Author Archives: Colleen Kole

January Calm

     I have completed the family calendar for January. I have gone back to more detailed filling in of event start and ending times. So school pickup is written in as a 30 minute block of time. It wasn’t even on the calendar before because I have been doing it for 18 years. But it does take time to do. And I was over the top excited by the fact I should have 20 hours a week for the next 6 weeks of studio time. Should is the key word. But that is conservative. If I am organized,  it could be 25 hours. And that is not counting the hours I squeeze in at night when they are all settled and in bed.

     I am super excited about January. What use to be a month of dreary days might just turn into a gift of time. Bring it on January. A new reason to celebrate the calm.

     Peek over at the tutorials at  The Sketchbook Challenge. So many creative people!

     Use your time to be creative, my friends! My time starts tomorrow. I’ll drive Erin back to college today.

Making Plans/Goals

     I am waiting for this huge storm but, so far, only a few inches compared to the 12 inches forecasted. I have my dyes mixed and am ready to try a limited amount of snow dyeing. I spent some time today dyeing some lovely threads. That is always fun.

    I did have some time over the holiday break to make some plans for the next year. And start making a set of goals for the year. Are you ready? To be bored reading another list on someone’s blog? All joking aside, I do think the list might push me along.

Goals/Plans For 2011

1. Complete 20 quilts 3×3 or larger by the end of the year. At least 5 of these quilts will be in a series                       investigating motifs and varying colors.
2. Investigate various surface design techniques including screen printing and deconstructed screen printing.
3.  Continue fabric dyeing in the warm months.
4.  Attend/complete the following workshops:
     Artist’s Toolbox: Lyric Kinard-online at Quilt University  January 28th

     Creating Compositional Cloth : Claire Benn and Leslie Morgan at the The barn: May 16-20th
     Silk Dyeing Feb 6th  adult ed at Kendall College
     ? one more for fall

One of my favorite Vermont barns

                              
                                    

     The 20 quilts is very ambitious for me. 20 tops-yes but 20 done. Mmm….lots of focus will be required. In all reality,  the next four months mean lots of quilts. (Once May hits our family with sports schedules, I fight a losing battle on getting much done in my studio. ) The overall goal of this year is to gain more exposure to surface design techniques and to investigate motifs within my quilts. Surface design techniques- I am not sure this is an avenue I want to use but I won’t know until I try them.

     Well there you have it. It did take me awhile to decide. I love the push that a workshop or class gives me. Maybe a workshop junkie. But a discerning one. I did say no to the Sketchbook Challenge and Jude Hill’s last online class. But it’s just about killing me not to do Jude’s class:).

Off to finish dyeing some floss. It’s getting late.

Be creative, my friends.

2010 Wrap Up

                                                  
                                                     Unpacking-notice no clothes just fabric and supplies

    I am really not one for resolutions. I guess because they usually involve me losing some amount of weight. And it just comes back.  I am more for making a list and getting it done.  Setting goals. That feels better for me.  It’s probably all the same thing but just what motivates you to change , do something differently or accomplish something.

     So, I felt like I should take a look at what I have learned in the past year. Since I am a newbie, maybe it would help me with what I need to do next.

(I feel like this is one of those essays you write when you get back from your summer vacation in elementary school. I give you permission to skip this and go directly to the pictures.)

2010 : What I have Learned

1. I learned that even though I might not like the piece I am working on, I need to push through and finish it. It’s the pushing through part where I usually learn things about design, color or the unpredictablity of a composition.

                                                                 on my wall today

2. I learned that I have many friends, old and new, that I can ask for advice or critique. But in the end, I have to live with it.

3. I learned that by just reaching out a little bit online, there are some great friends to meet and enjoy this process with. Old friends and new friends have made it an enjoyable year.  Thanks again- you are great.

4. I learned through and indepth “Artprize” experience(visited many times…) that I can find something to like in all different forms of art. Meeting Nellie was loads of fun, too. I have much to learn about art and art history.

                                                

5. I lack focus. I just get so excited about the possibilities that I need to just concentrate on the here and now. Making a list helps. I did it all the time when I worked as a physical therapist and do it now as a mom. So why would I function differently here?

6. I need to have a reliable and dependable machine. Not one that will just handle piecing but one that can repeatedly handle  machine quilting. I  am just going to keep trading then in until I find one that works as well as my first machine did 20 years ago. The feeling that me and my machine are one make it  all worth it when I am doing a big piece.

7. And the biggest thing I learned- being a studio artist takes time and patience. You have to go through the steps. You can’t just barge over top of them. You have to do the work.  And then do more work.  And then do it again. I only have a glimpse of what this takes.

              
                                                   Japanese fabrics

     I have made some workshop plans. No I am not going back to school. For today, I am going to do some machine quilting and try to finish up one of my pieces that I couldn’t do last week. And make some dyes up for the snow we are supposed to get tomorrow. Snow dyeing!

     Thanks for listening. Be creative, my friends!

An InBetweener

 

      Guess that is what I am here in Vermont. We have been coming here for about 8 years now. We have had a home here for 7 years. So, each time I come here-I am more and more sick of tourists. They have built a huge new resort on Stowe Mountain and it makes me sick each time I drive up there. A huge gapping gouge into the mountain. Very, very expensive rooms and they are marketing heavily to rich people. Who have spoiled kids and are incredibly rude to the shopkeepers and restaurants in the village. I am beginning to not like the week here between Christmas and New Year’s. Too busy and too many rude people.

    But,  I don’t feel like a tourist here anymore. ( And my kids are definitely not spoiled).  I have my favorite quiet spots that not many know about. But I also am not a  Vermonter.  Despite the fact that I am here for about 10 weeks a year, I am sure none of my neighbors consider me a Vermonter.  And they are exceedingly loyal to the natives.  I can milk a cow, muck a stall and fend off the mice and bats.  I don’t ski but do lots of other outdoor Vermont things. I appreciate the beauty of Vermont and why they are so protective of their people. You have to be stoic to make it through mud season and the lull of winter. Or the roar of winter.  But none consider me a Vermonter.

     So, I continue to come and go. And I appreciate coming and going and having no specific schedule. Storing up the peace and rest -going back tomorrow.

     I did some sewing, some knitting, photos and thinking. And lots of reading.

     I’ll be back sometime this week. After I unpack and put away Christmas.

I am ok being an inbetweener  but don’t think I could live here full-time-despite how beautiful it is here.

Be creative, my friends!

    

Happy New Year and Christmas Wrap Up

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year! I am enjoying a rainy day here in VT and have a few days of vacation left yet. It’s 47 and all the snow is melting….

I had a great Christmas. I have the most fun catching up with  family and friends. I had an extra special little  present from my friend Patty. Patty and I have known each other for many years-since early college days.  She and her husband would go out with Marc and I  on the weekends when we  were in college.

We lost track of each other as husbands jobs took us out of state and kids came. It was a huge surprise to find out that she was moving into the house next door five years ago and she would be my neighbor. Even though our lives our busy and we really don’t see each other that often, it’s nice to know she is there. And each conversation can pick up where the last one left off.

Thanks for my sweet Christmas present-

 A pretty little teapot with pretty quilt patterns on it.

She received my red and green little quilt.

Nice to have old friends to connect with , isn’t it?

Great to start a new year, isn’t it? Did you do anything fun for New Year’s?

Be creative, my friends!

Unfinished Business

I was so smug in thinking I had plenty of time and a machine was on it’s way.  Well it arrived a day late. I thawed it out-it had frost on it which I am sure was not good for it.  I waited patiently for it to dry out. I sat down and realized I didn’t send along the right walking foot for the machine . I couldn’t quilt without the right foot for the machine. Kind of like forgetting the paintbrush but remembering the paint. . It wasn’t going to happen.  Unfinished quilts will remain unfinished for 2010. I fussed for a bit. Ok fussed for a few hours and into the next morning.

And then I looked outside.

Beautiful sunshine. We rarely see the sun in Michigan in the winter. I strapped on my snowshoes and just walked. Breathing in the cold air and feeling the sun on my face.

And realized fussing is really rather foolish.  Maybe I  needed a break from this obsessional sewing. 



I am sure I will sew yet this week. But right now I am going to enjoy my vacation and the mountains.

Be creative-or maybe just enjoy the time between the holidays to see where you have been and where you want to go. 

Changing Places

     I have traveled to our second home in Vermont. We left on Sunday and thankfully were just ahead of this epic storm. We flew into Burlington, VT  and it was the only airport open on the East Coast. I thought it was just amazing to actually be leaving until the luggage cart hit the wing of the airplane we were on!  After a short delay, we arrived minus only one piece of luggage at our destination.

It takes me a day or two to adjust and get organized here but I am in vacation mode.

It was nice being snowbound yesterday-not as much snow as others but amazing winds with bitter wind chills.

Windy and snowy. It’s a nice day to sit by the fire and stitch. I am waiting for my sewing machine to arrive. I had to have it shipped here. Which is a good thing because the one I have here just wouldn’t budge today but one or two stitches. It is my first machine-I should have a ceremony for it. Dead as can be. I am not giving up on my goal to have two more pieces done by New Years’.

I have a new computer and I can’t figure out how to get to my photo library despite having some great edited photos for you. So, I better go. I found a coffee shop in Morrisville with wi-fi and a great latte so hopefully you will have a better post next time.

Anyone doing the Sketchbook Challenge?

Be creative, my friends and stay warm!

Merry Christmas, My Friends!

     Wishing you a Merry Christmas and blessed holiday celebrations this week.

      No- we don’t have that much snow here but it’s a great dreaming of a white Christmas picture, isn’t it? One of last winter in Vermont. Off for a few days of posting but hopefully back early next week. Pictures of my sweet treats I have received this Christmas, too.

     Merry Christmas, my friends from near and far!

The White Flag of Surrender

      That’s what I feel like doing tonight. I surrender until the 26th of December. I can’t get beyond the basting point on this one. It’s really high thread count pimatex that is hand dyed and I was worried that the safety pin basting method wouldn’t stabilize it enough.So I decided to try hand basting it via the Sharon Schamber method. It isn’t hard at all and really is seeming to lay nice and flat.

     I don’t want to hurry with this one. I am feeling the need to slow down. And enjoy the holidays a bit. So I probably won’t have any finished work before Christmas for you. Maybe just some pretty Christmas pictures. I am going to try to  sneak in a visit to the botanical gardens tomorrow. Don’t tell my family that-they think I am working like a slave around here.:) No one wants to go with me.

   Just take some time to slow down, my friends!

There was a Goal Set/ #5 Finished

     Wasn’t there? I think the number was seven. Well, I think this is five. I had purchased small block kits at a yearly shop hop. Never made it to all the shops so I had miscellaneous blocks sitting in a pile. Once I opened the packages and saw-directions – dreaded directions- I knew I couldn’t follow them. So, I started cutting them up and now I have a little improvisational baby quilt.

One donation for March already done! ( Yes, I think all sane people are thinking about March in the month of Christmas.A little absolute insanity for the week before Christmas when I haven’t even finished Christmas prep yet….)

                                            
                                                    Sweetness and Light
                                                          37×37, 2010

     I had my family Christmas party this weekend. My brother and sister-in-law  from Indianapolis spent the weekend with us. Lots of busy going on here. My family -minus my sick sister and her sick daughter…

       Yes , I have a whacked header up there. I just really only have a certain amount of competence with Photoshop. I will have to wait until my daughter comes home from her exam today and fixes it. With a lot of eye rolling and little patience for me! 🙂 It really does bug me that I don’t know how to do this stuff. Fearless to try  but too foolish to know how to correct some of my mistakes. Oh well. No one will die from my whacked header today. Lesson learned: don’t change it until  you have the right thing to replace it with.

      Off to run a few errands. I will baste #6 today and finish it before Christmas leaving number 7 to be done the week after Christmas when I am on vacation. Or so goes the plan.

      Be creative, my friends!