Something More

There is life in this blog.  

I'm trying not to overthink matters, but instead, just relax into the rhythms of change.  (and this in no way, shape or form refers to the politics of my country, I can hear the voice of Sofia (played by Oprah Winfrey) from the film The Color Purple, saying "all my life I had to fight")

Naw, I'm talking about the rhythms that occur in my "making" space and in my creative spirit.  I started with a quilt at the beginning of the year and I'm ending the year with another quilt.  One where I'm asking myself "is it enough just to take these bits of color and sit and sew and pray them together?".

A month ago I called another artist which I hadn't spoken to in a few years but a sister spirit all the same I and I was describing the space I'm in and where I am pondering the question.  She started replying and as I so often can forget when two artists begin talking, energy rises....spirit wants to run, leap into explode into the next quilt, quilt as performance art even...

 There was joy in the quickened impulse and the vision...but will my body let me do it?  I mean will it physically sustain enough energy/air to move into a full blown project?  I intentionally started working slow, even when I'm fast, I'm slow.  Although, I've had a few close calls, I've only had one hospital stay this year.  Crocheting fills that space.  I do not think non quilt makers know how physical making a quilt can be.

These hexie are addicting, but not only that, sewing them together by hand places me in that quiet space I live for while simultaneously producing that something more.

Until next time, Peace.

Episode 3 is Up.

This is episode #3.  I share a finished hat I made for an Aunt and talk about what is due to be made, including an quilt that has a deadline.  Below is the rough sketch for it and the hexies for the flowers.

The slip will be used in the quilt and it has since been dyed a burnt orange.  The crows, I'm undecided about including in this quilt.  The working title is Simply Beautiful.

Pilot: THIS IS THE ONE

Hello.  Finally decided to just go with it instead of waiting until I get it "perfect" which could be the 12th of Neverary.  I'll learn as I go and hopefully improve over time.  The pilot episode for my YouTube podcast about my yarn related (mostly) projects is up.  It is 42 minutes long.  I'm aiming for 30 minutes in future episodes.

Here are the show notes with links of items referenced:

Pacific Rim Shawl
Jojoland Yarns
Malabrigo Yarns

Child's Crew Neck Pullover
Yarn Bee Soft Secret (is a Hobby Lobby Yarn)

Project Bags by Kim the Crafty Nomad (EboniePearl on Etsy)

Izumi 

Lacy Fans and Feathers Wrap
Juniper Moon Farm Yarns

For Viking of Norway Yarns, Google to find inventory at either you local yarn shop or an online retailer.

Lion Brand Yarns

Evening Shimmer Wrap
Cascade Yarns

Clover Armour Crochet Hooks

Nancy's Waves Scarf
Windowpane
Premier Yarns

Creative Strength Training by Jane Dunnewold

Piecing Expanding the Basics by Ruth B. McDowell

Mixed Media Portraits with Pam Carriker

Strathmore Journals

Artist Journals & Sketchbooks by Lynn Perrella

Crocheter's Skill-building Workshop by Dora Ohrenstein

Loops & Threads (is a Michaels Yarn)

Yarnbox

MITU Yarns (will need to translate page or check with online retailers)

It is 42 minutes long.  IF you view it in its entirety, then miracles do happen and I deeply thank you. You are encouraged to offer suggestions, comments, evaluations...will be deeply appreciated.  For those who know me, is this me????  It is like listening to one's voice on a tape recorder and being surprised at the sound of your voice.

Karoda University School of Art

Let's see, I have a lot running through my head this morning.  First, let me go make a pot of coffee and I'll be back.

I'm back, but not with coffee but a mug of lemon ginger tea.  This past Sunday I wrote out a curriculum for studio time.  I've done this several times before and although I rarely complete the course, it is due to me jumping off onto my own rhythms.  Having a curriculum brings intent and focus instead of waking up every morning undecided and loosely hodge podging something together for the day that doesn't continue the next day.

On Monday I woke up with a upper respiratory and throat irritation and was in bed most of the day.  Today I'm feeling better and am ready to begin.  Here is what I'm going to focus on:

• Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) and Zentangles (I see these as complimentary) and will use Leah Day's videos as a resource and the book Zentangle A Day by Beckah Krahula
• Piecing: Expanding the Basics by Ruth McDowell
• The Crocheter's Skill-building Workshop by Dora Ohrenstein
• Mixed Media Portraits by Pamela Carricker

When I did this before I called it Learning Curves.  I think I'll call it Karoda University School of Art.

I've divided my days into AM and PM segments leaving room for experimenting and deep porch sitting.  For May, I'll do gel plate printing and just as soon as I finish typing this and playing a few rounds of Puzzly Words, I'm going to mix up the ingredients for the plate.  I'm making one that will be plasticized.  It doesn't have to be kept in the fridge and is pretty much permanent.  I've only made the one which has to be kept in the fridge so I'll let you know how it turns out.  

I've also been rolling around the idea of starting a YouTube channel for crochet and with some art quilting thrown in.  Since the Hubster can't stop watching MSNBC, (has this not been the most grueling, painful, and LONGEST campaign season ever?!!!  This is the one that has broken me of calling myself a political junkie; although I've turned my sights to following our evil minion of a governor....the first Pub in 40 years and boy is he all of a mess up one side and down the other)  (that was a pretty long interjection in this sentence) I've taken up watching YouTube videos.  Most of them are yarn head type videos and there are tons of them with knitters.  Not enough crocheters and its been a while since I've had a tech challenge (Mo and Ade would say I'm challenged by using my smart phone, but I beg to differ).  And it seems like another way of putting myself out there for a chance to connect with folks who share the same interests and renew some presentation skills that have languished since I've been out of the world of employment now.  I really have a lot of time on my hands and I have everything I need to create the art I want to create.   It is a miracle after all the years of working 2-3 jobs and 60-70 hour work weeks.  

I'm listening to a pretty cool podcast called Crafty Planner.  I started from episode 1 and am up to 17.  She has focused on diversity within the Modern Quilt movement and I've been introduced to some pretty hip young women and men.  It is good studio listening.  Check it out.  

And in closing...Alonzo Davis sent me an email yesterday saying our collaborative piece received a red dot!!!!!!  That did my heart good!

Health and Creativity.

Last week my son helped me rearranged some in my creative space..  While I was watching him move things, it hit me...I've always used my studio as an indicator of how well my health is holding and watching him do things I did for myself just two years ago, it dawned on me at a little deeper level that my energy post-cancer is not the same as it was pre-cancer.  My expectations were high thinking once it was all behind me I'd soar like a bird and it would be for an extended flight bursting with energy.  How I use to work in my studio, i.e., whether I did dyeing of fabric, screen printing, or hand stitching, beading, or machine quilting was not just an indication of where I was in the process of creating a quilt, but also, an indication of how laborious my breathing was, how fatigued I felt, if my muscles and joints ached, and if my diet was off or way off.  I haven't spent much time creating because I have lower energy and become winded more easily.  For me, I can know something and then I can really know a thing.  I knew it but didn't want to accept it.

For awhile my daughter and I were on a role with healthy smoothies and had started incorporating ginger tea into our diet and eliminating the unhealthy stuff but that too has been sporadic giving way to fast food and convenient eating.  I did feel better.   My weakness is home baked sweets.  Yea, yea, I know about Splenda.  I would rather go without and make it worth my while when I do eat something sweet.  It is really hard to stay consistent but I'm thinking I need to get back to cooking (which I don't do much either anymore) and being a predominant vegetarian...Peter will follow as he isn't "real" picky and is usually very thankful for home cooked meals.  He cooks but it is always the same meal in the 30 years we've been together...a Nigerian stew over rice and fried plaintains.  I on the other hand, love to experiment and try not to cook the same meal too often, except for, as my family would say, my version of ruebens...they will swear we had them every week for a period.  I don't believe them although I do love me a rueben!

The studio rearrangement has opened up more floor space and receiving a cast off chest of drawers that belonged to my granddaughter has opened up space for my growing yarn stash.  I've been vegging out on YouTube vlogs and video channels by other yarn heads.  Among knitters and crocheters it is a "thing" to show your yarn stashes and yarn hauls.  I'm entertained by it!  Here are some channels I enjoy: Kim Cee, Milkshed, Essence of Me, B.Hooked Crochet and I discovered Bonnie K. Hunter's Quilt-cam and I seldom watch Bonnie's entire episodes but I find her idea and the concept delightful.

Also, I'm still in need of a woodworker to cut a hole in my sewing table so my sewing machine can be flushed.  I've been looking at studio tours on YouTube and Pinterest...but I don't really think I have storage issues....maybe organizing a bit.  I'm not sure if I want to have an ironing board, or a Big Board or turn a table into an ironing table.  I'm thinking my print table could double as an ironing table...it is still relatively clean since I have not used it but might not be practical once I'm up and rolling.   When I was in my Mellwood studio and had to iron a quilt top or quilt in the past, most of the time it came home with me unless I had a clean cloth on the print table which was rare.

And here is the shawl I made for one of my sisters modeled by my daughter:

I've got the same one going for an Aunt and this is from a YouTube tutorial.  This one is my sleeper...it is very repetitive and I can watch tv and do this one.  I also have another one using lace weight yarn an it is one that says "you better sit up and pay attention".  I like having at least 2 crochet projects going...one that is a challenge and one that is a sleeper.

What's Going On?

I have been neglecting this blog and neglecting my studio.  I have maintained patience with myself but not I think it is time I openly explore why.  It is not as if I'm given up on "making"...oh no!  I have turned into an obsessed crochet (again) but this time it is even more compelling than in 2014.  When I first started buying yarn way back when, it was with the intent of couching it on my quilts because I love me some visual texture and that process.  I also thought I would use it to machine felt which I haven't done much of.  All my yarn fit into an over the door shoe holder and it has been sufficient...until now.  My favorite yarn to use is lace weight and I love making shawls and am ready to dive into making sweaters which calls for tons and tons of yarn per sweater.  My yarn is just beginning to spill over and I'm having to think about "organization".  I want a full blown stash...I can't afford to do it, but I want one...like a wall of yarn...but I'm in the basement (my dining room does remain empty however) and I wonder if my yarn would me a nice warm spot for spiders.

Have I given up on fabric and mixed media quilting?  Heck no!  Other than the collaborative piece (see a few posts down) I have not done much or really enough to say I'm doing anything at all.  I started making a piece I had done a study of and wanted to enlarge and designed it with fussy cut diamonds on the bottom....when I say they are a PAIN IN MY ASS! to sew, I can't get closer to the truth!  I have about nine put together of a nearly 30 something total.  I've consulted other folks, YouTube, books...it just isn't clicking how to sew them right the first time without getting them uneven...I'm sewing on the bias too! Good lord!  The thought of changing the design has entered my mind, but I can't just now as I still feel it is the right design for the overall quilt.  Soooo, I've done nothing.  Nothing.

I was drawing faces...and I just stopped going downstairs to do it.  My 500 coloured pencils where coming off the wall so I took them all down and not sure where to "organize" them so they are all just thrown in box until I can figure something out.  I didn't want to permanently attach the pencil holders in place so I used double sided tape...they held up for a long while before they began to drop off the wall.  It always happened overnight...so I'd go downstairs the next day and have to find and pick up at least 25 pencils off the floor.  Then my drawer on my drawing desk broke completely off the desk...then looking at the drawer I was getting ideas of how it could be used in an assemblage...that overwhelmed me and I have not been back to the basement since...about 2 weeks ago at least.  And I've already mentioned it was cold even with running space heaters...and the lighting is poor...I have 4 Ott lights, 1 overhead shop light, and 3 spot lights...and the iron doesn't even have to be on to trip the breakers.  I have been thinking I'll do some mono-printing on cloth, but it will be outside.  I wish I could chalk it up to remnant effect of winter leaving me cranky and irritable, and maybe that is some part of my avoidance...who knows....

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I always have at least 2 projects going on the hooks.  I'm on a mission.  No, really...I am on a mission and each piece is an intended gift for someone.  I have a list, a fairly long list that I want to tackle so I can go on to make pieces for myself.  I wake up to crochet and before I know it the day has filled itself with hooks and yarns.  If I can't sleep in the middle of the night, I crochet.  I mentally project if I'm going to begin to create my own patterns; sometimes I ask the question of how can crochet and quilting be married; I'm considering getting customized labels for my finished projects; I wonder if I should make enough items to set up booths at local craft shows; and then I tell myself, "lets keep this purely a hobby".   If you're on Ravelry, I'm Karoda2, look me up!

My next several posts will probably involve continued exploration of why I'm avoiding my studio.  Feel free to share your own issues with studio avoidance and how you resolved it.

We Rise, again and again and again and again.....

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.   ---excerpt from Still I Rise By Maya Angelou


Let me just say this blog break was unexpected.  Not to bog the blog down with details, I'll summarize the important stuff, the highlights thus far of the late spring and early summer:  

Mo and I have been 2nd hand shopping for furniture and just short of dumpster diving we've been out nearly every day scouting furniture for her new apartment for a new phase in her life.  (God be with us.) The furniture finds filled my studio and we ventured with her leading the way into painting with chalk paint.  

We'd go at nights to paint so we could  pull the furniture out in the hallway...(and the AC was out in the building, luckily enough, the nights were cooler and somewhat tolerable).  The other furniture pieces are still in storage.  A couple of dressers, a headboard, and a buffet left to go.

Mo's car completely died leaving 4 adults to depend on 1, ONE car (feels really retro, but we've adjusted quite well given the circumstances).  And she is now without a job related to her continued knee issues and asthma.  But being the hard-headed determined woman she is, she is rising.

The hub-man and I decided to house hunt for a rental and after weeks of looking we were 2, TWO, days late given notice to our complex and the best the apartment manager would do was to give us a 3 month lease because missing the date BY TWO days automatically locked us into a year lease.  And we came close to deciding on 1 of the 4 we had viewed...a 3BR, 2BA ranch, wood floors with a basement.  After five years of having a studio at Mellwood, I'm ready to bring it home and am envisioning a basement studio  So you see, looking for another place is the key. But as it stands now, October will be our deadline to move.

Somewhere in the midst of it all, I had 2 bouts with pneumonia but didn't require a hospital stay, but did do time home-bound with rest.  Also, several significant people in my life made their transition and passed on, a good friend who was my best friend in junior high; a neighbor, one of "the mothers" on the block I grew up on; and my God Mother who was my Mother's oldest, dearest friend, Ms Trudie Mae Wickliffe.  She was 98 and in her right mind.  (Thank you God for the blessings)

Ms Trudie and my Mother arrived in Louisville around the same time, sometime in the late 40's and worked at the Brown Hotel together while staying with a cousin of my Mother's who lived by the racetrack whose husband was a horse trainer.  They eventually moved out together and shared apartments sometimes with another friend, Grace.  But it was Ms Trudie, 14 years older than my Mother, who remained a staple in her life and later in my life growing up.  One of the most important affirmations I received from her when I as a young woman who left a marriage after just 1 year...she got me without me having to over-explain or apologize to what appeared as irrational to others.  She later gave her understanding of me wanting to live outside of marriage with my now husband (of the 28 years we've been together, we've only been married this last year).  It may not sound like much now, but back in the 80s, in my family, it was still a dramatic thing to do and cause for too much talk.  

Maya Angelou's passing was a moment...to have one so significant in my culturally relevant formative years leave this plane jolted my eyes to open to examine how i'm living and how I've used my talents and re-evaluate how to move forward.  I love this photo of her dancing with poet Amiri Baraka taken by photographer, Chester Higgins dancing on top of Langston Hughes' ashes buried under Rivers: African Cosmogram created by Houston Conwill (a native Louisvillian).  Now, the photo itself says JOY, but when I let all of the above just marinate for a minute or so, that JOY just intensifies and I start laughing out loud!  Living is a beautiful thing!

The last of May ended my time with the co-op gallery.  More of a financial move for me since my lower priced work is depleted and my direction is not to make more right now.  It is what has sold.  I do not want to devote my efforts to "what is selling" right now.  

The piece that had been in Form Not Function 2007, Negotiating Territory, was donated to an auction at Spalding University to help with establishing a scholarship for African American students.  But then a month later, I turn around and miss a deadline for a group exhibit of African American Women Artists at a local gallery.  Even though I have a tinge of regret, I have to believe that all things work toward good in my life and its okay.  

I'm still crocheting, but not as with much gusto since I'm no longer on steroids, and I missed a friend's birthday for which this shawl I have on my hook is for...but there is always Kwanzaa, Christmass, Valentine's Day, or any other day to celebrate just being.

Reading. I've been reading a lot and I simply must tell you about 1 of 2 books by Estella Conwill Majozo (sister to Houston, see above).  First, Sister,  Please, Can You Stand A Little Honesty.  A collection of sermons that Majozo has presented over the last 10 years or so to various faith-based audiences. Each chapter is a offering of faith-based and culturally relevant steps we can take to keep our souls intact and not just as individual women but in a community of women.  I don't know about you, but I require certain thoughts and feelings, as oxygen, that speak to me, my soul, in order to ward off the numbness that grows as a result of stress.  The offerings in the book, helped and will help me to facing forward, nurture the desire to spring high and rise.  I've been carrying the book with me when I go out and re-read parts at night before going to sleep.  The 2nd book I'll talk about in my next blog post.  It also holds personal meaning for me and my family.

And finally to ward off the melancholy that occurs when I'm unable to be in my studio space creating something, I've picked sketching back up...specifically sketching faces.  A face a day is what I'm doing and then I upload to my personal FB page.  

Until next time, peace....

The adventure in crochet continues

This is my yarn stash hanging on the inside door of a storage closet. My rule is I cannot have more yarn than this will hold.

I am starting my next project today.  It is a shawl with a fine weight.  This will be my first time using such a light weight yarn.

Honey, I Love*

okay, So in my crazy mad crocheting, I thought I was ready for a sophisticated Interweave or Vogue pattern...(never underestimate my delusions)  I'm not quite there yet, but I could create a yarn bomb explosion...on you if you stand still long enough.

Also, I told myself a lie...because I'm going to have a small yarn stash, nothing massive or anything like collecting fabric (although I've noticed this could become competitive between yarn vs. fabric). 

I started another scarf tonight.  This is my 6th project in less than a month.  I'm going to block these made with this fine microfiber yarn just to see what that will do.  What I can gleam so far, there is a debate among the yarn heads, to block or not to block.

wave pattern



window pane pattern

 



Also, at the moment, as in the last few weeks of moments, I'm leaning toward blowing all the creative goal setting.  I'm going to walk into the ethereal realm creatively speaking and see what I leave behind on the trail of time. 

What I want to do hasn't changed...it is the pace in which I will do it that will.  In the slow re-read of Beloved I have been so struck by how LOVE is a force, energy, power, action that it has reminded me and shifted me...in the midst of this is the almost daily care and life with 2 small children (I thought this was all behind me) and the experience with my mother (early dementia) is showing me that at any age, all ages, change is truly inevitable, change that you can sometimes control and change you have no control over at all and at the end of the day none of it matters but that which is in LOVE, that force, energy, power, and action of existence.  This is what I'm choosing.  (remind me down the road lest I forget). 

So I think from here on out on my blog, among the artistic pursuits, I'm going to wax off my tongue and just talk about whatever I'm led to say.

*title is a reference to a poem and book by Eloise Greenfield.

a scarf for my Beloved.

This will be a scarf for Peter when its complete.

 

 

I'm reading Beloved...Sixo is holding my intrigue.  At some point he decides there is no future in speaking English.  And I'm trying to SEE Sixo, a man the color of Indigo with a red tongue, muscular in my mind, moving against the horizon of a September sunset.

 

Last week I began quilting the Sula study.  I used a variety of thread weights and types.  King Tut looked the best. At some point I considered the overall look with some finer threads sinking into the fabric, coarser threads sitting above the fabric and some laying close to the surface...the visual diversity could perhaps serve as metaphor for the community of inhabitants within the novel.

 



Woman proposes, God disposes....

This describes Monday and Tuesday of this week.  This week resembles nothing! Nothing! NOTHING!! like I had planned.  Crochet is the prayer I offer through my hands. Teaching Anaya Lift Every Voice and Sing is faith I'm practicing.