As some of you may know, I have not made a New Year's Resolution. However, I did find a deck of 52 cards I had purchased at Barnes & Noble a couple of years ago and almost immediately misplaced. The deck is called "52 Ways to Nurture Your Creativity" by Lynn Gordon
(Author), Karen Johnson (Illustrator).
When making room for my grandson's new bedroom at our house I re-discovered them. Since there are 52 of them I thought it would be a fun excercise to chose one each week and put it into practice.
OK, for week one I chose the card called "Look Out!" Basically the idea is to take in the inspiration of other people's work. Like visit a museum, gallery, etc. Well, we just happen to have the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit here at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The name of the exhibit is Circling Around Abstraction. (Here's a link to MIA if you are interested - http://www.artsmia.org/
We had tickets for Jan 3. Then I got sick on Jan 2. However, the MIA was so very friendly and accomodating to change the tickets to Jan 6 - the last day of the exhibit. I'm really looking forward to seeing the O'Keefe pieces!
While there I am also very excited to see the "NUNO: Textiles of the 21st Century" exhibit. You can see a description of the exhibit at the MIA website. Just click on Exhibits, then Current Exhibits and scroll down to the Nuno title, then click on MORE.
So, it looks as if my creative journey for 2008 is off to a very interesting start! Hope you enjoy the journey with me.
The trip to the MIA today (Minneapolis Institute of Art) was amazing. We had a bite of lunch at a restaurant there and then headed down to the gallery. It was such a great collection. I think I really enjoyed it because there were only 2 flowers in the whole thing. Not that I don't like flowers because I do - and I know that is what she is most famous for -- but I was excited to see the other work she had done. A really different take on abstraction. Truly inspiring. Over 60 years of art and she was still painting when she was almost 90!! I can only hope to have that long and exciting a career!!
If you do ever get an opportunity to see this particular exhibit, it is well worth the effort.
Another exhibit you might want to keep an eye out for in a city near you would be the NUNO: 21st Century Textiles exhibit. They had some absolutely beautiful pieces, too. (Again, you can check out their website -- http://www.nuno.com/home.html) What was so interesting to me was going through the exhibit and reading about the techniques. And smiling. Rust on fabric, stitching fabric and ribbons together on water soluble backing, etc. I'm thinking.....hmmmm...... I know a whole GROUP of people who can do this. I was thinking....... wonder when WE could be in an art institute somewhere????????? It was like being part of an international club and (although NUNO is a larger commercial concern) someone of like mind was exhibited in an ART gallery! I guess I always get excited anytime one of us is acknowledged by the "outside" world as an ARTIST!!! Ground is being taken!! Headway is being made!!!
There was another artist we just happened onto roaming the galleries, tracking down the textiles. His name is Ta-coumba Aiken. The first word I thought of when I walked into his exhibit was "cacophany" but not in a jarring or harsh way. It was a riot of joy and exhiliration! The neat part was that the artist was in that part of the institute with some friends just sitting on a bench. We didn't know it was he, of course, but they were talking so excitedly about things I decided to ask them if they were familiar with this artist. (I wanted to do this because he had a couple of amazing fabric pieces hanging there!) Turns out one of them was Ta-coumba. We chatted for a little while and I found him to be a very friendly and humble man. And he's a local artist! Here is a link to his website if you are interested in seeing some of his work. www.decemberdesigns.com
Well, tomorrow begins Week 2 of the Journey. I'll pick the card in the morning and see where it leads!!! So far I'm having a blast!
(drum roll.............................) And the card picked for this week is................
A Blank Wall - the idea is that we are too overstimulated sometimes by all the noise that assaults us all day long. Too distracted to hear the inner muse too often. The exercise is to stare into space like a blank wall or page. Then like a movie project ideas onto that screen without editing. Capture it there and see if you like it or not. If you do, keep it and let the rest "fade to black".
This one could be a challenge for me. While I have a HUGE design wall (9' X 11') it is seldom blank. The picture below is just after the design wall was hung. I believe that is the last time it was empty!
The other issue I can forsee (no pun intended) is that being a "visual" person even small things in my peripheral vision tend to distract me. I think I'll start off with my blank screen being on the inside of my eyelids!! I have done that before. Then, I will try it the other way. Who know! I just might find I like it!
However, all this must wait until tomorrow at the earliest. My day is so much more mundane. Working on several last minute projects and being ill has left my studio in a shambles that was supposed to be organized on Jan 2!! But today is the day instead. Not much fun but I can't really work well in an overly cluttered environment (nor an overly ordered one either though!)
AND I have discovered a downside to being so wonderfully inspired yesterday at the Minneapolis Institute of Art............ I couldn't sleep!!! I was designing things and wondering if this or that technique would achieve the certain effect I am looking for........... until 3am. I get up at 5:30 so it was a rather short night. I know I might have gotten up and come out to the studio and worked off some of that energy but once I'm out here there is no sense of time (I purposefully didn't hang a clock on the wall) Still, all in all, it was so worth it. Tonight, however, I'll be drinking my Quiet Quiessence tea and taking my valerian!!
My goodness - SERENDIPITY (my word for 2008) just keeps happening!!!
I'm taking an online class with a surfacing group I belong to and the teacher today sent this quote:
"Sit in reverie, and watch the changing color of the waves that break upon the idle seashore of the mind."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
That so ties in with my card for nurturing creativity this week that is it amazing to me!
In our Surfacing group we are making Little Treasure Boxes to swap. The pattern comes from Quilting Arts magazine. They are addicting!!
The first one I made will never venture outside my studio. It was a mess with the stitching. I LOVE the look with metallic thread but I HATE the way it breaks and shreds. It ruined the first attempt.
So then, I tried again and I am much happier with this one. 
I have two more ready to cut out and then I have to wait for a shipment of more timtex stuff. I have no idea what to put in them but who cares!! They are fun just sitting around. They make me smile! The two I'm getting ready to cut out now are for gifts for two friends of mine when we get together on Saturday for a "girls' night out". I'm thinking I'll get a couple of very extra dark chocolate Lindt truffles to put in each one.
I'll be making many of these I imagine.
In the interest of conserving time and effort - I decided to kill two birds with one stone. In F/S we have a scrappy challenge going and for Surfacing Class I needed to make a cover for my creative journal. TaDa!! A journal cover made from my scraps!
Here is the scrap pile I started with
I dug out all the little purple and green "noodles" and some cheesecloth dyed green and a piece of watercolor paper painted for another journal I did, some paper with text on it that I had over painted with purple dye, and some of my paper towels that had mainly green and purple on them. Lots of MistyFuse and a final layer of light green tulle -- and it is done!
I chose purple and green because for my Creative Journal I have chosen the fig as my inspiration and study focus. The main colors of the fig before it get ripe and dark are purple and green!!
Then I did some of my favorite quilting stitch on the left side, stitched in three "figs" and then wanted to try the water look quilting stitch so did some of that on the cover. I also had a stamp that I really like - "It's not the destination but the journey" which I stamped on the watercolor paper. You can't see it in this picture but it is there! Seems appropriate for the class I'm taking!
My how quickly that last week went! Just finished a great weekend with our granddaughter so I picked the card today. This HAS to be one of my favorites!!
FIRE YOUR CRITIC!!! -- My musings on the subject.
I fired mine about a year ago but it keeps showing up to whisper in my ear! I'm learning little by little to shut him out, though. Got to thinking about why I consider my critic a him...... Now there is an interesting question. Freud where are you?????
The other thing I have had discussions about with friends of mine regarding critics -- how is it that you can hear positive feedback all day long and yet one person slams you and that is the overriding thing you hear? I think it may be because we don't really believe we have the right or something to be good at something - even when we KNOW we are! That critical person speaks to the critic in ourselves and they agree and have a very loud voice!!!
And it doesn't take much to recognize the creative criticism that comes from friends or others who can appreciate your efforts and just want to help. It has an uplifting quality to it. Very different from the slam that agrees with "whatever made you think you could do THIS?" I have found constructive and creative criticism difficult at times but since it is given in a spirit of helpfulness and assistance, I have come to value it very highly.
This critic topic is a challenge I have. And from conversations I have had with others I don't think I am alone in this one. It is an ongoing struggle but one SOOOOOOO worth the fight!
So........ hush up you know-nothing critic!!! I choose to listen to the positive people in my life. Thank heaven for them!!!
SURFACING CLASS
In a class I'm taking with a Surfacing group I belong to I am doing a study on figs. That is the class I made the Creative Journal is for.
Here is my first little quiltlet of three figs in a row. I quilted it and then painted it with Lumiere Violet Halo Gold. You can't see much of the "violet" of that paint in this picture but there is just a hint of it in real life. I painted it with a stripe effect to keep with the look of a real fig. This was really fun. The first time I have painted a quilt AFTER it was quilted!!! Not TOO scarey on a small quilt. This one is apx. 9" X 11"
FIGS IN A ROW
The card for this week is -- Show and Tell
The idea is to share your work (whether finished or not at this point) with other artists. Well, I don't have any trouble finding people to share with that's for sure. So for today I'll post the 4 complex cloth round robins I finished today and yesterday. This is for a surfacing group I belong to.
This one I did step 4. I had a piece of orange snow fencing which I placed under the fabric. I brushed Lumiere Pearl Blue on parts of my brayer and then brayered over the surface.
This one I have also done step 4. I wanted to do some snow dyeing so I scrunched up the fabric after soaking it in Soda Ash. Then plopped on some Golden Pineapple and some mix of dyes that was kind of burgundy. Let it melt, rinsed and ironed.
This one I have the 5th and final step. I used three colors of metallic Lumiere paint. With a sponge brush I patted these three paints randomly onto a piece of bubble wrap. Then I stampled the bubble wrap onto the fabric at various angles and intensities.
This one is step 3 for me. I had a plastic bottom plate from an angel food cake. I painted the rings with DynaFlow Periwinkle and stamped it onto the fabric.
I'm just finishing up a quilt for a friend. I "show and tell" that one tomorrow!!
Autumn Garden finally completed!!
In the continuing "show and tell" mode - I have finally completed Autumn Garden!!! This is a quilt for a very close friend. I "gave" it to her as a Christmas present 3 years ago!!! We picked out the fabric and even started working on it the first part of the next year. Then, as so often happens, life got a bit crazy and it got put away for a while. This was one of the things I had determined to finish by the end of January! YEAH!! I MADE IT!!!
The concept of this quilt is looking through lattice work into the garden in the autumn. I only quilted the leaf background - not the trellis at all. I wanted the leaves to recede into the background and the trellis to be more in the foreground. To quilt it I mainly just outlined the leaves. I did the same for the outer border. In the green sections on each outer border I quilted in a maple leaf.
I found Minkee a bit difficult to work with - especially to keep the quilt flat. But since it is not for competition, I think it will be OK.
I will give this quilt to her this evening when we go out to dinner. I sure hope she likes it! She probably forgot she was even getting it -- someday.
AUTUMN GARDEN - full view
AUTUMN GARDEN - detail
AUTUMN GARDEN - Minkee backing
This turned out to be a great week to practice my "Show and Tell". I have finished quite a few projects.
The one I finished last night is for a challenge group I belong to. The challenge was to do a WINTER themed quilt. I had the background for a good while and a slight concept of where I wanted it to go. Only when I actually started working on it did it decide what it REALLY wanted to be. The title therefore changed several times and ended up at ------
"NO TWO ALIKE"
It is a 20"X20" quilt. The background fabric is a hand-dyed gradation of Cerulean Blue. I like to tear the fabric so there are frayed edges. The quilting is in swirls like the winter wind - just like the cording down the middle and the pattern of the binding fabric (which is also the backing fabric). The mesh is indicative of the snow fencing all over the place up here in Minnesota during the winters (although the real stuff is bright orange!). There was a good bit of glittery stuff that came off when I undid the mesh. So, in keeping with my word of the year - SERENDIPITY - I just left it on the quilt, ironed on some MistyFuse and some Angelina all over the background. Then I started adding snowflakes. And on this quilt - there ARE no two alike!!! It was great fun doing all those different snowflakes. Some are stamped, some ARE stamps - real postage ones, some are stencils, sequins, 3D stickers, etc. The largest ones are even suspended on filament and dangle.
So, here it is in all its winter glory -- "No Two Alike"
full view
detail 1
detail 2
Today I will be finishing up some Little Treasure Boxes and I will post those tomorrow. See - a great week to fulfill my Show and Tell!!!
Still in the big "show and tell" mode. This has been a very productive week for me so this has been an easy assignment.
I finished two little quiltlets for my Surfacing class. I am doing a study on figs. I decided to do each of my studies on little quiltlets, not bind them, and then put them all together in one quilt at the end of the class.
Here is the second one - green figs on a purple background. This is a color reversal from the first one (see Jan. 15 entry) which had a green background and purplish/gold for the figs.
Three Figs
I put the green fabric on MistyFuse and cut them out. I then arranged them on the purple fabric background and ironed them on. I did an offset zigzag to stitch them to the fabric. Then I added the batting and backing and used a straight stitch around the figs again. Then I used my new favorite quilting pattern to quilt it all together. This piece is 7.5" square.
Then I wanted to do a black and white study. I wasn't really in the mood for a neat little pieced quiltlet and I LOVE to rip fabric so I used some scrap black and white fabrics I had hanging around. First I drew the figs onto lightweight interfacing. Then with a feather stitch I stitched the mostly white fabric strips (down the middle of the striip so the ragged edges were free) to the interfacing. For the background I used strips of mostly black scraps and stitched them to the batting and backing the same as the mostly white strips. I cut out the figs and keeping the interfacing I added MistyFuse to iron them to the background. I did a satin stitch around the figs. Then a neat flat binding wasn't going to work for me so I just zigzag stitched remaining strips of mostly white fabric to both the front edges and the back edges but hanging over the batting just a smidge. This piece is 9.5" square.
Figs in Black and White
Figs in Black and White - detail
Then I really loved the back with the satin stitched figs. (SERENDIPITY just keeps happening!!) So, I painted them with Metallic Silver Lumiere. So, I got two quilts for the "price" of one! What a fun day.
Silver Figs
I know...... this one is early. But starting tomorrow I will be on vacation for a week. My husband and I take an annual reading vacation where we just read and read and read (interspersed with sleeping and napping, of course) for a week. Oh and some munching in there somewhere, too! It is our way of regrouping and rejuvenating for the coming year.
Given that schedule, I decided to pick my card for my Creative Journey for next week ahead of time. More SERENDIPITY!!! The card for this coming week is -- (drumroll) -- Refresh Yourself!! Way cool! I can do that!!! The idea is that even being creative is draining in a way. We all need to add to our creative "bank".
So, for those of you joining me on this journey. Do something this week to recharge your batteries. Whatever form that takes for you -- long soaking bubble bath, watching the whole series of Upstairs Downstairs on DVD, an afternoon of classical music..... whatever.
Have a wonderful week and I'll check in next weekend!
Well, I just thought I was done!!! THREE posts just today. I'm making up for being gone next week I guess.
In our surfacing group, we are making Little Treasure Boxes to swap (From the pattern in Quilting Arts Winter 2005). I finished my 5 up today so I might as well put them in my Show and Tell week, too.
They are made on a base of TimTex with hand dyed fabric on the inner side. On the outside I used MistyFuse to add fabric, glittery stuff and then a sheer layer. I used metallic thread on the outside and sometimes on the bobbin. I used some of the decorative stitches on my sewing machine to embellish them. I also treated all the edges with FrayBlock.
Group of Little Boxes
Bronze Box - close up
Snow Flake Box - close up
Royal Purple Box - up close
OK..... NOW i'm done!!! Till next weekend!!
October, 2007
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