I have a lot on my mind…again.

Fons & Porter Basketweave Baby

My Tivo is taping Fons & Porter periodically. I didn’t ask it to do so, but it started doing it on its own and then I started to watch them. It is nice to be immersed in quiltmaking for a few minutes and get a different perspective. Recently, they had a show on a baskeweave quilt. The photo is from their website. I love the idea of this quilt, because it is not simple patchwork done in rows. The maker has to insert pieces into the middle of already pieced rows in order to get the basketweave effect. The project was originally published in February 2007.  I would like to see if it is actually make-able. It looks pretty straightforward on the show and the video, but you know how that goes. I’ll have to look around at the library to see if they have it. I found that with my Quilt Out Loud membership, I was able to log into the Fons & Porter site, so I have to look around there as well. If I ever had that magazine, it is long gone.

Clipmarks and my Internet security system are not liking each other, so I will have to try and explain about Bemused and the online Quilts Japan preview rather than show you. I was reading the Bemused blog and she mentioned her love of Japanese quilting magazines. She also mentioned that Quilts Japan has an online preview. That means you can page through the new issue. YAY!!!

As soon as I remembered to click the page LEFT button, it worked great. Remember? They read towards the left.

My regular podcasting people, Jennifer at CraftSanity, Amy at the Creative Mom podcast and Annie Smith of Quilting Stash/Simple Arts, are not producing podcasts fast enough for me. At the rate I consume them I could go through about 3 hours of them a week. Of course, I can’t whine or complain (I am certainly not whining or complaining, just stating a fact)  since the podcasts are FREE, the hosts work for free and he guess don’t get piad. Not having new episodes each week, however, means that I have nothing to which to listen. This has forced me to search iTunes for new material. I found some interesting works.  IMy two current favorites are CastOn by Brenda Dayne and An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory.

One of the things I like about Brenda Dayne’s podcast is that it is about fiber and not just knitting. I wouldn’t call myself a knitter, though I do know how to knit and I admire knitting and would like to knit more, yet, Ms. Dayne does not bore me with the minutiae of knitting. She does talk about the minutiae of knitting, but I am not bored by it. She talks about other things, too. And the way she talks about things is not boring, it is professional, and, real sounding. She squeals with delight in a professional sounding way.

Danny Gregory, author of An Illustrated Life, Creative License and dannygregory.com did a series of podcasts in conjunction with the publication of An Illustrated Life a few years ago. I talked, briefly, about that book here on the blog in the past, but didn’t review it thoroughly. His podcasts are about 30 minutes long. Longer segments are broken in two parts. He has a wonderful voice and his conversations with artists who contributed to the book make me appreciate the book a lot more. Perhaps I will look at it again and give it a thorough review.

So far, I have listened to Danny talk with Peter Arkle and Roz Stendahl. I also listened to the Voodoo Lounge interview with Roz and I, now, want to be her. She is amazingly creative and practical in a way where she seems to use every moment of her time and get a lot done. I liked her interview with Danny Gregory, because she says that shopping (e.g. going and looking for the perfect pen to sketch with, or, in my case the perfect green fabric) is not a substitute for creativity. I think she also inferred that you cannot count shopping as part of your creative time. She has a follow-up to that comment on her blog.

One of the things I like about these non-quilt podcasts is that I get exposed to other artists and start thinking about creative things in a different way. I am not going to give up quilt podcasts, don’t worry.

I have never heard of Peter Arkle before. Peter Arkle is a commercial artists/ illustrator. He also does something called The Peter Arkle News. It is a newspaper containing stories of his everyday life. I love the idea. He started it just out of college (??) to show potential employers he could create and idea and follow through on it. It is now an occasional publication, which he calls ‘wheneverly’. As a librarian, I’ll have ot use that instead of ‘irregular.’

One of the things I love about podcasts is how I get to hear the story of people’s lives. As I listen to more and more podcasts, I find that listening to professional radio is starting to be a bit boring or….not as interesting. I always liked Terry Gross, but now I’d rather know about her life than listen to her interview people all the time. I am interested, usually, in the people she interviews, but would also like to know about her. I like stories about people. I like to hear about the wonderful things ordinary people do. Have you done an StoryCorps interview? Take your grandma or your dad out to a StoryCorps booth and do one. Or use your new Flip. What is your story?

I love this tree quilt. It is one of those Miami Christmas quilts. I admire the way she put together the fabrics. I found this blog when I was working on my end of the year post and I was looking for the name of a pattern I bought to make the “It’s a Wrap” quilt by Sandy Gervais (obviously, I found it!). Not Your Run of the Mill blog seems to be associated with a shop, but I wasn’t able to find a direct link to the shop, though it looks like she has some interesting things.

My guild, CQFA, is doing a creativity project in 2010 and I am the first presenter. I did a lot of legwork in anticipation of the prep meeting in November and then was unable to attend. Dolores, from CQFA met me about an hour south of here on Thursday. We had lunch, looked at quilt and creativity books and talked about what I would talk about. I feel much more prepared for my presentation than I did before. I, frankly, had no idea where I was going or what I was going to say. Dolores is extremely creative. Sadly she has no website and no blog, but you can see some of her work that I have posted. Perhaps I will post notes or something on what I talk about. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with things that people expect me to do lately. Not to mention the pressure I put on myself! I think I will have to practice the word ‘NO’ in 2010. We’ll see.

By the way, the Dynamic Quilt link in my sidebar provides a list of my delicious quilt bookmarks. If you have any interest in what quilt sites I am looking at, click there and you will see some of the sites I have bookmarked.

Matt Sparrow is talking about creating a TMZ type quilt website. It should be interesting to see what comes of that. I wonder if there is enough quilt news and gossip to make it worthwhile?

Christmas Fabrics

Nobody can tell me that I do not have the best MIL in the world, perhaps the universe. I love my MIL. She told me recently that I was the best daughter-in-law.;-)  I was helping her wash silver after Christmas dinner. I don’t think the dishwashing was the issue. I like to think she just likes me. Anyway, part of my MIL’s fabulousness is that she gives us money every year for Christmas. I used to spend a weekend gift shopping with her, but she is no longer interested in shopping, so she gives each of us, usually, a magazine and money. If you do not select a magazine, you get some soap or something “to open”. Usually, I hoard my money jealously and wait to spend it. This ime, I spent it almost as fast as I could on the fabrics in the photo when I was at Back Porch fabrics. I bought some more pieces of the Lonni Rossi fabrics. I used most of the FQ pack I bought on Marilyn’s Multi-tasker. I have another project in mind for them and wanted to include some in my FOTY quilt. I may wait and include them in FOTY 2010 as I still have a lot of fabric to cut and wasn’t sure I could commit to washing and cutting and sewing all of those additional fabrics before midnight on 12/31. As I write this, it didn’t happen.

For FOTY 2010, speak of the devil, I am thinking of doing another one patch, specifically diamonds. I like what I learned from combining fabrics when I make the Zanzibar blocks. I know I told myself I would create a design that used new and old fabrics like TFQ does and I do see the value in that. As the year came to a close, though, I felt quite stressed about this project. I wanted the cutting and piecing to be done by the end of the year and it just didn’t happen. It was totally my fault for leaving the washing, ironing and cutting until the last second, but still. I have to have fun with my quilt work, so I am cutting myself some slack.

If I do diamonds, I just have to decide what size. I almost bought some diamond rulers at Back Porch, but resisted until I could see what I already owned in the diamond arena.I was thinking of something like a 60 degree ruler.

As of January 4, 2010, I will be working more hours. For various reasons, I have always worked part-time since I left graduate school. My husband, however, has been our house-husband for the past year (almost). Sadly, I cannot afford to pay him at all, even though he does an excellent job. There are just things we need more money to pay for such as healthcare, so more hours at the day job for me are required. I am VERY fortunate that the work is there and the company is willing to allow me to make the change. I am sad to be giving up some of my free time, which I love. I don’t want to make changes in the blog in terms of posting less, but we will see. I haven’t gotten many comments in the past 1.5 months, so perhaps I don’t need to post as much? Again, we will see.

Although, New Year’s Day was yesterday, I want to wish all of my readers a great day and may 2010 be MUCH better than 2009!!!

And Peace and Joy to all of you who do not celebrate Christmas!

Tree 2009

For the past few years we have only put lights on our tree. Our Christmas decorations are still in storage after our kitchen remodel. They are closer to coming out, though. Just one more step and then we can unload the storage facility. Next year we will have all of our own decorations.

This year my mom went to her storage room and got her ornaments. She and The Child decorated our tree with her ornaments. It looks beautiful!

Decorated tree 2009

Below is a detail. The teapot ornament is really a chime. I decided to put it on the tree this year so I could admire it.

Tree detail 2009

My life seems to be all about piles lately. I am racing at top speed trying to get everything done and keep house and heart and work and school and everything from bursting at the seams. It is really frustrating.

Desk pile

This is one of the piles on my desk. It is the pile next to my computer; the working pile, often. It is a combination of project notes, book reviews (took this photo while I was writing the review of Taking Flight), bills, reimbursement requests from healthcare, etc.

Book pile

This is the pile hat spurred on this post. It is a pile of books on the floor next to my desk, which are waiting for my attention. One day, I was leaning over to change the radio station and the fell all over the place.

I put all of my craft and quilt books into a database to which I refer before I go to buy a book. My rule is that I only buy quilt and craft books, mostly quilt, though, unless I think I am going to read some fiction book again. I try to check every book out of the library and review it before I buy it. I, frankly, don’t have the space to create a library in my house, no matter how much I would like to do so.

Another Desk Pile

Periodically, I will rip inspirational pages out of magazines and then file them. This pile, towards the bottom, is a big group of those ripped out pages. Somehow I got sidetracked or ran out of space in the middle of filing and it never got done.

Cleaning this up is not yet on my to do list.

Something wrong with that Pie!

I am very grateful for many things in my life, including all of you who read this blog. Best wishes for a wonderful day with family, friends of with some peace and quiet.

I am still doing the Word of the Day, even though I haven’t been posting most of the words here. I find it to be a good meditation and a good way to start my day. Today’s word is commitment and the description/passage really applies to quiltmaking. I wanted to share it with you.

The WOTD book I use is called 365 Tao: Daily Meditations by Deng Ming-Dao. I am not a Taoist and I think the word, Tao, in most of the passages can be replaced with another word such as spirituality or quiltmaking, depending on the context. Here is today’s passage:

‘One may be quite far along on the path, but if one meets a beginner who sincerely seeks guidance, then one should help without reservation. If such a beginner were to come to you, what would you say? This is what I said to someone today:

“The time of beginning is one of the most precious times of all. It can be very exciting and full of wonderful growth. The first thing to do is to make up your mind that you are going to go the distance.

“When I first began, I made a lifelong commitment. I determined that I would learn from my teacher for at least seven years. Now, it has been much longer than that, but the essential element is still the same: commitment.

“But commitment needs something else in order to be perpetuated. It needs discipline. This is the perseverance to keep on when things are tough. Adversity is life’s way of testing and perfecting a person. Without that, we would never develop character.

“Rice suffers when it is milled. Jade must suffer when it is polished. But what emerges is something special. If you want to be special too, then you have to be able to stick to things even when they are difficult.”

Commitment and discipline-these are two of the most precious words for those who would seek [Tao].’

A lot of the words and phrases in the passage feel right in terms of quiltmaking. I think they say a lot once I sat down and took the time to read them.

I think that this passage can be easily applied to quiltmaking. I don’t think everyone makes a really sincere commitment to quiltmaking when they start. I think it is ok to try a variety of different crafts and reject the ones that don’t appeal. Crafts are different from spirituality and religion, after all.

I do think, however, that once I decide on a media, that I should make some kind of commitment to progress. Making a commitment to progress doesn’t preclude having fun. I also think that I don’t have to always work on progressing. I don’t think buying fabric is as much of a commitment as some people think it is.

I also think that I can always learn something and one of the things that I like about quiltmaking is that there are many teachers, websites and books from which to learn. I think that no matter how accomplished a quiltmaker a person is, there is always room to grow.

I also think that commiting time to various aspects of quiltmaking and working on those regularly constitutes discipline. for me, discipline leads to progress.

For me, my fabric work is not always a walk in the park. I have projects that just do not work out. Remember Hop, Skip and Jump from December 2008? Remember all the blocks that I replaced in the Tarts, such as the yellow china tea cup?

In general, this is a passage that made me think about my quiltmaking, discipline and commitment.

Note: You can see the beginning of the WOTD project on the January 1 post. While I am still doing the project in my journal, I am only posting WOTDs here when they really related to something I have seen or done. My last WOTD post on February 1, 2009 explains a little about my thinking.

A Thread of Truth by Marie Bostwick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I enjoyed this book and thought it was well written. One thing that jumped out at me was that the pacing was different from many of the novels, and especially mysteries, I have read recently. Initially, I thought the book was moving too slowly. Then I realized that the pacing was just different, told myself to slow down and enjoyed the book immensely.

Marie Bostwick is a good writer. I liked the integration of quiltmaking into the story without having it take over the story as it does in other novels. There is some religion, but not so much that it is irritating.

I was pleased to meet up with the characters from A Single Thread again and find out where they were. Their characters have developed and, while there was nothing wrong with them in A Single Thread, I enjoyed the character development. It was particularly noticeable in the character of Abigail Wynne. She has softened around the edges and the friendships from A Single Thread have had a noticeable effect. I also noticed significant character developments in Ivy, a new character.
As I said, the story gave the reader some news about the lives of Liza, Evelyn, Abigail and Margot, but the basic premise of the story, around which the subplots revolved, had to do with domestic violence. One of the characters in the story is involved with that situation. I thought some of the information Marie Bostwick gave about the fear, uncertainty and mistrust was very well written. I do think that it is impossible to convey some of the feelings without having experienced it.

View all my reviews, including non-quilt reviews >>

Paint Chip Sampler

Remember Saturday when I talked about picking out paint? Here is a miniscule part of of one of the paint chip displays for two lines of paint. The perfect red, Red Statement is smack in the middle. Poppy and Rapture are on a different display, so no picture, sorry. There is now a second coat of paint on both test areas and Rapture looks like it is winning. At this point I am almost willing to go with anything that is not hideous. Did I tell you we bought some glaze to try out a steel-wool faux finishing technique in out bedroom?

I have come across some interesting websites lately. Also, many things have been running through my mind. As a result, today is Catch Up Saturday! That means that you get a bunch of random links, some photos that have been hanging around, and other miscellaneous stuff.

Janome 9K

1. In my post, Caring for Tools, I talked about taking my Janome 9000 into be repaired. Cost=$$$$$. The monster needs a new screen; apparently it could not be recalibrated.  What a shocker; I need to find a consulting job to cover the cost. Anyone want to buy a quilt?

The cost notwithstanding, I have more good things to say about Lafayette Sewing Center. Before they started the work, they called me and went over the estimate with me very carefully. I spoke with Audrey who said that she wanted to make sure I wanted the work done and understood the costs so I wouldn’t get sticker shock. No assumptions there! Great service.

2. Suzanne Cabrera did a series of drawings of her home, which I really like. They are simple in an architectural kind of way. She has added comments about various pieces of furniture, which satisfies my need for words. She also has a sense of humor in her drawings, which I appreciated in her post about learning to cook with her husband. See them at her blog, An Open [Sketch] Book.

3. Felt Food (FF). I love felt food. It makes me smile. I first got interested in felt food when I heard CraftSanity podcast episode #66 (what else? My one source of craft information!) with the owner of Lilly Bean Market, Hillary Seabolt. Her sandwich is still my favorite. I saw some pictures of felt food somewhere recently and that has reinvigorated my Felt Food Mania and led me on a multi-day Felt Food Flickr Journey (F3J).

Flickr has tons of FF to show. There is a group called Handmade Felt Food with such fabulous creations as elaborate birthday cakes, cups of coffee and espresso, sushi, shrimp stir fry and a pancake breakfast and ice cream treats and I am also quite fond of Sam McLean’s full on turkey dinner and …. The list goes on and on. . I am going to save up for the felt gingerbread house. That is much more up my alley than making a real gingerbread house – or perhaps I’ll sew a felt one. I could put some of the decorations on with Velcro and change them. Or, perhaps I’ll buy one. You can also make your own FF from patterns created by Umecrafts or you can make a Lilly Bean Market cherry pie from the pattern on Martha Stewart website.

The F3J led me to general felt creations such as softies (we called them stuffed animals back in the day; apparently that term is no longer PC), including a journey around London by Lumpy Bear (made/arranged? by GiantButton), felt sea creatures including a Hammerhead Shark and squid and an unzippable ocean complete with islands by Lizette Greco.

You have to look at this stuff to believe it!

4. Stewart, Tabori & Chang and Melanie Falick: Once again, I was listening to CraftSanity podcast #30 the other day (I really do do other things besides listen to CraftSanity, I promise). Melanie wrote Knitting in America, seminal book on the state of knitting in the US. She is the craft editor at STC AND has her own imprint. WOW! I have heard of her before, because I love STC books and she is the editor who acquires them. I really loved hearing about her journey to that job and found a lot of similarities to my life (you can stop laughing now, thanks).  She gave really practical ideas about getting a book published, especially in the area of writing a book proposal. Thanks, I needed that! That was really food for thought for me, since I have a dream…..

You can follow Melanie on Twitter at STC_Craft or take a look at her website.

Tessalated Tile

5. Beth sent me this image when she lived in England. I had asked her to take photos of mosaics and tile. This is a particularly good design for quiltmaking, because it would just be squares and rectangles. Yes, you would have to plan a bit, if you were doing anything more than a 2 color quilt, but it would be quite stunning once finished. Note the L shape at the top.

6. Toy-a-Day: This project is definitely like the Creative Prompt (which you should join) but much more intense. The Wild Things characters, KISS, Pikachu, the Mario Bros, Michael Jackson and Michael Gorbachev are all included in this project. I noticed that the author has PDF downloads of some of his toys so you can make your own.

Just a quick note to let you know that I am still working on fixing the blog. There is something wrong with the theme (Cutline, in case anyone is interested). It was behaving badly, so Deirdre changed it to this theme, which I know is not ideal in a number of ways. Yesterday we worked on rebuilding the right sidebar. I also looked at a bunch of possible other (free) themes as well as testing the old theme over and over to see if it was behaving itself.

In any case, we are working on it and will hopefully get back to normal soon. Thanks for your patience.

The Girl with the Green Lips

Last weekend I posted the latest iteration of the Tarts. Mostly, I get really nice, short comments on my posts. I was surprised and delighted to find a long and thought provoking comment from SherriD.  She wrote:

“You are more of a trained artist than I am, I think. You’ve taken classes or studied art perhaps? So I am only asking these questions in order to understand as I have not taken any art classes or quilting classes for that matter.

1. Why did you choose to have the purple background and the pie’s innerds almost the same shade? (btw, I like the orange crust very much!)

2. On three of big corner pots, are you going to embellish them with perhaps something like thread painting?

3. Have you considered adding cookies or scones? I noticed that you have in a row, cream and sugar, then two cups, then a cupcake with another cup.

I hate to say things about someone else’s work but I really am curious as to the “why” in your projects. This is such a happy quilt in process. I love the colors and have really enjoyed watching the progress.”

Thanks to SherriD for taking the time to post a comment – a long and thoughtful comment. I thought responding through a post would be a great way to spark conversation about SherriD’s thoughts among all of my readers.

I was not an art major in college, though my major did allow me a lot of opportunities to take classes outside of the required courses. I took art history classes, studio art classes, Swedish, German, political science (blech!) and many others. I have also taken a lot of continuing ed and adult ed classes in art practice. I am not so much trained in art as informed by the classes I have taken.

In a roundabout way, I have tried to answer SherriD’s questions below.

I have taken a number of art classes and lots of quiltmaking classes. Many people think it is a badge of honor or courage not to have taken any classes and to have taught themselves. I applaud you for your fortitude. I just don’t have it in me to learn by myself. I learn by someone showing me and by doing, so I take classes regularly. While I am not interested in taking art practice classes right now and I am interested in taking more quiltmaking classes, I enjoy taking classes, in general, for a number of reasons:

1. I don’t learn well by myself with books, especially something completely new.
2. Even if I never finish a class project I always take something away from the class or the teacher.
3. I like being a  room with other people. I enjoy seeing what they are doing and how they are reacting to the teacher.
4. I work mostly alone, so classes get me out of the workroom.
5. Classes re-energize me when I get back into my workroom.
6. I get turned on to new sources of inspiration, such as books, blogs and websites by the teacher and students in a class.
7. Classes clarify things that I don’t understand.
8. I am a visual learner so I learn best when someone shows me how to do something.
9. Classes make me think about things in different ways.

The Girl with the Green Lips, detail

This is one of my favorite pieces from a studio art class. It is colored pencil on Bristol Board and I took the class from Wayne Thiebaud’s assistant at the time. I wish I remembered his name, because I would LOVE to thank him. You might recognize the image from an old Lancome ad featuring Isabella Rossellini. I also took a framing class after college and framed this piece myself.

The other thing I do is practice. When you see a piece of pie appliqued down as part of the Tarts, what you see is the final piece. Sometimes I sketch many, many drawings before I make a pattern and cut fabric. I don’t consider myself to be an accomplished drawer (if that is a word). I do feel like I am getting better and I feel like I am getting better because I practice. Drawing skill is not something with which I was born. I feel that most people don’t have it when they are born. Drawing is a skill a person needs to practice. If you want to draw well, practice. You will draw a lot of crap before you draw something great. The thing to remember is that if you practice you will draw something great.

Tarts, June 14, 2009, with Pie

SD: “1. Why did you choose to have the purple background and the pie’s innerds almost the same shade? (btw, I like the orange crust very much!)”

I feel very fortunate to have received some birthday gifts this year! That was in addition to people agreeing to spend time with me. What a bonanza!

A box arrived yesterday. I took it upstairs to unwrap in peace. I dislike wrapping gifts intensely, but when I get a pile of gifts wrapped gorgeously like this, I don’t want to unwrap them. I did anyway, but I admired them for awhile first.

Inside were all of these things. Lots of fabric, some music and notecards, books, a scarf, some ribbon (which I think will trim some tote bags nicely!). I can’t wait to read the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie book. Thanks TFQ!!!!!

Above are the pottery pieces made at my party after they have been fired. Wati made the top piece. I photographed the back because I liked her message and the green she used. The bowl is the piece that I made. The plate came with the party and I tried to have everyone sign.

This fabric came from my dad even though my sister picked it out, paid for it and wrapped it. They are all FQs.

Terri brought the above fabrics.

Above are the gifts that Julie got for me. I got her the Life’s Companion book. Apparently, she thought it was so good that she got it for me! I started to read a bit of it and like. I wnat to reserve judgement, but it seems to be geared owards people who want to have a daily writing writing practice and haven’t yet started. As I said, I am reserving judgement until I read more of it.

I received so much fabric this birthday! It was amazing and great! I will have enough fabric to make a FOTY 2009 quilt with no problem. Thanks, everyone!

DH bought Amy Butler’s In Stitches for me along with the Photoshop Elements book. Did you give me Seams to Me? That one came with no card or note straight from Anna Maria Horner. Nobody has confessed so I guess it will remain a mystery. Everyone needs a good mystery once in a while. I am especially interested since the person went to the trouble of getting the book directly from AMH. If you do that…..

Look! It’s signed! Whomever you are who sent this: THANK YOU!!!

I use Photoshop Elements to deal with the photos I post to this blog. As it turns out, I could use a few lessons. One of my goals for the coming months is to take a class (online, probably). In the meantime, the book will give me some help.

Above is an awful picture of some gorgeous batik from my mom.

I only photographed the quilt related things. The Child made me a hand (one of those pieces of pottery you paint kind of hand) with a mouth in the palm. I told you he was a creative child. My sister also got me an ice cream maker. Can’t wait to try that out! Might solve the little problem I have of buying ice cream sundaes for dinner when the boys are gone.

OH! I almost forgot! Have a great day, President Obama!