Week in Review 2016 - 07/29

A recent photo of my granddaughter,
Mikayla wearing one of her favorite outfits.

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

One of the joys of obsessively focusing every free moment on making Siren's Song is that it gives me plenty of time to listen to books. Most of the books I select aren't exactly vaporous but I wouldn't categorize them as weighty, either. I select books for my own enjoyment. Sometimes, like this past week, I stumble upon one worth sharing. I listened to The Art Forger, by B. A. Shapiro. 

Girl in Pink Tutu done in
the style of Jean Dubuffet.
Can you guess my inspiration?

What is it about The Art Forger that grabbed my attention? Well first of all Shapiro has set the novel in Boston, where I grew up and spent the majority of my adult life. Second, one of the side plots is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist. Third, the protagonist is a legitimate art replicator persuaded to forge a painting. It is that final point that gives Shapiro the excuse to discuss the layering of paintings and how paintings are restored and can be forged that is riveting to those who are fascinated by such things. If you read Girl with a Pearl Earring, then you understand the type of insight into painting that I am referring to.

Paul Klee did many color swatch
style paintings to understand how
the position of one color next to another
impacts the colors. I used this exercise
to send a message to Mikayla.

This week, when I wasn't working on Siren's Song, I was creating art projects based on Carla Sonheim's Kids Art Week lessons. Each lesson focused on a different artist. Some I knew, such as Paul Klee and of course Picasso, but others were knew to me, such as Hundertwasser and Motherwell. Studying art, even replicating by masters is common practice amongst artists. It is after studying the masters, that one can breakaway and begin to develop one's own artistic voice. Isn't that what quilters are doing, in a way, when they start by making patterns?

Every princess needs a castle. This one
is based on Hundertwasser's distinctive
layered lines method.

I knew that doing the projects in Kids Art Week would take time from my own studio work. However, I had asked if my grandchildren would be interested in doing it with me. One had expressed an interest. Therefore, there was no way I wouldn't do my part. I made each of my artworks with Mikayla in mind.

1) Create 11 Siren's Song blocks. Came Close.

I actually made 9 more blocks and started 2 more this week. Not bad considering all the "extra" art I crammed in.
2) Free motion quilting practice - No

3) Do some surface design work - No

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

Siren's Song after nine more blocks
were created and positioned on the
design wall.

One of Carla Sonheim's caveats to the students who took her Kids Art Week class is accept the lines as drawn, the paint that drips or any other typical "whoops" moment when making art. She particularly admonishes parents who are guiding children through the exercises to let the children do the project their way. Since I was both kid and parent to my inner kid, I stayed open to never "fixing" any of my projects. No ruler was used. Not even an eraser. :) 

My goal for next week is to keep the momentum going on Siren's Song. Who knows, I might just be able to make my block quota AND work on other items on the following list:

1) Create 11 Siren's Song blocks.

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) 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 - 07/22

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Figure (1)

"Value does the work, and color gets all the credit," is how painter David Lobenberg begins one of his blogs. I don't believe he is the first and he is certainly not the only artist to espouse this axiom. Exploring value is one of my favorite ways to work. It is how I am selecting my fabric for Siren's Song. I am limiting myself to eight values from the palest blue to a mid value green as I interpret an image taken of water  from the balcony of my cabin on a recent cruise. Normally I share the current results of my work. Today, I thought I would share a bit about how I work.

Figure (2)

Figure (1) shows how I lay my fabric out. Note that there are are 8 stacks of fabric, arranged in value order. Above each stack are pieces cut from the fabric to the size needed for piecing. I tend to cut a strip or two at a time. Then cut as many pieces as I can from the strip. Cutting all 2,862 pieces that I will need in advance is, frankly, too boring and tedious. Instead I cut as I need more. It is hard to tell from the picture but each sized piece has its own row. This makes it very easy to grab the fabric I need for my current block(s). 

I won't share my method of how I determine which value to place where. That would make this post far too long. It won't come as surprise, I do have a system.

Figure (2) Once I have laid out the fabric pieces that will form the next block in the quilt, I start to sew. I find it easy to layout my blocks on trays so that I can carry a block with me from work station to work station. I used to only make one block at a time. However, to speed up the process, I gave three blocks a try this week. See those skinny strips on the cookie trays? Those tell me where the block fits in the quilt. One of them is a C1/R3. This translates to column 1 row 3. I have a guide for each block to make sure the units are where they should be and rotated in the correct direction. I double check that I have it right before sewing the units together.

Figure (3)

Figure (3) Once a block is finished I place it where it belongs with the other finished blocks on my design wall. Now I get to see how it is all coming together. The three fabrics hanging with the completed blocks are ones I am living with before I commit to one. There is a section of the quilt where this fabric is used to create the rim around a porthole. 

No surprise my work was very narrowly focused this week as you can see:

1) Create 11 Siren's Song blocks. - Attempted

I knew trying to finish 11 blocks in 7 days would be a stretch. I managed 7 blocks. Plus I am approximately half way through the 3 on the trays. I will get a shade faster over the next couple of weeks. The first attempts always have "learning opportunities" to overcome.

2) Free motion quilting practice - Not this week.

3) Do some surface design work - Not this week.

4) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open - Oblivious

OK, that might be hyperbole. However, I can't think of a single instance when I wasn't open to questioning, trying something new or processing input from others. 

I'm looking forward to next week. I've signed up for Carla Sonheim's Kid's Art Week. It is a free online class with daily lessons from Carla for kids of any age. There is still time to sign up.  I will be doing it (from a distance) with my four year old granddaughter. There is a private group for sharing. In between drawing/painting assignments I will be swatting away on my own art as follows:

1) Create 11 Siren's Song blocks.

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) 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 - 7/15

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques: 

One of two fabrics made using blue glue resist
and Setacolor paint.

This week has been one big happy dance. No, I didn't have my work accepted somewhere exciting. Then again, I didn't receive a rejection either. I am happy, because after weeks, even months of playing with surface design techniques, all with a focus to achieve fabric that would work to create water, while being absolutely clueless about a design that would incorporate water, I had a Eureka moment. My muse didn't just whisper the idea in my ear or show it to me behind a veil of fog. No she shouted out the idea and wrote it across the sky, like fireworks. When that happens, I don't question. I just get working. As you will see by what I did and didn't get done this week, I was focused, but driven.

The working title for the latest obsession is Siren's Song. It takes me back to my roots of block blending. This is when I selected compatible blocks but color them in such a way that the actual block/structure is hard to discern. Nearly all the work in my Shifting Values series was achieved this way. I decided that all the blocks this time should be associated with water. I'm using Flying Fish, Ocean Waves and Storm at Sea. The first two blocks are made using half square triangles and squares, so are very easy to piece accurately. Storm at Sea is a nightmare unless it is pieced using templates or paper pieced. I love the precision of paper piecing but HATE!! pulling out the paper at the end. Yes, I used small stitches, but some paper always gets caught under a few stitches with nearly every patch. This drives me crazy. So, imagine my excitement when I discovered, while googling tricks for piecing Storm at Sea, to stumble upon a method of paper piecing where the paper isn't stitched to fabric. It is called No Tear Paper Piecing and is demonstrated by the owner of Quilt N Bee in Travers, Michigan. 

The second fabric made using blue glue gel as a
resist and painted with Setacolor paint. Both
fabrics will find their way into Siren's Song. One
already has.

What can I say about this week? I've been on a (no) tear and this will become clearer over the course of future posts. Sometimes what is seen as accomplished through a checked off or not checked off list doesn't tell the full story. My plan was to:

1) Create the blueprint for the next artwork - Done!

I won't share the blueprint. You will just have to trust me on this.
2) Free motion quilting practice - Nope!

I had ordered thread to continue working on First Light. It still hasn't arrived. Even if it did, I was too focused on Siren's Song to shift gears and bang out some free motion quilting.
3) Do some surface design work - Done!

I was thinking of inking the fabric I had masked with blue glue gel as a resist. Then I remembered I had just replenished my emerald green Setacolor paint, this time with glitter so wanted to try that out. Love the green, but the glitter washed out with the glue. Suggestions on how to make the glitter permanent are welcome. 
4) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open - Done!

Remember that run of green to blue hand dyed
fabrics? I selected 8 of them for Siren's Song.
I didn't dye enough fabric for the quilt the first go
round. This week I dyed a yard more of each color.
I am thrilled to report the second color run is very,
very close to the first run. Hurrah! This is the first
block made. It measures 8" x 8". The pattern is
Ocean Waves. I made two more blocks this
week. That leaves me with 66 more blocks to go.

The truth is when my muse suggested this quilt my first reaction was, "Are you crazy?" The finished size of the quilt will be 72" H x 56" W and it will use 1,000's of individual pieces to build. It was extremely tempting to give up before I even started. I didn't. I stayed open and accepted that Siren's Song, needed to be made.

My plan is clear. I have an exhibit in mind to enter Siren's Song in. Therefore, there is a deadline. It is quite a ways off, BUT for the amount of work that must be done to meet the deadline it may as well be tomorrow. It will require 100% of my focus. Here is how I plan to focus:
1) Create 11 Siren's Song blocks.

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) 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 - 07/08

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

I did a little more work on First Light this week.

What is going on? Honestly, I can't seem to settle on a design for my next piece. Could this be a case of artist block? I don't think so. I have lots of ideas, theories and experiments. It is just that nothing is coming together. It has me feeling very unsettled and jumpy. Fortunately, I do have  my game plan to follow, much of it involving hand stitching. This helps calm the jitters.

If I only shared my plans and how they went, it would appear that I have everything under control as you can see:

Detail from First Light

1) Work on Sunrise Abstraction - Done!

a) Attach the sleeve - Done!
b) Make and attach the label - Done!

2) Free motion quilting practice - Done!

Who knew that stitching rows of thread
to be gathered across a 20" x 20" piece of
fabric would take so long?

I worked some more on First Light. It is coming along nicely. I will be placing an order for more thread today. Turns out that despite having what I suspect is in excess of 100 spools of thread I don't have the right shade of greens for the sky (and I have more greens than any other color) or the deep red/orange at the base of the quilt. Just doing my part to keep the economy going. :)

3) Do some surface design work - Done!

Or that gathering the thread, thread that I had tested
for its tensile strength, would prove that the real test
is in the project itself. Even the gathering is taking
a fair bit of time. 

I've started work on two different surface design projects. The first requires sewing lines of thread on fabric that are then pulled to gather the fabric. The gathering acts as a form of resist when dyed, since the dye will permeate the fabric on the surface more easily than that which is hidden inside.

I am also testing out blue glue gel as a resist. I've drawn patterns on the fabric with the glue. It needs to dry thoroughly before painting/dyeing can begin. I'm actually thinking that a fun way to go might be with ink and shaving cream. The key is for the glue not to "wash out" before the paint/dye/ink has dried. 
4) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open - Done!

Blue glue gel used as a resist

I am currently listening to The Mathematician's Shiva. Great title isn't it? It is one of those books that is slow to get going and dips regularly into involved explanations that can feel like too much information. Boy, does it nail what it is like to grow up in an academic family, though. This is why I am grateful that I didn't give up. When it is good, it is excellent.

Next week I hope to be able to share the plans for my next artwork. If don't come up with any, at least I have surface design experiments and free motion quilting practice to fill in my studio time, as you can see:


1) Create the blueprint for the next artwork

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) 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 - 07/01

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Add caption

"Don't you have anything constructive to do?" This was a question I was asked frequently enough by my mother when I was growing up that it is branded in my brain. Even when I am doing what I have chosen to do, I find myself asking "is this constructive?" "Am I making the best use of my time." Maybe my child self had it right. She was a questioner and a rebel. As a child I asked (ok I never asked this question out loud, just in my head) "Why do I always need to do something constructive?" 

Practicing yoga for more than five years has taught me how to just be. There are many poses that do this yoga. When I first started I often found the rest poses more difficult than the more physically challenging ones, like Eagle. Yes, I can actually do Eagle pose and hold it for a minute or so. This week, I was the only student who showed up for my Thursday yoga class. The teacher asked what I would like to do. I certainly didn't say "something  constructive." :) What I asked for was a contemplative class focusing on rest poses, explaining that learning how to rest was an attribute I was working on and felt that this ability had been strengthening over the years thanks to yoga. So that is what we did.

Later that day I spent the afternoon free motion quilting the clouds in First Light. For me, free motion quilting is the rest pose between the more strenuous physical poses. No surprise, quilting, like yoga and like life seems to be most fulfilling for me when there is a balance between restful, contemplative times and the more active, creative problem solving times.

First Light
Click on this or any image for an enlarged view.

This was primarily a rest week, at least in the studio as you will see:

1) Work on Sunrise Abstraction - Done!

a) Attach the sleeve - Done!
b) Make and attach the label - Partially done.

I printed out the label, but have yet to attach it to the quilt.

2) Free motion quilting practice - Done!

This is a detail of the free motion quilted clouds
form First Light.

Just a few more "tricky" bits left on First Light around the trees. I'm looking forward to moving on to the more wide open areas of the sky.

3) Do some surface design work - Done!

This week I decided to have a go at removing an object from its background using Power Point. Once removed the object can pasted onto another background. I'm not convinced this method has any advantage over doing the same thing with Photoshop Elements. 
4) Beware of when I find myself shutting down and find a way to stay open - Done!

This may be splitting hairs as to whether I stayed open or not. I've been taking an online class called Woman Unleashed Retreat. There have been a couple of strong sessions, but many of the sessions just don't speak to me. Sometimes I feel I already have learned what is being taught. Other times, it isn't something I am even interested in doing. I've worked hard at staying open, but occasionally the topic is something I can't see ever having value for me. So, rather than torture myself by listening to the full session on useless topic, I am staying open to walking out on that session. 

The result of my surface design project for the week.
I removed the cruise ship from one photograph
and added it to the water background fabric I shared
in the prior week's blog. 

Next week is an abbreviated work week, since Monday is a holiday. I will be both restful and active if I work my way through the following studio to do list.

1) Work on Sunrise Abstraction

a) Attach the sleeve
b) Make and attach the label

2) Free motion quilting practice

3) Do some surface design work

4) 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.