Signs of Spring

Last week, Spring arrived at 28 degrees.

I was determined to start walking to work again, and bundled up and made the trip downtown to the office, about a mile and a half each way, twice. I remember noticing the temperature on the bank that's across the street from that capitol: 28 degrees on the first day of spring. It was a very bleak.

But tonight, in the garden, I saw this and finally felt I'd seen a real sign of Spring.


It's simply amazing how giddy-happy these little buds made me feel. I came inside and prepared a feast of pasta primavera, opened a bottle of chardonay and started looking forward to gardening, meals on the deck and naps in the hammock.

Confessions of a Swapaholic

Soon after I began quilting, I discovered online quilting groups and swapping. I loved scrap quilts and built a scrappy stash swapping 4-inch strips and 10-inch squares. I made blocks and swapped them, too ... and before long I was hosting swaps of my own.

Since re-starting the Beginner Block Lotto last fall, my swapping has slowed considerably, but sometimes I can't resist the idea of making blocks to swap for others' efforts. I love to see the often unexpected choices others make in their interpretation of the same block or theme. I love the wonderful, scrappy quilts that come from these blocks. Even when the blocks don't find their way into a quilt right away, I don't mind, because I enjoy the process and the friendship I've found in these swaps.

This weekend I was making Not Quite Bow Tie blocks for a swap. I joined this swap because, I rationalized, a "clean out your stash" type activity would be good for my stash. I created a little challenge for myself by building blocks that reflected various color wheel combinations. The only guideline for the swap is that the large squares must be RED--not an easy color for me. But here are my attempts at: monochrome, analogous, direct and split complements and triad. It was fun

Victory!

I never thought I'd actually finish my Knitting Olympics project--my own personal (secret) goal was to just make a good start on it . . . but here is my shrug (with it's arms raised in victory):


I finished it Sunday morning, while watching the Swedish Hockey Team receive their gold medals.

It felt so good, I think I'm going to order the yarn to make the shawl pictured with it in the Mission Falls book, after all ... but don't expect me to finish this one in a fortnight :-)

More Japanese Eye Candy

This is a photo of a detail of a quilt from the Tokyo Quilt show from Be*mused. Don't follow the link to check out her album until you can take your time and enjoy–there are many so wonderful quilts.

Artist way: week 12 check-in

All too often, when we say we want to be creative, we mean that we want to be able to be productive. -J. Cameron

In terms of Artist Way tasks, my performance this week was anything but stellar, but still, I experienced a feeling of accomplishment for completing the book and enjoyed looking back on the small, positive changes in my creative life.

The photo is of a section of my branching out scarf, knit last fall and cited as an example of my habit of creating and abandoning almost finished objects. It's pinned to my design wall, blocking now--I am going to wear it to work one day next week. Along with another almost finished scarf, socks and a sleeveless turtleneck, I faced my fears of judgement and finished the projects anyway. The sky didn't fall.

I also made the leap and tried a new direction in quilting. No one laughed out loud or slyly intimated that my approach was too simplistic.

In the time available to me, I am making more and finishing more. I credit the work with TAW.

At work, I have re-established an attitude of work as play and am finding ways to enjoy being there.

Getting back to the basics, a week of sleepless nights resulted in no morning pages this week for me and, honestly, I missed the way they help me stay grounded during stressful times.

My artist date this week was the beginning of a 2 week adventure that I'm sharing with more than 4,000 others around the world: the Knitting Olympics. A couple of participants have blogged about why they think we're all doing it. My opinion is that we're doing it for the simple JOY it brings. It has all the qualities of a perfect artist date.

My Knitting Olympics experience provided me with a bit of synchronicity, too. As I just described in my upate, after making phenomenal progress, I discovered a mistake and had to rip out most of what I knit yesterday afternoon and evening. Flipping back through chapter 12 and my notes on it, I had to smile at this, very appropriate for me, quote:

Do not fear mistakes–there are none. -Miles Davis

The Thrill of Victory and Agony of Defeat

The Knitting Olympics have begun.

Along with more than 4,000 other knitters from around the world (see map). I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics Friday night and, after the flame was lit, cast on and started knitting a new, challenging project of my choice.

it has been a while since I have worked with needles so large and yarn so thick. Although I was too sleepy to knit much Friday night, I woke early on Saturday and by noon, I had completed the back of the shrug.

I was thrilled. Until I actually started knitting, I honestly didn't think that I'd actually be able to complete my sweater and was ready to settle for just making significant progress. By Saturday afternoon, I was confident that I will finish.

After a quick trip out to pick up groceries, run some errands and track down the extra-long circulars that I'll eventually need to add the ribbed edge, I came home and enjoyed the luxury of an afternoon and evening of knitting and TV.

I watched the women skiers bounce over moguls, pairs figure skating and caught up on episodes of Project Runway that I'd missed and couldn't believe the progress I made on the first sleeve.

I woke up (early again) this morning and started to pick up where I left off, except ... re-reading the directions, I saw that I'd missed a critical line and realized that my sleeve was wrong, wrong, all wrong and would have to be ripped back, almost to the cuff.

Agony yes, but I refuse to feel defeated ... like the skiers that land the jump, lean back and ALMOST sit down, I gritted my teeth, ripped out ALL THOSE ROWS and started knitting again.


I'll probably always remember this sweater as the shrug with three sleeves :-)

Artist Way: week 11 check-in

Last week, I did morning pages 5 of 7 days. I have suggested the practice to a couple of colleagues as a way of starting the day centered in the midst of too much going on at the office.

For my Artist Date, I spent a morning in my sewing room, truly playing with two ideas: the Illustration Friday topic of the week (chair) and Ami Simms' Art Quilt Initiative. The result is this start on a journal-sized quilt which, if it turns out well, will be donated for Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts.

Synchronicity is alive and well and even following me into the office on a regular basis. My project has become very interrupt driven--I'm being bombarded with phone calls and email messages from a large cast of characters and yet, I continue to be surprised by how often I'll pick up the phone to call someone who is calling me or I'll be in the middle of responding to an email message and the person I'm mailing will call. On the home front, I was home in bed with a cold one day last week. I took advantage of being home during daylight hours and ventured out briefly in the afternoon to take a photo to use as the basis for the design for my February Journal Quilt. While I was out, I popped in next door, where I met a friend of my neighbor who is on the brink of moving to Santa Fe, a place I believe could be my next home. She was also talking about a very innovative business program that she recently completed that actually sounded very interesting to me; it's very innovative out-of-the-box stuff. So now you know--I'm not just a quilt class junkie ... I love to learn and this could be my next learning adventure.

Artist Way: week 10 check-in

It takes grace and courage to admit and surrender our blocking devices. -J. Cameron

BLOCK. It seems to be a loaded word for many of us. Since I don't actually think of myself as a blocked artist, I usually translate Julia's use of blocks into things that slow me down in terms of productivity or things that keep me from leaping and making the original quilts in my head instead of safely being inspired by others' work.

Like Debra admitted on the the Artist Way Quilters blog, I also didn't crack the book until the end of the week. When I finally did read the chapter, the synchronicity–or maybe just plain ole irony–put a big smile on my face. All that stuff about work and workaholism and what was it that kept me from reading the chapter and doing the Artist Way exercises this week? Yep, it was the demands of a project at what I affectionately refer to as my day job. All week long, I've gone into the office early, worked late and come home emotionally exhausted. To me this chapter seemed to be all about balancing creating with livelihood and that constant struggle to find time for everything that's necessary for life. Another quote that grabbed me from this chapter was this one:

When we are really honest with ourselves, we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So it is how we use our lives that deermines the kind of men we are. -Caesar Chavez

When I finally read the chapter and the exercises, I realized that I must have picked up a trick or two from past reading this book and made them my own. Part of exercise 5 is to "do one lovely thing for yourself each day." When work or life become stress-y, this has become my automatic response. During this week, I bought a pot of blooming pot of azaelas at the grocery store when I ran in to pick up milk and coffee, evn though it won't be able to go outside for at least 4 more months. Another day, I took a stroll through an art gallery during my lunch hour. One evening, I enjoyed a nice long soak in a bubble bath.

This week, I managed morning pages 5 of 7 days. Julia mentions in this chapter that Artist Dates are often harder to do than morning pages . . . and so it was for me, this week. I had plans to go to a movie yesterday and never made it. Maybe instead of going into the office to work a few hours this afternoon, I'll go to a matinée instead :-)

Inspired by a quilt

I was minding my own business, enjoying a lazy saturday morning and cruising blogs until I saw this quilt photo on bemused. The caption simply says Tokyo Quilt Show. The author is dashing off again but promises more photos soon. i can't wait. I hope I'll also learn who made this incredible quilt.

I'm a toaster?

Oooh! Look at me! I'm a toaster!



Random Object Quiz
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Journal Quilt: January

The inspiration for my January Journal quilt is the young maple tree outside my back door. A single leaf bravely held on through the snow and ice storms of November and December. Its tenancity is rewarded by a larger-than-life appearance on my quilt. Here is a close up of the leaf/sky/trunk.


I made a quick, very rough, full-size sketch of my idea, then cut and sewed the piece completely without a pattern--drawing with my rotary cutter. Nearly all the seams are curves. The quilting was also done in an improve style with no marking. For a better look at the seams and quilting, here's the back.



(click to enlarge all photos)

I plan to continue to explore the possibilities of creating figurative work in this improvisational style next month.

Artist Way: week 9 check-in

I did morning pages 6 of 7 days this week.

For an artist date, I spent Saturday morning dyeing at the local art center. I overdyed the failed shibori silk scarf with better results, dyed a large cotton rag rug--I guess I caught the decorating but from Deb--and dyepainted two fat quarters for my stash.
Last week I found myself thinking alot about the image for the winter Art Image Challenge, Drum Bridge at Maguro by Hiroshige (1797-1858). I love this predominarely white landscape and thinking about how to translate some part of it into fabric.

I kept wishing I could get a closer look at those trees and the snow on the trees and mother nature obliged me with a nice bit of synchronicity by way of two snow storms. These pictures are take the day of the first. As I walked between building, I stopped to take these photos.

I had to laugh as i walked through the plaza and realized that many of the elements of Hiroshige's painting exist in my world: the snow covered trees, the bridge, stone wall, the figures walking. Maybe I should reinterpret the painting as a 21st century view of a snow-covered plaza?

I wasn't able to complete all of the exercises this week because of too many long days in the office. I did work through the blasting through blocks questions before beginning my work on the January Quilt Journal page and found it enlightening and refreshing to understand the resentments and fears (aka emotional baggage) I'd already attached to this effort.

Going for Gold

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee has created the Knitting Olympics and challenged knitters to define their own event--a challenging-for-them project to be knit during the 2 weeks of the Olympic games. I think it's an irresistable idea . . . as did more than 600 other knitters–I don't think I've ever seen that many comments on a single blog entry.

Tonight I ordered yarn to make this shrug, designed by Mags Kandis, from Mission Falls book, East + West. I am NOT also knitting the shawl in the photo–I may be crazy, but I do have a day-job with a hot project deadine in mid-February. Speaking of which, today at the day-job, I introduced two of my knitting colleagues to the Yarn Harlot blog and convinced them to join me.

I think Melody Johnson summed it up best: As if I don't have enough to do. Yeah, she's in, too. It's an irresistable idea.

Stash Sunday: Stripes

Stripe Stash
Originally uploaded by jeansophie.

Hmmm ... When I went looking in my stash for stripes–the theme for yesterday's stash sunday–I found a precious two. Perhaps I need to plan for some future striped SEX (stash enhancement experience). Artist Date idea?

I bought the eye-boggling stripe on the left to use for sashing for black and white swappers star swap blocks, but decided no one would be able to fall asleep under that quilt. The one on the right was one of the fabrics I bought to take to a fabulous design class with Odette Tolksdorf.

Devilish is the word ...

Best blond joke ever

Artist Way: week 8 check in

Small movements lead us to the larger movements in our creative lives. -Julia Cameron

This was a pretty good week for me. I completed morning pages 6 out of 7 days, but I ran out of time for an Artist Date. Synchronicity? Working the chapter that "tackles" time when a project at work became especially demanding of my time. Also this quote on time from Carl Sanburg turned up on the quotations weblog:

Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you. -Carl Sandburg

Last week I said that I thought Julia gave us a great basis for resolutions by reminding us that Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong. This week I would add that I think the steps of the goal search task is one of the best approaches to goal-setting I've encountered--perfect for setting goals for 2006. I found it a great way to go from "dream" to long term goal to near term goal to what I can do now; from ideal-ideal to ideal to what's possible now. I set some quilt-related goals that, for the first time, feel realistic for me, given the reality of my life. I also believe that they are small movements which will lead to larger movements in my creative life.

I really liked the tasks of describing ideal and ideal-ideal days. I realized that my ideal day in the world I inhabit now would have to be a 30-hour day--no wonder I'm having problems finding time for morning pages AND exercise AND breakfast in the morning before I go to work. I was surprised that I included a lot of detail about things that would make my day-job ideal. (I realized that it wouldn't take much to make that work so much more fulfilling).

Part of my ideal-ideal day would be spending half my days making things. I gave myself the gift of half a day working in my studio space and made some progress on the daisy work-in-progress:

Edit to add link to Artist Way Quilter discussiont:
Artist Way Quilters: Chap 8 Check-in January 15, 2006

4-way meme

Jules tagged TAW quilters with A new meme.

Four jobs you've had: web designer, development director for a theatre, hatmaker in an opera costume shop, production artist for a winery

Four movies you could watch over and over: The Quiet Man, It’s a Wonderful Life, Ever After, French Kiss

Four places you've lived: Antibes (France), Boston, San Francisco, and Houston

Four TV shows you love to watch: Gilmore Girls, Law & Order, Lost, Project Runway

Four Places You've Been on Vacation: Athens (to be a tourist) , Calabasas (to go to a health spa), St. Moritz (to ride in a friend’s glider over glaciers in August) and Vail (to ski)

Four Websites You Visit Every Day: About.com quilting forum, bloglines, google, and my ISP’s site (for email)

Four Of Your Favorite Foods: Roast chicken, mussels, salmon and pears

Four Places You'd Rather Be: on a beach, in a sailboat, in the mountains, in a real city.

Four Albums you can't live without: I don’t really have favorites, so my real answer would be:
Something classical, like Vivaldi’s Four Seasons,
Something nostalgic, like the Beatles, “One,”
Some happy world music, like Sukay, Music of the Andes
Some show tunes to sing along to, like South Pacific.

Four People you'll pass this on to: All the Journal Quilts Challengers now have their blogs set up and this is a nice way to practice posting (and getting to know one another), so TAG, you’re ALL it.

Artist Way: week 7 check-in

Artist Way Quilters: link

Like Rian and Jules, I, too, had a hard time getting back to Morning Pages and only did them 2 days this week. I felt like I usually do the week after clocks spring forward or fall back for Daylight savings time--a weird form of jet lag. Plunging back into work was also challenging for me.

I thought I had planned the perfect Artist Date when I decided to make Planet Patchwork's New Year's Day mystery quilt. It was the first mystery quilt for me--in fact the first time I had made an entire quilt, as written, from a pattern. It seemed like a nice bit of synchronicity to discover that I could use a stack of FQs from my stash that I had purchased a year ago without a plan and now thought just weren't my style. Unfortunately, while I did finish the quilt top, the day was not a satisfying one because every step was fraught with errors ...

Looking for a more satisfying experience, I returned to a WIP and started working on letters and words for the border. Everything was done improv-style and it was fun (and satisfying).

Thinking about jealousy (or it's more gentle form, envy) and perfectionism were interesting. As I read the ambitious quilting goals of others, I confess that I envy those without a day job and all the available time they have that I simply do not. I envy them the long list of quilts that they will make that I simply cannot. I remind myself to set realistic goals for me and not feel any less for them.

I saved this quote from Danny Gregory's blog this week:

Art making is not a competitive sport. Being intimidated by what others do, by the clarity of their vision, the steadiness of their line, means thwarting the very thing that will get you to where you want to be. If you don't draw because others, who have done it longer and more often, do it 'better' you are robbing yourself.

With the accessibility that the web gives us, it is so easy to be more intimidated than inspired by the work of the Famous Quilters and not-so-famous artists we admire. I choose to be inspired and to give myself a break when I can't do all I wish I could.

I forgot about exercises 5 and 6, but realized at the end of the week, I'd done them anyway.

This week I wore a pair of hand-knit-by-me socks and felt a ridiculous amount of joy from the experience. It's a little like falling asleep under a quilt of your own design and making, but better because you're fulling awake and walking around with a little smile all day long. The experience inspired me to buy some beautiful hand-dyed yarn from a local yarn shop to make more and to place an order for some Socks that Rock yarn (in Lapis, Pebble Beach and Falcon's eye colorways).

I wore my socks inside another small luxury--my new Dansko loose-back clogs in a NARROW width. I went on a scavenger hunt around town to find a store that had the narrow width that Dansko only offers in one style. The fit is perfect--I may never buy any other style shoe :-)

Resolving, Evolving and The Artist Way

In week 7, Julia Cameron asks us to make this line our mantra,

Treating myself like a precious object will make me strong.

What a great bit of timing (and synchronicity!) to receive this reminder when so many are busily creating goals for the year and resolving to do what it takes to achieve them.

I confess that I am more of an evolver than resolver--continually fine-tuning my life as I discover more of what works and what doesn't. Treating myself like a precious object--in the context of diet, exercise, career or creating a balanced life with plenty of time for making things always seems to be the right answer. I read about diets with the same attitude as toward my weekly horoscope--taking them in and seeing if they resonate. For me, if I am mindful, if I am paying attention, if I am treating myself like a precious object, I will eat well, sleep enough, keep moving (and feeling better) ... and CREATE.

Working up to working small

I guess I needed to convince myself that I can create work that is small enough for the Journal Quilts Challenge and satisfying enough for me.

Even though it's months past the deadline, I also really wanted to interpret my image from Simple Still Life #3 in fabric. Here's my 8"x10" start on both fronts:


My plan for the journal pages is more of the same improvisational-style pieces. Drawing with my rotary cutter was so much fun.