Gratitude

Gratitude is how we hold the truth of beauty without pretending pain isn't there. D. Michele Perry

D Michele Perry's 3rd seeds of joy practice is gratitude....and her post was helpful for me....especially during these times when we can't pretend pain isn't there. These are scary times in our country.

We can hold gratitude and grief at the same time. Practicing gratitude helps us expand our capacity for all the ways goodness and joy can show up.

 A month ago I mentioned that I had a major setback in a long term project. That setback was with my stripes project. If you've been following along you might remember that I had been thinking about it for years....and working on it on and off for over a year.

After our new living room furniture arrived...I was more anxious than ever to finish it. I worked on it diligently and finally had it to the point where I was almost ready to start the top stitching. But in a freak accident while it was sitting on the dining room table it suffered significant water damage. The colors in the hand dyed fabrics bled into each other and where there wasn't bleeding...there were water spots. Almost the entire piece was ruined...and I was devastated.

I was ready to just let it go. But instead....after a few days of grieving....I began again. I changed my design...and have been quietly working on it on and off for the past month. I've wanted to blog about it....the process and ALL the steps along the way. It was...after all....one of the only studio projects I've been working on. But I just wasn't ready to share my story.

Just yesterday I had the binding sewn on and was able to wrap it around the canvas so I could audition it in the living room without fusing the binding to the back. 

But it wasn't right. I kept trying to convince myself that it was and looked at it from every angle in the room. But it just didn't work in the space. It was emotional...and I felt defeated. Again.

But today I have some perspective. I am practicing gratitude...and celebrating what I have accomplished.

I still love the stripes with ALL of that stitching where I used two spools of thread and about six bobbins. Stitching changes everything is one of my mottos. I still love the colors and the navy hand dyed border fabric was just perfect and was going to wrap beautifully around the canvas. 

Would the first design have worked? I'll never know. But what I do know is that I will chop this one up and reinvent the pieces and parts for other spaces....and I will begin again.

Today...I'm practicing gratitude for what I have learned and  accomplished. 

In doing that I am expanding my capacity for all the ways that joy can still show up.

Balance

Becky sent me a link to this photo....and it took me right back to our childhood and the little country elementary school we both went to. Anyone else grow up playing on the monkey bars? 

I was actually scared to death most of the time I was on them and I was one of the kids who couldn't hang upside down from my knees. Was I the only one?

Was it a strength thing? A balance thing? Or just a confidence and fear thing? I'll have to ask Becky if she could do it.

I am reimagining parts of my studio space. I'll explain more about that later...but it is where most of my time and creative energy is going these days. It's a change that I have been thinking about for a while...and it was just time to do something about it. I believe it's going to propel me forward in the next phase of my creative life.

But I am still trying to infuse (pun intended) some other creative projects into my days. It's all about balance. And that is not necessarily my strength.

I've been wanting to get back to my fused stripes project. The last time I wrote about it was October 4th just before guests arrived. And many of you know that not long after that....everything shifted in our lives when Margie fell.

In order for me to move along on the project...I had to know how I was going to finish it. I know I'm going to wrap it around the canvas that currently hangs in the living room (if it's successful)....but I needed to know whether I was going to top stitch or not. The substrate I want to fuse it to is very stiff so would be difficult to bend or roll to be able stitch in the middle.

So I made a practice piece a few days ago.

I fused this simple stripe piece so I could audition some stitching. I wanted my big piece to feel like a painting rather than a quilt.....but I also absolutely love the look of stitching on fabric. So I had to experiment. 

My first thought was to stitch in the ditch....which just means stitching on the lines where two fabrics meet. This usually gives some definition and a bit of texture without being too much.

It was OK...lost of starts and stops and pulling threads to the back. I also found it's so easy to stray off the line a bit and those stray stitch lines really showed up on the dark fabrics. 

I know I missed a few places...

but if you look closely you can see the med gray green stitching lines outlining the pieces. I like it...but it wasn't the answer. I think it would be better not to stitch at all rather that just stitch in the ditch. 

Next I tried some slightly wonky topstitching over the entire piece....and immediately it felt right...ish. So I think it's the answer I was looking for and I don't mind that it makes it more quilt like. The linear lines are still a bit painterly.

The light/med tone gray/green thread I chose doesn't show up very well on the lights...but it's good on the rest. Maybe a shade darker?  Maybe a combo? Hmmm.

Translating this to my big piece is the next hurdle. Stay tuned.

Fresh Eyes

What a difference a few days makes. 

About a week ago...there was just a little color in the trees across the pond. Look at them now! 

Have I mentioned how much I love October? 

😉🍂

I would have never thought of putting these colors together....but it works.

That's what's been happening as I assemble small chunks of my stripes project....surprisingly pleasing schemes. We'll see how all these small chunks work together as a whole....with ALL the other colors.

I really like this chunk oriented this way....but somehow it ended up turned the other way in the project. 

With most of the big chunks lightly fused....I may be at a stopping place for now. I kind of have to be actually. With guests coming it's time to clear the dining room table off again...and start cleaning and tidying up the condo.

Most of the  rows and columns are just lightly fused...which means I can still adjust.  

I may work in a few vertical stripes with that dark blue piece at the bottom right....the whole bottom half of that column isn't fused at all. It still needs some fiddling. 

But I needed to stop for the day....and it's far enough along that I feel good about tucking it away again. Fresh eyes between guests...or after will be just the right thing.

This is a very handy quilting tools....a table top ironing board I got at a quilt show in Lexington. 

I lay a piece of the release paper on it...and have been able to do all my fusing on this fabulous little board. 

 

An hour after taking that last photo....I walked by and just slid a chunk of vertical purple next to the blue....and yes....a vertical stripe will be what this spot needs. I'll have to work on the right color. 

But it needed another....so the next time I walked by I added the tan. The bottom of that last column didn't seem right....so I laid on a light neutral piece down on top of the red.

But I HAVE TO STOP for now....I'll figure it out with fresh eyes in the next session.

Enough Fiddling...

....it's time to fuse!

Starting Monday we're looking forward to a couple weeks of nearly back to back houseguests. Then it will be time to put the gardens to bed...organize the garage...wash the windows...then slide into November birthdays and the holiday season. I love this time of year....with all the company and celebrations....and yes...even the chores.

So I decided to take advantage of this mostly partly unscheduled week and bring my stripes project back out to the dining room to see how far I can get before company comes. After some very helpful input from Gretchen, Roseanne, and Dotty several weeks ago...I feel like I did enough fiddling and it was time to start fusing. I can still tweak as I go along...and the best part about getting things fused is that I can eventually hold it up in the space.

I got one panel fused and trimmed yesterday....and it feels good to be starting this phase.

I tried to hold it up by myself to photograph it....but it was too breezy. So I asked Paul to take a photo of me holding it....saying I'm hardly ever in photos. I had to chuckle because this is what I got. 

To his credit...he offered to retake it...but I thought this was kind of funny. Usually you get just one hand...but here you get two! Maybe next time you'll get an ear.

A sliver of soap is a helpful tool during this phase. I learned this tip in my first fusing class and have been using it ever since. I looked back on this stained glass fabric piece post where soap played a major role.

Almost all of the fabrics overlapped each other in their rows and columns with big chunks of extra fabric that need to be trimmed away. Fused fabric is precious so I want to save every scrap. I made a tiny light mark on the fabric with the soap that will just disappear as I iron.

Then I trimmed it up leaving enough extra to overlap and fuse onto the previous piece just a bit.

Once I had the whole column fused...I trimmed up the edges. I purposely tried to make the connecting lines between the strips a bit wonky. A few straight ones are fine...but I want them to have gentle curves and look a bit painterly. 

I made more progress today....but photos will have to wait. The day was just packed!

And....I finally finished my latest puzzle.

And I'm chuckling at how often that canvas print in our living room appears in my photos....and I'm trying to picture my stripes project there! We'll see if it ends up wall worthy.

I loved every challenging minute of the art of Quentin Blake.

Time to start another one!

New Day

"Ah, September! You are the doorway to the season that awakens my soul." Peggy Toney Horton

The sky was blue and the air was dry and breezy.

It's warm in the sun and chilly in the shade.... 

.....and it felt more like a fall than summer.

I sat down at my puzzle table with a cup of coffee this morning and connected the path from top to bottom in less than a minute. The pieces were already right there on the table...I just couldn't see them clearly yesterday. 

Sometimes a new day with a fresh perspective makes all the difference.  

My next goal will be connecting a path from side to side...one colorful little character at a time! 

Every day I have a new perspective on my stripes project. I knew it would be tricky...but I didn't think I would struggle fiddle this much. But there's no hurry...other than the fact that we're having friends over tomorrow to have dinner and play cards and a family gathering next Sunday. I'll have to move it all to the guest room for a while....and it may have to be on hold.

I have gotten some feedback from a couple friends...and I just keep tweaking. At some point I just need to tack it all together so I can hold it up in the room and look from a distance.  That's the only way I'll know.

As I looked back at Jane's inspiration pieces...she often inserts a row of small skinny stripes...so that's what I experimented with today. I quickly assembled this strip from scraps....and didn't even think about it too much.  Maybe that's my problem....I'm thinking too much.  

But there may be too many colors going on here...but it will give me a sense whether I like the concept. 

Right now it's just plopped on top...but it certainly would be a focal point.   

How Will I Know?

Sometimes the magic happens when you stop worrying about how it's going to turn out.

Gretchen alerted me that the wild cucumber at the end of our complex is starting to fruit. They're funky little things...with tons of personality.

Since I first wrote about my stripes project more than a week ago...it has overtaken our dining room table...and everytime I walk by I move a few pieces of fabric around. We mostly eat outside this time of year...so it's not in the way.  

A few days ago Paul asked me how I will know when I'm done.  I said I'll just know....or at least I hope I will. I'm trying not to worry how it will turn out...and just let the magic happen. And if it doesn't happen...that's OK too.

After more than a week of fiddling with stripes....I've decided it needed a few bigger blocks of color to tone it down. The final piece is going to be big...20 inches tall by 40 inches wide...and if it turns out I will wrap that canvas that you see on the back wall.

I've had that canvas landscape print hanging in the living room at the condo ever since we bought the place. I like it....but I don't love it....but the colors and size were just right for the room. So there it's been all these years as a holding place until something better came along.

At one point Paul wanted me to commission a piece from an artist I admire....but I just couldn't spend that much money. I started a batik fabric piece a while back I thought might work....but it just wasn't right. 

That spot is a focal point for the whole downstairs living area...even from the kitchen. So it has to be right....or at least good enough. And when it's right...I'll know. And it's not this piece...there will be another.

So for now I'll keep fiddling...and try and make a little magic with strips of color. 

Here's a wider view of the table...what's not covered in fabric is covered in cyanotype stuff!

At some point I'll share this crazy puzzle I'm working on. Even though I haven't  mentioned puzzles lately...there's always one on the table...and it gets a little attention every single day.

Little Sprout

Look what I found!  

I couldn't believe this little leaf sprout was topped off with a heart. It stole my heart and this print is going to make an adorable little card.

I'm guessing Mother Nature was pretty tickled wih it too.

I've have been playing  around with my stripes. At first I was laying out several columns...but that was too confusing and too many decisions at one time. So I'm just going to work on one column at a time until I get a scheme and arrangement I like. Seeing it in a photo helps because I can crop an image and get an idea how it will look with clean edges. 

This is NOT in final form...I'm just getting started...it's going to take some time. 

 

See what I mean! This is how I started....and it was way too much going on. I'm well aware that there are so many things wrong with this layout.

But it did tell me that I want vertical stripes and I can see that the lights and neutrals...as well as varied widths and value are all very important. 

Once I get the first column good enough...that will inform the second column so it may get easier. For now I'm not fusing anything. I can tack the strips lightly with the tip of my iron if that helps keep things in place.

"Lessons From Stripes"

"Random bits and pieces, accidental arrangements, and formal layouts: why do these fascinate me? I think it's because to me they suggest a way that we make sense of the world. We string together bits of experience and information and arrange them in ways that create meaning we can live with." Jane Davies 

I'm a fan of artist Jane Davies. She loves to play with paint and paper...and her loose and whimsical line work always draws me in. Jane is generous about sharing skills and techniques and I always learn something when I watch her lessons on color theory...paint...and collage. https://linktr.ee/janedaviesart

Jane's collage hearts were part of the inspiration for my "Art Heart" series I did this past winter.  

Next time I play with hearts....I hope to lean in a little more to Jane's whimsical wonkiness! I have to work at wonky.

It's no secret that I'm also a big fan of stripes and dots in all forms....they show up in my home...my clothes...and my art over and over. So I was drawn to Jane's simple stripe series she did in 2020. She's immersed herself in stripes at the time....and they were often a mixture of paint right on the canvas and painted papers that were added as collage. I've always wanted to try this style with fabric.

Jane wrote a blog post that I've read several times called "Lessons From Stripes"....that now has become my starting off point for a striped art piece with hand dyed fabric. If it goes well...it might actually hang in my living room.

It sounds so easy....just a bunch of stripes.....but I have to get the color...scale...and value right or it just won't be pleasing to the eye.

Here are some of Jane's lessons from stripes that I am going lean on as I work through my project.

1.  Value is as important as color...maybe be more so. It's the lighter colors that give a piece a sense of space and presence. 

2.  Color is relative....and what you put something next to can change it dramatically.

3.  Very little of the dark...bright and pure colors go a long way. Use them sparingly.

4.  Use various degrees of contrast....in both color and value.

This piece called Sunshine Stripes appears bright....but Jane points out how much of it is actually muted and neutral.

Here is a collection of her stripe work that I will draw on for inspiration:

https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jane-davies/collections/stripes

"The stripes, by their nature set up rhythms based on spacing of the colors, and the improvisational aspect of them is like visual jazz." Jane Davies

Here are a few other of Jane's arrangements and schemes that caught my eye. 

I can see that the neutrals...and browns are what really make this piece work....the color is very subtle.

For the past week or so I've been auditioning and prepping fabrics with fusible webbing....I want to have a lot of choices when it comes to arranging the stripes. I won't use all the colors on my piece...but I want plenty of options. 

I'm using hand dyed Cherrywood Fabrics that I collected over the years....and much of the variety came from scrap bags I purchased that were odds and ends and/or seconds making them more affordable. Hand dyed Cherrywood Fabrics have fabulous texture and they fuse beautifully.

I have more of everything...these are just manageable chunky strips to play with. I'm wanting to make sure I have plenty of muted colors.....plenty of lights....and a few pops of brights and darks so I can apply Jane's "lessons from stripes." 

I'm going to take my time....I need to mull over every single stage.

So I took the fabrics outside with me this afternoon while I worked on a few projects and enjoyed the backyard.