A Book Review, and The Lego Test

I recently ordered two new crafting books from Amazon. My bookshelves are overloaded, and I’ve been working hard not to buy more books. I’ve been really good about going to the library, instead, and I’ve become much pickier about which books I actually buy.

As one of my few recent purchases, then, I had high expectations for Melanie Testa’s new book, Inspired to Quilt. Initially, I was disappointed when I flipped through the book. Yes, I am a craft-book “flipper”; I look at the pictures first, check out the project instructions, and only read the large chunks of text when forced to (see the second half of this post for some thoughts on this issue of reading). I tend to jump into a project before I really understand the ideas behind it, because I’m so reluctant to actually READ the book.

Anyway, I was disappointed because it seemed that most of what Testa includes in her book are techniques I already know about: stamping and printing with thickened dyes, for example.

But then my eye caught a few intriguing words here and there: “layering,” “organza,” “freezer-paper stencils.” I kept looking at the wonderful photos of Testa’s work and wondering how she got those lovely effects. I knew there had to be more to this book than initially meets the eye.

As it turns out, Testa actually provides quite a bit of information about how she creates her art quilts, but it’s not laid out in a simple, step-by-step project format. Instead, much of the information regarding design, inspiration, and experimentation that Testa loads into the book can be found by carefully reading the text.

Don’t get me wrong: Testa provides a LOT of step-by-step direction for adding imagery to art quilts: creating monoprints, stamping dyes onto fabric with hand-made stamps (which she tells readers how to make), applying soy wax, using freezer-paper stencils and masks, and many more. I’m familiar with most of these techniques, so I didn’t find much new information there.

However, when I forced myself to slow down, start at the beginning, and read the book, I indeed found myself being “inspired to quilt.” My sense is that Testa wants to both provide people the tools (in the way of techniques) they need to create art quilts, but also the ability and desire to design art quilts. She wants to avoid having people reproduce HER work. Instead, she wants to inspire them to produce their OWN work.

The other thing I really like about the book is that each of the photos of her work is accompanied by a short description of the techniques she used to create that piece; even if she doesn’t give us a step-by-step process for recreating her pieces, she does provide road maps that show us how she got to where she was going.

I’m glad that I bought this book. Not only is it a valuable addition to my library, but it’s helping me in my never-ending quest to slow down and be patient.

To summarize then, here a few pros and cons of Melanie Testa’s new book, Inspired to Quilt:

Pros

• High-quality, slick pages with high-quality photographs of Testa’s work
• Loads of information, both “buried” within the text and in a step-by-step format
• Coverage of several different dyeing techniques: direct dye painting, monoprinting, stamping, working with soy wax, using stencils and masks, and more
• Inspirational ideas about how to layer imagery on fabric to create art quilts
• Encourages experimentation and “rule-breaking”

Cons

• Few step-by-step “projects”
• Important information is sometimes buried within the text, so getting the most benefit from the book requires careful reading.

And now, what do LEGOS have to do with this post? Well, here’s the story:

I am a technical writer by profession. Most of my writing provides instructions for people who need to perform a task quickly and efficiently. A few years ago, I took a workshop on minimalist writing, which is, essentially, providing only the information people need, when they need it.

As part of the workshop, we were organized into groups and given a simple task: using the provided instructions, we were to assemble a small Lego tow truck. The “winner” of the contest would be the group who correctly assembled the tow truck in the shortest amount of time. Everyone had the same assignment and the same Lego parts. What we didn’t know is that each group had very different instructions.

The first thing I noticed as my group worked to assemble the tow truck is that we skipped any text in the assembly instructions. Instead, we went straight to the illustrations. If we couldn’t determine the next step in the process from the illustration, we backed up and read the instructions.

My group finished first, not because we were any smarter or more mechanically-minded than the others, but because we were fortunate enough to receive the “best” instructions. It turns out that, every time the instructor taught this class, the group that received the same instructions we did assembled the tow truck first. These instructions had very clear illustrations, supported by clearly formatted and concisely written step-by-step directions. The group that finished 15 minutes or so after us had instructions with fewer and less clear illustrations, and less clearly-written directions. The group that never finished had instructions with NO illustrations, text that was formatted only in paragraphs, and lots of “background” filler information sprinkled in among the directions (long, rambling passages on the the history of Legos, for example).

Now, here’s the really interesting part. It turns out that people read according to what their goal is. If it’s to perform a task as quickly and efficiently as possible, they “read” just like our group did: going straight for the illustrations, then to the numbered steps or bullet points for clarification. On the other hand, if people are reading to educate themselves and really learn something, as many of us did in college, for example, we’re more likely to read long passages of text (think about the way college-level textbooks tend to be written).

Unfortunately, we’ve become both a much more impatient society, as well as a more visual one. People claim that reading is actually on the rise, and point to the increased use of the Internet, and particularly the enormous popularity of blogs. But pay attention to your own reading habits: I’d be willing to bet my lunch money that very few of you have read this post all the way through. More likely, some people dropped in and, seeing no pictures, left immediately. Others skimmed the text, looking for the pictures or the “important points,” and slowed down only when they got to the “pro” and “con” bullet points above. Then, they resumed skimming, and perhaps lost interest before reaching the end.

What about your own reading habits in craft books, on blogs, or on web pages (I’m not counting books such as novels here, since they assume from the beginning a different motive for reading)?

• Do you go right for the pictures, and read the surrounding text only when the picture interests you?
• Do you look for the visual formatting cues to “important” information: bullet-dots, numbered lists, quote offsets?
• Do you skim the text, looking for points of interest, then go back and carefully reread only when the topic seems sufficiently interesting?

I know I do. But sometimes I wonder how much I miss this way. I wonder whether I’m overloading myself with information, but skimping on the more thought-provoking reading experiences that require attention and patience. If we’re all doing the same thing, what are the short- and long-term effects of this way of reading on our culture? On our verbal and visual literacy?

Framing this in term of my craft books, I’m wondering whether what I’m looking for when I initially skim them is the short-term “project” that I can jump into, rather than a longer-term learning experience. Is this one factor that holds me back in being able to design and produce the thoughtful work I hope for?

If you HAVE made it all the way to the end of this post, I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on this subject. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Weekly Square #9

This week’s square is influenced by:

• The pieced and machine-quilted table runner I’m making, which uses screen prints and hand-dyes;
• The beautiful spring weather, cool days with tinges of summer heat slipping in (yesterday was in the 90s already);
• My desire to use the color red in a positive way (in the past, I had associated red with anger and, as I tend to do with the emotion, avoided it as much as possible);
• My desire to connect to nature in a healing way.

Earth Day ATCs

I’ve signed up for the Earth Day ATC swap through a Yahoo list I’m on, and even though the ATCs aren’t due until the end of this month, I wanted to get them finished and mailed off.

• I started these by fusing scraps of the transformed ugly fabric (see the last post) to a black background.
• I sprinkled this with Bo-Nash powder, heated it, and rubbed a blue-green foil onto it.
• I laid an interesting piece of sheer fabric over that (that’s the blue, green, and purple fabric you see); it’s more sheer in some places than in others. I have no idea what it is, since I got it from the clearance bin at Jo Ann’s. Then I stitched it down with black cotton thread.
• I burned away the sheer part of the fabric with a wood-burning tool.
• I stitched painted Tyvek over the fabric and a layer of batting, then ironed it (with a piece of parchment paper on top, of course) until the Tyvek shriveled and melted.
• I sewed beads and broken shells on.
• I added hand-dyed fabric to the back and free-motion satin-stitched around the edge (I wanted a little “rougher” feel to the satin stitching to match the card, which is why I dropped the feed dogs. I actually liked this better than satin-stitching with the feed dogs up!).

Here are close-ups of each of the cards:

I think these ATCs are particularly appropriate for "Earth Day," since they remind me of Earth's strata (and the beads represent the gems and minerals found in the various layers).

As usual, my sweetie claimed one, and the other three will go to the swap (I need to remember to always make TWO extra now: one for her, one for me!).

ATC Details

I’m pretty new to ATC swaps on a large scale, so I keep forgetting that it seems to be the custom to describe in some detail how the ATCs are made. So, to embellish on any earlier post, I’m providing more information about how these ATCs for a swap were made.

The background is Tyvek that I painted with Golden quinacridone colors; I love those acrylics because they are translucent, but heavily pigmented for beautiful color.

The birds started with watercolor paper that I had previously painted with fabric dyes.

I stamped the birds with a clear Versamark stamp pad, then embossed them with ultra-thick embossing powder. I sprayed Adirondack color wash sprays onto the paper, then laid newsprint over the top and ironed the paper until the embossing powder was absorbed. The strips along the side were created the same way, but one set of leaves was stamped with green acrylic paint, embossed, then ironed to remove the embossing powder.

(Btw, I have an article on eHow with detailed instructions and pics of the above process; if you visit and read the article, please be sure to rate it!)

I added details to the birds with Micron pens. Then I glued the birds and the strips onto the Tyvek, then glued the whole thing to illustration board so that it would be sturdy.

I wanted to dip the edges into ink and embossing powder, but I completely forgot that Tyvek MELTS with heat, so when I started heating the embossing powder, the Tyvek started pulling away from the edges. I decided instead use a Krylon gold-leafing pen to color the edges.

What's On My Design Wall

Katy on the Quiltart list asked what was on our design walls. My first thought was, "which one?"

So far, people have shown clean and neat design boards with one lovely WIP hanging on them.

I, otoh, am embarrassed to admit that

1) I use my design walls (3 of them) as catch-alls for WIPs, small finished pieces that I don't know what to do with, pieces of fabric I want to do something with (someday), and assorted other bits and pieces. It makes it hard to actually design anything on them. And

2) I have a bajillion projects going on at any one time, because I never know what I might want to work on (and because, I'll admit it, I'm much better at starting projects than finishing them).


My primary design wall, in my sewing studio, has so much stuff on it that I've taken to pinning pieces on top of other pieces.

I guess it's time to finish some of these, put some pieces away (or hang them throughout the house, or give them away), and generally clean up.

A Lot of Play & A Little Work

We spent Valentine's Day in Fredericksburg, a quaint little town with wonderful little shops about an hour and a half away. Of course, I forgot the camera; we did stop and buy a disposable, but now I have to get the film developed. What in the world did we do before digital cameras???

Anyway, once there we bought the grandbabies cute things, bought ourselves some taffy and fudge, and bought me some inks and pretty papers. We had a wonderful late lunch at Bejas Grill then headed home, and I napped all the way backed; it has literally been over 9 months since I've walked that far. I had a great day, but of course I didn't have time (or energy!) to work on anything.

Today I drew boxes according to the QU Viewpoints class lesson, then I decided to translate the drawing into a paper quilt. I wanted to see what the problems might be before committing to a fabric quilt. I used two colors of paper for the sides of the box, but I think I should have had more separation in either the color or the value. I traced my drawing onto SaS2, cut out my pattern pieces and used those to cut out scrapbooking paper, then fused the scrapbooking paper onto felt. Then I fused that piece onto a background of fabric paper and stitched the piece.

This was quick and easy and a lot of fun, so I think I'll follow it up with a small fabric version.


Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day, whether you have a sweetie or not--you can always use it as an excuse to spoil yourself a little :-) I'm off to take a nap, since I still haven't quite recovered from yesterday's excursion!

Imagi(ni)ng Faith

I just finished a journal quilt that is all about questions instead of answers. Since I got sick, I've been struggling with issues of faith. In my past, "healthy" life, I thought I had a good grasp on my spirituality, my beliefs, my understanding of the universe. Since then, though, I've been struggling with questions about how my illness (how I?) fit into the bigger scheme of things.

For some reason, thinking about all these issues brought to mind one of our "wildlife" adventures, blogged about in this post. I kept thinking about those birds, swooping through the garage with their sticks and bits of fluff to build a nest, then with food for those little cheeping babies. I wondered if their diligence required a good bit of faith; living in the wild as they do, do they approach the nest every time with fear that either their eggs or screeching little hatchlings will be gone? Or do they fly confidently back with faith that everything is just as they left it? Maybe both: maybe there's no extracting fear from faith, and vice-versa. Or maybe neither: maybe those birds are just living life day-to-day, doing what it is their instincts tell them to do without thought. Either way, they go on, pushing through every day, and I have no doubt that they'll be back this spring, seeking out the relative safety of our garage.

This quilt started as a mixed-media collage on watercolor paper, using scrapbooking papers, stickers, stamps (rubber and postage), and paints. I then printed the collage onto fabric, cut it up into three pieces, and fused it to the background fabric. I left the edges of these pieces raw and pulled some threads to fray them. I machine-quilted the whole piece, then added the ribbon and, on top of it, the beads (which are pretty hard to see in the pic).

I don't think this quilt brought me any closer to resolving my struggles around issues of faith, but I do find something comforting in thinking about those birds and how they press on year after year in the face of their own struggles. Maybe in some small way, that's what faith is about.

Lightbulb Moment

DOH! I may not have a camera, but I do have a scanner!

I'm not sure if I mentioned that I was taking Lily Kern's Journal Quilting class at QU. It is a GREAT class if you're interested in design, getting ideas out of your head and into a journal quilt, or figuring out what it is you might have to "say" in your artwork.

Anyway, here is a little journal quilt that I came up with after following Lily's suggestions for a type of "doodling." I've included some (really bad) sketches I used during the process. It still needs work, but I'm pleased with it as this stage.

Btw, I quilted the piece first and then added color with Neocolor water-soluble crayons. These are fun, fun, fun to work with and give a beautiful, watercolor-like effect to the fabric.

But here's the really exciting part: as part of the lesson, Lily suggests ways to brainstorm variations to the design. I now have an entire PAGE of ideas that I could use for a series if I wanted to. I always thought a series meant taking some type of subject matter and just working it until you were sick-to-death of it. Now I see that it's really about exploring possibilities.

How cool is that??? Ok, I'm probably a little slow on the uptake here, but eventually I get it . . .

Through a Different Lens

My sweetie called me yesterday evening to let me know she was on her way home. I was a little crabby because I had been working on an art quilt, and I couldn't get it the way I wanted it.

Now, she's always telling me that I'm too hard on myself, which I know is true. My expectations are too high for just about everyone, but for no one more than myself.

This time, though, she said, in that very gentle but straightforward way she has, "I really admire you because you jump into the deep end and always take on the hardest projects and the most challenging techniques. But then you beat yourself up because you're not immediately an expert. Some people have been doing these things for years, but you expect yourself to be perfect right away."

That stuck with me and I mulled over it for a while, and I realized that she's right. I'm proud of the fact that I love a good challenge and feel like I can learn anything, no matter how difficult it seems. But I'm not so good with being patient or gentle with myself during that process.

How blessed I am to have someone in my world who treats me with care and reminds me to do the same thing. Thanks, sugar.

Slow Learner?

I've learned this about my personal creative process: I can think and think and think, look and look, and try for hours, days, or weeks to come up with an idea. But until my body actually becomes engaged in the process and I begin to draw, paint, cut, or sew, nothing but frustration will come about.

I've learned that, but I always manage to forget it at the most crucial times.

So I've spent the last couple of days thinking and looking and become increasingly desperate for a creative idea, then trying to console myself with the idea that this is January, after all, the season of rest and lull and creative-battery-recharging, then resigning myself to the fact that I'm just not that creative and will never have another idea again.

Then I repeat the process all over again.

This morning I decided just to draw something--anything--as a way to begin. Of course, I couldn't think of anything to draw, so I pulled out a quilting book and began to draw one of the landscapes featured in it. I knew I might want to create a journal quilt for January, so I thought as I sketched about what January trees might look like, what color values might be important, what January feels like.

When I finished sketching I knew I wasn't particularly excited about actually creating this piece, and my tiny trollish inner critic immediately started jumping up and down and screaming "it's not your design! it doesn't mean anything to you! You'll just screw it up anyway and it will look ugly and then you'll hate it! Besides, you can't even DRAW." "Nevertheless," I calmly responded, and proceeded to scan the sketch into my computer (this is one of my favorite responses to the troll, and one that I read about a couple of years ago--I wish I could remember where, but you know how that goes . . . "Nevertheless, I'm going to try it anyway"; "Nevertheless, I'm going to just draw this tree and see what happens"; etc.).

As the scanner was doing its part, I thought about what I liked about the sketch, and I settled on the trees. One very tentative idea pushed its way in, then another, then suddenly ideas were flooding into my head. "What if I drew just the trees . . .what if I painted the trees onto fabric . . . no, I know! What if I drew them with crayons onto paper and then transferred that onto fabric . . ." and I was off and running. Before I knew it, I was playing with fabric and crayons and ironing and pulling out those little batik squares I bought because I loved the browns and grays and whites, and just in general having a great time.

So once again, I'm reminded of this lesson I'm apparently destined to have to learn and relearn over and over again: the brain thinks it can work in isolation, but it can't create without the body.