The Value of Pink(s)

While it is not my favourite colour (that honour belongs to green), I have no grudge against pink and have made many quilts using pink. However, this is one of the few times that I have tried to make a quilt using ONLY pink. No dipping into complementary green hues; no sliding into analagous purples or oranges; just pink in all its glory. I dyed up a full gradation from soft blush to deep plum. However, when it came to putting my pink piece together, I found that I discarded many middle value fabrics. With only 12x12 inches of quilt estate, I needed the contrast of the dark and light values to give definition to my design. Bring on 12 December so that I can share it with you!

In the meantime, here are some photos taken in Golden Gate park before the fog rolled in.

Rose prints

This tiny rose was looking somewhat different a few days ago...
I made two screens from the picture, and used them to print some of my pink fabric...
Now, I'm almost finished wih my pink quilt.

Happy in Healdsburg

While in California visiting family, my husband and I took the opportunity to return to Healdsburg to spend a very pleasant evening with Diane and her husband. It's two years since our last visit and so much has happened in the meantime. Somewhere in the non-stop talking, we managed to snap this picture:

About this pink thing...

I've been working on my "Pink" challenge piece, and reading everyone's comments about how you've been working on yours... and I can't help but notice the strong sentiments this color seems to provoke.

I selected "pink" for a couple of reasons. For one thing, I notice that it's a color a lot of people avoid and I'm not sure why. As someone said early on, it's just "light red!" So it makes me wonder -- is it that it's a pastel color, and we're bold women who tend to use bold colors? Is it that it is the stereotypical color of girlie femininity and our feminist tendencies cause us to avoid that association? Maybe it's that "pink" can be associated with cutsie and sweet, and that's not an arena we want to find ourselves in? Maybe as girls (or "women formerly known as girls") we were so over-exposed to pink in our childhoods that we avoid it now? For those of you who dislike the color pink, do you have an understanding about why? I'd be interested to know if you can articulate the reasons for your reactions.

In any event, the main factor in my choosing this was that I knew it would push almost everyone out of their comfort zones. One of the aspects I've loved about our challenges is seeing the directions people choose, and especially being surprised by someone's piece just when I think I'll be able to predict something. So I'm sorry if this challenge topic has been stressful for some -- think of it as a little bit of a tug on your comfort zone boundaries. And I know that I will encounter the same feeling as we move forward!

Speaking of comfort zones, I've decide to try to push mine in this new Colorplay circuit. You've seen how I tend to go straight for a direct and literal interpretation. I've decided to push myself this time around to work more abstractly -- no representational images allowed. (Feel free to call me on that later when I forget my little self-imposed personal challenge!) So I'm headed in a very different direction and I know it will keep me especially challenged as we move forward.

I'm looking forward to December 12!

I'm finished

What a good day! Today I finished attaching the sleeves to all my twelve quilts that I will be sending to Lark. I also finished all the labels on those quilts. Tomorrow I wil make the traveling bag for them and they will be ready to send off.

Today I also finished my "pink" piece for the first reveal of our new set of 12 quilts. Pink has been a struggle right up to the end, but I do love it. A couple of little glimpses.

This is my "bet you can't guess what it is" post. Can you?

More thoughts on pink on my blog post for today.

Code Pink

I am having fun working on my pink piece. In the last few days, I have been thinking about these women who work tirelessly for peace, and I wish I had thought of doing my quilt about them.

Another pink again

This is the kind of pink I am working with. Do you think it is pink enough?

Bid-4A-Cause: Roseus Goddessii

There have been several pink textile works in my life over recent months but it's all been for a good cause. The Bid-4A-Cause reverse auction commences on Friday, 27 November 2009 (Australian time) to raise funds for the [Australian] National Breast Cancer Foundation. Amongst the 14 A4-sized pieces that are up for grabs is Roseus Goddessii:

Roseus Goddessii by Brenda Gael Smith

"Roseus Goddessii" comes in all shapes and sizes. This piece includes eleven fine lines – ten pale pink and one deep pink – to represent that one in eleven women in Australia will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 75.

The one I didn't do

I have had such a hard time getting inspired to do a pink quilt. Sorry, but I just don't like pink, except in small doses. Last week when our STASH group visited quilt shops I bought this fat quarter.

It is a subdued pink—not too bubblegum or Barbie. I told Gerrie I was going to take it home and stare at it until something came to me. Then a few days later I drove up to meet some friends in North Portland (you may have read about it on my blog. It was the tour of Mississippi street) and I had to park a couple blocks off the main drag in a, shall we say, "transitional" neighborhood. Right across the street from where I parked was this sad, pink house.

My photo doesn't really show the full extent of it's peeliness and patchiness and sagginess, though if you look closely I think you can see that the address plaque on the door hangs at an angle. It was obviously many years ago that someone had the inspiration to paint it a precious combo of pink with aqua trim. Its grodiness really appealed to me and I got right to work drawing up a plan for it when I got home. But as I worked I could see that it was going to end up in fabric being "cute"—exactly what I did not want. Hmmmm. What to do?

I got sick the same day I was humming on where to go with this darn pink challenge and went to bed with a slight fever that night. I slept fitfully and dreamt, crazily, about making a pink quilt. At one point an old friend, an angel really, appeared in my dream, waving scissors and pointing me in an altogether different direction. When I awoke I had my new idea, goofy as it is. And I have to tell you that subdued pink is not going to work at all. Yesterday I went out and bought a nice garish bubblegum pink fabric. I have gone over to the pink side...

Exciting News!

The Twelve by Twelve artists are excited twelve times over to announce that:

(drum roll, please.... )

Sterling Publications/Lark Books will be publishing a book on our Twelve by Twelve Collaborative Art Quilt project!

We are thrilled beyond words to have this wonderful opportunity, and so happy that our art endeavors and friendships are turning us into authors, too. We know that Lark was impressed by the loyal folks who follow our blogs and website, so thanks to all of you friends-of-Twelves for your encouraging words through our explorations!
We'll keep you posted as we know publication dates.

We are lifting a virtual glass of champagne to each other and to all of you for your support!

Done

This is all you get until December 12 -- reveal day.

In the mood

I'm trying to get into the pink spirit here!

Nearly Done

This is going on my Pink quilt. My inspiration is the pink I see twice a week, but know is a part of all of us. And as I'm working on this, I keep hearing Stella from Project Runway in my ear saying, "leathah!" Any guesses?

Four Twelves or One Third!!

Four of us together at Diane's home yesterday!! Helen and I in the back and Karen and Diane in the front. Thank you Diane for a really wonderful day. And thank you Karen for making the trek from Thousand Oaks for the day. And most of all thank you, Helen, for giving us an excuse for the rendezvous.

2x12s Together!

I am headed out shortly to meet up with Helen! Helen and her husband Dennis have been in San Francisco for the last several days, and we are meeting up in Berkeley to do a tour of a few fabric shops (Stone Mountain and Daughter, New Pieces, The Cotton Patch) and then Helen and Dennis will come back to Healdsburg to stay with me and my family for a few nights!

I can hardly wait to meet her, and I SO SO SO wish all of you could join us!

We'll be thinking of all of you!