It’s the words no one wants to hear. Yes, if it’s stopped changing stitches, the board is probably going out soon. Gasp. No. It’s my machine!
Lots of desperation here. I do have backups, but they are not meant as major machines and they won’t back me up long.
My dear friend Elaine always knew when I called her at 7am, that I’d trashed my machine again. I’d call to ask if I could borrow hers. She’d thank me for having waited until 7, That bad.
I may be retired, but I’ve sewn and quilted all my life and probably will until they dig the final hole. I need a new machine.
But the other difference when you’re retired is that the easy money is much harder to find. So I’ve put all my quilts on a 40 % sale. I have a number of great new works at every price range. And I’m willing to let them go to make sure I can get a new machine. The sale will be on until September 21.
If you’ve been wanting a quilt of mine, this is the best time! The prices won’t go lower, because they really can’t. And I have some fabulous new work.
842 Hosta Moon
866 Arabesque Rose
IF you are new to my work, please take some time to see what I’ve made. I feel each quilt is a separate world of it’s own, there to warm you from your wall, visually.
Prices on the web page and on Etsy will show the full price and give you the discount in your cart.
It’s not a natural thing for me. I clean. Once every twenty years, if necessary. There’s something to be said for that. You don’t want to rmess up a functioning system. Right.
I used to perform a service for people with unsupportive life mates who did not understand creative clutter. I would take them through my studio, through the thread wads, archeological book dig, archeological project dig, past the dye puddles do the archeological dirty dish dig. People would run out the back door of my one bedroom screaming that their mate could do anything, have anything, if they didn’t let it get that bad. I’m not quite there yet. I’ll offer the service again when everything silts up.
Forward to this morning. I couldn’t find my clip on magnifiers anywhere. Not anywhere. And there is no way for me to thread monofilament nylon without them. After two hours of breaking thread and taking twenty minutes to thread the machine each time I looked over the 9 pieces that needed monofilament nylon and decided I could either go home or sulk properly in a corner. I ended up emptying 9 drawers of polyester thread looking for Bottom Line. And sorting my whole polyester thread collection.
How do I sort thread? By content, by size, by purpose and by color. I’ve learned that if I pull out 10 spools of thread for a piece, unless I’m careful, they go into a basket that gets dumped into a drawer somewhere where none of it’s friends live. Finding them after that is an exercise in chance. All at cleaning up doesn’t sort anything.
All the #40 weight polys, the #30 weigh metallics, the #8 weight metallics, the #5 and #10 pearl cottons have a section of their own. And then I sort them by colors. So I can pick up a bag of thread and have all of that color at my fingertips. Until that messes up.
Bottom line, I don’t clean until I can’t find what I need. I’m also missing a bag of moths. I’ll either clean and sort until I find them or make more. Whichever comes first.
Nine drawers later, not yet, I will have sorted out all the poly embroidery thread. It wouldn’t have happened at all if my glasses hadn’t disappeared.
Winter is this huge interference of snow and ice on a perfectly nice season. Mostly it’s a waiting time. I hate waiting. Not a skill I have.
I’ve spent the last two months recovering from two knee surgeries to repair a previous surgery. If it sounds like it sucked rocks, you’re right. Everyone was kind, and I purposely spared everyone details and day-to-days of my recovery. I’m mostly through it. It’s all over but the rehab and the shouting.
It’s like everyone else who goes through this. It’s a sparse time separated from your life. I crocheted edged handkerchiefs as a new thing I wanted to learn. It got as bad as that. But it fills time and doesn’t hurt, so that made it worth the candle
So when Don said I was going to the studio, I was worried. About the big step at the back door. About how long I could sit with my knee dangling. And always, did my creativity dry up during this sparse enforced winter of healing.
Silly me. Got the step in one bounce. Worked for about three hours and started a triptic I’ve been dreaming about for some while.
Here’s my bits about the new tryptic. I want to revisit Daylily Dance with more butterflies and caterpillars. Here’s the backgrounds I chose.
Background choicesTryptic panels
Here’s some flower bits.
Is my creativity on board? I don’t think I need to worry about that. More quilts in my head than I can count.
I still have some rehab I would like to avoid but can’t. But at bottom line, I’m back where I belong.
I hope all your winters are short and productive. I hope spring finds us all whole in ourselves and with each other in kindness. I hope spring brings us the new flowers of creativity to change the world with the things we make with our hands.
When I finish a quilt, there’s this awkward sigh of relief, then this restlessness. And then I go scramble around in my unfinished quilt pile. I’m not really comfortable with finishing. I’d rather dink along at length until I’m really bored with it or until I have a deadline, whichever comes first.
So I pull out my pile of unfinished quilts
Bugs in Bloom
I’m not one of those people who feels they must finish every quilt. Not every quilt works the way you want it to. Sometimes you learn much more from a quilt you don’t want or need to finish. It’s all an experiment of a sort. I don’t believe there is shame in not finishing a quilt you don’t like.
But sometimes something that got backshelved really is worthy and I just need to get back to it.
All Time is Spiral in a Garden
I had an urge to play with sapsucker bugs.
I love these. They’re made with two tear drop shape.
And if you do it right the same shapes that make the bugs will also make the flowers.
I found two pieces I’d played with a bit in class. They both were perfect for the bugs and blooms so which should I choose?
I’m still not sure. But while I was at it, I cut pieces for a praying mantis to go with them. Here she is just as raw fabric.
And here she’s fleshed out with most of her stitching.
I’m not there yet with this. I’ll show you more about the decision on backgrounds in another post. My point is that the process of going through the left overs brings me to new and old ideas both. I may have to try it with the refrigerator next.
I finally feel I’m ready to open my studio to you. In a virtual world, that’s a bit, well, virtual. It’s been functional since May, but I finally have things in a state where I can show you.
I’m excited because the journey here has been so much more than just a new work space. it’s been a journey out of a wheel chair and onto my feet. It’s been a journey where I had no heart to make things to a place where fabric springs back into life under my fingers. It’s been a journey back to my heart.
I have a no whine on line rule. I’ve whined in the past, but I try very hard not to. Not that it isn’t ok to work through the hard places, and online is a place of support, but I find that it’s more public than I want and it tends to be boring for everyone else. And it can make you feel more stuck than you are. But I did hit a dark spot, several years back before I married Don, and I didn’t think I would quilt again.
But feelings are only feelings. And knees are fixable. Both can fix with rest and time.
Don stood by me through all the hard stuff. Then he gave me his house as a studio. And to my shock, and awe, I am able to create again.
So in celebration for that, in thanks for Don’s endless support, and in gratitude to God and the people who’ve held me up, I’m announcing the opening of the THREAD MAGIC STUDIO in Galesburg!
First off, I’m offering new work on sale for a short period of time. I haven’t been able to produce steadily for five or six years. Come see what I’ve been working on!
New blog posts:
Full of information and inspiration to help you out of the box!
New Fabric:
I’ll be able to offer dyed products again for sale. I’ve always sold fabric and thread to students. Now you can schedule a video call, pick out the fabric and threads you want or have me dye exactly what you need. My fabric is needle ready hand dyed cotton full of light sources and excitement.
Lettuce and Roses
Independent Studies:
Although I won’t be teaching on the road, I will be able to offer independent study time on line or at the studio in Galesburg. Come to the studio when you want. Stay with me and learn what you want to learn. I’ve had people come for specific classes, come just to learn one skill or another or come to solve a problem in their own work. It’s your time your way.
I know paint sticks are old news. But I really didn’t get it the first time around. Did I buy them? YES! did I know how to use them? Not so much. Was I disappointed? I was devastated.
The premise is that you take oil paint sticks and rub them on fabric with a design rubbing plate. Simple. Not so much. Everything slid all over the place and I made a special mess. Like many things, it went under the heading of “Well, I tried.”
It was several years later when I walked into a booth full of oil paint sticks and I told the lady I had failed. She said the words I longed to hear. “You’re doing it wrong.”
There is nothing as lovely, if not also annoying as knowing there’s a better way to do something that will make it work for you.
I love oil paint sticks, particularly the metallic ones. Glowing lovely color on hand dyed fabric with texture, what’s not to like. These Shiva Oil Paint Sticks are from Amazon.
The rubbing plates come from a lot of sources. My favorites are from the Cedar Creek. They have numerous kinds and sizes. Again you can find them at Amazon.
Here’s the secret hand shake. You have to keep the plates from moving around on you. There are two tools to do that.
The Grip-n-Grip Mat: Use this 14 x 11 inch rubber mat to hold the rubbing plate on so it wont wander under your fabric while you are rubbing.
Use 505 Spray on the rubbing plate itself so the fabric doesn’t move on you.
Basic Tips:
Peel the oil paint stick to get to fresh wet paint with a potato peeler. The surface of the stick will dry after your’re done and protect the paint stick.
Secure the rubbing plate on the grip mat and spray the rubbing plate with the 505 spray. Place the fabric on top. The fabric can be removed but it won’t slide around.
Gently rub the oil stick over the surface of the fabric. Feel free to mix colors.
Let the fabric air dry for at least 24 hours. When it’s dry to the touch, you can iron it with a paper towel as a pressing cloth to set the color.
You can clean up with Goop, the cream you find in the car care section for cleaning oil off hands.
Artifact: Wind over Water
These are done on hand dyed fabrics. They create something like a batik look, but with ultimate control. The metallic colors absolutely gleam.
I’ve discovered I can stitch into the oil paint stick rubbing with metallic thread for extra shine.
920 Artifacts: Dragonfly 4
Don’t be afraid to try something that didn’t work once for you! It may be there’s a secret handshake you just need to know.
Everything worth doing is worth doing badly. I wish I drew well. I don’t. But what I don’t lack in skill, I own in stubbornness. I am willing to keep doing something badly a very long time if I wish to do something well.
I’ve been revisiting my drawing skills as I’ve been starting new work. I’ve needed a fish in the next piece and spent some time this week. It sent me back to my books and my drawing board to struggle with the dirty d word again.
My drawing surface is an iron on pull off pellon product called Totally Stable. It shows up at sewing stores everywhere. The iron on part is like a freezer paper with a softer drawable, tear-away hand.
light pencil sketch
I wish it were possible to just draw free motion. I can sketch but it helps if there’s a drawing to start from. The hardest thing for me is that I can’t draw smooth lines. I rough things out, and then scratch all over them and then I trace and retrace over and over again. Is that wrong?
rougj outline sketch
It may be but it doesn’t matter much. It’s just the best I can do. I’m deeply dyslexic. It’s not a problem, it’s just a condition. Really, it’s it’s own gift. A different way of looking at things.
When I moved my studio over, I found some french curves I’d bought a while back. I didn’t quite get the use of them. I kept trying to. I just couldn’t quite get it. I didn’t see how the shapes fit around the drawings. Dyslexic.
I have a light table. It helps to have illumination. Even from beneath.
fitting the template to the curve
So I got out my rulers and took my drawings and smoothed them. I turned the plastic templates over and over around the lines and found they did fit in if I was working just in small areas at a time. Using the curves, I outlined the drawing cleaning it, smoothing it out. At first I thought I was cheating. And then I realized I wouldn’t have blinked if I was using a ruler for straight lines instead of soft curves,
It fell apart when I went to do his scales. I didn’t have a template that fit that. So I have shaky scales.
Then I realized he was heading the wrong way. More dyslexia. But this is the good part. The directions just are different for me. I mix them up but I can get there in a heartbeat.
I pulled out my light table, flopped over my drawing and traced it the other direction.
I don’t do this for myself, but for the blog, I zoned the drawing in color, so you can see where I’m going. The fish up above is the same kind of bass, but in another quilt. Just so you can get the idea.
Of course the question is whether smoothed out drawings are better? Is there something stronger in a rough edge. Or have I just made my drawing more defined? I need to sew it out to know.
For you, I hope you grab any tool you need without embarrassment or shame and use it to do what you dream. It’s not cheating. It’s working with what we’ve got.
I can’t explain my fascination with owls! I only know I want to fly with them. In general, I think it’s the silent, swift explosive movements they make. I only wish I could move that way.
Or it just could be a need to occasionally work with browns. Owls will do that for you.
Or the desire to live in the light of the moon. I don’t do them often, but I love it when I do.
Indigo BluesHunters Moon 2Hunters Moon 3Owl faces
Or their faces, wise and feral, and all seeing. I would very much like to be an owl.
Sometimes its a wonderful thing when a quilt doesn’t work. I did an attempt of a quilt with 3 owls in it that was awful. I never got the background to work. But the owls… Three owls. Just doing nothing.
Hunters Moon 2 detail
Here is the first owl in Hunters Moon 2
I’m working with the second owl now in Owl at Sunset. It will be in process for a while, but I thought you might like to see some of it’s bits.
Woo knows what will happen with the third one. Aren’t you glad that first quilt didn’t work. I am.
owl with backgroundsplit light source to give her more roomthread choices for mothsmoth embroidered for lunchtrimmed and ready mothsAngelina Sunsetangelina sunset detailcut rocksThe owl so farsun and rocks added
Come back and I’ll show you more as I get there. It can’t get more serieous.
I know some people who meticulously plan their quilts. I envy them. They draw them out on cocktail napkins or in a notebook, or a design wall. And it doesn’t change. They have a straight line vision and if they were in a boat you’d say they were rowing to the shore.
I’m just not one of them. I walk into the studio, look at what I’m working on and the squirrel process begins. You know what I mean. I see one thing and it makes me think of something else in a bin somewhere that I know is perfect except that I ran into something even better when I moved a pile over and I found something left over from another quilt.
Elements from Butterfly Barden
Grotto Gem is one of the left over bits from Butterfly Garden. It didn’t quite work with the others but it was magic but itself.
Let’s just say it’s like treasure hunting. There isn’t a map, just the memory of the myth. I’m in a boat roaring down the river without a paddle. I cling to the side and whats where the river of creativity takes me.
Somewhere I have the perfect butterfly, bird, frog, mushroom, name your critter, waiting to go into that new quilt. All I have to do is dig deep enough for it.
In the brand new studio? Are there piles in the brand new studio? Already?
OF COURSE THERE ARE.
I’ve gotten quite precious about left over bits. And I produce them in bulk. If I decide to do mushrooms I am likely to do ten of them when I only need two.
Stag Party
Why?
It’s process. Left over mushrooms in the studio are not different than left over mushrooms in the refrigerator. Did you fry them with bacon and sherry? You know full well theyll go into the next casserole seamlessly.
But its easier to do them in a lump. The machines are all set a certain way, for free motion applique, or for bobbin work, or for zigzag embroidery. The backgrounds are on thin felt, hand dye and stitch and tear. And I’ll have a basket of the thread colors I want to feature. And rather than make two mushrooms for a quilt, I’ll make ten just to have the left overs, waiting for their time on another quilt. It’s also in an organized set of colors. Mushrooms on another day may not feature neon orange, but I always reserve the possibility. They make a collection of mushrooms that go with each other, and that is useful again and again.
I’m going to show you some quilts, some done and some not finished, that were left overs to start with.
In the Reeds 2
This back and this fish sat in the same bag for years. I took out the background and the fish fell onto it. What can a girl do?
I purposely made way too many moths for this owl. The owl is from a quilt that simply didn’t work. They’re both in process.
But one of the moths found it’s way into Stag Party, and I have two more pinned into another quilt.
Ladybug Rising
This aggressively pink background sat in the suitcase until this ladybug came along.
My point is that extras are part of pulling creation forward. They move on the conversation of what you’re working on, into other work, which asks other things of you. They are a natural part of studio work, which is the training of your art.
And your art is a precocious child who needs love, permission, more crayons and free time to find her way. Celebrate it all. Especially the leftovers that start up the process.
