Almost....

Yesterday and today I was able to steal a few bits of time before work and at lunch, and I now have just one more seam to do. Too tired tonight to focus on it, though. I've added some "compensating strips" in several places which emphasize the nine separate squares more than the continuity between the parts, not sure if this is what I like best, but one cannot diddle around endlessly! At this point three of the four four-way block intersections match up exactly, the last one won't. Will this look like an unintentional screw up, or just a variation...? No pix today, sorry.

 

Ongoing Progress

I managed to find time last night to put together one of the last two blocks.  At first I was not happy with these, I thought they looked like "filler" just trying to fill the last spots.  I'm starting to love them.  I think this block could be a small piece on its own, though I don't want to pull it out and start over!   I do worry a little that it is a different "type" of block and doesn't relate to the rest of the composition much, including the use of blue, which is limited to a very few spots.  But it was getting boring and monotonous.  Anyway, here's the status: (Except that annoying black slash is gone. It seemed gratuitous and heavy handed.)

Quote of the day: "There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion."   Francis Bacon.

Filmstrips nearing Finish Line

Things are really progressing, FINALLY, on this piece. I think I'm learning to just let it go.  If I agonize indecisively over every move like I have been doing I'll never finish anything.  The best most consistent advice I've heard about making art is, "Do the work. Lots of work." Or "inspiration is for amateurs. Real artists just show up and work every day.... " Something like that. Then there is Nancy Crow asking me, "Do you always work so slowly?"  Just when I thought I was working fast!! 

Constructing Blocks

Here's my clumsy attempt at combining photos in Notability on the iPad, then e-mailing them to myself as pdf's,  printing them to smaller pdf, then resaving as a jpeg.  Gosh technology's wonderful.  Anyway I'm a little behind with adding photos to my entries.  These are where I was yesterday morning.  Yesterday evening and this morning I jumped into making the new "Block 3"  Fun piecing and restructuring, but nothing finalized yet.

I spent a good part of Sunday in the studio, and I'm happy with the progress I'm making.   I decided on an additional "sub block" to add to the three purple Z blocks making them the same width as the orange one.  I get excited when I'm able to start assembling the larger units together!   But it suddenly occurred to me to turn them upside down, now I'm bogged down in which orientation is better.   I'll take some pictures tonight.  For some strange reason it always helps me to look at photos rather than the quilt itself!

Finally!

The studio is finally more or less set up!  Here are a couple shots, first from the stairs, then looking back toward the stairs.  Since I last posted, I've put the big work table in the center, put together the drafting table, and propped up the design wall on some crates temporarily to make it easier to reach.  Eventually I'll fill the whole wall with design wall, but for now it's working.  

We did some browsing in a thrift store yesterday, and just happened to find the big cork board now hung beside the stairs. $15.00!  It's just about the right size for my original piece from the workshop.  I had put it aside because there was nowhere to stretch it out and sandwich it.  Now I think I will be able to do it on the concrete floor behind the cabinet.

AND last but not least I've made some good progress on "Filmstrip" as I'm calling it for now.  I connected the filmstrips to each of the orange blocks, then I started developing the second block according to the various versions I'd created.  I finally took a break because I can't quite decide if I want to make them asymmetrical, or two-part like the first four, or just make the purple strips wider.

THEN, I have to come up with the third block, of which there will be only two.  I don't have any solid idea at all but I am very much looking forward to allowing myself to improvise.  

It's looking like a real artist's studio... sort of

I apologize, if you were patiently awaiting progress photos of the studio.  I was focused on doing everything else first, but by Saturday the upstairs was basically livable.  However, the weather was so nice (i.e. not raining) that I couldn't resist doing a few things outside.  There is so much to do!  So many places ready to be landscaped.  So much black plastic to dispose of.  But not until I know I can control the weeds manually.

Then Sunday I headed toward the mess of boxes.  First thing in my way was my old drafting table, covered with roof granules and mouse refuse from 20 years in the attic.  Just cleaning it up led to completely refinishing it.  Which led to not getting much else done.  So after procrastinating for a week, I went down there at about 8:30 last night and powered through unloading everything into either the storage pieces or the shelves.  I didn't think too hard about what needed to go where, just get it out of boxes and into storage, THEN I can organize and rearrange to my hearts content.   I was amazed at what got done in about an hour. So sorry I didn't do a before picture of all the crap covering the floor.  Next I will reassemble the drafting table, and put a large worktable in the center of the rug.

I'm not totally sold on the idea of partitioning my space with the storage pieces, but not sure what else to do.  It's about ten feet from the window wall to the white column, and there's twenty more feet beyond that.  I would like my space to be open to the fireplace insert if I ever get one installed, but  I don't want to have to walk 20 feet to where things are stored, either.  Unless I get way more organized and  put everything in to the shelving unit.  I just love the way the colors of the Matisse are repeated in the bead storage drawers.  But I have to figure out how to hang it on the concrete wall.  The white unit was supposed to go there, but I'm liking this better.

Although the shelves look full, the pink/orange/green boxes are mostly empty and a couple shelves are occupied by my boxes and bags of family photos and a couple scrap-booking projects that have never materialized.  They can go elsewhere if needed, but I have a vague idea of doing some sort of collage art that would use them.  

The white board to the left of the cabinet is my old design wall, that seemed so BIG in the old house.  Now it's tiny.  Next step is to get that whole wall from the shelving to the window covered with foam and flannel.  Exciting!  It looks like the cabinet is to the left of the window, but it really isn't more than a couple inches over.   I'm also thinking the backs of the storage pieces can be turned into design walls too - a good way to step away from something,  and/or to hold smaller pieces when the big wall is full.

From the vantage point in this picture you see the underside of the deck and stairs but I don't look from this point - I'll post one showing the view out to the yard later.