Confession

I have a confession to make. I am not motivated to work on our current challenge. I have several other projects which I am much more excited about and I'd much rather be working on.

However, I'm committed to my Twelve by Twelve compatriots so every now and then I make sure I give our theme a little attention. Last night I even drew a cartoon for it n(and by cartoon, I mean a drawing which I'll be working from as a sort of pattern, not a comic interpretation). 

My process is not unlike the one Helen so eloquently laid out a few posts back. I start with thoughts and words and associations drawn. Could I create a work that is maverick? That is "outside the box?" No, that would be pretty cocky for me to assume I could do. How about an homage to a maverick in the quilt world (since our medium is quilts after all)? I'm thinking in particular, people like Nancy Crow, Michael James, Gwen Marston, Joe Cunningham, and Susan Shie. I consider all these creators to be mavericks because of the ways their work veered away from quilting customs and paved the way for those of us who are following. But in my opinion, doing a portrait or a piece in the style of any of these people would be derivative, and that is in my mind neither free thinking or outside convention (definitions of maverick).

So, I'll have to approach a maverick in a different way. I'm looking to the original meaning and drawing  from the meaning of branding and herds. I'm also using my previous work as a jumping off point. I often find that part of my process is to wait until the muse hits, and while I don't want to put this off until the last minute, I'm not rushing to force it. I'm pleased with the groundwork I've laid, and can envision a satisfying solution. There's some room though along the way to wander off the path I've beaten.

Moving Along

I'm quietly embroidering away on my towel and things are looking good. I'm taking my time and making sure I am happy with each stitch. It's moving very slowly, but this is the path I chose to take.

As I work, I'm visualizing the route ahead. I like to have a plan, but I also like to allow room to change direction, or allow for serendipity. In general, I'm not one of those quilters who can map everything out on the computer or graph paper and then follow that plan to completion. I get bored when the process doesn't need me. This piece is starting to bore me. Right now I'm thinking two things about this piece: one, it is very stitchy, but not quilty; and two, it's neat and tidy and lacks in emotion (partly due to my tidy stitching).

As I work, I think, and I think that I've come up with solutions to both issues. Normally, I wouldn't care too much about how quilty a piece is or isn't, but since this is an art quilt challenge, I'm going to give it some consideration. Quilting this will be the last step (usually is) and will reference other kitchen items beyond the souvenir tea towel. Adding a spark of personality will happen after the embroidery (not TO the embroidery, for anyone thinking that loosening up the tidy stitching was the answer). It won't have much to do with maps or kitchens. Not too much.

The Quest

Now that I've decided on a direction for my Maps piece, I need to find an appropriate tea towel to embroider on. I went to one likely store and they had nothing. Too many towels with chickens or olives and not enough plain ones.

Store two had flour sack towels which are exactly what the souvenir towels are printed on, but although authentic, don't exactly "read" as towel. I liked the waffle weave and subtle tan stripes on another towel, but once home and washed the waffle texture became a lot more pronounced. Nice for drying dishes, but too deep for embroidery. My best choice is the green stripe, but I'm not entirely convinced it won;t compete too much with the embroidery.

The next day it dawned on me that my blue checked towels might come in other colors, and sure enough, store three had a set in tan. Now I just need to decide which is towelier, the green stripe or the tan windowpane checks. And even if I decide, there's no guarantee I won't change my mind and switch towels half way through. It's part of my process. I'm also seeing that the lovely cross stitch "Home is Where..." from one of my other artworks, when scaled down is too fiddly. I will need to look for a simpler cross stitch font.

Metamorphosis in My Yard

I made a start at my metamorphosis piece, and it didn't really match was I was hoping for in my head. The computer wouldn't save my work either, so I took that as a sign I was on the wrong track. Sigh.

However, as I was looking through my photos I ran across a metamorphosis softie project from a few years ago. I blogged about the project here. I guess some themes are rather timeless.


First, the caterpillar looks like bird poop. Then it changes to instar stage, which is fat and green. My ruched softie zips into a larger "instar" bag.


The instar is my favorite stage.


From the instar stage the caterpillar becomes a chrysalis. Our chrysalis is a patchwork bag that holds all the smaller components.


Out of the chrysalis emerges a beautiful butterfly. Ours has a little pouch on it's belly that holds a pompom egg so that the process can start all over again.

Enjoy a small slideshow of our backyard metamorphosis as well:

The Reading Part of the Process

Visitors, kids out of school, and general holiday festivities have not been conducive to making art. I have been thinking about though. Through a series of confluences, I was inspired to re-read "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" by Joseph Campbell. It seemed quite relevant to our metamorphosis challenge. Like Deborah, my process usually starts with words, free association, and browsing inspiration. This time I'm diving pretty deep into the word part.



The book has more emphasis on psychology and religion than I remember from 15 years ago when I last read it, and it's a bear to read (or has motherhood fried more brain cells than I thought?). But, bits and pieces have informed my world view for decades and it's nice to re-familiarize myself with it. Though I'm not taking specifics from the book, I'm certain that the metamorphosis of the hero-journey will be my subject matter. Now, whether it will be a person in general (self portrait), the transformation of a soldier (in keeping with my non 12x12 work), or the metamorphosis made through motherhood, I'm not sure.

Along with my book and sketchbook/journal, I've also made size specific design boards for 20-12 and another project. Our new size is looking very do-able -- especially in comparison to the other, much larger board!

Considering Size

As we "twelves" began discussions about what to do after we finished the ColorPlay series, several of us expressed a desire to break away from the 12x12" size requirement. Others were concerned about making too big a commitment to too many more quilts -- or more square inches.

As you know, eventually we decided on creating five quilts that would measure 20x12" during the year 2012. They will each have a theme that will be chosen by one of the twelves. Gerrie chose the theme we are working on now, Metamorphosis. My name was drawn out of the hat to choose the next theme.

At first I was a bit daunted by this new size. In my mind, it seemed much bigger. Last week I cut two 20x12" templates so I could warm up to the size.

Here they are pinned to my design wall -- both a positive and a negative.

The gray house on the purple background is an in-progress piece. It's unrelated to any 12x12 work, but maybe it provides a bit of scale in addition to the iron on the ironing board at the right.

So now 20x12" doesn't seem as big as I thought it would! In fact, now I'm feeling that it's too small for some of the ideas I've been considering.

Our 2012 Series is larger in the sense of the square inches we'll be creating during the year.

In our ColorPlay and Theme series we did six 12x12" quilts in one year. So, that's 144 square inches per quilt, times six quilts for a total of 864 square inches.

In our 2012 series we'll do five 20x12 quilts in one year. That's 240 square inches per quilt, times five quilts for a total of 1200 square inches.

Yikes, when I think in terms of the entire year and the total square inches, it's feeling big and a bit overwhelming again.

I suppose it's a bit funny and strange to get so hung up on size. I'm sure that as I begin to create my pieces, they will adequately fill the space. It's possible that I'll discover new ways of composing my designs to fit this somewhat unusual size -- and that will be exciting and unexpected. I should focus more on the process rather than some inaccurate vision about the size requirements.

The Sun Came Out

After the frustration of my last two posts here and here, I am happy to report that the sun came out -- both literally and figuratively.

The sun appeared and I was able to burn another EZ Screen (interesting product, but a bit finicky regarding exposure times). It's not perfect, but was sufficient for what I wanted to do. I also brought out my new orange Inkodye and Inkodye resist, which I am happy to say I like. It's fun to watch the color develop in the sun. Next time I want to do some fabric painting I think I will be willing to invest in more colors. I also fell back on my old standby Setacolor Transparent. I'm close to stating that these are all I need in my surface design toolbox.

Anyway, I did some "serendipitous screen printing" from the 10th anniversary issue of Quilting Arts magazine, and painted some orange-crate-inspired graphics with the help of freezer paper stencils, my EZ Screens, and some net clementine bags. None of the pieces are finished in and of themselves, but that's OK since I've wanted to layer some elements from the beginning. Now I'm off to the comfort of my sewing machine, scissors and commercial fabrics to really pull all these pieces together!

Orange Process (but not exactly progress)

Last I posted, I was overwhelmed by paint and Procion, gelatin plate or monoprints on glass, silk screens and freezer paper masks. I decided to simplify a bit and use paints instead of Procion dyes, and a glass plate for monoprints instead of a gelatin one. I cut out a lot of prep work by not trying these this time, and I suspect I've averted a gelatin disaster since it's very hot and humid here and I doubt the gelatin would have set well.



Alas, monoprinting went OK at best. In some cases the paint dried too fast (retarder helped, but...), in others I just didn't like the look.

I was very excited about using water soluble crayons on my silk screen and transferring the color to my masked fabric with a gel medium. However, my pastels were oil based, as was the kids' set; and my fabric crayons apparently are too. My watercolor pencils didn't work well at all, and on top of that, the mediums I had make the fabric feel all weird and plasticy. I got what I could at the art supply store here, but they didn't have any of the products suggested in the article I was following. I could try the craft store, or mail order, but I'm tired of shopping for this project.

On top of all of that disappointment, my ever present sun disappeared behind rainclouds and my second sun print didn't turn out. At least the color of the paint is nice, even if it doesn't have the intended leaf pattern on it.

I had some success making thermofax style screens with a product called EZ screen, so my plan now is to make one more screen and try my hand at some modified silkscreening.

I must say though, as disappointed and frustrated as I am right now, it's not permanent, it's not brain surgery, and I can't blame the how-to articles that inspired me. No -- it's all just part of the work that needs to be done to find out what works for us, and what works for each individual piece. Everything isn't going to be predictable or perfect. It's all a process.

My Orange Box

I've been thinking about my own artistic comfort zones. Usually I'm up for any style or technique that suits the message I want to convey, so I was thinking that maybe I didn't have a comfort zone in the sense of preferred colors, styles, or techniques.

But I am procrastinating like crazy on this orange piece. It's not teh color, it's what I want to do with it. I decided that I needed to try a collage-y, printed, layered look that I so admire in other artists' work. I made notes in my magazines, gathered supplies, bought more supplies, made silkscreens, cut masks, and am still not sure where I am going with this.

I am finding that I enjoy starting with a pile of already colored and patterned fabrics. I like that I can add and subtract with sewing and cutting. I am comfortable in my process of piecing and occasionally painting or dying fabrics to be pieced. I feed my stash and my stash feeds me.

What I am not comfortable with is the planning by way of cutting masks or making screens, combined with the element of serendipity that comes with the unconventional use of those tools like using wet media to transfer crayon color, or dried dye, or newspaper clippings. I'm annoyed that I need to prepare my fabrics with soda ash if I'm going to use dyes, and that I need to make only as much as I plan to use before they spoil. I don't like that I need to seal my silk screen with duct tape and I don't have any at home, or that I have water soluble crayons for one technique but not the soft gel medium with which to disperse them. There's so much to plan and purchase for. I know that if I try these techniques and like them, then I will have the supplies on hand and not be so frustrated, but right now all the prep work is engendering procrastination.

I've come to the realization that my comfort zone is my boxes of fabric that I can reach into at a moment's notice and combine in any way that my thread and needle allow. I like the direct. Pencil on paper, blade on fabric or paper, hook to yarn. Much more than that -- preparing the ground, mixing the pigments, determining layers and masks -- is generally outside of my box.

Ready to get messy

Orange was never high on my favorite colors list. I don't know why. Orange is great! Nowadays I love orange, and I'm finding that it sneaks into more and more things in my life.

Although I've been challenging myself to incorporate something from traditional quilting into my Colorplay pieces, I'm giving myself permission not to have to do it this time. My grey piece didn't lend itself to my self imposed rules and the connection to a little known block didn't help. I'm still wishing I had done a mola a la Diane's inspiration -- I can see it in my head.

Anyway, orange is making me want to do a still life of some sort, and still life is making me think of all the painterly techniques I read about in Quilting Arts magazine and never do myself. So, I've done a little research, and am planning on a few days of trying techniques and layering and collaging and seeing what happens. I think this is going to be one of those times that I have to try a bunch of things and work on many parts simultaneously and just see what sticks.

Spice in Progress

Wool because women used to use it before the advent of sponges, dri-weave, and other space-age fibers; and an upholstry fabric because it's pattern reminded me of oriental rugs, which are from the middle east as are silphium and asafeotida.

Chartreuse is a Neutral?

No pretty pictures of chartreuse things from me. And it looks like I'm going to have to get out my dyes and make some fabric for this challenge (I have half a bolt of solid green, but I think it's too lime, and too solid to work).

I did however, spend some time contemplating Gerrie's directive to use chartreuse as a neutral.

Webster's says neutral is "without hue, achromatic." What audacity to treat a color so specific and intense as chartreuse as neutral! I love it. Gerrie, you have caught my attention.

The more practical definition though is "matching well with many or most other colors or shades." And I'm pretty sure this will be my jumping off point. I will attempt to show that chartreuse goes with everything and is therefore a neutral.

Just for fun, I looked at other definitions of neutral -- to see if they sparked any related ideas.

• Chemistry: neither base nor acid, as distilled water.
• International Relations: like Switzerland (I could do the Swiss flag in chartreuse and white instead of red and white -- how fun would that be?!).
• Linguistics: neutral gender, ie "das" in german, which, along with the feminine "die" and masculine "der," I never did get good at remembering what words it belonged with.
• Mechanical: disengaged gears. Hmmmm...
• Electronics: the ground wire (that's usually brown in color though).
• Philosophy: like International Relations, not taking a side in a controversy.
• Network Neutrality: today's hot topic.

I've got a few ideas for where to take this. Does this kind of "research" or word association inspire others as well?

I'm Almost There

I think I'm getting somewhere here. As always, reader comments have been very helpful. I'm taking to heart Ann Marie's suggestion of more triangles -- I have seriously considered scrapping this version and making one with smaller squares! I pulled myself back from the edge but you never know -- if my current try doesn't work, I'm going for 144 little Squares and half square triangles. On my blog, Tonya wanted a punch of the blue. Yup, that was a good one. I've also added a richer green. This is a balancing act here. Jenny seemed a bit hesitant to suggest quarter square triangles, but that was the comment that really excited me! I'm liking the little pointy-up triangles. I'm also liking the patches with the pointy-down brown triangles. They remind me of flowers, or clusters of leaves reaching up. I think the solution is somewhere in these.

Uncle!

OK, I admit it -- I'm stuck. I like these colors, but my creative juices are just not flowing. Normally, I would work this all out behind the scenes, but having decided that I wanted to share more of my process, here's where I'm at:

My first thought was "spa." I saw some peekaboo applique (not a technical term, just what I'm calling it today) and thought it might be pretty to have "windows" of blue and sage fabric peeking through chocolate brown. Kinda decorative though, and maybe a bit of a cop-out for me. I owe the group some deeper thought.

So then I thought about "sage advice," which led me to fortune cookies. That had me excited for about three days, but then I lost steam.

So I went back to the spa idea (but now fortified with sage), which led me to zen, which made me think of a zen garden, which reminded me of bonsai. Of course bonsai are little trees, and there's a traditional quilt block called the Tree of Life or Tree of Paradise (images from my Jinny Beyer book of 101 Quilt Blocks, or something like that).

I got very excited about building a little bonsai tree out of half square triangles and set to work. About a bajillion arrangements later, I had to step away.

So here is where I stand. I don't feel like I've captured the minimal elegance of a bonsai tree. Mine lacks the grace of the real thing. So now I'm not sure if I should keep futzing with this guy, or go back to my peekaboo window idea and admit defeat.

Next Steps

In my last post I hinted at using a Baltimore Album style block as my challenge solution. I showed a mosaic of my progress which upon hindsight, was probably cryptic to everyone but me.

What I wanted to show was a peek into my process of auditioning fabrics. I was trying things out approximating their position in my composition (which is the top one in this photo of my drawings).



In all that moving around of fabrics, I learned a few things. One, I don't have nearly as much eggplanty fabrics as I thought I did given my nice collection of purples. Two, I wasn't getting the necessary foreground, middle ground, background distinction that I needed to make the composition work (due primarily to the fabrics I was using). And three, most Baltimore Album blocks, and definitely the ones with Kaffe Fasset fabrics, don't have a foreground, middle ground, and background.



So, back to the drawing board. The composition on the lower right retains the cornucopia, the other to the left is less Baltimore Album. I was sort of thinking Cubist still life a la Picasso or Braque, but didn't actually go that for for fear of losing the connection to the traditional quilt. If I were to take this idea into several pieces, I definitely think exploring a cubist-inspired option would be worthwhile. Alas, you can't cram all your ideas into one piece and I had to prioritize.



Lucky me, my mom sent me some fabrics for Christmas that fit right into the eggplant and emerald them, and I went shopping for a few more. As much as I loved the white fabric with purple sprays of leaves (a great find in my stash), it just wasn't working. Also, to keep with my "modern" theme I realized I needed some solids, both since they are very in vogue right now, but also to bring in the rich color I wasn't getting through the print fabrics, and to provide a little rest.

Putting on the finishing touches, I had to use this embroidery floss from my mom. It's got all our colors (plus a few more) and plays very nicely with my fabrics. I've had problems in the past with hand dyed flosses bleeding, but since I won't be throwing this little piece in the wash, I think it's the perfect place for the floss and I used it almost all up.

I'll show one more step and the final piece on the twelfth.

False Starts

Like Helen, my Eggplant, Burgundy, and Emerald quilt isn't turning out quite like I imagined it in my head.

Upon hearing the theme, I immediately thought not of the colors, but of the foods. I was in Houston at Quilt Festival at the time and there were many beautiful Baltimore album quilts on view. So, it's no surprise that I made a connection between the bounty in a Baltimore album block (baskets and cornucopias especially) and the bounty in our Twelve by Twelve theme.

I've also been inspired by the ladies at Material Obsession and imagined my Baltimore album block to be contemporary looking and full of Kaffe Fasset type fabrics.

Much moving about and auditioning of fabrics later, it's just not working. Part of it is that I don't have nearly as many appropriate eggplanty colored fabrics as I had assumed I had. But, as I was sketching the composition, another idea tried to assert itself. I ignored it at first, but now I'm thinking it was the direction I should have followed all along...

Continuing the Quest for Lava

After teaching a fabric marbling workshop, I was inspired to make lava-like fabric. I really liked the way such a classic surface design technique, usually associated with foliage and feathers, also worked so well to convey molten rock. However, I felt like my colors weren't hot enough.

The next step was to over-dye the fabric with an intense red. Unfortunately, the red turned out more bloody than lava-like, and the intensity of the marbling paints wore off in the wash-out (though it still looks pretty rich in my photo). Gerrie suggested that I try discharging the fabric to see what happens, so I did. I used Jaquard Discharge Paste, which works nearly as well as bleach on hand dyed fabrics and is a bit less toxic. I slopped it around on some of the dyed marbled fabrics. It definitely lightened things up, but the results look more worn and scuffed to me than hot and molten.



I think this photo shows better how the black paint has faded than the pre-discharge photos do. What it also shows is a few pieces of very hot orange fabric from my quilt mom Gerrie, which I think are great candidates for more marbling. I also have an interesting piece of orange flowered fabric from blog friend Mary that's been twisted and dyed black, which has some lava potential as well.


For me, this challenge is less about producing an image that says Kilauea, than about having found an interesting and appropriate surface design technique (marbling) and working with it until I get the results I really, really want. This has become a great experiment. I could have stopped with the first marbled fabrics and used them, but they didn't feel quite right. I could have used the red dyed ones, or given up completely, but my curiosity was sparked. I probably ruined the fabrics with the discharging, but how would I have known if I didn't try? I may use a few tiny bits of these fabrics, but I am inspired to keep attempting other things until I get the finished result I can see in my head.

I'm pretty sure that marbling on orange will get me the colors I envision, but I'm not wild about how the marbling paint behaves after washing. I have marbled with paint which gives great control, and I have dyed with fiber reactive dyes which give good color and hand, so now I am keen to see if I can combine the best of both worlds and try marbling with fiber reactive dyes next. I've queried the dye and marbling source, Dharma Trading Company and though they had no formulas for me, they did think I was on the right track.

Started

I decided that I, too, would share some of my process this time.

I started working on my blue, white and a little bit of black piece today. I brazenly "stole" this technique of fabric collage from Teri—just wanted to say that right up front—but my plan is to make it my own by using it a little differently than she has been.

This has been an incredibly busy month so far. I am working like a fiend every day trying to get everyting done for our book, my article, my TV taping preps, and other deadlines. I realized yesterday that it was taking its toll on what I was doing. The last thing I did ended up so taut, so tight, so tense—even for me—that I could just look at it and see how stressed I was. My goal today was to get loose. The above is the result. This is only a start. So far it is blue and white. The little bit of black is yet to come.

Yesterday when I was driving home the sun had come out, the sky was blue and Mt. Hood in all its snowy splendor  rose above the city. It was the perfect blue and white subject as I saw it. This will be my second Mt. Hood Quilt since the start of the year.

Broken Dishes

I thought it might be nice this time around to share a bit of my process.



After determining that Delft and my other blue pottery was my inspiration, I thought about how best to represent it. There is a traditional quilt block named "Broken Dishes" which came to mind, as did lots of shards of those broken blue and white dishes. Since I always at least try to justify my use of fiber (and more specifically art quilt) as a medium in my work, using a traditional quilt block as my jumping off point made a lot of sense. A mosaic of broken bits complements the block name as well. With those elements in mind, I am off to execute the idea.

But December means ten...

There are twelve months in the year and twelve signs of the Zodiac. That seems like a good place to start a Twelve themed challenge. I was born in December, which also makes me a Sagittarius. Perfect tie-in, yes?

No. The root of December is not surprisingly, ten. It's the 12th month in the Gregorian calendar, but it's nomenclature relates to it's position as the tenth month in the Roman calendar.

Sagittarius is the star sign for November/December birthdays, but it's not the 12th sign. There is no beginning or ending to the star signs; no one to twelve order. And guess what? Sagittarius isn't even visible in the December sky, at least in the Northern Hemisphere where I live. It's an August constellation!

So, although December and Sagittarius are part of a group of twelve, neither one actually has much to do with twelve itself. I'm back to the drawing board for this challenge.