This I Have to Share

I received a small gift yesterday in a small bag with drawstring.  I hate sewing these.  Especially the casing for the string(s).  Will you look at how the Japanese do this - I am converting for sure.

So, What Have I Been Doing?

NOTE:  This was drafted on Nov 4th, so some items have already been posted.

It appears that I haven't sewn anything since my husband's Dr Who's scarf-inspired wall hanging (which is still in UFO status).  I have been distracted by www.500px.com, a website that allows you to post your photos, get comments, and perhaps sell them.  I've always wanted to put together a portfolio and share with my late cousin Don, but that didn't happen.  Now I have strangers commenting because they want to not because they feel like they have to.  I guess photography could be considered fiber art if you really want to stretch the word fiber.  Pictures are printed on paper, and paper comes from trees (or other plants).  But when you are formatting digital photos and uploading to a website, you really don't deal with paper.  So, back to fabric it is!

I've had two more deadlines to get me going.  One, a possible commission from a doctor.  I "drafted" two samples to show him at my last appointment to be totally knocked over because the blank space on his wall was no longer blank.  Procrastination and communication kicked my in the butt again.  That's all.  (But you already know about this project.)  Two, I needed to make a witch costume for a winery tour that some friends have been doing for years while I've been in Florida.  I made a blue cape and a blue/purple hat.  The hat was so much fun to make.  I'll post of pic of that soon.

Now that winter is approaching, and we're no longer in Kansas, I mean Florida, I need to make more curtains.  So I started today, thinking I had more yardage for the color scheme I was using.  So I pieced strips of about 7 different fabrics together to make 3 small curtains.  And then one strip wasn't wide enough, so I pieced some more to fill in the gap.  They look more like aprons than curtains, but I like the colors.  Patchwork is fun, but slow.  Can't really say tomorrow that I "whipped up" some curtains last night because they aren't finished.  But I had fun.  Isn't that what it's all about?

Introducing My Assistant

     A blog like this can't be complete 

without sharing photos of my partner, Rosie.

Fiber Anyone?

Words are good.  That's what blogging is about, eh?  But what about my fiber therapy?  

Has anyone ever experienced procrastination?  Well, if not, here's a good example why not to do it. One of my doctors recently changed offices and had a big blank wall.  Well, that had to be resolved. So I told him at each appointment that I could fix that.  Months went by before I finally did something. I prepared two samples to show him at my next appointment and voila!  His wife filled the void.  So I showed him anyway.  And now I'll show you too!  Mind you, they are "drafts" and are basically the background (or first layer on a canvas) for more to come.  There are two sets:  in each, first, my inspiration; second, my version.  (Don't know how to place these side-by-side.)

I also showed him "In Shangri-la", a work in progress that's about 90% complete, which I may share soon.  (Procrastination strikes again.)  I wanted him to see what these two could look like once more work was done.  He seemed to like them, asked if my work had been in a show and if was a member of a guild.  He observed both my excitement and let down and commented that there are more blank walls in the office as a whole.  I may have to follow up on this...like the children's story of a train trying to go up hill.  I think I can, I think I can.

Liz, My Inspiration to Start this Blog

I never really mentioned the person who gave me, unknowingly to her, the inspiration and motivation to start this blog.  Elizabeth Gilbert!  I was reading Eat Pray Love which is in fact a memoir and begins with an account of her depression.  Pretty brave I think.  And millions of copies of this book were sold, in many languages, and then it was turned into a movie.  Thanks Liz for your inspiration!!!

By the way, Liz has a Facebook page:  www.facebook.com/GilbertLiz.  And, if you make a comment, she will more than likely respond.  How many authors do that?  Gotta love her.  So, if you haven't read the book, please do.  Then you can watch the movie, but like most movies-from-books, read the book first!


And, if you have about 20 minutes, you must watch this video "Your Elusive Creative Genius" aired on TED: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86x-u-tz0MA.

Enough said about my inspiration, for now.  Namaste.

Blog Rules

One.  I don't have to blog on a regular basis, but it would be nice.
Two.  You don't have to comment, but it would be nice.
Three.  I don't have to limit my blog to projects I complete.  This new option is nice.
Four.  I can change the rules any time I want, and this is nice.
Fifth.  You can start anything new at anytime.  Never mind the stockpile of UFOs.

ART vs. Weeding, Laundry, Dishes (thank you Liz Gilbert)

Advice to Myself

by Louise Erdrich

TUESDAY, 29 MAY, 2007
Listen (RealAudio) | How to listen

Poem: "Advice to Myself" by Louise Erdrich, from Original Fire: Selected and New Poems. © Harper Collins Publishers, 2003. Reprinted with permission.(buy now)

Advice to Myself

Leave the dishes.
Let the celery rot in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator
and an earthen scum harden on the kitchen floor.
Leave the black crumbs in the bottom of the toaster.
Throw the cracked bowl out and don't patch the cup.
Don't patch anything. Don't mend. Buy safety pins.
Don't even sew on a button.
Let the wind have its way, then the earth
that invades as dust and then the dead
foaming up in gray rolls underneath the couch.
Talk to them. Tell them they are welcome.
Don't keep all the pieces of the puzzles
or the doll's tiny shoes in pairs, don't worry
who uses whose toothbrush or if anything
matches, at all.
Except one word to another. Or a thought.
Pursue the authentic-decide first
what is authentic,
then go after it with all your heart.
Your heart, that place
you don't even think of cleaning out.
That closet stuffed with savage mementos.
Don't sort the paper clips from screws from saved baby teeth
or worry if we're all eating cereal for dinner
again. Don't answer the telephone, ever,
or weep over anything at all that breaks.
Pink molds will grow within those sealed cartons
in the refrigerator. Accept new forms of life
and talk to the dead
who drift in though the screened windows, who collect
patiently on the tops of food jars and books.
Recycle the mail, don't read it, don't read anything
except what destroys
the insulation between yourself and your experience
or what pulls down or what strikes at or what shatters
this ruse you call necessity.

Deadlines Speed Up the Process

Deadlines.  A birthday.  My husband's.  I bought him a few simple gifts, one of which he had already bought for himself but didn't bother to let me know.  So, I decided to make him a fabric Dr. Who scarf.  Not to be worn, perhaps to be hung?  Of course, it is not complete.  At first I wasn't sure what to do next.  Then I got sidetracked by a related project, which failed (ouch, but it happens).  I feel like I owe myself the posting of the work "as is".  Each row is roughly approximate to the number of rows if the scarf was knit.  But as art, I can do what I want, right?  I'm going to finish it off and hang it up with, are you ready?, a knitting needle.  I'll post the final project when it is final.  Enjoy.

Oops! Where did the time go?

Blog.  Online journal.  Post often?  I suppose if we are discussing therapy, one goes at one's pace, and if we are discussing art, well then, it's the same, no?

I started reading Elizabeth Gilbert's book "Eat, Pray, Love".  Not only is it fantastic, but relevant to what I am trying to accomplish here.  I have seen the last part of the movie so thought the story was a novel.  But it's actually a memoir about Liz. (I do seem to mention her a few times, so not-to-worry, it's not an obsession.)

Yet Another Picture!

I mentioned starting/completing a project in one day.  So what is it?  I found an interesting idea on Pinterest to make a bathmat from an old towel.  It looks better than it sounds.  The creator wove wide fabric strips on one side and upcycled the towel.  I never thought of making a bathmat with fabric.  Always thought they had to be made from tericloth.  I have to admit I got too carried away with my rendition.  Too much time and too much thread.  But I like it!  More color, more pizazz, and less fabric.  And I can hang it from the rod to help it dry and add some art to the dreary bathroom.

Found Some More Pictures!

Here's a picture of the baby quilt I made for a preemie.  Quilt is a little larger than a preemie quilt and a little smaller than a baby quilt.  It should be just right.  I had the blue fabric, got lucky finding the brown (or did it find me?), and then found out from Mom that the stroller and diaper bag are blue & brown!!!  Hopefully I'll get a pic of the baby and the quilt!  With cool weather just around the corner (?) it will arrive just in time.

Found Some Pictures!

Did I mention a special order bag I made for my best friend so that she and her family could transport her father's urn to two different locations?  Here it is.  I used Burmese longyi cotton for the outside, and quilting cotton for the inside.  I personalized it with a picture of the deceased, a few words, and his dates of birth/death.  The two top flaps were requested.  I believe Daddy-O would approve!

The Start of Something Big

I have lots of fabric, from near and far.  And I have lots of ideas.  But I don't seem to get projects started and/or finished.  Sound familiar?

Earlier this month I sewed 3 items in 3 days and felt FANTASTIC!  The main project was a custom bag so my best friend could carry her father's urn to Michigan.  When that was finished, I felt great!  And it looked great!  I had to keep going, to feel happy, proud, confident.  So next I finished a baby quilt for a young friend.  And then I made my best friend a sleep skirt to take on her trip to MI.

I'm realizing that I must find time to do more of what I love - gardening, sewing, crafting - to survive.  The depression, the sadness, the lethargy.  The lack of confidence.  So, in the past 3 days, I have started one project and started/finished a second project.  And I squeezed in some time today to work in the garden, until I got a splitting headache.  Survive, succeed, flourish.

Pictures will be posted soon.