Saga of a Quilt: Complete with Pictures

Since I try to keep my promises, here is the saga of my quilt "The Abduction from the Seraglio, or Oops, I dropped my Slipper."  By the way, if you went to the show, you may notice that the last half of the title was omitted from the description card.  This use of a primary title (frequently a bit pompous sounding) with an "or" followed by a seemingly unrelated, secondary title (frequently a bit silly or mundane) is a literary device meant to clue in the reader to look for a hidden meaning, a hidden joke, a poke in the eye to those who take themselves too seriously, etc.  Basically, the writer (or in this case, the quilter) is winking an eye at the reader, viewing public, the what have you and letting them in on the joke.  So possibly viewers at the quilt show had no idea that they were supposed to laugh.

Ah well . . . .

Here is my original Artist's Statement (which I was asked to shorten considerably) interrupted by photographs and irreverent comments:

Inspired by the first fabric in the Girlfriend Fabric Challenge, the one with the Persian-looking slippers and Mozart’s opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, 

This is the original sketch in red ink on computer paper, drawn right after the fabric was given to us, and finally photographed (since I'm so good at losing things) on October 4, 2012.  My write up omits the fact that each member of the friendship group had to add one fabric (that would add four additional fabrics) that would have to be used in recognizable pieces anywhere on the front of the quilt.  At the time I sketched my "plan", we had only the slipper fabric and the orange fabric.  My donation, the blue fabric, came next, eventually followed by the fuchsia print, and finally the gold.  

Back to the description:

 I knew I had to create a Story Quilt that tells my version of the opera’s story through the main characters: Constanze’s rescue from her captivity in the Seraglio (harem) by her sweetheart Belmonte.  However, in my version of the story, that rescue may go wrong when the loss of favorite shoes makes Constanze turn back . . . 

That was as far as I got initially.  The rest of the story line evolved over time.

 . . . leaving her would be rescuer, Belmonte, hanging over the garden wall.  Making those characters as “bendy” dolls adds to the whimsy.

Trust me, making pipe-cleaner dolls occurred to me very early on, but I really didn't pay attention to that small, insistent voice in my head.  When I really accepted the fact that this quilt would be merely a bit of fun without a serious bone in its body, I realized they would be perfect.

The setting for my version of the story is a bird’s-eye view of the enclosed garden of the Harem - from the center surrounded by gardens, 

Below is the inner garden of which three sections are ribbon embroidery and  the other three are Kaffe Fassett fabric embellished with Swarvoski crystals. In my story, the ribbon gardens are the Constanze's idea. Their purpose was to alleviate the boredom of the women of the harem languishing in their rooms behind the three colored doorways (fuchsia, orange, and blue). The challenge was to design and grow the prettiest garden representing their "color" and the winning group would be given additional time outside in the cool of the evenings.  Each section features the color of that particular group and is nearest their doorway.

  

walkway, more gardens, 

Now you see the walkway where two of Constanze's "slippers" have fallen out of her makeshift bag.  If you look very carefully, you'll see the third in the "grass" above the walkway.

and benches and doorways in the outer walls.  Behind the walls against the night sky are palm trees, mosques, and minarets.  Finally, the border fabric of elegant slippers which began this story.

Now you can see not only the majority of the quilt but also see the wonderful quilting done by Sue Schoch. For the first time, I drew out what I wanted the quilting to be, but it's one thing to draw it and another to have a quilter who understands, is able to, and will do what is asked.  With her help this quilt earned a blue ribbon (first place) based on the average of the points awarded by two judges, and the pink ribbon is a Judge's Award for her favorite quilt.  And both were really a surprise though the latter knocked my socks off.  I had heard so much about "art quilts" being so outside the norm of the quilting world that they didn't fare well in judging - and mine is a story! - what would they think of that?  Wasn't I lucky to have two judges who must have sense of fun themselves!  

I should also tell you that in my version of the story, Belmonte is fed up with the rescue business and has decided to pursue a career as a model for the cover of romance novels.  And Constanze doesn't want to go back to being the dutiful royal personage she is expected to be.  Instead she hopes to convince her father to underwrite the cost of the chain of shoe boutiques she wants to open that will specialize in peep-toe shoes .

From initial idea to final completed quilt took a long time (2012 – 2014) because each woman in my friendship group had to contribute her choice of fabric, but mostly because I had to figure out how to make a hexagon – the shape I had decided the quilt had to be.  Thanks to computers and a yardstick compass, I was finally able to draft the size I wanted, but I held my breath until I sewed all the sections together and found I had indeed created a hexagon!  However, at that time I also discovered that fussy cutting the Persian slipper fabric left me without enough fabric for the outer border.  Once again I had to call upon my limited math skills to figure out the “wedges” needed to complete that border.

My journey through the construction of this quilt was one of imagination, trial, error, learning, and stretching!

On to my next idea . . . but not right away.  There is painting to be done, holidays to sew for, and a studio to set to rights!

Down to the Wire But Finished!

The quilt was officially declared (by me) finished some time between 4 and 4:30 this afternoon.  That included the fussy work on labels and label covers, more crystals (panicking when an entire package of 90 crystals wouldn't adhere and fell off the quilt scattering all over the floor), checking for stray threads, inserting the middle stabilizing wooden rod, and panicking just because.

There are now over 200 crystals (best estimate is 225), ribbon- and machine-embroidery, raw edge hand- and machine-applique, charms, dolls, and beads, on the quilt - probably a few other minor details I don't remember right now.  

I am nervous about how it will stand up to the wear and tear of being folded and carried around by me, and also of being folded, carried around, and hung by others.

But, it is what it is; I am proud of the way it turned out and the work I did.  Sunday I should find out how it was received by the judges and learn from their evaluation (and also wonder what story they heard when they looked at it).  Then I will bring it home, take photos (no, I haven't forgotten, E!), hang it up, and get ready to work on Christmas gifts while the next story quilts simmer in my mind.

Have an exciting weekend; I hope your weather and projects are as you wish them to be!

Count Down to the Show

Affixing approximately 150 crystals to the quilt took more time than I anticipated so tomorrow I will have to get the labels on - in a hurry!  

Tomorrow evening there will be guild meeting after which D and I will help with the retrieving and then the set up of the frames on which the quilts will hang.  At some time before or during that procedure the quilts are turned in, placed in plastic bags for safety and cleanliness during the wait to be hung on the frames.

Between getting up in the morning and going to the meeting and helping with set up, I must finish all that I would like to do to the quilt.  Label first and then - more crystals as crystals impart fantasy (okay, and sparkle plenty which I do like!).

Photos on Monday.

Almost There

The end is in sight!  Tomorrow I attach the second doll to the quilt, sew the label to the back, then, strange as it seems, cover the label with a another bit of fabric so the label can't be seen (insures objectivity during the judging process), apply the swarovski crystals, and after a final check, that's it!

The only thing I have to do on the second quilt is the covering of the label bit.  Oh, and both quilts have to have their registration number on that label cover.   Those numbers are assigned when one formally registers a quilt with description and photo in order to get into a non-juried show.  The number is matches the one a card that I have to show when I pick up the quilt both to make sure the correct quilt is being given to the owner and to make sure it is really the owner who is claiming the quilt.  There's a lot that goes into a quilt show that I hadn't known and hadn't really thought much about before now.

Below is another of Nancy DiDonato's quilts.  Imagine figuring out how to support the weight of the center, heavily embellished medallion in the border frame without having that border bow and sag!  Nancy has a lot of engineer brain cells beside her creative cells running around in her brain.  Whenever I get into a "pity me" phase in quilting, I'll stop and think of her.

Stitching, Stitching, Stitching

If only I could stitch faster!  Today I managed to attach two ribbon embroidery "garden" triangles on the quilt which seems to take more of my time than I expected every day.  Naturally there are three triangles to attach (so only one to go), several charms, bendy dolls, Swarovski crystals, and oh, yes, a label.

Because this is for a show, I haven't shown any photos of the quilt in progress.  Things always look better when they are completely finished - or at least, this one will make more sense.  There will be photos of the finished wall hanging next Monday; that I promise.

Until then, here is the set up for the last triangle before it was embroidered.  What you are seeing is the design drawn on tissue paper behind white tulle bordered in fabric.  The latter borders were added to the tulle to keep the ravels to a minimum and also to make the piece large enough to fit in a 4.5" hoop (which gives you an idea of the size of the triangle).

Each triangle has a different design, and I embroidered through the tissue paper and tulle, removing the tissue paper (or as much as possible) when I completed the embroidery.  Needless to say, the designs were altered while I stitched  to accommodate time, practicality, fabric, and over-all appearance.

Wish me nimble fingers!

Classes with Nancy DiDonato

Friday, Nancy DiDonato began her day and a half teaching at the Q.U.I.L.T. Delmar Guild.  In case you are not familiar with her work, she is definitely an art quilter, and one from whom I was most anxious to learn.

The fist day she spent most of the time talking to us about alternate "materials" - those quotation marks are because she didn't mean fabric.  She meant paper, wire, paint sticks, and industrial cast offs.  Okay, I'll add a visual to make it easier to understand:

This is the center medallion in one of her pieces.  I missed what she said about the center curly-queue because I was falling all over about the wire work.  She just takes any kind of wire that is easily bendable, twists it however she wants, and couches it to her work.  It's dead simple, and I love it!  Of course, I immediately twisted my piece of wire into non-repetitive shapes and declared them the antler's on a magical deer and as he bounded across the landscape, the wind and snow swirl from his antlers to hide his hoof prints . . . well, there's a story there.  

Nancy was very kind and refrained from patting me on the head.

She had us make origami boxes of the kind she made, took foam blocks, covered them with silk ties from the 60's, embellished them, mounted them on gold circles, and:

Voila!  These are a few of the boxes among several more in this quilt.  

Weaving fabric was another technique she shared.  That may seem very simple (and it is easy to do), but what I never thought about was the difference between weaving fabric strips that have been cut with a rotary cutter and those that have been torn.  She had examples of the two methods using the same fabrics and the difference between the two was remarkable and easy to see.

She shared many other things like the uses for tulle, odd things like discarded corrugated vent ducts, Tyvek house insulation - and all those other things I watched our builders throw away without another thought!

Finally the next day she showed us how to design "wonky" log cabin blocks.

This is a gorgeous purse she made with beads, stones, and silk.  The body of the purse is done in a wonky log cabin - the central square is a metallic, sparkly copper color.  I wanted to know how to make those:

This is how it is done.  The upper left is an example of a square (like the two on the evening bag), then I practiced drafting an equilateral triangle, followed by notes on how to draw an octogon, and finally a scalene triangle.  

The best part of that class was that she taught us how to draft such figures for ourselves.

I was and am in Heaven!

Art Quilter

My brain's in a whirl because I spent from 9:30 - 3:30 today in class with Nancy DiDinato, a most amazing art quilter.  This was a class to which we were instructed not to bring our sewing machines.  Instead we had pencils, rulers, graph paper, paper scissors.  We learned how to incorporate things like Tyvek (yea, the stuff that wraps houses to insulate them), glimmery fabrics from places like Jo Ann's, flannel instead of batting, gray thread instead of black thread in stained glass window quilts, the thread to use for the "lead" in those windows (four layers of thread!), wires, notions, yarns, and well, you name it!  

We folded paper origami style to make boxes that could be covered with fabric, filled with insulation, covered, and embellished, folded kimonos from fabric, learned how to weave fabric strips, and even shown the difference between weaving rotary cut fabric strips and torn fabric strips.  The difference was significant, and one could immediately see the different ways to employ each method.  

The uses of silk flowers, tulle, men's ties, pipe cleaners, and . . . well, the list goes on and on.  She is full of ideas and each idea gives rise to another; her brain never stops.

Tomorrow there will be another class in the afternoon after the quilt guild meeting, and I can't wait to see what she'll show us then!

This Lucy Found Her Locket!

While rooting through some drawers looking for something to take to a quilt class tomorrow, I came across a badly damaged locket that I've had for about 40 years.  I had forgotten about it, but when I saw it again, I took it out for a possible item for the class since it can't be fixed.

Naturally, I opened it to see if my memory was correct that it was in two piece just held together by stubbornness and so could be used with no guilt.  I was right; there is no salvaging the piece as jewelry.  But I also opened it to find out whose picture was inside (almost all the old lockets I have have picture in them) since I couldn't remember that.  Here's what I found:

I thought I'd find an old photo of my mother, but I didn't.  The picture on the right is my father as a young man which was quite unexpected.  The lady on the left is not my mother and not my mother's mother.  I'm not sure if it could be my great-grandmother, but I will compare it to a photo I have of her as an older lady.

The other idea that occurred to me is that it might have come from my father's side - possibly from his mother.  That could make the woman my father's grandmother.  However, I think the hair style pre-dates my great-grandmothers, but of course, I could be wrong.  It's a mystery.

And that poor locket. It must have been quite a treasure to whomever originally owned it as it would have been very lovely and precious.  I think I may have to put it on the crazy quilt I'm working on to honor the women of my family. 

Oh, and I most certainly sent the photo to my brother D who donned the mantle of family genealogist and does it so well.  He doesn't know who the woman is, but my money's on him.  He'll find her.

Bendy Dolls are Dressed!

Finally both bendy dolls are clothed satisfactorily!  Of course, both need to visit the hairdresser (moi) and a millinery shop (acorn caps/berets are all the rage in the bendy family - which is a good thing given the millions of acorns we have).  I'd like to give the male a doo-rag, but I have to be logical about both the amount of time I have and the amount of experience in crafting such headgear for a 16 mm wooden bead masquerading as a head.

Today was also a day in the studio where I enjoyed a glass of Blumond Diamante Prosecco thanks to a painter in the group. That was an amazing treat!  It makes me think about a brunch for D, brother D, and E on a lovely day at the lake!  Ahh . . . 

Oh, I was going to talk about the painting.  It's coming along quite well I think for something at this stage.  I'm going to wait to show it again until there is more to show.  Not only is it slow going as I mentioned last week, but also class is the only time right now that I can work on it.  We don't always have a full two hours for painting and next week we're going to work on developing out art critique skills.

It can't be fun looking at a painting and saying to oneself, "Okay, which three brush strokes did she add today?"

YA Book Group

It's the first YA Book Group meeting so I know fall is really here.  It's always fun to see the teachers/librarians et al who turn up year after year after year - and fun to meet those who have come for a few years or for whom this is their first time.  There are three of us who have have been taking this course since it started 15 - 20 years ago and one of us is the teacher!

The books for next month fall into the "new" category of "Books Possible for Whole Group/Common Core Use".  Now doesn't that make you glad you aren't a teacher?  Or maybe you are a teacher and wish you were in this class!  At any rate, there are some books that sound really intriguing for grades 3 to high school - all 20 of them.

I have requested 13 of them and may tell you about some of them.  For those of you with grandchildren, you might find some of these interesting, too, and some of you may simply find them interesting enough to read yourself.  There's even one on bullying - today's "hot" topic, and if I remember correctly, the target is a girl (boys are not the only ones bullied or who do the bullying).  It isn't one I chose to read but I may try to squeeze it in: Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina.  There was a conversation about the title and how parents might react to it if the book was recommended for class discussion.  Too bad that could be an issue.

Saga of the Bendy Dolls

It's Sunday, and I forgot!  I spent almost all of the day working on the bendy dolls for my quilt (wrapping the pipe cleaners with embroidery thread is a bit trickier than one might think) and the evening on the clothing - or on one article of clothing.  

For the first shirt I made (for the male figure), I used fabric I had used in the quilt.  As a matter of fact it was the challenge material from ME - just realized that.  The first try didn't work because it was too light weight, and I didn't want his arms to show through because they look like - well, like pipe cleaner arms!  The second try used two layer of fabric but that was getting too complicated so I scrapped that notion.  Next I tried wool, and that really works well.  I spent the evening fancy stitching the jacket and just before I came upstairs I put it on the doll.  Mistake.  Not the putting it on because that had to be done.  No, the mistake was in not doing it earlier.  I wasted all that time working on a jacket that is way too large.  Wool doesn't drape like light-weight fabric; it stands on its own.  The poor doll was engulfed by his jacket!

Disappointing.

Ah well, tomorrow is another day, and at least the boy doll needs only the jacket from which I have learned enough, I think, to make the girl's clothing much easier to design.

I hope!

Halloween

Tonight was a quilt guild meeting so I feel a bit tired and ready to go to bed and read.  That being the case, I will simply finish up with the fall/Halloween decorations and say good night.

I hope you'll be able to see this as it has my favorite Halloween character - Jack O'Lantern!  Here is is with his walking stick and his friend the button witch (riding the white chalk ware cat).

The glass collection has stayed the same since last Christmas; it merely gets washed and is given the appropriately colored candle (lit only if they are in their own holder) for the season.  This pumpkin is another former classroom decoration.

This witch is doing her darndest to get out of the pan on the scale.  You can't blame her, after all.  At her age and girth she's not happy to have been plunked on a scale!

The other classroom pumpkin head with my bas relief sculpture.  Always thought the tree in the sculpture looks a bit scary and Halloween-ish.

And now off to bed where I'm going to try to finish the second Flavia de Luce book by Alan Bradley.  If you haven't read them yet (the first one is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie), I recommend them - good mysteries, great characters, and humor.  What's not to like?

More Fall/Halloween Decorations

Today wound up being laundry day as neither Monday nor Tuesday were feasible.  Since D was out on business the entire day, I knew I could get it all finished as well as some extras that the construction and new bathrooms made necessary.  That and still more putting away, looking for missing items, and tidying in general kept me busy all day.  Well, to be honest I did spend time on the computer since D wasn't needing it for business.

Then I changed the calendar pages in the kitchen and my studio.  Uh-oh, it's October, and the quilt show is October 18 & 19th!  That means that I have a little more than two weeks to finish the second quilt.  I'm going to have to set aside other activities until that is done.

It's a good thing I took care of the fall decorations before now as I'm not going to have that kind of spare time for a while.

This is a simple fall look for the top of the wooden pantry in the kitchen.  The only addition is the bouquet; everything else has been there since the kitchen work was completed.

Here is the kitchen table at dusk with the hand- and machine-pieced table runner I designed several years ago.  I finally found some gimp for the embroidery I have planned for the borders, but that won't be done for - well, for a while!  Closer to the window is the Halloween tree my father-in-law gave me a long time ago for my classroom.  It comes out every year, and it reminds me of him and gives me great pleasure.

Also in the kitchen on the pass through between kitchen and family room is the goblin town that D gave me.  It was in the entry of October 31, 2013 with the Halloween tree so I didn't take another photo today.

Tomorrow I will probably finish with the displays in the family room.  Until then, have a happy and healthy Thursday tomorrow!

New Orleans Musicians Update

The last entry on this painting was on September 16th as the painting has progressed slowly.  And the reasons for that?  I've worked on a couple of others at the same time, I've been working on the quilt for October's show (and I'd better get back to that soon!), I've not felt well for a little over a week (that's over, thank goodness), and finally, this one just takes longer as there is so much detail work.

If you look back to the 9/16 entry, you may feel this isn't worth seeing again, and you may be right since it is so similar to the last entry on this subject.  But what is happening now took time in the thinking stage and then additional time in the painting.  For me, it's beginning to come together.  While I may still need to tone down the building behind the musicians, they, as a group, are beginning to hold their own.  

There will certainly be a lot of fiddley corrections and alterations once all the figures (including the dog) are in place, but I think it's heading in the right direction.

Some Fall Decorations

Last week I wrote about getting out some fall decorations and hanging "Jack's Wild Ride".  E was kind enough to request some photographs - a request that slipped my mind until dusk today.  

There's only one picture because it was so late and because some things like the shelf in the family room are difficult to photograph at that time of day.  As I think of it, I will take more pictures and share them with you along with other things as the month goes on.

So here is the little shelf in the living room that has my collection of miniature German carvings with a few other odds and ends.  

Some of the "odds" (of the odds and ends mentioned above) are the Halloween critters.  I have no idea what purpose they originally served (unless they were pencil toppers) or where and when I picked them up, but in earlier years I scattered them among my plants - where they immediately became lost in the foliage.  When I unpacked the box with the Fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving items, these little novelties stared up at me waving their arms and wings for attention.  

When we returned from our trip to England, I regretted the fact that I hadn't purchased one of the small porcelain thatched and half-timbered cottages to put on this shelf.  They were in several gift shops in the hotels and airports we passed through, but as you can imagine, they were pricey.  D mentioned that I might be able to find something like them on eBay.  He was right, and I bought all of the above for less than one of the Thomas Kinkaid-looking (I'm not a fan!) ones we saw in England.  The one on the bottom shelf was originally a tea caddy for Twining's Tea.

Those pencil toppers fit nicely on the chimneys, don't they?

Excuses

Tomorrow I will spend more time writing, and I really hope to have some photos.  But tonight I want to spend some time with D and figure out if I can eat something other than white tomorrow.  Maybe I'll even have something worth sharing then.

I'll try.

Work is Completed!

Goodbye to our contractors; today was their official last day, and we have no plans for any other improvements that fall within their areas of expertise.  It's very nice to have our home back to ourselves even though now we're the ones with a lot of work to do.

I started in the family room as we spend so much time in there.  The display shelf that stretches the width of the room and a bit more is now completely cleaned and rearranged for Fall.  That took the entire afternoon as everything that was taken down for the dusting also had to be cleaned/washed/packed away and everything that went up had to be moved around a bit before I was satisfied.  There's a lot more to be done (the family room did not receive a thorough cleaning after the kitchen renovation as we knew more dust-producing work was  still to come), but it makes me feel good to have made a start.  

The living room was also tidied and made ready for fall, and Jack is up over the piano.  It's good to have him back in place!  I have yet to do a complete dust down and vacuum of living room and dining room, but as that was taken care of after the kitchen, it won't be as bad this time around.

Also found time to make fresh corn chowder for this week.  Unfortunately, I have had a mild touch of a stomach virus the last few days so I'm on the "white is nice" diet for a while until the twinges stop.  No chowder for me - yet.

Have a good weekend; the weather is supposed to be fine!

Garden Notes

While I was out, D started removing some of the gazillions of acorns (and I do not exaggerate) from our driveway and yard.

This is the THIRD wheelbarrow full of acorns (and leaves and downed branches in this one, too).  It looks quite neat and lovely out front now - or will until tomorrow when more will be bound to fall.  And do be careful if you have acorn producing oaks around your house.  The acorns are like marbles under your feet - I know because I've made one less than graceful fall already (no damage done though thanks to a well-cushioned posterior)!

And since I'm on the subject of the outdoors, I know ME was concerned about my collection of watering cans ever since we took down the fence out back.

Here they are on their new perch that D finished a week or two ago.  Pressure treated lumber may last longer than those watering cans, but I love the look.  It will be interesting to see how the hydrangeas, hostas, and other plants do next year without the fence and maybe with an ever more difficult winter.

Despite the best of intentions, I didn't keep up with my scheduled photos of the gardens, but when I took the one of the watering cans, I also snapped this one.

Looking overgrown and a bit neglected but still a pretty sight from our back windows.  The zinnias were quite disappointing this year; although tall they were not as full of blooms as last year's zinnias.  As expected the argyanthemums, marigolds, nasturtiums were abundant and you can just see the sedum in the far back on the right starting.  I didn't prune that forsythia at all this year in the hopes that we may have a glory of yellow back there in the spring.

Hope springs (ha!) eternal! 

From Bad to Good

Saturday D left early to go help out at the bonsai show, and I looked forward to being able to do some painting and some sewing.  What made those activities really attractive wasn't that D wouldn't be here; rather, the attraction lay in the fact the workmen wouldn't be here.  As thoughtful and nice as they are, what they do can be painfully noisy, very dusty, and well, intrusive.

Anyway, I started with the painting I had sketched out Friday.  This one was a scene from our trip to Vermont this year but not one of the lake.  I knew that I wanted to paint in a far less detailed style and I wanted the colors to be intense.  The way I wanted the painting to look was very clear in my head.  Ha!  The result was without a doubt the worst work I have ever, ever done.  It was down right uuuughhh-leee.  It was so bad that 1) I won't show you (I'll spare you the agony) and 2) even D couldn't think of one positive thing to say other than, "Well, it's not your best . . ."  Puh-leeze.  A hair ball would have been more attractive.

Then in the afternoon I decided I would continue working on the quilt with the palm trees and the finials.  I had finished the finials on Friday.  They were a breeze to do unlike the trees because I decided not to use the fabric I had selected and prepared for the job.  Instead, I used some jewelry findings.  They were so much better and easier to sew on than the planned ones would have been.  What remains will be less difficult because it's just embroidering flowers.  

But first, I wanted to attached the novelty yarn I planned to use as a vine climbing the walls.  All I would have to do is lay it out where I wanted it to be and then couch it (that means sewing small stitches every inch or so to attach it to the surface).  Okay, all I had to do was find that yarn.  It wasn't in the bin with everything I needed for making the quilt.  It wasn't in my special case with crazy quilt notions like embroidery thread, ribbons, buttons, and beads.  It wasn't in my ribbon box.  It wasn't on my work area.  It wasn't - well, it just wasn't; I couldn't find it anywhere!  Oh, did I mention that because of the construction there are piles of clothing (from my closet which got new doors), linens (from the bathroom linen closet in the bathroom that is currently ripped apart), and bathroom supplies from toothpaste to sunscreen to well, to everything else all over my studio in an attempt to minimize the clutter in our bedroom and computer room (the guest room is a disaster).

I was so annoyed with my horrible, no good, very bad day that I gave up.

Today I didn't paint.  Today I didn't sew.

Today I hung up the clothes and put away the shoes that belonged in my closet.  I tidied and cleaned up the quarter of my studio that had all the bathroom stuff - at least it is tidy.  I tidied the studio closet and then went through all the storage bins, re-labeling those that needed it, and organizing them in order of projects to be done next.  By doing all of that I located the bag in which I keep my embroidery threads for traveling to class, and in the bag labeled "Novelty Threads", I found the yarn I want for the vine.

Today was a glorious, good, very wonderful day!

Too Many Trees?

Today I finished embroidering 15 palm trees.  To be honest, I only used a blanket stitch around the fronds of those 15 trees and a detached fly stitch on the trunks which isn't as much work as you might have thought after reading the first sentence.  But . . . 

The task was complicated by not being able to draw the thread through to the back of the quilt since it had already been quilted and having stitching showing on the back is unsightly.  Keeping stitches uniform was also impossible.  The whole job was further complicated by the designer who decided that not 1 but 15 trees were necessary - really?  Who was the designer?  Oops, me.

What have I learned?  First, embroider before a quilt is sent to the quilter.  If I choose wisely (and I did), my quilter will be able to deal with the embroidered areas.  Second, it will be a thousand times easier to maintain evenly spaced stitches that are the same size!  Not having the bulk of the batting to contend with will make holding the quilt much simpler, and stitches can go through the back because eventually they'll be hidden by the layers of batting and backing.  Third, design with the amount of work to be done in mind.  Would I have changed the number of trees?  No, I really think the spacing and the color of the trees add to the overall composition, and they are important to the "picture" as a whole.  But I do need to make sure ahead of time that the work load is possible and any problems with execution have been kept in mind. 

Next I have "finials" to put on the points of the walls, but there are only six of those.  Also, I plan to use the blind applique stitch so at least I will only have to be sure the stitches are invisible!

Quiet Day

Had a very nice breakfast at a local diner with two of my friendship group this morning.  Then went to a quilt shop where I successfully filled out the needed fabrics for a quilt that's been bouncing around in my mind.  When will I start it?  Well, that's always the question, isn't it?

There are more quilts waiting to be started, continued, and finished than there are hours in a day, and more keep springing up in my head.  This is something I don't really worry about although maybe I should.  I just think that I am lucky to have so many creative possibilities hanging around waiting for attention.  It means I have choices.

Is it the same with my painting?  Close, but not as many projects crowding my brain.  Does it disturb me?  No.  I'm still trying to master the how-to part of painting, and I've been sewing for almost my entire life.  That makes a big difference.  I know that's pretty obvious; it's just easier to create when the how-to doesn't get in the way.  More practice is needed in this area, that's for sure!

Funny.  When I started this entry, I thought I was going to apologize - again - for no photos because it was a quiet day without much that was notable going on.  Instead I wind up discovering something through the writing that I haven't articulated before, something that explains why painting, which has been a dream for so long, has seemingly taken a back seat to sewing.  No back seat about it; I'm simply at a different point in the process. 

Back to New Orleans

In class today after some discussion of both the painting featured in yesterday's entry and the New Orleans painting, I got to work.  As you will be able to see, I added the background figures which begin to punch up the colors a bit; actually, I guess one could say they actually add color where there was none.  I'm quite happy that they are finally visually clearer and set the tone for the musicians (ha!).  

While looking at this as it is now, I have to keep reminding myself that lots of things will be tweaked as I get nearer to calling this one finished.  For example, just painting in the "audience" has made me more aware of the need to add to the window but also aware of the need to wait before I do so.  The background behind the "audience" is dreadful - flat and wrong, but that too must wait for the musicians to move to center stage (oh golly, another play on words!).  

My next move will be to set in the rest of the lone young man to the left of the drummer, and then, oh hallelujah!, I will allow myself to start on the skin of the musicians.  Once, skin color is there, I can choose colors for their clothing.  It's been hard to hold off on the focal group, but I knew I had to.  You see, I am learning!

Now just a word or two about yesterday's lake-but-not-quite-a-landscape.  Sharon was delighted and most encouraging with the use of washes and loosely suggested background for the main figure.  She had read my blog, realized my intent, and has wholeheartedly adopted the role of guide in my journey.  She, too, is trying to "loosen up" in her own work so she will be using her own experience while helping me.  What a bonus!

Not Quite a Landscape

Several days ago, I talked about how I want my quilting and my painting to move on from where is it now to where I want it to go next.  Soon after that I began a new painting that I mentioned in an entry on September 10th.  There was no photo to show you at that time, and I didn't have the opportunity to paint again until today.

This is the painting today.  Watercolor as you can see and the lake.  Even though far from finished, you can tell it isn't my usual landscape.  The focus isn't on dramatic scenery.   I'll probably have to paint it several more times before it will be as I want it to be.  Some things need to be sharpened and others - well, less focused.  At the moment, though, that doesn't matter to me.

With this painting, I am trying to let the water work for me (that is, the water one uses on the paper not the water in the lake!), and I am trying to be looser.  

The other thing I hope will happen is that the viewer will discover the story - if there is one - in this painting for herself.  

  

Arachnophobics - Don't Look!

If you suffer from arachnophobia (fear of spiders), you may wish to click out of this entry immediately.  I am sharing some photos I took of an orb spider who spent several days hanging under a railing on our front porch.  

Please meet the Black and Yellow Garden spider, Mrs. Argiope aurantia:

She is large and a bit scary looking because of her size (body is about 1"), but she doesn't inflict any damage to humans (unless we sit on her, and I think a bite caused by that would be forgivable).  She like to live in quiet gardens where she can lure edible insects into her web for lunch; for them her bite is poisonous.

Her babies are born in late summer but live in the egg sac until the following spring which is a smart way to get through the winter!  

She's quite amazingly lovely and doomed.  According to what I read*, in this climate she will probably die after the first frost.

Actually, I had planned to talk about the lovely time we had visiting daughter and grandson this weekend, but realized I couldn't share any photos from his baseball game as they are videos, and I don't publicize his photos anyway!  Too bad!  He made some good plays, but the outcome of the game was disappointing (the other team tromped them!). 

He also went to a bonsai show with his grandfather where he solemnly looked at trees and stones.  He met many people whom he charmed with his good manners.  At the end, when my daughter and I had caught up with them and we were leaving, my grandson turned to me and said, "I really feel sorry for you because you have to come back here next year!"  I thought I'd fall over laughing!

He made comments like that throughout the weekend, and I discovered what a grand sense of humor he has.  Another sign of growing up.

Site for more complete information about the spider:

* http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Argiope_aurantia/

A Learning Curve

Here's rectangle AB with the curved insert that I mentioned yesterday.

I hope you can see why I am so pleased.  Next time I won't cut the exact size I need before cutting the curve or curves.  If you look carefully at the pattern, you can see one white tree on the left of the green line but nothing below it - no trunk at all.  I might have been able to avoid that if the fabric piece had been large enough to shift about without losing size I needed instead of the exact size.  Well, this is a learning curve - ouch, I'm sorry (though my mother would have loved that pun)!

Quilters, can you tell what this is?  The background won't help you, but the fact that the fabric was folded in half might be a hint.

ME, you can't tell!

Courage from Supportive Friends

A huge thank you to all of you who responded to yesterday's blog.  You were understanding, supportive, and encouraging.  Wow!  You gave me the courage to start acting on my decision.  

I started a new painting, but I haven't had time to take a picture.  It's a painting which based on a photograph which evokes strong memories for me, but a painting which I hope will allow a viewer to supply their own memory/story/interpretation.  As I was working on it, I realized that it will be easier - perhaps - to take this new direction in painting than in quilting.  But even there I made some inroads today.

While I have patterns that I am committed to make, I can change patterns even if only in very simple, superficial ways.  Today's alteration?  I bisected a rectangle of fabric (color A) with a sinuous curved line, took another fabric (color B) and cut the same line, then sewed the two edges together creating rectangle AB.  Finally I added another piece of A to the rectangle.  Basically it looks like a rectangle of A with a slender curving river of B meandering through it.  [Wait.  Did I just write a math problem - rectangle AB???]

Doing both painting and sewing made me very happy.   Thank you!

A Transformation?

Some things are beginning to coalesce in my brain - things that have been rolling around up there just bumping into one another and caroming off another wall or getting wedged into a dark corner with other marbles, yarn scraps, and bits of lint.  Well, I never claimed my brain is a tidy place!  Anyway, I had two experiences today that started to pull some of those stray thoughts out of the corners and away from the walls to the center of a place where they can begin to interact.

I have become more and more aware of my restlessness with traditional quilt patterns of late.  There are many I still wish to make, but I want to infuse the traditional with my own perspective.  Using quilts to tell a story is something I've been experimenting with for a while, but now the notion of using quilting in a more poetic way where the reader (or the viewer) can plug in her own interpretation in intriguing me more and more.  

This fragmentary, elusive wisp of an idea started to settle in today as I was asked to help a friend choose fabrics for a quilt.  I love doing that; it was a part of my job for the brief time I worked in a quilt shop that filled me with joy.  Discovering what a person loves, what a person wants the finished quilt to do or say or be was exciting and still is.  At that time, I limited myself to the designer's pattern and her hues and values while still encouraging the customer to plug in her favorite colors and her notion of light and dark was a delight.  But my focus was on maintaining the integrity of the design as set forth in the pattern.

Today, my friend had more helpers than she really needed.  There were too many people trying to guide her.  When I realized that my hackles were being raised by someone who pointed out that the pattern had a different value in a particular area of the design than the fabric my friend was looking at lovingly, by fabrics that were perfect for the job but just dull and lifeless, I had to walk away.   I knew that there was nothing wrong with what was being suggested, and the fabrics were perfectly acceptable.  I was the one out of sync.  (I should say here that my friend sent me a photo of the final decisions and the choices are wonderful!)

Then later in the day I purchased a watercolor magazine because the cover painting had indistinct humans (which I need to paint in the work I'm doing right now) as well as a totally different and freer, looser style than I have.  As I read this magazine, I found another article on a painter who has a cubist style and  who includes writing in his work, and my brain went "Sssproinggg!" like a cartoon bed spring!

What I want to do, if I can articulate it so it makes sense, is take a pattern and stretch it beyond its limits, to pull it into a different shape that has personal meaning.  Think of it like a story that starts out with two girls who are going on a trip when suddenly they're a fox and a hummingbird in enchanted forest.  What were their suitcases have become a Victorian music box balanced on the fox's back and a medieval chateleine around the neck of the hummingbird.  Both items have magical qualities.

And I think that's what I want to do; I want to put magic in my quilts and in my paintings.  I want to combine traditional blocks with poetry in such a way that the viewer decides what the story is.  I would like my paintings to be less defined so that the viewer has the chance of figuring it out for herself instead of me.

Does that make any sense?  Time will tell if I can do it.  It's taken long enough for this to come together, and it's bound to take longer to become reality.

Autumn Beauty

This has been my favorite time of the year for most of my adult life; I'm sure that when I was a child summer reigned supreme - but no longer.  I love the blue of the sky in fall, the colors of the leaves against that sky as an unintentional complement to that amazing blue, and that crisp cool air.  Wow!  

Here's a photo of early autumn flowers that have had a banner year in my garden (everyone else's, too!).  There are a couple of orange marigolds in a small vase  I don't think you can really see.  The little table mat on the bookcase was made by my first quilting teacher, and I treasure it.  It comes out for display every September.  Can you see the stencil on the wall behind the vase?  It's a red squirrel, oak leaves, and acorns.  More fall - but oh my, those acorns are plentiful!

I hope your day was full of the glories of this season.

Six Hundred and Fifty Entries

Oh my, this is the 650th entry in this blog, and I should be writing something momentous or whimsical or at least interesting.  But I'm too tired tonight to do so; I'll natter for a bit and then toddle off to bed.

The weekend has been busy with household tasks and some work on the quilt.  The latter didn't get as much attention as I had hoped, but all the trunks of the palm trees are finished.  Also, eight and a half palm trees have their fronds stitched - only six and a half to go.

Today I had a grand time at the sewing club I lead.  Personal reminiscences of auto mishaps told by a couple of the members had all of us in gales of laughter for most of the time so I can't say I did much "leading"!  After that ME and I stopped off to visit a dear friend we haven't seen very much of lately and that, too, led to laughter and sharing conversation with good friends.

I know I've mentioned it before, but I truly think that one of life's greatest gifts is friendship.  

That to me is a good 650th entry - thanks to all my friends!

Window Sketch #4 Segues into a Final Version

The fifth version of the shop window was painted today - in the blank space waiting for it.  Yes, the empty window behind the musicians now has items on shelves.  No photo to show you yet, but that will come soon.  Instead I'll tell you a little about it.

First I painted a fourth version, one I really liked almost completely.  Then I decided to strike while the iron was hot, and worked on the actual painting.  Funny thing is, I still like the fourth version best, but the fifth version does exactly what it should do at this time.  This version is very subtle and subdued; one barely notices it is there.  And, as D said when he saw it, "It doesn't draw my eyes.  It doesn't steal my attention."  Thank you, D!

Yes, I was thrilled that he said that because that is my intention.  However, as I told him, I may have to intensify it when all is said and done.  When the painting is "finished" I'll ask for opinions and give it my final once over, too, then I may find that it is too retiring.  Then I can make the window come out of the shadows a little way.

Two Paintings: Window Sketch #3 and a Vermont Potting Shed

After a successful morning at painting and a frustrating afternoon chasing down tiles (again), this will be a short entry that will focus on the pleasant part of the day.

During the first half of class, I worked on a third sketch of the window that will be behind the musicians in the street musicians painting.  Writing that list of things I ought to do really helped even though I didn't look at the list once I was in class.

• enlarge this area of the photograph in order to help me see what's in the shop if at all possible.  Tuba or hat or???  Items on the shelves? I did take an enlarged photo to class, and it wasn't the tuba.  It appeared to be draped shimmery fabrics and balloons (yes, balloons!).
• make the size of the window the correct shape instead of just dividing my practice paper into sections that have no real relation to the window I'm sketching. This I didn't do. I just used the size I had.
• use the same watercolor paper I'm using for the "real" painting for the practice sketches. It made a difference!  Although I didn't make the piece the correct size, I did use the "good" paper, and I'm very glad I did.  The paper and water and paint reacted differently to each other.
• turn off the overhead fan!  While I felt much more comfortable ceding control to the water (I knew the items seen through a window would be indistinct), but due to the fan, it dried too quickly.  Even though more water can be added, it stops the rhythm of the work. Ha!  There is an overhead fan at Sharon's, but it didn't appear to make much difference - possibly because of the paper.
• practice! Yes, I did, and here it is.

Hmm.  Certainly isn't something that one would leap up and say "Wow!" about, but it's closer to what I want behind the musicians.  Will I do another practice sketch?  Probably.  To me it doesn't look like shelves in a store, so I think I paint more familiar objects (teapots and mugs and tins maybe? certainly not balloons!) on the shelves.  It's worth a try.

I did have time left after that sketch so I went back to the plein aire sketch of a barn/potting shed I started in Vermont.  

We'll have to wait and see if this amounts to anything interesting; it's too early at this point to tell.

Update on Painting of New Orleans Musicians

Back to the second New Orleans painting that I started writing about on July 16, 2014.

While we were away in mid-August I was able to do a little work on it:

The colors are washes I laid down to begin to define the background.  Oh, and I should say that the yellowish outline on the figures is a masking fluid that keeps the watercolors from flowing into places it's not welcome.

I took this preliminary work in to class last week thinking I might be able to start on the figures or the musicians; actually my fingers were itching to start on them - there was no brain involved at all.  It's obvious that the background needs more work.  See the big blank space behind the tuba?  That's a store window, and that's what Sharon told me needed work before I went on to anything else.    As usual I had no idea how to approach that window - complete with a reflected figure.

After Sharon gave me some ideas how to paint the window, I took out a piece of scrap paper and began.

This is what I had at the end of class.  Strangely enough, I liked it even though I knew I was far from being ready to add something like the above as the window in the painting.  I had let the water control me rather than the other way around! My  plan was to continue with that freedom while painting another three or four practice passes before the next class.

Three or four?  Try one. It's all I had time for.  However, this sketch is better than the first attempt.  The colors are more subdued, objects in the shop are more clearly items on shelves, but the reflected light isn't there at all as I inadvertently painted right over the blank areas I initially left for reflections.  Sigh another note to self.  The big white area on the left is where the real tuba is (check the first painting), and I just realized that instrument might be the reflection in the lower right hand side of the window!  I  had thought it might be another hat on a stand on the window sill inside the shop, but now . . . .  What do you think?

Things need to be corrected and practiced a few more times.  Here's what I know I need to do:

• enlarge this area of the photograph in order to help me see what's in the shop if at all possible.  Tuba or hat or???  Items on the shelves? 
• make the size of the window the correct shape instead of just dividing my practice paper into sections that have no real relation to the window I'm sketching
• use the same watercolor paper I'm using for the "real" painting for the practice sketches - I just forgot to do that today.  Different papers and water interact differently.
• turn off the overhead fan!  While I felt much more comfortable ceding control to the water (I knew the items seen through a window would be indistinct), but due to the fan, it dried too quickly.  Even though more water can be added, it stops the rhythm of the work. 
• practice