Week in Review 2013 - 01/25

Can you guess which project this belongs to?

Rather than finish with my tip/technique/philosophy de la semaine I thought I would start with it. I am a firm believer that to be creative and to live life well the mind, body and soul must be fed. One of the ways I do this is through yoga. Not that I immerse myself in all things yoga. I do take a twice weekly class at our local YMCA. When I am stressed, stiff or pushing myself running I turn to the lessons I have learned about posture, relaxation and breathing through this class. You don't need to tie yourself into knots or do handstands to derive benefits from yoga (although my knots are looking better and I've done a handstand against a wall.) My favorite one minute break at home, in an airport or standing in line waiting is Mountain Pose. (If you skim down the link there is a visual along with a description of how to assume Mountain Pose.) The fabulous thing about Mountain Pose is that as long as you can stand you can do it. A standing ovation in Mountain Pose to my teacher Joanna Dane whose blog A Terminal Case of Whimsy shines an eye on what it is to be human and laugh about it.

Taking a deep breath, shoulders down and shoulder blades moving towards the spine, heart center raised - OK, now I'm ready to look at my goals for this past week and how I did.


My goals for the week ending January 25, 2013:

1) Shore's Edge:

The last shell to be nestled with beads
is in the upper right corner.

a) Finish beading the remaining shells on the beach panel. - I'm 1.5 shells shy.

c) Seam the beach panel to the ocean panel using the quilt as you go method. - Oops! Missed that one all together.

b) Design the foam section. - Done!

The foam has been quilted and prepared
to be added to the quilt.

d) Start quilting the foam section. Done! Actually I finished it completely.

2) Pictorial Painting

The Calla Lily BEFORE
the stems were painted.

a) Watch the next segment of how to paint the Calla Lily piece. - Done!

The Calla Lily AFTER
the stems were painted.

b) Paint the next section as instructed. - Done!

I have definitely gained confidence with my brush strokes and how much medium to add to the various values of paint. The next area of focus needs to be how to blend the paint to come up with the hue I need.














3) Express Your Love - Do whatever Leah comes up with next. - Done!

Loving the golden rays done with MacTavishing

Loved this week's assignment to add MacTavishing to some of the rays in Express Your Love. In the colored version of Leah's quilt she selected two values of blue for her sun rays. On her black quilt she quilted them with white thread. Since I have been using various hues of thread to fill in the ribbon and earth I choose to stick to colored thread. My plan is to quilt alternate rays with the yellow/orange variegated thread you see here and do the in between rays in a deeper yellow/orange/red variegated thread. Should be smashing. I am really enjoying how quilting with colored thread looks against the black background fabric.

An undocumented goal for this past week was to show marked improvement with my eczema. That has been achieved as well. Thank goodness.

My goals for the week ending February 1, 2013

1) Shore's Edge

a) Finish the beading on the beach panel.

b) Seam the beach panel to the ocean panel.

c) Applique the foam panel to the quilt.

d) Add a scattering of beads to the foam and ocean to indicate bits of foam and spray.

2) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the segment on how to paint the flower.

b) Paint the flower.

3) Express Your Love

a) Finish MacTavishing the final six rays.

b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

I can't wait to get started.

Week in Review 2013 - 01/18

My plans for the week ending January 18th were a struggle to meet. Several times this past week I have had to take a deep breath, exhale slowly and remind myself of my own mantra that "Perfection is a journey, not a destination. Let go!"

Several weeks ago at the tender age of 59 I developed a case of eczema. Not a small patch at the elbow, but nearly full body involvement. It took days to build and it is taking weeks of doctor's visits and experimentation with this or that salve and lotion to break the cycle and start to mend. In the general scheme of life this is a minor irritation. However, the time consumed applying meds and the trouble focusing on my work and not the incessant itching has made reaching goals difficult. Under the circumstances I did well. Plus, I have made noticeable improvement this week. Next week has got to be better.


My goals for the week ending January 18, 2013 and how I met them were:

1) Shore's Edge:

The ocean panel from Shore's Edge

The beach panel from Shore's Edge

a) Add the beading to 14 more shells on the beach panel. I am under deadline pressure with this!

Honestly, I lost track. I think I did 12 shells versus 14, but I was hoping to exceed this goal versus fall short.

b) Machine quilt the ocean panel.

Detail of the machine quilting and thread painting used in
the ocean panel. I purposefully only thread painted the shells twice.
I want them to look as though they under an inch of so of water.

Did it!

2) Pictorial Painting - paint the leaf for real. No more practicing!

Did it, even the no more practicing part.

Pictorial Painting
practice piece AFTER
the leaf is painted.

Pictorial Painting
practice piece BEFORE
the leaf is painted

3) Express Your Love - Do the echo/foundation stitching in the globe.

Progress made on Express Your Love as of January 18, 2013

Leah echo stitched the land in her globe using the same white thread that she had outlined it. I figured that if my ribbon could have a turquoise background, why not use lime green variegated thread for the land in my globe. So, that is precisely what I did. I planned to echo stitch the water in blue thread. However, Leah was thinking paint. She painted over her white stitches with green and then painted the water blue and formation stitched on top of the paint. I opted not to paint the land, because I don't have a good green paint. I did paint the water. I didn't have any issues stitching in through the paint.

Detail of the Globe in Express Your Love

My goals for the week ending January 25, 2013:

1) Shore's Edge:

a) Finish beading the remaining shells on the beach panel.
c) Seam the beach panel to the ocean panel using the quilt as you go method.
b) Design the foam section.
d) Start quilting the foam section.

2) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the next segment of how to paint the Calla Lily piece.
b) Paint the next section as instructed.

3) Express Your Love - Do whatever Leah comes up with next.

Tip/Technique of the week is this YouTube of Ricky Tims demonstrating a novel way to make a single seam, not on the bias, dimensional Flying Geese block.

Week in Review 2013 - 01/11

The goals I set and how I met them for the week ending January 11, 2013:


1) Shore's Edge:

a) Begin the beadwork on the beach panel.

Bead work has begun on the beach panel.

I love beading. It takes me back to the days when I used to quilt by hand. The repetition is so soothing.

b) Baste the ocean panel and thread paint the seashells.

The ocean panel is basted and the seashells have been thread painted.

2) Pictorial Painting Class:

a) Practice the painting techniques one more time.

Practiced painting the leaf from the Calla Lilly project.

I am pretty pleased with how this turned out. I felt I got the right blend of blue/green and yellow/green paint  for the fabric I chose. I managed to create a sense of shadow under the veins and one side is slightly darker than the other, suggesting a light source.

b) Start painting the Calla Lilly.

OK, so I missed one of my goals. Each practice piece has me more and more comfortable about how to blend and apply the paint to achieve what I want. They also show areas where I need more practice.

3) Leah Day assignments:

Express Your Love was marked, basted and the marked lines quilted.

a) Mark the quilt.
b) Baste the quilt.
c) Quilt along the marked lines.

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but I could actually see well enough through the black fabric to trace the lines of Express Your Love.

I promised I would share tips this year. Here is one. I have taken to hand basting my quilts before machine quilting. Why? Although it is more time consuming, I believe it has three advantages. First, I find that the shifting between the top, batting and backing is less than when I pin baste. Second, without pinmoors or safety pins the quilt is more pliable for manipulating under the machine. Finally, I like the control I get since my hands rest on the quilt with no pin interference. I find it very easy to snip the hand basting as I come to it. Those odd turquoise threads, predominately on the left side of the quilt are the areas that are still basted.

I actually accomplished more on Express Your Love this week than I thought I might. I opted to thread paint my mantras in script. Leah Day, designer of the quilt, used block letters. I felt the curvilinear flow of the quilt suggest cursive and it also gave a more gentle, less dictatorial sense to words. The next step was to echo quilt the mantras. I opted for micro-stippling instead. Why? Once again I felt it softened the message.

My goals for the week ending January 18, 2013

1) Shore's Edge:

a) Add the beading to 14 more shells on the beach panel. I am under deadline pressure with this!
b) Machine quilt the ocean panel.

2) Pictorial Painting - paint the leaf for real. No more practicing!

3) Express Your Love - Do the echo/foundation stitching in the globe.

Perfection is...

In my last post I spoke about signing on for another year of Leah Day assignments beginning with her whole cloth outline for "Express Your Love." The first assignment is to thread paint words coming out of the mouth of the goddess, or as I like to think of her, a muse. I had thought to use my chosen Yoga mantra - "Let go." I could even imagine linking repeated Let goes until the final one would float apart from the rest. However, today, while driving around doing errands I had another thought that came to be fully formed from nowhere. I will be quilting "Perfection is a journey, not a destination."

My journey this past week continued:

1) Shore's Edge:

Detail of fully quilted beach panel portion
of Shore's Edge.

a) The beach panel is fully quilted and blocked.
b)  I purchased beads, beading thread and eyelash yarn to embellish the foam.

2) Pictorial Painting Class:

a) I made a second attempt at Blocking, Whisping and Pulling Paint from a line. In the upper right corner of Attempt #2 the paint is pulled from the line to give a sense of light source and shadow. In the lower left corner the paint is pulled first to one side and then to the other. This technique is used for crevices.

Attempt #1

Attempt #2

b) I have assembled the Calla Lilly pattern to be painted.

Assembled Calla Lilly
ready for painting.

3) Leah Day assignments:

a) Purchased more water soluble marking pens for light and dark fabric.

b) Repurchased Easy Thread Needles because I couldn't locate the last set. Put the new set away and found the last set. (Perfection is a journey, not a destination. Let go....)

c) Purchased  just shy of a bolt of good thread count black fabric. It is currently tumbling in the dryer.

My Goals for next week:

1) Shore's Edge:

a) Begin the beadwork on the beach panel.
b) Baste the ocean panel and thread paint the seashells.

2) Pictorial Painting Class:

a) Practice the painting techniques one more time.
b) Start painting the Calla Lilly.

3) Leah Day assignments:

a) Mark the quilt.
b) Baste the quilt.
c) Quilt along the marked lines.

Of course, I would like to accomplish more but if I manage all of this it will be a varied, engaging and full journey.

Scattered

The "beach" portion of Shore's Edge in process.

Scattered is the best word to describe how I feel about my work at the moment. I've recently started three different projects.

1) I am making the second work in what I plan on being a series of art based on shells and the beach. This one is titled Shore's Edge. It will be my entry for an exhibition with Fiber Revolution. The exhibition's title is Breadth. The due date is April 1st. I'm feeling pressured. There is SO much more to do on this quilt and I have another quilt I want to make with a May 1st deadline which will be equally time consuming.

I finished thread painting the oyster shells and began the intense free motion quilting on the beach panel of Shore's Edge. The panel is 21"H and 50"W.

Detail from Shore's Edge Beach Panel
I trace the design on Solvy as a guide for my thread painting.

2) I signed up to take Annette Kennedy's class on Craftsy.com. I tried my hand at Blocking, Whisping and creating a line with a shadow/depression as part of my Pictorial Painting class. With zero training in painting I am starting woefully behind.  I was disappointed with my first attempt, so I repeated the exercise. I don't have an image from the second session. One of the great things about knowing nothing is there is a lot of room for improvement and my improvement from session one to session two is quite noticeable.

Blocking, Whisping and creating lines - take 1
Boy do I have a lot to learn!

3) I am determined tackle the projects and assignments posted by Leah Day. Leah has been working on a series of goddess themed quilts. She is currently working on one titled "Express Your Love" and I, along with others will be following in her wake. So, far all I have managed to do is print out the pattern and select the fabric I plan to quilt it on.

Why, you might ask am I tackling extra projects when I clearly feel pressure to produce quilts for the professional exhibition groups I belong to? The answer is multifaceted. Practice improves my current skills and provides me with new skills. I also appreciate the opportunity to quilt without the pressure of having to produce exhibition caliber work of my own design. I may feel scatter, but I thrive on the diversity.

Coin depicting the ancient roman god, Janus.

Janus, the ancient roman god, is frequently found on doorways with one face on the entrance side and another face on the exit side. He is described as the god of transitions and time. I like to think of him as the god of endings and beginnings. The month January is derived from his name. January being the beginning of our calendar year.

With each New Year I, like many others turn to reflection and resolution. It is a time to look back on the past year, to take stock of my accomplishments and to devise a plan to move forward into the next year.  It is tempting to make resolutions, often health related ones such as loosing weight, exercising more or stopping smoking. However, the past few years I have made a different resolution. My resolution is to try something new each week. Sometimes this is a new item at a restaurant where I lean towards "the usual." Sometimes I experiment with a new fiber art technique. Sometimes it is a physical challenge, such as biking a half century (50 miles.) Doing something new takes courage. I am much more comfortable not breaking out of my routine and doing only things that I know I can do with confidence. However, growth rarely happens when one follows the safe, tried and true route.

One of the challenges I gave myself last year was to branch off in a new direction with my work. The result was "Beach Stroll." It combines two challenges, one, brushing up on my drawing skills and two, practicing my free motion quilting skills with my love of a print by Andrew Wyeth and the work of Mondrian.

"Beach Stroll"
by Gwyned Trefethen
33" H x 48" W

The idea of challenging myself regularly to get out of my comfort zone is not new to me. Eleanor Roosevelt is often sited in this regard. She recommended that you, "... Do one thing every day that scares you." There are many inspirational quotes attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt should you be seeking ideas or in need of a maxim to post where you can visit it daily.