Ignoring the Voices

It's July.  :-)

It's peak Outdoor Studio time -- except when it gets too hot, or the thunder clouds roll in.

I'm still playing, still resisting the Voices that try to tell me that everything I'm doing must lead to something concrete, something useful...that everything I'm doing must be productive.

I've had to set aside the spinning for a bit because my 'death grip' on the fibres has given me some aches and pains (I need a better chair too, but that's another story).  Suffice to say, I wasn't practicing good spinning ergonomics and it bit me.  :-(

So...this week I played with marking and stamping, based on what I learned from Susan Purney Mark and Valerie Wilson at the SAQA WC Regional Retreat in early May.  I had fun and -- surprise, surprise -- some of it was also productive!

I wanted to see how the techniques would work on scraps of linen -- various thread counts -- that I have collected as left-overs from embroidery projects through the years.

I began with 'Asemic writing' on some 32-count, and it worked very well!

Length of 32-count linen;
asemic writing with fabric pen.

Asemic writing on linen - detail

I liked it so much, in fact, that I added it to what I've done with my retreat sample, and created a dozen art cards -- now available for purchase at Gracie D's Antiques, Collectibles and Giftware here in Mirror!

I then tried using the plastic wedge on wet linen.  Whether I did the marking, then sprayed it, or sprayed it before marking, I got mixed results.  I was using not only the black Speedball fabric paint I bought at the retreat, but also some blue Jacquard fabric paint and some green -- a Stewart Gill sample given me at a SAQA conference some time ago that was past its prime and needed water to soften it up.

Still...these ones have potential to become something (ahem!) productive...

Speedball black, Stewart Gill green and
Jacquard blue on closely-woven linen sample

Close up of the above

Speedball black paint on closely-woven linen

Black and blue - ditto

I decided I might have more success with stamping on this fabric, and I was right -- and it was more fun, too, because the fabric didn't fight the stamps the way it fought the wedge.

The green piece is a detail shot of a long, narrow piece of fabric (similar to the black-on-white above).  Clearly all three of these have potential to become productive!

I turned from fresh mark-making and stamping, then, to trying to make something of my retreat samples...

Playing on the design wall

In the end I came up with a piece I've entitled, "Wall" -- yet to be quilted.  Even its orientation is as yet undecided!

"Wall" - approx. 12.5" x 13.25" before quilting

I ended the week by finishing my long assembled Canada Day table runner -- based on a 'mystery' pattern from Quilter's Connection magazine, and done up in my favourites from Northcott Fabrics Canadian collection for Canada 150...

When I'd finished the binding, I used it as my banner till the thunder storm yesterday evening!

Linking this up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday...and wishing all my Canadian friends and family a wonderful rest-of-the-Canada-150-holiday weekend!

Happy July 4 to my American friends and family...for Tuesday.  I gather you've already begun to celebrate.  Enjoy!

From Improv to Precision

More than 20 years ago, back when my DH was beginning his decline in health -- a decline caused by (then) 35 years with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D)...I was a knitter and an embroiderer.

Two friends, Janet and Candy (neither of whom read this blog; of that I'm quite sure) decided -- separately -- that I needed to learn to quilt.  "Cutting fabric into strips", each one said (unbeknownst to the other), "is therapeutic."

"You'll like it", they each said.

Candy invited me to accompany her to something at an LQS (for knitters, this translates to "LYS but for quilters") called the "Saturday Block".  The deal was this: in January of the given year, pay $10 for a pattern and some fabric.  Make a block from that and bring it back -- finished -- the next month, and get the next pattern and background fabric FREE.

I tried it.

I was hooked!

Over three (or four; I forget which) years, I learned to cut and piece fabric.  I made many stars (somehow these kits always featured stars!).  I eventually learned to make 1/2-square triangles so that the points would match.

I still love to piece quilts...only now?  I'm learning to make 1/2-square triangles improvisationally, which means the points no longer have to match...except when they do (have to, that is)!

My next step in Lesson 2 of Elizabeth Barton's "Mod Meets Improv" was about triangles -- preferably free-cut, from squares that were free-cut...from fabric with a 'split-complementary' colour selection...

It turns out the hardest part was choosing the fabrics -- because I have precious few solids (or near solids) that aren't landscape fabrics (and therefore untouchable for purposes of this exercise).  I hauled out my colour wheel book* for advice:

That only took me the better part of a morning...

*colorWorks: the crafter's guide to color by Deb Menz -- Interweave Press, 2004.

Then I free-cut 5" squares (the best I could do with the amount of fabric available!) and sliced them in half diagonally (no ruler!)...and arranged them on my design wall:

I played with them a bit but frankly, none of them seemed to measure up to the original...so I tested my choices by converting the photo to grey-scale, just to be sure the values were right:

I decided I liked it...so I stitched the squares into rows and the rows into a single piece:

Everyone's Got an Angle
(C) 2017 

And I submitted that to EB for critique...and she loved it!  Whoo hoo!  Life is good!

This means that it will be sandwiched, quilted and prepared for exhibit...somewhere...sometime...

And so I took a break, and reverted to more precise piecing...with this:

A mystery table runner featured in a newsletter -- and in print -- by Canada's only commercial quilters' magazine, Quilter's Connection.  Now, quite frankly, it's part of a contest, which I have no intention of entering.  I just thought it would be nice to have a "Canada 150" - themed table runner on my dining table.  I found some appropriate fabric, and so far have completed the first row....

The pattern calls for two of "Row 1" so...there you are.  Because it's a mystery project, I'll not be showing more of this for a while, so as not to spoil the fun.   The deadline to finish and submit the piece is April 15.  Though I'm not entering the competition, I won't be showing the finished piece until the deadline has passed...as that wouldn't be fair, would it?!

All I can tell you is that I suspect with Weeks 3-5 remaining in my "Improv" class, and "Abstract-a-licious" with Lyric Kinard starting later this week...my brain is likely to go into over-drive, trying to reconcile 'improv' with 'precision' with 'who cares?!'

Stay tuned for the fun!  :-)

Meanwhile, even though it's Sunday, I'm linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday. This week she's contemplating composition and lo and behold -- she talks about the colour wheel --  so pour a cuppa, read what she has to say about it, and enjoy what everyone's doing over there!  :-)