Week in Review 2013 - 05/24

I have been infatuated with quilting “Adoration” this week. I set myself the Herculean task of quilting quite a complex pattern in the background section. I made a few mistakes that I picked out and one near an edge that I opted to leave in. I doubt even I will be able to find it. How did this infatuation effect my week? Not a single item on my to do list got checked off, BUT if I can maintain my pace for a few more days I should finish quilting, squaring up and facing “Adoration” in time to make the June 1, 2013 deadline. This week’s plan remains my plan for the week ending May 31, 2013, so I will only state it once.

1) Adoration (Shooting for a deadline of June 1, 2013)

a) Finish quilting “Adoration.”

Full view image of "Adoration" with the balance of the
Grandmother's hair and navy blue background left to quilt.
The dangling threads will be buried in the quilt.
Click on the image to see an enlarged version.

 Areas quilted this week were the medium blue background, the grandmother’s face and neck and half of her hair.

b) Bury dangling quilting threads

c) Square up the piece in preparation for facing.

d) Face

2) Express Your Love

a) Finish last week's assignment from Leah Day.

b) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

True, the hair is part of "Adoration" but the quilting motif
is my interpretation of Leah's Connecting Ocean Currents.

I actually did try Leah’s latest lesson on a free motion quilting pattern she named Connecting Ocean Current. I used it for the tendrils in the grandmother’s hair.

3) Signature experimentation

a) Design a new signature motif.

4) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the lesson that demos how to quilt the Canyon piece.

b) Quilt "Canyon."

5) Plan the next art piece.

Tips, Techniques and Thoughts:

A question I am asked frequently is “where do your ideas come from?” The simple answer is from my way of being. Where did that way of being come from? I expect a part of it came from a combination of nature (I am adopted) and nurture. However, the root of tapping into this being happened when I joined an on-line study group that tackled “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. It is from this book that I learned about synchronicity. Call it what you will, the more observant you become the more aware you are of connections and signs everywhere. That is what happened when I was debating how to quilt the grandmother’s hair in “Adoration.” I had several ideas, but it wasn’t until I checked into Leah’s latest assignment that I found my answer just when I needed it. I am so convinced of the power of living “The Artist’s Way” that I use it as my text for mentoring private students. 

Week in Review 2013 - 03/01

I am fortunate to belong to SAQA and through SAQA have the opportunity to participate in the Visioning Project. Each fiscal year, running from October 1 - September 30 VP participants set a personal goal for the year. It seems ever since I started quilting in 1988 I have wanted more time to quilt. Then it hit me, why not make more time my VP project for 2013? I started practicing in September not answering the phone during studio time. I also notified family members that I would not be answering the phone during studio time, but would listen to messages during my breaks just in case there was an emergency. What a difference that simple change has made! You only have to look at what I accomplish each week to see what I can do by not answering the phone when working and committing to three studio days each week when I am at home.

The proof is in how the week ending March 1, 2013 went:

1) Shore's Edge (Absolute deadline March 21, 2013) - Made it with three weeks to spare!!

a) Attach the sleeves. - Done!

b) Make and attach the label. - Done!

c) Submit Call for Entry to Vivien at Fiber Revolution. - Done!

d) Add Shore's Edge to my website. - Done!

2) Pictorial Painting

a) Create a palette of colors to be used when painting the geese. - Done!

3) Express Your Love

a) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

An experiment with trapunto. The iris in a vase design is Hari Walner's.
I stole the rays from Express Your Love. I am thinking of
adding a single iris in alternate rays, then stippling around it.

Leah took a break from Express Your Love to work on a personal goddess quilt of hers. She wrote about how she is adding trapunto to the piece as well as how and why she opted to dye the over 60" square piece midway through the quilting process.

A closer look at the trapunto practice piece. It began as a
white whole cloth quilt. I immersion dyed it with minimal
stirring, hence the mottled look. 

I have been deliberating about adding trapunto to Reflection as a way to give the geese more of a 3D appearance. I used Leah's break from Express Your Love to do what she did, some trapunto followed by dying a whole cloth quilt, just on a smaller scale. The piece, with a working title of Iris Still Life is going to be approximately 16" square, unless I am inspired to continue with it by adding quilt as you go borders or blocks.

4) Reflection (Absolute deadline April 23, 2013)

a) Finish reverse appliquéing the geese to the background. - Done!

b) Paint the geese. - Done!

I painted the geese and then painted the lightest and darkest sections again in order to achieve a more natural contrast.

Reflection after the gees have been painted.

The red branches's location has been penciled in.

c) Determine how best to create the red branches and their foliage. - Done!

I have decided to create the red branches with skinny tubes of bias fabric. This method is frequently used when making Baltimore Album quilts to weave baskets or add vines and stems. I am going to embroider the foliage, probably in french knots done in clusters.

Now, what trouble can I get myself into before March 8, 2013?


1) Pictorial Painting

a) Watch the next lesson.

b) Begin the next lesson.

2) Express Your Love

a) Do whatever assignment Leah comes up with next.

b) Finish quilting Iris Still Life.

3) Reflection (Absolute deadline April 23, 2013)

a) Add the first layer of batting needed to trapunto the geese and trim it.

b) Add the second layer of batting and backing, in other words make the quilt sandwich.

c) Start quilting the ice and water surrounding the geese.

Tips, Techniques and Thoughts...

Last week Quilting Jenny made the following comment on my post:

"I would like to start laying out my project steps in this way and hope to get more accomplished. You seem to have a very good grip on your process and what is required at every stage."

The one word response to this comment is PRACTICE. I have been a quilter since 1988 and an artist with fabric as my medium since 2000. I have no idea how many quilts I have made, but since I make approximately six quilts each year I have made close to 150 quilts.

One thing I have doing since defining myself as an artist is beginning my day with morning pages or journaling. I do this 365 days a year, on weekends, while vacationing and even when I am sick. Morning pages are uncensored stream of conscientious writing done in long hand, not on the computer. I have found many benefits from this practice. One of the first things I noticed is that I got the whining out in private. I gripped about the weather, my health, my relationships with others, whatever had my hackles up. Getting it out there allows me to let it go. As time went on, I discovered that problems I was working on, such as how to make the red branches in Reflection, were often solved while I wrote. Sometimes I even doodle. That is how I created the free motion quilting pattern I will use on the ice in Reflection.

If you are interested in learning more about morning pages or making the transition from quilter to artist, I can't recommend "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron highly enough. I use it as one of the textbooks for my one on one mentoring class titled "How to Make An Art Quilt."