Forced March

It's a miracle that I didn't gain any weight during my two weeks plus away from home and to ensure I don't, my husband conspired with the dogs to lure me on a walk to the swamp near our house. What he neglected to tell me is that it's 90 degrees with MUCH humidity and the swamp part of the walk was only during the first of a five-mostly-boring-mile circuit. I need a nap! No finishing that UFO in my plans for this afternoon.

Another UFO!

I swore I would never take another workshop that yielded UFOs and here is another one! This needs to be quilted and the edges, now held back with straight pins, hemmed down in the back.

I stopped at the Quilt Odyssey in Hershey, PA, on the way home from Morristown, NY, and saw so many gorgeous quilts my head is still fuzzy. The best part was that I now know some of the Famous Quilters over whose works I drooled. Mop, please!

Finished

I dumped the original busy project and replaced it with this one. I may return to it tomorrow if time permits. In the meantime, I have a finished product for show and tell tomorrow afternoon.

This quilt (about 20" square) started out with my favorite painted canvas (textile paint texturized with a tiling tool). I cut it into several pieces and rearranged them to create an acceptable composition. Another canvas that had been painted with blue acrylic and stenciled with metallic copper acrylic provided the blue elements, and the red is a Moda marble.

I stitched in the ditch around all the geometric shapes with monofilament, quilted the bamboo stenciling with gold metallic thread, and quilted around the abstract globs with variegated thread. I also stitched straight lines along some of the stripes. The edging was finished with satin stitching in two colors of variegated thread.

I'm pleased with the overall effect. Cyndi is going to be proud of me because it has a focal point. Teddi is not going to see arrows that point to nowhere since I was so very careful to create a flowing composition. Elizabeth likes it, too, and said so. Yippee!

What I would do differently next time: use facings for the edges instead of satin stitch, and plan my quilting. I lied. I won't plan my quilting. I have no idea how to plan my quilting which is why my quilting is always the weakest element of my projects. Maybe next year I should take a class on how to develop quilting patterns that enhance projects.

In the meantime, I like the composition and the colors of this project. I'll try another one at home and may be able to enter it in Hampton in January. (Workshop projects are not allowed in many juried shows.)

Slice and Dice

Painting is finished and the stash is ready to chop into useable shapes. So far I've been working with the typical straight edges, but I plan to try something different tomorrow. One of the teachers has shown her class a technique for inserting strips (not unlike the flange I've used before) and one of my classmates has inserted a semi-circular flap into one of her seams. I like both ideas and intend to steal them. Teddi says I need to add another small square since I have only two. My thought on the squares is that the uppermost one on the right is too small and if it's the right size, I'll need only one.

As is usual for me, the first attempt at this project is over-designed--WAY too much "stuff" to look at as it is. I may have to work on two pieces at the same time to use some of these ideas. But I know how I work: my first attempt is always busy and complicated and then pared down. Tomorrow is Pare-Down Day.

Day One--Splash and Splatter

Ms. Elizabeth Busch teaches Creating Small Works this week at QBL. Today she taught us to use acrylics and textile paints to alter the formerly unadorned canvas that we'll make into a quilt starting on Wednesday. Besides being an outstanding artist, this lady is a great teacher and fun to be around. Please look her up at her website.

So many of the class objected to my having a camera that I am not permitted to take photos of them and their works. However, I have no objection to your seeing and maybe even "stealing" my ideas. Help yourself!

QBL

Teddi and I arrived here at Morrisville State (a SUNY campus) after a 7 hour drive yesterday. Check-in took me back to my freshman college days in--gulp--1967. The dining hall food is pretty much the same (starch and mystery meat), so I'll be hanging out at the salad bar.

After dealing with our priorities (checking-in to the show, shopping at the vendor mall, viewing the quilt exhibit, shopping at the vendor mall, unpacking, and finding the dining hall) we found our classrooms to drop off our machines and supplies. My room is a gym! With a huge blue tarp covering the floor! And buckets! And I have a roller-bag full of paint and canvas!!! Oh, this will be Heaven on Earth! I'll get back to you.

Standards of Learning--off topic

Every year we teachers turn ourselves inside out preparing students for their SOL tests. We work hard and hope the public takes us seriously. Try as we might, people are just not getting the message. Here's some evidence of local math at a gas station somewhere along I-81 in southern VA. In math students learn to look for a bargain. In English they learn to read the small print. Where do they learn about signage?

Sunrise in Brasstown, July 18

The Apron

It's finished.
The vinyl goth apron destined for the auction block at Quilting By the Lake was completed yesterday around dinner time--and I swear the image is not sideways in my photo gallery. What's that all about? Maybe there's a Goth in the machine.

What I love: the reactions this item gets, the neck strap made out of grommeted vinyl tape sewn over twill tape and fastened with mitten clips and a very large safety pin, the way it looks on me (too bad I'm giving it up).

Issues:

• I was going for something with a bit more edge, but once I saw how the pretty little housewifey flounce looked in vinyl, I stuck with it.


• I wanted to use expanding paint for the Gothic letters. Doesn't work on plastic. I wanted to use fabric paint to stencil the letters onto the vinyl. Again, not on plastic. I tried to use Staz-on ink but the color I brought didn't show up. The ink, however, stuck wonderfully to the counter top, to the sink, and to the stencil film.


• I used vinyl glue to tack down the facings and to attache the skull applique. Vinyl glue eats vinyl, so there may be a lump or two here and there. What the heck--it only adds to the attitude.
  
  
  

The Fun Begins

Our ten-hour drive began yesterday morning at 6:15, 6:23, and 6:30. There are no images of that comedy. We arrived at JCFS at 4:30.

The drive was fairly successful until we got to Asheville, NC, where the road system defies anything that resembles driving in a logical universe. I wanted to photograph a plate of spaghetti and caption it "NC 19, 24, 40, 26 East and West, towards 240 North and South."

My class this weekend is Precious Metal Wire Weaving. So far, it's been an easy fit for me. Image shows my first attempt in copper wire. Today we will learn variations of plain weave. My current sample is more even and tighter. I am brainstorming ways to use this mesh in a collage.

Who is the woman and why is she grinning?

A. It's me.
B. I have an Eye-Fi card in the camera and this picture is being instantly and simultaneously sent to Phanfare and to my computer.

Ok, I admit that I could have combed my hair and smiled less threateningly, but I was caught up in the moment. My new camera (Canon PowerShot SD 1100 IS) arrived after dinner yesterday. Installing the software for it and for the Eye-Fi was a whole lot easier than waiting patiently for the UPS guy!

We leave for camp (www.folkschool.org) tomorrow at 0-dark-30. The car trunk is already full of my projects--here's hoping I don't forget my sewing machine--and I'm working through my list of last-minute to-dos. Don't worry: I won't bore you with those details. Been there, done that.

What I'm most excited about is being with the other "campers." If you ever wondered where all the Hippies went, they have jobs (many of them are English teachers like myself) and spend their summers at places like JCFS. [I know we are alive (and maybe even well) since I did see a VW bus sputtering down VA Rt 66 the other day. Perhaps it was on its way to a commune in a big farmhouse.] The demographic is inspiring: we are green, we are liberal, we are interesting, we are sociable. Just what you'd expect of Flower Children, all growed up. Mealtime conversations are energetic and inspiring, whether we are solving the world's problems or brainstorming a design solution. Camp "fills the well" and is more than whatever someone chooses to produce over the course of a five-day class.

Having said that, Quilting by the Lake (the week after camp) had better be all about the class. I hope to be surprised and inspired by that population as well. (Did you hear the but?)

Details: Quilter's Quest Blocks

Check this out: Yesterday I cut out all the pieces and made a zippie for every remaining QQ block pattern AND this morning I finished the Most Dreaded One of the bunch (see comments in a previous post). I need these kits for portable hand work during our 10 hour drive to/from JCFS. Oh, but I am good today! Just for that (TMI alert), I get to go to coffee with Sheila and Kristin after I drop my crash bars off at the Honda dealer so they can be installed on my motorcycle (bike is already at the dealer).

And here's another kick in the head: I bought a good camera and Eye-Fi. I won't be using the Webcam when I'm too lazy to track down the "family" digital in its three pieces, all in various locations. MY camera and ALL its pieces will be accessible to guess who? ME! Yippee! Things should be looking a bit better soon.

Apron update: found black pleather and fancy tulle at Joann's yesterday. I'm sketching a composite of a few Goth dresses/corsets/tops and the See and Sew apron pattern. This is do-able and should be pretty funny when it's finished. I need larger grommets, though, and see a shopping trip tacked on to the coffee excursion.

Too much fun!

Packing for Camp

This is a to-do list, so I don't expect ANYBODY to read this. Why are you still here?

Projects for camp (WAY too much to do in one week)

1. pear project: Fix shading on quilt. Now that I remembered I own a plastic pear, this will be easier. "Frame" will include bright green piping (a la Susan Cleveland: http://www.piecesbewithyou.com/) inner border and a 2" or 3" black outer border.

2. apron project: paint base fabric and make basic apron. Or maybe make the apron and then paint it. If I were any good at this "art" that wouldn't even be a question. Buy more netting/organza/webbing for the flounce.

3. silk triptych project: TBA. I have no idea how to proceed with this thing. Some artist! If anything I drew remotely resembled anything in this universe (monkeys really do draw better than I do), I could put this in a sketch book and see exactly how to proceed. I am better with a scissors than I am with a pencil. Maybe I should just shred it?

4. 2006 quilt quest project: I may just throw this out. Whoever "designed" some of those quilt squares is a sadist. I never saw a worse designed basket than the pattern that came from one of the studios on the quest. So convoluted! Gratuitously difficult (snob appeal?). But I started it and have the fabric. There is no due date.

5. Cyndi's homework: I found an image on line that will work to remind me of the hell I went through during my bike ride on Wednesday. Heavily shaded macadam road, no lines, drainage ditches along each side, big trucks coming the opposite way, lots of curves. When I got to AQ class that evening, all I could think about was the horror of the ride. I'm thinking a woven quilt that will somehow show the filtering sunlight that wreaked havoc with my perception of where the road actually was and overlay my nightmare image.

I'm sure I've left something out. ONLY 5 projects? I may be back.

Blooming Nine Patch

This top, an attempt to use the left-overs from another quilt top, took over a week to finish. My problem is that since I've begun making original quilts I can no longer follow directions. I must have ripped out more stitches more than I left in. The irony of this is that I still had to buy fabric since no fabric other than the Moda Marble (that orange and blue smoosh towards the center) will do for the binding.

This mess-terpiece will be quilted by Not Me.

Now, on to the truly fun: the soon-to-be offensive dominatrix kitchen-wretch-wear.

Would You Buy this Apron?

I will be attending Quilting By the Lake at the end of July. One of their fund-raisers includes an auction of functional aprons. I have issues with wasting money on experimental garments, so I bought a pattern:

Now, if you know anything about me you'll understand how this June Cleaver image just will not do.

My version of June and Her Cleaver:

The Dominatrix Apron

Black fabric with black skin rubbing plate= leather
Brads and zippers, other silver bling
Netting ruffle at bottom.
Tattoo element
Skulls
Ties will be woven like whips
Laces a must

Here we go!

To be perfectly honest, I have been forced into starting this blog. I'm taking an on-line class that requires I start one, but it's supposed to be an educational thing, not a self-promotional thing. And then there's Teddi who is the kind of muse one can't resist. Can you say nag? She's always right, though (how boring for her) and I know this is the thing that will get my art off the ground--where I am constantly throwing it, crumbled and torn. Here's a picture of a quick journal entry I did on Monday.