More Texture

As I reported on an earlier blog (here), our little sub-group of the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network has been meeting and exploring different elements of design and techniques in art quilting.

Liz Schneiders led this workshop on texture. All of these pieces are hers and I think they are pretty cool. She did some experimentation with three dimensional pieces, this chartreuse pyramid I think is my favorite.



But this is pretty neat too.



















This piece should probably be oriented in the opposite direction, but I thought it was pretty neat too. She used fleece and sewed it together, then cut it apart and resewed it.









Even the back of it has really neat texture.












Of course, whimsy is quite evident here in the frog with the yo-yo eyes. This inspired Lori Gravely to do a quite elegant piece which she posted on her blog here









In this piece, Liz simply wove strips of raw edged check through a piece of fabric she had cut slits into. Also quite effective.


So, where's my art for the day? Well, my creative tallent was spent working in the garden, planting the last (thank goodness) of the tulips, daffodils and Camas lilies as well as going through some of my fabric and quilting arts magazines. I also thought I was pretty creative in the patterns in which I vacuumed my rug.

Tomorrow will be a more productive day I hope. At least it will be part of the day when I'm meeting with the MVAQN group of stitchers at Appalachian Quilts.

While I was working in the garden and thinking about the Art Every Day, I was thinking about a conversation I heard when I was 16. I was working on a piece of pottery at the Battle Creek Art Center and the two instructors, who were young women probably about 25 at most, we talking about a third woman. The third woman was somewhat older and she set aside a portion of her day every day to paint. She structured it so it was the same time every day. The two instructors I was hearing as I worked decried this and said that she wasn't REALLY and artist because she worked at the same time every day, not when the muse moved her or for as long as the muse moved her.

I have remember this all these years. At the time, I thought that they were wrong. Today, I know that they were horribly wrong. As other responsibilities come our way, whether children, a job, or whatever, sometimes we have to set aside a certain time and hold it sacrosanct...this is our time for creativity. Sometimes we can sneak it in other times as well, but at least we have this one sacred time. I suppose that the two instructors thought that it became too much like work...but I think that the third woman was very wise. While I usually shoot photos every day, and am creative (or at least try to be ) in the food I prepare and certainly my gardening is very creative (if you ever want to talk color and texture in gardens, then I'm your gal). However, sometimes the time I am able to spend in my sewing room or with my paints is short indeed.

Art Thursday, Friday and Saturday, OH MY!

While I practiced the discipline of art for Thursday, Friday and Saturday....I didn't have a chance to post it until today, so you're going to get a lot in one fell swoop.

Thursdays are one of my quilting days. I meet with friends, we bring in lunch pieces to share and quilt and talk for about four hours. So, I spent the day working on my Fast Friday Fabric Challenge which isn't being too fast as I'm over thinking it and trying to get it right. NOT what it is supposed to be, but oh well...


When I came home, I planted 30 more tulips and 10 more daffodils. After I finished that, I started taking some photographs in the garden. Since we changed over to daylight savings time, sundown is about 5:30. Since it was about 5:00, it was dusk. Here are two shots of a miniature spirea I have. One is with flash, the other is with available light. I think it is interesting how the flash made the bronzes and yellows come out more, while the natural light gave us more blue and purple tones.



Friday was also a hurry up day....I had lots of errands to run and I also had an evening meeting. So, here are my garden shots for Friday. Photography isn't the only thing I did, however, as I also painted some Tyvek so I could melt it to make some "rocks" for a small quilt I'm working on.

At left is an Icelandic poppy which is still putting out blossoms.













This is a geranium, I can't remember right off the top of my head which it is, as I have several.










I'm not sure which shot I like better. Votes will be happily taken.














Today, I spent the day at Hartzell Propeller in Piqua, Ohio. Hartzell graciously allows us to meet there when I sign up the room for the day. The local Troy Quilt Guild has two of these sponsored "stitch ins" per year, one in the fall and one in the spring.

One of the things I did was look at this piece and try to figure out whether I should finish it or not. This is in answer to the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network's challenge "Triangles." It was an idea I had to do a series on crop circles, this being number one.

The only problem is, every time I look at this, I think nuclear hazard.... I was going to use pearle cotton on this and stitch around and in the triangles. Originally I thought I'd do it in golds and greens to represent the flattened and standing crops. Then, when I kept on looking at my nuclear issues, I thought perhaps I would stitch over the tops in purple, turquoise and red-orange. However, I'm not convinced that this would look good. In addition, I haven't been able to get the pearle cotton in purple locally.

So...this is where I could use your help...should I ditch it or try to do something with it? Or am I just being too critical?

I was also trying to do another thing with triangles I had an idea for, but I wasn't achieving what I was thinking about. I began to wonder if the problem is that I am just too much a representational sort of person and when I tried to do something else, it doesn't work. I don't know.

I also came to the conclusion that perhaps not all things should be finished.

Art Every Day: Is it too late?

November is Art Every Day month. I found out about it at the Quilting arts message board....but I didn't jump right in.

I thought I have enough to do...and probably couldn't do it anyway. I'm over thinking my Fast Friday Fabric Challenge quilt and having difficulty doing what I want to do with it... Over thinking is one of my major problems.

In addition, when someone suggests something like this, my head explodes with ideas....then I get caught in a tailspin in trying to figure out which one to do, and how to cram it in with the other things I'm up to.

So, here's the skinny on Art Every Day. Now mind you, she says that the rules are meant to be broken....and that you can join at any time. Shall I, or shan't I? What do you think?