Those transient eureka moments

I've had a couple of brilliant quilt ideas the last couple of mornings, just before I get up, and within 10 minutes they have totally vanished! So disappointing and a good reason for keeping that notepad and pencil by the bed.

I have been feeling more positive towards the poppy project recently and am getting back into the sketching stages again. Maybe it will not work, but I do want to explore the options. I am now thinking to try another couple of samples one with the stitching from the top and the other with the design on the back and using bobbin work. I have never yet tried cable stitch, so that would be an opportunity. I could also try the transfer paper for some black and white sketches.

Since my Bernina is in the workshop for a service and a couple of tweaks, I have put my embellisher machine into the dropdown in the table to see if it is more comfortable. Unfortunately the pull off drawer section is just too wide to fit in the whole, so I only get a small work surface. I did have to replace a needle the other day, which is pretty fiddley, but at least it was a needle at the front. I have no idea how you do the one in the middle.

I am getting very interested in mounting small works on plexiglass, so need to talk to Jane about where she gets hers done. That could work well for my poppy 2 project - the one with the flanders poppy in organza on bandage gauze with some white crosses for graves behind. I am even thinking two layers of plexiglass with a long screw between to keep them apart. Must ask Peter about that!

Found some free to download texture images yesterday through quiltart, and have printed one which I could easily make with zigzag stitch. Turquoise on lovat green. Reminds me of the quilt Peg and I got excited by at the CoCa gallery a couple of years ago. That was postcard size pieces all attached to black, all representing different landscape fragments and textures. Always wanted to do something similar.

Off to have a play now.

Is there anything else in life but stitching?

I seem to have spent the entire week sewing, even though it is midsummer and I have plenty to do outside (not today though, which is 32). On Sunday I started playing with shaving foam painting, using a simple flower out of Vikki Pignatelli's book Quilting by Improvisation. I was pleased with the effect, mottled with interesting flecks of deeper colours, both on the flowers, centre and leaves. By the end of Sunday I painted the background a pale wash of blue, and quilted the whole thing. I felt the flowers should have had more variation to show one petal separated from the next, but other than that. Really happy.

Then I became truly obsessed, and decided to make an oval 'picture frame' for it. First, added some silk I had painted at the same time as additional separate petals to give a more rounded effect. Then ploughed through the internet looking for how to draw an ellipse. It was a bit mathematical, but it didn't have to be quite that precise. A couple of drawing pins and a piece of string and voila, achieved! Then couldn't decide on a binding or not. Initially went with pale green but ended up with pink.

Finally this morning I made a twisted cord and couched it down with a seed bead every inch. So totally floral and pink, not at all me, but it was interesting to do. The other happy chance was finding a stencil in a wall paint book that I could use to quilt the swirly dark purple which had a similar design but too small to quilt. I didn't want to do major quilting. This was after all just an experiment!

After lunch I did a couple of projects for my embellisher class. I feel I have missed out on some basic info like how you achieve different effects like ruching etc. Must ask Judy.

This was a momentous week with Obama's inauguration, but for me it was just stitching and going to the movies. Saw Benjamin Button on Monday - far too long and rather dispiriting, though interesting idea (Scott Fitzgerald story). Then Vicky Christina Barcelona - again a little off the wall, and well acted. As always, had fun with Sandra and Jane.

Embellisher sample

Yesterday I managed to combine playing the gold lutradur with some yarn samples for my embellisher class. I layered the lutradur over some handpainted purple and gold fabric over black batting. I stitched round the edge just to keep it in place while I embellished on a range of knitting yarns and some sari silk yarn. That was very hard for the embellisher, but it coped. I found an old sample of felt with tails that I had made at Janes. I cut off the tails and embellished three of them on to the yarns, making an M shape.

I wanted to burn back the lutradur, but couldn't get it to burn with iron, heat gun or soldering iron. Gave up and just cut it. Not quite the effect I wanted but it was just an experiment.

Added a few beads, and embellished on top the outside circle of the felt piece, with a few strands of blue nylon ribbon and tufts of sari fibre to add a frame effect.

Called it M for mother.

I feel playtime coming on!

I haven't posted for 3 days because I haven't done anything creative. I had some unexpected B & B guests on Thursday, so had to put everything away (just an excuse really). They asked me if I was an artist. I said Yes! That was the first time I hadn't qualified it with some modest self denigration. Yay!

I got a query from Vikki Pignatelli, who is coming to Wellington to teach at Easter, about stabilisers and washaways. I did a short bit of research, which meant I was at the LQS. Found some gold metallic lutradur, very cheap, so bought a metre. It's very fine bonded web, so I want to play with it now.

I did a little bit of compositional drawing for the poppies, and find that 3 or 5 look a bit too 'lumpy', so I'm thinking of maybe 3 poppies plus 3 bits of cow parsley. and a couple of leaves and buds.

After another very hot day, it is a little cooler today and cloudy, so I can have the doors and windows open (the screened ones, that is).

Had a very enjoyable evening with Peter, Gill and their daughter Angela. Angela is getting into crafts in a serious way, mainly beads, and printing. She had heard of the Japanese screen printing gizmo (Gocco) that I read about a while ago on Planet Textile Threads. I may try it one day, but have enough techniques to explore right now.

Energetic day

The weather is great - sunny, warm but not hot and low humidity. I did an hour spraying gorse on the hillside, which I do at least twice a year. This year, having sheep here longer from my neighbour, I find they have eaten all the seedlings regenerating from the broom and gorse, which is a bonus. Then I had a swim, as I wanted to put the vacuum machine in to clean up the bottom. The water was down from 29 last week to 24, because of the cooler weather and cloud cover the last few days. Then I went to the gym (is there no end to the virtue??) for my yoga/pilates class.

Last night I had a short play with my embellisher for the Dale Rollerson class. I think I will have to try putting net over my surfaces, as the fabric and threads do get pushed out of position. I ordered a HUGE amount of silk etc. and felt from her, but it won't get here for a week, so I will hold off most of my practice till then. To be honest I was a little disappointed with the first lesson, as it was pretty basic, even for me who has hardly done much with it at all.

I have my cream fabric interfaced and stabilised and waiting for inspiration to hit. I need to draw out the poppy family portrait using a combination of the things I have already printed. I am just putting it off.

If I need any more physical work today I will start dividing up the larger clumps of irises. I have a semicircular drive with about 100 irises, and every year I have to divide about a third just to stop them from clambering over each other. This year it is the turn of the intermediate orange, and the deeper pink. I am going to turf out the very flowerful but sprawling white and purple that was here when I moved here. I still have it in other places, but it really goes mad. I bought a new magenta with a luminous spot, to put there instead. Also a dwarf white. It is good to have the dwarves and the intermediates as they extend the flowering period from 2 weeks to 3 or even 4.

Test piece done

I stitched rectangles of the neutrals together - they all stitched nicely apart from the shiny grey. Then I stitched a red thread over all of them to see if the poppy outline would show up or look good. I am leaning towards the knitted cream fabric, ironed onto woven interfacing, and probably would need a stabiliser as well. The red thread (I did a trilobal polyester and a heavy 30 wt cotton) shows up well, and disappears into the knitting in an attractive hit and miss way. It did not do well on the shiny grey (pity, I wanted to use that). The upholstery donkey brown bonded to some strange backing like a carpet underlay but thinner - would make a nice mat or frame. My plan now is to draw the poppy outline I want for the centre, and do it from both front and back on samples of the knit fabric.

I had a frustrating time yesterday trying to get one poppy picture resized to print 4 copies. Whatever I did, it cut the top off the flower, and I don't know why. So I am going to move it ot my laptop and try it with the Photoshop printer software and the Canon one. These learning experiences are generally not that rewarding, but IF it works, I will make sure to write it down in my art journal. There's only so many times I want to rediscover things!

I restarted working through the Photoshop manual yesterday, and it is amazing what knobs and buttons there are.

But all in all there was FAR too much time spent on the computer yesterday, with all that photo stuff, and ordering some silk and wool from the Thread Studio for the embellisher class. Today I am going to spend at least an hour clearing firewood from the top of the hill, to get some exercise and be outside while it isn't hot.

Promised rain is not coming

A couple of days ago, the forecast for this area was 3 days of rain. That would have been very welcome, especially after a week in the 30s, up to 36 one day. However, now it has been changed to cloud only, though the temperatures are lower. So I will have to water my trees after all, and maybe a few other stressed looking plants. And I was so hoping nature would do it for me!

I am prevaricating on the neutrals, so should JUST DO IT! Until I've done the sample of fabrics, I won't know if the idea will fly or not. If that background doesn't work, I may try a solid background with printed poppies, or layered poppies. I know poppies are very much used by artists, but they are a stunning plant - colour, shape and texture - it's all there. Plus the shapes of the buds and the seed heads are so different, yet very characteristic.

I had a couple of interesting conversations with friends yesterday about directing our lives and not letting past events or feelings cloud our future. It is one of the benefits of my having lost all my belongings in the fire, I have so few memorabilia to trigger regrets.

Bark fusion

I bought a cheap picture, just a plastic printed sheet over this wooden frame yesterday, as the framers were not yet back at work. I coated it with gel medium, then some fabric paints. I was trying for a dull ginger, but try as I might with the mixing, I could not get it dark enough. Adding black just made it go more khaki. Anyway, it is good enough, with a bit of violet sponged on lightly. I stapled a strip of mat behind the bark and stitched through it. Not entirely satisfactory - not long lasting - but OK for now.

This is a closeup of the beading, the threads and the fissures I got from drying it over a log. The wide threads are sari silk, and the others are various knitting yarns. I washed and unwound the sari silk to make it softer for stitching.

It's such a hot day here - it's been about 36 before lunch and now cooling slightly down to 32. The Fohn wind has dropped, and the ground doesn't burn your feet now. Definitely a day for a siesta and then cocktails.

My friend Judith cycled over at midday, looking very hot and uncomfortable, to bring me a Christmas card that had gone to her house. It turned out to be from my ex-landlady in Brescia, who I haven't heard from for about 6 years. Like all those kind of random contacts, she told me nothing about herself, apart from the fact that she was going to Buenos Aires. No email address, so I guess I'll have to send a letter in Italian, since she doesn't speak English.

Finished and moving on

After I couched the rayon yarn, I felt the stems and leaves were too out of proportion, so used my cropping mat to work out that the only really interesting part was the flowers. So I lopped off the lower third, played around with pink and green borders and bindings, and went for a narrow emerald green.

I left the colour as it was on the photo, since the previous one that I 'enhanced' came out very lurid on my desk top monitor, and on a few websites where I posted it. Not sure if this monitor needs calibrating, or if the photoshop is not so reliable.

I just started assembling the neutrals I want to try out for the poppy project. But time for bed.

A hot day for surfing

I found a link on the quiltart list this morning to a bead sale at http://www.craft4me.com/, who are apparently going out of beads. There were 24 pages of 1214 lots of beads, so it must have taken me at least an hour to check through them all and purchase what appealed. As always some of the more unusual lots were already out of stock. But I feel happy with the choices I made, some light, some dark, some pinks, and yellows, which I have none of in my stash.

I continued with the FMQ piece yesterday, adding some bright green chiffon with the embellisher for the stems and leaves. The colour isn't perfect, but I think it will do. I could overlay with a yellower colour but it might get a bit heavy. I did the beads in the centre of one pansy, and have the second one to do. Then I will couch a rayon thread over the outline of the flowers to make it stand out. I'd like to stop there!

The embellisher did a great job of pinching in the wavy outside edges of the piece. That often is the problem if your stitching doesn't go off the edge at regular intervals. I'm loving my new toy!

Shirley and Lyn got on fine, and we are talking about meeting once a month for sharing of new ideas and techniques. Will have to see if we can make the commitment, since we are all pretty busy.

A very hot, but dry air day here. Good for swimming - yay!

creative play

I gave myself permission to play with FMQ yesterday on a piece of hand-dye that I used for the previous piece. Partly inspired by Bonnie McCaffery's vidcast of Larkin Van Horn, I let my stitching waffle about where it wanted. First separating the larger areas of colour division, then infilling with what seemed a good idea. I did garnet stitch in 3 different threads, and prefer the flat, darker thread top left to the variegated and the lighter one bottom left of right pansy. I did a candle flame fill on the light area to the left bottom, and that worked well. Had some problems with a 30 wt cotton thread. Did not do well with a 90 topstitch needle, but better with a microtex. Also bottom line in the bobbin was too fine and a cheap linty white thread worked better. After I did a few amoeba in some green areas, I 'saw' some pansies in the lighter yellow, so did them with a few lines of straight stitch and then zigzag in two colours and widths. They are quite puffy, like they want some trapunto. I didn't like the large blobs of light grey, so mixed up some shiva paintsticks and daubed very lightly with various greens. Shadowed in some stems. Not sure that was a good idea, but hard to undo. So now what? Add some sheer ribbon for the stems? Add some French knots for the centres? Beads? Or just file it as a learning piece?

I have Shirley Goodwin and Lyn Winter coming to meet each other at coffee time. They are both tutors from Rangiora going to Symposium in March. Very different styles and different ladies. Wonder how they will get on?

Trying not to go back to normal

I am trying to develop new habits, and I feel that might be easier if I am trying to change a whole lot of things at once. Otherwise it seems too easy to slip back into how things used to be.

I am trying to change my mouse hand from right to left. Can't do it all day yet, as makes my arm sore, but it should get easier. The biggest problem so far seems to be how to eat meals alone without watching TV.

Yesterday I finished the calligraphy piece. Let's think of a title. How about "Only Truth"?

I am happy with it. I did as usual spend a long time auditioning fabrics and techniques only to come back to the simplest quilting with beads. It reminds me of a medieval castle door with studs, and the border quilting is inspired by the flourishes that come after old signatures. The transfer print was fairly firm, and wouldn't have suited a lot of stitching. I bought a silk necklace ribbon that was the perfect colour to make the border edging. I really like the two colours together. Actually I really like the hand dye that I did at Jane's a while ago. I have another piece a similar size on the table and am tempted to have a go at just quilting it free flow. But must focus on the poppy project and not get side tracked.

There are a couple of study and class options coming up in the next couple of weeks as well, so I should spend this week on the poppy project (are you listening, brain?).

Glorious day - sunny and with lots of air - gives a buoyant feel. The perfect summer weather.

I am human

Yes, well, it's Jan 3rd, and already after 9.30 and I have not yet switched off the computer to start on my focus for the day. However, in my defence it is the weekend, and therefore semi-OK.

Had a typical distraction day yesterday, but not entirely unfruitful. I was stumped as usual with a stitching design for the border of the calligraphy piece. Wanted a scroll type of thing, so went through some old Q magazines looking for inspiration. Checked online. Nothing. So ended up doing a simple meandering figure of 8, which worked well enough. As usual spent some time pondering whether to bind or zigzag, and went with zigzag. It does tend to make the edges wavy, though. In the past I have had to do 3 or 4 passes to tighten it up. This time I even did the first two passes before I trimmed, hoping to make a difference, but apart from the fact that is was easier to sew, it made no difference. Just have the coached silk tubing to add and some beads, and I will call it done, as in resolution number whatever.

Did find some old QArts mags, that could do with a re-read, since my interests have moved on. It's only a week till the embellisher class starts, which I'm looking forward to. But that will only increase my repertoire, and playtime, and not contribute to my two immediate projects. Tomorrow I will have to get back to my day job, but I also hope to start with the neutrals background to see if the project that is so alive in my imagination will actually draw breath.

I am a bit irritated that I constantly run up against this border stitching problem, but if I am letting a piece evolve and I don't have a structural plan at the beginning, I don't see an easy answer. Well, no border, or a pieced border, would make things more straightforward. Maybe that will be my mission this year - work out several border options for those cases where nothing is clear.

Off with the computer and on with the sewing machine!

Immediate art aims

There are two ideas that are in the early stages of development.

The big forest project has made a small amount of progress. Time at Jane's working on textured effects using distressed pellon, silk fusion and netting led to me working up the bark piece of silk fusion with threads and beads. At this stage I have not decided if the two trees will be similar (Jane thinks they should be to aid the viewer to enter the picture), and also if each tree will be made of a homogeneous batch of textures, or if there will be separate areas of different textures. This needs to be decided in the next week.

Also in the next week or two, I need to paint the pellon to be distressed in various blotches of suitable colours. To do that, I need to play with colour mixing, or go to Jane's for her paints or dyes.

Later, the back layers will need drafting for both structure, composition and contrast. I have not decided if there will be focal objects, or if the composition will lead the eye up a vanishing path.

The second project is the neutral palette idea with printed and stitched poppies. I have practised drawing poppies, and printing others using transfer paper. I like the idea of a base fabric made from rectangles of neutrals with texture. The poppies could be in a foreground layer, either separate or semi-attached. The whole thing could be behind glass. The glass could even be etched. Next stage will be trying out fabrics and textures for the background. Have been in touch with Sue Snell about using her line drawings.

Meanwhile, I have to find a frame or structure for the bark sample.

Also finish the calligraphy journal piece. Aim for next 2 days.

The time to start is now.

Goal setting

It's New Year's Day, and there's no escaping the fact that now is the time to set out the goals for 2009, and make a start on reaching them.

Areas that I would like to be improved by this time next year:

Tidier, more organised house
Warmer and increased number of friendships
A special man in my life
Fitter, more toned body
Focused development of art life.

Areas that I want to diminish
Distraction, mess, clutter, in both house and head
'non-attentive' time, e.g. mindless TV, crosswords, reading blogs and group mail.

Goal 1: Daily routine
On days I don't have to go into school for the day: read email while having breakfast. Do not answer any except urgent mails. Do not answer any group mails or go off into links etc. Do not write blog. Get dressed. Do 20 minutes Pilates, or 40 minutes walking plus swimming later in day where appropriate. The aim is - ready to start work or creative endeavour by 9 am or earlier.

Do outside work where appropriate from 9 to 11 (unless spraying at 6 am). i.e. before wind gets up and spoils the day.

One hour to do either work or play until lunchtime. Eat lunch and do all the mail stuff. Do not watch meal-time TV. Write blog

Work, study or do creative work for afternoon.

Try to eat at 6.30, and then won't be tempted to watch rubbish TV.

Go out maybe 3 nights, choir, photography, dancing, movies.

Do all this for 4 weeks and then review.

Goal 2:
Work towards specific body of work. Write in creative journal what the aims are for each piece. If the piece is just to finish up an experimental sample, do not spend a lot of time making it perfect. That is time to be spent on development. When doing classes or studying books, make a written plan for how this is leading to the B of W. Rather than doing things that just appeal, find the gaps in skill base or development and work to fill those.

Goal 3:
One day a month (the first or nearest to first suitable day), do some de-cluttering of office, or wardrobe, or garage. At least 2 hours.

Goal 4:
Develop better social networks. Ask people who have the life I want, what is their secret?
Invite 5 or 6 people to dinner at least every 8 weeks.

Goal 5:
Ring up all men on CC lists by January 12th.

Goal 6:
One day a month (last or nearest to last suitable day) review life plan and do at least 2 hours writing life script, visualisation or other training.

Goal 7:
Allocate one workbook of Japanese to every 2 week period. Aim to work consistently through year.


This evolved into much more of a life list than an art list, but I am happy with my choices.

Art goals in next post.