Themes, words and challenges

Anyone thinking about New Year's resolutions? I like the idea many of the members of the QuiltArt list use, choosing a word as theme for the year.

Last year I chose "Dance." First, it was a reminder to be more physically active (I feel so much better when I work out). Second, there was a song a few years ago "I hope you dance." The lyrics include "And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance/ I hope you dance.... I hope you dance."

That's such a great reminder to me to go out and do things I know I will enjoy, and not just sit back in my comfort zone.

I'll keep "Dance" as an overall word, but for my professional and artistic life I chose a set of three words. Focus, Balance and Stretch.

Focus because I often try to multi-task, stopping to check emails, or jumping up to do things around the house. That's one of the drawbacks of working at home. So I need to focus on work, or focus on my art, finish what I need to do, then move on to the other stuff.

Balance because when I get really involved in something I tend to focus on it and forget about other things. So even though I want to focus on several things, I need to balance and not forget the rest.

Stretch because I want to try new things and learn new things in my art, and to remind myself that I need to  make a little more effort to do necessary things that I don't always enjoy.

As a reminder of these ideas, I made a little sign, which I'll post at my desk and in my studio.

And speaking of stretching. I used to love to draw. When I was growing up I was always drawing and was pretty good, though untrained. As an adult I've tended to doodle and recently have started doing Zentangles. Such fun.

So my first stretch of the year is to re-learn the fun of drawing. I signed up a couple of weeks ago for the Sketchbook Challenge. The challenge theme for January is "Highly Prized," and this is my second effort on that theme. I'm sure I'll be doing more versions before the month is over.

And yesterday I heard about an online class called The Art of Silliness, which started today. With a name like that I had to check it out. There's a daily, fun exercise in drawing that you can do in a few minutes (or as long as you want, I guess). I signed up for it and have the first exercise. Registration is still open, if anyone is interested.

Back to fabric. I made more progress on my little painted quilt last night. Now I just need to decide how to finish it. And more progress on the organizing. I pulled out a box of vintage fabric I got a couple of years ago and packed it with the new scraps I got before Christmas, so that's all in one place. And I started sorting through fabric and deciding how I'm going to rearrange it. And I decided to put up shelves on the last section of bare wall in the room. It may look like a warehouse when I'm done, but at least I'll be able to get to things!

More later.

Painting, stitching and organizing

More quilting and more painting

I am in love with this paint! After starting off by using the Lumiere to paint the flowers, I decided to add more quilting, then paint more.

The original stitching was an off-white. I stitched around the leaves, feathers and swirls with a light blue green poly, for a nice sheen, then stitched inside the feathers and around the flowers with a pink. Then it was back to the paint. I used the light blue green paint that I had used for the base of the flower petals for the swirls, and used it to accent the darker blue on the feathers. I used a green-gold for the leaves and accented it with the dark blue.

I'm thinking fill in with some dense quilting in a darker color, then a bit more paint as final accents.

One of my goals this year is to experiment more, trying out new ideas and techniques and seeing where they are going. I'm finding it very freeing to work on pieces that don't have a goal other than the process. This one started as one of several to demonstrate free motion quilting during our quilt show.  Since these pieces have served their purpose, I can do whatever I want now, and if I like the way they turn out, it's a bonus.

Work station after removing sewing machine. 

Working on this was my reward after getting back to my organizing efforts. I put up a second set of shelves in the dining room and collected more of the stuff onto them. My new shelves total 24 linear feet and they are almost full already, with more stuff still to put away! Amazing how much was piled on the floor, chairs and on top of the sewing machines in there.

Work station after adding shelves, drawer carts underneath. More still to do

This is going to be a continuing project. My goal is to get like things together, and the things that I use constantly closer at hand. My fabric has outgrown my bin system in the storage room, so will have to be divided, but at least I can have all of a type in one place or the other. It's a nuisance to look through a stack of blues in one place, then another looking for a specific piece.

Speaking of fabric, I was talking to my sister yesterday. She's also working on organizing, and also a fabricaholic. The difference is, she lives closer to sources of fabric and doesn't sew as much as I do. We agreed we both need to go on a fabric diet. No new fabric, unless it is something specifically needed for a current project, until our trip to Mary Jo's in June.

With that in mind, I started a new ticker on the blog, fabric in, fabric out, starting with my purchases on New Year's Day.

Back to organizing. My best progress so far has been creating an art work station. I cleared part of a counter by moving out a sewing machine I seldom use and cleared off a bunch of random stuff. By moving over the wall mirrors, and putting up a little set of wire shelves I made a place for basic art supplies. Under the counter I removed open boxes that I dumped crumbs and strings in, and replaced them with two rolling drawer units. They house crumbs and strings, crumb blocks, solids for postcard backings and palettes and containers for art. On top of the carts are a flat basket with sketchbooks and a divided container with stamps and ink.

The thread stand at the end held all my cotton poly mix threads, for garment making. Since I'm not using it that much, that thread went into my new drawer unit for thread, with additional thread that had been stashed away going in the other drawers. When I'm finished all my thread will be consolidated and I'll free up more space on the work counter.

Well, that's enough for now, so more later.

New Year, new projects

Happy New Year! There's a lot going on, with wrapping up the old year and starting the new.

I love the lacy pattern of these dried flowers growing in the dunes on Tybee.

We spent the weekend on Tybee Island, with my sweetie keeping our restaurant on track and me taking pictures and otherwise trying to stay out of the way. We had a nice time visiting with friends while we waited for the fireworks at midnight. And I wore my sequined shoes, which everyone loved.

And I even got in a nice walk on the beach Sunday morning, despite a chilly breeze.

I used the Lumiere paints to fill the quilted flowers on this sample
piece. I'm going to do  more quilting, then paint some more.

I brought along a sewing machine and quilt to work on, but decided Saturday to take the chance to go shopping in Savannah, so made the trek in to JoAnn's and Hancock's Fabrics. I was so glad I did. I've been looking for quite a while now for Lumiere paints, and was about resigned to ordering online. JoAnn's had their fabric paints on sale half-price so I took a look and found the Lumiere. At half price, plus an extra 10 percent off, I bought about every color they had in the opalescent and several in the opaque.

I couldn't wait to try them out, so last night I pulled out one of the small pieces I'd quilted during demos at our quilt show. The colors are gorgeous against the dark fabric. I'm going to add some more quilting, then paint the rest of it, and see what I come up with.

Other than that, I picked up some topstitching and metallic needles, to see how they do with the specialty threads I've been using lately. That was my first visit to that Hancock's store, and I was impressed by how big it was. I found several really nice batiks (my weakness) on clearance for $2.95 a yard, so three of them had to come home with me.


There's lots more going on, including my studio reorganizing project and a couple of challenges, so more later.

Home again

Don't you just hate it when you spend a lot of time on a quilt then discover an error after it's finished and delivered? I just discovered a goof on my Shakespeare in the Park. I was all ready to post how happy I was that it's finished and delivered – and my parents like it – when I pulled up the picture I took and discovered a goof.

I put a dark star on a light background in the place where a light star on a purple background should have been. This is what happens when you are trying to lay out a queen-size quilt on a table that's not big enough.

Aggravating, but I didn't notice it until I looked at the picture. I wonder if I should tell my parents or just see if they notice it?

Oh, well, we had a nice visit and I am glad to be home now. I spent the afternoon yesterday puttering around my studio, putting new toys away, trying things out, and figuring out what I want to do to reorganize (can you reorganize if some of it was never organized to start with?) my studio, and playing with some fabric.

Now that Christmas is over I can also show the wall hanging I made for my sister. It was pieced with scraps left from SITP, echo quilted using several different threads, painted a bit with gold ink and then finished with rhinestones. I tried out Mistyfuse for the first time to apply the gold mesh over the letters, and was really impressed. I couldn't have applied that with any other fusible I have.

 It looks like today will be a catch up with work day, then back to the studio I hope. More later.

Happy Holidays

I had thought I'd make a fabric Christmas card to share with all my friends online, but time has run away with me. So here is a Christmas card I created from a photo I took on Tybee Island yesterday.

Wishing the best of holidays to all my friends.

Mmm... cookies

I just finished making about a bazillion cookies and since this is my favorite chocolate chip cookie in the world, I thought I'd share the recipe. I found this in a newspaper many, many years ago.

$250 Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
2 cups brown sugar
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups all purpose flour
5 cups oatmeal, ground (see note)
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
24 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 8-ounce chocolate bar, grated
3 cups chopped nuts

Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, vanilla and mix with flour, oatmeal, sale, baking powder and baking soda. Add chips, grated chocolate and nuts. Roll into 1-inch balls and place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 6 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 10 to 12 dozen cookies.
Note: To grind oatmeal, place in blender or food processor. Measure before grinding.

A couple of notes. Make sure you have a really big bowl for this! I put the dry ingredients into my monster bowl, and use my food processor to cream the butter, sugars and eggs, then add the sugar mix to the big bowl. Also, be sure to make the dough balls one-inch. That way you end up with the perfect crisp bottom and chewy center. I usually divide out about one-third of the dough before putting the nuts in, for the people in my family who don't eat nuts.

Now that the cookies are finished, it's back to the studio. More later.

Where does your fabric come from?

I had a good weekend sewing, but it was mostly Christmas related stuff, and someone might peek, so I'll post on that later. My other effort over the past few days has been to create a new work station in my studio for sketching/painting/glueing and other non-sewing activities. There's some progress there, and more to come, I hope.

One of the hot topics of conversation on most of my quilting lists has been the expected increase in price for cotton, for fabric, for batting and everything made with cotton. Some people plan to restock before the price goes up, some work from their stash. And on the QuiltArt list, the discussion turned to repurposing fabric.

It was nice to see that so many talented quilters and artists see the value in repurposing, as I've been a fabric scavenger for a long time.

I love fabric stores, don't get me wrong. Let me loose in Mary Jo's, or a quilt shop with a good sale, and watch out! But I'm not a fabric snob, I'll buy fabric anywhere if I like the fabric and it fits my purpose. WalMart, JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, quilt shops, you name it.

And thinking about my stash, a lot of it comes from non-traditional sources. There's quite a bit I've found at thrift stores and estate sales, there's fabric I've bought from quilting friends, there's clothing that's been cut apart for fabric, there's fabric I've gotten from people on FreeCycle,  and there's even fabric scavenged from the side of the road!

One of my favorite estate sale finds came years ago. The lady had made the most amazing jackets and blouses, using Seminole patchwork style piecing and mostly polished cottons. She had almost every color imaginable. The woman had moved into assisted living of some sort and her daughter was handling the sale. The daughter sewed too, and we had a great conversation as I picked out stacks of fabric to bring home. The next day I went back for even more. My only regret was that I didn't buy one of the Pfaff sewing machines she had for sale. I was new at sewing machine collecting then and didn't know what a treasure they were.

Points in this star came from fabric in a wreath.

Thrift stores are great, of course, and when you work in the same building with a thrift store you get plenty of chances to find treasures. Once the ladies who ran our store knew that I sewed, they often let me know when fabric or supplies came in.

One of the best finds was a fabric wreath. It was a cutesy country wreath on a foam form, but the fabric was a really nice turquoise and pink print. They were going to toss the wreath, but gave it to me. I took it apart and got over a yard of fabric from it. A little bit of that fabric went into the Shakespeare in the Park quilt I'm working on.

Fabric from clothes is another great source. I don't remember if I had been reading Bonnie Hunter's discussions of using men's shirts as fabric (I don't think so) when I first noticed that there were some really pretty men's shirts coming in to the thrift store. I started by picking up one or two with really nice fabrics that I revamped as shirts for myself.

Then I started buying shirts just for fabric. The thrift store does an end of season sale each summer and winter and clears out the old season's clothing. I started cotton shirts, skirts, sundresses, anything that had nice fabric. And I started picking up some silks and blends that I could use for other sewing. By the time I left the job in that building, I had stacks of shirts, and spent most of last winter cutting them up as I watched television.

This treasure trove of decorator fabrics came from
someone on FreeCycle

Another treasure trove came through FreeCycle. A lady who has an upholstery and home decor shop listed that she had scraps. I ended up visiting her and bringing back several huge bags of scraps and yardage. Not quilting cotton, but I've used it for tote bags, table covers, re-covering cushions and all types of things.

Okay, I'll admit now to picking up fabric on the side of the road. In the town where I live there used to be a small plant that made uniforms. About 10 years ago the plant had closed down and they were clearing out the building and literally dumped stuff on the side of the road. Fabric, tables, chairs, all kinds of stuff. It had been sitting out a while by the time I discovered it, so who knows what treasures I missed. But I brought home several metal chairs and a couple of work tables (that I'm still using). And I dug through the piles of fabric – it had rained by then – and brought home piles of fabric. Most of it was synthetics or blends that had been used for pants, and some lighter blends for shirts. But I did find a big pile of prints, mostly in bold prints. I spent the next couple of days washing all the damp fabric and folding it up.

I've used that fabric for everything from shorts to laundry bags to pet beds and there's still plenty left. The prints are still waiting for an inspiration to use them in a quilt.

So, am I worried about cotton prices going up? Not really. I don't like it, because I always enjoy getting new fabric. But it won't keep me from my quilting. With the exception of batting, I could probably sew/quilt/create for the next five years without buying any materials. I hope I don't have to, though.

Time to change gears and run to the store to pick up baking supplies. This afternoon I'm baking cookies  for a Christmas party. Yum.

More later.