The good and the underwhelming

Last week I was reprimanded for only showing the good stuff and not showing what I was underwhelmed about. I thought about it and realized the comment was right, I should show the good and the bad. I've done enough daily projects over the years to  know that when I start something new I'm frequently disappointed with my early attempts. Yet if I can push through the early fumbling there's always the possibility to learn something. Not only learn a new technique or process and with continued practice master it, but also learn something about myself in the process.

My first daily project was a daily photo blog, omg! The first few weeks were extremely difficult but slowly it became more and more comfortable and after six years of daily photos I lost my interest.

In 2010 I did a mono print a day for the month of March. The first thirty days I did a circle in black on a twenty inch square of white linen. As I did them I learned how much paint, the best way to apply the paint, and how to get the fabric down without extra smudges and fingerprints. I ran out of linen and I wanted the last one to be big! So it was printed on a 52" square of cotton. If I had not done the first thirty prints I would never have known how to do the big one. The blog post with a picture of all thirty prints is here. This is the big one.

Monoprint #31

52"x52"

I've done daily stitching for over seven years, along with weekly stitching projects. They have all come with their own learning curve.

This brings me to my current 71 days of Mark Making. 71 days to commemorate my 71st birthday the day after I finish. I'm doing it because I have been enamored with some of the mark making posts I've seen on blogs and Pinterest. The ones that interest me the most are black on white and frequently a free form squiggle or shape. I have never been able to stick with any sketchbook or journaling for more than a few days, so my goal is to do 71, I'm on 24 which for me is a record. I've grouped the pictures so you don't have to scroll through 24 of them.

Done with India ink and a scruffy brush.

More India ink with a different brush.

The two on the left  with a brush, bottom right a straw, top right a charcoal pencil.

Pitt pen

A Pitt pen.

They look better in groups.

I've learned that doing what looks like an effortless squiggle is not easy. I've also realized that the people that are doing these have made more than one and for many of them it's a part of their everyday artwork. Instead of struggling and trying to do someone else's marks I've decided to make marks that I'm comfortable with and will work on loosening up.

I finished the Indigo Shibori quilt.

I've started playing with some of the wet cyan prints I did last fall.

Weekly Leaf #4

Before stitching

After Stitching

2018 daily Stitching

More french knots. 

I'll be linking up to "Off the Wall Friday"and "Slow Sunday Stitching"

Fractured Mono Prints #2

I've gotten the label and sleeve on the latest mono print piece so it is officially finished.

Fractured Mono Prints #2

73 1/2 " x 37"

Linda McLaughlin

2013

A close up.

Fractured Mono prints #1 and #2

I still have more  prints left so this could become a series.

In other news - my new Bernina has finally arrived and I will be going into Boise tomorrow to pick it up. Of course getting another machine is creating a space problem, or maybe it's just an organizing problem. 

 I want to be able to have both the Bernina and the old Janome set up at the same time. I have my old Bernina 1230 set up out in Studio B. I have a wonderful table that the Janome fits into, I want the Bernina to be in that spot. I think it will fit with some modification to the inserts in the table top.

Then I want to put the Janome in the very cluttered spot to the left of the table.

You can't see them because they are in the left corner under the piles, but there is a serger and a needle felting machine also in this spot. This picture might explain why they never get used. Also in this space is where I keep the plastic boxes that hold my daily,weekly and monthly project supplies, plus a bunch of other stuff. I'm getting my handy husband involved to get a longer piece of plywood so that it extends all the way to the sewing table and it will have legs like an actual table, not a board on two file cabinets. That means I have to find a place for the file cabinets and all the stuff. I'm hopeful that I'll soon be able to show a neater space with machines ready to use.

Daily project updates

365 Red Circles #199 - #206

Indigo and Rust #127 - #134

 Weekly project #30

Now linked to "Off the Wall Friday"

Monoprints now ready to quilt

I did some more tweaking to the monoprint arrangement, took away the bottom row, rotated some of the others and decided I was happy with it. Today I layered it and It's ready to quilt.

The last piece I did with monoprints took me almost a month to make a decision on how I was going to arrange them.

Daily stitching
365 red circles #149 - #152

 

Indigo and Rust #77 - # 80

Week #22

Rearranging mono prints

A few months ago I had gotten out some of my mono printed circles, but ended up putting them away again. Today I not only got them out, I cut each one into nine pieces and started rearranging them on my design wall. There's lots more rearranging to be done, but at least I've started.

I actually like this arrangement, but it feels very predictable. I have more that I can cut up and add to this, but most of them have a much heavier look, more paint and less background. I like the way some parts of this seam to float (at least in person, not so much in the picture). It's about 72" x 42" as it is.

My Janome has finally been fixed and is home after seven weeks in the shop and I've been using it to quilt some donation quilts I had pieced while it was gone.

My plantar fasciitis is still there but today is the most pain free it's felt in over two weeks.

Daily stitching projects are still on track.
365 Red Circles #143 - #148

Indigo and Rust #71 - #76

Week #21

This post now linked to Off the Wall Friday.

Socks and more mono prints

I'm a rather slow knitter, I average one pair of socks per winter but I have finished this winter's pair.

I've decided to cut up the 20" square mono prints that were in my last post. I have nine more the same size, so some of those will be cut up also. It will probably be a few weeks until I can start working on them so they've been put away so I'm not tempted. I found some mono prints on cotton that had been done about the same time.  I had already cut out parts of them but had enough left to cut out sixteen 3 1/2" squares, have sewn them together and will do hand stitching in black on them for my SAQA auction piece.

Daily stitching #353 - #358, plus a close up.

#60 - #65 plus close up

Week #10 plus close up

I've also finished the quilting on the queen size quilt and now have to sew the five sections together.

This post is now linked to "Off the Wall Friday", go over and see what others are doing.

Mono Prints revisited

In March of 2010 I did a mono print everyday. Thirty of them were on 20" square pieces of linen and the thirty first one was done on a 52" square of cotton. They were all circles, black on white. The last one (#31) was the most difficult to do, since it was so large,but it was my favorite and I hand stitched the whole thing with pearl cotton. It has been traveling with SAQA's "Beyond Comfort"show since early in 2011.

Mono Print #31

52" x 52"

Several of the other mono prints got cut up and rearranged last winter and then stitched with pearl cotton over the summer. I recently had it photographed.

Fractured Mono prints

68" x 50"

Yesterday I pulled out my favorites of the remaining prints and I want to do something with them. My original thought had been to just leave them as they are and do a giant nine-patch, but I really like what happened when I cut up and rearranged the others. So for now they are hanging out on my design wall waiting for me to make a decision.

There are several more hidden away in a drawer, that will probably join these if I decide to cut them up.

 Daily stitching #349 - #352, plus some close ups.

Daily Stitching #56 - #59

Weekly Stitching #9

This post is now linked to "Off the Wall Friday"