December Daily Doodle

Donna Kallner is a fiber artist, teacher and writer. I was fortunate enough to take a class she taught at the Textile Center in St Paul, Minnesota a few years ago. If you ever get the opportunity she is a great teacher.
I've been following her work through her blogs and now on facebook, (does that sound a little creepy). She has fun ideas. Right now she is doing December daily doodle. Once a day she is making a doodle on a 3 x 5 index card. So, this isn't a huge commitment. It's almost a type of meditation to doodle away for a few minutes at a time.
Here are the doodles I have finished so far this month.


Have a creative day
Janet

Creativity!

I've been doing lot's of thinking this past month because I was having trouble with getting the creative thoughts flowing. My space wasn't working for me in several ways so I decided to work on cleaning up and paring down. I still have more to do but the biggest part is done and already my thoughts are clicking. It works for me to have my 'studio' space(if I call it a studio it makes me feel and think of myself as a professional, it's really my living room and dining room, but don't tell) in order. I know other people who work best in what looks like total chaos to me, even though they know where everything is at any given time. I may think my space is organized while someone else might come in and say it was a wreck. What I'm trying to say is, we each need to find what works for us, in how we arrange things, how we do things, how we interact with people. This works for me, at least for now it does. So, when I mention something in my blog, I'm just journaling about what works the best for me, it may or may not work for you. I also am paring down on my computer time, so I reluctantly pulled myself out of several online groups. In the long run this will be better for me, now I have more time to get my exercise in my day too.

I mentioned a while back that I entered a small piece in the Common Thread exhibit at the Textile Center in St Paul. It is hanging there now and will be until February 20. So if you are in and around St Paul, Minnesota this next month go and see the exhibit. There are close to 100 artists exhibiting some spectacular work. I was there last Monday evening to go to Minnesota Contemporary Quilters meeting and also to see the show. There are some amazing works of art. Here is a photo of my small piece, and bonus for me, it sold!

Yesterday a wonderful couple came to help me make some adjustments to my longarm, I was having trouble, not because of the machine, just user errors. They gave me a number of tips to help with other little things. Now it is running so smoothly, I'm really excited to do some quilting this weekend. Hopefully I'll have some finished quilts to post before long.

I got up early to use my project-a-scope while it is still dark, so I'd better go get that done. It won't be long before the sun comes up and I want to get a pattern made from one of my photos. Have a creative day!
Janet

This and that!

I had a nasty cold for over two weeks. It drained all the creativity out of me. That's my excuse for not blogging, and I'm sticking to it. Fall is creeping in!

I've finished a few things in spite of my lack of good health. I had a lot of fun making my tiara for Nancy Eha's challenge. You'll have to watch for your chance to vote for your favorite entry. It looks like there are going to be quite a few. I tried a few things that I have never done before with beads. Maybe this will inspire me to get brave enough to add more to my quilts. Here are a couple of close-up shots. I am the Countess of Colour as I tried to add lots of colour to my tiara. I also just love bright colors, so it seemed fitting.

I finished a very small art piece for the member's only exhibit at the Textile Center. The exhibit isn't until January but I needed to turn in a photo or two and my admission form about a week ago. This will be the third year I am a member of the Textile Center but the first I have submitted something for this show. They do the member's only show every year but the first year I didn't know about it until it was too late. Last year we had family conflicts with my finishing a piece. So, this year I was determined to enter something. I submitted it on the day of the deadline. So next year my goal is the day before the deadline. LOL They don't like to have the pieces shown other places before the show, but I promise I'll show it in January.

I'm also finishing up my postcards for the postmark'ed art group. Should be done with those soon. Here is my tree bark. I used three layers of sheer fabrics, put on my mask and melted them with my heat gun. It's fun to use tools! I wouldn't do this without a respirator mask and the great outdoors to mitigate the fumes.

Two more group of cards to do. Thread painting and the last group will be anything goes!

.....hmmmm.

Have a creative day

janet

New Space! part 2

My sewing space before was our family room.  That worked fine until the recent addition to my sewing arsenal.  My son and his friends have moved all the gaming equipment to the basement, so they spend most of their time down there.  My daughter moved out several years ago after graduating from college and getting a job.  So, it is just my husband and I rattling around up here most of the time.  We decided the best choice was to make the livingroom/diningroom my new sewing space.  So now I have two rooms.  One room for my new long arm and the other for my sewing machine and 'stuff.'  My son was a little concerned when the lights were added to the long arm frame and my husband commented, "Now you can sew all night!"  We all laughed but than he realized his bedroom is right above the room my longarm is in, and what if I really did sew all night!

Here are some photos of what was my dining room.  The first photo is my wall of cubicles.  The drawers and doors are labeled (we added those last year) because when I put something behind a closed door well, I'm like a toddler 'out of site, out of mind.'  It helps me remember what I have and where it should be.  You can see my folding table for cutting/ironing in front of the window.

If you swing to the right you can see my Bernina.  I still need a better table for this, but it works for now.  There is another storage shelf in the corner.  This one has a lot of recyclable materials on it.  At least I am hoping to recycle them.  Every year the Textile Center has an exhibit of art made from recycled materials.  That's one of the challenges I hope to enter next year.

Swing a little farther to the right.  Now you can see my old sewing cabinet with my almost 30 year old Kenmore tucked inside and my embellisher sitting on top.  Did I mention I have a lot of toys.  The embellisher was a Christmas gift.  I'm excited that I have room for it now.  I plan to use my Kenmore for some of my experimental sewing techniques.  I really like the work that Maggie Grey does and want to try some of her techniques.  Two of her books I have are Raising the Surface with Machine Embroidery & textile translations: mixed media.  One of my recycled items to make is a purse.  I've saved heavy brown packing paper for this.  I have the book Bags with paper and stitch Innovative Surface Techniques for Embellishing Bags by Isobel Hall.  One other book I want to experiment with is The Art of Stitching on Metal by Ann Parr.  I just got some very light weight metal to play with from Joggles.  I can't wait to try it looks like so much fun.

The shelves hold my paintsticks, paints, inks and pencils,  glues and foil, stamps and stencils, shibori tools, brushes and other tools.  The three boxes below hold ribbons, yarns, bits of wool, and anything else that I think might work for my embellisher.  The file cabinet has class print outs and other notes that I wanted to save for reference.

Swing one more turn to the right and you can see into the other room where my new long arm is still in the assembly stage.  You can also see my tv on a stand with wheels.  I can swing it to be watched in either room.  Notice my Quilt Show DVD's waiting to watched.

Last turn in the room shows you my corner with a few more cabinets and a light.

Here is one last shot of the room as a whole.  I'm sure there is still some tweaking to be done and once I start creating it will never look this neat again but I hope you enjoyed this look at my new sewing space.  Have a creative day. Janet

IKEA Sale

The IKEA Adventure is over for me.  My quilt sold!  Yeah!  The money goes for the children's summer program at the Textile Center.  There were a lot of people at the sale, a band played, food kept arriving for the entire event.  It was fun for me to see all of the other quilts.  I had only seen a few before the show.  The creativity involved was incredible.  They were all so unique.  The quilts that didn't sale tonight will be sold through the Textile Center in St Paul.  Watch for your chance to buy one of these incredible quilts.  

I talked with the person who bought my quilt about the inspiration behind it.  I spoke about this in a previous post that I was inspired by the voters at this years election.  She and her husband seemed quite happy with their purchase and I felt good knowing it went to a good home. Have a creative day. Janet

IKEA Challenge

Hello,

Late last August I was one of fifty people who received a packet of fabric from the IKEA store in the Twin Cities.  The Project Patchwork Challenge was in conjunction with the Textile Center in St Paul.  The quilts would eventually be sold to benefit the youth program at the Textile Center.  Part of our incentive was the possibility of having your quilt displayed on a poster in the light rail train stations in the Twin Cities.  (Free advertising)   Mine is one of the quilts on the poster.  I was very surprised mine was chosen.  (The poster is at the top of the page, mine is the top right side) Part of the guidelines were we could only use IKEA fabric on the front of the quilt, and it still needed to be recognizable as IKEA fabric when it was complete.  So, no overdyeing to change the color etc.  You could go and buy more IKEA fabric from the store if you weren't inspired by what was in your packet of four, 1 yard fabrics.  I decided to stick with the fabric I was given because I know I often try to second guess myself and most of the time that doesn't work out.  So the challenge was on.  If we finished our quilts by a certain date we would receive a $50 gift certificate to spend at IKEA.  I set that goal for myself.  Since I am fairly new to contemporary quilting, I thought that would be a wonderful prize for me.  I had no idea how difficult my Fall would become when I signed up for this.  Lot's of family emergencies floated to the surface last Fall and that's enough said there. The first week in November I still had no clear plan for my quilt.  I was starting to panic, just a little, because the gift certificate deadline was fast approaching.  But, a wonderful thing happened.  I have been an election judge for a little over ten years now.  The election this past fall was very inspiring.  It was wonderful to see the power of making a mark on paper bring so many people together.  Even if we were there to vote for different people, we were all there for one common goal, to mend our torn nation.  So, the inspiration for my quilt "Fiber of a Voter" came to life.  I used many different techniques when creating my quilt to help illustrate the diversity of the voters who all came together on that day to do their part to elect officials who would stitch together our torn nation.  Some of the techniques I used were shiva paint stick rubbings, handmade beads, needle punch, lot's of quilting, and hand embroidery.  There is also judging involved with this challenge.  One person will be given a $1,000 IKEA makeover, first place is a $500 gift certificate for IKEA,  the juror's award is a $100 gift certificate and the people's choice award will be a $50 gift certificate.  The sale will take place on March 21 at the IKEA store in Bloomington, MN.  Right across the street from the Mall of America.  The party begins at 6:00 p.m. with food and entertainment and the sale of the quilts.  So, if you are in the twin cities area be sure to stop and see and purchase one of 50 unique quilts.  Have a creative day. Janet 

Basic quilting skills

Hello,


Monday night was the meeting for Minnesota Contemporary Quilters.  I love those meetings they always make me laugh.  I haven't made it for several months due to weather, health and no meeting in December so it was fun to reconnect.  Our speaker this month was a traditional quilter who was speaking about some basic skills such as binding quilts.  Some of us need to work on these skills just a little.  I know that I am hit or miss with my bindings.  I have trouble with the corners and the edges seem to want to curl.  Not pretty!  That is why I signed up a month ago for a class at a local shop, Bear Patch Quilting, called Binding Perfection.  I am mostly a self taught quilter and my self education is spotty at best.  I knew binding was a skill I wanted to improve.  So it was a little bit of serendipity that this was the topic at our meeting.  My class is this afternoon and I need to take something to bind.  I am trying to finish up examples from classes I have taken (at least the samples I like).  So, I am taking a sample from my Flower Power class taught by Susan Brittingham at Quilt University.  The one I am taking to my binding class is one of our beginning examples for the Flower Power class.  I also need to finish the final project for that class but I'll save that for another day.

I took some show and tell to the meeting the other night.  Everyone seemed to like my blue jean quilt.  I made two of these during a class in the learningfa yahoo group.  I cut out all the blue jean circles while I was watching the election debates last fall.  I'm calling this my green quilt!  I used an entire box of old blue jeans cutting 300 circles for the two quilts, and four yards of flannel that I have had laying around since my children were very young.  It felt good to use up so much of my fabric stash.  I had been saving the jeans to make a quilt 'some day.'  It was fun to make it along with other people all encouraging each other along the way.  The red and yellow quilt is my son's, there is a photo of each side for that quilt.  The green and purple quilt is my daughter's.

 

                                   

I also wanted to post a photo of the header I had on the top of my webpage.  I changed it today because it was hard to read the title with that particular quilt in the background.  This quilt was also made for a class at Quilt University.  It is my own design from the class Points and Curves taught by Myrna Giesbrecht when she was at Quilt U.  She is no longer teaching there you can find a link to her webpage on the sidebar (Creative Conversation).  This quilt is called Pursuit of Happiness.  It was part of an exhibit at the Textile Center in St Paul last fall.  The exhibit was called Freedom:  The Fiber of our Nation and was displayed during the Republican National Convention last fall.  Have a great day everyone! Janet