My apologies to any of you who may receive this twice. I was editing on 2 computers and accidentally pressed "Publish" before I was done. Here's to "blogsence"!
I went over to my friend's house Saturday for some studio time--playtime really. As we talked and caught up, she said that she hadn't received any of my posts for a while and thought that perhaps there was something wrong with the delivery system.
"Um, well, no, not exactly. Its just that I haven't been writing them." As I was leaving later that afternoon, my friend pointed out her calendar to me. I thought she might want to show me an amazing picture. What she pointed to was a series of red dots, extending from the end of April and into the beginning of May.
Pictures that she's sold? I wondered. No, it turned out that these were days that she planned to keep free with no obligations. That explains my blogsence* perfectly. I was taking time to catch up with myself around the edges of work and family.
I also threw myself into an exciting online quilting class with Lisa Call: "Cutting and Piecing Without a Ruler,"
I loved it from start to finish. Lisa's critiques were supportive, and gave me great ideas about how I could build upon what I had learned in class.
Although we pieced a number of projects in class, I didn't quilt them, that is, I didn't add batting and backing and stitch the whole sandwich together. In fact, I've rarely stitched a quilt sandwich and am reluctant to do so.
Gathering courage in hand, I put together a kind of sampler piece that I could practice on. I read various instructions, gazed through books with images of completed quilts and began.
After quilting the first few sections, I was convinced that I would never do anything like this again. Eventually, I got a rhythm going and it was fun, and the action of pushing the fabric through the machine, turning it at regular intervals and watching the pattern emerge was soothing.
By the time I finished, I was ready to begin again (this reminds me of when I gave birth to my first child and was so thrilled by meeting him, I was ready to do it all over again...no, I know it's a stretch to compare childbirth to quilting, but it was pretty cool.)
I decided to take detail shots of the piece above and divide it into roughly 4 sections, exploring the possibilities inherent in each one. So that's what I'm doing. My iron is ready: full steam ahead!
*Blogsence: Absence from blogs and blog writing