Monthly Archives: April 2011

Excuse Me

Yes, indeed. Excuse for awhile as I deal with life-family, marriage, kids, house stuff and cars. I continue to work amidst the chaos that is mine. I am ok. Plenty of stuff is on my design wall. Ok, an absolute insane amount of things are up on my wall. In fact, at one point today, I needed to move a pile of fabric to see the wall.

But , somehow, it is all inconsequential to what I need to deal with. It is not first priority. And that’s ok, too.

If I finish one of the five pieces I am working on, I will let you know. Chaos begats chaos, doesn’t it?

See you soon, my friends !

An Old Treasure

Just can’t seem to get a rhythm going this week. Haven’t made much progress but I have been staying up way too late the last few nights. Just reading a good book. Have you read anything new lately?

My brothers came for the holiday weekend and we had a great time catching up. My youngest brother brought me an amazing old treasure. I had forgotten it and actually didn’t know who had ended up with it or if it was even in our possession anymore. Look at this….

Bad picture. Let me try again.

My dad’s old camera- he died nine years ago from cancer.

old leather lens cases

And a gorgeous, gorgeous old heavy duty tripod. The camera is not going anywhere once it is set up on this baby! And the best of all, my brother said I should have it since I am enjoying taking pictures as much as I do. I never wanted anything at the time-just my memories. Nothing could replace my dad. But now that I have it, it feels really special to be able to appreciate it. I think the only thing that is usable is the tripod and lens cases. There is film in the case but no batteries. I will probably take it to the camera store to see if I can retrieve the film.

Doesn’t really matter if I can use it. I am just enjoying this very old treasure. Thanks Dad! It felt like a hug from the past.

Be creative, my friends. Sooner or later it will stop raining.

Process, Comparisons and End of the Week

Yes, it will be the end of my studio time for the week as I am leaving shortly to pick up my daughter from college for the Easter weekend.

I am still working through that piece I showed you Tuesday. It’s in a lot of sections with little progress. Not by any means giving up. Just busy with other things this week.

I needed to order my supplies for the next class and take inventory on all my dyes. As I was doing that, I received my list of who is attending my next workshop. I had a day and a half sheer panic – I am not worthy, why am I going, why in the world would I think I could take classes with them….they are established talented artists….

And then I came full circle. I am excited. I am very privileged to be able to go and it’s not cheap. I want to learn all of these techniques and really don’t want to let my fear of- not knowing things – of not succeeding-get in the way. Once I get over that -every time I go-it’s this little magical adventure that is a treasure because it’s uninterrupted studio time for 12 -15 hours a day . Uninterrupted is the key and not necessarily the hours.

I don’t want to compare myself to where they are and what they do because I create with MY hands. And I alone need to be happy at the end of the day with what I create with MY hands.

Whew- this whole art thing just really messes with your head, doesn’t it? I don’t remember any of this from being a physical therapist. If another co-worker’s patient was progressing faster than mine, I would just ask-what protocol are you using? can you show me the technique? can I try it on you? Not so much with art.

I am happy to go and look forward to seeing how others work and what they do. But I am going to wrap my little head into thinking about what -I- am going to learn. And not how much others know or do. My hands and my heart. With lots of enthusiasm.

   Just a few more shibori silk experiments. Having family here this weekend so have Happy Easter! Back Monday.

The Last Seam

I really wanted to put this piece away. But, I kept thinking and thinking about it. I will never really know until I just finish it. It may not be good or even great but honestly, it is in the completing of the design that I actually LEARN. And the sewing together of the top.

It started here. Random blocks that looked way too clunky for me. And dark. Didn’t like it.

I had the whole piece up on the design wall and didn’t like it. So, changed it up adding another border around these “blocks”.

mmm…that didn’t feel right either. cut some more.

Realize I have driven myself and my family crazy. Now, procrastinate and make a small piece out of the scraps.

And then get brave enough to start sewing it together-sewing numerous parts several times to get it to fit together. Finally, am down to the final seam.

Big clunky part on the lower left doesn’t seam together right no matter what I try.

What a mess that I am afraid to cut in to. No -let me re-phrase that- I don’t know what to do to make it work . Better recruit a friend who is a better seamstress to give me some advice today.

This is quite the process that I am not sure I would tell anyone else but you how I got to this point. All this and I don’t even like it. Really I don’t at all. I just want to finish it. How crazy is that?

Now, maybe it just doesn’t need to be quilted but that I am not deciding today. It’s all a learning experience.

Be creative, my friends.

Making Babies

Well that woke you up this morning, didn’t it? I went on a road trip with a group of seven other women last night and we got home at one. I am too old for 5 hours of sleep. I am very punchy on little sleep. Already brought my beasty gas guzzling Yukon in for yet more work this am . Oh why- oh why- didn’t I do a trade-in when I should have? My kids told me not to talk badly about her when I am with her. Funny how attached they are to her, too. Luckily, they did tell me she has much life left yet in her. After these repairs, of course…. She might retire soon to the land of Vermont vacation mobiles. ( I haven’t told her yet though. )

Oh yes. Back to making babies. I am sitting there as I contemplate every seam I sew on this big guy quilt on my design wall and keep getting stuck. So rather than waste too much time, I pick up the scraps and just sew them together. And slowly, the solution for the next seam comes along.

leftovers from scraps

Making babies from the scraps. ( about 12 x 20) I wonder how many babies I will have to make to figure out all the seams. Not nearly as exciting as you thought this post would be, is it?

On that very tired note, have a good weekend.

Be creative, my friends!

Spinning and Spinning

I do love the design aspect of this. But when I get stuck I have a bad habit of putting things in a ziplock bag. Except that bad habit is making me feel too guilty with the price of cotton slowly increasing. So this time I decided to be better at photographing and then cutting the photo up first before the fabric- once I had it pieced.

Well that didn’t help at all. I have run a marathon with this piece. And I do have a solution. But I have no idea how to sew it all together. I look at it and I want to run the other way. But last night, I started to sew it together -one seam at a time. Right now I estimate it will be 60x 70…you will have to wait.

Meanwhile, I found the latest issue of Stitch. And bought it. Great article on indigo dyeing. Not sure I want to try it but would like to research it as I love the colors that you achieve.

I was lost in the list of resources last night. (Yes, another form of procrastination I know.)

Focus is the word of the day I think.

Be creative, my friends!

(Blogger is stuck in caption mode-I give up trying to fix it…)

Back To Sewing

I have finished the Color Theory class and only need to upload photos to the class group list. So, I was really excited to start sewing today. And not a bit frustrated last night when I realized my two current pieces were going to take longer than planned.

Hand stitching seemed to suit the piece better with some hand dyed floss. I want to be happy with it rather than race to the finish with this one.

And the next one has sat on my wall for the past week but I knew it wasn’t right. We went away to Traverse City this weekend and after returning, I decided to re-piece sections of it and introduce a new color. What started out small and something I wanted simple, is neither of those things.

But that’s ok.

Nice to be back sewing again and not working on homework.

Be creative, my friends!

Early Morning Painting

I have always been a morning person. I love a cup of coffee and the quiet of the mornings when everyone is still sleeping and even the dogs are snoozy yet. And this week is no exception. It is rainy and dreary here so my kids-on spring break- are sleeping in.

With the extra time in the mornings , I have been working to finish up these last class assignments. I only have two more assignments for the Color Theory class and I want to finish them by the end of this week and have all assignments posted. I am really ready to transition back to sewing.

It looks so easy to mix paint colors but getting an accurate color is really difficult. This palette on the left is a really beautiful color palette with raw sienna added.

I can’t bear wasting textile paint so I would paint a piece of white cotton with the leftovers on my paint tray. I have a pile of these fabrics now.

To think I almost washed the paint down the drain. Even after ironing, the paint remained a bright color and the Setacolor paint left a really soft hand to the fabric. Unlike diluted acrylics.

All in all, a great way to spend my early mornings with a cup of coffee.

Trying Some Arashi Shibori

This past week’s lesson in the online shibori class was on pole wrapping or arashi shibori. I took an old piece of pvc pipe and wrapped my fabric around it. I methodically and slowly wrapped the pole in about 1/8 of inch increments and then dipped the pole in colorhue dye. Instant color.