Author Archives: Colleen Kole

A Different Kind of Wish

Right now I could jump up and down and wish you a Happy Mother’s Day and and tell you how wonderful my kids are. They really are and I love being a mom.

But this wish is for my friends who are hurting today. The one who recently had her mom die unexpectedly. The one who had a miscarriage and misses what might have been. The friend who made poor choices when she was younger and needed to place her child up for adoption and now misses a child she never knew.

A friend of mine who died as a young mom and now her son is sixteen and wondering what his mom was like. The mom who placed her adopted child in another home in hopes he would heal.

For you , friends who are hurting today on a day filled with lots of love and sentimentality, I wish you peace and a little time to be good to yourself. And just like the hope that spring brings, I wish a good dose of hope and love for your day today.

Hugs, my friends! Be creative.

Friday Finds

I spent a little time at the carwash this week. Cleaning up the Yukon. But a little time turned into a lot of time when the battery died -in the carwash. 🙂 Seriously and I did laugh while some nice car washers jumped my battery. In the carwash. A week of fixing things. It really has been a year of fixing things so far. New car has been obtained and I am very happy about that. ( The dogs do not like the new car. I feel a little guilty about that. Soon the new car smell will be gone and they will be at home again.)

Doing good on staying focused. I have another small piece basted and have begun quilting it. Nothing to show yet. But I found some really fun things happening in blogland this week.

1. Kathy York has organized an Artist Quilt Village project through May and you can follow along through the artists’ blogs.

2. A few lucky people are at the Barn and posting about their time there- Robin Ferrier and Christine Mauersberger.

3. Lynn Krawcyzk has another great idea and is offering a thermofax screen of the month club. I just used one of her screens today and was reminded of what quick easy fun printing is using a thermofax screen. She only has a few spots left so go check it out. It is another addicting way to add design to fabric.

4. And for those of you awake yet, yes it is only Thursday. But Friday Finds sounds kind of fun, doesn’t it?

Back to the Clothesline

I think it is finally spring although only 50 today. I was able to hang and photograph a completed piece on the clothesline. Amazing when you just devote 4 hours of time to one thing and focus.

L Series- # 6 , 12×18

Looks like I have another project and that’s organize this years quilts names and labels. But I finished something even though it’s a small something! small. The road to completion recovery …. hope has arrived.

Be creative, my friends!

Taking Stock, Being Honest and Finishitis

Is there such a word-finishitis? Don’t know but I certainly seem to be queen of it lately. My definition: not staying FOCUSED enough to finish the task at hand. In my excitement of learning new things or wanting to try different ideas, I have developed an uncanny inability to start many things and never carry them through to completion. If I get stuck on a piece, I start another one.

Now, I do need one or two on my design wall to spur me on and when I do get stuck then I can bounce back and forth between them. That actually helps me move on. But, over the last few months with learning all these techniques, I let things get way out of control. I realized it last Thursday when I couldn’t see over my fabric pile to the design wall. And the pile of unfinished quilt tops was getting larger again.

I blamed it on everyone but me-my poor family, my husband, the dogs-well heck they did keep bringing in half the dirt and rain from the yard last week. Until finally, I gave myself a little talking to. Put all the currently unneeded supplies and fabric away. Tidied and cleaned.

I can see my walls again with works in process.

Things are piled neatly according to projects on the tables. Fabric fold neatly and books put away. (Another form of procrastination, I know. )

This is one of my piles of unquilted tops. Two just need bindings and sleeves. The rest need to be sandwiched and quilted. These are the ones that are ready to go as far quilting is concerned. I procrastinate on these because at this point the machine quilting is a hard skill for me yet. There is another pile of unfinished tops which I would like to hand quilt….

Sewing of various parts together on the wall has begun again.

I am my own worst enemy. I need to finish things and this recurrent theme is really bogging me down.

Nothing is standing in the way of my art-but me. Not unlearned skills of lack of talent. Just plain old me. How do you know if there is talent there if you don’t finish it?

Another silly list that will be made. But it’s up to me to knock it off, isn’t it? Being honest to or with yourself is sometimes the hardest thing.

Be creative and finish things, my friends!

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.