Week in Review 2013 - 09/20

Detail from Nestling Oysters. 

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Adventure versus safety is a topic that I have been mulling over this past week. When I would get lost driving my children to some new destination I would tell them that we weren't lost, we were on an adventure. Now that my children have children of their own I often ask those children, my grandchildren, "who would like to go on an adventure with Grandma?" They range from age 16 months to six years old, so this opening gambit is usually met with an extension of their hand into mine. Off we go to see what we can discover in a walk around the yard or neighborhood. When we return we tell the story of our adventure. Vernacular can make all the difference.  "Going on an adventure" has far more allure than "who wants to go for a walk with Grandma?"

Creating fiber art that has me exploring old techniques with an attitude of discovery and problem solving along the way, is like going on an adventure. Adventures of this sort never grow old. However, I do find the need to rest, to choose safety over adventure from time to time. This week has been one of those weeks. It reminds me of what Doreen Speckman shared with me when I called her to finalize a contract for her to speak to my guild. I could hear her machine going full tilt as we chatted. As I was saying goodbye, I mentioned how impressed I was that she could sew like that and carry on a conversation on the phone. Doreen said, "some weeks it is all you can do to just seam two strips of fabric together. Other weeks you can get creative." This week has been a safe week. I've been seaming two strips of fabric together.

1) Companion Oysters renamed Nestling Oysters

a) Finishing facing Nestling Oysters - Done!

b) Make and attach the sleeves. - Done!

c) Have its "formal" picture taken for submission to calls for entry and my website - Done!

d) Carefully crop the picture along the edges - Done!

e) Add Nestling Oysters to my website - Done!

f) Perhaps start a gallery just for my Beach Series on my website - I haven't set up a separate gallery but I did move the four Beach Series quilts next to each other in my Nature Gallery and I like the look.

g) Include Nestling Oysters in a Call for Entry - I reviewed several upcoming Calls that I felt were suitable for Nestling Oysters. Since the notifications and/or exhibition dates overlap I can only choose one. This being a safe week I wasn't up to committing to one over the other. I still have time. I decided to mull it over for another week.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments

 
Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

Foundation piecing continues for
Express Your Love II
Pattern by Leah Day - created and modified by Gwyned

a) Foundation piecing - I have said it before and I feel obligated to say it again, Leah's method of foundation piecing the hair for the goddess in Express Your Love II just isn't working for me. This could be because I am set in my ways. Piecing is safe for me. If there is any technique I can do without thinking it is precision piecing and foundation piecing. Leah's methods seem to take something that is straight forward and safe and make it much more complicated than it needs to be. I keep trying, though. I want to stay open to new ideas even as I fight against them.



b) Free Motion Quilting - this is where Leah excels. I wasn't sure how I felt about Cracked Maze, this week's FMQ motif, when I saw Leah's sample. It was much easier to work up than I thought it would be. It will be my go to motif when ever I need cracks in ice, glass or sidewalks. I can even see using it for irregular tree bark.

Cracked Maze

3) Come up with 5 ideas for a Visioning Project for next year. - Begun

My current thoughts are:

i) To make 3 more quilts to add to my beach series
ii) Start a series of quilts based on Zentangle
iii) Sign up for Life Book 2014
iv) Select several things I would like to be able to do with Facebook, Excel and Blogger that are stymying me and learn how to do them

a) Select the most compelling one - Not yet

b) Write it up on the goal page. - Not yet

4) Come up with at least 5 different ideas for a new piece to work on next - Not yet

5) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon." - Not yet

Will this week be one filled with adventures or another safe one? Either way this is where I plan to turn my attention. As usual there is more than enough to keep me out of trouble or get me into trouble. :)

1) Nestling Oysters 

a) Include Nestling Oysters in a Call for Entry

b) Print and attach the label

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments

 
Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

a) Foundation Piecing

b) Free Motion Quilting

3) Visioning Project for next year. 

a) Come up with a fifth idea

b) Select the most compelling one(s)

c) Write up my goal page.

4) Come up with at least 5 different ideas for a new piece to work on next

5) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon."


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

Week in Review 2013 - 08/30

Adoration

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Remember the baby in Adoration? That's Andrew, my first grandchild. He started first grade this week. Many people's lives revolve around the school year be they students, teachers, school administrators, school bus drivers, maintenance staff or parents. This has me thinking about the importance of learning and how to continue to learn even when we no longer attend a brick and mortar school. An on-line place that provides excellent quilting classes is Craftsy.com  . 

What I have done the past several years is a more self directed education versus signing up for particular classes. This has been thanks to the Visioning Project on SAQA.com (Studio Art Quilt Associates). You do have to be a member of SAQA to participate in the Visioning Project, but the project itself is free. The Visioning Project has you set a goal/project that you would like to achieve between October 1 and September 30. The first year I did a weekly lesson from Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists by Carla Sonheim. It was a great way to gain confidence with my drawing, especially developing a more whimsical versus representational style. This past year I committed to working in my studio for 120 full days. Now I am deliberating about where to apply my focus for next year. 

If you were to sign up for the Visioning Project what would you take on?

Enough blathering. Time to check in and see how the week went.

Companion Oysters is nearly done.

1) Companion Oysters 

a) Finish quilting Companion Oysters. - Done!

b) Square up the quilt in preparation of facing it. - Started.

I did soak Companion Oysters to remove the basting glue, marker and water soluble basting thread. Surprise, surprise when I drained the water from the tub there were a few cat hairs that hadn't been in there when I filled it with water. The quilt is now blocked and dry. It could be my imagination, but it looks a tad brighter, too.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. - Mostly done.

The assignment from last Thursday was to create a section of the goddess's hair in Express Your Love from log cabin blocks created directly on a foundation. This proved to be a most frustrating experience for me. Leah's method of filling in the gaps between blocks just wasn't registering. It was far more complex for me than create a fabric from log cabin blocks and then cutting out the portion I wanted to use, much the way Michael James used to work. I didn't bother taking a picture of the debacle in progress. I am hoping that when it is finally finished it will make more sense.

Bellybuttons

Tuesday's assignment was another free motion quilting motif. Leah named this one, Bellybuttons. 

Another practice piece is full. Note how Bellybuttons
is basically the same pattern as Missing Pieces
(lower left squares) only the shape is different. Can you find where
I tested some ideas for Companion Oysters?

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon." - This will be an assignment for some distant future date. I keep listing it because I don't want to forget it.

I am taking a week break to celebrate my 120 studio day goal being met. When I return I plan to spend the week attacking the following:

1) Companion Oysters 

a) Square up the quilt in preparation of facing it.

b) Face Companion Oysters

c) Make and attach the sleeves.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments

 
Do whatever assignments Leah comes up with next. 

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon."


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

Week in Review 2013 - 08/26

1) Companion Oysters (Deadline 9/01/2013)

Detail from the backside of Companion Oysters

Whatever was I thinking? Although the deadline is not officially here, I am officially opting to let it slip by without finishing Companion Oysters. I could obsessively work every waking hour and some sleeping hours to finish, but where is the joy in that? Instead I have learned (not for the first, second or perhaps tenth or twentieth time) that intense, detailed free motion quilting takes far more time than I ever book for it, but it is worth it. Companion Oysters is coming alive with the attention to detail that the quilting is giving it.

a) Finish quilting Companion Oysters. - Started.

Detail from the front side of Companion Oysters
The more intense quilting surrounding the seaweed
helps create a sense of depth when seen in person.
I opted to quilt a horizontal pattern to enhance the
feeling that the shells are on a beach.

b) Square up the quilt in preparation of facing it. - Not possible.

Another detail from further away of Companion Oysters.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments

Express Your Love II covered with a plastic orientation
sheet that helps with positioning where various pieces that
will eventually be appliquéd to the background will go.

It can be tempting when I am running behind on my exhibition pieces to skip the assignments that Leah doles out weekly. So, why don't I? The answer is simple. I find that her assignments sharpen my skills and give me new techniques to add to my tool box. I can honestly say that it is making my way through these assignments that has given me the confidence to make quilting as much a part of the design as the image when creating my work.


Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. 

There were two assignments this week. The first was a new foundation style based on triangles and rods. I used it for the tress on the left in Express Your Love II.  I am really curious to see how Leah will recommend that we attached the seven pieced tresses to the quilt.

Detail from Express Your Love II. This week the "tress"
on the left was added. Note how triangles alternate with
rods versus the tress on the right which is primarily
skinny "wobbly" slivers.

The second assignment was a new free motion quilting motif Leah dubbed, Missing Pieces. This didn't grab me when I saw the demonstration video. However, I found it both very easy to stitch and I rather liked the pattern as part of the sampler of free motion quilting patterns I have been testing out recently. I even found it was not that difficult to fit around other motifs.

Practice sample of Missing Pieces.

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon." - Some day.

I suspect I won't finish quilting Companion Oysters next week. However I am willing to give it another shot. 



1) Companion Oysters 

a) Finish quilting Companion Oysters.

b) Square up the quilt in preparation of facing it.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. 

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon."


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

Week in Review 2013 - 08/16

 Tips, Techniques and Thoughts:

Detail of this week's quilting of Companion Oysters.

This week my mind is turning to my sewing machines. My very first machine was a Viking with cams. It was an unsolicited gift from my mother-in-law. She was an avid seamstress, adept at making her own clothes and stunning clothes for all the Barbies owned by her granddaughters. She also made my wedding dress. I rarely took the Viking out of its case for the first 10 years I owned it. I made a few clothes for myself and my daughter. Then in 1988 I started quilting. That Viking was heavy a machine, a real pain to bring to classes. I looked longingly at other people's feather weights, but also at their Bernina's. The more quilts I made the more I knew I needed a sewing machine with its own cabinet. I test drove a Bernina 1260 and it just followed me home. It worked really well for piecing and just as well for free motion quilting, so long as the quilt never exceeded crib size. I know Leah Day and others assure us that even king size quilts can be free motion quilted on a home sewing machine. I just knew that it would be so much easier on an industrial machine with a large throat. The more I read about the George, the more I sensed it was what I was looking for. So, when we moved to Wisconsin and that move included in a new, large studio with room for a George, I bought the George. My George has yet to feel like an extension of my body the way the Bernina does. It tends to be a tad fussier. However, when I manage to wind the bobbin not quite to capacity, lock it into place and all key parts are lint free and well lubricated - what a workhorse that  machine is. Companion Oysters, at 42" square is being quilted on the George. I could do it on the Bernina, but I can see so much more of the quilt as I am quilting and no scrunching is necessary no matter how I turn the quilt.

You can judge for yourself how the quilting is coming, since I spent 100% of this week free motion quilting.

The backside of Companion Oysters.
Click on the image to enlarge it.

1) Companion Oysters (due August 27, 2013)

I spent some time studying how different sections of an
open oyster shell have different textures. Then, with
a heavy dose of artistic license I interpreted the textures
with my free motion quilting.

Start the free motion quilting on Companion Oysters. - Done!

I am particularly pleased with texture achieved
on the outer deep plum rim. 

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments:

Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. - Done!

Free motion quilting feathers does not come naturally to me. It looks so simple when I watch others swoop and return around the curves, yet I get lost. So, I was grateful Leah assigned us a feather to work on this week. I added it beside the smiling faces from last week. I wanted the added challenge of coping with other motifs to work around.

Feather with pebble stem.

3) Pictorial Painting - Face Canyon - Continues to be wishful thinking.

My plans for next week are:


1) Companion Oysters (Deadline 9/01/2013)

a) Finish quilting Companion Oysters.

b) Square up the quilt in preparation of facing it.

2) Leah Day's weekly assignments


Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next. 

3) Pictorial Painting - Face "Canyon."


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