Winging It Creatively

This goes out to all my friends who sometimes (or maybe always) wing it when working on a creative piece. I’m not one of those people who plan everything out in detail before starting. I tend to dive in and go for it. Of course I do have a habit of thinking and thinking and thinking about something before I actually start doing it but once I start anything can happen.

I’ve been working on a couple of small art quilts using my Stitch Meditations. The meditations were started with no thought of how they might be used, they were just quick (well maybe not so quick) stitching using scraps of fabric and threads. As they progressed though they started presenting themselves as something more and I just had to go with it. Even to the point of not doing stitch meditations on a daily basis. I will get back to that though because I really enjoy it and they seem to spark more ideas.

So I just started seeing how I could put some of these little pieces together. For one I knew I wanted a “white-whitish” background using strips of different white and white-on-white fabrics in varying widths. I wanted to quilt the background using straight – well sort of straight – lines. I originally thought I would do lines very close together but when I just did lines ¼ to ½ inches apart I decided that was the look I had in mind. See less is more as one of my art teachers always told me. I had a tendency to throw everything but the “kitchen sink” into my work. So she always encouraged me to remove something. Nowadays I’m trying to use that principle more and more.

Okay the background is done, now to attach the stitch meditations. Once I had arranged them the way I wanted I noticed the ones in the four corners had a little curve to them and if I arranged them just right it gave a hint of a circle to the piece.

After looking at it on my design wall for some time I thought I wanted to add some stitching on the background to add to the circle effect. After talking with some friends and getting their opinions (some saw what I was getting at, others had other ideas I could try) I went with my original idea and finally dove in and started stitching.

I wasn’t too pleased with the way it was looking but since I had put in the beginning stitches I had to commit to them (I was afraid if I pulled them out I would have big pukas (holes in Hawaiian) that would be difficult to hide. The thread I was using was DMC Pearl cotton size 8 and the needle was fairly thick.

After I started and did the bottom section and part of one side I put it up on the design wall. I liked it but the stitching was a little wonkier than I wanted. I wanted a very organic circle not a perfect circle.

Light bulb moment: I really should have put it up on the wall and then determined where my stitching would be placed. It would have been easier to see where the line should be rather than looking at it flat on the table. I could have used a string or tracing paper to get it placed better. With the tracing paper I penciled in the lines on the paper and then made a few marks for guides and then cut out the tracing paper.

Now it was time to mark the background. Remember the background is white. I did not want my markings to show. I did not want to use an erasure or water to remove the marks. Then I remembered my Hera tool. That will make a small crease in the fabric that will stay there until I have finished stitching. Perfect.

I’m done stitching and I’m not sure it had the effect I was hoping for but it’s done.

Next time I think I would test it out on a small sample first. And of course I have the tips for marking now that I can use at the beginning of the project rather than in the middle!

I’m thinking I may like it better if I added another circle inside the circle and another one inside that. But for now it’s done.

I can always come back and add more circles if I want to because:

Less is more but sometimes, just sometimes, more is better!

Enjoy stitching!

Rose

Then This Happened

So this happened. 

At the beginning of 2019 I was going through my writings/notes and journalings for the past years and I recognized a theme. I procrastinate a lot and as a consequence I don’t do well at starting and finishing projects/ideas/tasks. I have a lot of ideas, projects, and tasks and I spend a lot of time thinking- just sitting and thinking about them. Even this post has been on my mind since the start of the new year.

I realize once I do get started it either gets finished or gets advanced to a point where I need to consider my next step. I rarely have a beginning to end plan and when I do things tend to change along the way. However that puts me back into the sitting and thinking about it mode. Which is okay, except when I’ve come up with the next step I tend to just keep thinking about it rather than start doing it.

Then this happened.

I went into Facebook and Facebook popped up a memory for me:

    

On 1/18/2011 I wrote a note “So instead of sitting and thinking of what to do I’m gonna adopt Nike’s slogan and get up and “Just Do It”!”

Wow that was in 2011! Guess I didn’t do what I said that time.

Then this happened.

A few weeks later I was on my way to church and thinking about my starting/finishing situation. I pulled up at a stoplight. The car in front of me had a bumper sticker that said “Just Do It”. Yup that’s right. Another prompt.

Then this happened.

A few weeks later I was leafing through some old magazines and the Summer 2009 Art Quilting Studio magazine had this The Last Page article “Go Do” by Cynthia Shaffer:

Photo of magazine article

One line she wrote struck me “Go Do is also followed by “you can’t finish until you start”. Uh-huh another prompt.

So I am attempting to encourage myself to get up and get started.

Towards the end of 2018 I was trying to get myself out of a somewhat depressed/overwhelmed state that had stalled my creative self. I came across a group on Facebook called Stitch Meditations. I wrote about it here. It helped me recoup a lot. So I was determined to do one a day for 365 days – a whole year. I fell behind a few days but did 2+ a day to catch up. But then I reached #64 and stopped – well not completely. I was still creating working on a small wall hanging quilt. I just wasn’t doing a completed daily Stitch Meditation.

Then my daughter started encouraging me to join in the 100day project. I had done a similar challenge back in 2015 to do some art every day. I made it to day 51. So I’m thinking 50-60 days is about my limit.

I went to Instagram to look at one post my daughter thought I would like.

And then this happened.

I started scrolling through the #100dayproject and sure enough another prompt. Andrea Scher posted her first day one:

Instagram photo by Andrea Scher

So I’ve decided to join in. I plan to do some form of random slow stitching every day for 100 days. It may be on a Stitch Meditation, or a small collage or an art quilt, or even an original embroidery design or scribble. It may only take an hour to finish or it may take several days.

But every day I will pick up needle and thread and slow stitch something.

My day one entry:

Photo of my day one 100dayproject

Just start!

Rose

From a Child’s Mouth

So yesterday I spent most of the day with my grandchildren at my daughter’s house. While I was there my five year old grandson wanted me to put a certain program on their TV. Now they have at least three controls that operate their equipment and each is different and none of them worked the same as the controls I use at home. And although I am up in years I have a lot of background in computers and such, so it's not my lack of ability to understand but I just never paid too much attention when his mother explained their different controls and what each one was used for.

So I wasn’t having much success in filling his request and he was getting impatient and I was getting frustrated. So in frustration I just said “I don’t understand how these work, you’ll just have to wait until your mother can help us”.

 So from there this is the conversation between the two of us:

Him: Well why not? You’re an adult you should know everything.

Me: Yes I am an adult and I know more than a child but I don’t know everything.

Him: Oh, like I know more than Samantha (his two year old sister).

Me: That’s right.

Him: And Samantha knows more than baby Dean (Dean is a 4 month old baby who my daughter and her husband have welcomed into their home with his mother while she gets her world in order).

Me: Yes exactly.

Him: Except God, He knows everything!

Me: Yes that’s right!

Him: Cause he made everything.

So we have a problem that needed a better solution than the one I gave him. He didn’t tell me to pray about it, he didn’t tell me how ignorant I was, or how bad I was. He didn’t call me names or start saying ugly words to me. What he said was:

“Maybe you should move in with us and learn how to use them.”

In other words maybe you should do something that would solve the problem or at least try to help solve the problem.

I don’t know if anyone will understand why I posted this or not but I hope at least a few get it.

And no I’m not moving in with them to solve this problem. What I did do: I waited until his mother arrived and asked her to tell me again how to use the controls to get to his programs. And this time I paid attention. I listened. I let her explanation sink in. And this time I think I got it!

Rose 

Just Another Friday Post At Long Last

It’s Friday Again! Let’s Move It Forward and Finish It.

Oh hello there!

I haven’t been around blog land for some time now. Some of you know I’ve been going through some different seasons in my life and well blogging just got moved aside. But I’m back!

Seasons have different phases and this season is no different. From caring intensely for a loved one to losing that loved one to a better world to trying to find where I want and where I need to be, this has been a trying season. I’m not sure where my writing will lead. I may even start a new blog, a new page so to speak. But for now I think I will just try and get back into the habit of blogging.

So since it is Friday here’s where I’m at stitching wise. I haven’t finished anything but I have moved forward on a few items. Funny when I started my Finish It Friday posts based on words of wisdom my paternal grandmother imparted to her family (see this post) I thought I was being different. I almost wrote unique but really is anything really unique? Since then I have found other bloggers who have being doing a Finish It Friday style post for years.

Well back to mine. I didn’t do any stitching for about 3-4 months. Why? I don’t really know. But I finally did get back to picking up needle and thread. Hand-stitching is my focus right now because my sewing space is in a mess due to reorganizing and relocating it. My machine is not set up so I can only move things forward to a certain point until I need to sew on the machine.

I took a workshop class through my quilt guild on back-basting applique taught by Barbara Eikmeier. I pulled it out and started working on the class project a little bit at a time. (Well I’m trying to do my 15 minutes a day method but some days I don’t manage any stitching and other days I’m at it for an hour or more.) Here it is in process.

Sunflower Applique

Today I will finish appliqueing the petals down. Next will be the center and then some embellishment. You might notice in the lower right hand corner that I have a little challenge. When I was adding the border applique I cut it in the wrong place and so I have a little dip that should not be there. What will I do? The choices are:

1. Leave it
2. Cover it up with some embellishment/applique
3. Un-stitch it and redo it

What will I do? Stay tuned to find out.

Summer Hexagon Wall Hanging

Next up is my Summer Hexagon Wall Hanging. This I started a few years ago with embroidery designs from Wild Olive to which I made my own changes. I’ve now finished sewing the hexagons together and will be layering it with batting and a backing and then hand quilting.

Hand Embroidered Doll Faces

Oh yes and I’ve embroidered some more doll faces. Just need to rework the body pattern, cut and sew.

Shashiko and Butterflies Wall Hanging

While moving things around in my sewing room I came across a piece I had started when I still lived on the Big Island of Hawaii. I’ve decided to continue on with it since it requires some handwork. I’ve debated back and forth about the butterflies. Should I embroider them or should I applique them as the pattern called for? When I took it out to look at I was surprised to see that I had started to back-baste the pieces down just like the workshop instructor I mentioned above taught. I know the original instructor for this piece had us using a different applique method. How did I get started back-basting it in Hawaii? I don’t know. But I’m moving forward with it.

Until then,

Happy Moving Forward and Finishing!

Rose 

It’s Friday Again! Let’s Move It Forward and Finish It.

Today I will be watching my granddaughter Samantha so some of my progress will depend on how much she sleeps today. When she’s awake she has my full attention!

For today I’ve decided to try and finish something I started just before Christmas. Microwaveable Fabric Bowls.

Small Microwavable Fabric Bowl

I made a few to test the process and see if I liked them and then I started another set to give as a gift. The project got waylaid and so now I’m back working on it. I’m trying to streamline the process and make it a little easier but so far I haven’t really done much. I did decide to do a little more quilting on these. The test ones I made just had stitching from corner to opposite corner. The pattern said that was all that was really needed but after I washed them I felt that more quilting would be better. The finished blue one had quilting in both directions and it has been washed. The rest are just having diagonal quilting as I want to see the difference, trying to decide how much quilting is needed. You could also free motion quilt and I might try that on another set. That would be a good way to practice the technique.

Bowls in process

The other thing I would like to try and work on today is my rag doll. Either her hair or some clothes to wear.

Rag Doll waiting for hair and clothes

Hope to be back later with a photo or two.

Oh yes and I have to pick an area to order, clean, and organize. That just might be my cutting table as I need it to work on my Saturday projects.

Until then,

Happy Moving Forward and Finishing!

Rose

Move It Forward and Finish It Friday Part 2

Well she has a body! Not perfect but then who is? I will do some things different next time including a slight remake of the pattern. Now for some hair and clothes Definitely an experiment coming up with the hair.

Arms and legs and stuffing added

Moving forward!
Rose