Grid #4: Almost There

Just when I make up my mind about one thing, another question arises. This is a quick picture of what I thought would be the finished Grid 4: Off the Grid. But now I don't know if I like the way the yarn looks around the outside of the quilted part. I've lost the clean lines and look with those little circles of yarn. I need opinions - please comment away!

Let me back up and talk a bit about how I got to this point. The "border" is really a separate piece that I call a mount: Decor Bond is cut the exact finished size and fused to the fabric which is cut larger to include a seam allowance. I've tried something different here, only fusing around the outer edge so that I can cut away the fabric in the center, exposing the Decor Bond. Not only does that save a bit of fabric, but it allows me to attach the center of my quilted section to the mount by fusing, not stitching. Wouldn't want it pooching away from the center when hung.

Then I cut a backing a hair smaller than the fabric for the front, fuse a strip of Wonder Under to the wrong side where the sleeve will be sewn and cut a slit through it. This will be my opening for turning and the sleeve will cover it. The front and back are then sewn right sides together around the outside using the edge of the Decor Bond as a guide. Corners are trimmed, the piece is turned inside out, corners poked out and edges pressed so that the backing rolls to the back and can't be seen from the front. The back is smoothed in place and the slit fused shut. The mount is now ready.

I don't believe I mentioned that I quilted the main portion without backing. The Warm and Natural cotton batting is durable enough to run through the machine, so there was no sense in adding another layer. When I centered it on the mount, the batting gripped nicely. Still, I felt I should secure it before putting it back under the machine, so I used a little glue baste around the edges.

My plan was to couch the two twisted yarns along the edge of the quilted section which would at the same time attach the top to the mount. I decided a better plan would be to zigzag the top in place first with clear thread, then glue baste the yarns before couching them down. I'd applied Fray Check around the edges of the painted fabric before layering for quilting, knowing I'd not be trimming much, if any off. What I forgot was that when I trimmed away the excess batting, I'd be clipping the quilting stitches too, and they were not secured. You can see how some of them started to unravel. So I put additional Fray Check on all the ends and hoped the zigzagging and couching stitches would keep all thread ends in place.

I made a sample to try a couple of ideas for the couching. I didn't like the look of the zigzag with the clear thread at all, and the blanket stitch with the purple thread changed the whole nature of the yarns, flattening them down and obscuring the fuzzyness of the commercial yarn. Well, heck, I thought. I was going to glue baste the yarn anyway. Why not just glue it on with a permanent glue and forget about the couching stitch? So that is what I did.

And now I'm not sure I like the look. I can lasso those curls of yarn, I think, with the couching stitch - that's what was happening on my sample here on the left. The left side is couched with the clear thread and zigzag, the right with the blanket stitch.

I'll let it sit overnight, hope a bunch of you weigh in with your opinions, and make up my mind later.

Tagged

Wil has tagged me - wants to know 7 weird or random things about me. You may be sorry you asked! The complete rules of the tag are as follows:

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog.

3. Post 7 (weird or random) facts about yourself on your blog.

4. Tag 7 people and link to them.

5. Comment on their blog to let them know that they have been tagged.

Weird is one of those subjective things. What I think weird you may think normal, and vise versa. So I'll let you guess which of these are weird and which random.

1. I subscribe to Roadracing World (a motorcycle magazine) and pretty much read it cover to cover. I used to be a biker babe, as the picture shows.
2. One of my first jobs was clerking in a drug store near the UC-Berkeley campus. Fridays were big days for condom sales. Said condoms were kept behind the counter. We took great delight in watching the young college men squirm getting up the courage to ask for our assistance.
3. I've lived at 18 different addresses in 4 states.
4. I've been to Mexico and Canada but nowhere else outside of the continental U. S.
5. But I dream of going to New Zealand someday. Ireland would be nice too.
6. It's not so much that I'm not a cat person, as I'm so darned allergic to them. Sometimes just the cat dander on someone's clothes can set me off. And some cats don't bother me much at all. Go figure.
7. As much as I rail against technology, I am totally addicted to my computer and blogging.

Ok, seven people is a lot to tag. My apologies to anyone who may have already done this or does not participate in this sort of thing. If you decide to do this, great. If not, perhaps some new people will discover your blog:

Valerie at Dyeing 2 Sew

Bernadine at Fabric, Dye and Threads She hasn't posted for awhile, but should. She is a fine artist and I miss seeing and hearing about her work.

Linda at Occasional Jottings

Nikki at Art Quilt Play

Alan at The Adventures of an Eccentric Artist

Sandy at Dangling By A Thread

Wanda at Exuberant Color - one of the most prolific quilters I know!

Snow Pictures From Another Time

I mentioned that I've been remembering stories about my hearty ancestors who homesteaded in South Dakota. Here's my grandmother commuting to her teaching job sometime in the early 1900's.

I found this picture of their typical mode of travel - this one was labeled "Big snow of 1915." They were off on a round of visits to neighbors and relatives.

These last two are from "The Blizzard of 1949." By this time, my grandparents had moved into town and my grandfather had a rural mail route. He had to use his own car and according to the caption, also dug out the mailbox you see pictured below. That certainly doesn't happen any more! Compare these to the pictures of my big snow and mailbox here.

Adding Text, Adding Understanding

I printed off a version of my mother's portrait today - one that I'd added a green mottled border to. I planned to print off a plain one as well (I've got two thoughts on how to work the portrait with the pansy fabric), but got sidetracked with an idea for using some of the words I talked about in this post plus a few more I stumbled upon this morning. If only I understood how to use the more complex functions of Corel Paintshop Pro; I ended up spending the afternoon experimenting, stumbling, reading the help text and experimenting some more. I finally stopped when I figured out how to make the layer with the words transparent. Click on the picture for a larger view.

Not sure if I'll actually use this version, but at least I tried it out and I have a slightly better understanding of working with text in this program. I think I'm gaining a better understanding of my feelings for my mother too.

Bringing in the Big Guns

This may be the last of the snow pictures for awhile - we can hope. The little weather icon has quit fantically flashing at me every time I turn on the computer. We must have gone a good week under one kind of storm warning or another, and the weather alerts were SOOO afraid I had no idea what was coming. While it snowed today, it wasn't anything that piled up. I took this picture of the back of the house to show how close the snowbank is getting to the eaves.

My guy showed up today, shovel in hand, and went to work. After 3 hours, he finally called it quits and it was worth every penny I paid him. He knocked lots of snow off the roofs (they are metal, Wanda, which explains why the snow slides off), widened some of the paths and dug out the back so Jesse can reach all parts of the fenced yard now.

This is looking from the side yard toward the house - the route that has been blocked for quite a while now. No longer.

I swear, the calendars are taunting me. January showed snow scenes not unlike what's outside my window. When I flipped them over to February, they think it's spring. Tulips and daffodils adorn one, dogwood in bloom and leafy birches create a woodland scene sans snow on the other. It struck me the same as when I bought postal stamps during the height of the snows after Christmas; the clerk handed me a book of bright flowers. "You're joking, right?" I asked. "No, wishful thinking," she replied. Very wishful thinking, I might add.

Untangling

"...I don't invent the whole of the painting; on the contrary, I find it readymade - but to be untangled in the real world." ~ Vincent van Gogh

Today I was ready to do something, anything in the studio. I only had a bit of damage control to take care of on the snow front, and it has been discouraging to see January pass into February with two projects not completed as planned.

The shoveling I did still left me a little tired, so I started by grabbing my thesaurus and the journal I started for the Take It Further Challenge. I have not been able to get anywhere with this idea based on the key concept of "feeling of admiration." The only thing I feel is stuck. Previously I thought something might jog loose if I listed other people I admire and why. No luck. Brain couldn't think past Mom. So I concentrated on the "why" instead of the "who." Still stuck and this is ridiculous, I decided. So I started with words on her headstone, keying in on "teacher" and "advocate." I pried a few other words out of my memory and have been thinking about it off and on all week.

Last night I came up with another word I really liked: gritty. But I still felt pretty stuck. So today, I wanted to record "gritty" before I forgot it, and pulled the thesaurus to help me pin down some words for concepts I was having a hard time reducing to one or two words. I started scanning the category section in the back, hoping something would break my thoughts loose. It indeed helped, and now I have a list of maybe 30 words to choose from. Part of me wants to add these to the quilt while another part of me is afraid that is too predictable and trite. We'll see.

So when you think of the attributes of someone you admire, are they all positive ones? I surprised myself a little by jotting down "imperfect." But truly, one of the things that made me appreciate my mother more than ever was when I discovered an awful thing she'd done in her youth. She hid it from me, I'm sure because she didn't want me to think it would be ok to do the same. On the contrary, knowing she had made this mistake and not let it totally destroy her life gave her more credibility when she'd warn me not to do this or that, and definitely made me admire her more.

And then there was the positive attribute that I realized I didn't necessarily admire. What do I do with that?

Some words assigned to certain categories surprised me. Do you think of gentleness as being a sign of weakness? I certainly don't. My mother had her gentle side, but I don't think for a minute you would consider her weak.

I also felt my memory of Mom hazy. Whether that be the passage of time since her death or just my own state of mind and tiredness, I'm not sure. I jotted down several things that I thought described her, then put a question mark afterwards because I wasn't sure. What am I remembering here?

I didn't have any breakthroughs today, but at least I sat in the studio and did something on this challenge. I also cut some Bubble Jet Set treated cotton and ironed it to freezer paper, ready to print off my portrait. I decided to leave well enough alone and add no more quilting to "Off the Grid" which allowed me to square it up in preparation for attaching it to its mount. Time to get moving even if I'm not sure where I'm headed.

Views Out My Windows

For those keeping track, another 1-1/2 inches fell last night - a pittance. This is the view out my bedroom window - yes, the snow has piled up about a foot above the window sill.

This is looking out the utility room door, across the deck, at the snow piled up outside my studio window. I haven't been able to open this door for over a week.

Here's that same utility room door, taken from the kitchen. That's the escape route off the deck that I so diligently shoveled last night only to have it fill up as you can see.

Here's another shot out the kitchen window. I'm bringing in the reserves tomorrow - someone to help clear some of this out for me. I've met my match! Can barely toss the snow over those banks. And it's heavy as the dickens.

Here's the other door onto the deck. I was amused by the icicles which have to change direction as the snow slides and curls off the roof.

I haven't checked today, but as of last night, the major pass between here and Seattle had been closed 32 out of 36 hours because of avalanche danger and control. Two cars were actually caught in an avalanche, but were dug out safely. We're talking Interstate 90 here. As you can see, I've been dealing with my own avalanche problems!

Last Night

I cleared a path out the back for the dog before dinner last night, and within the hour, it was filled with snow from the roof. So I ended up escorting her out the front when she needed to go out. Remember me saying that the snow from the roof slides a foot or so before it drops off? Well, I'm sure my mouth was gaping open when I saw how far out this batch had slid. I'm guessing that is between three and four feet. How does it do that?

This picture was to show the overhang, but it also shows my nicely shoveled exit off the front of the porch.


A few hours later, there was a disconcerting rumble (actually, I'd been listening to them all evening). Here's what it looked like when I peeked out.


Chunks continued to fall off this front portion all day today. Here is a particularly big piece.

And more...

Reaching critical mass here. I'm beginning to feel like the people who live in the Tahoe area who have trap doors in their roofs so they can escape when the snow piles over doors and windows. Where the snow slides off the roof, it is stacked above the window sills (this is my studio window), and my satellite dish is in danger of being swallowed up. After more slid off in back, I noticed the pile is only a few feet from the eaves. I'm thinking a lot about my grandparents who homesteaded on the Dakota prairies. I grew up on stories of 10 foot drifts and getting out the horse and sleigh to get into town or to the next farm.

I got my mail yesterday, but today they didn't deliver. Another 5 inches of snow fell overnight, and it has warmed up above freezing - a mixed blessing. The accumulation on the shoulder next to the mailboxes is part from the sky and part from the snowplows. What they spray from the highway has de-icer in it and so the shoulder is a slushy sloppy mess.

I spent about 3-1/2 hours yesterday removing the berm next to the car and shoveling all around it and at least a car's length behind and in front of it so I could get out today. Oh, yes, and I also used the shovel to remove the over 20 inches of snow stacked on it. I normally use a broom to do this, but the bottom 6 inches had a crust over it, followed by the next two snowstorms worth of snow. I could move the snow under the crust, but the crust just sat there. So shovel the car off I did. The warmer temps today made the new 5 inches easier to remove, and the ice on the windshield had melted away.

Yes, the mixed blessings of the warmer weather. The snow slides off the roof and hangs maybe a foot beyond the edge before it finally breaks loose. Here it is encroaching on the porch itself...

And filling the opening off the front of the porch.

And yes, more is expected tonight.

And you have more questions. Annabelle commented that the UK where she lives would grind to a halt if it were hit by this kind of snow. Ah, but this is Northern Idaho, where we are supposed to expect this sort of thing. There are a ton of Subaru Outbacks like mine - all-wheel drive - and 4-wheel drive trucks and SUV's. We are prepared as long as the plows push most of it to one side. Still, we are on the verge of breaking a record here. We have gotten over 80 inches of snow already this winter, which is well over the average. In anticipation of the additional snow scheduled to dump on us in the next week, the county has declared itself a disaster area. See these two local articles for more details: here and here. So while we have not ground to a standstill, we are finding it challenging to negotiate all this. I was just a little irritated at the weatherman who seemed to think the warmer weather was a good thing because it would melt some of this (can you say sloppy mess with standing water to hydroplane through?), and flippantly noted that in a few weeks all the snow would be gone and we'd be left with our stories of the winter of 2007-2008. Gone in a few weeks? I rather doubt it. I'm sure my piles of snow will still be lingering come April.

Annabelle wanted to know what my dog thinks of it. Well, she's a dog - she loves it! She refuses to wait until I've shoveled a path; she dives right in and plows through it, bad shoulder and all. She loves to stick her head in it and woofle around. She's been pretty patient about hanging around while I shovel, but it tires both of us (even though she's doing NO work!) Her limp is worse and she sighs and moans a lot, but then, so do I.

It was pretty interesting to get out today and see what the rest of the area looks like. I'd heard that people were complaining about how rough the roads were. Well, duh - we've had a lot of snow and you can't always plow right down to the pavement. Warmer weather, and yes, that layer of snow pack is going to break up. Semi's have been told to chain up period in Northern Idaho so that chews up the roads too. Sidestreets are slushy. Standing water in the roadway abounds where drains are clogged. I was pretty impressed with Wal-mart's parking lot, though - they'd done a fine job of plowing.

So I've had my day out, ran the errands, and am ready to hunker down for the next two or three storms coming through. I am getting nothing done in the studio - all my time and energy seem to be consumed by keeping up with the snow - common lament in these parts. I am becoming one with my shovel...

January Snowdrop

It's going to be a long time until the first blooms of spring emerge. When I saw this glob of snow hanging from the branch, I decided it was winter's answer to the snowdrops of spring. I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like this before. I have no idea what the snow would be clinging to in order to build up like this. I'm sure there's nothing on the end of that branch, except perhaps a small leaf. It is quite large - maybe 6 to 8 inches long.

Dread & Uncertainty

Several people have asked me about being snowed in. Can I get out? Well, you can see from the picture above and below that no, I cannot. What about food? I had the foresight to stock up before the storm hit so I am fine for quite a while. It's more the lack of mail that bothers me. Below you can see just how close to the main highway I am, a highway that is plowed and passable. The truck passing by is right where my driveway comes out. There's a fence that runs on either side, obscured by the snow banks, and on the other side of that a rather wide shoulder where the mail and paper boxes are. The paper delivery person just tosses my paper onto the snowbank on his/her way by if he/she can't manage the shoulder. The post person, on the other hand, just drives on by. No mail in, no mail out. Disconcerting. Have I lost power? Thankfully, no, although many have. The snow of the weekend was very heavy. The 7-1/2 inches that fell today was very light. If I did lose power, I think my gas earth stove would still work and keep me warm. I've not had to test that.

Does being snowed in make me uncomfortable? Not really, since I'm not one who goes out every day anyway. But then I got to thinking about what if there was a fire? Or I got ill and needed to be transported to the hospital? Emergency equipment would have a time getting in. Then I got uncomfortable.

But all is well now, at least for the moment. My landlord's groundskeeper made it out today and got the majority of the snow shoved off to the side. I even think the post person will consider delivering my mail tomorrow and taking away my bills. Here she is doing her thing. And while I appreciate the driveway being passable, I was not thrilled with the 2 ft high, foot wide berm she left piled up next to the car. I had enough to move without her adding to my pile. Oh, well, be thankful that she was here at all today.

All this wild weather has helped me identify something about my character and habits that I've been struggling with. I suppose this is pretty obvious, but it dawned on me that much of my procrastination behavior is fueled by dread or uncertainty. One feeds off the other. Both drain me of energy, incentive, motivation, will.

A single bad experience can stay with me forever, causing me to dread having to face the same situation again, even if I've had positive experiences with it. This was what slowed me down last week with both projects. I kept avoiding the printing trials because I dreaded the possibility of fighting with the process as I have before. I also tried to avoid making the mount for Grid 4 because it involved using a large piece of Decor Bond. I had great success with Decor Bond up until the last 3 or 4 times when suddenly I was getting bubbling and distorting. It wasn't reacting as it always had; I couldn't think what I might be doing differently. I mourned the loss of my favorite stabilizer. I dreaded using it again because I'd lost faith I could apply it successfully.

In both cases, the answer was to take a deep breath and go slowly and meticulously through the process. In both cases, I had excellent results and got control of my demons.

Of course, there are all kinds of things in the rest of my life I dread too. Anything that might result in a confrontation. Anything that might catch me off guard and looking stupid. Anything I think is more than I can handle. When I dread facing something, I find lots of ways to procrastinate including doing nothing at all, not even something I would enjoy doing. I hate that about me - it is so counter productive and illogical. But the reality is, dread over one thing drains me of my will to do anything. I've dreaded many mornings lately, knowing the chore ahead of me with the shovel, unsure if I have the physical strength and stamina to keep up with this snow. But once I get out there and get going, I seem to manage ok, and I can get on with my day. If only I'd convince myself to get out there earlier.

As for uncertainty, it also leads to procrastination at times, but for a different reason. Uncertainty breeds worry, and worry, even more so than dread, absolutely saps my energy, my enthusiasm, my motivation. In my present situation, I never know exactly when rental maintenance will get taken care of. It could be a few days, a few weeks, a few months. I can't get the powers that be to commit, and I am very low on the priority list. So a lot of the uncomfortableness and unease I felt the last two weekends was tied to the uncertainty of if and when someone would come to plow. When the plow showed up, there was such an immense change in demeanor that it surprised me. I hadn't realized how much I was letting the uncertainty of when I'd be able to get out sap my ability to function and encourage me to procrastinate about studio work.

It got me thinking about the fear that sometimes seizes and freezes me as I approach my work. Things I have mastered, have no uncertainty about I can dive right into, thoroughly enjoy, feel good about the results. Those that are new to me, or that I have little experience with, or worse, have had a bad experience with, well, those are the ones full of uncertainty that make me want to hold back, leave me tired and lethargic and sure I cannot face them on this day. Again, the solution is to forge ahead, take that first step. But it is oh, so hard to convince myself of at times.

Now that I've identified this, I need to pinpoint strategies for controlling this fuel for procrastination. Any ideas?

Here We Go Again

Wanda asked if any of the snow I've gotten this winter had melted. No, not very much, meaning that the 6 inches of snow the high winds blew around last weekend filled in all the spaces between the snowbanks still three to four feet high. I wasn't snowed in, I was drifted in. Today, on the other hand, I am snowed in. It started at noon yesterday and is still coming down 28 hrs later. The weatherman was loath to break the news that there's no end in sight. The 12 inches that fell in the first 12 to 15 hours will continue to stack up: another 4 by tonight, 2 more tomorrow, 2 more the day after, 2 to 4 the next...there isn't a day this coming week that doesn't have snow in the forecast. I like winter and snow a lot, but this is getting ridiculous!

The picture above may look familiar. This is the view of the back deck where I let the dog out at night. I've been keeping a narrow path shoveled for her, letting the excess pile up. With this last go, the pile is as tall as I am and I'm having trouble tossing the snow over it. Of course, some of that snow has slid off the roof.

Here's what it looks like out front:

And here are more views out the back. Note the snow on roof - that's all new.

Been there, Done that...

"At the beginning stages of playing with an idea, it's better to move a bit more slowly than to sit in a glum heap of regret for blindly acting on an impulse."

Jeanne of Exploring the Surface

This is one of the blogs I follow, and this line from Monday's post here made me nod my head in total agreement. The fear of ending up in regret is partly responsible for my plodding work style.

Ink Jet Printing on Fabric Trials

Thanks for the comments on my last post regarding more stitching on "Off the Grid." I'm still mulling it over, and have started making the mount while I decide. In the meantime, I proceeded with a printing test for my Take It Further Challenge piece.

I wanted to try printing on fabric that had been treated with fabric softener. I've not been totally happy with my results using Bubble Jet Set, and being able to use a simple household product appealed. I first ran across this idea in New Zealand Quilter magazine, then found more detailed instructions online, although I apologize to the writer - I did not notate her name. I only know that she is an Aussie and got the instructions from someone in her quilt group.

I cut a strip of muslin and soaked it in fabric softener, squeezed out the excess and hung it to dry as instructed. It's not supposed to make any difference what brand you use so I used the Downy I had on hand. The scent was so strong in this concentrated form that it was almost more than I could handle throughout the whole process.

The next day, I ironed it, having to mist slightly as was suggested to get the wrinkles under control. Then I cut a piece to size and ironed it to a piece of Jenkins Freezer paper. This stuff is great - so much heavier than the Reynolds freezer paper on the roll. I think fabric sticks to it better too. I had no problem feeding this through my Epson Stylus Photo RX500 printer. I was extremely impressed with the sharpness of the prints and the true and saturated nature of the color. As a control, I also printed on a piece of pima cotton that had been treated with Bubble Jet set back in 2004 and stored in a sealed freezer bag. I know; I was asking to skew the results. I've read that even old Bubble Jet Set that has been stored in its original bottle loses potency over time. But you know me: waste not, want not.

The Bubble Jet Set fabric is on the left. You can see how different the colors are - a more faded look, which has been my experience with printing on an ink jet printer.

Whereas the Bubble Jet Set treatment can be rinsed out in as little as 30 minutes, the fabric softener treatment needed to sit for 24 hours. Then it can be ironed and left to set for another 24 hours. My instructions didn't say how long to iron or which side of the fabric to iron on, so I opted to be safe and iron from the back (freezer paper still adhered). I placed it face down on a dishtowel and pressed with a hot iron for a minute or more. When I turned it over, I could see that some of the ink had transferred to the towel, which I did not think was a good sign. Brown spots like scorching also appeared and worried me. (It turned out that the fabric was not scorched, just the softener that had turned.)

Yesterday, the second 24 hours was up and it was time to rinse both samples. Both treatments recommend a rinse in cool water and mild detergent, so I used my Orvus Paste. The Bubble Jet Set sample showed little if any ink in the water and no color loss or running on the fabric. Wow, this had not been my experience in the past with this, so I was thrilled. I was not as thrilled with what happened with the fabric softener sample. I'd cut it in two sections, and the first ran and ran. Ok, maybe my detergent is reacting badly, so I took the second section and just rinsed it in cool water, with the exact same results. What a huge disappointment.

I laid all my rinsed samples face down on the dishtowel again, and pressed them dry. I find this insures that all the wrinkles disappear and the photo stays square. When I turned them over, there was even more ink transfer to the towel from the fabric softener treated fabric, but no transfer from the Bubble Jet Set one. Here they are along side their unwashed twins.

So I guess you Aussies will have to tell me what I did wrong. Did I not let the fabric softener soak in enough? Did a leave too much on the surface of the fabric so that the ink didn't have a chance to penetrate the threads? Is your fabric softener of a different chemical composition than that sold in the United States? Is the ink for my particular model of printer the culprit?

Although I'm unhappy that the fabric softener experiment was such a huge failure, I'm very happy to have had success with the Bubble Jet Set, and found a way to feed my fabric through the printer without major jamming.

What Do You Think?

Enough stitching or should I keep going?

Go here for a "before" picture.

Taking the Challenge

I was intrigued by the Take It Forward challenge put forth by Sharon B of In a Minute Ago. And although I did not officially sign up for the challenge, I will be playing with it on my own. Each month Sharon will present a key concept or a color palette to work with, the idea being, if the concept doesn't interest, then work with the colors instead.

For January, the key concept is the feeling of admiration for another. Go here to read more and to see the optional color scheme. My mind went immediately to my mother. I have many reasons to admire her. If nothing else, she was such a beauty, as the portraits in the above picture show. She had great inner beauty and strength as well. And later, I remembered that she was born in January. No wonder I was thinking of her.

As for the color scheme, well, I rather like it. When digging around for something else, I ran across this pansy print fabric. Ah, not only does it contain all the colors for January, it also represents a link between my mother and me. She had a thing for pansies, passed on to her from her own mother who likened them to "little faces smiling up at us." I remember Mom planting pansies when I was young, and I've often incorporated pansies into my various gardens. We wrote to each other on stationary decorated with pansies. I embroidered a small crewel picture of pansies and thought of mom whenever I gazed upon it.

So my thought is a simple one. I've scanned the portraits and will print one of them, probably the one in the center, on to fabric, and surround it with the bouquets of pansies from the fabric. I need an excuse to work with printing on fabric - my past experiences being less successful than I'd hoped. Ditto for the quilting of such a piece. Maybe I can work some of those kinks out on this.

I may then "take it further" by doing some photo manipulation to make a second quilt less simple and obvious. I've already played with trying to "ripple" the image as if looking at a reflection in a pond where a pebble has been tossed. Couldn't get the effect I wanted quite yet. Then I randomly tried out some of the other effects. I got stuck on the pixalation one the way I got stuck on the wave one with the icicles. Below is one of several vertical orientation that hinted at landscapes.

Change of Plans

This cloth is like a chameleon. Every time I move it, the "pink" in it changes quality. I did my minimal quilting today and put it up on the design board, "border" fabric behind it. I wasn't sure how closely I wanted to space the undulating lines, so kept them wide to begin. Quilted along paint lines to delineate a few squares/rectangles. The curvy lines are not enough, the blocked areas too plain. That "pink" driving me nuts.

This often happens to me: I get attached to what's going on in the top and fear that too much quilting will obscure it. Not to worry, I decided. This NEEDED more going on. So back under the needle it went. I briefly considered some hand stitching with a heavier thread in the squares, then thought about how much I liked the close parallel stitching in September's Journal quilt here. Another deep breath and away I went, using the purple variegated thread. It shades those areas just a bit, and I was intrigued by how much of the subtle paint design I could still see through it. It reminds me of looking through a screen.

Once this was done and I studied it some more, I felt fairly certain I needed to add more undulating lines. How closely I will space them is yet to be seen. What do you think?

Oh, and the flap itself answered the question about whether to apply interfacing to its back. Once I stitched along the fold line, it refused to flop down. Now I think I will tack the corner, maybe even add a bead. The process is fluid, that's for sure.

I've also started hand quilting on my nephew's quilt again. I've done so little on it since moving. It's one of the first things I blogged about way back here and here. At the risk of jinxing myself, I've made finishing it this year one of my few resolutions.

Baby Steps

There are times when I wish I could work faster, but experience has taught me there's no point in trying to rush some parts of the process. As long as I move along a little at a time, the proper answers will present themselves, and I will save myself a lot of grief.

Such seems to be the case with Off the Grid. While a simple piece, it has not been a straight forward one, full of decisions less about design than about approach, which is dictating the sequence of events. I had my little triumph yesterday, after pulling half a dozen possibilities for a border to confirm a thread color. Questions remained to be answered before I could proceed with the quilting.

The slave driver in me kept insisting that today I needed to at least layer this, if not actually start the quilting. The rebellious teenager in me kept whining, Nooo, I'm not ready. So I cleaned the bottoms of my irons, traced the next redwork cross pattern on the pre-cut panel, and turned to face Off the Grid. Well, at least I could make the final decision on the border, I decided.

With different lighting than when I pulled the possible candidates, there was no question as to which one was the perfect foil. And now, everything else is falling into place. Along the bottom you can see the commercial yarn I will twist with my painted one to couch along the edge. The two spools of thread will be my quilting colors. I'll trim away the center of that border fabric before fusing it to Decor Bond. I'll layer and quilt my painted fabric, make my pillow turn "mount," center my "quilt" on it over the exposed Decor Bond and fuse the two together. The final step will be to couch my twisted yarns along the unfinished edge of the quilted portion, effectively stitching all layers together.

Now I have a plan, the details pinned down, the sequence figured out. Now I can proceed, no more whining!

Taking a Deep Breath...

I tried everything to keep from taking this next step on "Off the Grid" but I finally had to take a deep breath and just do it. Here you see my sample testing different couching stitches, and then the real thing done on the flap. The Sulky tearaway stabilizer is still attached to the flap.

Why was I hesitant to do this? I have just one piece of this fabric. If I botch that corner, the whole thing goes in the dumpster. I don't like not having safety nets. I don't like having to decide on stitches. I'd rather the yarn magically adhered itself to the edge of the fabric!

Here's a close up. I tried a three-step zig zag, regular zig zag and a several decorative stitches before I settled on this blanket stitch: two stitches forward, one back and forth to the side. The stitch is not the thing, in this case, but has no choice but to be visible. These straight up and down stitches are a good match for the grid in the fabric. The edge of the fabric was Fray Checked in advance so the couching stitch wouldn't have to double as a way to keep the edge from fraying.

This went off without a hitch, lightening my mood exponentially. But I almost immediately began second guessing myself. I want that flap to hang loose, drape on its own. I'm hoping the slight addition of weight from the yarn will help that. The second guessing is wondering if I should have bonded some interfacing to the underside anyway. I can see where this could be a problem if I end up shipping it somewhere for display. Well, I guess any addition of a stiffener can happen almost any time.