Comfort zone challenge

Steamroller. Yup. Steamroller. That's what we will use to print fabric in October. The next five weeks will find me at the Five in One Social Club workshop carving a 40" x 96" woodcut that we will ink and roll over. With a steamroller. Forty by ninety-six, big enough to be used as a banner, a shroud or a toga. Or maybe a quilt. Or two.

I've always wanted to design large prints, but never had access to large presses. This will be the first time I will carve a woodcut. It's a comfort zone challenge. There's no telling how much joy or regret I will feel during this process. Start thinking big. Yup. Big. No little stitch details necessary. (Oh...OK...maybe after I get the fabric printed I could add little stitch details...watch this space).

And of course it will be fabric. My medium of choice. Cotton, stretched delicately over an inked board, coming alive with pressure. Lots of pressure, watch your fingers.

View fullsize

Not sure what I will name this piece. All I know right now is that I'll be carving out all of the white areas. Final print size: 40 x 96.

So, naturally, I think about cutting it up and stitching swathes of yardage.

View fullsize

I could add batting and stitching to the print but if I cut it up I have some very interesting pieces of black and white fabric.

View fullsize

And then the decision making begins. Oh my!

It's probably a good thing that my sewing machine is in the shop for maintenance. Not sure how much distraction I need during this challenge.

Think big. Work big. Oh my.

As Jefferson Airplane says in their classic song, White Rabbit:

Remember what the dormouse said
Feed your head, feed your head

Playing around

I am a lucky participant in an invitational art show in which each artist was provided a wooden cigar box. The show will be in alternative art gallery in October. This past week I looked around the studio for raw ingredients that might find a route into this creative gate. 

I am a collector of scraps. twigs. thread. snippets of fabric. rocks. dried weeds. you name it I got it. The pile of colorful threads next to my sewing machine started to look like it might have a heartbeat so I decided to take a stab at weaving it all together. Crosswise, lengthwise, in a circle, over a ball, into a nest, around a heart shaped rock and just plain balled up. The texture was emotive, chaotic, and intriguing.

The box I have is from Mexico. I have vivid memories of the colors and thread work I saw when visiting there a number of years ago. The art, the people, the history and the countryside are rich with inspiration and passion. Frankly, I was surprised. I was a victim of bad media coverage: fear of getting sick, attacked or kidnapped are all potently exploited by news reports here in the States. Fact is, it can be dangerous wherever you are and if you let fear rule your decisions you can miss out on a lot. It's a lesson that Congress could benefit from.

So that was the seed for this assemblage. The fact that we are a polyglot society dependent on and richly endowed by our immigrant population seems to be missing from our politicians mindsets. Woven together we are stronger, more creative and richer by far. At times it may look like chaos, but underneath there is a tapestry of truth.

practice piece gets a new job

Yesterday Jim decided to insulate the pantry a little more (seeing as how cool and dark is best). Trouble was there is a window in that space (very nice for light, not so good for cool and dark). So we decided to block the window with insulation and a storm window (which was pretty dang ugly). So here is our solution.

I have a quilt that never went anywhere. It was a huge piece that over the years has been sliced and diced into many smaller pieces (a laptop case, a purse, an experimental quilt that I am working on called fractured and the UFO drawer lining) I use it to practice stitching too.

Jim cut a piece of insulation board to fit the space. I cut a piece of the practice quilt to size and made a big pillowcase out of it with some stretchy double knit fabric. The piece wrapped tightly around the board when I pulled it on.

Jim removed the storm window, placed the insulated quilt between the storm and the window and then closed it up. Not sure what the R value might be but it sure did solve the light problem.

Now we have a decorative back entrance (which will ultimately fade and change with time) and a nice snug pantry.