Two in January, and two in July

Now, add this one for December, and anyone can see that I have certainly lost interest in most everything I once cared about.  Woohoo, five entries for an entire year.

You know, it isn't as though nothing happened over the last 12 months, I just fell off of the planet emotionally. 

Hmm, or maybe I jumped off. 

Whatever it was, I found a deep, dark, black hole and crawled into it;  burrowed so far in that I couldn't see out - not that I wanted to, either.  Nobody was invited in, and there was nothing I wanted anything to do with on the outside, so I pulled in the opening after myself and retreated from the world. 

Not much got done while I took up residence in my own private Idaho, either. 
No gardening,
not much quiltmaking,
definitely no quilt finishes, and
no writing - none which ever saw the light of day at any rate.

I've had spurts of CQ work, a short season of applique, a brief bootcamp to practice working with the new stationary LA (without ever achieving a level of proficiency), and interminable stretches of longing to be interested in any of my ongoing projects, but no real oomph to get me over this hump of indifference and light a fire to get me going.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME?

Ennui?

Hoping to do better/more in the coming year, but no promises.  I still don't know what's going on in my head, yet, and parts of me are still hidden in that remote black hole (hidden even from myself), but I have hopes of sneaking peeks of sunlight and happier things in the coming weeks and months.  And maybe if I write you may come and visit.  And if you come and visit, you may find it in yourself to leave a comment or question to let me know my work made you think or smile, or just to know that you simply stopped by. 

It's official

G8 is only missing five inches... unless I get within two feet of the layout board.  Then it's missing anywhere from eight to twelve inches, because I can't stop thinking I find better color pieces - then it becomes a swap-o-rama.

Would someone mind standing behind me with a baseball bat and just giving me a decent thump when I begin to undo my good work.  Please?

Fear and loathing

I know, I know.  What a strange title for a blog article about quilting.

Eh.

I am loathing my fear over moving forward;
over simply making a decision and sticking with it;
over the fear of committing to what I have already stitched and leaving it.

Case in point:
I am totally thinking about removing the decorative lighter blue center line on the lowest blue flower - too futzy.  And, I am truly pacing the floor over the size of the 'white', slightly left-facing flower to the lower left.  Yes, really.  The last two flowers, well...I-i-i-i--i--i---i guess I'm ok with.

I guess.

See, initially all of the flowers were going to be petite, simple little petal flowers.  Maybe a small seed bead in the center. Somehow I managed to become enamoured with the idea of a little more dimensionality to the flowers, and it exploded from there.  So, yes.  I think it may be totally worth pulling the flowers off - and the extra stitch detail on the one blue flower - and just going back to the original thought.

Please, somebody weigh in with a suggestion or comment.  Thanks.

Just so you know

I did finish the last of RowD,
and I DID join together C & D,
and then AB to CD....
so I guess you know it's now ABCD, and it looks pretty darn good.

For the last couple of days I have been cleaning up, straightening the palette, finding (and RE-finding) loads of things I knew I had (and needed) but couldn't because they were buried under small mountains all around me.  There is a tremendous need to cut a lot of more 'orangier' pieces now; burnt oranges, 'dirty' and smudgy orange, deep and dark orange, brown-with-strong-hints-of-orange, umber, and so on.  Not so much on the school bus yellow-to-orange side any longer - although, that may return from time to time.  But the bent now is decidedly orange(r) and dark.  Will also need orange stuff with a green cast to it, too.  On the hunt again!

Took the time to press the life out of the entire configuration and lightly starch it to help keep the fraying in check.  Although, I am contemplating the addition of lining the backside with a very lightweight fusible interfacing to completely keep the reverse intact.  I also think this may be the way to thread paint the bulk of the quilt before adding batting and a backing.  Once the thread painting is complete, I would then 'quilt' it in a more laid-back and pictorial way.  I just feel that I don't want the thread painting to show on the reverse.

Vanity?

At any rate, I do know I will be compromising the seam allowances throughout the manhandling process of thread painting, so I am curious and eager to make it happen - but at the same time terrified and trepidatious with thoughts of ruining all of my beautiful piecing by not having a traditional sandwich in place during any quilting process/work.  Does that make sense?

Any thoughts or sage words of advice to a newbie thread painter from those who know?

Greetings, needlers!

UPDATE:
Yes, turns out this was not a legitimate request for help, nor was it worth your time (or mine).  Sorry to have troubled you all with this tripe.

*stupid spammers*

I had an odd question pop up from an anonymous emailer over the weekend; they were asking about how to locate a creative writing course in NY city (or, possibly online).  So, my quick resonse was just that....'what an odd question to ask me,' and 'sorry, I can't help you with that [particular issue].'

Besides which, I (sadly) don't live in the empire state. [sigh]

Not quite sure why this unknown person would ask a quilting stranger such a strange non-quilting question, so I will send it out to you folks looking in: can anyone offer any suggestions for NYC-centric creative writing classes...or even, something online?

Not ever having taken writing courses in college, I am at a loss as to which schools to suggest, but I assume they (my anonymous non-quilting-questioner) can manage to read and review suggestions others may provide.

We now return to you to your regularly scheduled stash sorting and dreaming.

(Of course, this could have been a way for a hacker or spammer to weedle into my email.  Curses if that's true!)

Roadblock

Having an emotionally difficult time choosing which way to attack and quilt the border region(s) on this quilt. I thought I knew what I wanted to do, I really did, but the time arrived (over a week ago) to begin marking and quilting......and I can't commit!

I could add a little mod quilting to the overall piece, and because it's so simple I don't think it would clash or detract from the quilt, but then I get just a bit scared.

Then I doubt the decision.

Then.................I do nothing.

I could stay completely "traditional" in the look and add two separate border components - one on each of those two borders - but then I think, "are they too similar, would it be overkill?" and "what would I do with the open chunks in those half squares, quarter squares, and medallion areas?" (you see, I really didn't want to quilt over the birds - around them, yes, but not over them).

I also get a little nervous about not doing any sort of quilting in the space consisting of the cream and wheat strip borders. It's a small space, but it feels like there should be something quilted over at least part of it.So, to fix that quandary I then began to sort through my stash of stencils.

I played with a large artsy oak leaf and acorn motif which could stretch over a greater portion of the brown border and into the next section. From this point I could then stipple quilt in the areas on both sides to fill it in, and make the leaves and nuts stand out.

Any thoughts from anyone out there? Do any of these combinations look like a winner?

I am at a roadblock and need to get moving to recover my lost time on this quilt. Help! Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

Decisions, decisions

What to do. What to do?

I received a note from organizers of an international quilt competition/festival saying they would like to use my quilt as a finale' piece in one of their exhibitions during the festival, but that it doesn't fit within any of their other categories (which means no judging and no chance for winning a purse) due to size issues or thematic guidelines.

Well, phooey.

"Why are you bummed? That is so cool that they want to use it."

Back to the quandary.

Aside from exceeding their 144" perimeter max for the competitive category titled "Yin and Yang," the quilt is perfect for that exhibit/part of the competition - and could easily stand a chance to win.

Right, except for the pesky size thing.

Hey, it's only 116" larger than their standard. (Yes, I am smiling...and most definitely kidding.)

"Um, excuse me....where's the quandary?"

Oops, sorry.

I am certainly encouraged that they want to show the quilt. [smiling like a happy idiot] They want to highlight it and use it as the "emotional" culmination in a particular venue of the exhibit, but I am not certain about exhibiting it in such a drastically large, public, international arena when I still have future hopes of entering it in an AQS show (yes, in hopes of winning some prize money), and into another 'homegrown' contest where the outcome could possibly mean a little $ residual happiness.

Again - Hey! I am still out of work and in need of bill-paying capital after all, and if quilting satisfies that need then why not? Exploit your strengths, right?

I love the situation (the idea that the quilt is desired for something important and cool like this) but I am not liking the decision I have to make. I know, though, it's a great problem to have.

In pursuit of:

I've tried this tactic once before...and sadly, it got me nowhere. No responses, no assistance...nothing.

Can anybody assist me in finding a source to purchase some of this material?

Please and thank you. :)

PS - would still really like to purchase some of the material featured in the post dated April 25th.

Help!!

I am desperately hoping somebody out there can point me in the direction of this lovely material.

Either I am able to locate and buy more of it (there really is no "either/or" - I want more of this material...period!), or I something REALLY similar to it can be found to use on the same project.  The closest material I have seen is something called "Kiki" by Robert Allen.  Sadly, it seems it is only a designer material for upholstery uses, and not 100% cotton that would work for quilting.  :>(

I hold out hope that one of you out there has seen this material.  I bought my sample in a fat quarter bundle at a JoAnn Fabric store, and of course, it was the ONLY such bundle....and of COURSE, they do not carry bolts in the store of the materials in their bundles...and of COURSE they cut the identifying color guide and manufacturer's/designer's name from the selvedge - so I am sunk (for the time being).

Can anybody help me? 

Thank you!!