Resolutions Old & New

2013 Art Quilting Resolutions

• Focus on Art Quilts!!!        Well, Duh!
• Study and practice Crow assignments   I at least worked on finishing, didn't really "study" much.
• Enter SAQA Show  I did.  Got rejected, but I entered.
• Enter Whatcom Museum Show  I did.
• Work in a Series: Strip Piecing  I did.  This turned into "Color Prints."
• Work in a Series: Map Quilts   Did not do anything with this.  
• Work in a Series: Words  I did, in a way.  Took apart "Asemia" and made it five small quilts.
• Resist temptation to do "functional" stuff   Eh... maybe.  I needed curtains, and had to finish Sophia's quilt.
• Finish or give up on the current UFO's  Making some progress here.
• Learn to photograph my quilts    Needs lots of work!
• Learn to use Photoshop Elements  Need more work.

2014 Art Quilting Resolutions

• Study hard with/after Nancy Crow
• Study design and composition
• Study color
• Continue "Color Prints" series.  See where it leads.
• Make labels for all completed quilts still in my possession.
• Make hanging sleeves for all completed quilts still in my possession.
• Resist temptation to do "functional" stuff   
• Finish or give up on the current UFO's  
• Learn to photograph my quilts    
• Learn to use Photoshop Elements  
• Enter at least one SAQA show, besides the trunk show.

Finishes

I finished Color Prints #4 this morning.  

It is not as warped as it looks, but it is narrower at the bottom.  

:P

I might have to turn it upside down and see how that looks.

I thought I might like Color Prints #1 better if I oriented it vertically.

I do.

A little. 

In my 2013 wrap-up I didn't show finished versions of these three Nancy Crow exercises.

I finished the tops last fall sometime.

This was the first day, a black & white strip piecing exercise.

I added the green at a time when I thought I would enter it in a guild challenge.

The challenge was a quilt using only black, white and one other color.

I think this was the second day.  

Two exercises using bright plus black. 

First one was just "be big and bold."

This is about 42" square.

The second one was to make it "Busy." 

Really Busy.

So I called this one Busy Signal.  

It's about 15" square.

Word of the Year

Everyone in the blogosphere has been sharing their word or phrase for the year.  Lots of Joy, Focus, Finish, Commitment, etc.

I thought for awhile.  I read something in a blog about a Nancy Crow workshop about how you have to give up some things if you want some other things... I.e. success as an artist.

So I decided my word is "Sacrifice."

I have been trying over the last few years to be a more positive person.  That doesn't always come naturally to me.  But I feel like this word sums up what my attitude has to be.  For too many years - like, oh, about fifty - I have convinced myself and others that I can "do it all."  Career, Rotary, Planning Commission, Art, Home, Garden... etc.

I have to face the fact that I can't.  The success that I crave as an artist is going to have to come at the expense of weeds in the perennial border, or tomatoes that rot on the vine.  The bedroom might not get painted, and the dog will have mats under his ears.  It's worth it.

I could use "trade-offs" as a slightly less negative word, but I think that "sacrifice" gets closer to the heart of it.  What sacrifices are you willing to make for your art?  

2013 Retrospective

Yeah, everyone's doing it and it may be really boring to read but this blog is primarily for me to chronicle my adventures, and if others find it interesting, okay.  So, with that disclaimer here's my visual look back at 2013.  I realize that some of these quilt tops have been completed but I never photographed them since they weren't quilted and faced. Maybe I'll do that this weekend, and update the entry.  I hvae decided that in 2014, the definition of "done" will be completed quilt tops.  I need to accept that not every exercise is worthy of quilting well, but also not bad enough to use for practice.

Here's to a productive, creative 2014 for all of us!

Happy New Year!

Here it is New Year's Day.    My morning has been spend sitting in front of the computer screen, yet again.  But not in my usual procrastination mode.  It's a long story but, the computer and the parrot are in the same room.  The only possible way for the parrot to be kept quiet is to stay in the same room with him.  My husband is sleeping late, which he almost never does, so I feel obliged to keep the parrot quiet.  He's not hungover as we didn't drink much at all last night (the husband, not the parrot, but the parrot's not hung over either, but I digress).  So he must be sick.

It's not my usual procrastination mode, however, because the first thing I saw when I opened my e-mail was the workshop instructions for the March Nancy Crow workshops.  Which of course led me to an orgy of googling to look at blogs about what everyone else had done in preparation for this workshop.  Which, of course, led me to start a new Pinterest board....

I am excited just reading about NC workshops again...  The same themes repeat, exhausting, grueling, had to go outside and cry, learned more than I ever have in my life....    It's clear there is a dedicated group of NC groupies.  She is an addiction, and even though you know it's going to be draining, you crave the intensity of being around other people who share your passion, and the joy of soaking up learning as fast as you possibly can....

Time to start thinking about simple and complex motifs!