Hole-lee, mole-lee!

There I was in the middle of my b+w study when an idea took hold. I was off and running with options and variations before cutting any fabric before taking a stitch. It's all I can do to keep the idea in check and stay focused. Do you have that problem?

I love skinny lines. Kathy Loomis' Art with a Needle posted about an art date with skinny lines. I also want to make circles or curvilinear lines. Together they resulted in a sketch of a circle made only with straight lines.

The sketch looked familiar - where have I see that before? I was channeling Andy Goldsworthy!  Here is his work for comparison against my pieced piece on the right. Maybe I was subconsciously influenced. Or maybe it sprang from my love of math, particularly geometry.

Assessments

Since I'm about finished with a quilt, now is a good time to follow Kathy Loomis' advice. I assessed both Straight Talk and Neutra House. I won't bore you with details of my assessments. You must run through those questions for yourself. Since I am so much more a beginner than Kath, I added a few questions for myself.

One to the first part of her questions: What did I learn?

Here are three things I learned from Neutra House. (1) Even for straight stitches with a walking foot, gloves helped with handling the weight and bulk of a larger quilt. (2) Quilting was stressful with a deadline. This may get easier with experience, but the quilting loomed as such a large unknown for awhile. (3) I don't have the patience to hide all the start and stop ends even with a self-threading needle. Oh, hang the quilt police!

To her second section, two more: for my next quilt, What can I improve? and What can I try?

Next time my facings will net 1.5" wide which means I'll cut them 4" wide and use a .5" seam. The wider facing will provide a better hand hold for understitching. The .5" seam allows for grading and reducing bulk. And next time I will free motion quilt even straight lines to avoid starts and stops, confidence willing!

From doing this exercise I saw a relationship from the former to the latter. Approaches carry over from one to the other. And will likely carry forth to the next and evolve from there. I'm not working in a series. But this is a series of learning experiences.

UFOs to finish

Cynthia Wenslow commented in response to Kathy Loomis' post: Something else to think about, Elena... do you really need to finish *all* your UFOs? Perhaps you learned what you needed to with however much you accomplished on them and can just let them go as part of your learning process. Not everything needs to be "finished" to be valid. Good question and good points, Cynthia.

Some of my older ufos have value. Sentimental, like my very first quilt top or like the one from my very first Nancy Crow workshop. Then there is the one I want to free motion quilt for the first time. I want to finish these. They'd ingrain the quilting sandwich process and provide more experience with effects of quilt lines.

These three are foremost in my mind, so I'll make a list of steps for each like Kathy suggested (after I finish Neutra House for the guild show). The other ufos can wait. Because they were more of a struggle to begin with and promise more of a struggle to finish. Or because they are of an approach I do not wish to pursue further. Part of my learning process, like you say Cynthia. So they may wait a long time.

Kathy Loomis responds

I've started following Kathy Loomis' blog Art with a Needle. When she posted about finding your voice, I left this comment Three years at this now and I am finishing my second quilt. Any tips about getting more prolific while still hanging on to my other job? She gave thought to my question and responded in two following posts here and here.

Wasn't my intention to sidetrack her or to have her focus only on my struggles. Perhaps other artists have the same struggles. Perhaps she feels it's all relevant to finding your voice. Whatever the reasons, I am extremely grateful for her suggestions. Thank you for your generosity, Kathy!