I'm a Genius!

Ok, I'm not really a genius. But I do feel a little smarter than usual today, since I actually figured out (within the span of about 4 hours) how to create a video, edit it to add title pages, sign up for Vimeo, and publish my video there.

I haven't had much interest in making videos in the past, but I got my camera out to take pictures of my latest project, a "recycled" journal made from scraps of fabric and paper and all those little bits of things I can't bring myself to throw away:

Once I realized it would take tons of pictures to show all the pages in this journal, I realized that a video would be much more efficient, and that I could talk about the pages as I was showing them. Ok, so I'm a little behind the times, but I can catch up with a vengeance!

So, TADA! Here's my grand entrance into the world of video. The quality leaves something to be desired, but it's a starting point!


My Scrappy Journal from Michele (Textile Traveler) on Vimeo.

I hope embedding the video works, or I won't feel so smart after all :-)

Let me know what you think!

Whine . . . Without the Cheese

I’ve fallen into a creative slump, and I can’t get up.

Did my surgeon accidentally remove my creativity, along with my drive? It feels that way. I was patient for a while, but now I’m getting frustrated.

I know all the tips for getting started: look through my inspiration notebook. Look through my visual journals. Get my hands on something and just START. Go over that list of projects I’ve been wanting to do forever and pick something. Anything. Take one tiny step forward . . .

I’ve tried all these, and nothing works. I head into my studio with the intention of working on something, but the effort to get the supplies out just seems overwhelming, so I turn around and head back out again.

It’s not that I’m not doing SOMETHING. I made this “watermelon” quilt from a pattern in a magazine, machine-pieced and machine-quilted:

I’m hand- and machine-quilting the “tattoo” quilt top I finished forever ago:

And today I’m mailing off this fabric ATC for a swap:

That was all the creativity I had in me—2-1/2 x 3-1/2 inches worth. I even signed up for a QU class, a really good one on design; for the first time ever, though, I didn’t participate at all in the class, and I feel guilty about the wasted opportunity.

I don’t know if I’m physically or mentally exhausted. Or still recovering from the surgery. Or just plain depressed.

Maybe it’s because I quit smoking several weeks ago, and I’m still in mourning for my 30-yr. long friend, the cigarette, as nasty and evil as he was. Or maybe I’m feeling deprived because I’m on a healthy-eating kick, trying to both feel better and lose some of the weight I put back on after my long illness.

I barely have the energy to whine, but I’ve managed to do a fair job of that in this post. No cheese, though—too many calories.

Anyone have any calorie-free chocolate?

Ruby Slippers . . .

as in, where are they when you need them most? I was seriously wishing for a pair by yesterday so that I could click my heels and whisk myself home, since that was my 6th day in the hospital. The doctor finally agreed to let me go home, though, so my neon-yellow hospital socks must have had some effect.

We met my daughter for a quick Easter lunch at Luby's, and then it was back to bed. I'm trying to move around a little every hour or so since it's good to be up and walking, but the pain has consistently outpaced the pain meds.

The good news is that I've been working on embroidering the extra squares for my year-long journal quilt, and I'm hand-quilting a piece of hand-dyed & painted fabric that's starting to look pretty interesting (or is it that they look interesting through the pain-killer goggles?).

Anyway, surgery went well and I'm declaring a long period of wellness for the next few years!

Catching Up, Continued

I’m having surgery tomorrow; the second in the past year, but I hope the last one for a long while. I could be in the hospital recovering for up to a week, so I’m busy getting ready for that (the most important tasks, of course, such as preparing and packing hand-stitching projects).

In the meantime, I submitted this piece for the March, 2010 Fast Friday Fabric Challenge (there’s more info about it on that blog):



I’ve also been finishing up my squares for my year-long journal quilting project, which technically ran from Feb. 21, 2009 (my 48th birthday) to Feb. 20, 2010. I did have a couple of 6x6” squares that I had to complete; this one was from Week #17, when I attended my 30th high school reunion:



This is from Week #51, just before Valentine’s Day, when I was experimenting with ruching fabric and painting with fabric dyes:



And this is from Week #52, when I celebrated my birthday (a day early) with my family at Pappasito’s:



I had originally thought I would sew my 6x6” weekly squares together in a 6x9 square configuration, but I want the finished piece to be more square, so I’m going to sew them together in a 7-squares wide by 8-squares long grid. That means I’ll need 4 additional squares (52 weeks + 4 squares=56); I’m going to hand-embroider those and place one in each corner. I’ll be working on those in the hospital (I hope, anyway, that I’ll feel well enough to work on them!).

Stay tuned to see the finished year-long journal quilt all put together . . . I hope to have it done sometime in (late) April!

Catching Up

I’ve had a burst of energy after a rather draggy February. Fortunately, I know that around January/February my creativity tends to hibernate, so I’ve learned to be patient with it, confident that I can benefit from the creative “downtime.”

But the weather has turned all spring-like: warm, sunny days that make me want to tackle all those projects I’ve been thinking about but haven’t gotten around to. Of course, the problem is that the more time I spend working on projects, the less time I have to document or share them. And when I have lots of time to write blog posts, it means I’m not getting any work done, so there’s nothing to share (this is a corollary of that money/time conundrum; when there’s money for art, there’s no time, and when there’s time that usually means there’s no money).

Anyway, here are some of the things I’ve been creating/working on:

I finally got around to creating a portrait quilt, which has been on my wish list for a while. I’m using Maria Elkins’ technique here, which is a lot of fun and not nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I’m not particularly thrilled with how this turned out, but I learned a lot about both fabric and portraits that work, and those that don’t:



Btw, this is my lovely daughter, Amanda. I’ll be making more of these. I think I may make one for every member of my family, then stitch them all together.

This past weekend the weather was so gorgeous that I had to get outside. That always makes me think of dyeing/painting fabric for some reason, even though I typically end up doing it in the house. But I ended up creating some screens for deconstructed screen printing and then setting them in the sun to dry. Here is the result of my first deconstructed screen printing project:



I’m really happy with this and loved the process. I’ll be doing more of this, as well.
While I had thickened dyes mixed up, I decided to paint on some fabric:



I’m not sure what I’ll do with this yet; I may cut it up and reassemble it.
And, I finally got around to ordering some Citra Solv (and some magnesium, which my body is always low on, while I was at it) so that I could try a technique for creating cool art papers. This is a messy process and the Citra Solv has a strong odor, so it’s best done outside. Plus, a sunny day helps the papers dry quickly. Essentially, I started with a National Geographic magazine and brushed concentrated Citra Solv on the pages, then closed up the magazine and let it sit for a while. I squeezed out the extra liquid/ink, then tore out the pages and laid them out to dry (this technique was in a recent issue of, I think, Cloth, Paper, Scissors). Here are the results:



Aren’t these scrumptious?

I’m almost finished with this small (about 8x10) piece I started a very long time ago. This is silk that I painted after applying a resist. I stitched it with wonderful 30wt. Trilobal poly thread, and added a dyed silk border. I’m still debating on whether to add a binding, create an envelope finish, or stitch around the edges:



Here’s a sneak peak of a wall quilt I’m working on; you’ll just have to wait to see the whole thing when it’s finished:



Let’s see, what else? Oh, here’s a wall quilt I finished a month or so ago, but I don’t think I’ve posted it yet. This is reverse appliqué made from batik-fabric charm squares. I added some beads and hand-stitching for embellishment, but it’s hard to see them in the photos:



And a close-up:



And finally, here’s my 6x6” weekly journal square, #50:



#51 is from Valentine’s week; it’s finished, but I haven’t taken pics yet. #52 is from my birthday week, and I haven’t finished it yet. And that brings me full circle—a FULL YEAR of weekly 6x6” journal quilts! I’m excited to stitch them all together. Stay tuned for the final results of that year-long project!
And don’t forget to check out my other blog, A Year of Pleasures, to see my latest fascination with cotton yarn.

I hope the weather where you are is showing some lovely promises of Spring, as it is here in Central Texas!

Weekly Journal Square #49, and a Revision

My year of journal squares is almost up, and I'm getting excited about sewing all those little squares together into my "48th Year" quilt.

Here is last week's 6x6" journal square; it serves double-duty for my Fast Friday Fabric Challenge piece:

 

I started with a photo of a bird I painted on fabric a while back; I printed this onto fabric, cut it into wavy strips, and wove it together with an orangey/peach-colored hand-dyed fabric. I added white & orange to various peach squares, then recolored the bird with fabric markers and thread-painting.

I also "edited" my last Fast Friday Fabric Challenge piece. Here was the original piece:

It just felt unfinished to me, so I added some FM quilting to the background, and added a white napkin. Here is the revised piece:

That's better, don'tcha think?