Dowtown Santa Barbara has a building that is sort of Spanish style, but has a twist. It has many different, useful tile structures outside. This is part of the wall surrounding that building.
Inspiration Tuesday – Tile
Inspirational Artists
Quick Note:
City Arts and Lectures, a program here in the City had an interview with Maya Lin yesterday. The show is replayed Tuesday nights at 8pm on KQED FM in San Francisco. KQED has a media stream so you can listen on your computer to the interview even if you don’t get KQED.
The reason I am telling you this is because I think you should listen to it. I sat there riveted the whole time thinking that I wanted to be Maya Lin’s new best friend.
I didn’t know how well spoken and thoughtful Maya Lin was. She is also a thinking artist. She thinks about her art and what it means and how she is going to make it. She does research. Listening to her made me think that I had found a kindred spirit.
I also listened to a CraftSanity podcast with Brenda Dayne. Brenda is a podcaster who created Cast On!, a knitting podcast. The podcast is number 22 and I would recommend listening to this episode of CraftSanity. The show was from 2006 (still making my way through the archive of over a 100 podcasts), so I am glad to see see that Ms. Dayne is still podcasting. During the show she said that she wasn’t sure how long she would continue. Ms. Dayne has a great voice! Very smooth and a voice to which it is easy to listen. I don’t even knit much and am thinking of listening to a few of the Cast On! podcasts just to listen to Dayne’s voice.
A couple of things I liked about this podcast follow.
First, Jennifer always asks what advice her guest has for listeners wanting to start creative businesses. Ms. Dayne’s advice was spot on! She said to look at creating a number of different, but smaller income streams, such as writing, making things, teaching, producing posters and cards of your work. Her idea was to suggest that a creative business person not expect to make their entire salary from one thing. If you make stuff and expect to make all of your money from that work, you will burn out and be out of business.
Second, she talked about the landscape around you informing your work. Ithought this was wonderful to think about. Ms. Dayne lives somewhere in Wales (apologies to my Welsh readers: I know nothing about Wales) and moved there approximately 9 years ago from Portland, Oregon. At the the time of the podcast, she had lived there for 6 years, so I am extrapolating out and assuming she still lives there. Ms. Dayne said that she had knitted wonderful classic sweaters in Portland that were perfectly suitable for Wales and she wasn’t wearing them. She didn’t have a good reason why. After thinking about it, she said that her new work was very different in color from her old work and the old work wasn’t suitable. She said it much more eloquently than I just did! Ms. Dayne also said that she had no doubt that she would wear the sweaters again when/if she moved back to Portland. She followed that with saying that she thought the landscape was informing her work.
This comment made me think of the way you see different colors of fabric in different areas and thought it might be part of the same idea.
CraftSanity episode #22 is well worth a listen!
Sketching #22
The first thing I thought of with this prompt was an hour glass. It took me a bit of time to think of a way to incorporate it into the series of drawings on which I have been working.
I have been excited about using the different PITT pens that I bought recently. The tips are different widths. So far my favorite is the Fine. I see, as someone mentioned, how the XS can be great for defining things or adding depth. This is wonderful. I didn’t find it to be great for drawing the whole piece.
One thing I need to improve in my drawing is working with perspective. I didn’t add the right side of the hour glass, but may later after I do a bit of research.
Beauty in Recycling
This is a piece by artist David Heatwole. The photo was taken by Ric Dugan and it was shown in the West Virginia Herald-Mail on July 11, 2009.
I love the idea of using bottle caps as supplies for a mosaic type work.
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Flowering Snowball Again
This is the second to last Flowering Snowball center block. I brought my handwork bag with me to the meeting yesterday and put this together while we worked on the business of the organization. It is something I can do while I listen and participate. I feel productive on my fabric projects, which is a good thing.
I also started work on the last block, but didn’t get very far before the ATC swap started.
This morning I was facing the reality of this project. I get to start the border VERY shortly. I think I opened the project in EQ6 in recent memory, however I don’t remember looking at the templates or doing any work on them. I need to get on that.
The other issue I am facing is squaring up the center blocks. I discussed this here before and think that I will have to trim the blocks after machine sewing around before I trim. Otherwise I think that they may come apart.
The problem is that if I trim them before I make the border, the border won’t fit. Glad I thought of it before I made the border!
ATCs at CQFA
While you were sipping your cappucinos this morning, I was finishing the edges of my very first ATCs – Artist Trading Cards – and dashing off to meet with my fellow CQFAers.
Maureen had suggested that we do a swap of ATCs. In the spirit of the Creative Prompt project, I decided that making them would be good for my creativity. And it was! I did them when I came home from work on Tuesday after one of the most grueling work days I think I have ever had. Immersing myself in some fiber took my mind off of the lunatics downtown. I didn’t have much brainpower and, thus, didn’t overthink the design. All of the fabrics came out of my scrap basket. I wasn’t sure what to use for the center so I used two layers of Pellon Stitch and Tear, which I use for stabilizing machine applique’. The ATCs felt right in terms of stiffness and I didn’t have any problems with sewing through the 4 layers. It all seemed to work just fine.
The ATCs are 2.5×3.5″ inches and I know that there are a zillion sources for instructions all over the web. Typical of me, I didn’t look at any of them. 😉
Sometimes I just need to do the work. I figured they were small enough and I could toss them if I didn’t like them.
I grabbed more fabric out of my scrap basket for the backs. The red dots and the Denyse Schmidt flowers are my favorites. One of my criteria was that I had to be able to write on the back, so my favorites weren’t ideal. The other plainer fabrics were better. I tried to use the stitch lettering that I used to use for labels on these ATCs, but my machine is starting to act up 🙁 and I couldn’t get it to work.
Maureen’s ATCs include the car in the group. Maureen is a quiltmaker I really admire, because she is constantly trying new things.
Her ATCs were a revelation, because they were all different! Mine are sort of different, but really the same. Maureen created different designs on each card. WOW! Not sure why I didn’t think of that, but perhaps I will do something similar next time.
Terri let me know that Diane and Nancy’s ATCs were mixed in with Maureen’s. I didn’t pay close enough attention to know whose are whose. Sorry ladies!
I thought I would make more of the same for next time, but after doing the swap, I think people will be looking for something new and exciting.
Terri is a mystery writer who incorporates quilts and quiltmaking into her stories. If you haven’t read Ocean Waves, Old Maid’s Puzzle, or Wild Goose Chase, get yourself to the Library or bookstore! Her ATCs had a mystery theme and were business card size. Terri used the business card sized advertisements as the backing! Clever!
In addition to paper and fabric, Terri also added 3D ribbon and rubber stamping to her cards. I have rubber stamps! Perhaps I will drag them out for the next round.
Linda‘s ATCs look marbled to me. She is a talented machine quilter. She produces lots of small works frequently by participating in such challenges as the Fast Friday Challenge. She has recently been doing succulents, which she says are too dark for her tastes. Most of her work is very bright – lime green, fuschia, bright blue, etc as Linda uses lots of hand dyes.
Linda talks about her ATCs on a blog post from a few days ago. It looks like she made a big piece and then cut it up. Another great idea!
I haven’t seen very much of Bron’s work and was really excited when she laid out her ATCs. Bron’s raven piece and her stamp piece both caught my eye. I couldn’t stop staring at them during the entire swap. I am not sure why. I guess Amy over at the Creative Mom podcast is on my mind both because of the ATCs and because of the birds.
Bron also chose to make different designs. Her media varied quite a lot as well. She used fabric, paint, paper, beads and different ephemera such as stamps. I picked up the stamp card from Bron’s offerings.
The colors drew me to this piece. They were really vibrant and attractive. I am like a bee in spring, I guess. 😉 I really liked the textures on this card as well as the airmail stamps.
Virginia is a quiltmaker I really admire. She has a quiet presence that smolders. When she finishes a quilt or a set of placemats or something, they set the room on fire: excellent stitching, perfect corners, wonderful fabrics and a great design. I really wish she lived closer as I would try to spend more time learning with her.
Virginia did photo transfer with fabric, paper and stitching. I wasn’t as excited about them because of the black and white. I did love the stitching around the edge.
Diane brought some as well and somehow I missed photographing them. Perhaps next time.
While I am not particularly interested in ATCs, I found this to be a good exercise. Not so much in what I made, but in seeing what everyone else made and getting inspired by their work. I may have a chance to try out some of these ideas as Maureen suggested that he group make this activity a regular part of the meeting. Hhmm…
Creative Prompt #22: Time
Once upon a time.
Time flies.
May you live in interesting times.
Good times.
A stitch in time.
The passage of time.
Dangerous times.
Traveling through space and time.
Having the time of your life.
Times Square.
The time has come.
Time lapse.
Times tables.
Making the big time.
Time capsule.
Frozen in time.
A moment in time.
Tea time. 😉
New York Times.
A stitch in time saves nine.
Time trials.
Time sink.
Lost in time.
Summertime Lime.
The time is now.
Now is the time for all good….
Hang time.
Sign of the times.
Time to lose.
Time Magazine.
Past time.
It’s just a question of time.
Time after time.
Wasting time.
Time to flee.
Time machine.
See the Creative Prompt page if you want to know how to participate in this project.
Post the specific URL or deep link where your drawing, doodle, artwork is posted, such as (but not limited to, on Flickr or your blog, in the comments area of this post. It is an easy and good way to keep all the artwork together.
There is more information and inspiration on the Creative Prompt Page.
Inspiration Thursday
Wouldn’t the world be great if everything was beautiful like this. I would love to drink out of a fountain every day that looked like this.
Infinity Blocks from SIL
These are the blocks that my SIL sent to me via DH-mail. I think i will be interesting to take a photo of all of the blocks together.
I made another couple over the weekend, but am writing for an even number before I photograph them. It is more interesting if I have a few to show you.
Inspiration Tuesday
Art Quilting Studio Signing
If you are an Orange County reader, then July 12 is your lucky day, because one of the artists from the Premier issue of Art Quilting Studio will be signing the issue. Stop if you can; I’d love to hear about it.
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Creative Prompt Response #21
This drawing is different than some of the others. It has a little more detail – different types of detail and was a little more of a challenge. I took the prompt literally; that is a drip coffeemaker and not a percolator, but I often let ideas percolate while I am cooking breakfast. It is usually quiet.
Creative Prompt Response #20
The quilt in this drawing relates to a photo I took in Seattle in 2008. I still love that photo and will make something related to it someday.
Blog Housekeeping
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.
OK, I Submitted
I bought some fabric. It was cheerful; I had ideas for what to use it for and I just couldn’t resist.
I loved the pink stripe and pink flowers on the left. They are cheerful. I, first, bought a half yard of each to go with the blue. As I was chatting with the cutting lady, I decided that they would both make fabulous tote bags, so I bought enough for tote bags. The others are fat quarters that I thought were cheerful. The funny part was that the cutting lady kept all the bolts aside so she could get some of the same fabric.
I need to get busy on tote bags as I now have the fabric to make four of them!