Field Trips in Fiber

Stash Report and other things

Home from MQX and time to tally the damage. I think I did great! I only bought 8.5 yards. Aside from the convention I also went to 2 quilt shops; one in Massachusetts and Keepsake Quilting. I made it out of Keepsake with NOTHING!

We will not talk about the thread though. I bought lots and lots of thread but you can't beat getting Superior threads at wholesale. I don't have a wholesale license so these shows are the only times that I buy thread. They keep coming out with fantastic colors.

Judy recently set a specific stash reduction goal for the year. I laughed at her until she talked me into doing the same. I suppose she needs someone to be there with her on December 31 when the goal isn't met! Her goal is to have a net reduction of 150 yards. Ha! Not a chance that I'll set such a lofty goal. I'm going to set mine at 100 yards. Remember I'm just doing this for moral support. It will be a miracle if I actually do it.

• This week IN: 8.5
• This week OUT: 0
• YTD IN: 53.5 yards
• YTD out: 68.5 yards
• NET OUT: 15 yards (Goal 100 yards)

I don't have any fiber photos so I'll share a couple of photos that I took out in the yard last week. I was hoping to have updates from the bird boxes today but it's raining. If we get a break in the rain we will do a quick photo inventory.

In other news.....it's great to be home! I love going to quilt shows but I always really love coming home to my own environmental bubble and my bed. While I was away this week I used some of my time to re-think some of the things I am working on. As I work on preparing my list each week and always have more to do than time to do it in. I needed to reprioritize. 

I decided that I have 3 primary goals:

1. Make more advanced quilts that I can enter into shows and that will develop my quilting and design skills
2. Spend more time developing classes for my LQS and possibly develop more articles for publication
3. Make more community service quilts, especially QOV quilts

I also want to have time for:

• Making gifts
• Quilting for my Mom, Anne and Kim
• Learning more about color theory and dyeing - which could play into primary goal #2

What have I been spending my time on lately? I have been doing some community service quilting but I haven't worked on any of my quilts for a few months. I have been working on 2 classes for the LQS and an article for F&S but they took a lot longer to develop than they should because I didn't have time to devote to them. I still haven't quilted my Mom's Stack and Whack (which would feed into primary goal #1) and I haven't worked on my color theory posts since October.

What else? I spent a lot of hours on the MQResource triptych challenge in January and February, I took the Monoprinting class in March and didn't have time to get through all of the lessons and I've been spending about 20 hours or more each month on the Take It Further Challenge. I also an signed up for 3 days of classes with Laura Cater-Woods at the end of this month.

Some things are going to have to give. Going forward, if I take any classes I will only take those that will support one of my goals or that will focus on technique/skill development rather than just starting yet another project. Aside from the 2 postcard swaps that I belong to, I am not going to participate in any more exchanges or challenges and I am going to drop the Take It Further Challenge. I enjoy the challenge and developing ideas for the challenge but I am spending way too much of my time on those projects.

I really hate to give up on things but you can't do everything and I don't need to get frustrated over a hobby! With that, here's my current list:

• Load and quilt the Guild baby quilt
• Work on samples for the MQS machine quilting class
• Get my materials together for the LC-W classes that start Saturday
• Paint more of the black feathers from the MQX class.

What are your tips for setting and managing your priorities?

Take it Further - April assignment and March update

April

Sharon has posted the Take It Further Challenge for April. The topic is "How do you see change?" and the color palette is

I don't know how I would create something that portrayed my reaction to "change". In some ways I don't like change. I have to control my environment because of my allergies. So I don't like change from that perspective. However, in general I really thrive on change. I like that my job changes every day with new projects. I like moving although that will not happen since Chris hates moving. I like watching the changing seasons. Change is good!

I'm going to work with the color palette and I've been pondering exactly what to do for a few days. I finally decided that I needed to change my quilt design process. I usually design in my head. I want to design more using software. So in April I will use this color palette to select a set of fabrics in Electric Quilt and design some virtual quilts to improve my EQ skills and develop better design habits.

March

For the March challenge (paying attention to details) I decided to go back to my February piece and fix it. I've been pondering just how to do that and finally decided to use foil to better define the light source and reflection. I'm going to be working on it a little at a time and will post it when it's done.

March Take It Further Challenge

I just realized that I had not commented on my response to the March challenge.

The them this month is to pay attention to the tiny details and the color palette is

I love the color palette but I decided that the message to pay attention to the details was a sign to go back to my February piece and take the time to make it right. I can add some more fibers, beads and other details to fix my horizon line and the light. I like that piece and want to make it more right. So at the end of March you will see a re-run.

February Take It Further

I can't believe it, I finished my February Take It Further challenge one day early!

Sharon's challenges have 2 components. The theme component for February is "what are you old enough to remember?". I posted some thoughts on that here. The color palette is this group of blues and taupes.

As I looked at the colors it reminded me of going to the beach as a child. That was a time when people generally took one week of vacation - a pack-up-the-car-and-go-somewhere-else vacation. We went to Long Beach, NC for our vacations. At that time (late '60's/early '70's) that beach was desolate! As a child I hated it. The kids wanted to go to Myrtle Beach, SC where every kid in the Southeast went on vacation. Of course today I would only go to the deserted beach so I can only imagine what kind of nightmare Myrtle beach with 4 kids would have been for my parents! So I did my TIF piece about the beach using something close to the assigned color scheme.

For my technique I went back to the cavern interpretation that I did for one of my triptych challenges in January.  This is made from batting, yarn and MistyFuse and that's about it! I made the base with fused layers of yarns. The base is cut into the diamond shapes and reassembled. I tried to get a light effect in the center going but my sand layer just didn't cooperate.

My in-house critic and I agree that this isn't one of my big winners but I don't think I am done trying to make this technique work. It's too much fun to do! You are welcome to leave some honest critical feedback. I would really appreciate some honest opinions.

Now I get one day rest before I have to start thinking about the March challenge!

February Take-It-Further

More progress

hmmmmm...I'll rearrange some more tomorrow night. 

Take It Further - February

Sharon B has posted the challenge concept and palette for February. The challenge concept is a questions this month:

What are you old enough to remember?

And the color palette is

I'm going to work with the palette this month for sure and I'm already working an idea in my head but the questions is intriguing and I thought I'd at least spend some time thinking about it.

If I think about the question as "what are my early memories" I'd list:

• My earliest memory is of my parents talking about the President being shot. I could tell by the mood that it was bad but I didn't know who the President was and what it meant to me.
• I remember when the Jackson 5 became popular and realizing that we are not all created equal. Michael Jackson and I are about the same age. I was riding a yellow school bus to a rural elementary school and he was touring the world because he was born with real talent. That was the point where I realized that I needed to work hard to get my tour out of that town. I didn't have that talent.
• I remember how excited my Mom was to get carpeting in her dining room. I remember me and my brothers setting it on fire (near the door), melting some of the carpet, cutting away the melted parts and being very careful for the next year or so to keep the doormat over the spot.
• I remember my Mom being pregnant with my 3rd brother. Everyone wanted a girl except me. I've never prayed in my life like I prayed for that baby to be a boy. he was born the day before my 8th birthday and I was very excited to have a baby to care for. I quickly learned that babies are a lot of work and that they turn into PITA toddlers. I am thankful that the baby was a boy and that I was old enough to learn that I have absolutely no maternal instincts!

Which led me to thinking about "what do I remember from my childhood that my youngest brother wouldn't remember". This is a conversation that I've had with a friend of mine recently who is also the oldest of 4 children. Depending on the age gap and the dynamics of the family, the oldest and youngest children can have totally different childhood experiences. I was talking to Mom recently and we thought about some of the things that I remember that David probably does not. My middle brother, Tim, reads my blog so I'd be interested to know what of this stuff he remembers. Here are some of the things that I think I remember that David does not.

I remember Great-Grandma Rakes, the quilter. I believe she died when David was about 1 year old. I don't remember her liking children very much but I have vivid memories of seeing her sew pieces of fabric together for her quilt tops. I was fascinated.

I remember my Granddaddy Dove. He actually got a job at my elementary school as a janitor so that he could see me and my brother Eddie every day. My Willie is named for him.

I remember when we actually spent time with my Dad's parents. I'm pretty sure that had cut back pretty dramatically by the time David arrived on the scene. Things started going downhill when they told my parents that they only wanted to spend time with their Granddaughter but not their Grandsons.

I remember our babysitter. We called her Mama Nowlin. Apparently we were cruel enough at some point to actually just refer to her as "Mama". Our real Mama wasn't too please with that so the babysitter's name was modified to "Mama Nowlin". She lived in a small 4 room house. It only had running water in the kitchen sink. We had to use an outhouse (I'm sure David doesn't remember that!), she sometimes cooked on a wood stove in her kitchen, she sewed on a treadle machine and she loved her "stories". We got quite an education watching "Days of Our Lives" with her every day. I also remember watching a show called Dark Shadows and Perry Mason at her house. She also had diabetes and died on Christmas Eve when I was 12.

I remember a Ford Falcon station wagon that it seemed that we had forever. Eddie and I were upset when they were going to get rid of the car. We wanted them to leave it in the backyard so we could play with it. Yes, we were rednecks even as young children.

I remember the distress of a Christmas tree with only blue lights. From Dad's point of view, blue was the only color in the world. For years every car was blue (including the Ford Falcon) and for a few years (seemed like forever), the Christmas tree had only blue lights. I'm still scarred.

I remember Mom teaching us about economics. If we bugged her to buy something for us she would pull out the checkbook, show us the balance and ask if she should spend the money on whatever toy we were asking for or food. She said that over time that we developed a habit of asking for something and telling her that it cost "x plus tax". Yea, Mom, we got the message.

I remember Hurricane Agnes in 1972. It was probably the most traumatic experience of my youth. I didn't think the rain would ever stop. The flooding in our town was horrible and we had 4 or 5 feet of water in our basement. After the water receded everything in our basement was covered in mud and we had about 3 feet of white sand covering the entire backyard. But the worst part were the people driving up and down the road in the middle of the flood just to gawk at the damage. Here we were working with the neighbors to try to save things in our homes and people were out sightseeing. It was one of my first experiences being disappointed with the behavior of adults. For years I would get anxious during heavy downpours. Give me a thunderstorm any day.

Mostly I remember a time when we could go on all day adventures into the woods and no one worried. In the summer we didn't have a bunch of organized activities so we could actually PLAY with the other neighborhood kids. Dad would out up a tent in the backyard and all of the neighborhood kids would sleep over - until Dad started telling his ghost stories.

I remember when I first discovered Louisa May Alcott books, the train under the Christmas tree, a dog named Snoopy and a cat named Pounce.

Well, that was fun! So Tim, what do you remember? I need to call David and compare notes. Eddie, my oldest brother is only a year younger than me. We remember everything together because we did everything together, including making misrepresentations to our parents when we were teens. Mom is still a bit bitter over that.

If you stuck with me through this long boring walk through my childhood you deserve a gift. So here's a shot of today's sunset.

January Take It Further challenge

I did it! I actually completed my January Take It Further Challenge! I admit that about a week ago I was having some doubts and regrets about signing up for this. I wrote about my initial thoughts and inspirations on this project here. My thoughts for a piece to properly honor my Grandmother turned into something that I couldn't complete in time. I plan to come back to that later but wanted to get something done for the January project. It was then that I started looking for my sketchbook. I couldn't find it anywhere so that meant that my project should BE a sketchbook.

Here it is and it does still include some references to my Grandmother but primarily uses the color palette of the TIF challenge. The base is a silk dupioni. The purple lace is a piece of lace curtain that hung in my Grandmother's house. I've had these for years and have wanted to do something with them. I love the floral motif in the lace. I painted a section purple and fused it to the base with Mistyfuse. I used ric-rac to trim the sketchbook to keep within the '50's - 60's time frame.

The buttons for the closure could have actually come from her button bag which I "inherited". There's a large mother of pearl with a green flower Bakelite button on top. They are attached with embroidery floss.

The book is trimmed with a satin stitch in the light green and the edged with dark purple baby ric-rac.

The binder rings are dressed in left over bits of ric-rac and embroidery floss.

The pages are 7.5" x 9.5" and by using binder rings I can replace or add pages whenever I need. I added 3 book marks made from ric-rac with large mother of pearl beads attached. The pocket on the inside front cover is made from an orphan block from my Great-Grandmother's quilt box. I folded it in half, added ric-rac trim to the top and stitched pockets between the blocks. The first sheet in the book is a pocket page to hold sheets of tracing paper.

Now I am ready for Sharon to issue the February challenge - I have a sketchbook to work in!

   

WIP Wednesday

I haven't posted in a few days so you might think that I've been doing a lot of this:

Not so!  But the things I am working on aren't very interesting at this point.

First, I got one of my Great Grandmother's quilts loaded and the quilting started. But the primary projects are my Triptych Challenge exchange pieces and my Take It Further Challenge for January. I don't want to show the Triptych pieces until I send them (by Jan 31) and I have run myself in 5 circles on the TIF challenge. I've decided on two things. One is a longer term project to honor my Grandmother but the other will be based mostly on the color aspect of the challenge but still using fabrics and bits that remind me of my Grandmother. It's going to be my new sketchbook. While I was working though my ideas for the TIF I searched high and low for my sketchbook and I can't find it anywhere. Since I need a new sketchbook I decided to make one. I should have some real project photos to share with you later in the week.

This post is also my list for the weekend. Those 3 projects are my total focus until they are done - except for Sunday when my friends, Kim and Anne, are coming over for some garment sewing help and a yummy dinner prepared by the resident chef.

Take It Further - January - Take 2

I talked a little about the TIF challenge in my last post. I had decided that I would not take on the theme part of the challenge (admiration) but do the color palette instead. I went through my supplies and pulled out an assortment of materials in the selected palette.

That was the plan until today. We have the nice luxury of having fresh flowers in the offices each week. (For those aware of all of my allergy issues, yes, the florist has a list of flowers that he cannot use because of my allergies.) This arrangement is the one that's on Myra's desk. While I was talking with her today I looked over at the arrangement and realized that it's basically in our color palette! I borrowed the digital camera from HR and took a photo for reference. I started pondering the flower arrangement as my inspiration and realized that purple/lavender was my Grandma Dove's favorite color. She had a dress that she wore a lot that was purple and white floral. I have wanted to do some sort of piece to pay tribute to her and what better way than to incorporate both of Sharon's challenges into one piece! This photo of Grandma is my favorite photo of her. It was taken before she married. When she moved from her home and was sorting out her stuff this photo was the only thing that I wanted. She also loved flowers and had big flower gardens around her home. One was a 3 foot deep iris bed the full length of the driveway.

So that's it. I have a new direction and it's perfect because if I can get this done in January the timing will also be right because it would be done by her birthday. February 28 would have been her 99th birthday.

Next I was off to gather a new set of materials. On the bottom is a lace curtain from Grandma's house. I have had these panels for at least 20 years wanting to do something with them. Grandma didn't quilt but her mother did. Later in Great-Grandma's life, Grandma would machine piece blocks for her. The 16-patch quilt block is  in the color palette and was machine pieced so I believe that Grandma Dove made it. The embroidery is her work. I will not cut it up for the piece but I may use the flower design in some way or even print an image of the design on fabric. I also have a collection of her pearl buttons and some pieces of embroidery. The rick rack, lace edging and embroidery threads are all from my stash. I'll add these in with the fabrics that I pulled yesterday and start again. The yarns, metallic threads and Angelina all went back into the stash.

I'm excited about this one so now I'm off to work out some design ideas!

Mom, are you reading this? Do you have any ideas or materials to add to the mix?

Take it Further Challenge

I've been pondering Sharon B's Take It Further Challenge for 2008. I'm already planning to do the Art Quilt Workbook within 2 groups in 2008 so I was afraid that TIF might be too much. but I think I can use the TIF challenges in some of the AQW projects. So, I'm giving them both a try! Sharon is still taking sign-ups if you are interested in joining in. Be sure to subscribe to her blog In A Minute Ago. It's a great read!