WIP Wednesday: Clutter Clearing

Moving into a smaller space.....too much fabric!

Also, I realized that I have a ton of red prints, a color I almost never use.

Must change that.

I also sorted through a lot of paper clutter, collage bags. 

Another art form I've neglected. 

And so tonight, before bed, I started working on another collage piece, using red.

Linking up to 

freshly pieced

Finding Balance

It's summer alright, I can tell because I can't remember the date or day of the week at least a few times every week now. Just yesterday I thought it was Wednesday. Ha!
When you have no particular place to be at any given time or day and you spend hours (OK, more like days) on end in your studio working and watching Netflix, I suppose it's understandable. Right? (I have two calendars next to the very entrance!)
Well, I must confess that this summer schedule of no-schedule is difficult for me.
I need a schedule in a way. Not like be somewhere at 8 am schedule, more like I must do A, B, and C today. If I don't give myself specific tasks, I wander. I fiddle. I loose myself in completely unnecessary or random tasks.
So in the spirit of trying to stay true to my #1 goal of more frequent blogging, I'm going to share some snapshots of my campsite, I mean work space from this past week.

Moon Rise

the work table

Late night paper CSI marathon

Random junk accumulating at the end of the table

Small doll progress

Forever shredding newspapers

The work table

I have since cleared the work table, done a bit a sweeping and am preparing to delve into some fabric projects again. I have been paper mache-ing for 5 days straight now. Time for a break!

I hope you're having a productive weekend!

-M.

Scrap Heaps & New Year Leaps

Hello! New Year is here! Welcoming 2014!
I wanted to share New Years goals um, days ago. But I was relaxing and procrastinating for the holidays.
Anyhow, I'm going to try a 365 project this year. I couldn't make up my mind until the other night when I realized it was time to take a break from my quilt pattern designing (which was successful, but is tideous in its fine tuning!) and dive into organizing the mountain of scraps I've been ignoring.

And this is just a wee bit!

First I had the pleasure of sorting the current mountain by colors!

( I also have many pre-sorted bags stuffed to the brims)

Followed by HOURS which has turning into DAYS of ironing. I find this to be the most relaxing activity oddly enough. Not ironing clothing, but fabrics and scraps. I get very excited to have a freshly pressed stack of color sorted scraps.

Just like doing dishes or coloring book pages, the slow methodical actions are meditative for me. I get to sort out my plans, come up with new ideas, listen to the sounds around me. Daydream. 

I'm about half way through my color bags that I assembled and in the midst of pondering my 365 day project I've been able to come up with fantastic ideas involving all these organized scraps.

I have a bit more ironing to do and some cleaning because clearing out a scrap bin is never tidy, but I'll return soon to share some creations!

Let There Be Light and Master Piecing

I have been cutting, marking, stitching, pressing, and trimming. Drawing up cutting charts and block arrangements. I am loving the design process. I am loving the prototype in perfection. I am practicing as a beginner everyday. I am honing my skills. I am becoming a  Master Piece-r. (I'm laughing at my own jokes here.)

See those supremely sharp points up there?!?! (YESSSSS!) Did I mention they're matching!!
The secret to any skill is practice.
I've had trouble making accurate cuts. I noticed I'm always rushing the cutting part. It must be what I like least (though I thought I didn't mind it). This time my awareness has brought about taking a different approach. I'm going slowly. Measure twice, cut once. In this case, measure slowly, accurately, apply even pressure on both ruler and blade. Cut with pressure, not speed. Ah. Breath. This project has gone so much smoother with these things in mind. Also, using a smaller ruler and rotary cutter when slicing up 2.5" squares. Keep it simple. I've seen some acrylic ruler non-slip something or others, but not much else. Any other rotary cutting tricks you use regularly?

Another to-do tackled, I made a light-box the other morning. Real quick, in under an hour. Most useful item I had on hand, a 23" wide roll of white paper I use for drafting patterns (this roll was purchased for under $10 in a child section of a craft store) , worked just like wrapping paper. I had plenty of boxes lying around. I just cut out some windows and wrapped each side individually, then tapped it all together. Search Pinterest for tutorials, there are tons.

Tidy (Tote?), Goal Lists, and Pattern Drool

Twelve years ago, my grandmothers quilt guild got together to make Tidy Tote's (seen here). Unfortunately for whatever reason, my grandma never made her's. The project got tucked into a zip lock and forever shuffled among her sewing things until I happened to unpack it the other day.

I was excited to make one, ready through the instructions, they seemed clear. Except there was one important component missing, pictures and diagrams of any kind. No image of what it was supposed to look like. I searched for some Google images and found very little(see above link), just the image from the pattern front. But I decided to go for it, with the rough idea in mind and my grandma's handy cutting list (without which, this may not have been possible).

The kit had the base, batting, pin cushion, magnet strip and tubing included. All I needed to add were two fabrics, some hot glue, and my stitching, both machine and by hand to finish it up.
Here's the result! I'm so in love with it. I finally used a half yard cut of "Lucky Girl" by Robert Kaufman that my grandmother purchased for me probably around the same time (12 years??!?!) the Tidy Tote project came into light.

Anyhow, it's always been one of those favorite fabrics that I've saved, knowing that the right use would come along some day. Well I'm so glad it has! And in the midst of making Christmas presents, it felt so relaxing to make something special for myself finally.

It's almost time for winter vacation and the end of the year is near. Goal list making is in full swing here and I have to say that I have never felt so confident before. This up coming year feels filled with promise that my dreams of quilting recognition and acknowledgement are fast approaching. I'm not going to bog down this post with my current lists, that'll be a whole post by itself. 

But I do want to share one major goal, and that's this darn blog. I love it, but it definitely doesn't show. I have been so neglectful of this vessel of global exposure. So, first goal for this blog, to finish the year with at least 12 posts, that's one for every month! (How sad :-/ )

I can do this! I fully intend on sharing the brilliant inspirations and ideas I've come up with, but for now, I'll leave you with a sneak peak. The other day, my eyes widened over this awesome quilt that can be seen on my screen below (found here), made by a talented Australian woman named Adelaide. I spent an hour redrawing and coloring the design. All half square triangles mind you. (Obviously the HST bug has not left my system).

And it led to some serious inspiration for my own HST pattern, of which I'm going to attempt to make into my very first quilt along to be host on this blog. Fingers crossed that I can pull it together by the new year! So here's a peek.

Cheers to progress!!

Friendship Everlasting

I really can't believe that it's already October, but I'm glad. My birthday was over a month ago and I am barely putting away the pile of fabrics I purchased on the birthday trip.
I hadn't been sewing much, so the studio was slightly neglected.

I scored some nice Robert Kaufman prints on sale at my favorite fabric mecca, M & L Fabrics in Anaheim, the cows, chairs, and citrus prints. I'm still not so in the groove of paying attention to what is what when I buy fabric. I have designer prints all over in my stash and I only become aware of them when I pull them for projects. A lot of them are older designers and collections from when my grandma was building her stash, but as I become more and more obsessed with the idea of designing fabric and incorporate my love of blog surfing, I've found that I am becoming more familiar with fabric designers and collection names as well as companies. It's exciting to start memorizing the details. 

Of course I purchased all that fabric (15 yards approx.) I had not a single project in mind but rather colors that I'm lower on in my stash. (There's an addiction for ya!) Orange. It's still a mysterious one for me. I enjoy it. It's uplifting and positive, but I can't manage to find prints I like. Not to mention that I don't really use it often. So, I have something orange brewing in my mind, October is helping.

What also helped was the special visit from my BFF for the last 23 years! She drove down from the Bay area for a weekend of sewing and girl talk. When she arrive with her machine in tote, I was blown away to discover she'd never made any patchwork blocks/traditional quilts before. (Art quilts, yes!) So we set to making friendship wall hangings. 

I've had flying geese on the brain so we started with those. I tested out a method I'd found on the Connecting Threads website. The tutorial was excellent, easy to follow and makes four units at once!

We made dozens, then decided that we needed a central block. I knew of an easy one, Saw Toothed Star. She and I each made a center block, and traded. We had tons of fun mixing the Flying Geese we made into a nice boarder. Not too bad for our first time (I hadn't made Flying Geese before either).

We picked out a special egg print on black originally from my grandmas stash for the backing and decided we'd each quilt them up this week. It was an exceptional weekend! She is such a dear friend, I'm so happy she was able to sneak back down to our hometown for a sewing retreat!

It definitely helped me harness my sewing mojo again. I spent the following two days after she left cutting and sewing 64 more Flying Geese units to make a plaid version that I've been gawking over.

And after getting my friendship quilt (that we lovingly named the 'A''A' Quilt for our initials and the amount of beer consumed that weekend) basted, I decided that I'd hand quilt it, since I need some practice with that as well. 

Here we are with our projects!

Dreaming of Autumn

This is where I sew. Looking out onto the balcony. The sunsets. I miss cool weather. It hasn't been too bad this summer, but hot enough not to be able to work in the studio once the sun crosses to my side of the building. It gets muggy. Sticky. Thick hot air and no air conditioner. But I've been trying to put some time in after the sun sets.

On my table above, low-volume blocks being assembled from a never ending bag of strips I cut last summer. Yes, last summer. I will have that quilt done before Christmas though!

Before we moved out of our temporary apartment, I made this quilt top.

I added a new pieces to the eyebrows and the eyes to make it pop (see below). Now I think this beauty needs to be quilted up. I do have a show with Collaboration X coming. I'm going to try really hard to finish it in the next week.

Time to jump back into the purging of years of hoarded art supplies and random crap. So I leave you with a lovely photo of my main "Stash" recently relocated to it's appropriate spot in the 'Haus of Stitch' studio.

Happy Friday!

To January, Love Me

My absence again has been haunting me. I had a long hard road to travel at the end of October and it continued through December, but I am happy to be past all that now. December brought about an insane opportunity as if to repay me in some respects for my battles won in the previous months.
I was offered the studio space I'd been coveting since March....and I did it! I got the space mid-December and celebrated a soft grand opening during Art Walk this past Thursday.
(Caution: Horribly dark and grainy pictures follow....think mysterious a.k.a. i have no camera again..)
 

I set up a "Design" wall and had visitors "Help me make a quilt" This was by far a great experience, though in after thought, it would have helped me a lot if I'd given them a bit more structure...See messy wall above. I must now turn that into a quilt. But first I have to get it off the design wall in one piece. Lordy.

Pheww. It's really been an intense couple of months.
And now with the new year beginning, I feel another wave of overwhelming options as to where to take life next. Some days I feel as if I have it all figured out. Some days I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm practicing the art of non-control and just rolling with it.
Last year was so intense, I actually don't even feel like going over it. I know I finished a lot of quilts, almost one a month. That I'm happy about.
I'm happy in general, don't get me wrong. I'm just still a bit exhausted.

My goals upcoming are to get the studio/classroom space up to par so that I can begin to offer classes. Which needs to happen faster than I'm thinking so that I can live comfortably and afford to purchase huge things that I am in need of....like a new camera and computer. Ugggg. And I also need to go back to clocking my personal work time. I feel so much better when I can look back over the week and see that I worked for myself at least double the time I do for others.

Winter vacation is over. I head back to work today. I have missed those little boogers. Oh stupid internal clock, stop pestering me. Like I have time for that. 'That' is on the 'Someday' shelf. I need to rock and roll this year. Great things to come. Awesomeness abound. I am truly grateful for my health and the health of my loved ones, grateful for all the opportunities I have been given. Grateful for my skills. And my brain, even though I feel like it's got ADHD sometimes, I love it dearly. Thank you brain. Thanks for teaching my heart to grow up.
It's good to say thank you, often.

Machine Love

This has put a permanent smile on my face.

Thank you to my dear friends for always thinking of me when they have a vintage sewing machine to find a new home for. I am super delighted.

Happy Monday!

New Year, Better Blogger.....

The start of this new year has not been as productive as I'd hoped for. I let my brain have a vacation and spent endless days dreaming of the projects I should have been working on.

Weaving Practice. "What Are You Making?" "I have no idea. Really."

It's been over a month now since I last posted here...and to think I was trying to be a better blogger three months ago. Clearly, that didn't happen. So I will try try again. Fall off horse, run after horse, jump back on horse and hold. Something like that.
It's pretty sad that I've been falling off a proverbial horse that hasn't even been in motion.

I have been working on things, new and old. It's been a good mix of chaos. I've noticed that trend in blog-landia among other quilt artists, too many starts, not enough finishes. And I came to the conclusion the other evening, that in admitting to myself that I have a problem with finishing, I could tackle it easily, better yet I wanted to tackle it. For some reason calling it out make it less scary. I love the process and am afraid that when I finish, it's over and gone. Silly, I know.

I have been compiling my usual "New Year Goal List" which I'll share here as a reminder and a source of inspiration.

• Regular & Frequent Blogging// I need to record my progress accurately as well as make better connections in the art/quilt world.
• Revamp of Process// I clearly need to work differently, like from start to finish and not have multiple projects going at once until I master this.
• Finishing of the Unfinished// My first goal of the year is to get all 14(ish) quilt projects that have been started, finished. finally.
• Better Use of Time// The more time i have, the more i slack off. That needs to change.
• Online Store Fronts// I need to treat my online shop like a brick&mortar store. My dedication to it has slacked again. Embarrassing.
• More Book Work// Though I made quite a few mini books this last year, I'd like to flesh out some of my bigger ideas (children's book), as well as a sewing/quilting book and get it pitched to the right peeps.
• First Solo Show// I've done everything but had a real Solo show of my textile art. It's about time.
• Natural Energy Development// Better eating and more exercise. I need to take care of myself better and keep the bad mood mind away. I'm afraid this includes a running routine.
• Connection// Better my connections to the things I am inspired by and love. People, places, information.
• Self Love// I need to give more of myself to myself than to others.
• Travel & Adventure// I need to see new things. Freshen up my perspectives. 
• Inspire// Nothing motivates me more than to be able to see my creativity inspire others to follow their passions.

Okay, really, this list could go on and on. But this morning, these are the points in my mind. Things I meant to share and never got around to it.

I acquired tons of new fabrics over the winter vacation, going on a chance trip to my nearest fabric mecca M & L Fabrics in Anaheim. Plus I received a Joann's gift card for Xmas from Mum and was able to score cotton batting at 50% off.

While out doing last minute Xmas shopping at a local thrift store, I came across this most awesome "Battle Star Galactica" vintage bed sheet. As soon as I saw it wadded up in a bin under a table, I knew I wanted to turn it into my first whole cloth quilt. To make it even better, when I pulled it out, it was saturated with a stomach turning stale urine aroma that took seven washes (4 being vinegar) to remove. Quite the adventure. Leave it to me to have to buy something covered in urine. But totally worth it.

I've also been slacking on my submission to The 2012 Sketchbook Project. Which must be mailed before the end of this month! Eek!

Making good progress on it though and happy to be using it as an experimental zone.

Spent a moment working on this piece as well. "Dangerous Things in Pastels" Thinking about making a series of them, snakes and guns. It warms my heart.

And I leave you today with this next image, what I wake up to, glorious sun rays highlighting the work table in the studio. And yes,  the "Worldly" quilt that I pieced about seven years ago is finally being quilted and will probably be my first 2012 finish. Fingers crossed.

Cheers to a beautiful day!
-M.