Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Home from work and wondering about how I manage my life with a full time job, lots of dog training, quilting and friends. I chose not to work for over two years and felt like my life was full. Now, I feel like it is also full but I do not feel like I am rushing around. I have cut down on fabric petting time - just work on various projects. I did complete my color theory class project. The month of June was about creating either a "warm" piece or a "cool" piece. I decided I would use yellow (definitely) 'warm' and practice my fabric fusing. I used a gray mottled background and really felt that cooled the picture down. So, I used the same elements - red dot, curves and a second circle, and created the same type of piece all in yellow. Did not like the two pieces until I started quilting them but I have become attached to them. I think they represent some major elements in my life and I did not even know that was what I was doing.

Monday, June 19, 2006

I tend to accumulate fabrics. Two weekends ago I was not feeling inspired so I decided I would just play with my brown fabrics and use some of them up. I did a basic stack and wack and had a lot of fun. The top is going off to be quilted by Karen Niemi today. Just wanted to show this because this was fun and crafty.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Father's Day. Not a day that I have celebrated since my father died a long time ago (I was in my mid-20's). At that time I was not getting along with my parents so I had no idea that he was damaged from earlier chemo. Since then, over the years he has come and visited me and we resolved many of our issues. I just started a Quilt University class called realistic portraits and I decided to do his picture. I was leaning to a picture of him when he was thin and sick. Last night while I slept, I realized that he would have wanted a picture when he was healthy, had a mustache and was in a blue shirt. I found a picture to use and all I have to do is change the shirt and let his pale blue eyes shine.

Monday, June 12, 2006

I have definitely confused myself. Two years ago I went to another quilt guilds show and was blown away by the quilts there. They put the show on every two years and so I went to their next show last Saturday. I know the quality of work was the same, but all I could see is that the vast majority used patterns and then used a machine quilter. I did not see the originiality that I was expecting but saw basic color combinations (i.e. blue and yellow) and set patterns. There were a few wonderful pieces but they were the exception. This really bothers me because I have to have been the one to change and I do not know what the change means.