Accountability Sunday

Here we go...I'll start with the goals I set last Sunday for this past week.

I did baste the XX quilt and started quilting it with 1/3 of the quilting lines complete...do a little dance!
Mid-Wife quilt is so near completion...binding 1/4 sewn which leaves 3/4 left and the sleeve...make a little love.
Things not set but significant were Kore Gallery coverage and brainstorming session with other Mellwood Tenants...get down tonight (am I dating myself with KC and the Sunshine Band here? oh, well, its still good).

I did not do the exhibit paper work (ugh, this is going on 3 weeks.  (I need a admin assistance!) nor did I start Hansen's book or the Zentangle exercises.  

I was in the studio 18.50 hours and worked here at home for 5.50 hours.  What my tracking does not include is reading for information which is kinda like a prelude to the "doing", which is more important.  I'm hoping that by warmer weather I'm in a such a routine of staying accountable that the fun of printing and dyeing fabric will not induce guilt because that is definitely going to happen.  Breakdown printing, marbling, and lamination are techniques that I've missed doing.  I'm still on the fence about fabric encaustic...what I'm considering is renting studio time at Mt. Saint Francis for a day or 2 to try it out.  My current space is filled to the brim and with more open space it might be easier to explore.

Goals for the coming week: updated 2/14/2013

• Put together a media list and make 15 contacts via email/phone (between M-W) started but not completed
• COMPLETE PAPER WORK FOR EXHIBIT! (typing in caps does constitute yelling at myself)   completed 2/13/2013!
• complete quilting on XX
• Complete 2 chapters in Hansen's book and 3 zentangles (1 for Nysha) (between M-W)  before Saturday night
• Select and cut fabric for The Lynching Project (LaShawnda Crowe Storm)
• Sleeve/binding on M-W  (then stand back and admire) binding complete
• download The Bluest Eye from the library (yes, this is quilt related)
• cover 3 hours at Kore Gallery---sketch or sew while there

whew! makes me a little nervous looking at them....better print them and post them here on my desk, on my fridge, in my car, and at the studio.

peace,

Untitled, 2010(c) sold

Take 2

Joining The Kore Gallery at the end of January necessitates a do-over for 2013 goals.

The Kore Gallery:

• Keep a minimum of 5 pieces in the gallery
• Take gallery photos bi-weekly
• Maintain FB page
• Develop website

The Chitlin' Circuit Studio:

--> Complete Access to Market (A2M )

          Business Plan
          Personal Website
--> Complete 10 new pieces
          2 Crowbonics
          2 portraiture
          2 Graffiti quilts
          2 inspired by Toni Morrison novels (Bluest Eye, Sula)
          2 Boat
--> Complete 20 small pieces
--> Maintain spread sheets on time, expenses, sales, etc.
--> Submit to 4 shows
--> 2 Outreach art activities
--> Continue Learning Curve (working through books/online workshops)

For the month of January I was in the studio 16 days for approx. 77 hours with approx. 12 of those hours engaged in socializing with other artists.

Additionally, I attended the 2nd glass for A2M. It was on pricing and left me with worksheets to complete.  I surmise it will take me 2 months to get them done.

I did not complete any quilts but started 2 new ones and have 1 in last stages of completion.  Some time was devoted to transferring images to fabric but no clear direction for using them, but leaning toward decorative pillows but not a high priority.  Piddled with reverse applique.

What I did not get completed but should have was meeting the deadline for Form Not Function Entry and submitting some paperwork for an independent exhibit I have already sent the quilt to curated by Carolyn Mazloomi.  The hang-up was getting my work photographed for for the former and not being able to lay my hands on measurements on the quilt I've sent for the other.

Objectives for this coming week in order of priority:

• complete paperwork mentioned above.
• complete mid-wife quilt
• baste a quilt
• start zentangle workbook
• start Digital Elements by Gloria Hansen

XX (graffiti quilt in progress)

Hemp ain't cheap...

Its been almost 9 years since I've been in the workforce but I still get excited about Fridays. I'm tracking my studio time this year so I can have a clearer picture of the amount of time I'm there and what I do while there, believing that my time and how it's spent is a direct link to achieving my goals for the year.  In addition to a calendar where I write my start/end times I come home and enter time into an excel spread sheet along with abbreviated notes of what I did while there.

The hemp fabric might be a blend of hemp and rayon.  It has a lot of give in it.  I ironed on a leave-in stabilizer to give me more control with cutting. Today I decided to add prairie points at the bottom in the black fabric.  The points will be in front of 3-4 inches of green and cowrie shells will hang from the ends of the point.

The state legislators on both sides of the aisle are discussing returning hemp growing to Kentucky (Kentucky was a producer in the 1800s) and with Rand Paul (groan) and the state chief of agriculture leading the pack plan on asking the Federal govt. for a special waiver to start.  The state police are the voice of highest concern.  I'm not sure what the process is to turn hemp, the plant, into hemp, the fabric...but my selfish interest is, will it bring the cost per yard down.  

I spent time combing through my fabric stash...I don't have any brights...I lean toward shades which might account for my love of grays.  I was looking for fabric to write on. When I found it, I tested out markers for colour...the ones at the top of the fabric I eliminated and the ones on the right are possibilities.  The b/w image helps me with determining value...all of these will work value-wise.

Wordless Wednesday

It has something to do with Home.

High winds and rain are predicted to move in around 3:00 am...so possibly, I could find myself in Oz tomorrow looking for the Wizard.  But I'm hoping all will be well and whatever comes will pass through quickly and without any loss of power and life.

I just came in from the studio. When I rough sketched the quilt out I wrote Welcome Home underneath it and tonight while piecing it, I kept thinking "going home", "returning home".  The center fabric represents a passage, an illuminated door. You know by now, I just listen to what comes and at this time I don't know what it means really.  Before I left I cut the right and left side down to bring more focus to the doorway. and some of the top will also get cut down.  The other idea that came was to place a face at the top.

While meditating on it the idea came to me to make it 3-D and I saw a room with about 50 of them varying between 4-6 feet tall.  I don't think I'm going there but I'm noting it here for reference.

Listening to Public Radio...it's not illegal yet.

I'm really quite sleepy at the moment...but my head is still swirling from yesterday.  The class yesterday was on pricing wholesale and retail.  Do you see see yourself as an entrepreneur or wanting to become one?  If so, are you creating multiples that can me marketed to wholesalers? Do you see yourself as creating one of a kind pieces? multiples of one of a kind pieces?  how quick can you turn over work?  how do you find your target audience?  The presenter's pov is that an artisan should have a foot in both worlds.

I find myself having to adapt much of what is being presented for the way I work when what I really want is to have a business model to fit the way I work instead of me trying to pour myself into what feels like a size 8 dress.  When it comes to business models, does one size fit all?  There has to be various models out there?!  I love the physicality of creating art quilts.  Exploring processes is a dialog that I'm having with not only my mind and spirit, but my body as well.  I try to focusing on doing while at the same time listening and focusing on what my body is doing and learning.  I don't want to loose that.  I think I can take some of the ideas and apply them, just not all.

For months I've been yo-yoing over joining a new co-op gallery at Mellwood that opened last Spring.  Well as of yesterday, I'm in!!!!!  I'll have a place where my work can hang and breath instead of being stored away!  I will gallery sit about 4 hours each weekend and will do a website.  I created the FB page and update it already for The Kore Gallery.  (see why my head is still swirling?).  More info will come as plans crystallize.

Do you listen to Moth Radio Hour?  Saturdays are great for listening to the local public radio.  This American Life, followed by Snap Judgement, The Moth Radio Hour, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and Bob Edwards (a Louisvillian, btw).  When I'm at the Studio I can listen without interruption while piddling around.    I heard a great story today about a therapist who was challenged by a dying patient and a dying automobile and how both gave her clarity in the end.  Last week I listened to a story about a young white woman whose father became ill and her mother, thinking her husband might not make it, revealed to the daughter that her father had kept a secret...he was actually a black man from Louisiana.  I didn't hear the end of the story and looked for it on the website, but I couldn't find it.  If you caught it, let me know how it ended please.

I think I finally have a plan to feature this fabric in a quilt...

Here is the design I layed out:

The green fabric is hemp.  I ordered 1 yard of it and dyed it when I was all in love with chartreuse.  It is more textured and weighty than the focal fabric which is cotton.

Trying to make something stick....

Trying to clear my head and see what I can see...

A gazillion ideas for what to do next have rushed through my mind the last 2 weeks.  When I couldn't settle on any one thing I decided to return to my roots and work with creating texture by couching yarn....

cotton, cheese cloth, couched yarn

wasn't feeling it...I thought about writing on cloth but wasn't up to clearing off any tables.  So after piddling 

this is what piddling looks like...applique and painting

around, I thought I would return to pulling a palette together around the shroud like fabric.  (I've longed to do something with the Shroud of Tourin for some time now, but the focal piece here reminds me of fossils)

various stages of adding and removing pieces

I resisted using a colour wheel, would like to go through the process more intuitively

In pulling fabric, I found the Iron King...this face grew out of seeing the artist, Willie Cole, years ago on tv when he was in his iron phase...I think currently he is in a shoe phase.  I was struck by the his facial features...regal and well defined.  I did an outline in thread as play...but when I saw it tonight I thought I'd try to work with him in a similar way as The Mid-wife.

Several things came home with me...a basting project, gonna try Sharon Schamber's method for basting; more applique, and more embellishments for The Mid-wife.  If the freezing rains come, which are suppose to start around 4:00am, actually come, I'll have something here at home to work on.  

Let's Barter...I have this...you have _________

The temperature dropped to 12F 2 nights ago and the high was in the low 20s.  I'm taking it in stride but today, right after I pick up my grandson from school, I'm going to the studio...it is currently 34 degrees.  After the studio, I'm heading to the gym for a mile walk on the treadmill.  Mo, has renewed our membership so I've been going 3 times a week. I lay my portable oxygen on the floor and do a quick start on the treadmill at 0 incline but going from 1.5 to 2.2 on speed...I'm able to get a mile in at 40 minutes or less.  I'm thinking about adding water aerobics in the spring or even yoga. But first I want to keep up this routine of going regularly. 

The Mid-wife didn't get stretched.  I damp stretch my quilts on the carpet in the living room and my grand kids are with us at night and sleep on the pull out couch which prevents me from stretching the quilt and allowing it to dry.  

The other night I was thinking that I never shared how The Mid-Wife quilt came to be.  I will in a few weeks, after I finish it, but I can't right now.  I've put a note to myself to remember to do this mid-February.  

I am finished with Secrets of Digital Quilting by Lura Schwarz Smith and Kerby C. Smith.  Doing the projects in the book didn't interest me.  What I found the most valuable was the digital filing system for working with images and the argument  for shooting photos in RAW format.  The 3 files, original, master, and target are organization tools I'm going to work with from this point forward.  It is too daunting a task to do this to the photo files I already have.  Shooting in RAW captures and retains more of the image in without compressing the image...it takes up more storage but if I have an image I want to continue to work with...because each time an image is opened and saved in jpeg (a compressed file) there is some digital loss in the image...probably not readily apparent to the naked eye but over the long haul it with repeated use, it could make it harder to get a rich image on cloth.  

The images I printed out, I'm wanting to make pillows with them so I've talked to Stephanie who has made pillows with her woven cloth and have of course did the google search.  I haven't ordered any pillow forms yet...and am thinking I just need to do the first few with polyester filled pillows to see how it goes before ordering down/feather forms.  

I printed the bottom on cotton and the top on organza and over laid them.  This will be my first pillow.

Now, let's barter...this year I'm about checking my spending and using the tools I've already invested in and not keeping things I know I'm done with.  Keep in mind, I'm fairly easy,...I'd like to trade Secrets of Digital Quilting along with the Fall issue 2012 of Fiber Art Now.  email me at seamless_skin at yahoo dot com and let me know what you have to exchange.  If you want an idea of things I might like...here ya go...fancy napkins, foam for making stamps, paints, mediums, painting knives, bead storage boxes, other books, silk scraps, adhesives, scrapbooking paper, tissue paper, paint, dye, crayons, a flat griddle, videos...just name it.

Accountability Sunday

The week was spent with my grandchildren during the day.  I turned them loose with glue, scissors and paper and watched them go at as I sat alongside them and did the same.  They are so free in their approach, not giving a hoot about colour, design...just the joy of working with the materials.  I tried to get in the same head space when I finally got to the studio Friday afternoon.

I began by rummaging through my fabrics looking for colours that spoke to me and threw them at the wall.

Once I got these up, I knew they were too close in value and taking a photo and then putting it in gray scale proved me right.  Dyeing fabric would have been too much of a distraction as I've never been able to dye just what I need and one thing leads to another and I'm screen printing, wax resist...and it takes on a life of it's own.  I left them on the wall as I really want to work with the shroud fabric in the middle. 

The 2 days, 12 hours I spent at the studio minus 3 hours for socializing was spent trying to come up with a design for the fabrics above and then moving into my graffiti fabrics, the start which is below.  I devoted 4 hours here at home to Digital Quilting by Lura Schwarz Smith and Kerby Smith and am completed it with it.  I've made some prints on fabric that I'm considering putting on the front of pillows.

The paperwork did not get completed, I did sew the binding on the jockey quilt and got the baby embellishments attached to The Mid-wife.  I'm going to damp stretch it tonight.  

This coming week the temps are dropping but I'm still going to plan on getting to the studio before Friday for at least 6-8 hours.   Additionally, I'll be hanging out Friday night for Trolley Hop, so come see me.  My goals for the coming week is to get 2 sets of paperwork completed, get the binding sewn on the mid-wife and add more embellishments at the bottom and get the graffiti quilt to the next stage.  These objectives fall under creating more quilts this year.  

I finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman.  The first book I've read by this author.  For me, it was an epic read.  I never thought the book would end and even after it ended, there was an interview with the author (10th anniversary edition), a reading group discussion guide, and words by the author.  The first 1/3rd of the book I was going to give it up...but a little further and I was beginning to "get it" and it had me pondering and wondering and questioning about our society and how it is structured and what drives it.  What does it mean for a country to call itself a melting pot and what happens to the cultures, beliefs, ways of life to those who melt?  It was a very visual read that created a world that engulfed me in the last half of the book.  The movie, The Book of Eli, is a good companion to this read although they are two separate worlds but the theme of faith and belief strike through both of them.

Blues with the blues

With the dip in temps and the ice sleet that started this evening and the car troubles that faced me yesterday morning and the pain in my muscles and joints, I started fighting the blues today.  In asking myself what I need to turn my mood around, I'm longing for meditation in colour.  While I've been looking at old and current family and friends' photos, and vintage photos from the Schomburg and Library of Congress for the next portrait quilt, I'm thinking my next piece should reflect my need for calm, balance and flow...the excavation of emotion and conjuring of ideas that happens for me when I'm lost in music or energies of some poems or the solitude of following a train of thought until it cocoons me or communing with history. Something abstract...until I can see my way clearer and feel joy and gratitude. I have some fabrics in grays and blues that I dyed 2 years ago and a warm rusty colour that are calling me and I'm thinking about lines and shapes that arch over as if I can pass through a portal to feeling better in spite of these earthly demands on me.

the green fabric at the top is hemp with a beautiful drape

Accountability Sunday

It is a light gray sky with a steady rain. The perfect day for blogging, reading, napping, drinking coffee and being in the studio...4 out of 5 here since I have to drive 10 minutes to get to my studio, but I did bring the jockey home yesterday to sew down the binding since I was not sure if I'd return today.

I found these clips in a drawer yesterday that I had forgotten I had.  I don't like using pins and I'm finding these more comfortable than the office clips I typically use to hold binding down.

I took advantage of the warmer weather and was in the studio for a total of 23 hours working on 2 quilts + 2 hours here at home today.  I didn't do any zentangles, weekly photography, or textile experiments or learning curve.  Other business energies were spent submitting a bio, images, and talking with a grant writer of a local non-profit who is aiming to extend outreach workshops to seniors living in nursing homes of which I'll teach 3-4 sessions if the grant should come through.  My mind has been all over the place with ideas of what would be interesting and fun to do with seniors who might be facing some physical and/or mental challenges.

On another note, what is the difference between kombucha and apple cider vinegar? I had a bottle of kombucha a few days ago and I swore it is nothing but apple cider vinegar.  The bottle I had, had ginger in it, and the kombucha wasn't as fermented as vinegar, but taste wise, they are siblings if you ask me.

Next week:  I need to complete paperwork, embellishing and binding The Mid-Wife, 2 sleeves and Digital Quilting.  The photography and zentangles I'm moving to the first of Feb. to start.