Invasion of UFO's

Alert readers (yeah, right!) will note that the UFO list has grown rather dramatically of late.  There are a couple reasons for this.  I've added some projects just so I don't forget them entirely, like the 15-minute play fabric, or Katie's stuff that I promised her last week.  I've also added the "finishing" some some items that were formerly declared finished already.  The were done enough to meet the deadline, but not as done as I intended them to be.   There are also some ongoing things that either don't have a real "finish" date, or that I don't have control over.

My reason for sticking them on the list, is so that they will all be there, conveniently available whenever I'm in that all-to-frequent "don't know what to work on now" mood.  So it's not so much pressure as it is reminder.....   Right?


In other news, I'm officially totally sick of all the announcements about who got in to Sacred Threads.  Am I the ONLY one that DIDN'T get in?  I know, I know, I'm really new at this, and these are famous art quilters... it just would have been a little ego boost  - it's such a little piece, couldn't they find a corner somewhere??

Bouncing Around

I couldn't seem to make up  my mind what I wanted to work on today.  I spent the morning cleaning upstairs, and got a whole lot of crap out of my library/office/dumping ground.  It almost looks as though it could be used for a small art studio now.  Of course the crap is now in the living room instead, but that's only because it's on the way to the used bookstore, resale shop, or Goodwill.  


Then I promised myself the afternoon free to quilt.  But what??   Straightening up piles of fabric, I found a quilt block pattern that I had agreed to make for the "President's Quilt."  She loves thirties/retro fabric (which seems pretty common.  Why is it of all the eras of quilt-making everyone seems focused on either Civil War or Thirties?  But I digress.) 


 So I made the block.  I hope this is 30's enough.  I'm not sure where this came from, but the only other 30's I have is what I used for the last (only) friendship block I made - coincidentally, for the same person. 

Then I decided to tear into the striped shirts.  I cut one sleeve off the least attractive one, and cut out a six and a half inch square, then cut the square into quarter-square triangles.  I discovered that you can't make a nice square block out of one block, you need two, cut exactly the same place in the pattern repeat.  I prefer to just try things and see if they work, rather than actually thinking sometimes.  

               

Craftsmanship is not my strong point.  This was a really stretchy loosely woven cotton, so I'm surprised the didn't turn out worse, actually.  I still don't know where this is going - pillows, quilt, art...  ?

Next I decided to pull apart the City Hall quilt and "finish" it properly.  I did some free motion quilting on the sky, which turned out okay, then got bogged down in trying to quilt the stone pattern... four stitches, stop, raise foot, rotate, four stitches, stop, raise foot, rotate.   Blocks are boring!  Right in the middle of all that, I decided, if I'm going to do  FFFC challenge #56 I have to do it NOW.  So I did.  

The challenge was to study the work of Andy Goldsworthy.  Many of the works he does are made out of leaves, branches, rocks, flowers... some of them last only as long as the wind doesn't blow...  So I decided that I would use natural materials in a quilt.  I wandered out into the yard to see what was there, and first went for some fuzzy stachys (lamb's ears), and then beside them, some copper fennel, a complete color contrast.  Moved on to the front yard where grape hyacinth is in full swing.  So I grabbed a handful of each and went back to the sewing machine.  Suddenly there was a huge sense of urgency to execute and photograph a piece before the plants wilted or disintegrated.  Must be just how Goldsworthy felt when his leaves were swirling around in the water.   Before I'd even gotten back to the work area I knew the two fabrics I wanted to use.  (Because I've been re-folding and fondling all my fabrics they were fresh in my mind).

Here are some process shots:

So far so good...

Getting the whole assembly under the machine without breaking stems became problematic at this point.

The final row went on with the help of the extension table, and  my biggest ruler

Turning it over to trim the stems was a mistake!

The process was a lot of fun, anyway.  The limited time frame made me work harder.  (I seem to work best with deadlines hovering).    The difficulty of working with the plants distracted me from being able to think about the composition - In my mind there was more space between the plants, and a more rhythmic or patterned layout. (This was another element of the challenge).  So here's the final result:

I like the color and materials, I'm really pleased with the way the branch-y motif in the dark fabric echoes the featheryness of the fennel, and the beige/green colors of the spotted batik really echo the stachys.  I didn't notice until I looked at the photograph, that there is a deep purple element in the brown fabric.  Serendipity.

If I were to do it again, I'd use only a few plants and feature the fabric more. But it was fun.  Outside the box, for sure!

I Must be a Real Artist Now...

... I received my first rejection letter.   Not unexpected, but disappointing, nonetheless.  At least it was somewhat personalized.  
  

Dear Sharon,   
We know you are waiting for information about Sacred Threads.  We are gratified by the 

numbers of entries received for Sacred Thread’s initial showing in the DC Metro Area.  

A greater number of quilts were entered this year than were ever received before.  

This rally of support for the exhibit convinces us that the show continues to 

fill a need in the quilting community for a safe venue for our most sacred pieces.

We are saddened that we will be able to exhibit only a percentage of those quilts 
entered into the exhibit.  Each of the quilts has its poignant message and many 
brought tears to our eyes.  Your quilt, Cloister , was not selected by our jurors 
for the upcoming exhibit.  Please don’t be discouraged. We found that it was a 
difficult task to choose pieces that worked together, balanced the themes, and 
fit in the incredibly limited space.

Lots of other bloggers are posting about their acceptance, and I see some well known names, so I'm sure that the competition was stiff.


In other news I think I'm over the lethargy.  I think my mental health was somewhat screwed up as result of my physical health problems.  I've been trying to reduce the dose of one of my medications, but it seems every time I do, problems flare up.  Oh well.  I'm better today.  I spent eight hours out in the yard, weeding and chopping up shrubs that we pulled out.  I got rid of several overgrown messes, that should have been pulled out years ago.   

Lethargy

I've been in a funk for the past week or so. I'm bored at work, but not really excited about any quilting projects either.  I can't seem to get motivated by any of my existing projects, or even to start new ones.  Now THAT's bad! I'm even bored with browsing blogs.   I am still ruminating on the stripes/pillow covers.  Do I want to make a quilt with stripes or an art quilt, or throw pillows?  Or all of the above? Or none?


I guess I just need to go with the flow, get caught up on sleep, and see what comes up.
There's a FFFC challenge out today, but since I'll be gone three days next week, I'm not sure if I should bother attempting it.

 I did take a two-session class on Photoshop Elements this week, Monday and Wednesday.  That was really good, and informative.  The program is not very intuitive, at least I didn't think so.  I used to be able to just pick up a piece of software and run with it, but I guess I'm old or something, I seem to just get stuck.  

Stripes and Inspirations

Here is the post I mentioned last night, from Quilt Inspiration:   
Quilt Inspiration: Waste not, want not... how to make a mitered pillow from a man's shirt.

I'm excited to try it, but I also want to hoard the shirts for whatever this stripes project becomes.  This morning, just as I was scooping up dog food into Milo's bowl, an inspriration struck me.  Why then?  Who knows.  The inspiration was "Stars and Stripes."  That sounds like some sort of 4th of July quilt, and who knows, it might be, but I'm not into Red White and Blue.  (My bedroom was completely decorated in that theme in 1976 when, thanks to the Bicentennial Frenzy it was everywhere).  
Anyway, back to the inspiration - I'd been thinking about and looking at all the fun wonky stars showing up on 15 Minutes Play...  like the site logo...  so why not put together some stripes in the 1/4 square way, and some stars, in the wonky way, and combine them into a quilt?