Week in Review 2017 - 07/21

Tips, Thoughts, and Techniques:

Picking Up the Pieces #4
AFTER I started quilting the border.
Here the border draws the eye in and
allows the pieced portion to appear to float.

It's true, on an organizational spectrum with 0 representing total chaos and 10 standing for nothing ever being out of place, I probably fall between 8 and 9. When my children were teenagers they would have told you I was a 10. Not true. There are always a few things, sometimes more than a few things, strewn across my desk or tools, thread, and fabric scattered through out my studio. The reason items have yet to be returned to their proper location may be because I need them for a current project. However, they are just as likely to be left out, because I haven't found a good place for something new, or more likely I got distracted/excited by something else and then never returned to pick up after myself. 

Why is organization good, but rigidity is to be avoided? In my opinion organization, like working in a series, allows one to notice the nuances, and delightful serendipity that occurs naturally and capitalize on them. It is the unpredictable surprises which keep me hooked on making art. Mickey Lawler, in her interview with Clara Nartey said it so well. Mickey shared, "On my very best days of painting, I only have about 80% control over what happens.  And that’s really a lot. But it’s the 20% I live for."

Picking Up the Pieces #4
BEFORE I started quilting the border.
Here the border pulls the eye out.

My work in the studio, quilting the border for Picking Up the Pieces #4, felt very methodical, most of the time. However, since I control the quilting as I manually maneuver the quilt under the needle, achieving round circles with my pebbles or exact echoes, well they are close, but not nearly as close as using a machine which is preprogrammed. Until I had completed most of three borders, I hadn't realized, just how big an impact the thread and design I chose would radically change the appearance of the piece. Love that 20%!

This week was a continuation of the past few weeks - one primary focus as follows:

1) Work on Picking Up the Pieces #4 - Done!

2) Finish Picking Up the Pieces #1 and #3 - Not yet

3) Pot(s) made this week - Done!

Detail from Picking Up the Pieces #4
Each pebble is approximately 3/16"

I really, really struggle making round pebbles as a filler motif when free motion quilting. This week I must have quilted 100's if not 1,000s of pebbles. There were some which looked perfectly round. Most don't. I am getting more comfortable in switching from clockwise to counter-clockwise and back, as needed. That's progress.

4) Free motion quilting practice - Done!

I plan to do more free motion quilting next week. I also want to finish up the hand sewing required complete quilts 99% done in my Picking Up the Pieces series. I'm eager to move on to the next idea currently in percolating mode. That will have to wait at least one more week, if I stay true to the following plan:

1) Work on Picking Up the Pieces #4

2) Finish Picking Up the Pieces #1 and #3

3) Pot(s) made this week

4) Free motion quilting practice

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 2017 - 02/24

Every year the flock of turkeys seems
to grow exponentially

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

I looked up from my working in my studio to see the turkeys grazing. What you can't see in this picture are the two standing right up outside the window, peering in at me. By the time I had switched my iPod from listening to camera mode and made my way to the window they had started meandering down the lawn. 

Am I meandering? It sure feels like it. It seems I have spent February pursuing one idea, then abandoning that in favor of another, only to be moving on to a third concept. A positive from my inability to settle on a design is I continue to build up my technique skills. I may have swapped butterflies for bees and a treasure chest for a bee hive, but at least I have an idea of the appliqué method I will use to create the bees, based on playing with techniques to create butterflies. I may long for a direct journey from point A, idea of what to make next, to point B, the finished artwork, but the reality is the shortest route is rarely the one taken when making art.

Testing out the layout for the honeycomb
background for Picking Up the Pieces #3

I did manage some studio time, enough time to accomplish the following:

1) Work on the design for Picking Up the Pieces #2 and/or #3 - Done

I have let go, at least for now, my earlier ideas, when it occurred to me the message I want to convey with my piece needed to be less gentle and innocuous, and more lethal. Once I had settled on the bee with its stinger, I knew I had to make a honeycomb background. 

2) Finish Picking Up the Pieces #1 - Not yet

Isn't this glorious? I continued to work
on the sample I started last week. I love
the Arts and Crafts, William Morris feel of it.

3) Pot(s) made this week - Done

I was so, so tempted not to create a honeycomb background because piecing hexagons is not easy. In the past I have used the English Paper Piecing method. I actually enjoy this, but it takes time, since it is all done by hand. Before I committed to this project I wanted to see if I could piece hexagons by machine. The issue is all those inset seams. I did find several tutorials on line, basically sharing the same method. I tested this method out on a sample. Hopefully, it will get easier with the larger pieces and practice.

4) Free motion quilting practice - Done

One thing I want to improve with my free motion quilting is my ability to vary the scale of my pebbles, those background circles you see surrounding the flowers, leaves and swirls. This sampler is giving me plenty of practice.

I will practice more pebbles next week, in between cutting out additional hexagons and then starting the process of piecing them together. Also on my radar are the following:

1) Work on the design for Picking Up the Pieces #2 and/or #3

2) Finish Picking Up the Pieces #1

3) Pot(s) made this week

4) Free motion quilting practice

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.