I'm Back

There's a song that goes "Back to life, back to reality" that I reluctantly sing in my head once my week of seclusion (or any break really from the usual routine) is over. I don't actually totally isolate myself from the world, but I do turn off the phones (alerting people who might worry if I don't pick up or return calls) and don't schedule appointments or meetings during that week. I aim for a week devoid of the usual responsibilities of everyday life and focus on, well, that varies from year to year. I soon slipped into a more relaxed routine that banished guilt that might be asking if I was spending my time as I should. The zentangle Be Well sketchbook sat open in front of the computer screen (of course I spent time on the computer!), inviting me to work in it daily. The rest I took as it came.

I was slightly amused to find some of the Be Well prompts mirroring things I was working on or running across. The tangle at the top right is one that I learned long ago and used as inspiration for a quilting design, which brought back a good memory. Some days I found myself a little unhappy with their interpretation or shading, like the basket weave above. I really want to color the entire square in alternating colors to show the over and under weaving. Once I get through the full 21 days' worth, I may redo some on the backside more to my liking.

This prompt mirrored a meditation/journaling class on growth

What I learned 

I didn't set out to learn anything, but I was struck by how my spirits lifted once the phones were off and I'd cut myself off. I realized just how much subconscious dread I've been carrying around. I've always known about this phone phobia I have which was heightened by years of earning a living answering and making phone calls. But the dread lifting was not just about unwanted phone calls. Good to know and deal with. At the same time, I did end up having to take a phone call for the old fashioned dreaded way of learning about the death of a friend (are you old enough to remember that when the phone rang it was often bad news?). Lesson number two: you can try, but you can't run away from life. On a more positive note, several times I put aside my usual tendency to procrastinate and experienced an almost buoyancy upon completing 3 notes to be slipped in the mail. "DO NOW" reaps great rewards.

What happened to 2024?

My pansies are doing really well this year, and there is a lighter colored flower on one of them that I've been wanting to sketch for weeks. What better time than now to immerse myself in a little detail sketching? I remembered using the sketchbook kept in the livingroom for this in the past and leafed through it to check. I always date my sketches and could hardly believe there were none after September of 2023. I do remember last year as a difficult one health and energy wise but really, no sketches in this sketchbook last year? I am quite pleased with how the pansy turned out as I worked to capture the creamy slightly green color and those slashes of purple. The camera does not pick that up on the original so you'll have to trust me that I got a perfect match using a surprising number of colored pencils to achieve it.

Thoreau's White Pines

I mentioned earlier about taking a more relaxed guiltless approach throughout my day, and that led me to take my coffee and sit on the steps to the back deck and just stare into the woods. I don't do this as often as I should. I'm usually reading or doing something with my hands when I sit out here or actively inspecting my container garden (and inside I'm constantly taking in information of one kind or another, seldom just aimlessly staring without much thought - such an active mind!). My eyes wandered up to the tree tops where I saw something that I had just read about in an entry in Thoreau's journals. He had climbed to the top of a white pine and discovered what he called "blossoms" - the beginnings of pine cones.

I was stunned. I've lived in this spot for 11 years and never noticed that particular pine tree having pine cones only at the top. I scanned up and down the greenbelt and didn't see another one. I grew up in this area spending so much time in the woods and never noticed a tree like this. I've lived in many states and never noticed a tree with pine cones only at the top like this. I don't know if it's a white pine but it looks like the white pines Thoreau described. So another thing learned I guess. No matter how observant you think you are, you may still need to slow down, let your eye and mind wander and notice what is there. 

Final conclusion 

I enjoyed my week of a variety of this and that, things that had been put on hold now tended to, things intentionally experienced that made me think of my husband (Star Trek movies and lots of motorcycle racing), things planned and unplanned. One of the possible options I'd jotted on a list meant to keep me from wondering how I meant to spend my time was to take another orphan block and turn it into a pillow cover. I pulled out all the fabric I'd been setting aside to make more blocks to go with it thinking there'd be something suitable to set it against (pile on the left) but nothing worked. Of course, I had the perfect fabric in my handdyes stash (under the block). I found the pattern I've used before for making a pillow cover with wider sides that would be closed with buttons (upper left). I should have stopped there and got it made to the point where the buttons go on but instead, I dumped my button jars on the table and rifled through them. Nothing quite right or of the right number. Couldn't find the card of wood buttons with maple leaf design bought as souvenir of our Canada vacation many years ago. Tried Walmart since I had to go there for a pillow form anyway but nothing even close. None at my quilt shop. Searched through more places where I might have stashed odd buttons. May have found something that will work. Anyway, this is my next project! And I still have a few other things on that list that I didn't get to when this is done. I truly never run out of things to work on.

 

Organizing

You might remember that my resolution word for this year is organize. After the first big push early in the year, I haven't thought much about it as I've just delved into various projects. Well, maybe I've thought of it a little bit as I note things I've continued to stack on the end of the work table. The filing never seems to end. But here is another part of my procrastination problem. I see things I might want to print off to place in a journal or my book of quotations, or something short enough I could just copy into one of them by hand, but instead of doing it on the spot, I end up saving the image or link to one of several places. If it is found on Facebook, I save it to a file I've titled "When I have time" because that is exactly when I think I'll get to it as well as articles I want to read but right now I don't have the time. Sometimes I download it to my computer where it can sit for a very long time, sometimes just waiting until I have enough to fill a page when I do get around to printing them. It would take just a few minutes to deal with things like this as I run across them, but I so often procrastinate until I think I'll have more time.

Well, this past week or so, I decided to take the time, and I've been doing some organizing of files and photos on my computer and going through all those Facebook saves and getting them printed off. I'm down to the last page in my quotations book and am looking forward to transitioning to the Celtic Weave book I made. My Gratitude and Memories book hasn't been touched in a long time but some of the saves definitely belong in there. There was even directions and photos of a transfer method I've been meaning to try for a very long time, but I needed it printed out to make it happen.

While in the midst of this, an e-mail directed me to some hiking trails a bit south of me that I was unaware of. I've been wanting to go somewhere new so maybe I will try one of them. For once, I did not save the link to Pocket under the Hiking tag but printed off the info right then (upper left). Pretty proud of myself for that!

Now to get them trimmed to size and glued into their proper places. Let's not procrastinate there too . . .

Sucked In Again

Someone should create an app that blocks all e-mails and websites offering free things, at least things related to art and crafts. I was going to make more trinket bowls but the free Year of Light Taster sessions I'd signed up for a few weeks ago out of curiosity suddenly started, and there I was, committing myself to nine days of art videos that would then disappear. I checked out how things were set up and found it very much like the Sketchbook Revival I participated in twice: A host artist (who I was familiar with from her videos on Sketchbook Revival) and 4 different artists a day presenting their classes in videos lasting anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half. At least with Sketchbook School we knew we'd have a week or so following the last presentations to catch up or rewatch videos, but this taster kept stressing that all would disappear after the last day of videos. Not to worry though, the host said, just purchase the year-long "Year of Light" and you would have lifetime access to these videos plus all the other videos that would be shown during the year. I didn't check out the price of that but you can believe it is hefty, and hefty enough that the host was offering a 25% discount and payment plan. Wow . . .

Well, I got to watching. Techniques taught were predominantly watercolor with a few using acrylic paint or pastels, and a few teaching drawing skills with pencil. There was a little collage and mixed media that I found interesting, and my fave Laly Mille showed a transfer technique unlike what I'd seen before (and am anxious to try). The quality of presentations varied widely, some very fussy and having you sit through slow application of paint and layer after layer to reach the desired result, something I had no patience for, some I skipped because I'd been exposed to them in Sketchbook Revival, some good but could have been edited down, and some very well done and informative. I fast forwarded through a lot of them, and the ones of interest I watched clear through, taking notes on the printouts provided. Unlike during Sketchbook Revivals where I watched and did almost every lesson over the two weeks, I had no time to actually do any of these lessons, but would like to try the ones I took notes on eventually, hoping I can remember and make sense of the notes since I won't be able to re-watch any videos.

My brain was reacting differently from other times I've watched videos like this, it seemed. When I'd run across videos either too lengthy or not well done, I'd question if this was a good use of my time. Even on ones that interested me, I caught myself thinking how much easier some of the effects could be done using fabric. In fact, one session painting a night sky with moon and bare branches stretching across and over the moon, I HAVE done in fabric, more than once. And one showing how to paint bubbles with acrylic paint reminded me of the bubble prayers quilt I made using sheers and metallic thread for the bubbles. Feeling confused, I started to question why I was even interested in wielding a paint brush, except that I have all the supplies and it's a newish, unmastered technique I have dabbled in.

And all the while, I felt the pressure of time, knowing these videos would be going away, and feeling a certain anger at something presented as a fun, get a "taste" of the real thing which was simply a marketing ploy. Whenever someone shared that they'd been sick or busy with work or other life intervening things and "behind" or even not having been able to watch a single video, the chirpie Host would say, don't worry, just buy the year long class and you'll have lifetime access to all, or to those saying how overwhelmed they felt, you don't have to do every lesson, just pick a few. Nope, you certainly don't have an understanding of the people who would sign up for this sort of thing. We would want to take full advantage of such an opportunity for free classes. 

Granted, Sketchbook Revival is a bit of a marketing tool as well, but it is giving the opportunity to artists to showcase what they have to offer should one decide they'd like to pay for a class from them, but the main thrust is to get people using their sketchbooks again and giving them ideas of how to do that. This taster didn't feel that way to me at all; no, this was buy my pricey class, gains for you secondary.

By the last day which was yesterday, I have to say I was pretty burned out, watching or skipping through all those videos for nine days straight, and losing interest in the last set, asking myself the important question of how would I use what I might learn here and am I even interested in learning how to draw or paint the object shown? (No, I do not want to paint a fox. No, I do not want to sketch a bird.) I did watch two more but was glad I was done. Also getting overloaded with so many people posting their renditions of the lessons in the Facebook group even though some were quite good. In fact, I had to chuckle that a few came out better than the teacher's. In the end, the host relented to the cries of give us a few more days and did tack on 5 more days of access to the videos. Good on her. But I've seen all I need to see I think. Back to trinket bowls . . .

Call of the Wild

Round Lake State Park

A case for vacation: “A lot of writing consists of waiting around for the aquarium to settle so you can see the fish. Walking around muttering seems to hasten the process. Taking public transportation nowhere helps. Looking out the bus window lets the back of your mind move forward. Don’t listen to anything but natural sound. Don’t look at anything you have to turn on. This is about the pleasure of silence. This is not meditating; this is reacquainting yourself with yourself. Something interesting might enter your head if you let it alone.” Abigail Thomas

I don't think that only refers to writing, but to any creative outlet. I have the luxury of being able to do this often, tap into this "pleasure of silence". Today was one of those times.

Goldilocks got her "just right" weather today so off I went and this is where I spent some time. I was surprised that more water wasn't flowing through here and what was didn't make a sound, even though some flowed over and around rocks. I was wondering if something was wrong with my hearing it was so quiet, if not for the very loud woodpecker. Up on the upper trail I spotted a deer browsing in the trees. I stood stock still while it tried to decipher what I was. When I finally moved on, it took off but not far. Turns out there were two or three more in those trees, just calmly watching and chewing. It was a day not to grab for a camera but just take in the sights and smells and the feel of the breeze against my skin and its sound through the trees. Refreshed.

Busy & Cold!

Hope the above does not offend anyone, but when I came across Dorothy Parker's short poem, I had to laugh. Oh yes, exactly how I feel as I find myself in denial, listening to talk of MLK day coming up and thinking, surely that isn't THIS Monday. But it is and we are at the mid-point of January already, leaving me wondering how did that happen. Well, keep on making organizational and project progress!

And I have, though I have no photos yet to prove it. I'm continuing work on another gratitude journal, this a belated Christmas present, and just like the one I made for myself, I am having great fun with it. And as I work and also move around my house, I am remembering a couple of key things about organizing. Most importantly, you don't have to do it all at once. Even dealing with a single item out of place RIGHT NOW rather than throwing it back on a pile for later is progress making me feel better. More and more is slowly being put right. And as I looked for magazine pages to use in the signatures, I got through two past issues of quilting magazines that I'd set on the end of the worktable until I felt I had time to go through them and pull any articles or pictures worth saving. Now there are two off my table and ready to go to the library where they have a magazine exchange section.

I'm still feeling pretty invigorated and diving into my studio with more energy and direction than I've felt for quite awhile. Could it be the ultra cold weather we've been experiencing? Like much of the country, we have been affected by that Arctic Blast. Thursday I hustled between snow squalls to pick up meds, groceries and a battery for the garage door opener and do a quick shovel of my short sidewalk to the front steps as that very day the temps were predicted to drop from high 20's towards single digits. And indeed, by Friday we were in the negatives, windchills leaving no doubt that my daily walks would be on hold. For two days we did not get above zero with our lowest low being around -18, but yesterday and today our high has been 8 degrees and the lows have been edging closer to zero. The forecast shows a steady rise in temperature the rest of the week but also a storm coming in tomorrow night or Wednesday that may dump up to a foot of snow on us. Well, it IS winter in the Pacific Northwest, and I have to admit, the super cold but sunny days have brought me a bit alive! And more snow? Just gives me more excuse to stay inside to work in the studio and knit in the evening.

How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Wrapping up #INKtober

This is it, the last day of #INKtober 2022 and my drawing for it! Assessing my experience with daily drawing using #INKtober prompts, I noticed several things that I think led to my success. First, my decision to do my best to keep it simple and quick. Nothing like knowing a drawing will soak up an hour or more to make one procrastinate but a ten to fifteen minute block of time was easy to fit in, even on the busiest days. I also found myself remembering and practicing the fact that one does not have to draw every line, that often something can be hinted at with just a few strokes. No need to get complicated though I tend to get caught up in details. 

But in sketches like this, details can sometimes muddy the picture and even obliterate what one is trying to capture. But truth be told, this last week started to feel more like a chore than fun, probably because of distractions that arose as life intervened. 

Still, when I ran across the quotation below a few days ago, I thought, yeah, there were days that felt like that, both in the drawing and in the living.

"We make our way through Everything like thread passing through fabric, giving shape to images that we ourselves do not know."

– Rainer Maria Rilke –

 More quilting on the Peace quilt ensued, three actually to my surprise. It is making a difference. I don't think I'll keep up with the sketch a day but exchange it for some time at the sewing machine each day. The usual once or twice a week I sit at the machine isn't nearly enough. I'm reviewing my work at the end of each session with criticism and a tad of disappointment that I haven't sewn those lines straight enough, being sloppy. I'm maybe a bit in the "energy gap" that Ira Glass speaks of when talking about how hard it is for creatives to get started. Austin Kleon illustrated it this way:

 

I know based on past work that I am good, but right now as I get back into it after a long time off, I think I'm not good enough. I hate it when I catch myself thinking, "Good thing I'm making this just for me." While I don't expect perfection, I do have my standards and at least on this quilt, I'm not living up to them. Next time . . .

What's Next

Once that quilt was mended, I thought I'd make another book, having set aside supplies for several different ones. But instead, there was some howling from the closet, a "wait a minute, you've been thinking about something else for awhile and what you need is in here" I couldn't resist. The Peace quilt construction left me with negative pieces of the design with fusible on the back. I couldn't toss them - some very big pieces there - and I couldn't quite bring myself to think in terms of cutting them up for some other sort of applique piece. I wanted to make a second quilt using a piece of fabric I knew lurked in this footlocker in the closet, itself lurking under boxes of my framed artwork. I had no idea what a Pandora's Box I was about to unearth and open.

When I went away to college in the 70's, pretty much everyone had some sort of footlocker in their dorm room and mine was this red, white and blue version. After college I hung on to it, using it mostly (if I remember correctly) to store my needlecraft supplies like yarns and cross-stitch cloth and rug hooking supplies and the like. At some point, I started storing fabric in it, and as I transitioned from garment making to quilting, the fabric was more likely to be long lengths of cotton fabric that I didn't want a lot of creases in. But there was also some garment fabric in there, corduroys and even some silks. Underneath this stack, that dark blue rectangle on the right, is actually some corduroy my mother-in-law passed on to me when she gave up on sewing. I'd forgotten it was in there, and forgotten as well why these particular fabrics are stored away here. Peeking out around the other two corners on the right is major yardage of black fabric bought at that same quilt shop I taught at that left that quilt top smelling like cigarette smoke. As I needed black fabric, I'd get it out and cut off a piece. I haven't had to do that for a long time and now I'm wondering if it too harbors some smoke odors.

Here's another layer - a batik, one of my hand-dyes, and a bold contemporary fabric that I bought a lot of because I was so taken with it and it was on sale. I remember my husband asking what I would do with it, and replying that I didn't know, but if nothing else it could be backing. That was some time in the late 90's, when Susan Stein had a quilt shop in the Minneapolis MN area. I was directed there by someone who said I could find Cherrywood Hand-dyes there, and I was overwhelmed by what Susan was carrying - nothing like the usual dark and woodsy Thimbleberries-like quilt fabric popular at that time. Besides the hand-dyes, she carried such bright and modern contemporary fabrics, maybe the only such shop in that part of the country to do so. I was smitten. (And the hand-dyes were instrumental in my friend Judi and I experimenting and eventually selling our own line of hand-dyes.) Once I moved closer to that area, I visited her shop several times, bringing home this big piece that I've never found a home for yet. Perhaps I put these three pieces aside with the thought they could be used together.

This grouping kind of puzzles me. Again, no real recollection of why these ended up in the footlocker. I'm thinking these were in one of those Keepsake Quilting fabric of the month club offerings which in itself was reason for me to keep them together. Note my tendency to end up with multiple colorways of a print.There is an invoice with them showing I bought more yardage of  at least one of them - a lot more.

And here it is, 2 yards of the crane fabric that went with this oriental collection and that I've been thinking about ever since I set aside these negative leftover pieces for a second Peace quilt. Yes, I think it will do nicely since I think it is safe to say I'll never actually make the kimono-style jacket I originally bought this sateen yardage for. I'd forgotten about that leafy tan border running along the selvages which is giving me ideas for thread colors. Yeah, just a little bit excited about this.

But goodness, as I look at the fabric pulled from that footlocker, and the fabric still lurking in it that hasn't seen the light of day for perhaps years, my overriding thought is that I have too much fabric!

A Name and More Shrinkage

Forgive the uneven lighting

Here it is on my bed - my fabulous fat quarter quilt nearly 20 years in the making! Yes, not much of an overhang but that's not an issue for me. I was just pleased that it dropped over the edges of the bed at the border.

It took an overnight soak in 20 Mule Team Borax and two washes with hour-long rinse cycle soaks with vinegar added to finally get all the cigarette smoke odor out. But I think I did. Didn't put it in the dryer though as one internet suggestion warned against it. Instead, I spread it out in the livingroom to airdry with a fan moving air over it. Here's the back showing the two reproduction fabrics on either side of the Dutch reproduction border fabric - I love it as much as the front!

I'd forgotten that when quilting the main part of the top, I'd left a lot of tails in the back to bury. I found most of them before the wash but found several more afterward. It's like this quilt refuses to be fully finished.

After I'd done this overall paisley quilting as an experiment, I was disappointed in it and wished I'd just quilted like I normally do - lots of stitching in the ditch and straight lines. And it bothers me a bit that changing bobbin thread to match the backing as I moved over the dark strips at the sides was not a practical option.

However, when I got it out again to quilt the border, I was surprised to now kind of like it. I was reminded of what Angela Walters always says about not worrying if you make mistakes or your stitches aren't even because when done, all you'll see is the beautiful texture. She's turning me into a believer. And goodness, can you actually see that tiny sliver of piping in the binding? Not sure what I was thinking to make it so narrow (maybe the widest I could do with the fabric left?). It's almost a conversation piece and I'm playing in my head what my descendants will make of it - lol. Certainly not necessary but all the same, a nice little accent.

All that was left now was to ink in a little information on the back. (Boy am I glad I don't have to sew a sleeve on!) I've been calling this my fat quarter quilt because its true name picked so many years ago is so very long. The original pattern was called "Hot Apple Cider" no doubt because of it cider-colored palette. But my palette reminded me of something else so I decided to call it "Blueberry Jam and Toast . . . With Eggs Over Easy!" I always use a Pigma Micron Pen when writing on fabric which is not always easy, the felt nibs catching in the weave. I've been seeing a lot about Pigma's newish PN pens - same permanent archival ink but with a plastic nib (thus the PN designation), so picked one up on a recent trip to Michael's. Oh My Goodness! It glides right over the fabric and leaves a beautiful line of ink.

Wool batting sample hand quilted on left, machine quilted on right

I'd measured this quilt before binding in order to estimate the amount of binding I would need and it measured 87" x 69" which was a little bit of a surprise. Before quilting it had measured 89-1/2" x 71, and while I am used to a quilt shrinking up a bit from quilting, this was more than usual, no doubt because of the density of the quilting. But since it has been so long since I've finished a piece that would be washed, I totally forgot about the additional shrinkage from the batting, and I lost a lot. Now my quilt measured 83 x 67-1/2. At one point in my traditional quilting journey, I got into making batting samples per Harriet Hargrave, the ultimate source for all things technical and otherwise having to do with batting. Few surprises, she offered, if you've taken the time to do a batting sample which among other things, will tell you how much shrinkage to expect when washed. I divided my samples in half, machine stitching on one side and hand stitching on the other (because it makes a difference sometimes in how much is drawn in). Out of curiosity, I dug out the one I did for the Hobbs Wool Batting I used in this quilt (above).

Total shrinkage of this sample: 6.5 - 7%

On the back side you record all the pertinent information: type of batting, type of fabric, if anything has been prewashed, starting size, size after quilting and size after washing. And there it is, a really high percentage of shrinkage with this wool batting (most cotton battings run around 3%). On a smaller piece it might not matter, but if you are planning a quilt for a bed that drops a certain amount over the sides, you'd do well to know how much shrinkage to expect and figure dimensions accordingly. You can lose 3 to 7 inches before you know it.

Over the years, I've settled into using pretty much the same few battings that give the different looks I want and that I am so familiar with how they behave so I haven't made a batting sample in a long time. I still have my stack of samples from when I was trying almost everything that was out there, and every now and then, pull them out for reference if I need a reminder of how a particular batting looks and drapes when quilted. Would I spend the time to make up a sample if I find a new batting to try? I should but I'd probably just sandwich up that quilt and hope for the best!

A Little Embarrassing

A few weeks ago I got the word from the management company I rent from that there's a city ordinance requiring the flappers in toilets in rental properties to be replaced after a certain amount of time and our buildings had reached that magic number. So I was required to set up a time for the maintenance man to come by and do it to my three toilets, a quick repair, but one that made me realize I had some extra cleaning and picking up to do before he arrived. If you live alone, you understand how easy it is to let some housework slide and boy had I let it slide lately, what with the issues with my back. Plus two of the bathrooms are on the second floor with the stairs and landing having served as a dumping ground for things that needed to go upstairs or into the studio but not right away. Yeah, I even procrastinate on that and now I needed to make that stuff disappear to where it was intended. What's more, one of the upstairs bathrooms I don't really use as a bathroom since it is off the master bedroom which I use as a studio. I've delegated it for my paints and stamping supplies and boy, did I have stuff stacked all over the floor and on the toilet seat and tank where he needed to get in to work. While I've had years to hone my storage system for my quilting things, I've failed to get a handle on organizing these newer mixed media supplies. Thus, picking up and putting things out of sight in there was not unlike the archeological digs I encounter whenever I clear my work table. Oh...THAT'S where that went to. Hmm - forgot I saved those things. Oh yeah, here's something I set aside to be stenciled. And when I opened the cupboard under the sink to put away the organizer that holds among other things my paint brushes, I was dumbfounded to see a very large bottle of matte medium! I have no recollection of buying it, obviously, since I recently related to you how I gave in and bought some to try with my collage since everyone raves about it. Yeah, a little embarrassing!

Also a little embarrassing is the way I continue to drag my feet over finishing the fat quarter quilt. To be honest, I'm letting that piping intimidate me unnecessarily - not like the first time I've ever done it. But at least like the binding, it is pieced and pressed in half, ready to go. But the real foot dragging has been because of the terrible cigarette smoke smell that arose from the quilt after I dampened it in preparation for trimming. It had to go out into the garage to air for quite a bit before I could bring it back in and square it up. I'm still a little stumped about the smell, although I know it was picked up in that quilt shop where I taught the class so many years ago. The shop was next door to a bar, and even though the owner had air filters going, anything that stayed in that shop long soon picked up the smell. I know I washed all the fabrics before construction and no doubt used a little steam from the iron now and then when pressing that should have alerted me to any lingering smell. All I can figure is that it must have absorbed some of the odor while hanging in the shop, but not such that one would smell it until dampened. What a shock. Once I get the binding on, you can bet I'll be doing a deep soaking with vinegar and thorough washing before this goes on my bed.

What Other Artists Do And Say

Designer Alexander Girard's textile organization system

Here are some things I've been saving to share with you. Grab a cup of tea or coffee, settle in and get ready to follow some links. Let's begin with this fabric storage method used by designer Alexander Girard. I have to admit that putting swatches on the front of a storage bin so you know exactly what's in it is better than my longstanding method of trusting my memory to steer me to the right bin, box, cabinet or drawer. But even for an organizer and neat freak like me, this struck me as obsessive. No, probably just smart for his purposes. If you follow this link to Austin Kleon's blog post where I found this, there will be more links about Girard to follow.

Next up, one of my favorite artists who is not only a master bookbinder, but creates intriguing multi-media pieces with found objects and is a poet as well. Kaija at Paperiaarre recently recounted some unexpected successes and recognition she'd received, and how in the doing, she had struggled a bit with direction. In the end, she decided to trust herself and feels that was the key to success. The very last line of that post, Lost & Found & Forgotten & Found, really struck a familiar chord with me:

I’m glad I dare to do me in all I do.

Upon reading this, I realized how many years I did not dare to do me in my artwork, at least not with any real confidence, but that these days I have found myself proceeding more with ears and eyes shut against a world that would tell me I'm going about it all wrong or that my vision doesn't fit the current trends. I find it a comfortable place and hope that I remain here, just doing me in all I do. I hope you will read the entire post or at the least the final paragraph, beautifully written, with pictures of her work and one of Kaija herself. You can also see her work for sale in her Etsy shop.

I subscribe to The Painter's Keys which offers good overall advice to would-be artists on a variety of subjects that more than just painters can benefit from. Here are two I felt worthy of sharing. The first, The Five Minute Rule, deals with the bane of us all, procrastination. You've perhaps heard of this trick, to tell yourself you are going to do something for just 5 minutes (some have you set a timer for 15), which almost always turns into staying at whatever task for longer than that initial short period of time; things in motion stay in motion according to Isaac Newton and it tends to be true. But here's something else to remember too:

Now that you’re on the dance floor, understand that the path to proficiency is long — it rambles over dunes of ugliness, stumbles among boulder-sized re-dos, and falls into perfectionist back-eddies. The pain of doing it poorly is part of the activity of learning. The elation of doing it well is the hard-won result of beginning this activity in the first place. Begin now. “If you wait,” said Mario Andretti, “all that happens is that you get older.”

Now that you've got your procrastination issues solved, move on to the second Painter's Keys I found of interest, Golden Day. The idea here is to take a full day to just work on your art, morning to night undistracted.

You set aside a clear and uncluttered day to work and love your craft. Start early; end late. You put your head down and push yourself from one thing to another. It’s a day where everything comes out of the end of the brush (or pen, or chisel), a luxury day where all that counts is the universe of your creation. After, on your weary way to bed, you can give yourself a badge.

I think most of us would agree this sounds like a wonderful luxury. If you've ever been on a quilt or artist retreat, you have a sense of what this would be like and what you could accomplish. It's certainly worth considering if one could manage a full day without turning on the computer or tv or answering the phone, telling any spouses or children to pretend you are not home. Among other things, the writer says, "Before long you’re pushing into bonus territory and you may startle yourself." I miss being startled by what I find myself doing, achieving. Haven't had that feeling for awhile and no doubt because I haven't been spending the sort of time in the studio I once did. It's a thought.

And now because you've been so patient with me and my words without pictures, here's a little slideshow of some interesting art quilts by Judith Beaver.

 

Since Last I Wrote . . .

Here's a collection of little things awaiting their turn to make an appearance on the blog. Some actually showed up as I was winding up the taxes and bridge slice. Like the reappearance of that collaborative liturgical stole project, first an envelop in the mail returning my long ago sent design edits and fabric swatches, and then the bag of fabrics - some for the project, some for me to add to my own stash of silks. I e-mailed my collaborator warning her I was not even going to open the envelop while I had these deadlines to meet, knowing how easily I can be distracted. She assured me there wasn't much new in there but that she'd figured out how to get the fabric to me without mailing it, and I could proceed when ready. I only agreed to this project with the caveat that it would take a backseat to any of my other art deadlines, so it can sit until I deal with those. But I had been thinking about it as I shuffled its stack of fabrics out of the way when straightening the workroom and looking for other things. So although I won't be doing anything about it right away, it is good to have it all in my hands now, ready when I am.

Continuing the liturgical theme, a catalog arrived in the mail a few days before Easter, with this dramatic image on the cover. I'm sure it is meant to be a modern representation of Christ, but in my mind, it could be an apostle, prophet, a holy man, not necessarily Christian although it's difficult not to see a hint of a cross in the possible halo about his head and the upraised arms invoking a crucifixion. At any rate, I kept seeing beyond those things and being drawn in by the stylization throughout. I saved it as a possible focal point for a collage.

Speaking of collage, just when I thought I'd broken myself of saving every envelop with a security pattern inside, I found this. I don't think I've ever seen this pattern before, something that looks like wood grain, or perhaps rippling water. I really did hesitate longer than one might think before deciding to keep it. I've filled a small bin with these envelops and have yet to use them. Oh well, one more won't hurt, especially since it is different.

I've observed more evidence of my resolution word, refresh, in the studio. After wrapping up a project, its scraps and fabrics and tools and threads can stay scattered on the worktable for days, generally until I pull out the next thing to work on. This is not a good habit and what leads me to shoving to one side and piling on top of other things until I have little space to actually work when work commences once again. So on the day I put in the last stitches on the bridge slice, trimmed it up and called it done, I was ready to walk away and plop myself in front of the computer for the time left before dinner. Some unfamiliar force stopped me though. Oh, you're right, I thought. Swipe those unusable trimmings into the wastebasket and put that one small piece of fabric and the netting back into the stash. I tried walking away again and it felt like something was literally pulling me back to the table. Ok, Ok, I'll gather up the pattern, photos and directions. And put away the rulers and scissors and rotary cutter. Are you satisfied now, whatever it is driving me to this unfamiliar behavior? I have to admit, it actually lightened me up a bit, and I thought - ah yes, refresh that studio behavior! Instead of experiencing the usual sudden dread upon entering the studio later, I was uplifted by the clean and ready work space. Yeah!

Surprisingly detailed security pattern that could be inspired by quilting?

Not so much my office/guest room space across the hall though. It is still a cringe-worthy mess of papers and projects and notes. Although my taxes were done and mailed off, my copies and their substantiating documentation as well as some I didn't need still lay scattered across an open file folder on the floor. It's quick work to gather up, organize and stuff this into an envelop for the file box but my habit has been to looked the other way when entering the room because when I go in there, I already have a list of things to attend to. But we have started to refresh that as well, apparently. On a day that had been long but left a short space of time for something, a space I'd talked myself out of as being enough for the studio but more than I should waste, I realized it was just enough time to put away the tax things and file a bunch of papers I'd let stack up. Suddenly I was deep into some files definitely needing weeding - out with the old, in with the new! And oops, I unearthed another security pattern I didn't remember having and decided to keep. Now to refresh my habit of procrastinating about tending to the growing stack of papers to be shredded.

Speaking of procrastination, I was doing just that one day when I was putting off tackling the bridge reflection by convincing myself I was just catching up on links I'd saved to read "when I had more time." Just one more article. Well, just another one. This will definitely be the last one. And yes, I ruefully smiled at the irony that this last one was all about procrastination, it was right there in the title, How to Beat Procrastination, and as long as I was procrastinating then sure, let's see how I can beat it. It was an exercise in head nodding, as I actually know most of what's in there. But it's definitely presented in an entertaining way and gave me some different ways of viewing it. The author, Tim Urban, talks about planning as breaking down a daunting task into manageable parts - not a concept I'm unfamiliar with. I love the analogy he follows this up with though:

"No one “builds a house.” They lay one brick again and again and again and the end result is a house. Procrastinators are great visionaries—they love to fantasize about the beautiful mansion they will one day have built—but what they need to be are gritty construction workers, who methodically lay one brick after the other, day after day, without giving up, until a house is built."

My, that's a pretty good description of me, the fantasizing part. It's harder to convince myself to keep after the gritty day after day part. He's got a lot to say about that too, the doing part, and you should go read it. This is actually part two, but he gives a link to part one right away, so you might want to read that too.

April has brought rain AND snow showers...and some new pens!

And now March has turned to April, we're still kinda stuck in winter, and I'm still buying pens for sketching. Dare I say it verges on addiction, this fascination with the astounding variety of drawing tools and inks out there? But in my defense, I had a soon expiring Mystery Reward from Staples, a guaranteed $5 if not more, and really nothing else I needed from that store. So I found myself in front of the pen display, wishing they carried bottled ink in the store, checking cartridges and specifically looking for something red. This was as close as I could come without ending up with a larger collection of pens and colors. I've noted my Urban Sketchers often recommending the Uni-ball brand, especially their white gel pens. These are roller-ball and permanent ink and I haven't used a roller-ball pen in ages. With my coupon, these came to about a dollar apiece so I am excited to now have a better choice of red pen for my "just add red" sketchbook along with the other colors for other sketching.

With April has come a confirmation of ArtWalk's application deadline, later than in previous years but coming up fast nonetheless. No wonder I felt my snowdye overdye zigzaggy piece was calling louder than the baby quilt. Brick one has been laid! 

A Quick Update

Can you find the quilt top amongst bits and pieces of future quilts?

I've made progress on the tidying of the studio, partly because the landlord is sending out someone to do a building inspection (and seriously would not be able to inspect upstairs otherwise) and partly because the blocks for the baby quilt are sewn together and ready for layering, if only my work table was cleared. Honestly, the state of my studio was so bad that I had to find a spot on the floor to lay out the blocks, and spent many days walking over the completed top in my stocking feet to reach my laptop. Certainly couldn't let the rental inspectors do that, if they could even get past the piles around the studio door. I've got so much up on the design wall that it's not usable for anything else but decided the quilt top would have to go up there anyway. What do you think?

I found some of my late friend's hand-dyed "one of a kind" fabrics for the backing. At 48" x 48", the top is too big for a single piece of backing, so the largest piece gets an addition along one side.

And the addition along the bottom needs its own addition along one side to be wide enough. The three different pieces of hand-dyed are not a perfect match but similar enough to work, and pick up the blues and deep purples in the prints in the top. I've never been known to use colors and prints typically thought of as appropriate for baby quilts - pastels in blues and pinks, cute animal motifs and the like. Nope, I tend to go with what I usually work with in my other quilts, and the recipients don't seem to mind!

I've often referred to these cleanings of the studio as archaeological digs and this time was no different. The bathroom where I do my stamping and art journaling was particularly bad, and as I was collecting and storing stamps, stencils and papers, I came across things not just forgotten but that I didn't even remember buying. I thought I had most of it fairly organized, but there's a real problem with out of sight out of mind with a lot of it. I'm not sure how to make it better. Maybe I just need to do more of that sort of thing so I am familiar with what I have to work with and where it is.

As for the rest of the studio, some things did get put away, but I fear the bulk of what I did was rearrange and relocate what was on the work table to a different surface, often the floor. In some ways, it wasn't as bad as I thought, not quite so much stuff on there as I remembered, and I was able to organize and stack the bits and pieces of several on-going projects that had gotten lost in the fray. Best of all (and in some ways, saddest of all), I ran across several magazines open to ideas for quilting this current top (or was it the previous baby quilt?), plus some articles pulled from other magazines with additional underwater motifs - perfect timing but boy would I have been upset had I found all this AFTER quilting the top! I also found a group of magazines I'd put with a dvd, all info I remember thinking was what I needed to dive into thread sketching (which is on my list for this year), and which could now join a notebook (located elsewhere of course) that I'd started while watching some videos on the subject.

All this sorting and sifting reminded me once again of how many resources I have at my fingertips, if only I remember having them and can find them when needed. I think of myself as an organized person, or at least someone who likes to organize things. But my interests have become so far ranging that parts of my creative life escape organization and memory. My sketching and art journaling is a good example. I did take time to make the concertina sketchbook for my "sit and pivot" homework, knowing I had a pad of fairly large watercolor paper in the closet. What I'd forgotten was that I also had three, count 'em, three other pads of varying sizes and kinds of drawing paper slipped in next to it. Here I've been buying different sketchbooks, searching for the perfect size and type of paper for my needs when I had plenty of paper to make my own. Well, I've learned a lot from those pre-made sketchbooks, and now my memory is jogged that I have what I need to make my own, including this custom-size concertina!

Hmmm - guess this update wasn't that quick . . .    

The Muse Is Back

And so it begins . . .or so I think! Redrafted block and fabric for Eve's quilt

I don't know where my muse takes off to, but every now and then she goes on vacation, coming back refreshed. Sometimes a little TOO refreshed. Mine has been stirring up and turning over my brain for weeks with tantalizing ideas she presents as my eyes wander from the tv to a beautiful art note card propped nearby or as I try to fall asleep thinking of ways fabric might be folded for snow dyeing, or as I think through the technical challenges in the slice quilt, or as I scribble alternate block dimensions in the margin of a catalog by my wingback chair. And then there's the driving urge to get back to sketching and finish the course I paid for last April and still have 2 sections to finish. Usually when my brain is this overloaded, I end up doing nothing because I can't decide which to work on, something I call being on spin cycle because it can literally have me spinning from one thing to another as I change my mind. This time, the muse grabbed me by the scruff of the neck one day (when I'd run short on studio time which left me ready to put anything off to the morrow) and sat me down at the work table saying, "For Pete's sake, draft out the new dimensions on the block for the baby quilt . . . NOW!" Yes, it was THAT strong of a feeling, and so I did. But as is so often the case, once done my curiosity about what was in my stash to go with the lavender hand-dye got the better of me. Oh, that will only take a few minutes, and actually, it really DID take only a few minutes as I immediately found varying amounts of a collection that changed my whole idea of kind and color of fabric for this quilt. Exciting!

But I wasn't ready to dive into the cutting yet. No, I could feel a stubborn streak about the sketching coming on and the muse did not disagree, gathering up my sketchbook and plopping me in front of the computer to warm up with a hatching exercise in a Sketchbook Skool video on their blog which related to the very first segment of my course. I'd even left a few pages blank for more hatching practice before continuing to the next segment. I've been wanting to try this green ink in this sketchbook and have it in an "eyedropper" pen that I suddenly was having problems with. Couldn't get the ink to flow. Could see ink leaking out where it shouldn't be leaking. I took the pen apart, soaking the nib and feed in a small cup of water, fished them out, rinsed and reassembled the pen. Nearly tossed the water, but it was quite green. This is permanent ink and even diluted, I figured it might produce a nice wash over a mixed media page. I saved it and went back to my sketching course.

But every evening, I'd find myself staring at the art card and envisioning what kind of background I could paint/mark/collage for it. May as well start with that wash. Four years ago I bought a large Canson Mixed Media Art Book, one with pages that can be removed and put back in. Have I tried it? Of course not. But it should be the right size for what I have in mind for the card, and no time like the present to try out the paper and those ideas the muse keeps nudging me towards. Although the reviews and descriptions indicate it will take wet media and stay flat, I was probably using too much wet with my diluted ink and form brush. The paper curled right up, almost into a cylinder, but relaxed some once dry. I put it back in the journal and weighted it which has flattened it pretty well. There was still ink left and it occurred to me that when I experimented with making paper from recycled paper, one of my questions was how it would take fairly diluted paint. So I pulled out a sheet and used up the rest of the diluted ink on it, discovering that it went on well and didn't soak all the way through. It showed darker than on the mixed media paper (and as I started working the ink off the sides and bottom of the cup, the transfer to the paper towards the bottom was darker). Then again, the mixed media paper is white; my hand-made paper is a bit greyed with the added browns from the tea leaves. But I'm very pleased with this test run.

As for the fabric folding thoughts, they arose with the growing piles of snow outside. I don't really want to dye up more one-of-a-kind fabrics; I've not done anything with most of what I produced last winter. However, I do have pieces I wasn't that jazzed about, and have not gotten anywhere with thoughts of how to improve them with printing. But what if I just did various folds that would give interesting patterning over them like the kaleidoscopes? In a "tidying up" sorting through a very old file awhile ago, I'd run across instructions for folding and cutting 5 and 6 pointed snowflakes and set it aside to try at least the folding part to produce better kaleidoscopes in my fabric dyeing. And then at the January art group meeting, Rebecca handed out copies of folding techniques related to the indigo dyeing. The muse stood in the corner of the room, nodding her head. Get with it, girl, before the snow melts away! This time I plan to use the tip of ironing in the folds to see if I can get more precise delineations.

Using the ironing board to organize as the worktable is still cluttered.

I've been thinking about that slice quilt too, and how I can collage the water per the inspiration from Terrie's quilt, also from the January meeting (the muse could hardly contain herself). I couldn't find the very old article on using a non-fused collage technique in clothing (must have decided I'd never make that vest, nor collage fabric in a quilt - silly me), but I found someone else on line showing basically the same thing as I remember it so I think I am ready to give it a go. But my attention really is now focused on this baby quilt, in spite of the fact I thought I would "whip together" the slice quilt before moving on to it. I'm being challenged by it in the way I've always enjoyed working best: letting the fabrics on hand and the amounts of each available drive the designing. The hand-dyed fabric is half yards and right away I discovered I needed a yard just for the 6 long background strips in each block for a 9 block quilt. Hmmm. Well, the two middle steps in the gradation are fairly close and I've pulled in a purple from a different dye run for the shorter background strips, even though it obviously shades more red than blue. Cut in smaller pieces, I think it will blend ok. As for the prints, it's a similar story - enough of two, very small amounts of others and a need to dig through the stash again for one or two prints that will work with them. After dithering over two batiks that were reading a bit too bright, I ended yesterday by unearthing the perfect batik. Still lots of cutting and mulling to do before assembling but the muse seems satisfied with my progress. Enough to not mind when I close the studio door and sit at the computer for 15 or 20 minutes watching more videos from my on-line drawing class. 

It's been good, this bouncing from one focus to another, combined with a lot of cross-pollination. I'm making progress and my brain has stopped feeling like it is being pulled in too many directions to the point of pulling apart. The muse has been a bit like a dance partner, firmly leading through the steps of our particular creative dance.