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| Any guesses for why I chose to gather these fabrics together? |
This week my thoughts have been with my hometown,
Boston. I was raised in Lexington, MA. A
year after I married, my husband and I bought a home in Sherborn, MA, a small
suburb of Boston. We lived there for 34 years. For all but one of those years
we went out in frigid weather, balmy weather and rainy weather to watch the
Boston Marathon from its halfway point in Wellesley, MA, where Wellesley
College is located.
My children’s sport of choice was swimming, not
running. It was on their US swim team that my son and his wife met at ages 11
and 12. My daughter-in-law is the Chief Resident of Family Practitioners at U
Mass Medical and is particularly interested in sports medicine. That is why she
has volunteered to work at the finish line medical tent for the Boston Marathon
for the last three years. She was there caring for the runners when the bombs
went off. Fortunately she wasn’t hurt. I am grateful for her while also keeping
the victims, their families and friends close to my heart.
It is time to be accountable and see how close my plan
for the week actually jived with what I did for the
week ending April 19, 2013.
1) Pictorial Painting
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| "Canyon" at the beginning of the week. |
a) Continue to watch the portion of the lesson that
demos how to paint the Canyon piece. – Done!
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| "Canyon" at the end of the week. |
b) Finish painting "Canyon." – I worked on
but didn’t finish "Canyon."
I'm rather proud of the painting this week. I painted the shade and highlights on the ground sections. My fabric selection varies considerably from the teacher, Annette Kennedy. This means that I had to figure out how to blend the paint to suit my fabric. For once I managed something subtle AND visible. The result is more natural looking. There just may be hope.
2) Express Your Love
Do
whatever assignment Leah Day comes up with next. – Done!
OK, I did one of the assignments. The assignment I
didn’t do was the follow-up to Trapplique, which I already know how to do. The
second assignment was to familiarize yourself with how to create words with the
alphabet program that comes on most sewing machines these days.
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| I "signed" Express Your Love using my Bernina's programable alphabet. |
I have a Bernina 1260. This is a vintage Bernina pre
computerization. This assignment was one of the few times when I wish I had an
upgrade. In order to stitch words using my Bernina 1260’s alphabet I have to
create a program by selecting each letter, then selecting the number of times I
want that letter to appear in a row. There is no panel showing you what you
selected. Nor can you delete the last entry if you make a mistake. I finally
managed to enter my initials and the year. I tested the entry and then when I
was satisfied tried it on Express Your Love. It was a disaster. I picked out
the initials (1 hour) and added them again, but forgot to press the “double”
stitch button the second time around. Since this is a practice piece, I have
decided it is close enough.
3) Reflection
a) Add Reflection to my website. – Done!
4) Adoration (Shooting for a deadline of June 1, 2013)
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| The original photo inspiration for Adoration |
The guide for cutting and placing the appliqué pieces for Adoration.
b) Start cutting and positioning the appliqué
pieces. – Done!
As you can see I did more than start, I actually finished this.
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| "Adoration" after the pieces have been cut, positioned and affixed to the background guide. It will finish at 35" - 36" square. |
This past week went relatively well. Check back on May
3, 2013 to see whether I follow my plan or take a detour or two. My intention is to do the following:
1) Pictorial Painting
a) Continue to watch the portion of the lesson that demos
how to paint the Canyon piece.
b) Finish painting "Canyon."
2) Express Your Love
a) Do whatever assignment Leah Day comes up with next.
3) Adoration (Shooting for a deadline of June 1, 2013
a) Cut the backing and batting for Adoration.
b) Prepare the quilt sandwich.
c) Select the quilting threads.
d) Start quilting.
Adoration is looking absolutely great. I can't believe how much you get done in a week! I mentioned you in my entry in the vp post due to your diligence. :)
ReplyDeleteMy goal this VP year is to focus on creating. Funny thing when I adhere to my goal, much gets created. I am rather enjoying this goal. I can't imagine returning to a time when I work in the studio just two days a week.
DeleteAll your projects are beautiful. You are very talented!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gwyned.
DeleteWhat a nice set of picture quilts! I love the baby one. I'll be checking in to see where it goes!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Susan. This is quite a departure for me. I have avoided portraiture for years. No surprise I am struggling through a steep learning curve on this one.
DeleteReally nice work.
ReplyDeleteAdoration is so beautiful! Can't wait to see it finished.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I can't wait to see it finished, myself. I am feeling uncertain on how to proceed. I expect I will do some fabric painting and free motion quilting to help create more of a 3D feel through shadow and highlights.
DeleteSo sorry the Boston tragedy hit so close to home for you! I think it did for everyone, but to be so close:/ Your pictorial quilts are amazing!! And how are you so super organized? I can see that from all of your blog entries! I envy you for that:) Organized I am not. I am more creative chaos;)
ReplyDeleteAre you familiar with the TV show Monk? Adrian Monk is a brilliant detective. He has an extreme case of OCD. When asked about his OCD and how it affects his detecting and life he says "it is a blessing and a curse." I don't have OCD, but I must have organization in my life to survive. If I don't have a place for everything, or someone "reorganizes" my space, I can spend wasted hours getting the space back to functional. I save many, many hours by being organized. I don't really have a choice. It is who I am and as natural as breathing.
DeleteIt's nice to see how you are working on Adoration, and it looks great. I'm not jazzed by my machine's lettering feature either :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Karen. I may not be jazzed about the letter feature on my machine, but I am grateful that Leah keeps me experimenting. Each experiment gives me something new to have available should the need arise.
DeleteI really like how "canyon"is coming along. The shading is really giving your landscape depth.
ReplyDeleteI have a computerized Janome but not a new one. I really don't like the monogramming stitches at all. I am never completely satisfied when I have to use them. If I was doing the Goddess instead of the serpent , I might consider using a transfer technique for the words.
I love your "adoration" piece. Looking forward to seeing its progress. Thanks for sharing.
I missed out with this weeks link up, but the serpents on hold as I had workshops this week.
Hopefully I'll link up this Friday
It helps immensely that Annette Kennedy has mapped out where to add shading and highlights to "Canyon." I do need to blend my own paint. Since each student selects her own fabric how Annette blends her paint suggests, but does not guarantee how I should blend mine. Lots of trial and some error is honing my blending skills.
ReplyDeleteI marked my original saying and free motion quilted the marking. The truth is I am not a big fan of text on quilts unless it adds something aesthetically.
Thank you for your kind words about "Adoration." I will check in later this week to see how your serpent quilt is progressing.