Everything's in Order Here

Woke early to try to see the lunar eclipse.  Living in Western Canada, I'd have had a good chance of it...but for the snow.  So...back to bed, but couldn't sleep.

I lay there, sipping a cup of sweet tea (yes, I'm nursing a cold; it's the only time this coffee afficionado drinks tea)...and thinking about my agenda.

I like routine.  

I've never been very spontaneous.  I dislike surprises.  My late DH was the only one who could ever get away with surprising me, and even he stuck to doing so on my birthday or at Christmas -- when one can get away with it.

This morning, pondering this aspect of my character, I realized my tendency to plan and organize has a powerful impact on my creativity.

I like deadlines, and like to give my piece(s) plenty of time to 'percolate', both before and during construction.  Once begun, I generally break a project down into steps and pace myself, doing a bit each day on each of several projects.

Currently on the go?

• This month's Master Class theme is 'color'...and I have to have five items (images) sent off to EB by April 10...so yesterday I tackled the assignment as follows:
• Read through all the notes and instructions;
• Checked out the recommended links (including a video or two);
• Looked at inspirational sources to create a colour palette.
• Recorded those sources as photos.  Here's a sampling:

Canvas-work cushion made by my mom

Needlepoint footstool done by my mom

Water colour collage
Sharon Lynn Williams,
Calgary, AB (ca. 2004)

• Next steps: 
• close colour studies to develop final palette;
• create a design or colour in a sketch from January's work;
• audition fabric.

• SAQA Benefit Auction piece:
• Next steps:
• sandwich and quilt background;
• fill in stitching details;
• add foliage to tree;
• face or bind;
• apply label and sleeve;
• submit!

• My knitting projects are even more closely organized.  For example, the Wedding Prayer Shawl used to look like this:

It's now several times longer, as a total of 14 pattern repeats have been finished.  Each repeat is 24 rows, broken down into sections of six rows each.  There are 25 repeats to do before the shawl is finished, and the wedding is mid-June.  I won't be attending (another commitment) so have to finish and deliver sometime around the end of May or right after Quilt Canada (June 4-6).  My agenda?  

• Knit a minimum of 6 rows per day.  
• If I knit 12 (or half of one pattern repeat) and am consistent, I could finish this baby before I go to Portland for the SAQA conference later this month.

Then there are the April Socks-from-Stash...the first one is now happily about 3" long, meaning I'm almost 1/2-way to the heel...

What about you?  Are you super-organized or more spontaneous?  How d'you think your tendency to be one or the other governs your creative practice?

Linking this up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday...

If it stops snowing, I might just get in to Red Deer for the last of the Central Alberta Quilt Show.  And yes, there'll be a sock in my tote...  :-)

Happy Easter! Happy Passover!  Happy Spring!  Happy Fall!  ;-)

Have a great weekend!

Year End Post I

I have more than one idea for posts today, but each deserves its own 'page', so...here's the first: an Orca Bay Mystery Quilt update.

We had a bit of a snow-blow overnight here (more blow than snow); this morning the wind continues.  I've decided to postpone my planned run till this afternoon, when the wind is supposed to die down, and to stay indoors and sew.  I've put the Christmas Day Chicken carcass in the slow cooker with  onion, celery, carrots, parsley, sage, bay leaf and thyme, salt and pepper and water to cover...for tonight's dinner, and after I finish this post, I'm going to resume the OBMQ -- now ready for Part 7!

Yesterday evening I finished the last of the Ohio Stars from Part 6.  Here they are sitting in their tub, waiting for their part in this project.  The last 2 squares (1 white, 1 black), were definitely cobbled together from the last bits.  I'm just hoping that they'll work out alright in the end!


And here are the first few units for Part 7, ready to stitch:





The piecing together of these units has been a fascinating exercise in colour.  First, there was the selection of the black-and-white fabrics that could be read as 'black' versus the ones that could be read as 'white'.  Next, there was the selection of reds for the triangles -- and of blues in the Part 2 squares, which have yet to come back on stage for their next act.  To illustrate the effect in the Ohio Stars I took a few photos.  Here are a couple of the the white star blocks.  Notice the effect of mixing up the blacks, ans using some fabrics as black that could also be read as white:

And here's something similar going on with the black star squares -- one of which was photographed before it got sewn together.  Look carefully now; these ones look alike, but there's a subtle difference because i ran out of one of the black fabrics...See how it gives the block a different look?

This game entertained me the entire time I was putting these together.  It became quite addictive; I kept going, if only to see what sort of combination I could come up with next.

I need to get into the studio now and sew a bit.  Happy New Year to those readers who may already be celebrating -- and stay tuned!

Colour Play

Activity 1 of Module 5 in my C&G had me doing a wee colour study of one of the objects I put in My Box of Things 'way back in Activity 1, Module 1.  You can see clearly that the objects I selected were largely monochromatic.  How then, to do a colour study?!

I selected the only item with more than one colour to it: the silk eyeglass case left me by my mother, which I now use to hold pencils etc. in my sewing kit.

I came up with a study, stitched into my sketchbook -- a combination of hand-dyed and commercial cottons --  that looked like this:

For Activity 2, it was time to play with the colours, to translate them into patterns for a mosaic patchwork project.  Here are my three samples, done in watercolour:

One

Three

Two

  Which one would you translate into fabric?  ;-)  Stay tuned!