flippytale Quilter

Art Journey with a Quilty Voice:
I here Voices. The Voices tell me to cut up Fabric. Good Fabric. Into small pieces. Small interesting pieces.
Then the Voices tell me to put them back together again. In interesting ways.
.... I must Obey ....

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Consuming Focus

All my thoughts are about my upcoming trip. But I got a chance to sew last night. When chaos swirls around me sewing is my quiet moment to reflect. I feel connected to my past and my future.

All though my trip will be work related I am constantly plotting how I can find fabric, will I find fabric, how will I get away so I can look for it and still do my job.

I also think of what to bring to work on, I will need that pause so I can reflect on my day and unwind, will there be unwinding? Or will my days involve endless work, sleep, work, sleep. I want to take my iPod with me, wonder if anyone will notice the Hmong applique I made my skin out of?

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Now to get a bite to eat and sew some more, I will center myself for tomorrow and think of items for my list...



Yeah!!! I've been accept into the web-ring...

Monday, May 22, 2006

hmm

oh wait, make that in two weeks ... wow

Change of pace

I just found out today that I am going to China for work in three weeks! Boy, did my priorities shift just like that. I want to sew some more, but now I realize that my mind is racing ... I have to get my application out to IQA as soon as possible. Again the question of this weekend's travel plans, do I keep them. It would be good to get away, how much can I accomplish during a holiday weekend? The road trip will be a release.

My mantra... "roll with it"

Crazy Nines top is done:
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Yet unnamed bed quilt is back in progress ... I think ...
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Sunday, May 21, 2006

Houston International Quilt Fest!

My plan is to enter Tucker in one more show ... International Quilt Festival, Houston, TX this fall. The form is finally available and all I have to do is fill it out and mail it. One more goal to accomplish! Entry forms are due June 30th .... yeah!

quilts.org

Tucker and me at AQS in Paducah!
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Saturday, May 20, 2006

Working ...

I split my time between fooling about with the new internet service, luckily not to much to get started with. (punctuated with mowing the lawn and triming dead flowers) Drafting my Tucker pattern in Illustrator, and finishing my "Crazy Nines" quilt top. My goal is to get to the quilt underneath the nine patch quilt and sew most of it together ... tomorrow ... and mail Tucker pattern off to the copyright office this week.

Good goals, because while preparing Tucker I found two more quilts that I need to copyright.

I want to start selling my patterns, they are not easy, but they are not hard, if someone enjoys looking at them they may enjoy working on one for themselves. It would be great for me, a satisfying moonlighting goal.

Speed

Wow, I just had high-speed internet installed, its great...it has nothing to do with quilting, but it is great. I can surf to those quilting sites faster now...

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Artful Quilters Web Ring

Ok, got that in, let's see what happens next... whoo-hoo, what only half an hour to sew a bit before I must put myself to bed. Fooled around with the links for a bit, my HTML is pretty rusty. Guess I'm not getting enough of my fabric vitamins.

Got to dig out the Tucker pattern and make copies so I can protect that design. oohhh, I need to make a list that I can check off, that would be cool, and smart, ... a good list that is here and I can't loose. It will help with my project that I want to finish. *snap* goes my mental whip...

Copywrites

Wow, I've got to get off the stick and copywrite a couple of my patterns, especially the Tucker quilt that I recently showed at Paducah. I am proud of it and would love to sell the pattern to others, but not with out a legal copywrite...

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Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Marathon

Well, I have languished long enough in my "other" projects... it is time to complete my latest project. While stewing in the misery of knowing I must move on into new phase in my profession I have been escaping from my projects that sing to my heart. My guild has a challenge to create a quilt from our hearts, from the soul, the ultimate quilt. Now I have squandered the time to this weekend to do it in. ...Focus on the finish line.

Today I watch TV and work on my distractions, preparing for my marathon to complete my dream.

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Monday, May 15, 2006

And More... Its Monday

I must take my quilt vitamin and fortify myself for the day. Five days in exchange for payment.

Its Monday, and I begin my week again, but my head is in my fabric, thinking of shapes and colors and ways to stitch them together. I drag my feet, I putter around ... here... and I need to face the day.

So, I will sew for a few minutes and fortify myself before I leave. It is the stitches in my armour that protect me from the what the day demands of me.

Three Day Weekend

Do I need to spend three days with people who only find humor in what is important to me? Is friendship worth that? I've spent years protecting myself from this type of ridicule, do I really need to expose myself to this again? Three days are valuable to me and I could do so much more with that extra day. Will the sacrifice be appreciated? Usually not, it will most likely be casually tossed aside and disregarded...squandered. My sanity is paramount, sewing regains that sanity. I cannot look to validation outside of me, it is never there. The solace of sewing and reveling in my own universe is preferred, my time is appreciated there.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Progress

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Fabric Cache

I was fortunate enough to receive a basket of fabric from an aquaintance last summer (we did not become friends...long complicated story, not to be revealed here). Most were not something that I would want personally, but I planned to share with others. But, I ended up not giving most of it away like I planned, I have instead, felt obligated to create quilts from the stash to give to others. I would rather see a completed quilt go to someone than bits of fabric just go into someone else's stash for who knows how long.

So I sew, for someone else, I don't know who yet, but my own projects wait for me to fill this need.

So far three have been made and in different stages of completion, all are traditional;
a quilt has been made from the plaids I found,
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a blue hued quilt made from an online mystery quilt (it wasn't a mystery when I started, I already knew the pattern, but enjoyed following the direction),
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and now a nine patch that is predomantly green and brown. It has grown, but I started with 20 six inch exchange blocks from my guild.
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I must have enough for two or three more left in the cache.

The traditional patterns are fun to make because sometimes I just need to sew stuff together and not analyse the design too much. Rotary cut ... zip ... sew ... zip ... think ... think ... meditate ... create.

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Saturday, May 13, 2006

Getting Started

This is my opportunity to share my thoughts as a life long artist. Mostly misunderstood, but certainly my own journy. Can't understand it, can't prove it, but I travel it anyway.

I paint with fabric, I never know what I will do next and what I will finish. Somtimes my thoughts are profound, sometimes they are technical. This will also be a journey...

Where will it take me? Why do I post this so that some one else might find it? Who will see it except me....