Back to UFO's

While browsing through "stuff" to find those elusive UFO's, I stumbled on three pieces that were sandwiched last spring, were ready for quilting, and totally forgotten.  So after finishing my ATC's for this months exchange, I started on them.  I've also found two small quilts that would be suitable for  charity quilts. So my hope is to have, at least, 4 quilts to take to the next meeting of the LQG, and donate to charity.  One of the sandwiched pieces is much more an art piece than any sort of charity quilt, and I'm not sure what's in its future.

I've also discovered two quilts in progress.  Both are traditional quilts, with most of the pieces cut, and a few of the squares put together, but no where near enough to make me want to sit down and get to work piecing.  Both had been kept as there were memories attached, but those are my memories, so the project would be pretty well meaningless to anyone else.  Both are probably headed to the garbage.  I just have to "gird my loins" and do the deed.  I also found a partially done quilt that would be worth finishing as a charity quilt, and a larger piece for which all of the squares have been pieced and are ready to put together.  Those two pieces have joined the "finishing queue".

I also discovered that the local quilt show--a big one--is the same weekend next spring as I'm out of town teaching. There would be no problem getting things to the show, either for the exhibition and boutique, but I wouldn't be able to pick them up from the venue at the appropriate time.  This is a major disappointment, as I had spent the last year preparing myself to enter the competition.

Latest dyeing

Here are the pictures of the latest dyeing. I'm very please with all of them, as I got the mottled effect I was hoping for. 

I'm not sure of the colours of dye used, but my best guess for this one is turquoise and Deep Purple

and a close-up

I think the colours in the second one were Turquoise and Emerald.

and the close up

The next one was a little paler than I really wanted, but it's always easier to find a use for paler colours for a future design.  the  colours were Deep Purple and Fuschia.  Whoops!  Looks like the close-up comes first.

and the last one, which I believe is fuschia and scarlet.  I already have a plan for this one--an abstract based on a photo of a group of flamingos feeding

and the close-up

Play Day

Despite my plans to dedicate time to cleaning up the UFO's, I was committed to a "Play Day" with my local Art Group.  Some of the ladies wanted to experiment with dyeing fabric rather than using paint on it, and this day had been organized.  Very nice to have a dedicated facility for this type of thing, but a "p-i-t-a" to transport all of the supplies and equipment.  

I did some LWI dyeing to demonstrate the technique, and then demonstrated pulling some prints using a home made gelatin pad, while another lady demonstrated on a Gelli Pad.  Then we all proceeded to do our own thing.  One lady fell in love with the home made gelatin pad and spent the rest of the day with it.  She expressed that the results were some of the most satisfying work she had done in awhile.  I used a Plexiglass sheet to make about 10 mono-prints.  I had the vague idea of producing a series of 12" by 12" pieces over the next few months, but the finished prints turned out to be a little too small for that, so I'll have to give the whole concept some more thought. The LWI pieces ( 4 of them) are good.  One in particular is ear-marked for a long range project. I'll try to post some pictures in the next few days.

My "to do"list of UFO's is progressing slowly.  The left over fabric from two recent projects is slowly being turned into hexies.  This is something I can do while relaxing with the tv in the evening. Where the hexies will end up is another issue, but I justify by saying that hexies are much more likely to end up in a project,  than they would as fabric scraps in my bin.  And re-purposing is a very acceptable way of dealing with UFO's.

What to do, what to do---

Since I've been feeling better, there are new ideas crowding my brain. But we have been cleaning out the junk in the house and discarding all of the dust catchers, in an effort to alleviate some of my allergies.  This means  taking a hard look at the storage areas of the main studio, and this means being forced to deal with the dreaded UFO's, as well as the 12 big Rubbermaid storage containers of fabric.

So how do I set my priorities?  There is, at least, one project that must be finished for Christmas, and a set of ATC's to be finished for a trading group meeting on December 6th.  Both of those chores are at the top of the list, but then I think I'll put new projects aside and take a look at the UFO's.  There are probably less than 20 of them, maybe as few at 10.  Half a dozen of those are finished quilt tops that need quilting.  There is no way I can afford to send them to a long-armer, as they are destined  to end up as charity quilts.  I'm not sure I could even afford to send them to a long-armer for basteing.  There are also about 4 partially pieced quilt tops, which may just end up being re-purposed, in some way.

So maybe, for now, I'll work on my two urgent projects, and spend time sorting and preparing a prioritized "to do" list.  At this point, I don't even want to think about sorting through all of that fabric!

New work

I haven't posted any pictures of the newest piece, as I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, and many shows will not accept work that has appeared on the internet.  Well, this piece won't be going to any big shows, although I may enter it into next spring's show with the local guild. I have talked aobut it in previous blogs,but here is a precis 

I am calling it "Winter Sky".  I think that if there is any ongoing theme to my work it is "Winter" and "snow".  I have been trying to teach myself dyeing in a mandala pattern,but when this came out of the dye bath, my heart sank. I had used Olive green, Burgundy, Brick, and a mix of brown and black dye. Obviously I should have used more dye.  But the more I looked at the  cloth, the more I saw things like a sun and clouds.  I used Trapunto in the central area to emphasize the sun, and then used straight machine stitched lines to represent the rays of the sun.  The darkest clouds looked heavier, so I used a FMQ'g in a design of curved lines, to accent the weight I felt.  The lighter clouds were FMQ'd using a more frivolous spiral design.  ( after all, all of my FMQ'g has a spiral somewhere).  The sun was then beaded.

And here are the pictures.

So--what's next you ask?
I have so many ideas, and none of them jumping out and shouting "me, me". I am in the middle of smaller piece ( about 12" by 12")that uses dyed wool roving and Duipioni silk, and have a hunch that I'll be making a series of 12" by 12" pieces, not necessarily in related topics.  Some of them may come from re-worked previous pieces.

Well,-----

Not much luck with "The Whore of Babylon".  It seems that this is  a general symbol for the Antichrist, and not much more.  A very complex visual image--one that would be very difficult to utilize in fibre art.  

More luck with "The Green Man".  I finally managed to get hold of the book "The Green Man"by Kathleen Basford. (D.S. Brewer, 1998)  A very detailed history of the image.  I think it might have been written as some sort of academic thesis.  I find myself keeping the dictionary close to checkout the meaning of some of the big words. A lot of the discussion about symbolism tends to be mostly conjecture, but I think that would be true of any discussion on such an ancient symbol.  Fortunately, the most of the book consists of images of The Green Man or The Foliate Man, many of which are found in church or temple architecture.  This is exactly the sort of image that works well in fibre.  I already have some ideas about how to present it, technically