Re-entry

Life has been hectic in the past two months. I've taken two great workshops: Potpourri II with Nancy Crow at the Crow Barn and The New Complex Cloth with Jane Dunnewold at Art Quilt Tahoe. Seen two great international juried fiber arts shows. Maybe I'll catch up and post about these. Maybe not.

For now I'm happily engaged in a new project. Started with the golden pieces from the workshop:

modules from Potpourri II

and made more with some in other colors.

more modules, more colors

Re-arranged the jumbled mess,

more cohesive but flat

auditioned more colors,

looking livelier

resulting in a small half-way decent composition.

a 36x36 composition

Added red, and made more to make it bigger,

a 42x53 composition

but not necessarily better. Why the heck is that?! Needs more work!

It's not too big yet big enough to become my entry for the EBHQ quilt guild show, Voices in Cloth, coming up in March.

Gotta be big enough to hang around all those big traditional quilts. 

A simple life

I came back from Italy only to be consumed for six weeks by two intensive projects for the job I didn't retired from. By the half year mark, my studio routine was non-existent and creative accomplishments sorely lacking.

I resolved to fix that with judicious pruning. I limited my gardening activities, limited my already limited housekeeping (furthering its decaying state), limited my social life, limited my internet usage and stole away to work in the studio. I've now re-established my nightly studio routine and made good headway on an(other) intensive project, so I can ease up on my monastic life.

You want to see what I've been working on? I'm not ready to show you the whole thing. You'll have to be at the Crow Timber Barn in Ohio to see it. I'll be there from October 7th to 11th for Nancy Crow's Potpourri II workshop. This top will be there too.

Yet I can't have a post without a photo. So here's a teaser:

corner of four modules

A continuation of circles with straight lines.

I previously teased you with this. Well, I wasn't happy with this which was a very symmetrical four-square, about 40x40. I took it apart and made six more modules. Still wasn't satisfied and made another six. After 60 hours just piecing, I'm happy with this bigger (100x60) better relative.

Oh, life should be so simple!

Developing anxiety

Time to clean up the studio. That means one of two things: it's an unbearable mess or project is done.  I am happy it's the latter. The nicknamed High Anxiety has been pieced! (This doesn't mean the former is not true.)

I'd finally determined a layout (see this post) nearly a month ago. 

initial layout

It was slow going assembling each of the six sections. I had to make more diamond modules.

three sections pieced

six sections pieced

More diamonds to fill in around the edges before sewing sections together.

two halves

Gap-osis at the bottom center half. Instead of trimming to create a straight edge, I deconstructed along the gap then filled it back in. Yes, more diamonds. Then sewed together the two halves, added more diamonds around the edges and marked a five-foot square.

finished top

At least this Potpourri workshop exercise is not in the ufo pile. Yeah! In another year or two or three I'll replace the nickname and quilt it up. 

Diamonds are forever

It’s been more than six weeks since I’ve returned from the Indianola, WA Potpourri workshop. You may think I've been avoiding my art, but it ain't so! Exercise 3 from the workshop has been morphing on the design wall.

I've nicknamed this composition High Anxiety for now. Not because that's the way I feel about it (not yet!) but because of the exercise directions.

At the workshop I started with the pieces splattered together helter-skelter.

helter-skelter & rotated

helter-skelter detail

Much as I like it, I’d go loony piecing this. For structure with options plus irregularity, I cut down each module into a diamond - 5 regular sizes and standard angles. You can see the variations from this set of modules.

cut and uncut diamonds

There are five sets of modules gradating in size, value and contrast. All of them are cut into diamonds, but not so they fit dimensionally snug with other sizes. The diamond templates are big enough to fit the rectangular modules without  being locked into one position.

I initially sewed the smallest modules together into strips.

sewn into rows

Too restrictive too soon. I don't hesitate to un-sew. 

These diamonds have been arranged and rearranged multiple times - more than are shown here.

on the diagonal

I like this but not what I was after. May be version 2.

The chosen arrangement – a radiating pattern - a reversal of the one above.

chosen one

This is one composition that demands to be bigger. The Black lines mark out a 5’ square. Rearranging the modules wasn't enough to make it work. I needed more diamonds. Because I had to dig out the colors from my stash, making more took forever.

Now it's about six feet square.

sew this up!

And ready to sew up! To keep it big I'll fill in gaps rather than cutting off the excess. However big it will be, I have a lot of piecing ahead! Maybe even more modules. I'd be making diamonds forever.

Ready or not

I used up a lot of fabric at the Potpourri workshop. So when I stopped at Fabric Depot in Portland, Oregon,  I replenished. Of course!

These eleven new fabrics are now studio-ready. But the studio is not. What if I have two sets of everything: one set in the studio and another to go. Save on disruptions. But it'd be twice as much to maintain. Oh well  - just a thought.

Nevertheless, another great workshop week. Even though Nancy was juggling two workshops (Improvisations and Potpourri) and independent study students too, I've never seen her so relaxed and happy! That doesn't mean she eased up on exercises! Four for the week. Here's what I made:

Exercise 1: b+w configuration

Exercise 2: double configurations based on b+w, with limited palette

I have this one (above) up on the design wall. Might want to adjust and refine before sandwiching. Then I will have another project to quilt. 

Exercise 3: unfinished

I didn't do exercise 4. Instead I continued with exercise 3. Still has a long way to go.

Though the exercises were challenging, the week cemented what I've learned so far. I feel more confident about my goals: to finish tops from other workshops; to independently redo exercises; and to continue my own explorations. Plus I plan on completing more quilts and do some dyeing too. All in one year? Hmmm, how much can I accomplish in the nine months left?