it is sandwiched, thank goodness it is much better. 

* I sure wish I was a better photographer because I used etched fabric for the lines that has a sparkle to it and I really think it adds a lot of fabulosity to the piece. I love the way the subtle colors and shades of the fabrics look kind of like the colors shining throughout the bowl. And I love that yellow in the center.  Such a rich color (also from Frond). Unfortunately  I can't get the white parts to sparkle for the camera, but in real life they absolutely shine. 

Now I have to figure out some quilting that will really enhance it.  Of course I could go with matchstick lines, but I'm waiting to see if something else hits me.  

So that's my inspiration story.  It can be found just anywhere.  For example, I have a photo of some interesting lights on the back of a truck, a rubber mat at an auto parts store, and a couple of rugs I think are pretty cool as well as a bunch of sketches that I'm sure are inspired by something I've seen although I can't necessarily point to it.  Such a gift from the universe to let it channel through me.  

So, what inspires you? 

And, Namaste, y'all.

   

Why I Quilt and Other Musings on Art

     

Interesting discussion started by Amy Garro over at 13 Spools.  She tells us why she quilts, and adds an unfortunately familiar story of a teacher who basically took the joy out of drawing for her when she was in college. (FYI:  I'm having trouble linking to her site today but I'm gonna go ahead and publish and I'll add the button on here later, when I can get it.)

I read all the comments, and I was so saddened to hear how many people have gone through the same kind of experiences. I wanted to respond to each one of them myself, and I did, to a few. Because that's just not right.  Nobody owns creativity or art.  No matter what.  I know there seems to be a system set up where "experts" say why and how things are done, but the truth is that none of that is true unless we believe it.  And I just don't.  Art is creativity expressed, and while I don't personally love the way everyone expresses their creativity, that doesn't mean it's not good or right.  It simply means it doesn't speak to my aesthetic.  I actually find it laughable that someone listens to what anyone else says about a piece of art.  Now, I'm not saying that we can't learn from each other's experience and even their expertise (because if you do something long enough, you DO know how to do what you do).  Of course we can.  I just object to someone trying to tell someone else that their art isn't "done right."  It's coming from the creative universe, so whatever it is, it's done right.

 I know it's hard for each of us to distance ourselves from what appeals to us personally, and I think that's okay, too.  We don't have to love it all.  But we certainly don't need to be negative about it to the point that we actively discourage someone from letting creativity come through her in whatever way it chooses.  If what appears to be dog doo stuck on a blank white canvas don't excite me (but silly strange animals and dots do!) but you think it is beautiful and it makes you happy to look at it, that's totally fine with me.  Pay the artist as much as you think it's worth. There are a lot of people in this world and all of us, though connected, have different viewpoints and that's what makes life interesting.  I say, Vive la difference!

The second part of the discussion is about why I quilt, the question Amy poses to the rest of us in her blog.  Unlike Amy, I have no training in art whatsoever.  I did want to take an art class in high school, but my mom told me that art wasn't for people who are going to college (one of the few mis-steps she made as a parent, in my opinion).  But being a pleaser by nature, I let it go at the time.  In college, even though I was an education major in school, there was not one art class in my curriculum.  As a former teacher, I find it difficult to believe this, because creativity and art played such a huge role in my teaching career, both in art and non-art ways.  But I didn't recognize it or even think about it for a long time, to be honest.  At the time, I was just doing my thing.  I didn't realize how big a role creativity played in it.  Looking back now, I see that creativity was overwhelmingly part of being an effective teacher.  And I reveled in it - sometimes I couldn't believe I was actually getting paid to do something so wonderful!  That's how much I loved it.  (Until standardized stupidity  came along and took that all away. But that's for another day, another blog, another discussion...that could last for days!)

It wasn't until I had my son that I felt a strong (irresistable) pull to create what I'm gonna label "art."  It started when my friend Claudia found these amazing watercolor bugs that she hung in her childrens' bedrooms.  I was so enchanted by them.  But when Claudia remarked that they were quite expensive, but well, we couldn't possibly make them ourselves, I distinctly remember thinking to myself "Wait a minute - why not?"  That very day, I could not rest until I went to the art store and bought heavy watercolor paper and watercolors.  I literally could not wait to get started on them, even though I had never painted a thing in my life.  And an obsession was born.  I painted first, bugs in the style of the ones I had seen.  

Here are some of my very first attempts - can't believe they are 16 years old!  Wow, time flies. Heh Heh.

Then I went to lizards.  Then more bugs, crazy, colorful, un-natural ones that made me so very happy.  I had a bunch of them crawling on my classroom walls, even.  I became so obsessed with them in the next couple of years that my three year old son was heard to say "I liked it better when Mommy didn't paint."  (Nothing like good old mother guilt to put a damper on art...but it is good to keep it in perspective...)  

The main thing that strikes me here as I write is how completely overwhelming was the urge to create welling up in me - a drive emerged that I truly did not know existed in me...until it happened with a vengeance and I was forever changed.

When we moved to Texas from California in 2001 I was still on the painting kick, with a little writing also emerging.  Both of these continue to a lesser extent.  The most recent things I've been painting have been farm animals like these:

 and dots like these (I woke up in the middle of the night a few years ago and absolutely HAD to paint the dot paintings!).

   

However, it's quilting that dominates my creativity at the moment (a fifteen-year "moment")  My excellent mother had taken up quilting about  twelve years before and I admit it never interested me in the least, except to receive them as a gift from her.  Until. Those simple, colorful flannel rag quilts that were all the rage back then - I simply HAD to make one.  My mother, naturally, was thrilled to help.  With her encouragement, and cheerleading I made that one easy quilt and would you believed that's all it took to get me completely hooked?  Mother was also obsessed, so she was a serious enabler.  She shared everything she had with me and taught me everything she knew.  Then she really sealed the deal by taking me to the Houston Quilt Festival.  I will never forget my first one.  It opened up an entire new world for me, and I would never be the same.  

I can't say I regret it, even though it may seem crazy.   After fifteen years of quilting, I feel more like the real me than I ever have before.  I don't teach school anymore so now all my creativity goes into creating, making.  I can't wait to get up in the morning and get going on my art (although real life still interferes, but that's also another lesson I had to learn - balance - and another discussion as well)  

I have yet to take one art class, however.  I'm not necessarily proud of this fact, by the way.  I want to, really I do. In fact, I think I'm going to add it to my list of goals for this year.  But one thing holds me back - there is such freedom in the way that I create now.  I call myself an experimental artist, and I just figure out a way to do whatever comes into my mind.   I don't follow any rules because I don't know them and it's So. Darn. Awesome!  Because, you see, being a rule follower and pleaser is (or at least it used to be) my nature, so I'm scared if I learn the rules, I might be compelled to follow them and it might not be a good thing. 

 On the other hand, I have always believed that learning is a good thing, and I know I have much to learn, always....Too, I'm not sure anyone like that dumb professor or all the BAD teachers people talked about could convince me at this point that the way I do things is wrong at this point.  Being an art outsider has allowed me to develop a kind of thick-skinned confidence that I'm not sure can be taken away as easily as it used to be.   I think there is more to be gained than lost, in this instance.

But does that answer the question of why I quilt (as opposed to other art forms, that is)? No, and I don't know if I can truly answer that question.  I quilt because I love it and I find endless inspiration in it.  I am a maker, and I feel the creativity coming through me, driving me.  I can't honestly say why quilting is the overwhelming pull, though I do love the endless possibilities in a piece of fabric.  Too, there is a practical side to quilting that also appeals to me - a warmth that comes even from a wall-hanging made of cloth.  I also love the community, and it sort of feels wide-open to me.  And while the practical side of it has been around for hundreds of years, it's still sort of emerging as an art form; there aren't too many critics or rules, and the quilting community is so full of generous, lovely, TALENTED people.  

And not to diss men (I love them too) but quilting is female-dominated, which makes it unusual, too, especially as an art form.  Here is one place where the men can't tell us what to and not to do.  Because women created this art form.  Yeah.  I'm gonna boldly say it.  I'm not saying men can't or shouldn't quilt, I'm just saying' is all.  Women created quilting.  (You go, girls!)

So that's my long-winded response.  I hope you guys will pardon me for it, but this passion runs to the very core of my being, what can I say?   And I promise to listen and read all of your reasons for why you quilt, too.  Not because I have to, but because it's fascinating and fun, and we can all learn from each other, and being connected - well I CAN say for certain that THAT'S a truly beautiful thing.