Old & New

Ha! I finally finished my postcard for December's Take It Further challenge!

This is the one I'm keeping for myself. I wanted to use some of what Paula had sent me so I started with a piece of one of the silks for the base. Then I played around and played around with the bits of embroidery and sequin work that was also in the package. That's one reason this card has been so long in coming. In the end I only used that little gold embroidered sun. I had the bone hand buttons in my stash, along with the heart sequin and the commercial applique wings (which I believe another friend of mine gave me some years ago). So this piece is about the things I've been given and how it makes my heart feel to both give and receive. (I seed beaded the background. It took me about an hour.)

I have my very first TIF card to put a back on and then the set will be complete. A couple of them did not get the Peltex interfacing so they're much more flimsy than the others. I feel pretty good about mastering this particular format (the postcard quilt). The edges are still problematic but I'm not willing to invest much more time and effort into perfecting them.

I will miss Sharon's monthly concept challenges; I found them very stimulating. The ideas were almost more fun to explore than to execute. I wonder what that says about me?

In searching for a way to challenge myself this year I considered a lot of options. For some reason, I could not come up with a set of challenges that would carry on in the same vein as the TIF challenges. Eventually I remembered this box:

It contains textiles I've collected over the last couple of decades. There are embroidered dish towels a neighbor made and used until the embroidery is about the only part of the towel that's still intact. There are small molas, some batik panels, other vintage embroideries... Things I was intrigued by and thought would be fun to incorporate into a quilt someday. (You may be able to see that I labeled the box "Inspiration Pieces.")

Then I was downtown one day and came across these boxes on a clearance table:

They are 14" square and about 3" deep. Perfect for 12" quilt blocks! Except there were only these two boxes and I have enough blocks of various sizes to fill a stack of boxes. I bought 'em anyway, figuring I'd find a way to put them to good use. I mean, you saw how dilapidated that cardboard box was! I finally decided to use the dotted box for my inspiration pieces and the striped box for my orphan blocks. They look so cheerful and inviting on my shelf. :- )

So one of my goals for 2009 is to actually use those inspiration textiles. But I'm not going to try to do one a month. I think that would be asking too much of myself. Instead I will try to work steadily on one piece at a time until it is complete, and let it be whatever it wants to be in terms of size and style. I still wanted a project I could complete once a month though - I like the sense of accomplishment that provides. So I have decided that I will make one preemie quilt per month. And in my ongoing quest to complete old projects, those black and white and pink friendship blocks will get set into a top once and for all. (Notice I didn't say anything about getting them made into an actual quilt?!)

Happy New Year!

Once again, it's hard to believe time has passed and we're into not only a new month but a whole new year. I have some catching up to do before I embark on my new ventures for 2009. My December TIF postcard still has not been stitched, although I feel like I can take a pass because I made this card in response to someone else's generosity:

Paula was doing a clear-out and shared some bits and pieces of old saris from her stash with me. I whipped up the postcard above as a thank you. The yellow center was an orphan block from my stash, about 3" square. I chose it because the hearts on either side of the X speak to me of a generous heart on one side and a grateful heart on the other. After that it was simply a matter of bringing it up to size (4" x 6") and embellishing it. In addition to the bluebird sequin and the flower pot button with ribbon flower I used some short bugle beads to emphsize the lines of the X shape and sequined the dots in the purple polka dot print. Quick and fun :- )

Now I'm trying to incorporate at least a couple of the bits Paula sent me into a postcard that I will keep as part of my collection of TIF challenge responses. So technically I'm making two postcard quilts for the challenge this month.

This is how I've been displaying my postcard quilts:


When I began this challenge a year ago I purchased a small photo album that I thought I would use to store the postcards. Then my second card ended up being so dimensional that it wouldn't fit into the sleeve. That's when I started lining them up along the bookshelf.

A short time ago I went out to look for something to store the postcards in as I don't feel the need to have them on display all the time. I came home with this:


And the cards fit nicely inside:

I'm even thinking of making a special card to affix to the front of the tin as a label. But don't hold your breath!

Since we have DD and family here for the day I will save my plans and goals for another post. In the meantime, let me officially begin this new year by wishing everyone who reads my blog (whether you comment or not ~ hint hint!) a year full of creative energy and the time and resources to make the most of it.

November's Take It Further Challenge

The Take It Further challenge for November was to use typography as inspiration. You may recall that I had quite a bit of fun doing research for this challenge. You may also recall that I said I hoped to make this month's challenge postcard quilt do double duty as the second embroidered piece for the Sumptuous Surfaces class I'm taking. Ha! How many of you guessed that that little plan would fall by the wayside? Gold star on your forehead if you did because you're right.

I got stalled on my monochromatic piece for the Surfaces class because I needed to refresh my embroidery skills. To that end I put together a little band sampler...

but have not taken a single stitch yet. Meanwhile I was playing with design ideas for both the TIF challenge and the color assignment for the Sumptuous Surfaces class. As Thanksgiving came and went I realized that there was no way I would even come close to meeting the deadline for the TIF challenge if I were to embroider it. The plans I had for a stitched piece were far too intricate to pull off in a pieced version. So I went back to Flickr.com and had another look around. There was one photograph that stood out in my mind, one that I really wanted to interpret in fiber. One that would also be very easy to piece. After a while I realized that I could, in fact, make it work for this challenge because the shape of the composition creates an 'L'. Voila! Typographical inspiration! You can see the photo here. And here's my version of it:

I have added the address designation "L11" in simple straight stitches to reference the typographical inspiration and the month of the challenge. The stitches themselves and the color I chose to do them in are the only two elements I might change if I were to do this over again. Black was too harsh, but the natural thread is almost too light. It's a bamboo floss that I have used in my monochromatic embroidery piece so it was right at hand, easy to use.

Now Sharon has posted the challenge for December: "For the final challenge of the year and since it is the gift giving season and many of us run ourselves ragged either making gifts or buying them I want to ask what is the idea of generosity to you. That is the theme for this month. So just take a few moments and think about what it is to give and how would you represent that visually." Oi vay!

It's Been a Busy Week!

It all started with a full day on the computer, doing research for the typography challenge for Take It Further in November. I played around with fonts and monogram arrangements for my initials, but eventually ended up on Flickr.com looking at hundreds of pictures of signs and then house numbers and the cornerstone/date blocks of buildings. There's some great stuff out there! Especially in England where they have really old buildings with stonework and carvings the like of which you don't see anymore. It was fascinating to note the different typefaces used in different time periods. I discovered that I am more drawn to numbers than letters. At least for the time being ;- )

If you go to Flickr.com along the top of the page you'll see a horizontal menu bar. 'Groups' is one of the buttons. Click on the tiny triangle and you'll get a drop-down menu. Choose 'Search for a Group' and then type in the word letters or typography or numbers or signs or whatever you can think of and you'll get a list of groups fitting that topic. Who knew there would be a group for "beautiful numbers?!" Click on the name of the group that seems the most fitting for what you're looking for and voila! hundreds of pictures to peruse. But be careful - I wasn't kidding when I said I spent a whole day doing research. Most of that time was spent on Flickr!

The next thing I tackled was my assignment for the Sumptuous Surfaces class. Everyone has designed their own piece to embroider and texturize. I chose to depict a house built into a sand dune. Sort of a hobbit hole if you will. This piece is to be done in a neutral monochromatic palette. I have the faintest touch of green in a varigated cotton floss I've used but other than that everything is pretty much the same color so far.

I've only just begun the stitching; there's a lot more to do. I keep thinking I need to introduce at least another shade (darker probably) but haven't succeeded in finding the right threads so far. Yesterday I went out to look locally and came home with another texture, but it's the same color. Oh well.

The next assignment will involve color. We don't get that lesson until next week or the week after though so I don't know what I'll be doing yet. I am severely tempted to combine that assignment with the November typography challenge though. How fun would it be to illustrate a single letter or number in color and texture?!

The Magpie's Nest

I have finally completed my postcard for October's Take It Further challenge.

The challenge itself was straightforward enough... it just took me a couple of weeks to realize that the answer - the design - was right in front of my face! (Which is where it usually is. When am I going to save myself some time and start by looking there?)

Sharon's challenge for October was to think about our textile workspace and how we feel about it or what role it plays in our lives. I mentioned in an earlier post that I spend nearly all day, every day, in my studio. It's the best-lit room in the house and I need lots of light. It wasn't until I journaled about the topic one morning that it became clear to me that I feel about my studio the way I think a bird would feel about its' nest. It is a place of safety and refuge. I go elsewhere to get food (which may or may not be consumed in my nest/studio), and like a magpie I keep (nearly) all my treasures there. (When I settled on a name for this blog of mine I didn't realize quite how accurate it was! At the time I was thinking about the stories I'd heard of magpies collecting sparkly things and decorating their nests with them.)

Once I decided to give in and just make a nest all sorts of other design issues cropped up. Realistic or no? Try to fit in some of the things you'd find in my studio? How to construct it, how to embellish it, what colors to use? Finally I got into my scrap bags and pulled out some colors I wanted to work with. I thought it was going to be bright pure hues but that didn't happen. Instead I found myself trying to achieve a sense of depth by manipulating the values of the colors in the nest. Not sure I succeeded on that point. But using the leaf print to indicate a tree and finding the scrap of the 1930's reproduction print of the scottie dogs were serendipity. Because the scotties are so small it gives the illusion of distance between the nest and the dogs. And it was appropriate to use because I always have a dog or two running around the tree my nest is in!

I have tried to load this so you'll be able to click on the picture of the whole postcard and see it larger. I also did a detail shot of the nest so you can see the short little 'sticks' of yarn that I used to try to make the log cabin piecing look more nest-like.

Those were yarn color samples I collected back when I was making dolls. I was pleased to have finally found a use for some of them. I used another yarn to soften the seamlines of the leaf print and to try to give a stronger impression of leaves or a tree. Magpies always have to have their sparkle so I used as many beads as I could get away with too :- )

Now I can turn my attention to November's challenge, which is to use typography as inspiration. That means using the shape of letters or numbers as design elements rather than interpreting any particular text. Should be interesting. GuzzieSue has already done a 3-D piece based on the letter 'S'. Since I am also a Sue the letter 'S' would be a logical place for me to start as well. But that would be obvious, right in front of my face, and we can't have that!!!

October Take It Further Challenge

I still haven't picked up a needle and thread or fabric. Well, I did finally wash and press the new fabric for the binding of my Halloween quilt. I know from past experience that not sewing isn't healthy for me. On the up side, I feel better and less grouchy today than I have for the last several days. So maybe I'm on my way back to normal. I suspect there have been several factors at work this time around, not simply chemical exposure. We human beings are a complex lot!

In the spirit of getting back to normal let me share with you this month's Take It Further challenge: "... think about your textile work space. How do you feel about this space? What role does it play in your life?"

I live in my textile work space!

I usually only go out into the rest of the house to retrieve something or take care of some chore. Mostly because this room is one of the few that gets good natural light during the course of a day. The kitchen gets pretty good light too, but that's the last place I want to spend my time...

My blessed husband understands and supports my need to create. He readily agreed to let me have the master bedroom of this house for my studio. So I have a fair amount of space (or had, before I filled it up with books and fabric and work surfaces!) with the bathroom and laundry facilities just a few steps away. The only thing I might change, given the opportunity, would be to add even more square footage. However, I know what it's like to have only a corner of a room for your textile pursuits, and to have to put everything away between work sessions. I've had to do that too. Not Fun.

My studio space is my refuge, my sanctuary. Even when I don't sew a stitch I spend my time surrounded by the tools and materials of my trade. It comforts me, inspires me, makes me feel secure. This room keeps me alive. Not quite sure yet how I'm going to portray this but at least now I'm thinking about it :- )

About That List...

It was a rough week, but I think I'm back. In fact, I couldn't believe how much I got done yesterday. I pin basted three quilts and made my postcard quilt for this month's Take It Further challenge!

You may recall that the concept challenge for this month was lists. Not being one to go for the obvious, I have a list 5 pages long of potential ideas ;- ) I even went so far as to toy with the idea of 'enlisting' Shakespeare's help with this challenge. The ghost of King Hamlet appears to his son (also named Hamlet) and says, "List, list, O list! If thou didst ever thy dear father love..." It would have been fun to portray the ghost and Hamlet on the parapet of the castle. A bit much for a 4" x 6" postcard quilt though.

Finally, the day before yesterday, I asked myself what Reilly's To Do list would look like.

I concluded that it would be pretty short, and fairly easy to illustrate:

1. Eat

2. Sleep

3. Play

Of course, 'play' includes things like barking at the neighbor kids, telling me it's time for a treat, snatching a dirty sock from the laundry basket and running off with it, and generally being a nuisance when I have other things to do. I figured dogs aren't into detailed lists, though, so this would suffice. This postcard was pieced from four different prints, then I did some hand embroidery to highlight certain elements and added the letter beads and the blue "ball" bead in the lower right corner. Now I can begin putting the ties in my Fungly quilt or tackle one of the other things on my To Do list!

Did You Think I'd Forgotten...

... about the Take It Further challenge for August? I didn't! It's been in the back of my mind all month while I finished up the Studio Journal class and started on the Fungly quilt.

The challenge this month was to consider the issue of balance in our lives. Specifically, Sharon asked, "What is balance to you? Do you maintain a balanced life? How do you balance aspects of your life?"

My life is much less complex than many people's lives are these days. There's less in it to balance than there was even three years ago. Nevertheless I often feel torn or out of balance in my activities. I do not feel that I live a balanced life, and I am easily thrown off balance.

There seemed to be a lot of options for interpreting this topic in textiles. I made notes, even drew a sketch of one idea. Finally, a few days ago, this came out of my morning journal session: Sailing a boat to a destination is rather like the way we navigate through our days and our lives. Not everyone has had the experience of sailing a boat, but it still seems a very apt metaphor to me. You have to focus your energies and attention on different activities at different times, you have to change plans at a moment's notice, and there are times when you are becalmed or just sailing smoothly and you can sit back and enjoy the scenery. Sometimes when you are becalmed it's up to you, the sailor, to make things happen. Balancing the activities and events in our lives is not a static thing. It is not a place we reach and stay at for any amount of time. It is constantly changing, and requiring us to adapt and change as well. Unexpected gusts of wind can throw us off course or threaten to dump us in the drink.

So I rummaged around in my stash and found a print of boats under sail. I was able to cut a 4" x 6" piece which I then hand quilted to a piece of batting. I may be a Quilter but hand quilting is not a process I particularly enjoy. I considered that my fulfillment of the "take it further" aspect of this month's challenge! I doubt that you can see it in the photograph but I tried to indicate the wind blowing with my quilting lines. In the 'water' part of the picture I quilted in horizontal lines.


I probably got more out of this challenge in the thought process than in the production of the postcard quilt. That's okay though. Maybe I'll be a little easier on myself in the future as a result.

Oh, and FYI, I have decided to just finish the Fungly quilt at the size it currently is. Thanks to those of you who contributed your thoughts on the matter :- )

Here's a shot of it on my kitchen floor:

And in keeping with the fun+ugly theme, this is what I've put together for the back:

The Mary Engelbreit print is just big enough to accomodate the width of the top, and the snapdragon print ("Petal Pets" from a long time ago) at either end give it the necessary length. Now all I have to do is get the layers assembled so I can tie it!

Life is a Collage

We're in our sixth and final week of the studio journal class, and this week the focus is on collage.

Collage can be defined as "an assemblage of diverse elements" (per Dictionary.com). Of all the design techniques/exercises that Sharon has given us so far, this feels the most comfortable to me. I think that's probably because it most closely approximates the way I work: gathering and assembling an assortment materials into a cohesive whole (I hope!).

I've made a couple of collages in my journal but I don't think either of them will be taken any further into fiber. That's okay though. Practice is practice and all of it is valuable.

Speaking of taking it further, this is the challenge Sharon has posed for the month of August:

"In my chaotic and hectic life I often admire people who are able to maintain balance in their lives. What is balance to you? Do you maintain a balanced life? How do you balance aspects of your life? That is the challenge this month - balance."

The challenge of balancing our creative endeavors with the rest of the activities and demands in our lives came up often amongst the students in the studio journal class. It's an ongoing struggle, even here in the Magpie's Nest where life is pretty calm in comparison to the rest of the world!

I'm not sure there could be a better metaphor for life than collage. Don't we spend the bulk of every day trying to bring a collection of diverse elements into some kind of order? That order, whatever it looks like for an individual, creates balance in that person's life. And generally that's when we feel the calmest or most in control of our lives.

In spite of the fact that I'm trapped at home, where one could assume that my life would be very routine (ie: balanced) nearly every day brings something into my world that throws me off balance in one way or another. I don't feel that I have yet succeeded in creating a harmonious collage out of my daily life. At least, not on a consistent basis. Still working on it. In fact, I'm going to keep working on it every day I'm allowed.

Having said all that, I don't have a clue yet what I will do for my August Take It Further postcard quilt!

July TIF

The question Sharon posed for July's Take It Further Challenge was, "What is it to be at the half way mark?"

What? That's it? That's almost too easy.

Ha. Not as easy as it seemed. I spent more time pondering, fretting, writing, and stewing over this challenge than any of the others she has given us this year. I have 14 pages of notes and sketches in my TIF sketchbook for this challenge alone. The ideas I had were either too trite or too complicated for the 4" x 6" format I've chosen for this project. Sheesh.

Finally I dug around in my stash for the umpteenth time and pulled out a ruler print I'd recently acquired. It's one of the Wee Play coordinates from Moda:

I fussy cut a strip with the numbers 1 through 6 and another strip with 7 through 12. Fortunately the strips fit beautifully within the 6" dimension of my postcard format! I figured each inch could represent one months' challenge and I would give myself a gold star for each challenge I had completed. Still a pretty simple concept but at least I have something to show for July. Went ahead and gave myself another gold star too!

And there has been a little action on the new preemie quilt:

Still a ways to go but hopefully I'll be able to knock it out pretty soon. One good day of concentrated effort ought to take care of it :- )

What's the Story?

This particular story is about my postcard quilt for June's Take It Further challenge.

The challenge was to "think about stories that are and stories that are possible." That really threw me for a loop because there seemed to be so much to choose from. Sharon came up with the challenge based on her ruminations about our stashes. My stash includes everything from vintage fabrics to new prints and a variety of embellishments to boot.

I thought I was going to use an assortment of fabrics, even some vintage ones perhaps. But in the end I used only one print, and I used it because one tiny image in the print sparked a question in my own mind.


Do you see the little sign in front of the farmhouse? It says "Farm for Sale." I saw that and wondered what the story might be behind that sign. Why is the farm for sale? It looks to me like the print was designed to represent the Great Depression of the 1930's but I didn't really want to focus on that specifically. Besides, the farmhouse in the print wouldn't fit in my 4" x 6" format. So I cut and pieced bits of the print until I felt I had a cohesive whole. There are actually seven patches in this little postcard quilt.


Once I had it pieced I did some embroidery to highlight specific features.


I would have preferred to have had the farmhouse in the picture, but I did the best I could with what I had. Overall I'm pleased with it, and I used some embroidery stitches I haven't used in a long time, thereby taking it further!

Take It Further for May

So after I finished piecing the journal quilt page for April I decided I would tackle my Take It Further challenge piece for May. My most recent decision had been to use this postcard top I pieced in May, specifically for the challenge:

Just for kicks I went back through my tiny stash of previously pieced postcard tops. Look what I found:


Clear, bright colors... a witch sort of overlooking it all (Halloween is my favorite holiday)... sewn intuitively from scraps... this could work! It certainly shows how I'm working at the moment, in the hues I naturally gravitate to.

I started auditioning beads and buttons and before I knew it I had this:

Ta daa!

The challenge was "What do you call yourself and why?" I may not make 'fine art' but I do consider myself an artist first and foremost. When pressed I use the term textile artist because everything I do begins with a textile of some kind. This card demonstrates how I use my medium of choice.

I guess the way I see it, I'm an artist because I do notice the small details (March's TIF challenge) and it matters to me that they be arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way. I may see things a little differently from other people or I may notice things that others might miss. I definitely enjoy creating a little story or vignette. I have practiced my craft and sought out skills and knowledge that enhance the creative decisions I make and allow me to express myself in a unique way.

Now I'm thinking that the postcard I pieced for May might actually work for June's challenge...!

Q4L Blocks and June's Take It Further Challenge

Woohoo! I feel good again! No headache, I have energy and enthusiasm... I feel normal for the first time in days! Hallelujah! (Now if I can just keep from screwing it up somehow.)

Yesterday I made four of these log cabin style tulip blocks to donate to Quilts 4 Leukaemia:


So now I have an even dozen to put in the mail. Here are a few more of the maverick blocks I pieced over the weekend:

I hope they won't be too hard for Clare to incorporate into one or more quilts.

I've put the red and white scraps away so I can now turn my attention back to the unfinished journal quilts and May's Take It Further postcard quilt. The TIF challenge for June has been posted too. This month the idea to think about is stories that are and stories that are possible.

This came about as a result of Sharon's musings on the types and the extent of 'stash' that we have in this day and age: "They are either purchased or scavenged materials that have accumulated over time and as such they often have a story to tell. Or it is possibly more correct to say that stashes are full of stories. The interesting thing for textile practitoners is that these materials can take on another story. They can be made into something new and take on other meanings in someones life.

Stashes also act as signifiers of wealth. Not only is the obvious wealth of what the stash actually costs to have and house but there is the psychological wealth of a stash because a stash is full of possibilities. While material is uncut it is rich with possible uses. Once you have committed to using it the material moves from being something that is full of potential to a project."

My first thought was how expansive this topic is compared to the very specific challenges we've had previously. That almost makes it harder for me because there's so much to choose froom. "Stories that are and stories that are possible." Whew!

I have both new and vintage or recycled materials in my stash(es). I am taken with the idea of using something that already has a history to make a new thing, thus adding to that history. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the coming weeks.

Take It Further for May

Technically I have two more days in which to finish my postcard quilt for May's TIF challenge. I might make it. I pieced two potential tops today. It remains to be seen which one I'll end up using. Or whether I piece yet another one!

My original idea for this month's challenge (in terms of your artistic endeavors, "What do you call yourself and why?") involved intuitive piecing and reverse applique. In the last week or so it dawned on me that perhaps the reason I'd been avoiding work on this challenge was that reverse applique is not in my usual bag of tricks. I've done a minimal amount of it, and on this small scale what I'd planned was certainly do-able, but I wasn't looking forward to it. So then I thought, "Why am I not using the techniques I normally use?" I consider myself an artist; the way I execute my postcard quilt will demonstrate the kind of artist I am. Duh.

Postcard number one:



Postcard number two:

All I have to do is embellish one of them in a way that I feel gives the viewer a good idea of the kind of art I'm making nowadays!

Here's a shot of what part of my design wall looks like at the moment:

This picture shows only about half of the design space I have available. But you can see the postcards and my unfinished BJP journal quilts lined up across the bottom. After the postcards I started piecing a top for that blank bit of batting in the middle. That will become my journal page for April. I'm going to get that pieced and then concentrate on embellishing this lot (six of the seven pieces you see on the wall; the single heart on a purple ground is still an orphan block). I only have one place where I can either sit and bead or sit and use the sewing machine. There have been times when I've had both a piecing project and a beading project going at the same time but I've since learned that it works better to focus on one or the other at any given time. I lose fewer beads that way ;- )

By the way, in case you hadn't read about it elsewhere, Sharon B of In A Minute Ago has started a new community site for those who have any interest at all in things related to stitching or fiberwork. It's called Stitchin' Fingers. She set it up in part for those who don't maintain a blog of their own as a place to share their efforts with others and to interact with like-minded individuals. Subsets within the larger community are being formed for specific interests or activities like swaps and round robins. You can check it out here.

Back to Everyday Life

Our regional weather guy keeps saying there's been sunshine in the area but I sure haven't seen any lately. The sky outside my studio window always seems to be one shade of gray or another. Which is probably why I need these sunshine-yellow flowers on the back deck where I can seem them at meal times!


The temperatures are a little closer to what they're supposed to be for this time of year but the sunshine has a greater impact for me. I am grateful, however, that we have not suffered any tornadoes or cyclones or other natural (or man-made) disasters.

My friend C~ was over here the other day to show me a quilt she'd recently acquired, I think at an antique shop. Except that it's obviously not an antique. The 'boxes' are all made from a fabric I recognize but can't give you any details about because I don't remember where or when I've seen it before. The seller thought the centers of the boxes looked like prints from the 1970's.

It's quilted in a simple undulating line. There are a few small holes in the backing, through which C~ has determined that the batting may be an 80-20 poly-cotton blend. I think she said she paid all of $35 for the quilt. Pretty good deal, I'd say!

I finished my journal quilt for March but haven't photographed it yet. That leaves three more journal quilts to complete for the Bead Journal Project this year. February's quilt needs to be embellished, April and May have to be pieced and embellished. I have an idea for my Take It Further postcard quilt for this month's challenge. We'll see whether that actually gets made or not. And that swap quilt I had to make a second one of? The blogger I was going to swap with has disappeared from the 'net! She hasn't updated her blog in over a month, nor has she responded to my emails to her. I'm a little worried. I hope nothing horrible has happened in her world. I'd sure like to show you what I made though!

Take It Further for May

Every month I think the Take It Further challenge can't be any more challenging than the previous month. Every month Sharon proves me wrong! This month the concept challenge is "What do you call yourself and why?" (This is in terms of the creative activities you engage in, not the roles of wife or mother or other such.) Oy!

I call myself a textile artist and this is why: I got bored one summer when I was about 10 so my mother bought me a crewel embroidery kit to give me something to do. That was fun and turned out well, all things considered. Mom even framed it and displayed it on the fireplace mantel. I was floored to see it still there the last time I visited before Mom passed and Dad sold the house. After that it was latch hook rug kits and eventually needlepoint. Then I started designing my own patterns for latch hook. I joined a chapter of the Embroiderer's Guild of America after I married and experimented with other types of needlework like huck weaving and hardanger, etc.

When my children were little I was uncomfortable having needles and sharp embroidery scissors and expensive canvases and yarns out and about. It wasn't long before I was looking for some "safer" way to express my creativity however. I'd been curious about patchwork but wasn't willing to make cardboard templates or sew the patches together by hand. Well, I did trace templates and scissor cut a stack of 3 1/2" squares and made a few 9-patch blocks on my Singer Athena 2000. That got old fast though. Eventually I invested in one of the new rotary cutters and a mat and ruler. Woohoo! I was on my way to mastering another set of skills.

I went through my midlife crises in the '90's (that's 1990's, not 1890's, thank you very much!). After reading elinor peace bailey's book Mother Plays With Dolls I started making cloth dolls. I also worked my way through Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. It was at this time that I became aware of the world of Art. And the debate about Art vs Craft. But my opinion about that issue is not the point of this epistle. My Dear Husband was instrumental in helping me to come to the conclusion that yes, in fact, I Am An Artist. We won't go into all the gory details but he finally convinced me of the truth of that statement. And now I am proud to be able to embrace it.

Because my artistic endeavors are so solidly grounded in the needlearts I use the term 'textile artist.' It distinguishes me from those who paint or sculpt. I have avoided the use of 'fiber artist' because people who knit or crochet or work with paper or reeds can also be considered fiber artists and I don't go there in my work. Everything I do is about creating new textile pieces or altering existing textiles. So I call myself a textile artist. Now, how do I show all that on a 4" x 6" postcard quilt?!

April's Take It Further Challenge

The challenge Sharon posed for the month of April was, "How do you see change?" She gave examples from her own life of times when she felt change was good and other times when it was not so welcome. I think all of us have had those experiences! And then there are various degrees to which we look forward to or dread change. How to depict this visually?I finally settled on a door. I figured how quickly one opens that door would indicate how welcome - or not- that change is in your life.

That was early in the month. Since then I've been working on a swap quilt and little else. But when I finished the swap quilt a few days ago I started thinking about this challenge again. I went online to find images of doors I might be able to use as inspiration. That search generated a couple of new ideas, one of which was to use a pair of doors rather than just one. I especially liked this picture of a pair of doors in Dublin, Ireland, taken by Luka Gentili. One door could represent happy, welcome, changes and the other could represent those changes we're sometimes forced to make whether we want to or not. And thus this 4" x 6" postcard quilt was born:


The photograph makes it look a little wonkier than it really is. The top is machine pieced (not paper pieced). The red trim around the doors is only a quarter of an inch wide. The hinges are created with bugle beads. One door knob is a glass bead, the other a pearl. I've discovered the blanket stitch on my sewing machine is a nice way to finish off the edges of these little quilts. I'm not using the stiff interfacing (Timtex or Peltex) in these postcard quilts. They're just a top, cotton batting, and watercolor paper for the back. They're a little less stout than postcard quilts made with the interfacing but I like the paper for the back because it makes it easy for me to label the work. For this application it's working fine.

And now, just for fun, a recent studio picture:

Happy Spring!

How Do You See Change?

Sharon has posted the Take It Further challenge for the month of April. You can read her full post here. What it boils down to is "How do you see change?" (There's a color challenge for those who want to do that but I have chosen to focus solely on the concept each month.) I marvel at how she comes up with these concepts and how challenging they can be!

There is a back story to this month's theme but it only served to highlight for me how easy it is to see both sides of most situations. Change can be a good thing and at the same time have undesirable components to it. Depending on the circumstances, sometimes I welcome change and sometimes I dread it or avoid it (and complain about it when I can't avoid it!). How in the world do I represent that visually?

My first thought was of a wall. Changes that are hard to accept or face would be the equivalent of an impenetrable wall of stone, very high, so that there's no obvious way over or around it. An exciting change, on the other hand, could be nothing more than a line on the ground that one merely steps over. And then there's the whole range of variables inbetween!

After another 24 hours or so I was able to morph those walls into doors. A hard or unpleasant change could be a heavy wooden door chained and padlocked. An welcome change could be a door standing open in an inviting way. But I'm doing 4" x 6" postcard quilts for this series of challenges. I didn't want to have to squeeze two doors into such a small format.

Finally I decided that a single door would suffice. If the door represents change, whether that change is perceived as desirable or not, you have to go through the door. If it's a change you're not looking forward to you may put off opening that door as long as possible. If it's a happy change you may yank that door open without any hesitation whatsoever! So now I just have to come up with my door :- )

TIF - March - Done!

I have been working on a project that I'm not ready to show you yet. But when I reached a point where I needed a break I started thinking about the Take It Further challenge for this month:

This month's challenge is to pay attention to the tiny details.

You can read about my initial response to this challenge here. I thought about doing a postcard quilt that would convey an impression of sunlight shining through a glass window/door like this:

Apparently that required too much mental effort on my part. Or it just wasn't interesting enough to me to follow through on it.

I got to thinking about the details in my life.

Too many details can become chaos...

But some details are essential:

Thread, a knot, stitches. Buttons can be a decorative detail. Guess the only thing I left out was the needle!

First Thoughts: TIF - March

Sharon has posted the Take It Further challenge for March:

Do you ever notice the little things, the small moments, the details in life? This months challenge is to do just that, pay attention to the tiny details. Sometimes the small things become emblematic for something larger.

My initial reaction was a rant of sorts. I am one of the people who does notice the small things, the details in life and the world around me. I notice things that other people don't even know exist! I notice so many things, in fact, that it drives me nuts sometimes. It's hard for me to see the big picture. As a perfectionist, it's the tiny details that I obsess over. And I'm supposed to do a piece of artwork about this?! Ack!

Once I got that out of my system other ideas came to me. For example, this would be an opportunity to do a journal quilt for the Bead Journal Project about a "big picture" something and then the TIF piece about a detail of that bigger picture. I probably won't do that though, as I'm afraid I would get bored with the subject matter (no matter what it was) and have a hard time finishing either piece. We Geminis get bored easily ;- )

After stewing over this for a while I went back and reread Sharon's words. This time it was the phrase "the small moments" that jumped out at me. I haven't read Elizabeth Berg's book Eat, Pray, Love, but I did see the Oprah show about it. Briefly mentioned was Elizabeth's practice of writing down the happiest moment of each day. I started doing that and, not surprisingly, have confirmed that it is the small moments that tend to be the happiest ones. This may become the theme for my Take It Further piece this month. It's still early yet; stay tuned for further updates...