Author Archives: Colleen Kole

Waiting

     I have waited for today for three weeks. I knew things were going to be busy so my expectations were very low for what I would accomplish in the me aspect of my life-the sewing part of me.I tucked it away while I did the fun stuff with them and enjoyed every minute of it. I didn’t want to wish my time away with end of the year kid stuff but the carrot at the end was-today. A day when I could sit and sew and they could play outside and just have fun in the sun.

     Except when I went to sew, I had machine problems. Once again. I must deal with my machine issues( I don’t know how yet but I think a trade-in is warranted!) and -my really sore neck. I don’t know what I did to it! Ouch!

     In all my mental confusion from all these classes and information overload, maybe I have driven myself crazy. I do know one thing from this temporary break from sewing.

     I am not one bit happy unless I sew. Every day. I miss the process . Having something in my hands-be it machine or handwork is a part of me. I knew it before. But it doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad art, it’s just not me without it. I really have struggled with whether what I do or will do is good enough lately. But it doesn’t matter if it is good enough for anyone but me. Because I just need to sew to be me.

     So, tomorrow on our three hour drive to a soccer finals game -you know I will have sewing in my hands. Because, I am not driving there.

     I might need some serious Aleve or Advil though. I am back.

Happy sewing, my friends!

    

    

    

A Good Weekend

     It was a great weekend. We drove to Indianapolis for my son’s soccer tournament. It was crazy in Indy as it was the weekend for the Indy 500. The town was celebrating! The weather was steamy-90 and humid. Our team made it to the finals but lost 1-0. The boys weren’t really disappointed just happy to get off the hot fields-so were we! We were able to visit with my brother and sister-in-law too.

(He’s so grown up already-no more baby face).

We drove home and spent some time in the yard trying to get caught up on Monday. A bad storm early Monday left us with out power all day. My early summer flowers are really pretty now.

     And finally, after a long month of learning, I went to sew. I first ironed some of my class samples from our day of discharge dyeing at the Velda Newman class. It was fairly easy techniques using bleach.

Just used masking tape on these samples.

Freezer paper templates.

Paintbrush, dipping directly into it, etc. Just playing.

I am working on finishing a quilt I am actually getting paid for this week. At least that is my goal! And it’s the last week of school. I can hardly wait to have them be done. I just wanna play!

Happy Sewing, my friends!

Another Good One

     I haven’t even finished sharing with you about my class yet and I am on to the next one. I spent the last two days at a workshop sponsored by my local quilt guild. We are very spoiled and have had some great teachers come the past few years. I really didn’t know what to expect but jumped right in to a Velda Newman workshop. And I wasn’t a bit disappointed. Velda makes very large quilts- the last quilt she has worked on for 21/2 years and it is 180 inches long….Just beautiful pictorial quilts she has made from hand dyed fabrics and then hand painted them. This is one of her fish quilts:

Another pretty one stretched across the steps:

Another one :

            These were amazing and exquisite and that doesn’t even begin to explain it to you. She hand dyes the fabric then hand paints each piece. Awesome and amazing. She is definitely inspired by nature.

     The first workshop day was on how to create texture and form with in a quilt. She made everything look so easy and simplified how to do a few techniques-making leaves, flowers, tucks in fabric and some machine quilting techniques.

                                                 Velda’s  flowers, leaves and vegetables

    The second day was using bleach as a discharge technique. Lots of fun doing many techniques. We went outside to play in the steaming hot weather. (I would definitely invest in a respirator if I do much of this). In the afternoon we moved on to using acrylic paint as a wash for the fabric. Also tried using various watercolor pencils and crayons to shade in areas. Lots of information in a short period of time. Good stuff. She kept us very busy and was a great teacher. Calm, knowledgeable, talented and willing to share and help you learn.

   So I know you are asking yourself -what am I  going to do with all this stuff? I don’t know-yet. I can see myself using some of the discharge techniques. It’s just a great way to try some of this stuff without having to buy the supplies and realize you hate the technique.

  I am just a professional student. All that worry about what to call myself and I am perfectly happy being a student. Makes the mistakes easier to explain:).

Happy Sewing, my friends.

A 2 hour dentist appointment awaits me at 8am. I feel like it’s my punishment for playing the last two days….

Monday Catch Up

Grafton Inn,VT

     I am ready to get off the month of May. My friend Betsy described it as wanting to get off the hamster wheel. I do agree. Just got back from a family wedding in Grafton, VT. Left Thursday and came back last night.( Love hearing about what went on while I was gone….). It was an outdoor wedding and the weather was picture perfect Vermont.

Even had fiddleheads on our salad-how much more Vermont could you get? Nice to see family from afar. Did lots of spring clean up at our house there and it always takes longer than you think.

 Congrats Mike and Kate-you finally did it!

     Well I finally downloaded some more of my pictures from my workshop. This is my last piece that I did.

In Process…

She mixed the week up a bit and had us do our larger piece in the middle of the week. This was our choice using any of the motifs that we had brought with us- I mixed up an L and a T. Disappointing and I told her that it looked like a cross between a bad Christmas dream and the American Red Cross flag.

She laughed and said ok- just finish it. She said I backslid on it which I did.At that point in the week, we were all getting punchy. I do recognize my mistakes-bad color choice, too simple of a motif which looked like strip piecing and not thinking far enough ahead with it. That is the good part of the process-knowing when you made a mistake, finishing it and letting go.

     Now, for “homework” she said to do the assignment over at home :)!

Happy Sewing, my friends!

Conflict and Panic

     Thanks for your responses to my question yesterday. I guess after spending a week with other like-minded people I have questions for myself. I do know that it is just uncomfortable for me to say that I am an artist. I feel like I need to earn that title yet and it will be up to me to be comfortable with saying that I am-someday. Just like it is up to me to make my quilts and grow….I greatly respect those who are artists and can say that. You must work so hard to be an artist. That’s all I know. Just feel conflicted with what I should call myself. (Do I need to decide that today?) Conflict which usually makes you grow is ok…

    Panic: I needed to help my son prepare a snack for his country report today. Czech Republic.We had our one hour window last night before baseball practice.  Who in the world thinks of all these things at the end of the school year? ( February and March are a great time to do big projects). Thank goodness for the internet and finding a recipe. We made a shortbread strawberry cookie-enough butter to make anything taste good!

   More panic: I am not packed and must fly to VT for that wedding this afternoon. I am just bringing hand sewing and mindless knitting. Notice I haven’t thought about clothes yet. More pics from last week are coming, I promise.

Happy Sewing my friends!

Nice Interview

     There is a nice interview about Nancy Crow on Terri Jarrod Dimond’s blog this morning.

      At one point, Nancy came in our class a bit irritated about what a reporter had asked her. She spoke to us about the fact that she is an artist who makes quilts. She was passionate about not wanting to lose the word quilt out of our vocabulary or definition of who we are. Not textile artist, not fiber artist but an artist who makes quilts.

      Prior to this class, I was introduced by my mom to one of her friends. When her friend asked what I did my response- I am a mom but in my spare time I am an artist and I make quilts. She had lots of questions for me. It was the first time I said it and it felt awkward-do I really think of myself that way? Now I will be honest with you and I did know she was a sculptor. So I wasn’t that brave. But what will my response be? Will I care enough about the heritage of quilting to make that statement mine? Do I need to go to art school to consider myself an artist?

                                                   Art outside the Barn

                                               Working hard-on the wall

     Ok what do you consider your self? What words do you use to define your art? I am just interested.

Off to garden-a day of sunshine!
Happy Sewing, my friends!

After

     I can only come up with a one word title. I feel a bit slow yet amidst the chaos that is created this week-in between coming home and getting ready to leave already for a wedding in VT this weekend. Just a few days to re-group and re-organize -slow and not very productive is not really a great place to be at.
     I spent last week at the Barn at a workshop with Nancy Crow at the class titled Sets and Variables I and II. The class -very basically-was working on a specific motif ( a original block pattern you drew) and all it’s various configurations. Each piece we cut was cut freehand and individually. She gave assignments and lectured at the beginning of the day and we had timed exercises to complete. For example, here is the project and you have one day to do it or two days to do it. Then, each person would present it to the class and Nancy would critique it. She has an amazing amount of energy and is brutally honest. But within the critique, she met each of us where we were in the process-as a true beginner or much higher. So, after the initial  critique you were less fearful , and were actually looking forward to seeing what she had to say. For the brutal honesty and time she gave us, I really respect that. Because honest critique of your work is very hard to come by.
      Lots of art theory-LOTS! I am not a person who likes to present to others so the whole experience is really hard for me-but I realized I learned the most from seeing others pieces and doing a self-critique of my work. And yes, I really did work from 7:30 am until 10pm. Brain work and sewing work.

                                                   Design wall: Day One

     Since it was an intermediate class, I expected it to be hard. Nancy spent an incredible amount of time with us both individually and as a group. Design, shape, texture, figure-ground, pattern repetition, pattern manipulation-I could go on and on. She wants you to figure out the answers and process the information.

     The energy that is created with working with others is something I don’t know if I can explain. As a quilter/artist , it is lonesome working by yourself. I rarely sew with others because it is just too hard lugging my stuff out of my studio. (Yup I will now call it a studio.)  Few people do this kind of work so I am kind of an oddball too. Like-minded quilters are hard to find? So just not being odd, was great. I enjoyed spending time with a  woman, Rahel,  who was sitting adjacent to me- a woman from Israel who had just retired from teaching. She has devoted 40-50  hours a week since her last class on producing quilts so the body of work she showed was amazing. And she gave a brief 15 minute talk to us-at Nancy’s request-about how to integrate art as a priority if this is what you want to do. Rahel was very articulate and had us all in tears at the end- how using your hands is a gift not to be wasted.

                                         End of Day One

     This was clearly a stretch for me both technically and design-wise. I knew that going into it and didn’t really expect to make wonderful things there. I never do with timed exercises.  It’s more for me the knowledge I leave with and how I begin to process it as I leave and go forward. And my head is just bursting so I hope all of it stays inside and just doesn’t burst.

   Unfortunately, on the last day of class one of the gals I traveled with fell and broke her femur….poor thing needed surgery. I must run and try to call her and see how she is doing. We had to leave her behind in Columbus while she recovers. Miss you new friend and hope you heal quickly.

Off to catch up.

Happy Sewing, my friends.
  

Intense

     It’s the only word I can use to describe the week: Intense. Just got home this afternoon from a five day workshop at the Barn  I am a hard worker and have never been afraid of hard work. But that was really hard work. Brain work. I was there from 7am until 10pm every day! The kind of work that is really exhilarating but it’s exhausting at the same time.  I spent the week with 20 other artists who make quilts. They came from all kinds of places: China, Japan, Alaska, England , Israel and the good old US. The conversation was great-not just about art, the food amazing , and the process of learning grueling but good  The end results I had  were mixed. I just was overstimulated with all the ideas going through my head. And that’s a good place to be at right now. I just want to savor it for awhile longer before real life jumps in again.

  From my walk one day when I needed a break-

The ceiling of the timber frame barn we worked in- which was a great distraction!

Most of the pictures I took involve others works so there won’t be any sharing of that kind. But I will tell you more later….I am just tired. And glad to be home.

Happy Sewing, my friends!

Way To Go Mom!

     I spent the majority of the day at a graduation ceremony for a local college- a graduation ceremony of different sorts. My mom received an honorary doctorate degree from her alma mater for all the public service she has done over the past thirty five years. She has worked very hard to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Society and the local cancer hospital here in Grand Rapids. My dad died of cancer and she is a breast cancer survivor of ten years. My brothers were here from out of town and it was a fitting tribute for Mother’s Day to honor her today at the ceremony. She did a great job getting up in front of a huge auditorium of people and thanking them. Something I could never do. Way to go, Rosie-we love you! Great picture of my mom and my daughter which I will always treasure.

     My bleeding hearts are just beautiful this week. Hope not to lose them to frost tonight. Enjoy your day tomorrow all you Moms. I am off to Ohio for the week. In the middle of a cornfield so don’t know about service there. Will take lots of pictures.

Happy sewing, my friends!

Earth and the Month of May

    I was dyeing fabrics on Friday and the word that came to mind was Earth. These are just the colors of the earth and I do like them.  I had a hard time with green and realized a fundamental dyeing principle -duh?-that I should of thought of eons ago. Different bases give you different results. And no matter how much blue I added, I didn’t have the right yellow to get a deep forest green. You have to give it to me on persistence. Ten pieces of fabric later, I finally gave up and will just go with what I have. Also, overdyed the browns and they turned out nicely.

     The month of May is very busy. I realized I am gone for more than 12 days this month-classes, wedding, soccer tournament. Three workshops this month-I take full responsibility for making my schedule crazy. Just fair warning if my posts are not as often as usual. I am taking Sets and Variables at the Barn next week,  a two day workshop with Velda Newman sponsored by our quilt guild and an on-line class titled cloth-to cloth workshop given by Jude Hill which runs for 5 weeks. What am I doing with this wide range of classes? I don’t know yet but I am hoping that it’s not mud.  You know when you mix up a whole bunch of colors and hope for that one glorious result-but it turns into mud…. They just all were offered this month and I couldn’t pass it up.

   The commission piece was approved by it’s new owner last week. I now have to sew the design together.  She loved it-and that’s all that counts! A sneak peek….

Happy Sewing, my friends!