The New Year So Far

This is the story of January.

      Last year i signed up to take two courses online this winter:   Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist  with Abbey of the Arts ,  and Still Life at Quilt University.  Both classes have started.   And I like them both at this time.  WMPA keeps me very busy, as there are 25 people enrolled and they post new stuff everyday or send in photos they have taken.  WMPA has to do with instilling into your work your spirituality.   I learn that most of the people there are affiliated with some religious grouping of some kind, but not necessarily Catholic.  It is a fascinating class and the people are from all over the world.  They are traditional painters and mixed media artists.  There is even another woman there who quilts.

The Still Life class is one where I'll be making a still life scene from fabric and learning basic rules and regulations for the GIMP (freeware and like photoshop)  I feel that I will learn a lot from it.

and meeting and talking with the healthy

  

May your blessings continue this new year!

The New Year--2011

Made for gift exchange among Piecemakers

      The New Year has rolled in all quiet and quick.   Already, 10 days have flown by.   At our annual Christmas party, the Piecemakers exchange gifts through some sort of fun game activity.  This was the bag I made for that event.   it turned out nicely with the sewing theme even followed into the lining, which I found at Ingrams'.

      Since then, I've been working away on model blocks for the CQ Sadie and I are teaching to the group.  Several of the ladies said they'd always wanted to know how to do a CQ.   And because we're teaching a QAYG technique too, several have expressed interest in learning how to do that also.   I had great idea to make several white on white blocks to use to teach quilting (on your home machine)  using either straight lines  or free motion .  I hope everyone who wants to try the free motion was/is able to get darning foot for next meeting.    And maybe one with white background as we plan to use as background and sashing for all the blocks.  Will post pictures of model quilting on blocks soon. 

May 2011 bring lots of quilting joy!

Fabric Christmas Cards 2010

I experimented with adding paper to a couple cards this year.

Two  showing more detail.

I made about 30.   Wish I'd made more this year.   Will have to start earlier next year, God willing.

I Need Some Conversation Up in Here!

    It is snowing in the mountains and in the valley.  I'm snug and comfy within, wrapped in an old, old, housecoat given me one Christmas, long ago, by my sister.

     I've been exploring sites that offer tips about getting traffic to your blog.  I feel like "all the lonely people"  here just typing away and no one responding.   From Ezine@rticles I find a list by Denise Wakeman and Patsi Krakoff that has been viewed 85,000 times, so I figure all those viewers thought it was worth reading, at least the first time and maybe some of them returned.   Another site I read offered "5 Blogging Basics You Can't Live Without "by Nate Moller, who then has lots of comments from other bloggers agreeing or disagreeing with his suggestions.  I registered my blog on Planet USA.

     I wonder how the quilters who I list in my Quilters Love List on the right got friends and strangers to visit their blogsites.    Well, if you're reading this and you have tips to share, I'd sure appreciate it.

"I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a couple times since then."

                                                                    Alice in  Alice in Wonderland

Elizabeth Barton on Cliches

"Clichés very definitely exist in the abstract world too; I think the “wall of sound” type of abstract work has had its day (even though several people continue to produce them!), also empty spaces filled with complicated dense machine quilting and then the occasional shape or line, wildly painted or dyed cloth that is randomly cut up and sewn back together, strip piecing for its own sake and so on."



" The point about good art is that it slows us down, makes us think, shows us a new way of looking at things.  Moreover, it’s a way we won’t forget and will want more of."

It is interesting to read what someone who is a national teacher of quilting and known in the quilt world thinks or defines as "cliche " in that world.   It's not something I knew.   Like the child I find I'm constantly amazed at what people do with cloth and machine.   And with the long arm artists these days, one wonders if there is anything that can't be done.  And yet, I feel if a young or new quilter makes sunflowers or a log cabin quilt, she's or he's exploring what can or cannot be done  afresh in this medium

Christmas Comes

Making Christmas fabric cards for special friends.  Having fun.

New Portrait

Been working on this for a while.   Our church held its first annual Thanksgiving dinner on Nov. 21 and combined that with a "roast" for our priest, Fr. Livinus Uba.   I started working on the portrait back in September, but it was an off and on again affair.   Selecting fabrics to capture the lights and shadows of his face presented problems, but it turned out okay.  

     The simplified sketch above was made from a tracing I did from the original photograph I took.  This line drawing was blown up and then copied onto freezer paper, which became my pattern. I used steam-2-seam fusible to lay the portrait pieces, then quilted after assembling the whole portrait.  I came upon a new method of framing these portraits in the recent QN, (I think that was the magazine) that I plan to try.   It calls for another quilt which provides a frame for this one and to which you attach the portrait.  Looks fairly simple, but I'll let you know when it's done.

I appreciate your visit.

Online Quilt Festival

Happened by chance upon an online quilt festival, hosted by Amy's Creative Side The fall/winter festival results were just published in November. Each quilt is accompanied with a story of why the quilt has significance for the quilter. The stories and the quilts are beautiful to behold. I'd love to enter a quilt in the spring festival if it is held in 2011.

Also, read about Mandy Chilvers who hosts a site calling for an art card each week -- Sunday Postcard Art.  A theme word is posted and artists respond by creating a work that represents in some way the word's meaning to them. Neat idea. I like the idea of a weekly challenge for its power to inspire one to make something complete each week. The work portrayed is awesome in every category.  

                                           Sampling from 4 boxes of quilt magazines.

Magazines ----Old magazines---4 boxes bought at an estate sale from 1970's forward. Very interesting. Lots of templates. Lots of traditional designs for quilts. I've read and read and read. Little representation of AA quilters or other American Ethnic groups. In Dec. /Jan. 2010 issue of QN there was a letter by a reader who excoriated the editors for printing 3 pages of quilts made to celebrate the election of President Obama. Looking back over 50 years of quilting magazines, and seeing perhaps 5 AA quilters represented in those 3 boxes of magazines, I wondered why that reader was so angry at 3 pages.  

Festivals and Bazaars

                                           WV Hills -Moonlit

In summer there are street festivals, in winter, bazaars.  For the quilt artist, neither venue offers much in the way of financial compensation for the time and energy given to their work, if they desire to sell it.   At the recent St. Peter Claver Winter Bazaar,  patrons appeared much more interested in food and small items of practical use. Perhaps it is the times in which we live, now. While it is enjoyable to meet the public and have your work admired, it is on the other hand frustrating to watch them walk away without a piece of you work in hand.
       Still I find deep joy in creating, bringing into manifestation some image or vision.  That process lifts one out of the state of ordinary selfness into a purer state of in-the-moment awareness.  For many artists, achieving that state of being is enough; for others there is the  hunger for affirmation in more commercial ways.
       Pondering this dilemma I realize that different skills are needed to develop oneself into a "commercial" artist.  Not only must one be the creator of the work, but the skills of marketing come into play:  marketing analysis, advertising, promoting, pricing, etc.
It's daunting.  I suppose that is why so many artist never get out of their own studios.  Rather, their body of work grows, but languishes in dank and darker and darker storage places as space permits.  The will to sell or be accepted into museums, shows, or even teaching venues is washed away by the sheer curve of learning needed to achieve the skills necessary to go to that level of sharing one's work.