04.30.2012

04.28.2012

Week 2 ~ 9 x 12

Here's the second piece in my weekly collage quilt challenge.  Mostly ecodyed and tea stained fabrics -- with a small paper collage recycled from last year.

It's good for me to be challenging myself again, keeps me moving through stuff.  I'm about half done with the Fiberactions' challenge quilts ~ there will actually be four pieces this time (!), a quartet of related quilts of the same size.  May 15 is the reveal for those.

I'm planning to completely reorganize my front room studio with new storage solutions under the work table plus a shelf across the top.  I need more room to spread out for upcoming mixed media work.  A trip to Target in Eureka next week will get me going on that.

Looks like we have sunny days ahead for the next week or so, and hopefully longer.  I was just getting into the swing of spring when it was cold and rainy again for a couple of days this week.  Have a great weekend!

04.26.2012

04.25.2012

04.24.2012

04.23.2012

04.21.2012

New Weekly Challenge

Writing this via Blogger's new New Post template.  I liked the old one, but oh well.  Change is the only constant...

This is the first piece in my new weekly challenge.  Other than minimal parameters I've established for myself, this challenge is going to be pretty wide open.  The rules ~

• 9 x 12 inches
• quilted, although might use paper as well as fabric
• a sense of immediacy ~ I may think about the piece for a few days and arrange elements beforehand, but when it comes to putting it together, it goes quickly
• might include elements I haven't wanted to use before...like copyright free imagery
• must be fun!

I'm looking forward to another personal challenge as well, which I hope to begin in the next couple weeks.  This one will be more mixed media oriented ~ acrylics, collage, not fabric and stitch focused although either or both could be included.  Mixed media collage is what I alluded to in yesterday's post when I spoke of being overwhelmed.  It's actually been on the back burner for me for about a year.  So I need to get myself organized for how I want the challenge to proceed.  Will say more about it later.

Why the new challenges?  My current mantra ~ "If not now, when?"

It's another drizzly day in paradise on the North Coast.  Hope you have a great weekend!

Busy Week

I'm having a busier-than-usual week.  Nothing to show yet besides collages, but projects are in the works.

My Fiberactions challenge quilts are ready for quilting, hope to start on them these weekend.  I did some fabric printing and stamping earlier in the week on these pieces, along with some papers for collage.

I have a new personal challenge piece ready to put together, planning to get to that today after some online paperwork and a show entry.  I'll say more about the challenge when I post the first piece.  It's going to be a weekly challenge, so I want to make sure I've got the first piece finished before I commit out loud!

So all in all I'm feeling a LOT better.  I still have a bit of a lingering cough, but otherwise I'm feeling fine.  The lesson for me now will be in pacing myself, now that I feel the creative juices flowing again.  And there's still a huge sense of overwhelm -- something I've been carrying with me for a while what with all the things I want to do and try -- but I'm feeling like I just need to bring that overwhelm along and move forward one step at a time...instead of feeling immobilized by it as I have for months.  I suspect overwhelm and fear might be first cousins!

04.18.2012

04.17.2012

04.16.2012

04.14.2012

04.13.2012

Hidden Agenda

Hidden Agenda ~ 24x26 inches

I've managed to finish this piece, begun before I got sick, in dribs and drabs over the last week.  It's all discharged cotton and linen, with the exception of the ecodyed and rusted silk chiffon overlay.  This is another piece that had been on my design wall for many months. 
 

I'm hoping to design some new work in the next few days.  I've narrowed down my colorway for Fiberactions' split-complementary challenge so I have a particular stack of fabric to work with.  I'll most likely do more than one piece again, largely because the colors are so exciting together that I don't think one quilt will satisfy me.

But I'm still taking things one day at a time, since I've already had a couple of relapses.  The worst part has been the depression.  The reality with that is that life issues that have been on the back burner for months and years have moved closer to the surface, forcing me to begin to deal with them on a more conscious level.  This might sound dire.  It's more like the existential questions that I've been pondering deep down have sifted to the top -- things like WHY I bother to make art at all, and WHAT I want to do with my life for the next 30 years.  So in this segue time I'm rounding up some outside assistance to help me craft my path.

04.10.2012

04.09.2012

04.07.2012

04.06.2012

Early April Update

I've been sick for a week now with our local version of the bug that's been goin' around.  I haven't done one creative thing in a week.  Even though I'm having moments of boredom, I just don't have the energy to undertake anything.  I haven't even been reading much, my mind's not focused on it.

I schlepped in to Eureka yesterday, though, to deliver my Eternal Traces show to Yarn on 2nd Street in Old Town in time for Arts Alive! this Saturday.  Unfortunately I won't be there.  The exhibit is nine pieces of recycled, ecodyed, hand quilted cloth.

I've been hovering on the edge of depression since I fell sick.  I have to keep my mind on things like the rain eventually stopping, the weather getting warmer, baking in the sunshine, lovely walks and warm breezes -- all down the road just a bit.  Spring seems to be happening everywhere but here on the North Coast.  It looks kinda like spring but it doesn't feel like it yet.

04.03.2012

04.02.2012