Wow, back to a clean surface

And a fresh start on a finish.

First up on the worktable, as a warm up for the warm up, is Eliana's party dress.

But I did want to start by showing that I did manage to get my cleaning completed from yesterday.  I put new paper down at the mixed media counter, seen on the far right.  The journal table is exposed.  The cutting table ready.  That huge pile threatening to avalanche onto Nina is all part of what is on my worktable and the goal this year is to diminish it.  :)  Yay for the Finish-a-long!

So I mended  the grand kiddie's party dress, which took 5 minutes(!) and actually started her mum's quilt blocks for the final border.

I had to really think about how the pieces are laid out.  The pieces remain the same but the colours change to make flowers.  Yellow flowers are on the edge and the green trumpets scallop around the outside.  Won't that be fun to bind!  I think I am out of my mind but it is a wedding quilt!  lol

This has been such a wall for me to get over and finish. I'm not sure why as I like it.  I can't find the instructions which I don't really need but it would be good to refresh my memory as to what side up and which parts to sew to which parts.  I already made a mistake but I think I am beginning to see the colour flow again.  It is starting to all come back.  whew!

So it may not look like much but I am starting and I shall keep this up until I have it all pieced.  God willing and the creek don't rise which is slim given the freezing cold we are experiencing!

I think I may check on the weather throughout Canada by visiting my fellow sewers at The Needle and Thread Network.

Wow, pieces are falling into place

Two things motivate me.  Ideas, especially brand new ones are top of the list!  So first I dug out a few fabrics to start a new project.  At least it was on my to-do list so technically it isn't really  a N E W  project.

And cleaning.  I suspect cleaning is more related to stalling but it does work to get me back into the creative mode.   So I got my vacuum running to make music and we hummed along as I thought about my fabric selection.

The scrappy trip block can be found on the Quiltville site and I will look to see if there is a better one later as it tells how to press the initial strips but I'm not sure how to press the finished blocks.

These are possibilities as I want a light block with two dark values touching.  So that will take some puzzling out.

I made four blocks and they give me a feel as to what direction I need to be heading. 

There are lots of seams to match and I remembered that Nina has a dual feed function and that is very helpful.   I think I will really enjoy making these.  It feels good to be piecing patchwork again!

Maybe I can find some more examples on The Needle and Thread Network!

WOW, what is on my worktable?

Actually, there is a big mixed media mess and I need to reclaim my worktable for sewing.  If some create their projects in a closet or on a kitchen table, surely I can corral the stuff on a counter. :O  Of course the counter is a creative mess as well.  :(

I have some canvasses I bought some time go.  They are still wips but I snagged one, gessoed over the first attempt and I'm wanting to make a pot of flowers.  If Leslie can, well so can I!  It is clouded over and the aqua isn't showing well. Neither can the white lettering be seen. 

This style fits where I am wanting to put it.  Next time I'll be going for funky!  But this is now worse light and I wish I'd followed my first instincts and used the bigger canvas. Well, the flowers would have been too small.  There are alwaus more what if's...  I got a few more flower options at the thrift shop!

Jenn and I are off on a field trip this afternoon.  A scrap booking store!  More options and more to spread all over the worktable!

Check out some other worktables.  It was a long weekend so maybe there will have been some fireworks in the various studios to see! 

So, just who is this chick???

Chickens in a flock are somewhat hard to distinguish from one another.  This would be true of me.  I'm not particularly noteworthy but then a good keeper of the flock begins to know the individuals.  I would be the noisy, excitable one who is all about rearranging the straw in the nest and trying to landscape the chicken yard.  I'd be doing this at inappropriate times and with considerable dust and squawks!  But there is a pecking order in a flock and I'm learning to find my place and be productive.  I've lost a few feathers in the process but I'm a wiser hen who has learned that some things can't be rushed and brooding is not something to be disparaged.  The chicken/egg cycle just can't be rushed.

My creative endeavours took place in my home. I so badly needed to express myself.  Quilts covered beds, draped over the arms of chairs, hung on walls,  marked place settings on tables and even complimented the wardrobe.  I began traditionally and eventually learned that I am not traditional.  But I didn't understand that creative expression needs time to evolve and be perfected.  I wanted instant results.  Today, this ol' biddy, has begun to learn to enjoy the process and then the project will reflect that joy. 

My journey:

A dear friend introduced me to quilting with the scissor and template method.  This actually shows how badly I wanted to do this as I have rather a short attention span.  I over estimated the number of pieces and made rail fences for the crib, the 2 bunks, a queen for my sister, various pillows, etc. until I finally gave away the rest.  My math is terrible, The actual sewing was reasonably accurate but the quilts were a stretchy assortment of poly cottons and cotton.  Utility would be the way I'd describe them.

The Irish Chain introduced me to the modern tools of rotary cutters, rulers and mats.  This was better.

Our quilt group, Country Roads Quilters, was small and we tackled all kinds of things, some good, some not so good but we learned lots because for the most part we had no idea what we were getting into.  lol For this wall hanging we designed house blocks to represent our home and then made them in the colours each of us chose to work in.  This was my neutral period!

I began to identify what I liked. 

I prefer quilts without the traditional borders around them.  I wish I'd not lined up with my fellow quilters to buy yards and yards of lovely florals.  It was wonderfully freeing to donate a huge amount of it to charity recently.  I just kept the more whimsical and stylized designs. Backings, you know!

                                                            I had a country period.

                                                   I passed through a folk art period.

         
                                                                Even a crazy period!

                           

A Thirties period

A 'let's get them married' period.

                                                      A 'what if I did what I want' period.

                                                          Also a 'go with the flow' period.

                                                            I've made all sizes of quilts. 

When I began learning about quilts I thought their history was fascinating and I wanted to make examples of every kind.  I quickly realized that full size was impractical so I embraced miniature.  I then realized there was not enough time in my time line!  lol

Then I thought I'd make a quilt to give away and keep one for myself but on a smaller scale.  When our first son married I made a queen size from a wall hanging picture. Then I made the wall hanging for myself. 

I became part of a collaboration with some gals out west.  They sent me their leftovers and I had such a good time making this.  It is called Turn Right at the Leftovers.  It made me begin to think about art quilts.

                                
                                                 If its art, where do you put it?

I do have a goodly variety of quilts and I haven't even brought out the 3 sets of applique blocks that need finishing and to be set in a top.  I do like hand applique but they are pretty traditional and so not me anymore.  I have learned my lesson about finishing projects before I lose interest in them and find something much more exciting to start!    I also think that my days of full sized quilts is about over and I'll be sticking to lap size. 

                               Fibre will always be my first luv but I want to try so many other things. 

If all the various parts of a chicken's meal were set out individually, the chicken has the amazing ability to take the best balanced ration they can.  How smart is that?  I need to learn how to balance everything that I want to do.  It has dawned on me that I can NOT do it all, at least not well.  Now I just have to figure out what I want to do most and the best way to do it.

Chickens are raised for various reasons, egg layers, meat production or exotics.  I'm too old for egg production.  I'm more a soup bird than the fried chicken variety.  I figure that only leaves: cute!  I'm going to be going for old age as the cutest chick I can be!

Now The Needle and Thread Network  is a site for Canadian Blogs to link up and show their stuff.  There are regular WIP Wednesday posts and bi weekly Featured Friday Artists.  It is a pretty big thrill to be featured this week.  If you'd like a quick history of where I came from, where I am, and where I'm going please check here or by clicking directly on the Canadian flag feature button.   I quite enjoy seeing various parts of Canada and what my fellow Canadian artists are making.  I hope you'll enjoy it as well.  Thanks for visiting!

Wow, what's on Wednesday's worktable...

This end of the table looks good but things deteriorate from there.

In a search for some various things from the past I've managed to turn everything pretty topsy turvy.

The quilt show deadline looms far too soon.

What's on the wall?

This takes some clear thinking and I haven't had much clarity.  The grand kiddies passed on their cold to their mum and she has been quite sick.  But I am committed to finishing this as their house renovations should be done this summer so it'll serve a couple of purposes. But for now it will stay on the wall and hopefully all the pieces that are pinned in place.  Good thing the grand kiddies are more important than quilts!  lol

As for whats on the worktable,

I have a few tops that are pretty close to being finished.

Decisions, decisions?

The one project that is actually due for the quilt show is last year's challenge fabric and it is the project I am least excited about.  I tried paint sticks and wouldn't you know it that right after I tried I got 2 Australian magazines from my sewing dealer with some good instructions.  I believe the words 'gently rub' may have been overlooked by yours truly.  VBSigh

So now what to do???

I'm linking to The Needle and Thread Network and I'll be looking to see if any of my fellow Canadians have any ideason their worktables that will spark the 'aha moment'!

Happy WOW Day!

Wow Quilting

This is where my daughter's wedding quilt stalled.  I was at the Common Threads Quilt group Monday night and it is time to be thinking about the quilt show.  My DD has had her bedroom renovated and the quilt needs finishing.  I am thinking the focus for April needs to be quilts.

The design was a Bird of Paradise wall hanging which I just kept adding to. 

Of course I not only changed the finished size, I changed the colours also.

Even with a coloured diagram it has been challenging to keep track of everything.  It doesn't help that some of the fabrics are directional.

If this looks blurry it is because it is also the way it looks to me as I lay things out piece by piece so I can keep track of what needs to happen next.    I need one row and a half to finish.

This year is the town's centennial and our quilt group, headed up by Melissa, has set a challenge of 100  twelve inch quiltlets depicting the town's history.  I made a block for a friend whose husband ran a sheet metal business.  He was always passing out company pens so an old jacket yielded the logo and the pocket.  Quilters who are interested in the happenings in our part of Manitoba or even for the whole province, can checkout this link for local happenings.

Then as soon as I decided to work with fabric this month an old blogging friend, Judi, who greatly encouraged my desire to branch out creatively, sent me some paper that she was sorting in an attempt to organize and simplify her studio.  Aren't they just gorgeous!  Judi blogs over at Approachable Art.   I suspect it'll take me a month to get over the urge to just frame and display them.  But if a picture is worth a 1000 words, actually having the real deal in your hand is priceless.  I gotta get better paper to work on!

But the same day I got my supplies from Superior Threads so it looks like it is going to be sewing for sure this month. Now if I could just find where the challenge fabrics from the last quilt show are hiding I could be at least be thinking of doing it after the bird of paradise is well feathered and ready to fly!

I often forget to say that on wow Wednesdays, I link up with Canadian gals who share their work on 

The Needle and Thread Network.

                             Please head over and have a look at what we Canuck's consider artistic.

The Needle and Thread Network TNTN

Neighbouring Canuck, Monika, at My Sweet Prairie is a passionate blogger and needle artist. I luv her work. She has made a new blog available to Canadian Artists Who Sew. I'll get the button up pronto.

I'm a tad intimidated by the capital A artist part but my goal this year is to find my style and then pursue it. So, Works On Wednesday just may be my commitment to make this happen so I can join the link up. WOW

There are tremendous blogs that offer practical advice for aspiring artists.

So far I'm finding that I need to narrow my options and then leap out on my own so I'm not a copy but an original.

WOW will be my journey.