September Journal Quilt

My journal partner, Judi, is quickly settling into her new surroundings, and tells me she even set up her machine and turned it on. Hopefully she'll be able to journal with me in October. In the meantime, my schedule busied up, and Monday was the soonest I could get going on my September effort. "Direction" was the calendar theme with this quotation from Henry David Thoreau: "Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence." I have to admit, that was intimidating. Was it an indictment of how I've spent my time? It seemed to be demanding that I take a good hard look at my creative journey and make a decision about which of many paths I've pursued I should now concentrate on. And once I figure that out, just how would I interpret that in a journal quilt?

One realization I've come to recently is that I may have been fooling myself about ever getting comfortable with and really good at a certain kind of freemotion quilting. I'm ready to admit that no amount of practice will get me to the technical level of expertise that will satisfy me. I just don't think this is one of my strengths, although I can do it well enough to get by when I have to. However, I don't want to just get by. I want to truly enjoy the process while producing high quality work, and neither has been happening. Although I don't think of myself as a follower of the crowd, I'd convinced myself over the years that if I were to be a part of the modern quilting world and "play" with the big girls (and a few boys too!), I simply had to do this kind of freemotion quilting that everyone else was doing. So I tried, and I practiced, and I struggled, and about the only part of it that worked for me was when I reverted to "heirloom" quilting to mimic antique hand-quilted quilts, or when I worked with small motifs. Everything else just left me slightly disappointed. My recent play with feeddogs-up quilting of closely spaced parallel lines, on the other hand, has been very satisfying and enjoyable and a "narrow" path I think I need to pursue with "love and reverence," not apology.

As the last few posts have indicated, I've also re-discovered my love of geometric shapes that hearkens back to my simple traditional quilt block background. One picture from The Magazine Antiques kept calling to me to work with it. The wood grain lines in this closeup of Shaker furniture reminded me of my closely spaced quilting lines. The quotation, I decided, was calling out for me to get back to basics, to a kind of quilting that got me interested in the medium to begin with, and adapt it to my current interest in art quilts.

What I ended up with is a fairly literal interpretation of the original picture, using my favorite color palette, but the methods I explored were slightly different from what I've been doing. I was thinking in terms of my Grid series where I started appliqueing squares of fabric to a background fabric instead of piecing them into the top. But this time, I couldn't see any point in finding two different fabrics to work with. I could still satin stitch around the basic shapes, but I'd used thread to shift the color of a single fabric to make it look like two. (I experimented with this idea with my April journal quilt here & here.) I'm giving in to the allure of beautiful threads in the same way I long ago gave in to the beauty of batiks and hand-dyed fabrics.

I started by pulling out graph paper, ruler and pencil. Once I'd settled on the framing and proportions, I transferred my pattern on to Golden Needles Quilting paper. This is like dress pattern paper or tissue paper which comes in a roll and in two widths. You can sew right through it and it tears away nicely. I figured this would be easier than drawing the main lines directly on the fabric.

I sprayed the back of it lightly with Sulky K2000 temporary basting spray so that it would stick to the master pattern while tracing and to the fabric as I sewed through it. (Word of caution here. I only used the Sulky because I have a little left and I abhor waste. I've not had good luck with it overall and much prefer the 505 Basting spray. But I figured for this project, I could get away with using it.)

I fused Decor Bond to the back of my fabric to stabilize it since I planned to do most of the "wood grain" stitching before layering for quilting. Once I stitched the main lines, the pattern was removed. Here you can see how I use a seam ripper to slide along the perforation to more easily and completely remove the paper. Any tiny pieces left behind can be picked out with tweezers. I particularly like to use the ones that came with my serger.

Now came the fun part, although I bet most of you will think this must have been boring. Again, with feeddogs up, I first ran straight stitches in the "background" areas, using the presser foot as a guide to keep the lines about 1/16 inch apart. My intention was not to have perfectly spaced lines, but to have them vary slightly. I've tried both on other projects, and it is exceedingly hard to keep those line spacings perfect. Actually, I think the slight varying looks better and more interesting. The thread used on this first pass is Oliver Twist Hand-dyed cotton thread.

The second pass in the "drawer" sections was done with a King Tut variegated thread. I was hoping for a little more contrast, a little more of a golden tone, but I decided subtle in this case was ok. This thread on this fabric made it look very tweedy. I could see using this effect on fabric for clothing or handbags.

Yes, I could have done this stitching with the feeddogs up, but it wouldn't have been nearly as relaxing to do, the stitches would have been uneven, which would have bothered me, and I might have had some distortion afterwards which would have been hard to flatten out. I also could have done this stitching after layering with batting; it would have given more texture almost like corduroy wales, but I wanted a flat look instead. The batting would be held in place with the satin stitching outlines of the drawers (done with polyneon thread). The satin stitching also covered up the "traveling" stitch at the end of each line of stitching that allowed me to sew continuously up and down over each section.

I wished that I had allowed more excess fabric beyond the 8-1/2 x 11 finished size. If I had, I think I would have done a facing again like I did last month. I really don't like satin stitching the edge, but I didn't want to do binding either. So I thought perhaps I could make my peace with satin stitching this time around. (It irks me that it really takes two rounds and a ton of thread to get proper coverage, and I especially have trouble turning corners neatly.) I must have tried half a dozen different colors of thread, none of which I liked. I finally settled on this yellow King Tut, reminding myself that this is just a journal quilt, after all. Still, I like to have a decent finish on each that I do. I'd toyed with the idea of couching something along the edge instead, but found I didn't have anything thick enough. It did unearth some hand-dyed threads and cordings, one of which I'd have used for sure had it not been so thin. Now I wondered if I could couch it on next to the satin stitching as a bridge and defining line. It was just what I needed to do to be able to live with the yellow thread.

Here is the special braiding/cording foot that helped apply this. It has a guide to keep the cord centered so you don't have to pay much attention to it as you zig zag over it. This, I think, is a pearle cotton twisted with a gold metallic, and the thread used to couch it down is a smoke monofilament thread. I was glad I took the time to do this. It made me realize that I could use this method instead of inserting piping along the binding seam like I do so often these days. One more option...

This was extremely hard to photograph and scan, which accounts for the variety of shades the work changes to from picture to picture. To see more detail, click on any picture for a larger view. I should mention that I fused a second backing on after the quilting was done and before I satin stitched the edge. This serves as a label, and the WonderUnder not only helps the fabric feed smoothly through my printer, but adds a stiffness to the piece. I like the combination of Decor Bond and WonderUnder to give these smaller pieces extra body so they can almost stand up on their own, making them easier to display.

Shaker Furniture

Before I show the results of my journal quilting yesterday, I want to talk a bit about the magazine article from which the design idea originated. The August 2007 issue of The Magazine Antiques featured a story covering "classic Shaker furniture design as it emerged in the early nineteenth century," noting that "...concepts of balance, pattern, and scale all contributed to each piece." This may sound dry, but the pictures of both Shaker furniture (such as the 1860 sewing desk above) and modern pieces influenced by classic Shaker design (such as the 1999 dining chest by Roy McMakin shown below) immediately captured my attention. Oh great, I thought, as if I don't have enough ideas already. But what I was seeing WAS giving me ideas, a new direction for my Grid series (see Grid #2 and Grid #3).

To be honest, after I finished the third in that series, I caught myself losing interest, in spite of the fact that I had not worked through all my original ideas. I was stuck in a rut already. What intrigued me about this furniture was the varying sizes and shapes of the drawers and doors within a single piece, and the asymmetry (such as the 1830 and 1840 washstands below). Seeing these examples unlocked something in my head, reminding me that grids are not always made up of squares and don't necessarily have to be symmetrical. Brilliant!

Of course, I also homed in on the very visible wood grain in some of the pieces, thinking how easily this could be rendered in thread. More on that when I reveal September's journal quilt.

Autumn is Here

I've been AWOL from the studio far too long. Today was just the kind of day weather wise perfect for concentrating on work inside: cool and blustery with on and off sun and rain. As I suspected, once the warm weather bid farewell, I found my desire to be getting stuff done in the studio return. And so today I worked on September's journal quilt - pics to come.

Before I get going on my day, the dog gets a walk. Then she'll leave me alone for awhile, and it gives me time to get my thoughts together, the blood flowing and possibly gather up a little inspiration.

The leaves are a few weeks later in their turning than last year, and the wind and rain we've been having are dislodging colorful examples already. I really have to discipline myself not to collect a few, take pictures of them, stare too long at their details. I did tons of that last fall, and I remember loading my blog with pictures and more pictures. Check the September/October 2006 archives if you're interested.

So you see, I have plenty of references at my fingertips. I need to stop collecting and start using. But of course, I couldn't pass up a few "artistic" shots.

I thought with the cooler weather, I'd seen the last of any new flowers blooming. Yet here these lovely purple flowers suddenly appeared along the drive. A last hurrah, I suppose. There's snow dusting the mountain tops already...

Twyla Tharp's "Movin' Out"

This was my little treat to myself yesterday. If you're a fan of either Twyla Tharp's choreography or her book, see it. If you're a fan of Billy Joel music, see it. If you are a fan of both, this is definitely a must see.

Word of warning: For those of us who lived through the Vietnam War years, some scenes may hit a little too close to home, cause some emotions to well up. Ok, I admit it. Parts made me cry. And I decided that was a good indicator that this was a class production. Excellent in every way. And I'll quit gushing now.

More on Catalogs

Home Dec catalogs can be a great source of information and inspiration for the artist. I get several, and like the bedding catalogs, I rarely order anything from them. But I always look through them, if for no other reason than to note color combinations. A recent Charles Keath catalog provided much more than that.

Right off the bat, I spotted this "transitional cabinet." It was the shape and configuration of the drawers that drew my interest. Fodder for my grid series? I think so.

Further on, I started to see "original wall art." I've often wondered how decorative artists can possibly keep up with orders once they show up in mass-marketed catalogs. Here I saw several ways, other than the common print. Fairly prevalent is transfer printing of images or photographs onto different bases like wood and canvas, followed by hand-finishing with oil brushstrokes or other coatings to mimic the feel of an oil painting. (The one shown here is by Don Li-Leger.) I happened to view such a photo transfer to canvas in an exhibit today, and it is a very effective technique. As they say, the look of an original oil with very crisp detail. I rather liked it.

Another method I've heard a lot about lately, but didn't understand until reading the description here is giclee (scroll down page and click on the giclee link). The catalogue describes it this way: "...an image of the original painting is laser printed directly onto canvas. It is then hand brushed with an acrylic sealer which adds highlights to enhance its beauty. This piece is by Linda Bernhard.

Trends

I receive several catalogs specializing in bedding for the home. I rarely order from these catalogs but I do find it interesting to look through them and note how this industry mirrors the popularity of quilts with their inexpensive imports. A recent one from linensource indicates a shift towards stripes. I couldn't believe how many quilts sporting stripes were shown, going both horizontally and vertically. And I'm not just talking striped fabric here. My grounding in traditional antique quilts spotted many variations on the "strippy quilt" theme: wide bands of different fabrics. varying in width and value. The one pictured above astounded me, though, with its quilting (click on picture to see more detail). This is so reminiscent of the North Country or Durham Strip Quilts with the vertical cable design running up the panels. Some Amish bar quilts look very similar.

Here are two of my own versions of strippy quilts. Both alternate strips of fabrics with strips of pieced blocks.

Memorial Art

Check out this post on ARTiculations blog regarding memorial art. The last paragraph in particular is one art quilters should take heed of:

"Memorializing is arguably one of the strongest of human impulses. But the commonality of this impulse sometimes leads to art that is formulaic rather than expressive. Memorial as art should be held to the same rigors and high expectations as any other work. Those events and individuals we remember demand it. "

This is a piece I made 2 years after my husband's death, made from his silk ties and shirt and some leftover silk he bought me in Canada. It was not made for public consumption but as part of my grieving process. It is not great art, and it is a bit formulaic - quite typical of what a quilter would produce. But as the quotation above states, the impulse to memorialize is strong and we turn to what we know best. I have other ideas for quilts about him and what I went through, but they are hopefully a bit more artistic and something I wouldn't mind exhibiting. Something more along the lines of what the ARTiculations blogger is talking about. I am in a different place both in my creative journey and in my grieving process and the resulting quilts should show that.

This sort of work is difficult to face, to begin sometimes. Who in their right mind would purposely do something with such potential to stir up painful emotions safely pushed down and locked up? Yet when the time is right, working through these memories, good and bad, through the medium of fabric is cathartic, satisfying, worth the risk.

What I've been up to, where I've been

Company's here and gone, and I'm trying to remember just what I did with my time before they inundated my life! We had a great, if busy time, putting over 400 miles on the car as we indulged in several nostalgia trips. Here we are, my sister-in-law, brother and me, just minutes from the outskirts of town overlooking beautiful Pend Oreille Lake. (I've kept the pics small, but if you're really interested, clicking on them will open nice large versions.)

This was the start of a loop into Montana, with many stops at historic markers and scenic overlooks. This is looking down the Clark Fork River just below Cabinet Gorge Dam. On the right you can see the old two lane highway snaking its way along the mountain.

Once in Montana, we jogged north along the Bull River. In the background you can see the Cabinet Mountains, complete with fresh snow.

Our main destination was the Yaak River, and its extraordinary set of waterfalls. It's difficult to get a good picture of them, and this time of the year with the water low, they are not as spectacular as with the spring runoff. Still, the rock formations have always fascinated me. Just above the first falls you can see that layers of rock are starting to tilt up.

I think a lot of people miss the lower falls since it's not visible from the road and no signs mark the trail. I know it's there because Dad and I fished this stretch of river from the campground downriver to the falls. Here the rock slab takes a real tilt.

My dad made me sit at the top of these rocks and drop my line way down into the eddying hole below. Scared me to death. The picture doesn't give a good idea of the actual size of these rocks. My brother was particularly interested in the various colors and shapes - as if they had been painted. There may be some artist in him after all.

Heading west back into Idaho, a scenic overlook gives you this view of the 2nd highest bridge in Idaho over the Moyie River. In the background, that spot of water that looks like a small lake is from the Moyie Dam.

We'd spent much more time than planned, so after this stop, we hightailed it back home. The previous day we'd spent over and around the town where we'd grown up. I guess we were so absorbed in finding old haunts and marveling at what had and had not changed that we totally forgot to get the camera out. Or perhaps it was just so familiar that we didn't think to snap any current shots. Here's a shot I took a couple of years ago when I came out for my college reunion.

Our final day of sightseeing was a little more relaxing as we took an hour and a half boat cruise on the lake. I never tire of looking at the mountains. Some that were pointed out to us were The Green Monarchs, Scotchman Peak, Seven Sisters and Roman Nose. The day was a bit blustery and not the best for pictures, but we tried anyway. This site has lots of aerial shots around the area, including many we saw from the boat as well as the car.




And now enough of the travelogue. It's back to the grind...

A Slight Diversion

In between cleaning for company and taking care of normal business, I found a chunk of time to make up the yearly block for my nephew's future quilt. He is turning eleven, and has made it known for a bit now that he wished Auntie would send him something more fun for his birthday. Poor child. Doesn't realize that I don't send presents as a normal rule. I'm hoping that when he receives the finished product around his 21st birthday, he will have circled back to appreciating this ongoing gift recording events in his life. But for now, I'm hoping this particular block will make him chuckle.

He starts band this year, and has decided to take up the trumpet, like several other males in the extended family. While digging around for an appropriate background for the applique, I ran across this rabbit fabric. It may not seem appropriate to you, but earlier in the year, his family discovered the dog playing with a baby bunny. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that mother rabbit had decided to make her home in their yard, dog or not. Much hand ringing ensued, calls were made, and soon they were erecting a small fence around the burrow to keep the dog out until the bunnies grew up and moved on. So yes, rabbits and trumpets tell part of the tale of this nephew's year.

The applique, by the way, was applied with my current favorite method. No fusible, just a little glue baste to hold things in place until the edges were finished with a satin stitch. Tearaway stabilizer pinned to the back keeps the fabric from drawing up and distorting.

An Anniversary

One year ago today, I arrived in Sandpoint for good. This was my new view, visible from the rooms on the south side of my rental house, including the bedroom that would become my studio.

I spent that first night with what few belongings I could cram in my car, a borrowed sleeping bag and chair, and my dog. The movers would arrive the next day with the rest of my worldly possessions, and chaos would ensue for the next few months.

I always lose something during the course of a move. This time, it was my recipe book holder. I'm sure it got squirreled away in one of the two boxes of framed pictures, but I haven't had the incentive to thoroughly go through the lot to see if it is there or got left behind. Oh, I also seemed to be missing an umbrella, which I found just yesterday. It was in a box I had packed which had extra hangers, tie-downs, assorted garage hooks in it, stuff I hadn't needed all this time. Packing logic breaks down as boxes fill and the odd (or oddly shaped) object doesn't fit with its mates. Those crafty movers must have snuck it in there when I wasn't looking. Finding it in such an odd place gives me hope that the recipe book holder will also surface one day.

Meeting a goal - mostly

I was determined to finish the angel quilt this week (with the possible exception of getting the sleeve and label on) but I am just happy to be done with the quilting at the end of today. I have company arriving on Monday to prepare for, and several other must-do items have cropped up, so if nothing else, my focus isn't what it should be. I must make up my mind about the edge finish; I once thought I didn't want binding, but now I'm thinking I do, at least on three sides. So the thought and consideration that last design step needs may not be in me until all that wonderful company leaves.

I'm still not sure how well this is working, and I'm a little lukewarm about how the quilting turned out. I am glad however, that I quilted the whole top before adding the angel and quilting it. It was much easier to continuously quilt across those sections, and the angel itself seemed easier to deal with on a pre-quilted base. I'd definitely use this process again.

Tip for the day

I have been silent, but I have been busy. I have been quilting away and got the angel quilt to the point of fusing the angel in place. Before applying the iron, I inserted a few pins so I could hang the thing on the design wall, check the placement of the angel, contemplate the next round of quilting. I let it simmer over night.

The next day, yesterday, I decided I wanted to move the angel up a bit, so took the whole thing down to lay it flat, removed pins, shimmied it up, checked that it was straight, and replaced the pins so it could be moved safely to the ironing board. I started fusing from the middle down, removing pins as I went. As I moved the iron to fuse the rest, I noticed a tiny piece of red fuzz on the wing and brushed it off. Mmm, still there. So I did a more deliberate picking up motion with my fingers. Didn't budge. What in the heck is it, that I can't get it off? It looks like a tiny drop of blood, but I'm not bleeding anywhere.

I then I remembered. I'd gone out that morning, applying lipstick that I don't bother with if I'm just here at home. I'd removed those pins and stuck them in my mouth until I could replace them again. I tiny bit of lipstick had clung to the pins and deposited itself in a perfect dot on the fabric. I haven't made this faux pax in 15 years! Luckily, a little spot remover solved my problem.

So the tip is, don't wear lipstick in the studio, and if you do, don't stick pins or needles in your mouth!

Music to Quilt By

I received a package from my "most favorite and fabulous" niece today, which included the CD "Pink Moon" by Nick Drake and instructions that it was for "quiet studio moments." Well, I was headed to the studio to resume quilting on the angel quilt, so I popped it into the CD player. I don't know where I've been; this is an artist I've never heard of, but oh, my...I really enjoyed this disc. Thanks, Vanessa!

I've been working from the outside in once I got the major areas of the quilt stabilized. Today I quilted the beach area using a modified garnet stitch, following the outlines of the printed rocks in the fabric. Then I quilted some "grain lines" along the top border. Both of these areas were done with slightly different shades of brown Oliver Twist hand dyed thread. I think the lake is up next. I laid out some thread possibilities before shutting down for the day.

August Journal Quilt

Normal journal day would have been last weekend when I was away for my birthday. I returned home from that trip to the moon rising over the lake, casting its reflection in the calm waters, and I was reminded again how blest I am to have found this magical spot. So as the week progressed, and I contemplated how to interpret August's calendar theme of Wisdom with a quotation from Ralph Waldo Emerson, that image of the moon came to mind. As per the quotation: "The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common." I had extra motivation to work on my journal quilt Saturday; my jounal buddy Judi, who has had to put her own journaling on hold until she gets settled out in Oregon, was passing through just an hour from me and we'd arranged to meet. I'd be able to show her this and the rest of the year's journal quilts in person - what a treat!

I started with some photos I'd taken earlier when I was more interested in capturing the color of the relection than getting a good sharp picture. Yes, no time to set up a tripod so the pictures are a bit blurred. I narrowed it down to these two shots, neither of which were composed exactly right, but which had elements I wished to incorporate.

Using my Paintshop Pro program, I reduced these to black & white, then applied a "black pencil" effect to bring out the main shapes only.

Next I auditioned fabric choices. The blue for the lake is some sort of synthetic dress material with a slight sheen which I hoped would make it look more like water. I changed my mind later about the fabric for the foreground, as you will see.

One of the things I wanted to experiment with was YLI's Brilliance thread. It is a metallic that glows in the dark and I have never fully come to terms with it. I'm thinking of using it in the angel quilt, so this seemed like a good place to work through my previous problems with it. I would use it to embroider the moon and reflection and these two colors were as close as I could get to matching those in the photo.

As I often do, I combined several methods to suit my needs. While I planned to use the Accidental Landscape method (see this post and this post) to create the top, that polyester fabric was ravelly and would not hold a crease when trying to press under its raw edge. I needed to stabilize the areas where I'd be free-motion stitching the moon and reflection. So I decided to try fusing the various sections to Decor Bond.

I wanted some guidelines, though, for fabric placement. I didn't want this landscape to be very accidental. Decor Bond is translucent enough for my b&w printout to show through. I used a permanent black Sharpie to draw the finished size of the journal quilt on the Decor Bond, then moved the printout underneath until I had the orientation I wanted. I used the Sharpie to mark the outlines of the foreground, lake, mountain, first on the fusible side (since I did not reverse my b&w version before printing it), then again on the other side. The polyester & sky fabric went down first, my teflon pressing sheet protecting the iron from the exposed fusible. I cut a freezer paper template of the mountain section to help guide turning under both edges, then positioned using the marked guides on the Decor Bond and fused. The foreground was cut freehand, trying to capture a bit of the ragged line grass produces, and pressed under before fusing. Because of the overlaps, those pressed under edges are loose.

Here is how it looked after stitching the moon and reflection. If you look closely (click on any picture for a larger view), you can see that the edges of the mountain and foreground are not sewn down yet - that will be part of the quilting. The camera is not lying about the color of the thread, by the way. For as different as each thread looked on the spool, it was difficult to see any difference between them on the fabric. And I think the #80 metallic needle may not have been big enough because I still had some problems with tension.

The last step was to layer the top with Thermore polyester batting and muslin and quilt it. I started with the loose edges, free-motion topstitching close to the turn under with smoke monofilament thread. And partly because I was feeling lazy and partly because I wanted to keep it simple, I continued to add minimal quilting lines using that same monofilament thread. Here's the quilting as seen from the back.

There was one other thing I wanted to try on this quilt and that was a faced edge finish. I'm seeing this on more and more art quilts where adding a binding ruins the overall effect. For you readers familiar with clothing construction it is like adding a facing to a neckline or armhole. I followed some basic instruction shared by Alison Schwabe here which is her solution to finishing irregularly shaped quilts. It's a lot like the pillow turn method, except after turning, the center of the "facing" is cut away, leaving around an inch of facing to secure to the back of the quilt, and then the facing is understitched to the seam allowance. This helps keep the facing from rolling to the front.

I had some success with this, but I think I should have clipped the corners (which were difficult to poke out) and graded the seam since I had the extra stiffness of the Decor Bond in there. Although the picture above of the finished quilt shows nice straight even edges, the real thing is less perfect. Let's here it for cropping! That is basically my issue with any edge finish I've tried other than binding. I simply can't get that evenness that is my aesthetic. I know there's another way to do a facing, and before I totally write it off, I'll have to dig it up and give it a go, because frankly, I do like the look it gives to certain pieces.

Overcoming Obstacles

State of mind over state of being...
Frame of mind over frame of body...
Mind over matter...
Wanting to be there.

I guess my little lecture to myself yesterday paid off. After a shaky start to the day, I was ready and anxious to get into the studio and start quilting. The back didn't protest much, although I may regret this tomorrow. I added some height to my sitting position which seemed to help my shoulders too. I've worked my way up and down one side border, picking out the leaf shapes and the scroll in navy thread. I always worry I'll ruin my work with the quilting, think maybe it'd be better left unquilted, then marvel as the dimension transforms the design. Click on the picture to see the stitches better.

Back but not

The blog's not the only thing I'm neglecting this week. Although I returned from my weekend away late Sunday night, I still feel I'm recovering from all the stimulation and the long drive down and back. I think I've written before about pain as a distraction to creativity. I've managed to tweak my lower back and not just a little, so the thought of working at a sewing machine or doing much of anything until it quits complaining seems out of the question. I'm still dragging in general, which I expect the first day after a trip, but certainly not also on the second, third and now the fourth day. At what point to do I shake myself and say, enough! Suck it up, grin and bear it, don't be such a baby, yada yada yada! Yes, I'm lecturing myself.

So I thought the least I could do was get back to blogging and share a bit of the art I saw in the town where I stayed. Like so many cities, it has embraced the Artwalk idea, and all you need do is shop or eat or check out a wine bar to be exposed to art on the walls. Kenneth Susynski's work was being highlighted at Waterbrook Winery, and included a portfolio of his work and free postcards as well as his actual oil & charcoal paintings. I brought those postcards home which is the only reason I know his name and can share his website here. Any other artists I viewed are only dim memories. This should be a lesson to the rest of us about effective promotion of our work. Another lesson: I have no idea where this artist hails from. There is precious little personal information on his website, and his bio only lists exhibits and galleries and private collections where his work has ended up. His statement definitely helps me in understanding his work, but without clicking on a specific work, I would not know his medium.

Here is one of his works that was available in postcard form. To be honest, I wasn't much taken with his paintings - big splashy things that I would find difficult to live with. However, when I saw his work reduced in size to an image on a page or postcard, I rather liked what I saw. I'm not sure I've ever had that happen before.

The oddest collection of art was found in Gerry Mathew's “Black Door Gallery and Museum of Un-natural History,” which he describes as “a watercolor-free-zone” that is “opinionated, satiric, iconoclastic and in questionable taste.” The pieces therein dare you to stretch your mind and challenge your point of view, according to one description. Hard to categorize what I saw, but mostly collage I guess, and again, I found I wasn't much taken by it, although there were a few thought-provoking pieces and a few that made me chuckle. I kept thinking of the age-old debate, "Yes, but is it art?" Apparently, even Gerry thinks it might not be. I believe he once was a NY Broadway set designer, which would explain some of what I saw. For an alternate view and fuller description of this exhibit, check out this blog entry: http://logosmori.blogspot.com/2007/07/museum-of-un-natural-history.html Now that I think of it, brother Mad Max - you would have loved it. Better than the blue whale.

Finally, I happened upon a lovely large art quilt by Joan Colvin. It was the heron theme that attracted me to it (see this post), and since it was unlike anything else being sold in this store, I guessed it was the personal possession of the owner. That indeed was the case, and the story behind it was remarkable. The owner often spends time in an area frequented by herons, who stand reflected in the ebbing tide. This is exactly the scene depicted in Joan's piece, which was made to raise money for a conservation group. A friend of the owner vowed to buy lots of tickets for the raffle, and if she won, give the quilt to her friend. She won, and she did! Oh, to have such a lucky and generous friend! Apparently, Joan has some local ties, so the piece means that much more to this person, yet, I suspect she has no idea how well known Joan is, or how valuable this particular art quilt may be. She did mention wondering more about herons, if they meant anything special, so I shared my heron story and what I had discovered. That encounter alone could have made the trip worthwhile. I don't know when this piece was made, but Joan still works in nature themes, and I found her artist statement enlightening.

Angel Update

I'm off tomorrow for an extended weekend away with friends, but before I go I thought I'd reassure you that work continues on the angel quilt even though I haven't been talking about it. Quilting has begun, first with some stabilizing stitching in the ditch, and now the scrolls are quilted into the arbor section. If you click on the picture above, you can see some of the stitching, done with Oliver Twist Hand-dyed thread.

The white on the left is a freezer paper template. I use freezer paper for a number of things to aide me in my sewing and quilting. Here I have ironed it to the top and will use it as a guide, quilting next to the edge. This eliminates having to mark the top before layering, and also the sometimes problematic chore of removing the marking once the quilting is done.

This is my first time trying out Jenkins Freezer Paper Sheets. I've always just used the freezer paper you buy in a roll at the grocery store. It's cheap and lasts a good long time. But the last roll I bought was thinner and didn't stick as well to fabric as my previous roll. This creates all kinds of problems, especially when I use it to stabilize fabric to run through my printers. Jenkins sheets are definitely heavier weight and ran through my Epson printer flawlessly. And my templates definitely stuck better to the fabric and did not pop off even though I was moving the quilt around, not keeping it perfectly flat. It may be more expensive than my grocery store roll, but I'd have to say it is money well spent for these kinds of applications.

Age Old Sign of Hope

No brief rainbow this. We've had several days of very cool weather with much needed rain, but today was just a tad warmer and decidedly drier. As it got closer to the evening walk time, I noticed sun and mostly clear skies one direction, but some ominously dark clouds looming in the other. Oh, bother, I thought, as I stepped out the door and saw that it was sprinkling. I slipped on a slicker and hoped the sprinkle wouldn't turn into a downpour.

And it didn't. And without sprinkles, you would never see beautiful rainbows like this. When I first noticed it, it was weak and partial. By the time I circled round on my route, it had exploded into a full double rainbow stretching from behind those trees, up and over into the lake. So I stood and gazed, drank it in, waited for it to fade, but it just got stronger. Eventually, I realized I had time to get my camera. Fifteen minutes later it was still there and I eventually gave up and went in. What a delightful sign after a few dreary days!

By the way, I'd never noticed before that the colors in a double rainbow are arranged mirror image of each other.