Fiber Philosopher

Christmas Sewing

2011-11-20T11:27:00.000-08:00

Image: Of A Winter Beachwalk

The challenge of sewing with out either of my sewing machines, has become translated in the question of -What can I serge????

After some much needed time to myself, I made a runner which I serged with a rolled edge and some coordinating napkins. I have also been randomly serging scraps from the flannel bag aiming for another quilt for the boys room. One I want to tie with floss or yarn because when was the last time I have ever done that?

The serger is great for instant gratification. You can eliminate turning right side out if you want to. The feeling of just humming along puts one at ease and your stresses slide away tumbled beneath the threads of the loopers and the needles.

I think about the freedom sewing gives one to create the things their mind envisions. These kinds of creations can be achieved so speedily with the serger and I am so thankful for mine.

I bought some roses to lift the mood as the temperatures here reach down below freezing heartily. "Rosy Outlook", I kid you not their label read. I tried fabric, I tried walking around the nursery filling my paper sack with paperwhites to force for Christmas.

What it was that really cheered me up from the gloom that sneaks in with the tiredness new babies can cause mothers; was just about five minutes at my serger and coming out with a table runner ready for Christmas and it it not yet December.

I'm starting early this year. Last year it was so late when we got a tree due to friends and so many things going on. This year it is about being early and more prepared so things are ready and I can rest and enjoy.

I also finished cross stitching a stocking for my son, and have started on one for baby. I am so proud of the results I am producing on linen, that seems like a major victory after my first attempt seeming so difficult.
It is really true that once you start evolving to work with good materials you don't want to go back to what you were doing before.
The red tug heads out to meet a tanker, pushing past the grey water out to the sun behind the cottony clouds. I sit on the sofa and think about how nice it feels just to sit for awhile and watch the sea not sure which direction it would like to go.

My Sewing Machines Are At The Doctor

2011-11-13T12:10:00.001-08:00

What does a girl do without her sewing machines? I wouldn't know, I'm facing new territory with them both in for redo at the same time! It's a hard feeling, knowing that you cannot sew. Thank God for repairmen. And yes it was way overdue.

I was free motion quilting, everything going along smashingly, and whack, it just died, stopped, hand wheel seized. Well the goal of finishing the quilt by Thanksgiving, is likely toast. Ah well, there is a method to all of this.

I have been considering getting a fast stitching machine, a 15-1600spm'er. I have yes been thinking on this lots lately. Hopefully my machines didn't hear me and and one decided to die or give up, or just got plain tired of making me happy. As if to say - oh you don't really want me, well, I'll show you!

Sewing machines have distinct personalities; some, one can live with, and some, one cannot. They have temperaments and little sticky stupid hills they want to die on to, and sometimes seem so much like people it is scary.

A sane person would use the time to clean the studio, rearrange, or maybe even cut fabric for a new quilt. I, the philosopher, will think on machines of course.

Do I want to get to know someone new? I imagine tackling a new machine is like dating again after a divorce, and a woman maybe just gets to the point where she just cannot handle men for a while. Or perhaps more like whiney kids, whom you love, but you're just not sure you want to be around them for the rest of the afternoon. So you dole out a fruit strips and pray that Thomas the Train can give you enough break just to gain your balance.

Or maybe the excitement of a new gadget just takes over? For such a creative type, I do love my machines. Strange. I keep waiting for that machine without buttons, some sort of holographic morph out of Star Trek (which yes I would never watch but my husband makes me) and I tell myself, yes that is when I will buy a new machine. A buttonless machine.

And maybe the man upstairs has other plans. I know the tool appears just as the teacher, when one is ready, when one demands good tools. We cling to old hairdryers yes don't we, when their are ceramic/inoic blasts of blissful dryers out there that give us the hairstyle of dreams, so why does sentiment cling like fuzz to the bobbin case of our insanity. Ah yeah?

I like using thread, I was doing so great, emptying spools on this quilt, and now perhaps I need time to think on its completion, and being machineless will give me that space.

Mmmm

2011-11-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

When machine quilting a quilt sometime you just need an "M,M" break. My son loves MM's. And I suppose they do help ease the nervousness that arises with a blank surface to coat. I'm going fast and broad and a lot more spaced out on this one, and that sounds bad, but I really do mean the quilting style.

And as in potty training, just maybe those MM's will help with discipline. Yes, they do, and also the Thanksgiving deadline I have set. This throw quilt is purely made from stash, and a little wacky, but the tones and colors go.

With young children around who dump out toys as fast as you pick them up, and smear the floor to look worse than before you have just mopped it; I take a deep breath and am thankful that there is quilting to make one feel as if they have actually put down some sort of accomplishment for the day.

I've noticed as I quilt more quilts, I am learning to just go with the fabric. To loosen up and enjoy the way the fabric leads the needle into a free-form type pattern.

Speaking of dumping, I put baby (D de) in the toy wheelbarrow to shoot a pic, and brother comes over and dumps him out! No harm no foul, but it did make for some cute pics. I think being two years old is all about dumping out everything one can, and so maybe I should take a cue, because the only thing I dump out seems to be clean laundry.

During our "ride bike" session this afternoon I noticed the trees have lost most all there leaves. Poof! Just in the span of a flu, and they are almost all down. I was supposed to have the flu during the rain, not the sunshine as happened.

Winter is so near, but I am grateful for these last sunny days. Warm enough still to throw off the Crocs and dip toes in the water, yes, you heard right, even way up in the great North. Kids don't care, they just wear there shoes in, and sometimes I suppose we all just should, they dry anyway.

I think young children have a lot to teach about quilting:

Walk right into things

Throw a tantrum if things don't go your way

Dump everything out until you find what your looking for

Make up funny names so things don't get dull

Laugh like crazy when you mess up and it's just plain funny

Throw it in the garbage can, I mean, will you even miss it?

And diapers, sometimes, yes even those I imagine could be handy.

The MM's are gone. I feel better. I feel like I accomplished something that actually shows.

Some Small Good

2011-11-05T19:36:00.000-07:00

The last of the sunny days peak out from winter which seems to loom so close to fall. Two boys grow, the elder picks flowers, small tender presents to rest on a baby's fist. Sickness has visited, and after a week of sick children, I too grace the couch while in my mind ideas flower, and doing the dishes looks so promising, because it means you are well enough to do them again. Oh to ride bikes again and search the neighborhood for flowers to give to mom!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T12:21:00.000-07:00

A firefighter and a little bear.
A finished quilt top. It will have a new home with my husbands sister in her first house.

A sea that rages as the tugs head out to meet tankers.
God's provision is like that, the tug rushing out past the whitecaps to meet the incoming need.

Inspiration

2011-05-31T12:40:00.000-07:00

Are our ideas out of the water? Or do they sit there until we have time to breathe, to bring them up above the surface and write them down, or begin to create them?

My personal time lately, which is very limited, is centered on building quadrants of the art quilt that is currently on my wall. Sometimes I want to flee from it and run scurrying to the hum of just fast and furiously stitching or strip piecing. Funny, the result of the art quilt is so much more satisfying, but sometimes I just need to put in some time with my machine humming so I can think.

I've been concentrating on the clothing part of the image, and I find I really have to stop and think about light and reflection, as it concerns the folds and drapes that a human body produces when clothed. I think of statues and sculptors, and marvel at how they achieved these affects, especially I ponder veils and chiffon brazing the human form.

I begin to get ahead of myself thinking, wow, I will need a bigger space to finish this piece. Then I remember the floor. Or, how freakin' long will the quilting take on this one - longer than the construction (because that is where the real image will come into it's depth and form)? And I forget to slow and just take rest in the cutting of one piece or the turning of the edges with the mini iron.

The Orcas visited the other weekend. I happened to have my tripod out with my camera taking pictures of friends. I flipped on my telephoto, and was able to capture the above photo, thinking "What are the chances?" The chances I would be set up, outside, that the weather would be still enough to hear the barrel like hollow of a resonate breath of a whale puncturing the calm.

They have to come to the surface for each new breath. They don't take them for granted, there is effort, they perhaps wonder if they will make it to the surface before their lungs burst?

O.k., maybe I'm wondering if I will make it to the completion of this piece? I see the vision in my head, I think out the how I want to do the quilting and thread detail. Maybe it's just the lack of personal time that makes the progress seem so slow? Although, if I think where I was a year ago, I feel pleased. And yes, there are just some visions that take way longer.

Perhaps these long journeys are the ones which I learn best. You have to reach for that next breath. Like the Orca, I can't take for granted that I will make it, and having to surface means that I can't see the full picture yet but just in my minds eye, and how will it appear when I finally reach the surface of the last stitch?

I think the best part of constructing an art quilt is watching how it changes with each addition, and centering your focus on just a small part of the larger dimension. Like the astronaut with many screws to remove to repair a component, who must not think about them all, about teetering in space, but concentrates fully on the success of each screw as it is turning, and then removed.

When they surface, the first breath of an Orca is deep and forceful. It inspires me to express my ideas in the same manner.

Nursery

2011-03-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

I'd started this quilt years ago. Before I EVER knew that I would have kids, let alone boys. Before I knew that they would have a room that looked out to the sea. I had finished the top and all the quilting except the corner design, which I tried to hand quilt, and it just wasn't working as the fabric was too high of a thread count. In frustration I set it aside, because I really wanted that hand quilted look for the corners. Something about having kids, who knows, but now I am over it, and I went ahead and just machine quilted, so now I just have to finish hand stitching the binding. It will hang on the wall, and I'm thinking the back of their door even close to the picture frame that is naval bouys.

Still redo-ing the boys room, these are the before pictures. There is the addition of the new crib, a changing table, and the bookcase moves to the left wall. I really wish that the bookcase was cherry like the cribs, but for now it is working. The room is very small, probaly orginally intended for an office, but then the boys will be little too, for awhile.

The closet organization is going better than expected, but I'm still waiting on a part that wasn't shipped. The good news is there is already open space which hasn't been filled, thanks to the little guys growth spurt, and the new collapsible bin system I'm configuring.

A race track I made for the cars, I backed it in polar fleece and just serged with wooley-nylon thread. It can double as a nice blanket, although I think he is still a little young yet to get that cars run on the roads and not just on peoples' legs.

So I'll get the cribs all wiped down, re-made, their quilts washed (except the wall one) and up on the rails. The walls are my stumbling block, I don't want to hang stuff over the crib, but how do I make a bunch of little pictures that used to be on a shelf work on the big wall?

Grey

2011-03-21T14:53:00.000-07:00

It's looked like this a lot lately. I'm due in about five weeks. The weather is great for nesting.

I find myself craving spring. Daffodils sit by my sink, in the boys room, and there are roses in the wall vases.

Grey is supposed to be a big color. But it is never for me. I use it when I need grey, but living in the northwest, grey is ample and not a color I necessarily buy, which is why I have like two pieces in the stash and realized lately that maybe I should.

I've been re-doing the boys room. Two cribs, one closet, two boys soon enough. I'm at the stage where I'd rather organize the closet than make a decision on where to hang the pictures. The main problem being all the pictures are very small, and the walls big, and I need something with better scale. I think back to being in Lowe's, and looking around, and there were like three other pregnant ladies, and I felt like we were all stuck on the same broken records of how to organize itty clothes, procrastinating so we didn't have to hang all the small pictures.

Got a great new camera, now if I'd just off-load the pics and put them up on the blog!

I planted tomato seeds, lobelia, daisies, and some snapdragons -- we will see. The roses this year have been beaten by cold but they seem to persist. I'm late with the Felco's, gasp, but then so it the sunshine I require to be out there.

I delight today in allowing someone to come in and help me soon. Sometimes it is so hard to accept help. Sometimes it is so needed. Sometimes we need to ask others when the ones we love can't help. Sometimes it is important to accept help even when we think we don't need it. To pay for help, to arrange it, to admit you can't do everything while undergoing a season of limitation. Since I can't bend, and walking is painful, I am accepting help, and proud of myself.

Working in the studio, I alternate between the art quilt on my wall, and going to other piecing projects when I must sit in this late term exhaustion of swollen feet which fit only in Crocs. I'm trying to relish these last few weeks, trying, I said. I'm holding the sweet feeling of have a few hours hear and there to sew before a newborn holds my hand. The quilt is done, resting on the crib rail, and yes, pictures, I need pictures.

The sea has calmed, though the rain has not let up. I am thankful for a child's long nap, and the stolen moments off my feet.

Snowy Days

2011-01-12T13:43:00.000-08:00

This is his quilt.

The one made while waiting for him to grow.

I like how it reminds me of a teetering pile of books.

I finished it this snowy day in January.

The top is done from stash, minus the red pieces. I don't buy that much red. I even looked in my spacebags of scraps, and no reds big enough.

I could patchwork the back from stash, but I'm just not much of a fan of that, especially for baby quilts where I want the nice silken feel of a quality sheet to use for the back, all one piece. I also like when you hold up a white quilt to the light, and it is white all the way through, so I will use a white backing. Maybe I will do a rainbow binding? Or a black one?

Also some knitting, when it comes to knitting, I'm not that great. But I try, and I do enjoy the feeling of accomplishment gained when you use the big chunky yarn. This one is done out of baby's breath blue yarn, and I want to make another one in white, then I will knit with the minky like yarn I found too.

I find I work these days assembly line style, do all the cutting, then the sewing, then the trimming. With a toddler, you don't have the focused time to always see things through. Thomas the train sewing, stay tuned, the big brother and little brother pants, and some other sewing that so far has been bit of a failure, uhm, cart cover???

I am doing well with my resolution, which is less mindless interneting. Such an easy trap to fall into when pregnant and trying to get the feet elevated.

January is my month of cleaning and purging. Every. Single. Day. I go through something, a tub, a drawer, a corner, a problem area, or spend an hour in the garage. Must take advantage of the nesting and the "brrr" days as my little one says. I'm feeling proud of these accomplishments, even if it seems life goes on ahead of me messing things up even faster :)

The sea has risen this afternoon, and the snow is melted off the patio stone, grey fronts move past out on the horizon, and it clears to the north. I catch a few minutes to record the feeling of finishing a quilt top, however small, in print.

Handmade Heart

2010-12-08T20:06:00.000-08:00

December is a month to think about the handmade.

What sustains us when the rain pours and the sea swiftly rolls right into the rhythm of our world? Where can the mind wander when the hand creates?

The world all around us at time can seem frightfully modern. Lost is that touch, the human touch, it's imprint pounded into the metals that comprise our existence. We crave handmade sometimes, and yet all around us is the desire for new.

People use to think about their destiny and cull it from the very hearth of nature. They would travel from sunup resting at noon, and on again, until they had made their mark on the days passage. Little comfort was theirs but the luxuriousness of the nights star scape. They crafted what they could, when they could find it.

2010-11-17T13:15:00.000-08:00

It's stormy, waves pound with extra punch and it is a day I stand thankful to be inside. Warm, cushioned by a newly done bed, and recovering from sickness last night.

Fall is giving way in the Pacific Northwest, and the cold clenches of November are starting to feel more like December. I'm excited for Christmas this year, and plan to start early. With a little one, and one on the way, the sooner I start, the more likelihood I may accomplish this Christmas spray I envision.

Sewing has been fast and practical as of late. Nursing covers, little p.j. pants, and sometimes, in bleary-eyed trances of not being able to focus because I'm up so much at night, I sew together just random scraps, more to just hear and feel the purr of my machine. It engages something, suturing my sanity together; mending pregnancy brain.

At first I am sick, real sick, but this second little one has been more merciful than the first, and I am finding that after three months of enduring all day sickness, any time I can be up and about is really imbued with a new vigor.

I've been listening about Thomas Jefferson while I go about life's tasks. What is the key I have learned? How fervently he believed in keeping busy as a recipe for happiness. It seems to me so interesting a man whom accomplished so much, and also had so many to serve him, was such a believer in action.

I'm reading his Garden Book, and also the lovely prose-like Ahab's Wife, a story by Sena Jeter Nashlund. I wish I had more time to savor it slowly as I am thoroughly pleased with all her sewing/quilting references so far.

The nesting is pestering me with such a ferocity this time around, that I wonder will it ever cease?, and I try to make peace with a rate of progress that is slower than I would like.

Remembering to rest, don't we all need to be reminded that being busy is important, but there are seasons when rest is so oft forgotten yet so vital.

I have planted daffodils and tulips that will bloom when the baby comes, so I can look out the window of my bedroom and see them grow set against the sea.

Summer

2010-06-23T20:37:00.000-07:00

Working on a quilt a long, watching the roses bloom.

Summer begins.

I am thankful.

Watering the Roses

2010-04-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

The roses now live on a dock like deck on the beach. As roses go, they are lucky ones, despite the fact they are bound by pots. They have been through a lot of stress, and they deserve this respite. They were neglected during pregnancy, they endured a move, rearranging, and some time without water.

Now they are nestled in, gearing up for another season. I am ashamed to say they didn't even get pruned (I was moving with a baby). The old garden roses are champs, and they have fared so well, they are up by the house, the teas and such are down on the lower level. I spent a beautiful evening watering and tending to them, saying my apologies for neglecting them. I hope they forgive me.

Another Beach House

2010-04-24T20:37:00.000-07:00

Some much has altered in my life recently. Change has been a fixture.

A move.

Motherhood.

A new creative space.

As I spend my days moving into another beach house, I am longing for free time to create.

My son occupies my moments, beautifying them in ways I could have never imagined.

I have a small room to do up into a studio, for the longest time I pondered what exactly this small room was supposed to be??? Then it was reveled to be a sauna by the fuse box. I have my fabric cubbies filled, my machines set on a table, and as soon as hubby get the power, I will set to work. I hope for many hours in my sewing sauna, maybe it is a metaphor for my creative life heating up? I am ready for this new chapter.

For now I steal moments, pretend I'm not sleep deprived, and set to work in little chunks of time preparing the studio, I think my supplies have missed me, they breathe again.

As I unpack, I note what a different woman I am. How motherhood has altered my approach to creativity. I begin the process of narrowing down what is important and I center my vision to target in a way I have not before, a way I could not.

I think we all honor the world by being creative. Our creativity brings to others joy, pure, infant like. I want to be held in color as it were a pair of mothering arms restoring the weary sleepiness and tuning my heart to task.

Early Summer

2009-06-24T18:14:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been a faster sewer than photographer. A nice twist. I've been sewing quick and simple: strips, squares, down right unruly scraps. Far off from my stated mission (the art quilts are living in storage- although that doesn't stop me collecting fabrics for them and adding them in), I am living through and appreciating this phase for what it is, me as a little beach hobbit, looking out when the sea and the air have no barrier between them and all before me is a seamless expanse of one, marred only by a resting tugboat sashed in hunter green.

Dumbly sewing I sit, and center, and think; then I release all the concerns and the things people may have done and said that persist inside my heart when they should be thrown away in the trash in accordance with their merit.

The roses are loaded, but a rainstorm dampened them down a bit this morning. This is the basket I use to pick my humble arrangements. The roses love it by the sea and are blooming profusely. I missed their start because we headed out for a quick vacation to California. Where I did what I do best, bought fabric along the way.

I am finishing up nine patches for Crazy Mom Quilts quilt-a-long, here are just a few:

They are very scrappy and I am happy to report making empty space in the bins that the scraps come from. I'm also doing the quilt-a-long at Red Barn Co., and hope to post my finish later on. I did teals and greens and cheated using some fat quarters instead of half yards.

There is so much inspiration to be found on the beach. I walked at one of the lowest minus tides this year, and there are all manners of creatures exposed. I could create a thousand art quilts alone just studying seaweed.

I have three, going on four quilt tops ready to be quilted, and I may well wait till winter before tackling that issue. I need to learn to release creative control and pay someone to quilt them. But I like thread too much and the methodical hum of the machine.

Quilt-A-Long

2009-04-30T18:12:00.000-07:00

Charm packs make 4 nice 2.5" squares, I'll be using them for the Quilt-A-Long at Crazy Mom Quilts. I like this idea of a nine patch set in a sashing. Simple, a good project for a tired soul at the end of the day. I still can't decide what to sash them with, but that will come.

Some of the larger art quilts are packed away for my time living by the sea. This is o.k. I have found that the fabric pieces for these works are still in the process of coming my way, so I can accept that they are not ready to see fruition quite yet. Thought my studio is whittled to a three drawer cart and musical machines, I find such peace in sewing where I can see the sea, hear the gulls, and watch tankers swiftly make their way out again. I wonder how they counter boredom on those long hours at sea, or if it is much like the home, always a task that can be done.

The sun streams in, beating down hard on the geraniums on the deck. White, planted on each end of the window box, I have not found yet what is to constitute the middle. My husband sleeps on the couch in the shade of the blind.

Days by the sea pass with thoughts of the horizon. An eagle flew past today while I ate breakfast in the soft shaft spotlight of morning light. A day with both the eagle and my favorite blue tanker, definitely had the makings of bliss.

Marblized Color

2009-04-27T07:43:00.000-07:00

Spring weather somehow induces me to sew. Quilts, a dress, a handbag perhaps - I haven't made one yet and have been wanting to, with a matching wallet. All in time, I planted white geraniums, they stand out but nicely commend a background of deep blue sea, but somehow the garden doesn't hold it's allure quite yet.

Here is an organizing project, my DMC floss boxes covered with marblized paper to add a touch of class that plastic just sadly lacks.

I think about a thought- will America become a stronger nation? Amid all the worry for our country and our citizens, that is one comfort I suppose, that we stand to gain with loss.

Resolution

2009-01-26T14:41:00.000-08:00

It took me a month. But I decided. I needed one simple resolution, nothing complex, just deep.

To be a better person.

That's it.

The writing is going, slowly, scratched pieces of lined legal pad paper which flow along to the cadence of the sea. I will type soon these little snippets, and hopefully get back into posting some of the projects that have been going on.

Living by the sea, the sea air, saves me. The tugs are spraying water today. I watched two tankers come in this morning.

Hello Again

2008-10-19T09:48:00.000-07:00

Has it been that long?
I'm still around.
There have been setbacks to pulling the home together as I wish.
But the thing with setbacks is they are very often totally beyond your control.
And that is fine. I keep trying. And then the dishwasher goes out.
Boxes are moving to storage, a bookcase went yesterday.
Little by little the place is getting to be how I want it.
I've been sewing a little. Easy stuff, no concentration required.
I find it relieves stress.

I like living by the beach.
Hearing the waves.
Watching the sea faring traffic, and the way their lights provide atmosphere at night.
There is ample light and fresh air, and what more could one ask.

Again

2008-07-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

The beach house is calming, and I look out to sea water and curious little tug boats hauling around all manners of big ships. I feel blessed. In abundance.

I look around and there is everything that remains to make a home a home. Boxes to sort, items to put away. All manner of things to be cleaned, polished, washed, and deposited in a new home that will function with purpose.

This stage is the awful stage, the stage of dancing around boxes, and looking for five minutes for things that should be at hand. The frustration will subside, and once the utility items are put away, then it is time to frost the house with the beauty. To put up the pictures and the art and the quilts that make a home into something personal. To tell the story of a life, as an exhibition of fine art.

Summer

2008-07-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

The summer is going well.

The boxes are being unpacked.

I see the sea everyday.

I've made one quilt block.

2008-06-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure there is anything more eerie than being in an empty home on a nice day scrubbing in silence. Meditation is found in many ways, but manual labor seems the most instant for me now. I'm letting go of this house in the country. The yard has grown up and daisies speckle the field.

It is a morning for water skiing, and following that shiny black lab that wanders about on the beach all by itself, like it were just a step behind a ghost owner, or it had a mind of it's own that it couldn't make up, and it was freed to go about and snoop in seaweed filled corners and claw at the pebbles.

The beach life is much different. To me it truly feels like home. I love the privacy of space and the green of pasture; but my heart stops truly for the sea and shore. The roses were watered and they have bloomed with all this change, and I take that steadily to heart.

I'm still working on closing this chapter before I start another. It has worn me down: the cleaning, the closing up, the thinking about the "lasts". The last meal and the last . . .

I'm thankful for this time. For the sore muscles and the fatigue, and the feeling of satisfaction when a room is done and ready for someone else. I exist day to day now with just the basics, and nothing I really want to find yet packed up in a pyramid in the new place. My mere annoyance that I cannot see the sea from the kitchen because this marvel of boxes blocks the view.

I long for creative time and in the quiet moments I search for the creativity in repetitive tasks. I fear that the only creating is in the new cleanness and not making something from separate pieces. So in the now I will rise and go back to finish out the old life so I can get on with the new, I am just a crab after all leaving the old skin behind and letting my sadness go with it.

Harder Said Than Done

2008-06-18T15:56:00.000-07:00

I am going through the withdrawal of not having a studio. It is almost packed and ready for arrival in a heated local, and I'm not sure how long it will wait to see the light of day again. So I am taking comfort in my bravado for now.

I'm not going to stop creating art, so I think for a bit it will just be downsized. Smaller pieces that lend to faster completion. I have paired down my studio to the basics and will use those at the new place, then I can visit storage as needed.

Someone told me that maybe for a while my studio wasn't supposed to be at my home. And I wonder about that comment and so many others that are brought into our lives by people, some close, and some seeming strangers. How does one take these messages and heed them, and yet know what is of importance and what is not?

What I've Been Up To Other Than Packing

2008-05-27T17:19:00.000-07:00

This is an earlier shot of a rose planted. It's purple tiger, a long awaited find. I just this past weekend planted two others that sat on the porch for way too long, they are doing well, and one even has color on the bloom.

I find myself in a bread making phase? There is something about kneading. I really don't eat that much bread, although my husband does, but I have been making it, cooling, wrapping, and freezing. It so meditative and it transports me back in time. Plus I can use organic flours.

The packing is continuing, and one knows there are seriously going to move when the cookbooks are packed. I saved one new local one on the Skagit Valley, and I will work my way through the recipes in spare moments when I find my moving sickness approaching. Up until the last moment when it is time to go.

One puts so much care into creating a home. And then it is dismantled and wrapped, and almost like the bread, put into the freezer to open and enjoy some other time.

Ode To The Next Chapter

2008-05-26T20:22:00.000-07:00

BLUE

You give your love and friendship unconditionally. You enjoy long, thoughtful conversations rich in philosophy and spirituality. You are very loyal and intuitive.

Find out your color at QuizMeme.com!

It's been a little time since I posted. Life has edged in and I feel that all the changes which surround me are good for the soul, and I breathe. Blue is definitely my favorite color, always has been. I like the colors of the sea's palette: blue, green, and all the soft shades in between that range to violet and grey and white.

Somehow moving brings up ideas of sufficiency, and my husband and I had a conversation about the idea of self-sufficiency and how perhaps it is a misnomer. I agree to an extent, but I am much more an advocate of people creating things with their own hands.

I think about the stuff in our lives, and I want to make sure I pack my boxes with only very important things.
~What are my favorites?
~What are the things I cannot live without?
~What are the things that wear me down and I need to quickly get rid of?
~What are the things that I don't want right now, but are important enough to keep?

These questions are spurred by the moving process yes. I am finding things that do not belong in my life anymore. Things that are space fillers that I do not love, but have acquired through chance and the freedom of passage for which free things boast. But they are not my favorites, and they surely will obscure the windows in the new place that I will live.

I am also finding objects which perhaps have not been given their "due" and I will arrange them in a more prominent place next time. There are things which I know will go to someone else whom will need them more or be able to re-purpose.

I have vision of simplicity, yes. I have visions of that palette of the sea, the type of home where the focus is out towards the horizon, and the objects which compose it aid the mind in reaching out for new things and accomplishments. So they must themselves speak of that.

We will be living by the sea for a year. It will be a change from the country, and the valiant mountain sunrises that I am use to now. I will miss the deer and the lengthy buttercups, and hanging the wash to flap in the hot sun.

The back of my mind had been filled with a picture, a picture which contains sunset and the movement of water. Had I been able to clear away the debris of life, I might have allowed this vision prominence, as it now seems strangely a flash of the future, although I never gave it it's "due" at the time.

So excuse my absence, anyone, if you are out there and you read such blatherings. I am filling the boxes right now, making my decisions, allowing my future in by the things I exclude. I want so much to not to let who I am and the choices I make be defined by my "stuff".

I have decided to pack much away, and spend a year living and writing overlooking the sea.

I am giving up a lot, namely space and my sewing studio, the china of course will go into storage the the collection of crystal will rest somewhere as well. I remain confident of being lead by an invisible hand. And there are places in life which call us forward, challenge us to find ourselves not in the echo, but in the sun as it rises anew.

Please check in, I might need support. The sewing machines will come, but no longer have a room of their own, and my fear is surely that they will come to rest in the corner during the very time which I deemed to create a portfolio. But book #2 needs to be completed also, and these character hang in my mind like a nagging wife raging with a teenager who doesn't want a curfew. And it has been too long since I could indulge them, enter a space, a calm frame, where I can give them life on the page, enter into their time and their space, and forge them onwards to deal with their own changes and passions.

Here I go, where I stop? Moving along is about being open to being moved along. To letting that inner self be a guide, and quieting that nagging devil on the shoulder that says, "You can't do that, but what about.....

Draw a new circle people, do it, or else all you will have is truly an echo.

2008-05-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Walk with me in a meadow clothed by God. Sense why your path is bathed in purple and flecks of little yellow droplets loaned to the grass by the sun. Wonder, just what is beyond this ridge, and further what becomes of one when they try to be carried by the sea?

It rained this morning, and the cows lumbered into the barn sogged through. They did not receive a nice warm mug of tea as myself while I watched them in their slow lugging motion, as I somehow thought of the power of a tug boat and farm animal at once.

Our world can make one into a pinwheel, and the breathe of our anxiety will whirl us around into places we have no wish to go, and far from the places we seek to discover. We still question the brad that marks our center and believe that the stem which supports us will never allow the contortion of the blades to unfurl.

I am saddened by the rush. The need for more and the demands for speed. There is a time for speed, but we forget that we need so little. Shoes and food and a few threads of clothes, and a chance to sit at our table and have a meal which hasn't touched a box, nor known a life on the shelf.

Feelings can be gentle in spirit, and they like to hid and be covered by the vices of the world, do they not? And what can we make of them, but that they are a big clue to our purpose, our work here on earth. And why can they become so dead on, if we wish to pull back the clutter?

The week is passing by, and I am longing for nothing. I see the richness contained in moments of trivial necessities. I see the care placed in unexpected places and often it's intent never revealed. I delight in the curiousness that makes each new day something to play with.

Week 2 quilt a long!

What's Happening in the Studio?

2008-05-01T08:18:00.000-07:00

My first block for the Quilt a long 2 (unpressed)

For the quilt a long I have decided to pursue yellow and blue. I may come in a little shy on this neat yellow background, but I figure I might make it if I use another color for a border/do the square blocks in another similar background so I made the decision to just risk it and solve the problem if it is a problem later creatively.

As for the first quilt a long, I am awaiting the delivery of the fabric to use as the sashing. I cut up one, but the hubby didn't like it, and I agreed, and as my huge stash just didn't have anything (I can't believe it) I was justified in actually needing to order fabric!

For my sister in law I ordered some college fleece and coordinate and will do a fleece blanket pillow combo for her for graduation as she is off to Virginia.

On the docket right now

This has been providing challenge to me as an artist. I am slowly learning better technique. Tape is part of this improved skill, lots of tape. I ran out and had to by more. But it works great. I have taken to doing smaller sections at a time, using an X-acto knife, and building a section from the worktable, and then taping it up to the growing art piece on the wall. The quilting is going to really carry this piece, and I have to remind myself of that so often when I make color choices, and I start pondering what is really going to light up behind lots of thread work.

The completed dress! It is from an old Vogue I posted about before.

This was really more of a challenge for me to cut out than to sew. I did really well on the pleats in front. The bodice came out just a bit snug on me, but that is part of the pattern in a way. I need to wash it and remove all my sewing markings.

What a man!

I saw this guy and his dog when I was out hopping around town with my friend. She thought I was nuts, but the picture came out pretty good for through the windshield. Her thought was about the dog jumping out, but he looked like a pro rider to me.

Next of the agenda, I got some embroidery ideas up my sleeve which include a custom monogram, and a lot of unessecary beauty.

Fort S

2008-04-18T11:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the studio feels about this big. And quilts are big things. They require space. As does the creation of projects. It's Friday and I'd like to say the studio was ready for some creating this weekend. It's well loved and well used, and I am convicting myself of piling.

The weather is suppose to be cruddy. So maybe I will hole up in there and spend and hour or two clearing out, and the rest of the time either machine quilting or working on my art quilt.

I'm guilty, I bought some new fabric at just stupid prices. I'm thinking of making lawn chair covers and matching pillows and so what if they fade. There is some striped stretch duck that I was thinking about for a trench?

Quote of the week:

Brick walls are there for a reason; they let us prove how badly we want things -

Photo Essay - Spring

2008-04-15T10:24:00.000-07:00

2008-04-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

"But there is a special place where good work is done, a place where elegance is spun out of snippets and scraps"

-from a greeting card by Whimble Designs

The work week closes and the weekend is set to begin. I have a new goal. So I must share. It is the kind of goal that perhaps makes no sense. And yet I have never lived my life to make sense. It involves expense, time, and effort, and could realistically have little financial reward. But aren't those always the best goals?

I've decided I'd like to try out the possibility of getting a degree in fiber arts. It's not a matter of can I, I know I can. I suppose it's more a matter of time and chance at this point. Will my local institution of learning have me? Will the department? I start work on building a portfolio up: novel number two is running along nicely, the roses are sprayed and the house is clean, and a mini adventure is planned for tonight.

I feel a period of resurgence on the horizion. Not just because it is Spring, and the sun has finally appeared after all the wet, but because I have delineated my next step. This has been something I have pondered for sometime. I have achieved a lot of the goals I have set for myself (degree, international travel, work, marriage, getting in shape), excepting the challenge of creating new goals, which I think I just attained.

I spoke of this goal to a new friend, and she maintained that, "That would keep you busy". I felt somewhat insulted, as she proclaimed that I was merely doing this to keep busy, when in reality, the one thing that I have never had a problem with was inventing things to do to maintain productivity. Was this out of envy or just plain dissmissal, I wonder? And why the harsh tone? I hope I never reach the point where I bash down a fancy.

So here we go, check back. I much prefered my husband's response to these outlandish dreams,
"I'll support you with what you want to do"

2008-03-20T11:47:00.000-07:00

"But fiber art is also a visual language which helps us to grasp the world around us, to explore new ideas, and to define our sense of being"

-Polly Ullrich

The first day of Spring in the county brings the wind. The clouds can't decide what to do, and the sun likes to try and dry the vibrant grasses which play against the sunlight as it turns on an off again.

I've finished two garments this past month, and hopefully pictures will be posted soon. I have pinned a couple quilts, trying to finishing up some of the lingering objects in order to clear some room.

I cannot imagine "being" without color. It cheers and it energizes, and it can also subdue. I like the equation of color and language, and further that being can be captured by physical representations- a manifestation of soul.

While I was working on the hand in the picture above, I was rustling around different fabrics not at all satisfied with them, and in the process I lost the paper hand. Well, that increased frustration until I bent over and noticed another piece I had forgotten had fallen to the floor, and then as I stepped on a thread spool I lifted my foot in pain, only to burst out laughing, because there was the hand I had been looking for.

Fiber art is the visual language through which I can center myself and get into the mood of peace. I am then better able to see the world, even if by accident that is around me, and explore how my ideas can come into being in the world. Often when I step back, or return to a finished piece sometime later, that is when I find the being reflected back to me.

Brilliant

2008-03-11T16:48:00.002-07:00

"I TRY TO MAKE THINGS IN AN ENVIRONMENT OF CONTROLLED LUNACY"
- Danny Mansmith

In the Dec 06 issue of Fiber Arts, (a little behind, I know) there is an inspiring article about Danny. I appreciated the found style of his workspace and his originality.

Part of the problem with fiber art is materials have to be very available to work with in a studio environment. This can lead easily to chaos.

An so Danny teaches me that it is o.k., it is part of the process. But he takes it a step further. Into his art. I always knew I was good at making things. And when I hear an artist like Danny talk about making things, in fact making things full time, I smile.

2008-03-11T16:48:00.001-07:00

Been In The Studio

2008-03-03T14:43:00.000-08:00

I am making some impressive progress on the art quilt on my design wall. It feels great, but something inside me all of a sudden screeches for traditional, - why? I found a new pattern I want to do also, doesn't that always happen when you dig in and work to finish one thing?

It is a blustery cold day in the Northwest. Perhaps that is best remedied by homemade brownies and soft music?

Tonight, no DVD's, I am going in the studio, and working on the art quilt, I have a bunch of pieces ready and waiting to be glued and stitched.

Peace

2008-02-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

Doesn't It Though?

2008-02-15T15:43:00.000-08:00

It is a beautiful house. The kind one works their life away for. The kind that has a jet tub that looks onto a fireplace, and almost as much garage space as house. I looked at it today and the story it told has a great message.
The husband lost his wife, he fled to the palm dessert. Everything is still on the walls, all the furniture in place. His wife died of cancer. Her touches are everywhere, they were married thirty years, no children. He still hasn't been able to pack her away, there are memories hidden in these things.

She liked roses. That is clear. The guest bedroom is done up in them. And interesting finds also, things which tell a story. She was able to blend formality with comfort, modernity with the past, and she must have been a wonderful person to create such a warm home.

I came away from this experience a whole lot wiser.

1) Having the house doesn't matter
2) Having the furntiure doesn't matter
3) Having the toys doesn't matter

All that matters is being together with the one you love.

I know this lesson well.

But sometimes in this modern greedy America, we all need reminders like this one.

Grow Up, What?

2008-02-07T07:22:00.000-08:00

You Should Be an Artist

You are incredibly creative, spontaneous, and unique.No one can guess what you're going to do next, but it's usually something amazing.You can't deal with routine, rules, or structure. You're easily bored.As long as you are able to innovate and break the rules, you are extremely successful.
You do best when you:
- Can work by yourself- Can express your personality in your work
You would also be a good journalist or actor.

What Should You Be When You Grow Up?

Some little girls know they want to be nurses or teachers, SAHM/W's, doctors or lawyers when they grow up. They have a firm handle on where they are intended to be and what they want to do in this world. This knowledge seems gifted heartly and lavishly upon these individuals.

What about people like me that don't really grow up in a sense? Sure we are responsible individuals but lacking in that divine ordinance so to speak.

How can we possible decide on one thing when there are so many good possibilites? And if one doesn't feel "called" to a certain field, how do you go about creating another route? I think the actor option is out because I hate the idea of fame (but would like the yacht). Although, I do think the connection a performer has with the audience is powerful. I think the reclusive artist picture is much more of a romantic domain.

I was reading yesterday about the idea of creating a lot of mistakes, or uglies, en route to the really good stuff. And maybe that is what trying is all about. Producing a lot of ugliness that somehow later looks really good? Our perspectives, our views change, we have distance and see through altered eyes? Or we just improve.

And how does one express personality through their work? Well with an artist, I suppose that is natural. In the written word, presumable - doing the dishses? Well, I guess there are ways to spice that up as well, soft music or techno and a few drops of grapefruit essential oil.

I like the idea of the impressionist that I just read about - Degas. He was a recluse in Paris. He lived in a quarter where all the art supply stores were located and a lot of the other painters lived. However that is not his genius. His genius was that he hired a housekeeper (He was a bachelor). My favorite work of his is Woman Ironing. I think about what keeps me from my own art and writing, and generally it is housework and homekeeping. So I put it out to the universe that in time, I will be like Degas, an employ a housekeeper so I can focus on art. Also that I should write about it as some textile art journalist extroadinare.

Some mornings I really like my hands warmed by the hot dishwater. Once I get into them anway. And the view of my roses from the kitchen window, still and bear in winter - formed alive in my imagination, is the only peace in the world I'd want to know.

Happy Birthday

2008-02-06T08:26:00.000-08:00

I made it around again. I earned this year.

Some years define us so sharply

we become grooved

Pattern cannot tell me the movement of the sea

it hides amoungst the random

it does what it pleases

we look to it as proof of God

that he put us here as if to order something

we cannot touch

There is no room for saddness

ballons and flowers and little pieces of romance

each trip round we want to mark

Float along, my piece of drift

that you may never touch the same swath of sea

nor get too entagled in the banks

or beaten upon the shore.

Shift Gears Already

2008-01-31T08:45:00.000-08:00

January is almost through, and I have been in a frenzy of cutting things out. They get cut out, put neatly in a bag, awaiting the seamstress in me to ignight. I like the feeling of having a project all ready to just sit down and sew. No back and forth between the cutting area and the machine. I must admit that while I may loose some of the initial flow or enthusiasm for the project, I am attracted to the compartmentalized idea of a garment all ready to be sewn. I ponder my motivation for all this cutting:

merely because I have the dining room table fully extended?

a response to the grey days of winter which is no doubt eased by bright fabric?

a way to feel like I have used my fabric without really?

So then, as the law of nature would have it, I pile up all these cutting for use, and then a friend throws a project my way. And who can refuse a pillowcase to attempt when the fabric and pillow come accompanied with a caddy full of stamps?

Do you get in creative modes? Cutting mode, sewing mode, studio reorganization mode (I have been stuck here for awhile before the current cutting mode, embroidering mode, and etc. ?

My Ugliest (ehm charming) Block Yet

2008-01-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

Da Bloc

Up close and personal

Some of the 30's
Not enough contrast in the block I know! I just didn't have many reds so there you go.
Snow, rain, rain, snow, rain. Wind now! Hmm, I think I will have more tea. Feeling under the weather, but wanting to do something creative. Maybe it just all stems from the love of color and since color is on vacation where I live for the month of January, I have taken to wearing fuchsia, lime green, and all manner of bright colors which are in my closet. I think these quilt a long's could get a tad addictive. I am holding to my promise that the upcoming star one will be made from STASH ONLY!

Walking for Inspiration

2008-01-28T11:27:00.000-08:00

No sewer can linger, back arched at a machine for too long. Walks are required for mediation and advanced thought, for the clearing out- enabling focus to spin around to what is important in one's art.
This weekend I did my block of the week, and was able to carve a linoleum block stamp. I hope to do some printing on fabric soon.
I have been wavering about a decision. I attend a weekly quilt group. I feel like I have given it a good go. However, due to some of the personalities in the group, I am feeling like I would like to step back from it. As of late, there has been gossiping about absent members, harsh and bossy directions and criticism, and just an atmosphere of intimidation and making people feel less than. This comes from the baby boomers in the group. The older ladies are very sweet. I think this group which I wanted to be a growing opportunity has degraded into making me worse at my craft.
So do I just quit? I want to. I can't abide these behaviors and I don't want to become like that. That said, I do enjoy the time just that one hour, to work. So I am thinking of starting a group myself.
In life and in art it takes courage to cut out what is not working. There is a difference surely between "pruning" and just "quitting" wouldn't you say?

Opinions Anyone

2008-01-24T11:48:00.000-08:00

I've been away. I know, bad blogger. Sometimes I feel I would rather not post than post something I am not enthusiastic about. So I have about a yard and wanted to see if anyone had any ideas about which top I should make.

I didn't get my garment sewn that weekend, but I did get it cut out. I was gladly interrupted by rare sunshine, and so the opportunity to walk in the woods arrived.

This new year is going well. I think that my luck has improved somewhat. I am sticking with my whole foods diet, and my exercising.

I have started on my rack covers, hopefully pics will follow soon. Would you believe it possible for me to be out of navy sewing thread?

So what do you think, anyone still out there, which one would you make?

Flecks of Joy

2008-01-11T15:19:00.000-08:00

As Friday draws to the lull in the afternoon, we all know the moment, where the week seems to stretch out with the anticipation of some time off, I take a break and marvel and just what a good week it has been. Visits with old and new friends, new fabric acquisitions, a trip to the big city, a movie in the evening, the better part of a morning spent in thought while doing the dishes.

My goal this weekend is to sew a garment. So if nothing comes up, I will do so. The house is caught up, and the laundry - I really should take a picture just to prove it. Soft piano plays in the background, and I have inspiration to write. I should get to the second novel waiting in the wings. The characters are probably starting to believe that I have forgotten their moments and emotions.

I'm thinking about how we all live our lives so differently. Everyone has their peculiarities which somehow fleck off onto everyone else- if only to take for in a passing thought up in the brain that is flushed out as soon and the chin darts to the other shoulder.

What is the message that you brought to someone today. And what was it they gave to you in return?

Puttering

2008-01-07T10:21:00.000-08:00

The table and its supplies are the heart of the home and the expression of its highest attainment in finess of living, and for the sake of all who gather about it let if be as perfect as your means can buy.

I'm getting ready for a lovely Christmas party with my friends. Except the decorations are mostly put away. We will exchange gifts and laugh, and I am hoping that a special engagement will be announced. I need to buy a gift for a person, and the only thing I really know she likes is the color pink, so that will be the theme for my gift.

I puttered in the studio this weekend, basically this and that without really achieving that much, but puttering can be useful, just time spent at a slower speed in the presence of creative material. Why do we always think we have to accomplish so much? What is this American work ethic that stops us sometimes from just enjoying? Often times we are too tired, and walk in these rooms across America just to pet things and little dreams bubble up and take hold while we arrange cords and machines and plastic tubs full of possibilities.

The unruly weather of the weekend has past, and the sun shines in on my late paperwhite and the most sluggish amaryllis that I have yet known. House plants are getting repotted this week, and the silver will be shined and stayed next to the Federal Cobalt Platinum, and I might even splurge for some roses to arrange on my cobalt, white, and silver table. I take true joy in setting a fine table, and if that be a faint mark upon the world, then alas, I will make it true. There is an impact to beauty in our surroundings, give me the tired, overworked, overstressed young people, and just for a brief moment may these girls feel that they have walked into a fine hall and dined in excellence.

I have been ruminating in this new year, what kind of quilt do I want for my our bed? I am a lover of white on the bed, and yet I do desire a quilt, but want one that is simplistic and restful and also a showcase of fine workmanship. Any ideas out there for a white Cal King quilt????

Well the preparations will continue. I find soul in the helping; in the picking up and the putting away, in the shining and the buffing, in the making lists and following through, in the dusting and the polishing and the tidying. For all that is really left are memories. And how can I help if I want them to shine?

Quilt A Long

2007-12-31T13:13:00.000-08:00

So. . . I'm keeping up now!

I think he liked it!!!

Accomplishing

2007-12-31T09:47:00.000-08:00

Well, there has been the colds, the Holidays, and really, the general disinterest in the sewing room lately. I put together a garment rack and got it up in my studio so all the colors of the rainbow are now clearly well represented by t-shirts in my wardrobe. My new shoes are organized. There is some residual clutter that I am dealing with as a result, but overall the result is pleasing.

I am working on my blocks of the week (catch-up) for the quilt a long, and have finished my part of a round robin for quilt group, so soon I will be back to the art quilt that nags at me on my design wall. The sun is nice today, and it lifts the mood toward the new year ahead.

All in all this has been a year of trial for me. I am expecting the year ahead to hold more cheer. I have been contemplating my resolutions, and so far only one stands out to me, and that is that I would like to sew more garment and utility items. I feel like I have been doing a lot of quiltmaking and that that has been taking over my creative time. Some of the items I would like to sew are:
1. Lounge pants
2. Sundress out of cotton lawn
3. A carry all bag
4. A patchwork purse
I will get to the storage cart covers, hopefully start sewing on them after the party I am throwing this next week.

Thought for the new year:

An easy hobby is a boring hobby-

Cheers

2007-12-13T12:13:00.000-08:00

Colors cheer me up in the month of December. So I appreciate them wherever I stumble upon them. This is a shot of me brushing off radishes. Did you know that radishes are a source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, beta-carotene, folic acid and vitamin C?

I will get the lights on the tree tonight. I will get the lights on the tree tonight. Yet for now as the wind howls and the rain whispers against it, I will keep my joy during the doings of little things.

What's Up In The Studio

2007-12-11T15:46:00.000-08:00

I have the cure for that need to fabric shop that strikes at odd moments and won't leave you alone. Open up a tub of your scraps and iron them, get them ready for a larger purpose.

I'm smothered in cookie dough, but finally it is in the fridge- waiting. I steal a few moments to myself- maybe I will catch up on my blocks since I am BEHIND in the quilt-a-long. Bright fruit can cheer on a winter day.

I have the peace that comes with a freshly cleaned house which smells of lemon, and soon buttery dough. I will get two cookies, and the rest are off to be exchanged tonight. The peanut brittle is packed away from me.

There is a quilt that needs wrapping.

DON'T DO IT. (No, I am not a fabric snob)

2007-12-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

Women, you know who you are. Men, you're guilty too. You are out there spending tons of time on your creations and you are using subpar materials from big box stores that fade, bleed, come apart, and will not last or endure in the fine projects they are worked into.

Fabric companies make special runs for these stores, and so the quilt shop will get the same print on a better good, while this print for the big box store is done on a cheap base cloth. Didn't you ever wonder about the price variation?

I know this one quilter who is so defensive about using fabrics from a big box store. She defends this all the time, and quite frankly I respect her choice to use crappy fabrics and I don't argue with her. I just wonder, since she is such a good piecer, why she doesn't value herself and her work enough to use better materials, materials which will ensure that her wonderful quilts will outlive herself and her grandchildren. We are not talking about a woman who could not afford the slightly higher cost.
Why sacrifice excellence for a few dollars?

Now there are some times when using cheap fabric is applicable. For drafting patters, or making costumes or things that will get used once and don't need to last, and for the occasions when you find just the right print that is unique and cannot be found elsewhere.

Yet why risk using fabric that will bleed, possible ruining a quilt you have spent hours on? Now I know that even fabric (read batiks) from quilt shops can bleed, but in my experience that is very rare and any fabric shop of merit will take that fabric back no questions asked. Every purchase I have made of cotton quilting fabric from a big box store, I have been unable to stop color loss from. I have also been upset about the quality of it after it has been prewashed. So I just stopped purchasing it.

Why do I want to just scream at these women -
"YOU ARE WORTH USING GOOD MATERIALS!" This is your legacy, and what do you want that gift to be? Now people can argue cost difference with me, but my reply is a firm,
"Every good quilt shop or fabric store has a sale table of high quality goods, and quite frankly I would rather sew with first rate fabric that is on sale, than cheap fabric if they are giving it away."

I know that quilting is a tradition that evolved from taking the useful parts out of worn out garments and household items, and that this was the material that the original quilts came from. Utility in quilt making is a wonderful quality. However, most women today making creations quilting have to buy materials. They have a choice to make, a vote to cast with their dollar. The American consumer is choosing crap, time and time again, for what?

I plead of you, as a patriot, as a lover of fabric and quilts and all that is of textile-
if you are going to put your time into something, have the courage to use good materials. Pursue excellence in craftsmanship please, and this starts with the best materials that are available to the craftsman.

Have you ever wondered what our world would look like if everyone voted for cheap garish fabric with their dollars? Think about it. No innovative designers, no fabric companies pushing for quality and ingenuity. What are our quilts going to look like in fifty years? I for one, don't want whomever gets my quilts repairing holes or worse shoving them under the dog because all the fabrics have bleed into one another or they are so threadbare that they are useless.

I admit, I am a little firm in my view. Think twice about what you purchase for your art. Buy cheap toilet paper, whatever. But don't you dare buy cheap fabric for your quilts. You're worth more than that, my friend.

As I Thought...

2007-12-04T11:32:00.000-08:00

You Are Christmas

More than most people, you are able to find magic in life's small moments.Traditions mean a lot to you, and you tend to be quite nostalgic.You are a giving, kind person who really understands the true meaning of holidays.You inspire others to be as altruistic and caring as you are.
What makes you celebrate: Tradition and a generous spirit
At holiday get togethers, you do best as: The storyteller. You like to recount memories with everyone.
On a holiday, you're the one most likely to: Give a gift to everyone you know

http://www.blogthings.com/whatholidayareyouquiz/">What Holiday Are You?

"If it isn't a ROSE it's a weed"

2007-12-03T07:08:00.000-08:00

And I thought I had an odd affection for roses. The characters in:
Otherwise Normal People - Inside The Thorny World of Competitive Rose Gardening (Aurelia C. Scott)
are on the level to which I aspire. These are people who have pursued their passion to the point of excellence.

My favorite character in the book is Clarence. With his pots, and his garage full of roses and rose paraphernalia, he clearly wins the affection of every rose buff. His ingenuity concerning the gadgets he creates for the the care of his roses is amazing. I admire how he keeps trying new ideas out, and I vow to remember that this trait is a hallmark of excellence.

The only thing is, that for myself, instead of showing roses competitively, I have always wanted to use my roses to bless other people, so I give them away to surprise people. Maybe this book will make me want to show my roses at a later date - who knows?
For now the roses are dormant, enriched by melted snow, and what is a rose gardener to do in the winter beside wrinkle the nose smelling the new varieties that do not exist yet in their collection - well read about them, of course.

What To Take Away

2007-11-28T08:26:00.000-08:00

Quilt group is on Fridays. I readily admit myself an old fart. This was hanging on the wall where we meet. It is 1800's old, and if one looks closely, it looks like the yellow and green were home over-dyed. Each square of white (sheeting) has a different quilting motif and one is signed by the maker.

This quilt inspired thoughts about how quilts and works of needlework and fiber art in particular can emit to others waves of emotions. For instance, examining the details of this quilt I deduced a fanciful story of a quiltmaker who used old bed sheets and the little ugly scraps she had, and with a little resourcefulness, created a soft spoken beauty of great wonderment.

Producing imaginative quilting motifs and gentle curving stems, this maker must have felt some sadness and yet sought to create a soft lightening result with her work. Was it to go in a small bedroom? And why do I get such a pleasant and calm vibe from this work?

Do quiltmakers and artisans deposit their soul in works? Can this soul be recognized and transmitted in a tactile interpretation of a viewer? I get this every once in awhile with objects of art. I have this gut reaction not dependent upon a like or dislike for an object, which conveys to me the mood and character of the maker. I appreciate the window into who they were and what was important to them e.g. lots of colors, lots of pieces, overall theme etc.

I am tucking these thoughts away for later, and I will think about what my art says, how it speaks, how during the process when I create, I can factor in these seemingly imperceptible entities.

So many emotions go into our art. Is that good? I know when I bake or cook and my mind is not balanced, my product is not balanced. I also know that when I go to sew, I use that as a balancer, as a de-stressing function. Does that mean I channel that into my art for others to perceive?

The snow did fall, the rain is removing the dappled white. The hills are accumulating and I feel the bare of the trees a little sad. So I focus on my orchid, and the houseplants sheltered mysteriously from cold. The day will move beyond the grey outside and reveal color.

Pocket Full Of Wisdom

2007-11-26T12:23:00.000-08:00

So how was everyone's turkey day? Mine was good, good defined as not having to do any cooking. Nice to have a day off from that once in awhile. I am contemplating whether or not ice cream is allowed after working out???

Here is my wondrous arrangement, I produced it just before Thanksgiving for a grand total of about 75 cents. The basket was a gift and it just begged to be filled with flowers. Rather than rushing right out to do this idea that popped into my head, I waited, and then was able to scoop up some clearance stems.

The Canadians are saying it may snow, and I got that feeling just before I turned on the radio and heard about it, but according to my weather station is it 35 degrees. Maybe tonight! It would go so well to the Christmas music that I have been working to.

Without further blathering, here is my block bad pic, but finished and posted! #2:

I was curious today as I drove home, just what role the creation of beauty plays into our life purpose. I could do something, or I could go the extra mile, and do something well and beautiful. I think of being creative and using those inspirations that assail me in quiet and busy hours alike; and I find that living out those visions is surely a way to fulfill the purpose of one's life.

Walking along the seashore yesterday I found myself gathering little bits. The water was an icy calm and the tankers where at the dock for their loads. My sweetie got lost somewhere up in the bushes picking rose hips, and I walked on solitarily and slowly with my face bowed to the gems of the beach. The drift was large and fresh from the winds not much over a week ago, and I wanted to sit, but soon required movement to keep warm.

I walked to the white rock and turned around, releasing some unknown bunch of feathers to the wind, and reaching up to sweep the hat off of my head. The beach teaches much to a quilter, a fiber artist, or anyone whom seeks to create beauty with color in their lives.

I will take these thoughts with me, if I can hold them close without the demands of the day interrupting, and I will close the door to the studio and play, pocketing the meaning of life along with the rounds smooth stones and the little teeth of glass shards that followed me home to rest in the warmth.

Grandmother's

2007-11-24T16:01:00.000-08:00

I was happily oblivious to the conversations going on around me, flipping through an old cookbook, the neat kind that are the accumulated pile of everyone's recipes. So a little surprise awaited me, a recipe submitted by my husband's grandmother. A Grandmother which in her elder years, he was kind enough to run dinner over for.
So tonight in the oven is:

Chow Mein casserole:

1 lb hamburger (I think ground turkey would be good)
1 c. chopped onion
1 can mushroom soup (I used organic)
2 1/2 Tbs. soy sauce
1/2 c. uncooked rice (I used a mix)
2 c. water

Brown hamburger, then celery and onions. Mix with all other ingredients. Put into a casserole and bake about 1 1/2 hours at 350.

Simple and easy, and I double it just for fun, maybe that will buy me some extra time to finish that quilt this weekend so I can have it wrapped up for the nephew - who just got a new bed!

Quilts, Pace of Life

2007-11-20T14:34:00.000-08:00

The pace today is slowed, but I still have a pace, and I suppose some days that is the best anyone can ask! Just enjoying the hours of this beautiful day. Here is the quilt that was finally pinned with help of my quilt group. It is rolled up and waiting in the studio, until I finish up the last bit of my other one. And it will happen before Christmas.

Details

The tentative plan is to do some tiny circles or stippling around the house in the center to make it stand out, and then I think I will design a free flow rose motif to quilt in the square area of the chain. This quilt is a cal-king coverlet size. So it is large, and I worry it may be more like years and years before I finish the machine quilting on this puppy.

I'm getting some strength back after the harsh cold that everybody all over seems to be getting.

I want to make this quilt. Am I the only weirdo that takes picture of the T.V. screen during movies? Can anyone guess the movie? I'll type it at the end of the post. What I like about this quilt is the worn look that the color gives off. It has a nautical feeling, but also a heart of folk. I have been looking for the right blue for the background, and then I realized that it was probably an original navy that has worn and faded. With such a large block it would go together quick and be a great gift for a guy.
I however have projects to finish before this, and want to spend more time on some fabric painting/stamping/coloring. Maybe I could dye some fabric this summer for it? This could be a time when E-Quilt comes in handy.
As I write, the cows are headed into the barn, a giant black and white one stopped to munch a little. Now he is hustling to catch up. The clouds hug the mountain low at the foothills, but all around it is clear and blue sky. The fields are damp and wet and a deep chartreuse. I am grateful the wind has left and I am starting to think I would like a little snow around the homestead.
(Little Women)

Quilt A Long

2007-11-18T11:47:00.000-08:00

My block!

So this is my first Quilt-a-long. Crazy Mom Quilts got me inspired do to the challenge. A coincidence occured due to me looking at my stack of thirties prints the day before I read her blog and thinking I need to do something with those. I took it as a sign to take action, so I did. (I just watched the Celestine Prophecy if you are wondering.)

So much has been going on in the studio. My machines have been humming, the lights hungrily burning fossil fuels to illuminate the tall space. I am really pleased with all that I have been accomplishing, most of it in small chunks of time when they become available. During the power outage, I made the pattern for the storage cart covers, and got all the pieces cut out. I can't wait for some extra time to sew, and my goal is to have these done, along with another quilt which only requires a couple more rows of quilting before I will post the product.

You can see the clear plastic I used to draft the pattern on. This allowed me to see where I positioned the piece on the pattern of the fabric. That way I also have a record if I ever want to make another in the future. I fold up all my used patterns, put them in Ziplocs and then file them in their correctly labeled tub. The pattern covers the Costco wire shelving that is on casters.

I have also been achieving small steps on my art quilt project which has been hogging the design wall, whispering to me that it is feeling neglected amid all my other utility projects.

Product Review: I was surprised to find these at my local art store, so I put them to the test:

I want to get to stamping some more fabric, I feel something coming that I will want to do with them, but I haven't defined what it is yet. Anyone have ideas? I also have some new embroidery cards that I want to try and specifically some Christmas ones.
In other news, the homestead is quiet today, Moby plays softly in the background and I am all dressed up to go over to relatives for dinner. I must say that my hair looks really good, which surprised me it has been wild lately. I'm looking forward to the drive and some time with my sweetie.

Workmanship

2007-11-14T09:18:00.000-08:00

I have had some good times in the studio lately, and will post the pics when I get some time.
However overall I have been contemplating workmanship. My grandmother is preparing to leave her house of many years and looking over some of the contents I can't help but notice all the "Made in the U.S.A." Then we look around today, and that is almost non-existent.
What happen to workmanship and craft? How do I focus on this during my studio time? I live in this rush rush world, but I go in my room and try to slow, and to focus on artfully arranging and constructing something original, and yet I find myself wanting to hurry it up? How does the artist balance the need to produce with the workmanship required to do their best?
Is this because studio time can be such a precious resource that when one has it there is a need to accomplish? Is it because so many things in this world are expedited and instant?

Generations

2007-11-02T14:35:00.000-07:00

I'm noticing all these smart, talented young women who are rejecting their mother's idea that it is possible to have it all. These bloggers are forging ahead with their own ideas of how to live a life, and struggling with opposing viewpoints which neglect how important it is to run one's own race.
We each have our own experiences growing up, and all families are different- but there is a common thread here, a swing back to the 50's if you will so to speak, and I am intrigued.
Is it because our generation grew up with no clean towels, a father and mother that if they were together were so stressed out, lonely after school times, fast food, lack of mentoring and guidance, and the idea of the Boomers that to be a success one has to have career success, and the beautiful clean home and great marriage as well? I've been looking around at these women who are the mother's of my generation, and I can't help but not want what they have.
Why is that?
To me so many seem tired, worn out, overweight, depressed, regretful, and frustrated with their children and spouses. Is this just reality? I know there are lots of women in the Boomer generation who have made choices NOT to have it all. I just don't personally know very many, and so perhaps my viewpoint is off.
It saddens me, (almost had a minor in women's studies)that women have come so far, and yet there is this great divide. And we seem to judge so harshly (yup, I'm guilty) and I wonder if there really is an "all" anyway, and will we reach a day where these communications are more open and the Boomers can talk with us, really talk, and maybe a whole cynical judgemental generation will go on in new/old directions because for all our flaws, we are a sharp bunch us youngsters - even if outnumbered.
Run your own race...thoughts?

Collect? Who me?

2007-11-01T15:58:00.000-07:00

“No one expects the stamp collector to actually mail letters with his stamps. No one expects the coin collector to use his coins in a vending machine for soda. So why does everyone expect me to use my fabric collection to actually sew anything?” I’m not a fabriholic; I’m a fabric collector!"

Can't remember where I came across this statement, but it definetly has me pondering. There are untold hours of joy created from collections, and specfically merely the viewing and enjoying of them.

While I use my fabric, I know that I am not alone in possessing more than I will ever use. Quilting has definetly surpassed a subsistance art and crossed into nutzo hobby territory.

But hey, I need lots of colors!

A What?

2007-10-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

You Are a Centaur

In general, you are a very cautious and reserved person. However, you are also warm hearted, and you enjoy helping others in practical ways.You are a great teacher, and you are really good at helping people get their lives in order.You are very intuitive, and you go with your gut. You make good decisions easily.

http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href= Mythological Creature Are You?

Why can't I be a mermaid?

Fabrics purchased on a trip. Hand done by a man and his son.

Enough, I am going in the studio right now,

and I am NOT coming out unless the house is on fire!

Discipline, devotion, determination, detriment?

2007-10-19T08:46:00.001-07:00

These were rescued, that last of Love. The winds have come, and only the strong remain not wilted and shattered. Autumn, yes, it looks like a go for some studio time. I have been doing a little hand quilting in my chair, pondering as usual the purpose of life.

I was thinking about all these stitches, and how each has it's meaning, responsible somewhat for those maverick thoughts on random subjects that are sewn into layers.

Ode To Future Girl

2007-10-08T14:51:00.000-07:00

Future girl has a post one must not miss. If only to prove that I am not the only messy Marvin when it comes to studio time. I love these peeks into other's work spaces. The hard evidence that when there is accomplishing there is also a wake of fiber.

Although I don't use her particular method for floss, I do laud her utilization of foraged containers to re-use.
Life has been a little luny lately, but I'm holding on to my peace.
Can't wait to pick out a pumpkin!

It's Worth It!

2007-09-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

What are you doing in your life that is WORTH IT! That is something I have been thinking about as I transition to eating a whole foods diet. The washing and the chopping and the trail of dishes. It's worth it. I feel better. I'm inspired by all the colors that I am eating. And things taste so much better??

Feeding the horse I befriended.
Always have a couple carrots up your sleeve. Wander the neighborhood looking for glory- one can find it in creatures great and small.

Getting rid of the plastics in my pantry. Aren't jars just a little more romantic anyway?

Sewing is also worth it. It takes times like these when you can't quite make it into the sewing mood to realize that one should just go for it. The trail will end, forge one that is ever changing and full of new possibilities. If you aren't doing anything new/different/consistent, then it's just not that fun. Breathe in the mountain air, pet the smooth silken horses nose tip while he wiggles for the last of the local carrot; clear out what doesn't work in your life and make room for beautiful new volumes of words, phrases, and delights.
Tell the sun goodnight as if you'd never see it again. Follow the moonbeams out your window and observe the fields before they are cut.
Wander into your weekend alive and ready to alter on an instance.

Meaning of Life

2007-09-10T12:24:00.000-07:00

Baker Lake was blissful, the sun was warm, the breeze gentle yet strong. And in a place such as this one wonders, looking at the forgotten tree stumps, the remnants of fires, just what is the meaning of life?

A little frog jumped up on a rock beside the water, and I hope that is a sign of good luck. I wondered if he questioned why he was here. And so I make my point that sometimes maybe life has no meaning/purpose but just existing as the little frog sitting just on the edge of where the water lapped upon him.

Pause Awhile

2007-09-07T18:12:00.000-07:00

In modern day life it is so very easy to loose touch with things that are alive. This week I found myself planting some new houseplants and searching for the neighborhood cat I named shadow. She is a grey stunted tailed feline that likes to drool and rub against your ankles, but she only likes to visit briefly. The deer family was quite adventurous and though not pictured, the young fawn briefly nibbled in the yard. I love to watch them, but roses are their chocolate, so they also incite worry. So far only a couple roses met their death through untimely munches by the neighborhood animals.

I am making shopping bags for the grocery store so that I might save a tree or an oil well. They will be far more elegant loaded in the back of my small SUV. Sorry, no hybrids for me. I serged and re-in forced stitched then so they will be strong. However I decided to make them small enough so that I can carry them.

lay out cut up bag & add seam allowance pin back together cut out pieces serge and then reinforce stich with heavy thread

At quilt group today I sewed the back for a quilt we are going to donate to charitable auction, and I am pleased with the quilt that my donation produced. It sure will be nice to have it bless someone else, rather than have it another project waiting in the que in my sewing room.

I finished a natural root beer, and I have a contented tiredness on this Friday evening. Sure there are things that I would like to do, and yet sometimes one requires time not really doing much it order to be renewed for creative activities. I have been focusing a lot on making changes in my life this year. I started with exercise, and now I am holding my own with three times a week doing water aerobics. I have moved on to whole foods, and have eliminated process foods from my diet. I never really thought of my self as able to make a transition to a whole food way of eating, but I did it, and so could you. I have evolved to the point where I am using foods for their medicinal properties. I keep asking my friends about what they are changing in their lives, and they keep laughing at me and not saying much and it leads me to wonder how are they improving???
I don't watch T.V. Yes, that's right. I don't watch it, and it was one improvement that has made my life more tangible. With T.V. there is nothing to show for one's time at the end of the hour. I tuned into life, and it has brought immense satisfaction and reward.

I Finished!

2007-08-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

So I finished a piece, after a little pause to obtain the purple thread that was dark enough for the moutians. Whale Horizons is a small art piece that is hand painted and free-motion quilted. I have fun working on this scale sometimes because I tend to do things big, did I say big, I meant huge. So I feel some sense of accomplishment at the end of the week. Labor Day may hold some time for me in the studio as we are sticking around home. I hope others are doing something more exciting.
I have some similar hand painted fabrics to embellish and have created a series. I think that I might even try to sell them sometime. I really felt that this piece didn't want a binding, so I serged around the edge in grey thread. I like it.
I potted some house plants today and they are uplifting. So nice to have something alive in our modern homes.

Quilt I'd Love In My Bedroom

2007-08-30T16:20:00.000-07:00

You ever stop the car to take pictures??
I do.

What Happened To The Other 2%?

2007-08-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

You Are 98% Creative

You are an incredibly creative person. For you, there are no bounds or limits to your creativity.Your next creation could be something very great... Or at least very cool!

http://www.blogger.com/%3Ca%20href= Creative Are You?

The giant firs stand upright, charcoal in grey sudsy air. I have a bit left of my tea, and it's warmth luxuriates in porcelain as I inhale damp mist. Soon I will whirl into motion. I love to pause in the morning for just a minute to take in the fresh feeling that accompanies the start of a day. Each has such a different mood and song and I would hate to rush so and leave the refrain to drop.

There is enough breeze to buoy the sheer, and I brush it with my palm and walk out onto the deck. Yesterday was a challenging day, but it was filled with blessings, it just depends on how I choose to view it. I coped with a little fabric therapy, as I figure that is a much more rewarding and cost effective route. The secrets, anguish, which becomes buried in the fibers we purchase and set about designing with. Each piece carries a little hope or a bad memory. As a capsule of the despair of not knowing what to do, we acquire so we can remember an instance with a fabric. It soothes us somehow, even just sitting on the shelf. It excites when an unexpected association becomes apparent with another old friend, and a new idea is born. The glory when it is sewn.

Maybe in making a lot of changes in my life, I have left behind the other 2% of my creativity. Maybe the missing two percent is under a pile of fabric and stifled by the threads that haven't yet been put away from a time before. Perhaps I have it, but it is unused, stifled by the noise of accomplishment and daily life in the needing of having that 2% anyway?

I am due for some time, a block of time in the studio. It gets irritating when life gets in the way, and I think that is the 2% surely. The damp air spurts me onward. The fog is cocooning, it is slowing almost with the atmosphere of obscurity. I delight in this weird, maniacal summer of never ending weather surprises. It is like nature lost it's 2% too, and is making all these changes just to join into the fun. Fore she is a mother of many fabrics, woven textures defined by an invisible wizard whom seeks- to lure, to fascinate, and tempt.

Breathe and have peace and quiet

2007-08-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

It is Tuesday and that mere fact leads me to wonder shouldn't I feel more powered up? Well, the day has been lackluster if you wanted to focus on the weather outside. The sunrise is from another morning. Inside however there has been a lot of accomplishing. I made healthy muffins and granola, so alas something for breakfast. The house smells warmly of oatmeal and cinnamon, and I am just slightly unsure where the summer went.

I am reflecting on the sewing party I hosted with some girlfriends, most didn't really sew and I was pleased at their digging in and trying something new. I think they had a good time. I got the idea to make notecards with a theme word. I used: wind, forrest, waterfall, mountain, sunset, and winter and told the girls to create a block with that word as an inspiring theme. I sat out my three mega tubs of scraps which are separated into light, medium, and dark, and told them they could use anything out of the bins.

It is so amazing how different everyone's imagination is. Not only do people look all different,

but they all have unique imaginations as well. The finished blocks! So the party was a success, and I am hoping to sucker them all into coming over for enough times to get a quilt.

I know this may be a small thing for many people, but I have always wanted milk in the glass bottles. Now not only do I find this local milk in glass, but to find it with a blue top-

My affection is won.

I sure goes good with the granola, still just a bit warm.

I was thinking on silence today, it seems rather quiet up here in my neck of the woods, maybe because I wasn't playing any music, or perhaps because it just seemed still, but I appreciated the quiet. I feel like our nation is deprived of solitude and my heart go out to the stressed out everywhere.

Ah, Just A Break

2007-08-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Today I went to quilt group and learned how to pin a quilt using stretcher bars. I've never done that before, but I quite liked the experience. It was fun to do something together with other women, and that is something one misses in the studio all alone absorbed in their own stitches. It seems I am always putting a kink in my back trying to safety pin all over the living room. It got me inspired for quilting all those quilts to finish, but alas my swollen hand. Shouldn't be typing really.
The kitchen is slicked up and I Miracle Growed everything this morning. I made a bread pudding out of leftover croissants and it looks marvelous. A nice big salad, even with broccoli in the fridge. Next a dressing.
I have gotten the studio cleaned and look forward to some spare moments this weekend to putter on finishing some odds and ends so I can start on that home-dec storage project next week after I throw a big barbecue.
The studio is stocked and waiting, although it could always use more embroidery threads. I feel in the mood for cutting so I may even pull out the civil war quilt and do a couple blocks. Well off to start the hot part of dinner and thinking of restful seas.

Do Something Creative Today

2007-08-08T10:17:00.000-07:00

Even if that means just getting dressed with lots of color! I notice that the people that seem more cheery and interesting are often dressed in loud color. Particularly this lady I saw wearing turquoise pants, a hat with white and orange patterned brim, and a shirt of an entirely different hue. I thought for a moment about the absurdity of the outfit, before realizing that on her it didn't entirely look bad, in fact I much appreciated her sensibility as it seems age makes change and mixing things up all the more hard for people.
I sprained my hand, so the studio accomplishing has halted for now. I will let my knuckle rest up and in the meanwhile will do a little organization.
I have again been pondering the meaning of life. I get stuck sometimes with fascination on all the different journeys' that people undertake in this life. How do choice and fate mix? And what of the hand of God? If this earth is a school, then our challenges make sense due to the concept that good comes in the form of learning. But what is there to gain from disease and troubles that have always plagued mankind? Forgive me because maybe I delude myself with the waterfalls of books that occupy curiosity thus inviting these enigma's to rest a while. Suntan even. Sometimes I feel like the quest for understanding the purpose of life is as the ant which frenzies about bearing the burden of large crumbs for another. Perhaps this issue is the largest question mankind has found to ask other than where do we come from?
Why does color lift the mood? Why am I on a bean sprout kick? How come the clouds have to hid the stars?
I think creativity hinges on people doing new things. As if flux and determination could gel into a pudding for consumption, or the wave flee the ocean.

Summer

2007-07-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

Weekend activities like crab cracking can cut into studio time, but when it is warm and stuffy in there with all that fabric, there are other activities that even the most nutty fiber artist will retire to. Here in the northwest we grab summer with claws because we know all too well the stainless steel skies that hang around sea side locals after these few fleeting months.

There are countless roses to be deadheaded, and I feel really blessed. The left-handed Felco's may work over time to keep the roses flowing. I'm still waiting for "Leda" and it is using up my patience.

The breeze ruffles the sheers and slams a door. Sweet, almost boy band hip hop syncopates soothingly on the system, and my thoughts are optimistic as the butterfly shaped clouds whisk by wanting a taste of my bubbling ginger ale, my drink of choice at times like this.

I accomplished some more free motion quilting on my Whale Horizon, and I am stopped due to one particular thread choice, (I find my vast jumble of noosed thread somehow inadequate in the purple range). I have been thinking of just serging the edges in black thread and calling that a frame??

My home-dec. projects are stacking up. So much to be done; and this mermaid begs for my attention gracefully arching on my design wall anticpating a head of famous hair.

Whale Horizion

2007-07-23T07:33:00.000-07:00

This is the latest work. It is one of the pieces that I sun painted/dyed/painted. While painting the fabric I had the free-motion designs in mind and left areas open to thread play. The colors are kind of soft and muted, and even the bright (on the spool) Madeira thread seems to sink in and add the bold but gentle color that I was looking for.

What kind of quilting designs are in a Whale's Horizon? Mountian peaks, sea, trees, foliage, the sun? Stay tuned for the water, which I hope to finish tonight. Why do I seem to blank on quilting motifs when I sit down to the machine?

Today

2007-07-19T13:57:00.000-07:00

These grace the table. My bright cheery roses.

And somehow I find that today, for today -

I have everything I want.

Othello's For Friends

2007-07-18T15:39:00.000-07:00

The day is summer, but it reminds me of fall. Thankfully the lavender is blooming, and so there is no misconception. It's winter, charcoal dark outside and the seeming pineapple express rages. This day was made for studio time. I can hear the purr of fine stitches made by machine, though the lights are not on, and the machine will not go right now.

It smells of fine chocolate and nuts, and warm lemon cut out cookies. I get little whiffs of lavender still on my hands from picking the blooms to decorate the gifts. The last cookie has been pulled out from baking, and I just feel fortunate to know these women and to be able to bless them with a surprise. Surprises make life- living.

Why is it that rainy days are sew days? I hazard to suspect that it is not because one can't be outside, but rather that it is due to the somber light. It is this tone that make one seek color. And fabric and thread do not disappoint. Artists flock to their stashes and seek fibers to bless the lives of others with.

Do you give away your quilts? Your pieces of art? Do you use your talent to put beauty into this world? To bring resources to those who are in need?

There is movement in the rain which affects the soul willingly. Almost as if the ringed puddles could be permanent; not etched on cedar or grass. These days seem long and slowing.

HOO YA MASTER CHIEF!

2007-07-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

IT'S CLEAN.
The counter anyways.
I know you want to cut on it.

I couldn't resist: they are wearing wedges and plaid pants, and a scarf- the precursor to dew rag hip. I will make the blue number and pray for some metallic wedges with hemp braid and ties up the ankle and then stumble across a wide plastic bracelet. . .

A bound washcloth made using a serged terrycloth square. I stitched it with a walking foot and a triple step zig-zag for durability.

And the best for last- this *WOW* halter dress number was acquired for less than the price of a spool of thread. Five minutes of repairs with thread I happened to have on hand, and I have a piece that fits as though it was custom fitted. It's not ready made, I can tell by the construction, but well done. I'm so thrilled with this, it must have been meant. . . for me.

The Rose Wristlet

2007-07-17T12:24:00.000-07:00

This is the embroidery that I used from the CreativeDRAWings(r) cd, and now the wristlet is finished! It was done on microfiber faux suede and is fully lined and zippered with fringe applied on the bottom edge, ribbon is used to make a wrist loop and zipper pull. You may see it here soon? I have put the software instructions at the end of my post if anyone is interested.

Here are some glimpses of the process:

This was a fun little project, and a great use of those embroidered squares that people can sometimes wonder what to do with beside making a quilt. I like the not just embroidering on cotton idea.

Well, today is the day that I put in my hour of cleaning the studio, I want to use this white polka dotted red sheer sometime soon and will need the cutting counter for precision. I am mustering up the courage to cut out my pattern for the storage towers later when all is done today.

Rose Wristlet Software Instructions:
Double Click the Creative DRAWings desktop shortcut to the open the software.
Click Create New
Click From Embroidery
Select Design Folder
Open the folder 01
Open the folder Roses
Select & open Tres rosas
Choose fabric type
Select Finish
Using the Rectangle Selection tool Click and drag over an area to highlight any areas that you may want to change the color of the design. ( The display models yellow roses with green stems and buds). When selected click on a color from your palette to insert the color change. Clicking on areas with this tool selected will highlight spaces to make color changes possible.
When finished with any changes select File, Save as, and choose the format you would like to save as.

Vogue 2939

2007-07-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Carolyn showed this on her blog!

OH MY GOSH! I could do it.

Fabric Covered Storage Carts

2007-07-16T14:14:00.001-07:00

Oranges & Lemons (faded just a bit in sun)

Well the weekend was relaxing and fun, sitting by the water's side watching the muscle boats and the jet ski's. It made me long for more time off, but I feel fortunate to have the week that we will get sometime this summer. There may be the possibility to fly somewhere, and I am hoping that works out as I have wanted to see Monticello.

I realize that for now daily needs have trampled the studio time, and so that is just life. New fridges go out, cabinets are wrong, workouts and food shopping excursions get in the way of constant accomplishing.

However, the next project on the list is one I have been waiting to do, and having found the fabric, I will now proceed this week on it. For lack of a china cabinet (I will get one when the time is right), I store my china in it's boxes along with other entertaining paraphernalia on the wire rack shelving carts that roll (to be found at Costco). I have two of them pushed against the back wall of my dining room where they fit perfect. I wish I had written down the name of the decorator book that shows these nifty fabric enclosures, fore they are quite regal looking. The only thing is, they had no pattern, so I am making my own and it will take just a bit more time.

The long awaited fabric:

It is more navy/denim in real life. I am really happy to find a fabric that I feel will be great for this project at the price point I had to have in order to do this: $1 per yard. I figured that much more than that, and I would be well on my way to a china cabinet with no additional sewing efforts required. I plan to use the denim with white swirl fabric as the body, and then some white duck for a stripe along the bottom and down the center. I also may add custom piping between the dark fabric and the white, a perfect application for my serger's piping foot.

I like the future usability of this storage solution, because later when I do have grow-up furniture (I am visualizing a light wood antique number - a girl can dream) I can use these covered storage towers elsewhere in the house.

Now if this isn't motivation to get the cutting counter clean, I'm not sure what is.

I am so thrilled that I have the skills to tackle this project for two reasons:
1) This will allow more storage than a cabinet (which I require right now)

2) I can get a custom look without a custom price

Well if it weren't for all the practical stuff, Hmm, laundry, I would be getting down to this right now. I will use my drone time to come up with my mental plan.

Doesn't one need a mental plan before starting on such projects? Usually I splash right into something, but when fabric is tight, the ruler comes out and I actually draw diagrams.

Well I hope this inspires someone to tackle a home-dec. sewing project that may be just a little scary for them, because there is so much reward in having done something yourself that meets your vision.

Have Floss Will Travel

2007-07-13T07:40:00.000-07:00

Well, we are off for the weekend, so I have packed a bag of cross-stitch stuff to keep me busy. I come loaded with presents, and water toys, and wear a wonder-woman hat. Cross-stitch keeps me supplied with a color fix when I travel. It also for me is a form of meditation, and I find rich and rewarding thoughts when I sit and stitch at little crosses. Yes, I could stitch by machine, and I do. I like the feeling of floss as the outdoor breeze disturbs it's behavior.
There will always be handwork. Hand stitches will endure. No matter your sewing machine or your equipment, or software or technology; deft little pinches of fabric will be tucked by hand. People have to stitch- they have to make things beautiful. What they find is what the stitches make of them.

New Motto: Only if I LOVE it!

2007-07-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

I love it!

So I made a new rule after moving, that the only things I was going to allow into my life from now on, were the things that I had strong feelings for. Things that had both the quality level and stylishness that I desired. This conclusion was reached not solely because I have lots of stuff (I do, everyone does), but because I began to contemplate the direction I wanted to head from this point forward concerning the matters that really don't matter- well in this case the stuff one lives with everyday. So I have instituted this rule in regards to matters ranging from clothes to household affairs.

Having in my possession a five-star kitchen in cobalt blue and copper (not the pots...yet), and a studio with equipment that is excellent, I am no stranger of fine affairs. But I noticed when I moved, that a lot of the decisions I had made in acquiring things for the rest of the home had simply occured spontaneously due to a need or decorating/storage requirement or a bargain, and not due to obtaining something that I really desired and thought of as the "best" item in my mind.

Now this rule is very easy to forget; this motto makes one examine their motivations and their problems to be solved. It requires sacrifice and fortitude. There are lots of choices out there to make and lots of temptation. There is cheap, there is will do, there is I kinda like, and these are rather like eating bland cardboard food that leaves you full but without energy. I found these are usually the items that one ends up throwing out or living with begrudgingly. I do not want a life that is cheap, will do, or that I kinda like. I want a life I LOVE.

Case in point. Lamps, I have been searching for lamps for my living room that I absolutely LOVE that are not too outrageously priced, (although I have sworn to myself never to buy cheap floor lamps again)and have still not found any. I have found cheap, I have found would work, but not ones I would look at every day and feel great because they are in my home. So I am still searching.

I realize that adopting this kind of purist philosophy is vexing. I now have some bare walls, and thoughts occur to me daily about what I want on them, and what would work. So they remain minimalist until I find a work of art that... well you know. I have been searching daily painting blogs. So it is a challenge to maintain this motto without coming to the cross in the road where you become a person who never makes a decision. There is a difference between finding what you want after a decision has been made, and never making a decision.

So what is on my mind today, well I almost caved and bought some towels that were 1/2 off. They were the right color, they were good quality, they would have worked. Mine are embarrassing right now, but they still do the job. Then I remembered the ones I absolutely love that I saw in a catalogue. I remembered being good and telling myself I couldn't buy them and throwing away the catalogue because that was way too outrageous to buy towels for that price. But it has been quite some time, and those towels were in the back of my mind. And so I realize that living on purpose requires making decisions that will allow you to make steps towards your goals, however trivial those goals may be, it's good practice, achieving these little goals, to get ready for the big whammy goals.

So read this post with a multi-level approach, because I am not talking about luxurious cable textured white towels here people. I am talking about it's your one life you get to live once. What type of person do you want to be for the rest of your life? Cheap, just kinda working, kinda like, will do? Nah, when nothing before you will do, think about what you really want, narrow it down, inspect for quality of life, wait and go on, what does it take?

So save your hundred bucks a month, buy the towels. And everyday when you fold them and put them into place, they will bring a smile to your face. Be sure to treat decisions in your life with meaning, know when to wait, know when to act, and remember-

ONLY IF YOU LOVE IT.

Fiber Art?

Serging Washcloths

Normal Is Boring

2007-07-11T07:42:00.000-07:00

My China, (picture from Lenox)

Good Morning! It is a day in the northwest when you remember why one lives up in these parts. The day that makes up for the grey, and the whispers of sun that visit in the winter time. It is summer, and I should not be posting a picture of a coffee pot. I don't even drink coffee hot. I love my Lenox.
Well in other news, is got so hot yesterday, that I also found some solice in serging, and I was thinking about how I wish my serger could keep track of usage time just like my sewing machine does? Machine companies are you listening? Then I could prove that I use that little hummer more even than the sewing machine(s), since no one really quite seems to fully believe me on that one. I serged some napkins for gifts using a three-thread rolled edge and Wooley Nylon, and some terry for rags using a wide three-thread overlock (I hate consuming wasteful quantities of paper towels), and I actually ran out of thread before I got to some dyed silk chiffon that I wanted to make into scarfs. I like the serger, because I like going fast when I sew. I like it because it is a professional finish, and washing machine proof.
Well I am thinking that the goals for the day include 1 full hour cleaning the studio. I think I will laugh myself if I ever get an "after" picture with a cleared off cutting counter to post. Chuckles, turn away and run, or move the piles strategy - I'm not sure the best approach right now? Sewers are messy? Art quilter's are cluster producing divas? Serging phenoms are irreverent about fuzzballs blasting all over their wardrobe and the weave of their berber?
Normal is boring, I faced that down with a hard stare long ago, muttering to myself that perfection is about getting better at making messes and mistakes, and stepping back long enough to allow perspective on the craziness.

When It's Too Hot To Iron - Embroider

2007-07-10T14:24:00.000-07:00

Inspiration
Into Stitches

This embroidery was inspired by my bouquet of Golden Zest and I think Teasing Georgia. You know that you are blessed when you reach the point where the roses are almost out of your memorization field. This piece is going to be a wristlet, the cute ones I have seen all over have really inspired me, although I do think this would make a pretty pillow or sachet.

The house smells like Grapefruit, and the floors are clean
wash hung out on the line since it dries fast in 90+ heat.

I am thankful that I live not far from the sea, and so even in the extreme heat, there is that wild breeze. I organized my cross-stitch stuff into a neat bag, and so this summer hopefully I will have nice relaxing places to take it with me when I get away.
I ironed all my pieces that I fabric painted/dyed/sun resisted, and I am very pleased with how they have come out. I have one all safety pinned ready for thread play, and I will get that posted soon I hope.
Machine embroidery is such a good thing to do when you have clothes to put away or a closet to organize, because you can multi-task. Now I know that detracts from the art process, but sometimes it is nice to have some embroideries ready and stitched for when you sit down to sew.
I have been listening to this ambient music all day, different, but nice because it allows you a lot more thoughts than when you listen to music with words.
I am pondering what it means to make art. Why is there this thread of needing to make stuff ourselves nowadays? People are so tired of the cookie cutter same (can't find what they want), longing for distractions and de-stressing, and wondering how they fit into a world already arranged for them by manufacturers and big box stores.
Sewing can open up a world to people. If they are willing to make mistakes and move on down the line, sewing can showcase their dreams, and manifest visions into a product that is useful in daily life. And when you sew something yourself, you have a valid right to claim this is mine and at least for now exclusively.

You don't Stop?

2007-07-09T16:05:00.000-07:00

Embroidery I re-designed and stitched on disappearing stabilizer.

I have been plugging away at getting my kitchen clean, laundry clean, house clean? Well, the house part will come slowly. I am behind, and there is a lot to do. But sometimes one just needs a break, and in my life as a SAHW, I sometimes forget to take breaks, and lunch breaks, and I have to remember not to wear myself out! Some days I remember why I am so tired, yeah, well, I don't stop.

I was reading http://veganruthie.blogspot.com/, and liked her thought about the lack of support for SAHW. I think a lot of women are realizing that they don't want two jobs. They would rather focus energies where they think is important.

Well, it is off to make dinner, and finish cleaning the kitchen. The studio needs some help too! All those new supplies are just waiting to be played with.

Thrifting First Class

2007-07-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

Today was extremely hot, and the soreness from a July 4th hike was intense. Goat Mountain was scaled on a clear hot day, and imagine the irony of slipping and falling on your butt in snow on the 4th. Today I stocked up on some embroidery floss and basics (new cutter and machine needles) and then hit the thrift store. Sometimes I go and I wonder why, and others I go and find all kinds of cheery stuff. You will notice the champagne classes and the old flask. I have flutes but not these shaped ones. I always wanted to do the champagne glass tower some time when I entertain, so I will be keeping an eye out for more. A old perfume bottle and a covered glass dish. The Popsicle mold is my favorite, and I just happen to already have tops that fit just right. Thrift stores really can set you pondering on the meaning of life, certainly it is a little eerie when you find that missing component or an item you had been looking at, but didn't want to pay a lot for, and along it comes for a little over a buck. It is like God kicks in and just decided to tease you, and it gives you a smile.

The rose "Pat Austin" delights the sewing room, and these are pictures of my sun painting experience on my one day off, which I must say when better than planed except for the neck sun burn. I am going to do a lot of thread painting too as I quilt the surface of this painting.

I think of what it would be like to have the time to complete all my fiber fantasy visions, and I wonder how a lifetime will suffice, and yet, it is all passing as the petal and the breath, and I will now go dream, wandering into the colorless waterfall of dormancy.

Naughty Girl - Finish Your Projects!!

2007-06-19T13:14:00.001-07:00

"Art quilters are naughty quilters because they do things traditional quilters wouldn't dare do."

This is what I am doing today, my only day off this week. It has been so relaxing: beautiful day, barely just a slight breeze, watering the roses while I wait for stuff to dry. I am experimenting with Setacolor Soleil, and I knew there was some reason why I had been collecting the mesh from fruit bags - this is it! It is kinda like a sun resist effect.

I came across this quote somewhere online, and I thought how appropriate for where I am creatively right now. I have become unsatisfied with traditional piecing, have ventured into the art stuff, but still feel the need to just sit down and do some "no brainer" cutie cutter, rotary stripped piecing every once in awhile. (For now I just need to quilt up the ones I have made!)
The painting/dying part of my road towards art quilts has been the most fun so far.
When making art quilts I find that despite all the great fabric out there I always need a piece I can find- like a realistic skin tone fabric or a dark blue that's very dark but has some light. I need to stock up on some more dyes and pdf before I do another dying session, but that may have to wait until more into summer.

The house needs attention, but NOT ON MY DAY OFF! Maybe this is where the NAUGHTY comes in?? If I let that bother me I would never focus on my art. This new painted fabrics makes me want to do some small wall pieces...... I have left some space with open color fields where I will do some embroidery or apply transfered pictures. All the blogs I have been reading lately have shown some great smallish projects - A fabric art book, love it. A journal type thing with pockets and sayings. Endless inspiration!

Well I will post the pics in a bit when I am through outside, it got too hot, and I needed a drink break! Back to the outdoors.

Heat n' Bond Gods

2007-06-18T16:40:00.000-07:00

Banana scones sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar fill the kitchen with their warm scent. They are heart shaped and will go well with lemon tea. This past weekend was rainy and I got a little more of my quilt quilted, while slowly putzing away with the cleaning the studio. The cutting counter clear, the unruly thread spools put away. Those are the moments you find yourself wondering about the brilliant idea of re-organizing. Tomarrow maybe I will try out an embroidery just for a change.

Now that my design wall is so well lit with the new clip lights, I am anxious to put in a little time working on that as well. The pieces are somewhat small in certain areas and I am wondering why I just couldn't release it all to the heat n' bond gods instead of turning under the edges and gluing. Future endeavours will rely on the fusing more.

This little apron project was fun. I used bias tape to edge it and make the ties, and stitched a decorative stitch with bright green thread. Not a bad result for creating as I went.

As for inspiration, I have finished reading about the watercolorist Winslow Homer, and one of the things I like about Homer (besides that he was a recluse :) is that he painted the sea as a sort of moving mosaic with it's often varied moods. I took a picture of one of his works because the sea has peach and soft foamy greens, and dark blue with soft teal and lots of white spaces. Curious to me is the black and brown that is used in the sea to highlight and stress the tip of the waves. This is a daring feat, a proclamation that sea foam and peach must need a strong man type color like black or brown. Yet the combination it precisely what I would like to use for the sea's tones in the work I have on my design wall right now. So I must pin it up to the wall, and take it with me to fabric shops. Maybe I will begin to paint some fabrics. I really enjoy the mood these colors create, they seem to imply that life, just like the sea, can be both calm and soothing- while hard, cold and upsetting.

The Creative Maverick

2007-06-14T13:13:00.000-07:00

A lot of the artsy blogs that I have been reading lately have focused on small little projects, the kind with gratification that occurs in the same week as the concepts idea. Maybe that has been part of the problem with my lagging inspiration lately- getting in over my head. Well the quilt is coming along, and I am pleased with how my machine quilting is improving. No wrinkles so far, and that is great.

The kitchen is cleaned and the laundry going, so much of the modern home requires the human to start and stop stuff. In the moving of stuff from point A to point B, do we become this superhuman keeper go-er? And why do we humans have this need to arrange things, and not just any way but a specific way? And further we all have our specific ways. And these ways are so precarious. And yet we seek sometimes a "normal." No wonder everybody is so confused.

I was also pondering the idea that creativity requires the maverick in us all to come to the forefront and be ready to make mistakes. And for me it requires a real quiet of mind to come to the fork in the creative process where all I have ever seen is removed, and I can focus on the ideas of my soul.

Almost There!

2007-06-13T15:33:00.000-07:00

The midway point. I will do this.
Clip Lamps! So cool.
Sombreuil, a beauty that smells even better.
Blue Girl, inspiring.

So the process is underway, and I think I'm midway through the studio reorganization. I added some great clip lights atop my design wall, and also on my cutting table. This is a vast improvement (did you notice my pictures were dark) it makes a huge difference in the mood, and I'm thrilled. I found them at Wally world, and got the last few left on the shelf. A little extension cord magic, and poof!

The roses are doing well and I am particularly impressed with Varigated di Bolgona (sp?). I do love the old roses. Love scattering them about...

Well, its been awhile since I've had the time to sew when I'm not too tired, so I'm hoping to get some studio time in tonight. I got Creative Drawings the new embroidery software which kicks it, and I want to do some stitch outs. Three thousand designs come with it, how can you go wrong?

Last night I took a walk through the neighborhood. I was noticing all the color. The softly white roses, the nectarine color poison berries, the slowly browning grass in the fields. These colors made me think about working at more unexpected color choices. Nature has these unexpected choices, brown with orange and fuchsia, and greens with yellow and the white of new blossoms. Somehow it is easy to loose this flow of color when we step into the sewing room. Why? We try to hard to match fabrics I suppose.

Well, I'm off to put in another hour and hopefully finish up most of the rest of the putting things away that there is left to do. Art is messy, and really why not make one?

Chuck it already, you won't use it again!

2007-05-09T13:27:00.000-07:00

The view Tulips Quilt Top

The day is gorgeous, and I am slacking in the sewing room organization department. I snagged a little sunshine at lunch, but I am still recovering from the virus I read about in the paper. Yesterday I wore myself out cleaning and organizing all the garden stuff into the new shed, so I think I am tired of cleaning for the moment. It was a big job, so I am glad it is done!

The roses are growing nicely, buds are forming, but so far no color yet. The tulips are at the end, so I am ready for the roses.

I threw a bunch of stuff away yesterday, spurred by my grandmother who is moving out of her home, and realizing that she kept everything, I decided I don't want to become that way, and I had a throw away party with myself. I tell ya, some decisions were hard, and I teetered, but there is nothing like the feeling of a bursting full trash can when the day comes for it's pick up.

I need to take that advice into the studio I suppose (and the closet). I've already gone through that stuff though, its just a matter of finding a room arrangement I like for a room that is just a bit too small for all it does.

The quilt in the picture is for my nephew, and I have it pinned and waiting. I will start in, as soon as I can make my way to the machine. Guess I could have turned the light on, but the photo speaks so much about how I feel about the cleaning up part sometimes. I like the creating but I leave a wildfire of a mess when I re-arrange. How bout you? I know you can hardly wait for the after picture!

Finish The Old - Make Room For The New

2007-05-01T18:57:00.000-07:00

"I fall in love with a material, a fabric, something that leads me down a path, and I go with it"
-Bohn

Nothing like cleaning and organizing your studio, to get ready for a new path! I needed to extend my cabinet out in back, since I have several quilts BEGGING and PLEADING to finally be quilted. I’m a prolific sewer, and yet things get delayed, waiting for backs, waiting for time to pin, etc. I really enjoy the quilting process, though I must admit, the scourge of this endeavor is minor tucks which really tick me off. They wiggle in despite my best efforts at their elimination. What I like about quilting is the fluidity of taking a needle and drawing on the canvas of your quilt.
This next quilt I am going to work on, I give my permission to just freehand and make stuff up. I have been noticing textures and thinking on the theme of "Protection," which really is the spiritual emphasis of this quilt since it will be going to a child who needs that in his life right now.
I put up this quote in my studio, because I want to have the courage to let things flow and not get caught up in what I should do, or what really would be matchy, or what I have seen before. Colors need abstract friends, and I want to make sure that they are never lonely or bored, or are void of someone to debate with in my pieces.
Finishing up these more traditional styles, I will reflect on what I learned, and how I can use that to create at a different level, with the incorporation of new inspiration, and products that evolve to transcend the "quilt." Now let me clarify, that I do not mean, look like a painting or a drawing, but I want a fluidity in the pieces that one doesn’t necessarily associate with quilts.

That said, I challenge sewers everywhere to be brave and go down your path, whatever it may be: fished out vintage, crazy batik, just a clear plastic bag full of scraps that need arranging -paths may be found style or forced style, or just plain improvisation.

* Arrange whatever comes your way *

2007-04-16T15:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend as I was safety pinning a quilt for my nephew, I was thinking about what quilting means in an era when blankets and quilts are very cheap and readily available. The logical self starts to analyze, "Why again am I doing this time consuming thing?"
Remember, I am supposed to be making this transition into art quilting. However, there are some projects that also need to be finished as well, usually these projects are at the point where what needs to be done is definitely not the exciting part.
But what I realized is that doing what you love keeps the self intact. It is sure far better than other alternatives I could try that lead down to paths of temporary insanity or sanity, however one wanted to conceptualize those activities.
The studio is also in desperate need of a clean out. Life seems to be throwing me pieces faster than I can organize them. (note this doesn't mean I am actually buying the pieces). This is a good thing, and I embrace being blessed with lots of material that I can use to benefit others, especially little boy nephews in need of love and whom have a feeling of loosing a sort of home, losing the fundamental need of love and belonging in a normal family.
With the quilt maybe somehow I can get across without saying it, that pieces of life do come together, and we can take what we are given and what we are not, and make it better, make our own patterns.

2007-04-10T14:36:00.001-07:00

I am one of the fortunate, I know. I have the luxury of a studio, however modest in which to carve out a space of my own to be creative in. There are so many talented people out there that underestimate the power of having a place to work. I'd didn't realize how important this was to my well being; the ability to just sit down to work with everything ready to go! This revelation came from a mentor, and it came in my early twenties, since then I have always had a studio- even if it was just the corner of a one bedroom apartment that I first shared with my husband.

This nice lady was kinda enough to take the time one day to show me her studio. What a concept! She rented a small space/office in a downtown building, and she had all her equipment and supplies ready for the using. I was inspired after this experience not just by her pretty nails, but with her courage to proclaim in such a big way,

"This is me, this is what I do, and it is so important, that I rent a space just for this!"

I've started this blog because I have come to a interesting point where I am no longer satisfied just sewing, or quilting. I have been wanting to develop more abilities is this realm, but I am tired of cookie cutter patterns and my own stubbornness. I am leaping into becoming more of an art quilter, and I am taking steps forward as well as steps back during this process.

It needs to start with the cleaning of my studio, and some dedication to the art quilt that is gathering dust on the design wall.