I'm visiting...

...Robin's blog today. She's had an amazing parade of guest bloggers while she's been away on Spring Break. Click on over and read my post, then scroll down to read all the other guest bloggers. Then be sure to go back and read Robin regularly!

Plus, several of the guest bloggers have offered amazing arty give-aways. Including me!
A few flew into my Etsy shop, too!

Layers

I just love having a break on Sundays. I am enjoying a new appreciation for the sabbath. On Saturday, I stacked up this piece.

Look Into It
3.5 x 7" (#28)

I really wanted to create a sense of confusion and discord with this piece. I think the color combination in addition to the surface design really work.

Weekend

Well, it's cold and windy as it has been for at least four of the last six weekends. Not so great for soccer game viewing. Sigh.

It would be a good day to stay home in the studio.

I had lots of good productive time over the past two days.

Not One of Them
4.5 x 6" (#27)

And my largest piece of the Lenten project thus far...

Come To Me
35 x 6.5" (#26)

Here is a detail shot. I pieced again! And did some more "let the fabric tell you where it wants to be."

I also finally started on my "windows" quilt for 12x12. I took some pictures of the windows of our house for inspiration.But then I went in an entirely different direction.

Smallish

Continuing. It's feeling good. I'm really enjoying this process so much. Two small works from Tuesday and Wednesday.

When the Water is Stirred
6.5 x 5" (#24)

This one I'm very pleased with. I had originally planned for a horizontal configuration, but I think it's good vertical.

Voice
8.75 x 4.75" (#25)

And the best news of the day: I finally started my 12x12 piece. Yikes! I'm pushing the deadline. We will reveal our "Windows" art quilts on April 1.

Still Here

I'm still making my daily art, though it seems I've fallen behind in the blogging. Here is Monday's piece.

You May Go
11.5 x 8.5" (#23)

That red stripe is actually pieced. Can you believe I didn't fuse it? Tulle binding... crazy!

Tuesday's is also complete and I've not yet started on today's.

An aside: I had cereal for breakfast, bagel for lunch and I'm planning omelets for dinner. Is that wrong?

Inspired

On Saturday, I went to hear Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi talk about her quilts at the South Dallas Cultural Center. She was inspiring and her quilts were fantastic! I am so glad I went. She signed my Textural Rhythms book and gushed a bit about our genius mutual friend.

When I came home, I still had my daily art/meditation/study to do. This piece came together rather quickly and was certainly inspired by some of the compositions and techniques from Mazloomi's quilts. Of course, it was also inspired by the scripture reading for the day.

Humbled
13 x 9" (#22)

Dr. Mazloomi said she really lets the fabric speak to her and tell her where it belongs. I knew I wanted to use a traditional binding technique on this piece, but I was having a lot of trouble choosing the right fabric. I decided to follow Dr. Mazloomi's lead and just pull out some pieces I would have never initially considered. This crazy floral with gold accents fought her way right to the top. She told me she belonged! She also added just the right zingy contrast to the rather spare design of the rest of the small art quilt.

Green and Purple

As the day draws to a close, I'm posting my work from Friday.

Flourish
7 x 14" (#21)

This piece came together with complete delight. I really enjoyed the process and I'm very pleased with the results. I like that long orientation and the swirly vine growing from the side rather than from the bottom. The leaves are cut from a map of Israel from an old Biblical atlas.

Of course, I also like it because I returned to my favorite color combo. Behold the green and the purple.

The photography is particularly bad on this quilt (and on the next one). I am planning to rephotograph ALL the pieces some day this week. I need a sunny, but not too bright, day without too much wind. And lots of patience.

I'll post Saturday's work in the morning.

Halfway

You didn't think I was going to do this indefinitely, did you? It's hard work and takes a lot of time. I am loving the process and some of the pieces I have completed, but I am missing taking more careful time to go through the creative process.

Someone commented that I could change the "rules" as needed and she is correct, but I really want to stick with it as I've loosely defined it for myself. The process has certainly given me more appreciation for artists who do these *every day* projects. It takes dedication.

I finished #19 on Wednesday.

Wisdom and Understanding
11 x 9" (#19)

I'll be making 40 pieces. I decided to embark on this project as a Lenten discipline. There are many reasons that I didn't share the details of my process in the beginning. First, I consider my faith to be quite private and personal. But at this halfway point, I thought I'd write a few thoughts about my process.

Here is the halfway piece.

Invited 2
9 x 9" (#20)

I begin each day by reading the scripture assigned for the day from the Daily Lectionary, trying to read only for content. It's just 10 to 20 verses, so very short. Sometimes I have instant ideas for the art, but I try to set those aside and let the words just soak in. I don't read the Bible regularly. I hear Old Testament, Psalms, New Testament and Gospels in church every Sunday, but I wanted part of this process to be about becoming more familiar with what the Bible has to say to me. It certainly has. Some days more than others.

Then I read the passage again for further understanding and initial inspiration for the art. Usually, I read it one more time.

I don't listen to any music or podcasts during the whole process. I try to be open to further insights from the symbols, stories and mood of the scripture. This is hard. Especially when I am doing hand embroidery which is such a slow somewhat mindless process, I want to fill the time with something other than daydreaming, I mean... being open to the spirit.

I strive to portray the themes and mood of the scripture in the art, but avoid obviously representational images. A few of the pieces have images straight out of the scripture and they were very fun to create, but that was because the scripture really lent itself to my style.

Here is Spacious Place from day #13. The reading for the day was Psalm 31 which includes the line, "I have become like broken pottery." Ding! Lightbulb! I've got broken pottery in my button stash.

It also includes the line,"My times are in your hands." Aha! My watch face collection!
So that piece was really a great combination of symbolism, spiritual growth and understanding and a nice piece of art as a result. I think it's my favorite thus far. I also love the title, "Spacious Place." I just love the sound of those words together in addition their meaning.

The process continues as I finish the entire piece including, backing and edge finishing. Honestly, I was better at finishing in the early part of Lent. Sometimes I add final touches on the following day. But I am going to try to get back to finishing each day. It feels more complete -- not just literally.

I choose a title from the words in the scripture. With my regular work, I usually have a tough time coming up with titles, so I really like this process. I try not to choose obvious titles because I don't want the scripture to hit the viewer over the head. I know what it means and I would probably be happy to share my ideas with others, but I also want the art to stand on its own without the accompanying scripture.

You can see all my blog posts including the daily works by clicking on "daily" at the very bottom of any of the posts. I've uploaded some of them to my Flickr which is a nice option to see all the thumbnails in one group.

Thanks so much for your comments and enthusiasm. Sharing them via the blog has been a wonderful motivator for me to continue.

Jeff's Birthday

We had another party this weekend. Forty requires something unique, don't you think? Jeff's parents are visiting this week and we are all big fans of the show Top Chef, so I decided to have a "Top Jeff" party for the family.I even dressed up a little like Padma -- including the scar on her arm.
Our first challenge was called "This Is What 40 Looks Like." The chefs had to make a creation with 40 marshmallows.
Grandma make little aliens and called hers "Forty Is Out Of This World."
Claire made a 40 with the 40.
Jeff called his "Temple of Forty."
Grandpa made a "King of Forty."
The next challenge...
Chefs had to try to guess the name of the pasta from the package and make up a creative name. Benjamin didn't know the official names of any of them, so he just wrote "noodles" ten times. His creative names were pretty clever though -- several variations on "swirly."
Next we had a taste test. The chefs had eight substances to taste.
Jeff was very serious.
Actually, he was the only one to get all eight correct. We had caramel sauce, olive oil, pancake syrup, maple syrup, bbq sauce, corn syrup, molasses and honey. (The fake syrup vs the real maple syrup was very tricky.)

The last challenge was a group challenge that required drawing knives just like they do on the show.
Each knife had a word on it and the chefs had to rearrange the knives to form a sentence.
It read "On March tenth, 1876 Alexander Bell completed the first telephone voice transmission." (March 10 is Jeff's actual birthday.)

We had an actual Top Chef recipe for dinner. It was Tre's Bacon Wrapped Shrimp.
He originally served it over cheesy grits with a Chipolte Tomato Butter sauce. I made the sauce as directed and it was tasty, but pretty spicy and very thin. I don't do grits, so I served it over cheesy mashed potatoes. (I'm not ashamed to admit they were from a box. After all that party planning, I took the easy way out on dinner. We also had a bag salad. And brownies and ice cream for dessert.)

Every birthday party needs party favors, so the chefs each got a gift bag...

Grandpa got sardines!

Claire got clam juice.
Benjamin got Spam.
Marilyn got Menudo.
And Jeff got Spotted Dick.
They all got little boxes of Jelly Bellies, too -- to make up for the scary canned goods.

It was a super fun party and I am so thankful I've got such a fun, playful family. Hooray for 40 more great years!

Seventeen and Eighteen

It's tough to come up with inspiring titles for these posts.

Here is yesterday's work.

Elisha's House
16 x 10" (#17)

And today's tiny work.

Many Times
4.5 x 4.5" (#18)

This is the first time I've used the actual sequin waste as an embellishment. I use it for stenciling all the time. Hmmm. I think I like it.

Spring time means chalk drawing on the drive way, which can lead to this.

Here is my daily art/study/meditation from last Friday.

Vineyard
4 x 4" (#15)

I used the "pop tart" finishing method. This is where the batting is cut slightly smaller than the finished composition and a fused backing is added that is the same size as the top. The edges fuse to themselves and encase the batting.

Here is Saturday's work.

Everything I Have Is Yours
11 x 7" (#16)

I'm working on today's piece, but since it is Spring Break and Grandma and Grandpa are visiting, I am faced with lots more distractions. That's ok. We had a great weekend and lots more fun activities planned for the week.

Carry On

This is yesterday's daily piece.

Spacious Place
13 x 8.5" (#13)

I gave myself a bit more time. I felt a bit unsatisfied with the work from the past few days, so yesterday I tried to dig a bit deeper. I also switched up the schedule a bit. Most of my "meditations" are done in the morning. I am fresh and motivated, but sometimes I end up working so long that I am not left with enough time to accomplish the other things that need to happen that day. So yesterday I didn't begin work until 8 pm ish. I did a bit of hand sewing while watching the Daily Show at 10 pm ish and left the binding and beading for today.

I really enjoyed the process on this one. Lots of meaty inspiration. I love that stone section. It's very much like the element in Construction: Concrete and Stone that is currently touring with the Tactile Architecture exhibit.

Here is today's small piece.

Roots by the River
9 x 5.5" (#14)

Those roots are certainly somewhat inspired by Kristen's village series. I think I could use some additional surface design or embellishment in that bottom section. I'm not sure if I will return to some of these pieces and add more to them... or just let them stand alone.

Honestly. I am very pleased with this discipline so far. But, I'm tiring.

Seven is all good.

Benjamin turned seven last week. He really really really really wanted a skate board.
Though his actual birthday was last week, his party was this past Saturday. It was a Power Rangers party. I don't know exactly why he likes Power Rangers. He has never watched them on tv. But, they are still cool.

We started by making Shrinky Dink badges, name tags and lightening bolts.
I managed the craft project, but after that Jeff took over. He planned an elaborate, super fun mission for the boys to complete.

Then the "Mission Commander" explained that five power orbs had been stolen by the evil Lord Mortorg and the newly appointed Power Rangers (party guests) would have to go out on a mission to recover them.Power orbs?!
The mission required the Rangers to solve clues and then find locations out in our neighborhood. (All expertly planned, scheduled and implemented by the Mission Commander aka World's Best Dad!)
I drove the Megazord to the first stop. (Seriously, my only jobs were Shrinky Dinks, drive the car and bake the cake.)
The second set of clues was hidden across from a cool waterfall.The Rangers proceeded to several more stops, did an obstacle course at a near by play ground, stopped for a water break and eventually succeeded in recovering all the power orbs. (If you saw the orbs, you might recognize them as neon bouncy balls. Ahem.)

The back to Base Camp for...

Benjamin and his friends had so much fun!
But wait... it was Jeff's birthday too. Today, in fact.
We had a great dinner here at home and enjoyed carrot cake for dessert. I am planning a "party" for next weekend. Jeff's parents will be visiting and I've got something serious up my sleeve for the six of us. I'm not sure I can compete with the Power Ranger party, but it's going to be fun.

I do need to borrow a long black wig. Does anyone have one?