Week in Review 2016 - 12/30

Pot #1.
I used Press 'n Seal to mark the
quilting lines. The top thread was chosen as
the most likely to work on the actual quilt.
The bobbin thread was a dark purple.

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Lucille Ball, shared, "I would rather regret the things I've done than regret the things I haven't done." I'm not one for bucket lists or New Year's resolutions, but Lucille's quip rings true to me, in my life and in how I approach my art. I have great admiration for artists who work in a series or have a daily art practice. That isn't me. I'm fueled by experimentation and play. If something comes from my work, fantastic! If not, well as least I enjoyed the journey, probably learned something, even if that something is what not to do. 

2017 will be a year of pot making for me. No, I am not switching mediums to become a ceramist. Nor will I be making fabric vessels. Instead I will be following the recommendation of the allegory shared in Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland, on the importance of focusing on quantity over quality.

Pot #3.
I stayed with the same top thread,
but this time swapped out the bobbin thread
for a darker blue/green shade. I marked
the quilting lines with Solvy, which I attached
to the quilt with a border of masking tape. 

I am currently toying with various ways to approach pot making. Perhaps it will take the form of creating mini work, such as textile art journals (8.5" x 11" quilts) or other size restrictions. I have been thinking about seeing how many ways I could reproduce flowers in my work. There may be a series of 6" square floral pieces, for example. I may jump around from one idea to another. What I am determined not to do is have so much structure I find myself dreading making pots. Nor do I want to have so little structure I am stymied as to where to begin. 

Although I didn't technically start the process of making pots this week, I did more potting making than I can recall doing in the past in order to work out how I would quilt the angel of death on the tombstone featured in Where Have All the Flowers Gone? I did a bit more than this, as you can see:

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song - Not yet

2) Free motion quilting practice - Done!

This is where I made pots. First, I got back in the grove of FMQ by whipping out a simple floral all over motif I had been meaning to try. Next I experimented by using Press 'n Seal wrap for "marking" the design on fabric. The result was that I loved how easy it was to draw on the Press 'n Seal with a permanent fine point marker. Also, I really loved how it clung in place to the fabric. What I didn't like was how difficult it was to fully remove after the quilting was done. Good thing this was a sample. 😉 Next, I tried doing the same thing, but used Solvy AND, I quilted on the same fabric, with the same thread I planned on using for the quilt. This way I could see if the contrast was what I wanted. The advantage of Solvy is that those little pieces remaining after the majority have excess Solvy has been removed are easily dissolved in warm water. This required one more experiment. Before I used Solvy on the actually quilt, I verified that the fabrics I had used would not leech out dye if soaked in warm water. 

Should I go with the letters on a black
banner or a white banner was last
week's dilemma. I opted for black and
after fusing the letters surrounded them
with a satin stitch done in variegated
jewel tones. 

3) Do some surface design work - Done

I'm counting the FMQ as my surface design work, since it was closer to thread painting than FMQ. Tip: I did several things that when added up together eliminated the normal problem of shrinkage/puckering which occurs with thread painting. One, I had already stabilized the work by quilting the background. Two, I had fused the piece being thread painted to the quilt. Three, Solvy also acts as a stabilizer. 
4) Continue working on Where Have All the Flowers Gone? - Done

I added the angel of death to the top of the tombstone, created the Make Art banner, finished making the flowers, and researched what font I would use for the words to be carved on the tombstone. 

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open. - Done
I went into meltdown mode when I stepped back from the finished angel of death. There didn't seem to be sufficient contrast after all that experimentation. Panic. My husband suggested I go over the quilting with a darker thread. That might work. I relaxed and I was open to giving it a try. Then I turned on the lights over the design wall where the piece was hanging. Viola, the contrast is clear as long as there is light on the work. 

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
after this week's work.

The game plan will change next week as I begin my year of pot making. I am officially making myself accountable for the following:

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) Continue working on Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

5) Pot(s) made this week

I am now linking up to two blogs on Fridays. The first is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays and the second is Free Motion Mavericks.

Week in Review 2016 - 12/23

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

This is our tree in the
atrium after last week's
back to back snow storms.
My office overlooks this
blissful scene.

Simplify, simplify, simplify! That is my trick for making it through it the holiday flurries. Oh, when I think of what I used to take on, I cringe. It was as if I believed, like Santa Claus, I could tour the globe in a single night, and place presents in all the stockings and under every tree. Admittedly, I enjoyed the excuse to bake and make homemade gifts. The pressure, oh the pressure! Each passing year the enormity of tradition wore me down. I'm not sure when I started to reverse the trend. It certainly wasn't as easy as toggling a switch. Over time I simply did less and less. No more holiday baking. No more handmade gifts. No more cramming in 1, 2 or 3 social events for multiple days in a row. What is left? Christmas cards. I love sending them and receiving them. We still have two Christmas trees, one in our outdoor atrium and the other on the main floor landing of our stairwell. The brilliant new jewel tone colors of the LED mini lights make me smile. With everyone else overwhelmed trying to do it all my "work" emails have been practically non existent this week. Oh joy! Oh rapture!

By simplifying my Christmas preparations and having a husband who picks up the slack, I have been blessed with my first week of three solid studio days in several years. I enjoyed every single minute. Here is what I did with my time:

 

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song - Some day. Just not this week.

2) Free motion quilting practice - No

The flowers will be "planted" below the
tombstone in an area approximately
12" H x 30" W. In order to figure out if I
have made enough, and if not what should
I make to fill the space, I laid the flowers out
on my cutting board. This way I can fiddle
with the arrangement, too! 

I did review a few potential free motion quilting designs and contemplated others in my head for a panel I will be adding to Where have All the Flowers Gone?

3) Do some surface design work - Done

I should probably rephrase that item as surface design/embellishment. I worked on my embellishments for Where have All the Flowers Gone? I'm having so much fun making two types of gathered embellishments. One is a yo-yo, the other is a multi petaled flower which I am topping with yo-yos. The trickiest flower, but well worth the angst, is the folded hexagon flower with beads covering the raw edges in the center. 

The question last week was how to
get those letters noticed since the eye
is drawn to the flowers and the contrast
between the letters and the background
was not strong. I played with two options.
One is placing them on a solid black panel.

The other option is placing
them on a white panel with
a black binding? Both are
on my design board. Feel
free to share your preference
or other ideas.

 

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open. - Done

This image hints at what the
letters on black might look like
when actually attached to the
quilt.

I spent my junior year abroad in London. Lucky me! It was there I came to enjoy a cuppa, especially first thing with breakfast or at the transitional time between the work day and before it was time for dinner. I tried a handful or more of different kinds of teas that year. I've tried even more since then. However, I've become stuck on English Breakfast tea and had turned my back on Earl Grey. I was in desperate need for that rich milky, sweet, caffeinated cuppa yesterday. All I had in an English Breakfast was decaffeinated. I brewed a pot of Earl Grey. What a treat! Now, I am wondering why I gave it up.

What I won't give up on is carving out time to spend in my studio next week. I'm eager to start moving everything from off quilt to on quilt to see if my ideas will work together. Doing this will involve nearly everything in the following plan:

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) Continue working on Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open.

I am now linking up to two blogs on Fridays. The first is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays and the second is Free Motion Mavericks.

Week in Review 2016 - 12/16

Perseverance pays off as I begin
the progress of adding the
foreground over the background
to Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

It has occurred to me that there is a strong connection between perseverance and staying open. These are both traits I admire and work on developing. It can be so tempting to quit, to throw in the towel, to just give up and move on to something easier. This is especially true when trying something new. How I hate being inept. I rant. I weep. I am a jumble of prickly nerves. Why put myself through such torture? The answer, often allusive in the heat of the moment, is really quite simple. It is because of the euphoria of accomplishment. Just because figuring out the instructions for a knitted knocker or developing a graffiti font to use on Where Have All the Flowers Gone? is inconsequential compared to climbing Mt. Everest or making a scientific breakthrough worthy of receiving a Nobel Prize, doesn't mean it is any less thrilling for me. 

My week required patience, perseverance and practice. It was so, so tempting to give up. I didn't, as you can see:

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song - Not done

2) Free motion quilting practice - Done, sort of

Several styles of 3D flowers border
the gravestone. They make me smile. I opted
to use Clover's YoYo makers for expediency's
sake. They are a very quick to work up yo-yos.

I did quilt. Instead of free motion quilting, I opted to stitch in the ditch. I find this more difficult than free motion quilting. FMQ is far more forgiving. When I used to press my seams to the dark side the height differential between the triple layer of fabric (two seam allowances and the "piece") and the single layer of fabric (just the piece) made staying in the ditch and "hiding" the ditch stitching easier. I prefer a flatter overall appearance, so always press my seams open. This means that when stitching in the ditch stitch accuracy is imperative. My precision piecing falls into the category of close enough. I don't obsess over it. However, this means that if you were to hang a plumb line along one of my vertical seams, you would quickly see sections on one side or the other of plumb. Therefore, when quilting along such a meandering line, patience, coupled with letting go of the occasional deviation is vital. 

The letters aren't popping quite the way
I thought they would. I will be problem
solving how to make them more obvious.
My first thought is to run a solid line of
satin stitch around them. The question is
what color? Red, black, or rainbow
variegated? Clearly, some of my next
week will be spent experimenting.

3) Do some surface design work - Done

I have spent the past month dipping into Pinterest boards, pinning tutorials which grabbed my eye. I found myself drawn to yo-yos and other ways to make three-dimensional flowers. These scream '60s flower power adapted for quilts, to me.
4) Continue working on Where Have All the Flowers Gone? - Done

The front side of this knocker is nearly done.
Not bad for an amateur knitter. 

Why, oh why do my easy projects always take such diabolical turns? Once again, I found myself in learning mode as I tried my hand at yo-yos and the most difficult of all, designing a graffiti font of my very own. 

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open. - Done

I spent several days on several projects struggling close to the breaking point. The first was "starting" my knitted knockers. There were several new stitches to add to my lexicon. Then there was the font. After an obscene number of hours trolling the internet, trying out ideas free hand, moving to design attempts on EQ7, back to more internet trolling and finally back to guided (on tracing paper over graph paper) free hand, I finally was satisfied with my lettering.

I am hoping to enjoy the fruits of my perseverance next week on the following projects:

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) Continue working on Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open.

I am now linking up to two blogs on Fridays. The first is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays and the second is Free Motion Mavericks.

Week in Review 2016 - 12/09

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques: 

The view from our condo at 6:40 a.m.

When I came downstairs from the bedroom level, to the main floor level of our condo, I was startled to see the scene out on the lake. We have started to go into, what I refer to as, deep freeze season, here in Appleton, Wisconsin. This is when the temperatures stay permanently below 0º C/ 32º F. This means our lake starts freezing over. Eventually, the river at the opposite side of the lake will freeze as well. 

Every morning, as dawn is breaking, the geese who have overnighted just west of us on the lake, start to gather in front of our condo. With more and more ice and less and less water the amount of open water to gather diminishes. What may be difficult to see (try right clicking on the images for an enlarged view) is just how many hundreds of geese have come together this morning.

Similar view from the condo taken one
hour later. Odd, the geese are still here.

What is the life of a goose like? I tend to think of it as simple. What do I really know? Still from what I observe, they sleep, gather, fly off to local fields for food, fly back and sleep. There is bound to be more, but this seems to be the basics.

I realize I am drawn to cyclical things. One of my earliest memories of enjoyment from a simple cycle was the song, There's a Hole In the Bucket. In my last post I mentioned my current work in progress is inspired by Where Have All the Flowers Gone? The same cyclical format is used, but in a much more serious way.

How can I convey the cyclical message in the song in a single image caught on a quilt? I'm not someone who maintains an art journal with inspiration, sketches and swatches, while I work. Mostly I just stay tuned to my thoughts, researching what I need, saving links and images from internet. One way I plan to bring cohesiveness to the piece is to focus on the '60s, a time of OpArt and flower children. This is why I have started with an OpArt background of my own design.


There is was little time between travel and holiday prep to attend to things in the studio. I did manage some progress on my current piece, but not much else, as you can see.

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?
The "window" in the middle will be
covered with a tombstone. 

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song - Not yet

2) Free motion quilting practice - No time

3) Do some surface design work - No time

4) Continue piecing Where Have All the Flowers Gone? - Done!

Not only did I finish piecing the background, it has been fused to batting and backing. I want to do some stitch in the ditch quilting before adding all the appliqué I have in mind. It should go faster this way.

I am testing SpunFab as my fusible for this piece. It is similar in appearance to MistyFuse, but costs about 30% less. It is the go to fusible for museums restoring textiles. Betty Busby, whose textile work is amazing, recommended it. 

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open. - Done!

One of my friends, who lives back east, shared that she has been making knitted knockers.  How could I have missed this fact? This a the type of project I gravitate to in my spare time. I am not a confident knitter. The pattern for the knockers (breast prosthetics) has several stitches not in my repertoire, but I refused to be deterred. I have found a local yarn shop and  plan to visit them to tomorrow. I will pick up the necessary supplies and I hope some pointers about how to do those stitches I have never done before. 

Next I must continue to work on Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, but I also intend to start my first knocker. 😉 If there is any more time there are a few other items on my list to focus on.

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) Continue piecing Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open.

I am now linking up to two blogs on Fridays. The first is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays and the second is Free Motion Mavericks.

Week in Review 2016 - 11/25

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

"Freedom from Want"
by Norman Rockwell

It is common place to diminish our own accomplishments while looking enviously and admiringly on other's achievements and accolades. It is only a small step from there to "why bother?" My mother's words spoken to me more frequently than I would like to admit, ring true, "comparisons are odious." I might rephrase that to comparisons are poisonous. 

We celebrated Thanksgiving at our home yesterday. I imagined others around the States doing the same. In my mind every home contained a Norman Rockwell perfect scene. Has there ever been a Thanksgiving feast to match or rival this one, from perfect turkey to conviviality? We chose to stay home versus travel 1,200 miles to be with family. We hosted another couple - she is vegan. We did the best we could and it was good enough. 

Each Friday, I type up my blog, share my own accomplishments, and link to several other blogs and Facebook groups. This gives me the opportunity to see what my fellow artists are up to. Wow, are they talented and so, so accomplished with international teaching circuits, multiple published books, and sharing which of the works have sold or won awards. It is so tempting to compare myself with these luminaries and feel lacking. 

I've started to piece the
background for Where
Have All the Flowers
Gone? My goal is to
maintain a '60s feel.
This OpArt design is
a good beginning.

What truly matters? What do I have to be thankful for? Quite a bit, really. I will zip past health, family and friends, all of that is a given. What matters to me, is I get great satisfaction from the creative process and enjoy sharing my delight with others. One accomplishment I am very proud of is being selected as the Featured Artist on the online gallery, Light Space & Time. I believe I am the first fiber artist ever selected for this honor. 

One thing is clear, there would be no accomplishments if I didn't do the work. How fortunate doing the work is one of my favorite pastimes. Even with a shortened week I managed to do the following:

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song - Not Yet

2) Free motion quilting practice - None

3) Do some surface design work - Done

4) Complete the design for my next piece - Done

My day just doesn't feel complete unless
I take an hour or so to do some hand
embroidery. This week I had fun learning
the Alternate Chain Stitch. That is
the partially completed section to the
far right. It requires two different threads
through one needle. Since I opted to
use similar variegated threads it isn't always
easy to tell that the chain links are alternating.
You will just have to trust me.

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open. - Done

The choice to host a vegan for Thanksgiving presented a challenge. Part of me felt like tossing in the towel with a "not my problem" attitude. Instead of shutting down or ignoring the situation, I opted to go a recipe hunt. A delicious and surprising discovery were zucchini chips. These were deemed "better than potato chips" by my vegan friend. I agree. 

The holidays are looming and I have plans to travel some next week, so time in the studio will be precious. I will make time and when I get the spare minute this is what I plan to focus on:

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) Continue piecing Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open.

I am now linking up to two blogs on Fridays. The first is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays and the second is Free Motion Mavericks.

Week in Review 2016 - 11/18

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Normally I crop my images so
that my work looks squared up.
I'm so pleased with how nice
and straight the edges to Siren's
Song are and how sharp the corners
I'm sharing what it looks like hanging
on my design wall.

I seem to be in a constant state of betwixt and between these days. I am never quite finished with one project before the next one begins. The overlap of the two has me in a constant state of multi-tasking. My artwork is caught in transition, too. Siren's Song is finished - well, sort of. I still need to do those last bits of attaching the sleeve, label and adding it to my website. While I complete those tasks I have started working on the design for my next piece, currently titled, Where Have All the Flowers Gone? The title, of course, is a reference to the peace anthem of the '60s written by Pete Seeger in collaboration with Joe Hickson. Perhaps the group that cemented this song in all of our brains (some of you reading this are probably hearing it in your head) is Peter, Paul and Mary. If all of this is meaningless though, you can hear their rendition here.

Multi-tasking is not my strength. Nevertheless I did make progress this week, as you can see:

1)  Face Siren's Song - Done

I don't think I have ever hand stitched a facing into place so quickly. This is quite a sizable quilt at 72" H x 56" W.

2) Free motion quilting practice - Oops, missed this.

This is a 10" H x 12" W detail from
Siren's Song showcasing the prairie
points and intricate, intense quilting. All
the fabric started as white PFD Kona cotton.
I dyed, painted, inked and used a glue
resist to achieve the various colors
and textures seen in this image.

3) Do some surface design work - Done

I did take several hours betwixt and between to sit down and continue practicing my hand stitching. It is always a treat. No wonder there is a slow stitch movement.
4) Settle on a design for my next piece - Started

The idea for my next quilt has been percolating in my head for months. I thought I had pretty much nailed down my idea, at least in my head, but something about it just wasn't sitting right with me. I'm not sure why Where Have All the Flowers Gone? popped into my head. It just did and the answer to the question, "gone to graveyards, every one" was the visual image I needed. I don't have enough sketched out yet. Maybe I can share something next week.

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open.

One more detail showing off the fabric
and quilting. 

I'm such a stickler for maintaining my routines as a way to achieve my goals and keep me from shutting down completely when they going gets tough, so much so that sometimes the routines themselves can be stifling. This past Tuesday, my yoga instructor called in sick and there was no substitute. Normally, I just plow forward and do yoga in the classroom often encouraging the other students to "share" facilitating the class with me. This time I opted to head home and go it alone. The first minute was torture, so were the next five and the five after that. In a rare, totally out of character choice, I didn't continue to push myself. Staying a slave to my routine was not helping me stay open, instead I was shutting down and becoming resentful. I opted to stay open by NOT doing what I planned and focused my attention elsewhere. 

Thanksgiving is next week and we are hosting a very small gathering. Whether the gathering is for 4, 10 or more, the work is fairly similar. There won't be much time to work in my studio, but I will find a way there and when I do I have a plan to keep the forward momentum going.

1)  Attach a sleeve to Siren's Song

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) Complete the design for my next piece

5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open.

I am now linking up to two blogs on Fridays. The first is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays and the second is Free Motion Mavericks.

Week in Review 2016 - 11/11

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

I am very fortunate to have a husband who
supports my quilting efforts with actions.
This morning, before he headed off to work,
the two of us squared up and trimmed
Siren's Song. 

What does an artist do when the unimaginable happens? I refer to our president elect, being Donald Trump. No matter whether you voted for or against him, if you reside in the US or routed for or against him if you don't, the outcome grabbed you in the gut. Toni Morrison's wisdom can direct us, she said, "This is the time artists go to work." This is precisely what I did on November 9th, I continued to make art.

Detail of Siren's Song before trimming.

If you have no words - make art. If quilt art is your medium and you want that art seen there is a call for entry I recommend. The deadline to enter Textile Posters: Communication and Commentary  is January 31, 2017. This call does require a very specific size, 48" high x 32" wide, it should pay homage to the poster genre, and you must be a member of SAQA to enter.  The accepted work will be premiere at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, in November 2017. There it will be seen by 50,000 IQF attendees. After Houston the exhibit will travel for several more years. 

In a spirit of disclosure, I am SAQA's Chair of the Exhibition Committee. The committee works hard to bring a variety of exhibition opportunities to our members, who currently number 3,400 from around the globe. Over the years SAQA's exhibitions have started to include more tightly themed exhibits, often looking at current global and social issues. Since we start working on theme for an exhibition as much as 2.5 years before it is seen at its opening venue, I feel that the fates were in our favor, providing a very timely opportunity.

Detail of Siren's Song after trimming.

All entries are blind juried. Textile Posters will be juried by Joseph Lupo, a print maker and university teacher with a focus on posters. He is not a SAQA member. Because SAQA's exhibits are juried blind even the members of the Exhibition Committee may enter. My chances are as good as anyone else of getting an acceptance. So, am I working on my poster quilt? Actually, I started it yesterday. Just playing around with the background. The idea is something I have been tossing around in my head and actually tested a bit in my Art on the iPad class. However, as you can see, my focus has remained on finishing Siren's Song first. 

1)  Continue quilting Siren's Song - Done!

Not only did I continue quilting Siren's Song, I finished quilting Siren's Song. Yeah! 

I finished filling in the yellow segment with
scroll stitch and moved on to outlining
several other segments. 

2) Free motion quilting practice - Done!

Siren's Song has allowed me to multi-task for many weeks now. :)

3) Do some surface design work - Done!

I've made good progress with my hand stitching. I can comfortably stitch 4 different stitches. In other words I don't have to keep checking my cheat sheet to figure out where to stick the needle next or even how to turn a corner, start the next thread or finish the last one.
4) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open. 

Boy, was I tempted to shut down when I woke up to the news on November 9th. Instead, I treated the day like any other day. It began with my husband and I taking our usual 5K morning walk. This gave us the opportunity to share our fears and hopes in the aftermath of the election. Then it was on to the routine of the day. When times are unsettling having a plan and/or routine can provide a way to stay open and keep moving.

What will I be moving on to next week? The usual array of ongoing projects and new projects.

1)  Face Siren's Song

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) Settle on a design for my next piece
5) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open.

I am now linking up to two blogs on Fridays. The first is Nina Marie's Off the Wall Fridays and the second is Free Motion Mavericks.