no more dithering around.

©2012, Paula Kovarik, Round and Round It Goes, detail

I have been dithering around about where to enter this piece. FiberArt International? Quilt National? I'm over it. Finally named the piece after some consternation. I consulted with others, played around with metaphors and poetry, sang some nursery rhymes and gnashed my teeth. Hey diddie diddle.....time is up.

The name of the piece is Round and Round it Goes. Created on a linen tablecloth in a spiral configuration. I entered it into the Quilt National competition. Can't show the pic here yet since there are some rules about that. This detail may give you a small preview.

Crossing my fingers to be accepted into this national show. The show travels to several venues and the artists are top of the heap, cream of the crop, buzz of the hive. Love to be a part of that.

back from the photographer

Just got the final professional image of the tablecloth quilt from my friend Allen Mims. He did an incredible job shooting it (see his spectacular portfolio here). Here is a detali for your curiousity. I can't really show the whole quilt pending my decision to send this the judges at Quilt National OR FiberArts International. As of today I am choosing FAInternational because it will allow me to show the piece in my Memphis show in November. Breaks my heart because I really feel a great loyalty to the QN competition and this is my strongest piece this year.

©2012, Paula Kovarik

There's those clouds again!

blocking and engineering a circle

The final stage on my Threats quilt, blocking. Dipping the monster into a cool water bath was a complete leap of faith on my part. It really needed it, the surface was gray with handling including a number of blood spots where needles added my DNA to the piece. I really didn't know what would happen to the stitching after the threads and fabric got wet together. I have had nasty surprises in the past so each time I do it I do it with a feeling of casting my fate to the wind. Most times I am pleased with the slightly more puckered results. 

The piece is done on an old linen tablecloth. The circular format challenged every bit of my design skills to figure out how it could hang. I wanted to maintain the original scalloped edge so I hand-finished the edges and added a separate structure to the back to hold it on the wall. This pic shows the assemblage on the back. Inside is a handmade hula hoop made to fit the outer circumference of the piece (it can be dissassembled to fit neatly into a shipping carton if necessary). I used a PEX 3/8" pipe from Lowes with brass fittings for the connections. The envelope that holds the hoop has a zipper for easy access to the hoop and is handstitched along the edge. Took me 4 tries at getting the hoop to work before I came to this solution at 4 am one morning this week. The studio is littered with corpses of former trials. I am longing to get back to creating - engineering is not my favorite sport.

beware that false sense of security that drugs give you

This week has been a challenge. I was scheduled for laser gum surgery on Tuesday. I worked double time to be sure I had enough time for recuperation and healing after the surgery. On Tuesday, I prepped for the surgery by taking the prescribed mellowing agents. Trouble was, when Jim dropped me off for said torture the office said, NO NO NO!! It's NEXT Tuesday. Lucky for me those mellowing agents did not allow for the grand embarassment I was due. I don't even remember being there. Sure hope I wasn't drooling. I do notice a couple of new bruises on my body where I was bouncing off the walls.

Jim took me back home, tucked me in and let me sleep it off. I awoke to a new sense of entitlement, still walking a little like an Egyptian. Since I had the day off anyway I thought maybe I could get some work done on the spiral quilt. So creative, so happy, so sure of myself.

Today, I had to take out Mr. Tweezerman.

Sprial quilt, Paula Kovarik, 2012

a lovely cloudy day

I can't believe I am saying this. We FINALLY got some rain today. It is Spring in Memphis. Rain is a given, Beale Street Music Festival ALWAYS gets rained out. Why the change? What's up with the bluff city? Time and time again we watch the radar maps showing us storms travelling across the nation. They aim for memphis, they center around memphis and then they avoid memphis.

This little section on the spiral quilt is inspired by those clouds that pass in the day. I might add some lassos to tie them down. They are perfect for those little billowy areas created by the bias grain of this linen.

Paula Kovarik, 2012, clouds