Pillow Talk

I want to thank those who visit and leave their comments on my blog! I DO read each and every one of them. I appreciate them an awful lot! Thank you!!!

I have been pushing myself in the studio a bit. If I cannot get inspired to do an actual existing project that needs doing, I make up new ones. :) I had leftovers from the Summer Pickle Mystery Quilt-2008. There was one full block that was about 12" I think? I also had several triangle blocks. I made the piping from a hunk of cotton rope I had laying around in the studio and a length of pre-made quilters' binding in an odd color...also laying around the studio.

Above is the side with the triangle blocks joined together.

And here is the full size block that made up the quilt.

Jaye has had pillows on the brain lately too. She is the one I share the Creative Prompt Project with the most. She has two prompts that are haunting my thoughts this week..."Sun" and "Here to There." This pillow is all her fault for being in existence. Now I have it to put on my bed since it matches the quilt that is on it.

I love how piping looks on a pillow. I always have struggled with making pillows though! First just getting it stuffed right has given me issues...I either over or under stuff them. Next is how to attach the piping...do I squish it in between both front and back layers in one step or sew it down on one side first and then the other? Lastly how do I finish the piping?...overlap and sew together, fit one inside the other end or what?

Jaye suggested I look in a current magazine for the answers. Of course I didn't do that as I am too cheapo these days and won't buy a magazine. I just muddled ahead and made this pillow that isn't even a part of the UFO list. :) I HAVE looked online for answers...but I guess I have not looked hard enough. lol

Thank you Jaye, for the pillow inspiration. I have it out of my system now so I can go back to other projects...or maybe another new one!

I went to a quilt guild meeting this morning in hopes of being inspired. It was the first time I have reached out since we've moved to Arkansas. They are a very talented group and their applique works are outstanding! Linda is supposed to come to this guild in October and I hope to meet her then.

I am thinking about giving classes in my home here. The local quilt shop recently closed and there is a void out there for teachers and classes in our area. I mostly hesitate because I am in awe of the beautiful work these ladies can do. What do I have to teach them? Beginners yes, but it is the experienced ones that want classes. I shall give this more thought.

Today's Goal: Work in sketchbook, maybe sew on summer dress...

Staying on Course

I didn't get these black borders done yesterday but I did finish them before noon today. This is the House Medallion Quilt that started as a round robin with my friend Snap. I made the Dresden Plate center and she added the black, green, and white calico border. She sent it back to me with extra fabric. I added the next green and white border and just did the narrow black one this morning. I also appliqued the vines and buds around the plate a few months ago. I have enough fabric to make another border of the green with white blocks OR I can go a different direction with other blocks around what is done so far. I have not decided yet.

Here are the two Christmas calendars. They've been pre-washed and pressed and are ready for selling or gifting. Each number is a pocket for a treat. I did simple stippling with gold metallic thread. One is bound in green binding and the other in red. It was great to use up older pre-made binding as I plan to make my bindings myself in all the future projects I do. I still have a few packages of binding to use up before it is all gone. Though it is easier to use, it also cheapens (in my opinion anyway) the end results...especially if one is doing an art quilt. Again, this is just MY opinion and preference.
Part of what drives me (and drives me crazy at the same time) is all this "stuff" I have in my studio. I want to use it up and move it out. So far I cannot bring myself to throw it out though. I am way too frugal, especially in this current economy. I have these grand thoughts of having a craft sale to sell all my little projects made for selling from this "stuff." Perhaps I will get it together this summer, in time to have a little rummage and craft sale this fall.

I am really paying attention to movies these days. The fantasy ones are especially intriguing. I note the art work in the credits mostly. I am getting the twitches of inspirations in my brain. That feather project I mentioned yesterday is especially close to being tackled...maybe. :)

Below are three projects in one. The finished calendars are there, along with the dress I want to finish before summer. (that gives me about two and a half weeks to go!) The fantasy wall hanging is there too. I almost thought about adding a cave to it today. After studying it though, a cave is not in its future.
I visited my friend Julie's blog today and saw her posting regarding Steam Punk. That led me to a Wikipedia page that had this picture of it:
This got me to thinking of really going wacky with the fantasy quilt and perhaps doing something like this or in the style of Roger Dean. Oh it feels good to be thinking and feeling creatively again!!!

Today's Goal: Draw some ideas in my sketchbook for the fantasy quilt.

Ticking Along

Quick posting today. I just finished the hand work on the two Christmas calendars. They are both in the wash right now. I haven't decided yet if I will do any more work on the tabs that hold these little wall hangings up. I may have to tack the loops down so they don't show above the tops of the calendars.

I also cut strips for the House Medallion quilt for the next border. I have planned out the next border after that one too. After that I am not sure how much farther I will go with adding borders. I have considered combining this little quilt with the Old Fashioned Quilt project. I am not sure about that yet.

I've been mentally inspired to try something with feathers. I write this here so I don't forget that I was inspired. I guess you could say I am feather-brained today. lol

GOAL FOR TODAY: Was to finish the binding on the two calendar quilts, which I have done. I hope to tackle the black strip border around the Medallion Quilt too.

A More Productive Weekend

I was true to myself and did get some fabric therapy done in the studio. I spent 30 minutes cleaning up the horizontal mess I had left over the past few months. Here are a few before shots:
My cutting table is in the foreground and the quilting frame table is in the back to the left. My ironing board is to the right, under the iron. I told you I had used too much horizontal space to plop things on! The gold lumps of fabric are costume pieces that needed attention. I got ALL the costume repaires and adjustments done this weekend!

What a conglomeration! The TV remote is front center, on top of one of Terri Thayer's books. Going clockwise you can see my Gingher scissors on the left, fabric scraps, a gold costume shirt, a magnetic pin cushion, the smaller hexagon project on the ironing board, my jar of quilt basting pins, my iron, and two of my oldest books on quilting. I was looking at those books for inspiration for the old fashioned quilt I want to make to replace the wedding ring quilt project that I dumped.

Here is an after shot. I can see my cutting table and ironing board again! I also loaded the frame with the Christmas countdown calendars to quilt. I don't strive for perfection, but having SOME order is very pleasing in the studio. The greenish project you can see in the upper left is a medallion quilt project I am going to work on soon. I know the next step I want to take but I don't have the fabric for it out yet.

Here is a shot of the progress I made quilting the calendars.
I am using a gold metallic thread and like how this is turning out.

So it has begun, I think, I hope, I plan! I am back in the studio. Having announced to my very understanding family, that I NEED specific studio time each day, I am now being held accountable for USING that time! lol

TODAY'S GOAL: To finish quilting the calendar quilts.

Catching Up on Creativity

Since yesterday's rant, I have been working on my mental attitude. I mean really, this whole studio phobia can be summed up as me being down on myself. Self worth and I have had a tug of war for ages. Today I am going to fight back for a while!

I knew I needed impetus to be happy in my studio again. I have watched several movies that gave me the old feelings of creativity. The movies were The Corpse Bride (I love Tim Burton's animated movies), The Bridge to Terabithia (the boy's sketchbook is quite inspiring), and Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider??? Well, yes, because the main character (a skeleton on fire) reminded me of the book To Ride a Pale Horse. I love that series of books by Pierz Anthony. They make me think about life differently.

As I have been very actively searching for inspiration I made myself go to the zoo on Thursday with my son's second grade class. I thought (and hoped) I would get some cool photographs and be inspired. As it turned out, it was a nice outing but I wasn't very impressed by anything I saw. The neatest thing I did see was the bird aviary where they had these exotic birds that let you get very very close to them.

Yesterday's rant included some commitments I needed to take care of. I have scanned all THREE of my Creative Prompt words here today. The first word was TREE. We have nine mature oak trees on our city lot. I wanted to try to capture their beauty. When I put pen and pencil to paper however, it didn't want to work. The first try produced this drawing of our patio door looking over our backyard:
There is a bird feeder, dog dish, dog ball, rug, white wrought iron railing around the deck, one of the trees in the yard, the old shed in the yard, and some of the greenery along the back fence all depicted in this drawing. The biggest thing I learned from this was that a charcoal pencil will leave charcoal all over my hands and will smear a lot. :)

By the time I was thinking about trying to do something better for the word TREE, the word QUEEN was posted. That was quite appropriate as that Friday that the word QUEEN was up, we were headed out to a renaissance faire to perform our music at! I SO wanted to capture a regal Queen Elizabeth for that word. I couldn't do her justice though.
This is ok. I never was good with faces, which is kind of odd considering I often get compliments on my dolls' facial expressions. I guess I am better at sculpting than drawing. lol Oh, I almost forgot the "Christmas Tree" as my son called it. That is to represent the Tree of Life quilt block. I was still in my funky mood and didn't really do these words justice.

Which brings us to SQUARE, yesterday's word. I am much more pleased with how this word turned out. I could relate to it in quilting terms with the Square in a Square block pattern, the Irish Chain block pattern, and the Snowball block pattern.
GOALS: I did work on a schedule for studio time. I have not committed to it yet, but made so much progress that I am happy with what I wrote down on paper. I also DID yesterday's goals of posting my creative prompt pictures. My goals over the weekend are to straighten out my studio just a little bit as I have let it go and used all the horizontal spaces for storage of mundane items. I am also committing to spending one hour today and one on Sunday to sit at my sewing machines and work on any one of a number of UFO's I have available to me. In fact, I may try to make a goal list or UFO list on my sidebar after posting this or later this weekend.

You know what? I actually feel better. Berating myself yesterday and seeing how silly all my excuses were, has helped a bit. In the back of my brain, as I have been typing this all, I keep thinking about a wall hanging I have. Maybe I will try to add something to it today. :) Oh, and a side note to self...every new quilt I make does NOT have to be king sized just because that is the practical size to make a quilt. lol

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Stopping this Insanity!!!

Alright!!! Enough is enough!!! It is time to get my rear in gear and DO SOMETHING about this crappy attitude towards my studio!!!

I have more gadgets and fabric than I will ever use up in my lifetime here. I am very blessed that before the economy turned sour I already had a well stocked studio. I used to say I was saving for my retirement years with fabric purchases. Little did I know that a recession/depression would precede that event!!!

There is no excuse as far as supplies go, for me to not work in the studio. And I DO use that word, 'work' in the kindest sense of the word. Studio time is not drudgery time (well it shouldn't be anyway), but rather therapy time or a time of self expression.

Let's examine some of the why's of not working in my studio.

• too busy working outside the home (though I recently quit the bad job)
  
• too busy doing housework (not busy enough if you saw my house right now)
  
• too busy feeling sorry for myself (play the violins for the pity party)
  
• too busy worrying about things in life I cannot change right now (we are all going to die someday)
  
• too busy sabotaging myself with stupid feelings towards my studio, such as saying I am not worthy of having a studio because I will never make money to recoup the costs put into the fabric and supplies in here. (egads, I am always SO NOT WORTHY (GAG))
  
• my art work, craft work, and quilts will never be prize winners. (that is a lie, some have won in the distant past, but still they DID win a ribbon or two)
  
• I will never be a nationally known and sought after teacher in any of the above fields. (I WAS locally though)
  
• I am too old to try new things (and too stubborn)
  
• I should be working outside the home for more money (money, money, money...thank$ ex $pou$e for $caring me for life about money i$$ue$)
  
• I should be cleaning and organizing this house (that is true, but is it really a life-time-all-consuming goal a person needs to aspire to?)
  
• I should be painting and fixing up this house more (did I mention I am not sure what colors to paint or how certain things need to be fixed yet?)
  
• it is a waste of money to cut up expensive fabric and sew it back together in a lackluster quality quilt similar to all the other lackluster quilts we have already (pity party again)
  
• I am tired of trying to make something and have it turn out like crap (oh, and did I mention, PITY PARTY?)
  

Did I beat myself up enough yet?

I have been doing the creative prompt projects and had hoped they would inspire me to get back in the studio. I have also been looking online for different ideas to inspire me. Recently that led to a blog done by Lisa Call. I don't know much about her yet, but she recently posted this blog entry about "How to get stuff done" that caught my eye.

Today I am going to work on setting some goals and utilizing some of Lisa's ideas/inspirations in my own sketch book, to see if I can't get over this crap that I have allowed to creep in and take over my life. I will scan my results into my blog here tomorrow at the latest.

GOAL FOR TODAY: Sketchbook work to organize and commit .... I will try to make a week long schedule, and commit to making a schedule for Saturday and Sunday at the very very least and I will post it along with the two creative prompts I have done but not posted yet.

Hang on everyone, this could be a bumpy ride...or a very boring one!