Several months ago (when I tried parfait dyeing) I mentioned that I got the idea from this great process blog called And Then We Set It On Fire where every month, someone shares a surface design technique, and then everyone who is part of the blog (plus readers who want to play along) try the technique and then post or share their results.
Some of you may have noticed that I added a link to and Then We Set It On Fire last week. That's cuz I was asked to be a regular contributor to it! My first post to the blog about Fugitive Media went up today.
And the second piece of new is....
Remember this from last year?
It had some problems. Even more problems than I thought it did now that I'm looking at it almost a year later.
It had some problems. Even more problems than I thought it did now that I'm looking at it almost a year later.
If you are friends with me on Facebook or are part of my network on Google Plus, you saw me excitedly posting last Saturday morning about popping bolt-upright in bed at 11:00 p.m. rushing to my studio and working on making some fabric.
And this was the result!
So, remember the other day, I was talking about working on that wall quilt with the flowers here, here, here and here (and probably elsewhere) and how I was saying I wasn't sure that my fussing with it was going to be helpful in the end?
See, the more I worked on the placement, the more I realized that it just wasn't working. Stumped, I asked BSP for an opinion and what I got was "I don't get it." *heh*
So then I explained - "Juxtaposition of angles and curves!" - "Life arising from/despite the darkness!" - "A conversation about the tension created by man vs. nature!" "assorted other asshattery!"
BSP said "Yeah, yeah I get that. Those intellectual ideas make sense. But that's not what's coming through on your quilt. It just looks like a bunch of flowers you stuck on a a black background.
I sputtered while BSP circled my design wall.
"But that black all broken up with the green - now that's cool.You should make a quilt with just that stuff on it."
BSP wisely left and I stared at the pieces on my design wall, and looked at my photographs, pondered my sketches and pondered and puzzed 'till my puzzler nearly broke (to mis-quote Dr. Seuss); and realized BSP was right.
Don't you hate it when your spouse is right? DAG-NAB-IT!!!!!! ;)
Anyway...
I took out the damn flowers and pieced together my black velvet and green satin bits, and pondered the nature of mental health/mental break downs, what living in our fast-paced, compartmentalized lives does to our souls, why it is that self styled "non-artistic" spouses are so damn opinonated and why it is that when they're right, it's so damn annoying?
And by the time I was done thinking about all of that, I had finished my latest wall quilt.
The fun thing is, the entire quilt is made completely out of scraps - even the batting is scraps pieced together. I don't think these pics don't do it justice, cuz you can't feel how luscious and cuddly all that black velvet is, nor really see the quilting angles working against each other. But it's really lovely.*
* As is my much Beloved Spouse.
EDITED TO ADD:
I need people who DON'T have gmail to try and comment please and thank you. :)
An online friend told me she can't make comments on my blog.
Please test it out - you can use this opportunity to ask me any question you may have wanted to and never got around to - and then let me know at my email address if you can't :
kit.lang.ltd@gmail.com
Thanks!
I need people who DON'T have gmail to try and comment please and thank you. :)
An online friend told me she can't make comments on my blog.
Please test it out - you can use this opportunity to ask me any question you may have wanted to and never got around to - and then let me know at my email address if you can't :
kit.lang.ltd@gmail.com
Thanks!
Some of you may remember when I worked on this piece originally - back in July - I had gotten both bored and frustrated with how it was going, but after taking an extended break, I pulled it out this past week to have a go at it again.
Yes, that really is a 14/90 needle that I managed to sew THROUGH my finger.
The staff at the hospital described it as "cool", "interesting" and "weird"; said things like "I've never seen THAT before" and complimented me on my calmness. (I am, actually, remarkably calm in emergency situations.)
I think one of my very first posts on my blog was about my very first quilt, which I called "The Green One" not having been able to come up with a more clever name. That quilt was made out of all the scraps of all the light green fabrics I had saved over the course of 30 years of sewing, all with the idea that I would "make a quilt someday"
In addition to being a long weekend, labour day weekend most often falls on my birthday. This year, I spent a lot of time in my sewing room, but for the most part, not sewing:
I was re-organizing my sewing room and stash, building furniture from Ikea for my sewing room (those dressers will be red soon, as will the dining table [six feet long!] I bought at a yard sale about a month ago), but I did find time for some sewing - namely those sewing machine covers at the back of my sewing room.
I was re-organizing my sewing room and stash, building furniture from Ikea for my sewing room (those dressers will be red soon, as will the dining table [six feet long!] I bought at a yard sale about a month ago), but I did find time for some sewing - namely those sewing machine covers at the back of my sewing room.
My quilt, "Of The Moment" is being featured over at Generation Q Magazine for their Saturday Feature. Are you familiar with them? Generation Q Magazine is the brain child of Jake Finch, Melissa Thompson Maher, Megan Dougherty and Scott Hansen. They're this great blogzine (also resource/community) for modern and contemporary quilters - if you don't know about them you should totally check them out. :) They have great articles of all kinds and fun giveaways too!
So, for those of you who haven't already seen this, welcome to my blog! I'm delighted to have you here. :)
When I conceived of this quilt, I remember thinking "I want to make a contemporary quilt - you know, something that's of the moment". And as I put these silks together in this particular configuration, I wondered whether this quilt was not only of the moment, but whether its design would stand the test of time.
So, for those of you who haven't already seen this, welcome to my blog! I'm delighted to have you here. :)
When I conceived of this quilt, I remember thinking "I want to make a contemporary quilt - you know, something that's of the moment". And as I put these silks together in this particular configuration, I wondered whether this quilt was not only of the moment, but whether its design would stand the test of time.