Week in Review 2014 - 06/20

Detail of the cattails from Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall.
Note the blue marker pen provided general guidelines of
where I intended to use different color threads. It will
disappear when I wash and block the quilt. Most computer
systems will allow you to see an enlarged image by right
clicking on the picture.

Tips, Thoughts and Techniques:

Little Lake Butte
des Morts in Fall

I am fortunate that I rarely suffer from artist's block, that bane of artists when they are devoid of inspiration and creativity. There always seems to be some new project I am eager to tackle or technique that I would like to have a go at. Where I get temporarily hung up is how to choose the best free motion quilting motif for each section of a quilt. When I am stuck, as I often am with how to quilt a sky I will look back at what I have done in the past. If that doesn't suggest anything I will turn to the computer and do some research. In this case I googled the phrase "how to quilt a sky" and came up with a fabulous example by Laura Wasilowski. Here is where all that practice of various Leah Day quilting motifs comes in. I can look at Laura's motif, work out the basic elements, test it with pen and paper and then go right to the machine and quilt my own version. When I got stuck on how to quilt the marsh/cattail section of my commission quilt I went to my computer again. This time I used google images and hunted for cattails in the fall. I used one of the images that turned up to get a sense of what color threads to use, how to capture the wind and how to block out the color.

Some weeks I focus in and work on one piece almost to the exclusion of everything else. Not so, this week. I found myself jumping from one project to another. Here is an accounting of the projects that I did or did not work on:

1) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) 

a) Finish the quilting - Done!
b) Create two tree appliqués - Not yet

2) Wild Apple 12" x 12" Opportunity - (Due August 15)

a) Create several more small works for the exhibition - Done!

Cascade

3) Leah Day  and other free motion quilting projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson or find another FMQ motif to try.

Pretty Posies

I selected Lori Kennedy's Pretty Posies quilting motif to practice this week. This does require a few guideline markings to achieve the triangular spacing and the ratio of posy to stem. Since there is a natural break in thread between quilting the posies and the filler I couldn't resist changing thread colors. When my husband first saw the design on Lori's site he was happy to see that I would be quilting ice cream cones. It wouldn't take much tweaking to change those leaves to diagonal gridlines and get a waffle cone image. :)

4) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments. - Done!

Art is Alluring

It was a wild, Effy Wild that is, ride on LifeBook 2014 this week. The point that Effy hammered home is that even if you have only 15 minutes a day to create art you can produce something fabulous each week. Personally, I find it more difficult to do art daily in short bursts than to earmark specific days each week devoted to art. However, when I was a stay at home mother whose schedule was dictated by her children's schedule, I learned to work between carpools and how to bring portable work to sporting events. The best tip I received from Effy's class was to use unexpected colors from my palette to create the shadows and highlights on the face. 


Where will my focus be next week? Who knows. However, to avoid artist's block I have a plan and here it is:


1) Little Lake Butte des Morts in Fall (Due August 3) 

a) Create and attach two tree appliqués
b) Start adding the details such as the cattails, branches and leaves. 

2) Wild Apple 12" x 12" Opportunity - (Due August 15)

a) Mat and frame the work.

3) Leah Day  and other free motion quilting projects.

a) Baste the face, torso and arms to Express Your Love II. - On hold until the quilts with deadlines are completed.

b) Do Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting lesson or find another FMQ motif to try.

4) LifeBook 2014 - Do the assignments.


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.