Sunday, February 19, 2017

IN WHICH WE CELEBRATE CLIMATE CHANGE!

Our area is experiencing several days of record breaking above 75 deg days.  This is so different from the Missouri I moved to in 1973.  Winters then were very cold and snowy.  Nights fell to 20 below F at night and the earth was always covered in snow.  We are slightly dryer now but the corn and wheat seems to grown very well. Summers are cooler also now.  
Maybe we are some of the lucky ones-for certain others are no so.  Mexico City is sinking as the water table diminishes.  Australia is dry, dry, dry, and hot with wild fires.  California is either feast or famine-either torrential rains and floods or extreme droughts.

Is this state of affairs to late to adjust?  Don't know!  But the days here are nice!

END OF WEATHER REPORT
ON TO MY FAVORITE:
 FREE MOTION QUILTING


This is my graduation project for Christina Cameli's Wild Quilting class on Craftsy.  I incorporated all the lessons and techniques she demonstrated but in my own style.  I love movement and I think this piece captures ebb and flow.  I know now I will always have a wild, graffiti piece at my side to think about and work on.  I began this blog 9 months ago expressing my terror at FMQ and, by practicing, doing some on-line samplers, and taking a couple Craftsy classes, now have  what my be my true love. The wilder and freer the better!

But let us not forget our nemesis:  Sweet Surrender which is slowly becoming the "undread".  Four rows assembled on schedule (this is one time when goal setting is useful: for getting something done which would rather be ignored).  These rows are reasonably flat tho not perfect-that is okay.  This will come our in the wash-that is in the quilting process as these waffles are small.  I think it is looking really pretty and I am pleased with it.



This week, I will assemble the final row and then all five rows together in one piece.  I have a nice idea for the border (which again involves triangles-will I ever learn!??!) and some pretty applique.  Maybe I will be able to begin that.  I will be very happy to applique again as this is my true love (whoops, I guess I have 2 true loves, no make that three as my best true love is my sweet husband-we live in each others pockets).

WELL-TIME TO THINK ABOUT THE NEXT PROJECT

The Village wall hanging will be next in line.  I began this about 4 years ago and got irretrievably lost in the making of it.  The pattern was from my favorite Quiltmania and is by Yoko Saito.  Here is a photo of her pattern:

I began with this format and soon diverged as my idea was to made a coherent village.  The fabric is subdued Japanese taupes in a variety of colors.  In this photo you can see the various houses, bridges, rockwall, etc that are ideas for the wall hanging.
The upper right hand section is Yoko's block which is just delightful to me.  I kept that in place and will use it except I have to remove the houses from this fabric as I need to dye the background.   Info on how to do this is from another craftsy class from several years ago Linear Landscape Quilts by Gloria Loughman. This class is mostly about using Setacolor paints for hand dyeing fabrics to use for landscapes.  

I was never happy with the layout.  I played with it some always keeping that one block of Yoko's which I felt would define how the village would work.  I gradually realized that I want sky, stream, grassy areas, flagstones, and rock walls.   Gloria's method for painting fabric to use as landscapes will be perfect for this.  You lay the fabric out and use plenty of water to create a wash effect.
More progress on the layout but still not what I want.  And still the background needs to be painted.


This is where I ended.  Progress made but still no cigar!

I am going to start with the background dyeing.  Blue sky with some sunny clouds, a stream for some goldfish and lily pods.  Gray with speckles of dye for the paving stones and flecked ecru, tan, gold etc for the rock walls and bridge.  My idea is to take the paving stone and rock wall fabric and embroider the stones with sashiko embroidery.  

Anyway that is next after the undread sweet surrender.  Its good to have the next project in your mind for your unconscious to work on for you and come up with some neat ideas.

AND NOW.....
YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN


This endless, continuously spiraling whirl pool is the creation of artist Anish Kapoor.  Named Descension, it is located on pier 1 of Brooklyn.  It is 26 feet in diameter made with black dye and invites the viewer to loose themselves in another world.  Kapoor's artistic leaning is to destabilize the physical world so we can see the world from another view. For more info and other photos, see...... 

http://www.designboom.com/art/anish-kapoor-descension-public-art-fund-brooklyn-bridge-park-new-york-02-17-2017/   
That's all for this week-so long and happy quilting!

I am linking up with:

Slow Stitching Sunday, Bambi's Blog,
Patchwork Times,  Em's Scrapbag,
Esther's Wow, Let's Bee Social,
Free Motion by the River, Whoop Whoop,
and Off the Wall Friday.           


12 comments:

  1. Very good free motion quilting. I am leery of it. The triangles in Sweet Surrender look good to me. Have you heard of a quilting tool called the Whacker? It is similar to a rubber mallet and aids in assisting seams getting into their proper place. Lol.

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  2. Global warming is not something to be taken lightly. So sorry to see this. You will find with a little reading that there will be no "lucky" people and that we had all better get serious about our use of fossil fuels.

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    1. Dear Linda-you are preaching to the choir. Aside from the near term possibility of nuclear annihilation (the doomsday clock has inched forward), climate change is the most pressing problem facing the world today. I try to take a mild approach in my blog as this is not the best forum but I am not minimizing the impact of climate change for people of the world. Have you seen photos of Mexico city? Parts of the city sink 9 inches a year. Pressure is being built up on people as water becomes more scarce to more northward. We can all envision how this will end. I thought my examples of MC, Calif, and OZ would demonstrate how serious the problem is even if it is making the weather nicer here. Making the weather nicer in on part of the world encourages climate deniers to say-look here-where is the problem.

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  3. Sweet surrender is beautiful, and I love the village!

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  4. Your quilting piece is stunning! Congratulations. Sweet Surrender is looking amazing too and I am fascinated by your new project and look forward to following its progress. xx

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  5. Wow, Pam! What a really fun post for my first foray back into Blog visiting. :D I completely love your Sweet Surrender - it's going to be a real beauty. Definitely worth the perseverence. I'll look forward to seeing how your village transforms when you get to that. Thanks so much for visiting my blog when I thought for sure nobody would see me return!

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  6. You nailed your Wild Quilting course Pam, you would be top of the class with a score of 100% were I marking it. I am always amazed at your workflow, Sweet Surrender is beautiful and I will be watching with interest your village. It is always a pleasure to read your blog.

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  7. Wild Quilting - spectacular. Sweet Surrender - spectacular. Your Village - gonna be spectacular. In a word for your progress - Spectacular!

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  8. Hi Pamela, so much to see and enjoy your sweet surrender is so incredibly beautiful, and I love what you are doing with Yoko's taupe fabrics and design, this is truly going to to be your quilt, Even looking at a photo of the Zen sculpture is relaxing. Id love to see it in person. Cheers Glenda

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  9. I think your Sweet Surrender is sweet! I'm impressed but I am also very intrigued by your Saito inspired village. The last layout is lovely and I can't wait to see how this one progresses (but no pressure, :)). And now I have to go check out Gloria's work. Love learning new things...thank you!

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  10. I'm in love with your Sweet Surrender, absolutely gorgeous! Your gradation piece is wonderful, too. Kudos on all you have learned.

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  11. Your quilting is amazing! That must have been an awesome class!

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