What Do You Listen For?

I can't remember how long ago it has been but in the recent past the minister at my church told a story that really stuck with me. The story goes along the lines of:

Two people are walking down a busy street in the city.
One says, "Oh! Do you hear the birds singing? What a lovely song!"
The second person says, "I only hear the traffic and talking. How do you hear the birds?"
The first person says, "Observe..." and takes a handful of change out and throws it into the air.
Suddenly all the people walking around stop and start searching the sidewalk for the change that just pinged.
The first person then says, "We hear what we listen for..."

I've started trying really hard to keep this in mind when I'm taking my walks with Leo in the afternoon. I focus on hearing the birds in the trees or the kids playing in the school yard a block over. I try really, REALLY hard to block out the sounds of traffic from the busy streets around my house. In doing this, I've started noticing more birds and think I might have to take up ornithology just to know what I've seeing.

It is great fun to watch the progress of the birds as they pass through the area as Spring approaches. Last week there was a slew of robins around, but they have moved on through to their next destination and in conjunction with the robins I was blessed to see a couple of cardinals. Currently, I'm seeing a lot of finches and sparrows, but they are always around; I don't care though because they are still fun to watch and listen for. Yesterday, I saw a Mississippi Kite, I think.

The only downside, is that it disturbs Leo when we are going along at a good clip and I stop to stare up at the trees or roofs, because HE is the one that is supposed to cause us to stop regularly while he sniffs at ground stuff...I guess we need to just coordinate our stops.

So, what are you listening for?

And, because I want to show off some of my work, here is a close up of a small quilt I recently completed:

AQATW - I Believe

I know it has been a LONG time since I've blogged anything, but I finally got around to completing another challenge quilt for the group Art Quilts Around the World. This time the challenge was to represent "I Believe".

This came at an interesting time because I've been doing a lot of contemplating on what I do believe lately. I recently saw an interview with Oprah Winfrey and Rainn Wilson where he stated that 'creativity is a form of prayer' and that really hit home with me because this is something that I do. Whenever I'm working on something (a scarf, a quilt, whatever), I have a tendency to think about the person that I am making things for and try and embed good thoughts into whatever I'm doing. If I'm making something for a specific person (like a baby quilt) I try to envision this child and parents happy and healthy and laughing and loving one another. If I'm working on something with no specific person in mind, I try really hard to not let my mind go down into a negative space, even if I just have to say "light and love" over and over again while I'm working because I don't want negativity to become attached to the work....and yeah, I know it sounds hokey and new age-y but I don't care.

The quilt that I made for this challenge is actually called "HOPE" because I want to believe that there is hope even in these dark times (and yeah, I'm talking politically here)...that the light and colors will continue to shine through the darkness:

To make this, I used the remains from the following quilt:

I then attached it all to fusible web:

 Then free drew the design onto another fusible web that was attached to solid black fabric that was then affixed to the colored fabric that I made.

This was a great opportunity to get back in the creative swing for me.

AQATW - Kitsch

The latest challenge for my Art Quilts Around the World quilt group was called "Kitsch".
I had great ideas for this, but I'm not certain the final product meets my original expectations. I ended up making a cute little peacock quilt:

I have a friend who makes fairy wings (On Gossamer Wings is the name of her company) and in the process of making the wings she ends up with piles of little glittered circles. She has collected these for me, which I in turn used to create the tail of my peacock: 

I wish that I had centered the body of the bird and moved it more towards the bottom of the quilt. I had quilted the background before I started adding the circles and when I finished the tail, I determined that the bottom just seemed blah, so I added some cut out flowers around the feet. Here is a shot of the tail in progress: 

The body is made of velvet and I used a couple of circles combined to make the eye: 

Oh, and I now recall that I don't want to work with glitter again because it ended up ALL OVER the studio and in the crevices of my sewing machine. 

Art Quilts Around the World - Folklore

The latest Art Quilts Around the World challenge was to create a quilt that represents Folklore. I had a lot of thoughts running through my mind, but decided to go for something based on the trip that the ladies in my family took to Alaska last year. While there I became fascinated with the Raven and the images of the Raven in their mythology, therefore, I decided to focus on that idea and created my folklore quilt:

There are many different tales from the different people of Alaska (as well as other indigenous groups throughout the Americas) that have tales based on the Raven. One of my personal favorites is the Tlingit story is the Raven Brings the Sun. Here is what I found on Wikipedia regarding this particular story: 

In Tlingit culture, there are two different raven characters, which can be identified, one is the creator raven - responsible for bringing the world into being and who is sometimes considered to be the individual who brought light to the darkness. When the Great Spirit created all things, he kept them separate and stored in cedar boxes. The Great Spirit gifted these boxes to the animals who existed before humans. When the animals opened the boxes all the things that comprise the world came into being. The boxes held such things as mountains, fire, water, wind, and seeds fora ll the plants. One such box, which was given to Seagull, contained all the light of the world. Seagull coveted his box and refused to open it, clutching it under his wing. All the people asked Raven to persuade Seagull to open it and release the light. Despite begging, demanding, flattering, and trying to trick him into opening the box, Seagull refused. Raven became angry and frustrated, and stuck a thorn in Seagull's foot. Raven pushed the thorn in deeper until the pain caused Seagull to drop the box. Then out of the box came the sun, moon, and stars that brought light to the world and allowed the first day to begin. 

And just because I really enjoyed doing some thread work on on this quilt, here is a closeup of on the Raven: 

Lastly, I attempted to face this quilt rather than do a binding because I felt that this didn't need to have anything stopping the flow. 

Life Lessons

My first real job was with McDonalds. I had other jobs in college that included working in a clothing store and a sit down restaurant. While I learned many things at these jobs (how to clean a shake machine, how to make change, how to remove those annoying things on clothes that set off the alarm if you try to walk out), but the biggest thing I can say that I learned was "clean as you go"...you know that idea of cleaning things up as you complete a job rather than stack things up and end up with a big, nasty mess. 

Sadly, as an adult, I'm struggling to remember this one simple lesson. Now, I am very good at cleaning my house when I am planning on having company, but normally I am admittedly disgusting...not like hoarder living in my own filth disgusting, but college frat house or maybe Amerca's Next Top Model house disgusting. I freely admit this and warn anybody to give me a couple hours warning before dropping by (partly to mad dash clean the house and partly to make certain that I have showered and dressed). 

I was reminded today that I must commit myself to cleaning as I go. I was noticing and odd odor wafting from the kitchen and noted that I hadn't cleaned the dishes in the sink for quite some time and something in the sink had turned. Therefore, I was forced to first unload the dishwasher (I habitually just get dishes out of there when needed rather than unloading it) and then load it all back up, get some sink cleaner and scrub down the sink, and then run a disposal deodorizer. There is now a pleasant citrus smell wafting rather than the stench of death coming from the kitchen...how long do we think this will last? 

The dishwasher did just finish running, if I were smart, I would hop up off the couch right now and unload it so that I can then put dirty dishes in the machine as they are used rather than stacking then in the sink...bets on whether that will actually happen?

Happy New Year...Starting Over

It has been nine months since I last made my presence known here and I have resolved to change that this year. As I try to think back over the past year, I struggle to recall all that occurred over the past year. And because of this, I must make myself document the coming year...so prepare yourselves for months of tantalizing self reflection about working from home and watching the dog sleep with a snippet of creations that I'm working on (quilting, knitting, and with any luck some ceramics if I get the kiln up and going). 

With that promise made, here are a few things that I recall from the past year...

First, some of the quilts that I did complete:  

These are all small art quilts that I have been challenged to do. 

Second, I had a wonderful trip to Alaska with my mom, sister, and niece.  

And just because I can't leave without at least one shot of my love...

This is an example of what I see ever night as I eat my dinner...

In The Garden

The current challenge from Art Quilts Around the World is called "In The Garden". I had a great time doing this quilt. I originally thought about doing a keyhole that you are looking through to see the whole amazing garden but couldn't figure how to do that on this scale. I then decided that I wanted to go the route of a secret garden and finding the door to it hidden along with the key. 

This is the quilt that I came up with. 

The first thing I did was quilt the wooden gate by taking hand painted brown fabric and tracing the grain of the wood on my table onto paper, pinning that to the brown fabric, in sections, and quilting. Here is just the wood. 

Next, I cut the piece down to the correct size, and added the lock and vines. 

Then I sewed individual leaves using fusible web to make them two-sided. Once the leaves were made, I determined how best to place them on the vines and sewed down only the stems so that the leaf can blow in the breeze. I then attached a red ribbon with a small key with the word "dream" on it that I purchased from a store on Etsy onto the vines. 

I decided that I didn't want to do a conventional binding on this, so I just satin stitched all around the edge and left it a little rough. 

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I really liked doing this challenge and think that this is one of my best pieces to date. 

What To Do....

I am constantly struggling with finding my path in life...my purpose....my raison d'être. This is something that I've been struggling with since college and my current spot in life is really one that I basically stumbled into. My choice in colleges was based on a football game. My degree was based on the fact that I just needed to pick something and get a degree since I was doing it all on my parents' dime and they were only so patient in letting me dilly dally around in school trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I got my first real job because I needed to have insurance. From there, for the most part, jobs came to me because I knew somebody who liked the job that I did and would hire me away from my previous position.. I really only sought out a couple of jobs....everything else just kinda happened to me, not that I can really complain because it has allowed me to have a pretty good life. 

However, that doesn't really help with my search. I mean deep down, as many of you are aware, I want to be an artist...but how to do that and continue to earn a living and not become a drain on the rest of societ in my later years. So, for the time being, I've implemented a mandate on my own time that inset aside a certain amount of time every day to be creative and to feed that inner artist. Primarily, I set a timer mid-morning and go up to my studio and sew for 25 minutes each morning. I know I should probably feel guilty doing this, but I justify it by telling myself that if I were going into the office that time would have been spent visiting or, if I were a smoker, going and taking my smoking breaks...I just take sewing breaks. 

So, along with these thoughts, there are so many other things that are on my mind....do I find a way to downsize....do I move....how do I find my zen? Today, I watched a couple of documentaries that made me stop and think about these things again. First, I watched one called "A Mile, Mile and a Half". This movie was about this group of hikers who hike The John Muir Trail in Yosemite. Watching this makes me want to get all athletic and outdoorsy and take up camping and hiking and take a month off and go rough it through the mountains....won't happen, but I can dream. 

The other documentary that I watched was on tiny house movement and this is something that I could actually consider...okay, maybe not a tiny house, but downsizing to something more reasonable and getting rid of so much of my stuff.... This movie really made me think, again, about how ridiculous it is the way I buy things...I have way more than I ever will need or use....except fabric. So, do I start taking steps towards downsizing? And if yes, what to do first...

Criminal Minds

I've been binge watching the television show Criminal Minds over the last couple of weeks while working. I just started Season 8, which is when Jeanne Tripplehorn joined the cast and Paget Brewster left. There are a couple of things that come to mind as I am saturated with this show....

• Two of their main characters have the same name. Aaron Hotchner, the team lead, and Erin Strauss, his boss. 
• The writers of this show are sick, sick, sick....Who is able to come up with and write this stuff? 
• I really need to update my dental records for possible identification, if it comes down to it. 
• I would never hold up to any form of torture. 
• Maybe it is because I'm watching these, but I really think that people are idiots....they always get into cars with strangers, or leave with strangers, or pick up strangers, or leave their kids alone, or run upstairs instead of outside....why do they always head towards the second floor? Oh, and there seems to be a lot of men out there that cheat on their families. 
• I want to be Penelope Garcia...she is totally cool and smart....oh and she has a really special relationship with Derek Morgan (hubba, hubba). 
• I always love the quotes that they have at the ends of the episodes. 
• If these stories are based on real stories out there, this is a truly weird and broken world. 

I'm going to have to find a much lighter show to binge watch once I'm finished with all of these. 

Human Touch

I think we all are aware of the importance of human touch and yet it dawned on me yesterday that I'm seriously lacking in this. I went to a class last night at my church and realized that it was the first time that I had been in my car and actually drove anywhere in over a week. Then it dawned on me that aside from the pizza delivery guy last week on my snow day, I haven't really had contact with another person in that same amount of time.

My first thought was that in order to alleviate this, I should probably start going to the office and being around people, but then remembered that even when I went to the office, I would duck into my office and still not really touch anybody there.

So, what is the answer? Well, for one, I am finally getting a chance to snuggle with Sara's Wee Wonder for the first time in a very long time. Then on Thursday, I am going to dinner with some friends who are in from out of town, which means I'll at least get a hug. That should do me for awhile, but I really need to figure out a way to get a steady fill of touch....maybe I'll just have to splurge and set up regular massage....

Hermit's Log

I am excited to report that I am only a few random acts away from securing the title of "Weird Neighborhood Lady".

Yesterday, I decided to try and clear the sidewalk in front of my house of snow so that it would be "safe". Mind you, I didn't bother to do anything to provide safety in front of my house last week when we were iced in and the sidewalks were probably truly dangerous. 

So you may be asking yourself, aside from my choice of what form of precipitation requires clearing, does this action go towards my hopeful title.... Well, first, I didn't actually wait for the snow to stop therefore all of my work was quickly voided by Mother Nature. Second, I used a broom; yes, I swept my stoop, the sidewalk in front of my house, and about half of the sidewalk in front of my neighbor's house...if did a pretty good job since the snow wasn't real sticky, and heavy. Third, I did this work while dressed in yoga pants, a t-shirt, my dad's quilted flannel shirt, and slip on shoes with no socks...I basically looked homeless. 

Admittedly, I did have a purpose for clearing the sidewalk, I wanted it to be clear for the pizza delivery guy...yeah, I'm not willing yo get out on slick roads but I have very few qualms about paying somebody else to do it just so I can have one last hurrah of unhealthy sustenance before March 1, which is when I join a gym and start (again) with a course of whole foods in preparation for getting in good shape for my family's trip to Alaska in the summer. 

The next question I have to ask myself, though, is what can I do to amp up the weirdness so that I can clench the title....must ponder. 

Quilt Con 2015

This past weekend I drove my mom and a friend if her's down to Austin to attend Quilt Con 2015. This was put on by the International Modern Quilt Guild. There was a juried show of modern quilts, workshops, and lectures....and, of course, vendors. We all attended a couple of different lectures and spent a great deal of time looking at the quilts and spending way too much money at the vendor booths. 

Here are just some of the quilts that were on display: 

Face #1 by Melissa Averinos

Grove by Casey York

Outside the Box by Jenny Voss

Barn Remnant by Kim Eichler-Messmer

The keynote speakers were some of the women from the Gees Bend Quilt Collective. I highly recommend checking them out as they are a very interesting group. They provided stories about their coming up in the world and how they learned to quilt but the best part was that they spent a lot of their time on stage gracing us with some beautiful sung spirituals. It was very moving. 

The song they opened with and kept referring back to was a rendition of "Give Me Flowers While I Yet Live". This is a wonderful song about giving thanks and compliments to those in our lives while they are alive; that we should wait until somebody has left our lives to give them the praise that we have for them. 

Remembrances and Plans

It has been a year since Dad passed away. The past couple of years have been weird and challenging and foggy but things are on the up-swing.

The year prior to Dad's death, I was in a depressive fog that didn't really allow me to fully enjoy my life. Plus, there was Dad's declining health that we all had to contend with....but I can't blame my non-engagement in life on that. Yes, the last couple of months before his passing were spent pretty consumed with helping take care of him, but that doesn't account for the other 9 months. You would have thought that I would have been happy...I mean, I was working at a job that valued me, I got to take a great trip to Hawaii and give something wonderful to my folks, I got to witness my friend Sara wed the perfect man for her, and I know there are so many other really good things about that year that I'm not recognizing primarily because of this weird fog that I was in where I felt like I was just watching everything but not really participating in it and hearing this horrible voice in my head saying that I didn't belong.

Then, this past year, I spent much of it still in this fog. Again, I've had some great times. This past year has been spent on really reconnecting with my family. I've spent more time with my Mom and my sister than I have in a very long time. Mom and I have taken some great trips together and realized that we are pretty okay traveling together. I feel more at ease with my sister than I have in a very long time. But still, for the majority of 2014 I was still just watching my life pass me by. I still wasn't engaging in living my life and at this point in time, I really need to stop this whole watching of the life and truly lean into my life and live it.....this is it......embrace being alive.

With that being said, I'm making the effort to embrace it. I admit that I may still not be the most gregarious person on the block and when I'm with people I will still be more of a stand back and watch than a jump in a participate....but part of that is because I really do enjoy watching other people and don't feel the need to be the center of anything...usually.

I am also tapping into my creative side more and more and, while I may not be any good, I am going to post here more of my artistic endeavors...so be prepared.

So, enough confessing and emotional vomiting..... On with the day......

Structure - Golden Gate Bridge

The Art Quilts Around the World challenge this round was "Structure".

This could be so many different things, but I immediately thought about architectural structures (although I did briefly toy with an idea of rock structures found in nature).

I landed on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. When I lived there, I always enjoyed driving across that bridge and even made a walk across it once. During that walk I took some great shots of the framework of the bridge, and that became the impetus for my piece:

I decided that I would do a white border (although I'm not thrilled with the actual binding) to hark back to the old school pictures that would have white borders around them. I didn't do a lot of quilting on this piece as I really wanted the fabric to speak for itself (and trust me this sky around San Francisco will look very similar to this). Other than the binding, I couldn't be happier with this....and in creating this, it gave me some ideas on how to translate photographs into quilts.

Every one of these challenges is an opportunity for me to learn something new and to add to my repertoire....bring on the next challenge!

Christmas Decorations

While driving through the neighborhood today, I've started to notice that decorations are going up. I'm sure they are lovely at night when they are all on and going strong, but at 10 am they are just a little sad. I call this yard "Christmas Character Mass Murder Scene". 

Too morbid?

Farewell Tour - Enchanted Rock

This past weekend was great! There was lots of family time and there is nothing better, especially when much of that time is spent laughing. 

The weekend started out with Thanksgiving at my sister's in-law's. We all brought contributions to the meal and then ate and ate and ate with some football watching thrown in as a bonus. For those of us that aren't big football watchers, a game called 'Head's Up' was played. This was a lot of fun as it is a game where you have to guess a word of phrase while being given clues by your teammate (although we didn't play with teams but just had everybody shouting out clues). 

On Friday, mom, my sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, and I all piled into the car and drove down to Fredericksburg, TX. We got down there mid-afternoon and dropped our stuff at the hotel, which was a block off the Main Street, then walked up to the main drag and walked around, did some minor shopping, and lots of people watching. We grabbed dinner at a really great restaurant called Rathskeller. After dinner, we stopped for some fudge and then walked down to the square and watched the Christmas tree lighting then headed back to the hotel. It wasn't even 8:00 yet, but Fredericksburg is one of those small towns that pretty much shuts down when the sun goes down. We all gathered in my and mom's room and played a couple of rousing rounds of Head's Up and once again finished the night with lots of laughs. 

On Saturday, we got around early so that we could get to Enchanted Rock State Park early before the crowds showed up (and they did show up). Mom made the decision to take the path around the rock and left some of dad there. Marti, Graham, Kathleen, Colin, and I headed up the rock. Graham and the kids headed off like mountain goats while Marti and I took our time and enjoyed the scenery (and breathing). When we all reached the top we found a nice area without other people around and took a moment to send Dad on his way. 

I know he will enjoy this view. 

We then did some more mountain goating around: 

And saw some beautiful scenery:

When we finally got off the rock, we headed north towards home, but made a detour to Dublin, TX where they used to bottle cane suger Dr. Pepper. Sadly, they no longer make it there, but we were able to experiment with some other cane sugar sodas...and I think all sodas need to go back to using cane sugar rather than corn syrup, but that is just me. 

After that we headed home and relaxed. It was a great weekend and I'm so thankful for the memories we made. 

Flights of Fantasy - Whimsy

The most recent challenge for AQATW is called "Flights of Fantasy" with the expectation to delve into the various worlds of fantasy for inspiration. My inspiration was my friend, Angelia, who makes fairy wings for costumes and is also a wonderful fairy named Whimsy. Here is my quilt:

I did this by painting on fabric using Derwent Inktense blocks and added a tulle skirt. Here is the finished painting with skirt: 

I then went back in with embroidery thread and fancied her up:

For some reason, her hair and bodice make me very happy. 

And for reference, here is a picture of my inspiration:

You also need to check out her website On Gossamer Wings.  

Houston International Quilt Show

This past weekend I missed out on seeing Laura and Ash at the Watsons, but already had plans to take a bus trip down to Houston with my mom to spend the day at one of the largest quilt shows in the world. 

I went over to mom's on Friday evening and took Leo with me for a couple of reasons... 1) I wanted to see how he would do on a trip to grandma's and 2) I didn't want to deal with him freaking out over the trick-or-treaters on the street and I knew that in my mom's complex we wouldn't have that issue. He did really well at her place. She has hardwood floors, so that was a little challenging to him especially on the stairs up to our room, but he got the hang of it...he just needs to slow down a bit, but maybe he'll learn. Admittedly, I didn't sleep well on Friday night as Leo wouldn't really settle and I thought he needed to go outside more than usual...which meant I had to get up, put his collar and leash on, and take him outside (I'm used to just opening the back door and waiting for him to come back in). 

Saturday morning we all got up, my brother-in-law and nephew came over to dig some stuff out of my mom's patio space and later my sister and niece came over and the six of us went through some of dad's stuff that has been in the garage since we cleared out his shop from the old house. Leo spent the morning out in the yard with us, tethered to a table leg, but happy that he could be in the sun and watch all his people at one time. After lunch, my sister and her family left and mom and I headed up to her "wet" studio where we played with some fabric painting techniques, of which I will have examples to show at the end of the month. 

Sunday morning mom and I got up way before dawn so that we could meet our bus and head down to Houston. We left the house a little before 5 am, after a not so steady night because to be honest, we weren't certain which clocks were automatically falling forward and which weren't and for some reason both of our iPhones were acting weird saying they were on Eastern time zone....but it all worked out in the end and we made it with time to spare (and time to nap on the bus). My sister, Marti, came over around 8 am and rescued poor Leo from his crate and took him to spend the day at her house....as far as I know he was a perfect gentleman and only minimally traumatized their dog, Sadie. 

Mom and I made it through the show and most of the market at lightning speed and saw everything....I think. It was a great day...oh, and on the way home, we stopped at a place called Woody's Bar-B-Que where we had smoked, bacon wrapped quail breasts....YUM! 

We retuned home about 10 pm, about an hour after Marti brought Leo back and returned him to his crate but needless to say, he was thrilled to have us back home (yeah, he is very much a momma's boy). 

Here are a couple of pictures of quilts from the show....I have to say I was so amazed at some of the work that I saw there, these artists amaze me! Sadly, I didn't think to get the names of the quilts nor the artists and that is bad on me. 

This is the only one that I know the artist because she belongs to the Art Quilts Around the World group. This one is by Shruti Dandekar and it is titled "The White Rainbow". She has quilted the Braille spelling of the colors of the rainbow.

She then included the color in the actual color of the thread used in some of the quilting. 

Well done, Shruti...this is great!

And here are a few more that just gobsmacked me...

Of course this one makes me want to do a portrait of my own little beastie...