The top picture (it might be in a different blog), is one of the box and girder structure, as is this.ll

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I'm about 1/2 way through stitching the background of Vessels. Changing colors every row is sure a pain.. but I'm afraid that if I just mark the whole thing up and try to do all one color at a time, I'll screw up. I should have a picture ready in a couple days.

My cold is almost over. Since I can't take regular cold meds, I took, instead 2500 mg. of Vitamin C and an echinacea tablet at each meal.. plus before I went to bed.. .and Zycam every 4 hours. Five days out and I'm almost symptom free. The last remaining problem is a swollen gland in my throat that makes it hard to swallow. I never had a fever, so I don't think this is strep. But it gets better by tomorrow or I see the doc for a throat culture.

While I was not in a great working state, I found someone's blog (I am trying to find it again) where they declared one day a 3 photos in a day day. There's was last Friday. In the spirit of fun and downright curiousity .. I officially declare MARCH 8TH AS THREE PICTURES IN A DAY day. Take one picture in the morning, one at midday and one in the evening. I will post mine in my blog last Tuesday or early Wednesday.

I invite you to do the same. Just take what you see at these times.

This is similar to projects I've done in past. I've chosen a spot and photographed it regularly... every hour for a day; every day for a week; every week for a year. Depending on the timeframe you assign, you have to really pick the right place. For the day.. the light has to change; for the week.. something has to happen. For the year one.. as I was living in Cleveland... it had to be accessible during heat, rain and snow. It gave me a lot to consider in examine objects in light and time.

well, back to the machine.

I'm running on half speed.

I've tried to write a great blog for today... witty and light and a true joy to read. I've tried about a half dozen times. And the muse must have a cold, too. It ain't happening. So, rather than bore you with the dreck I've written so far, let me just ask you to consider these points and respond:

At tonight's Academy Awards:

1. Best dress.
2. Best hair.
3. Best jewelry.

And the most important catagory:

What was he/she thinking?? (for that truly bizarre costume of the evening).

I've got to share... I''ve figured it out... the Manolo, the Fabulous Shoe Blogger... writes just like Hercule Poirot speaks. Think back to the the marvelously talented David Souchet... speaking the words about "the little gray cells, they need exercise!" and it becomes crystal clear.

Am I working? I started writing this blog to encourage myself to work more.. to focus my efforts and have record of what I'm accomplishing.

When I finish work for a day, I want to document what was accomplished, and when possible put the photos up so I can see how a project changes as I work.

Looking back on the past month, I haven't been working much. And I have the evidence at hand in these log.

Monday is the first day of a week... and close enough to the first day of March. Got to get myself back on track, and get some real work done.

Part of the problem, I think, is working to machine quilt these items for our quilt show. These are not pieces that I'm very emotionally invested in. I don't really care much about them at the moment. And working on them feels like wasting time. So, rather than waste time working, I just waste time and avoid working. Guess what, deb, the work is still there. It's not going away by ignoring it... and I know it!

So here's my deal with myself. I can spend 2 hours working on something creative... moving forward on my work... for every one hour I spend finishing up these committed pieces. They may take a little longer to get done, but I won't avoid any work at all.

Stay tuned to reports of exciting things.. and feel free to hold me to my word.

Just a note. It's Thursday evening. I've been trying to fight off a cold for about 10 days... and it feels like the vacation finally pushed the advantage into the cold's corner. I drank plenty of water; got plenty of rest.. but finding a variety of fruits and veggies when eating in diners?? Not going to happen. Even the echinacea and vitamin C I was taking hasn't successfully fought it off.

Phooey.

I can't take decongestants (contact, nytol, etc.)... as they give me dangerously high blood pressure. I'm dreading the next few days...

I promised a chat about adding layers of stitching to my work. Why do I do it, and where did I get the inspiration?

I actually often THOUGHT about before the first time I did it, but I was trapped into the idea that it was somehow wrong. Not part of the "quilting rule book".

Then I discovered the stitching queens in Britain.. Maggie Grey, Valerie Campbell-Harding, Jan Beaney and Jeanne Littlejohn. Their whole approach to work is often to layer textures and colors. I found their works to be "soul candy". I didn't want to copy thier styles, but I wanted to take in some of their message to define my style.

Two of the books that really changed the way I work are: LAYERS OF STITCH, Contemporary Machine Embroidery by Valerie Campbell-Harding and Maggie Grey and MACHINE EMBROIDERY, Stitched Patterns by Valerie Campbell-Harding. Both books are available from Meinke Toys. But, be forewarned. Whenever I visit the Meinke site, I MUST set a dollar limit for myself or I'M IN BIG TROUBLE. Just writing this blog has cost me $100!!

With "permission granted" to add stitching texture to my pieces when I wanted... not necessarily only at the end... I was on roll. Odd that my "quilting" permission came from a non-quilting source? Probably not. We find inspiration and lessons where we may.

In the current piece, Vessels, the background texture will be made continuous, and when the foreground images break up that texture, it will be accurate..not contrived with stops and starts in the stitching. Any pieces that I do in transparent fabrics will show the stitching and texture behind them.

And this is what I like.. the layers of textures both in stitch and fabric added over time. As I continue to work in this manner, I suspect that this one trait will be the "thing" that identies a work a mine. The subjects will change; the palette may not be predictable; the layering of stitches and color will always be there.

Katy (on the right) and Jake (on the left) are loaded up and we are heading out of town for a couple days. We'll be staying at a nice little motel up near Mendocino. Walks along the bluffs, playing in an estruary, and a trip to a gorgeous botanical garden are all in our plans. Let's hope that weather cooperates.

In the meantime, why not visit Nita Leland's Creative Projects and Links for some ideas for play yourself.



Posted by Hello

Saturday I met for lunch with 3 friends. We are the ones who exchange altered postcards every few months. And, as it turns out... we eat THAI food. Not that Linda knew that in advance.

So we tried out MY local thai restaurant ... ever near Hercules, Ca., check out Won Thai Cuisine on Willow Ave., just off I-80... Yummy food and a good time was had by all.

I think we need a name. The embellishment girls doesn't cut it. I thought of Thai-dyed... but we don't dye.
I considered Thai'd together. But that doesn't include the embellishment and altered part.

I'm now considering Al-thai-ed Up. So it gets the "altered" part and the Thai part. Sounds like fun.. but I'm not sure it's the final answer.

I've reassessed Vessels. The background was grayed over and taking away from almost everything I put on it. I could have continued, but I would never have been happy with the project. So I started over, choosing another neutral for the background.

Often in the past (and I suspect often in other people's lives) I would have told myself: I spent $27 dollars on this fabric. I BOUGHT IT FOR THIS PROJECT. And I'm going to make myself use it, even if it makes me unhappy.
Then I wonder why I'm not happy working on the project or happy with the results when it's done.

So I rethought this stage. I picked up a printed beigy 108" wide backing fabric. This will let me make all 3 pieces and not worry about coming up an inch short in width when I cut it apart. I'm NOT using all 108"... but something more like 50" instead of the stretch of a 43" that I was trying to force myself into.

Room to play. That's a good thing.

This background is printed, but it's so subtle that the design doesn't add or subtract anything to the project. You have to look really close to see it's there.

The original background had a nice mottled textured and a subtile swirly pattern on it. I had planned on stitching in "shadowy" vase shapes behind the vases that will appliqued to it. I dont' think these shapes will work with the new background.

Change in background, change in plans.

The new background is fused to batting (Quilters Dream poly Select). I have the threads picked out I'll be working on. Today I'll pick a pretty built in stitch on my machine and stitch rows colors down the fabric. (referring, I hope, back to the idea of an old fashioned wallpaper).

I'm going to talk more about my frequent practice (ok it's becoming part of my style, I think) of quilting a piece somewhere in the middle of construction. But I'm going to do later this week.

Today I've got to get stitching.

The weather gave us a gift this morning: an hour of sunshine. The dogs and hit the local walking trail for a nice 3 mile walk. There were small wildflowers beginning to bloom, Refugio Creek was rushing westward toward the bay. And, along with finches, turkey buzzards and hawks flying around, I spotted a Western Bluebird. 

The good thing about waking up before 5 am? It's 7 and I've already cooked and eaten breakfast, and done 40 minutes of yoga.

The bad thing? I see a 2 hour nap later today.

The good thing about Spring Training starting? duh! What's the first word?? SPRING.

The bad thing? I'm not there.

It's a dry morning today, with clouds scattered everywhere.. bouncing the sunrise all over the place.

Today I will be machine quilting until my shoulders scream UNCLE!!

Equal time... My favorite view is (naturally) from the west of my house. This is San Pablo Bay... the northern bay in the SF bay area. Later today, the sky wil be dark, and rain will obscure the view.

I went outside after writing my blog and took this picture of the sun just behind the hill to the east of my house. Pretty, yes?

I had MAJOR quilting block for most a year. Not only didn't I want to create, I COULDN'T. I got tense and anxious just thinking about working. Fortunately, part of this time my sewing room was disassembled while we redid our kitchen... and the sewing room had become our "summer kitchen" during the process.

Members of QuiltArt suggested I read "ART AND FEAR", take a breathe and just do it. Well, actually.. the just do it part was to not chicken out and attend ArtQuilt Tahoe.

I took a deep breathe and forged ahead. The 5 days at the workshop energized me, pushed me past the paralyzing of fear of creating I was experiencing (it's incredible... just writing this makes me feel extremely anxious). I took Renegade Quiltmaking with Sue Benner... which, for me, turned into a total immersion in fusible construction.

This is significant because yesterday I wrote up my entries for my small guild's spring quilt show. Of the 5 quilts I'm entering, 4 of them read as a construction technique: Fused. Of course fused isn't an option listed on the form, so I had to add that... but..

The one unfused quilt was made with set a special templates for isosclese triangles, and those right /left half triangle pieces. The template set was fabulous for getting accurate blocks. (sorry, I sold them... so I can't remember the name).

Then a LoneStar quilt made with fusible interfacing from QuiltSmart . This was supposed to hang in my new kitchen, but I mismeasured. It's 2" larger than the wall is wide.

Then a small piece I made at ArtQuilt Tahoe in Sue Benner's class.

Then NOISE.. from the 8th Deadly Sin challenge.

Then Vessels (hope I finish it in time).

This tapestry (a remnant of a silk embroidered upholstery fabric) is already on the wall. The new piece (vessels #1), will have to play nice with this. This is the first piece in ages that I've made to fit with specific decorating requirements. You know those metal 3-section screens you see in lots of import stores and houses? Ours needs new panels. I signed up for a challenge to make pieces that are long and narrow.. just the size to fit in the screen. So I'm working out some of the design decisions for this series by making these panels first.

Ok, to start the actual construction process, I've got to pick the fabrics. So let's begin by throwing some fabrics on the wall and see what sticks. This is actually after weeding out about 20 that were up here earlier. (what happened to that first pic?) The shiny pink piece of organza is really a different color than it shows here... kind of light clay. The large piece behind all these will be the background.

Editing some of the fabrics down and adding some silks and sheers Yes, the olive green silk and the brown silk on the right are clothes. They don't really cit me well, so they have been added to my scrap bag..

It needs turquoise. This piece I bought in Singapore 2 years ago should fill the bill perfectly. I'm really not convinced that the background piece is working. That might change.

Happy Valentine's day, all. Here is a card from me to you.

I found this at Rob Whittle's Show and Tell Valentine Cards. He's scanned in a number of his old valentines cards.

Today I will move the potential fabrics for "vessels" into the dining room where they will live when it's a complete piece. In the true light there, I have to finally whittle down the fabric choices. I have the elements drawn, and the idea sketched out. No more procrastinating! I want to get this piece done.