Thank You Robert Frost

Posted on March 10, 2014 by edges

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Cedar Waxwing. Is this not a stunning bird?

Cedar Waxwing. Dozens of them.

Valentine’s Day – Then and Now

Posted on January 30, 2014 by edges

I don’t much care for Valentine’s Day.

In a lifetime, we probably only have one or two Valentine’s Days that stay with us, that capture our memory, that hold the actual magic we see in the sentiments on a card.

My first came when I was 12 years old and in 7th grade. An 8th grade boy found out I thought he was cute (remember those days…good grief my son is heading straight into that territory in the next couple of years!) and he gave me this Valentine. Yes, it’s been 40 years and I still have it.

It was a real card, bought at a store, just for me.

My favorite part is the note on inside.

ur 2nice 2b 4 gotten. It was a tweet in the days before twitter. A text message that can’t be erased.

Even in this era of Facebook, I don’t know where he is, if he’s still alive or if he’s a millionaire or homeless. And I am quite sure I am 4 gotten.

Fast forward about 25 years. My husband bought an engagement ring intending to give it to me on Valentine’s Day. But when he got the ring, he couldn’t wait another day and asked me to marry him on Jan. 31. That Valentine’s Day was the sweetest I can remember. Engaged, in love, happy.

This Valentine’s Day, I took to the sewing machine.

I created a little card for my husband using scraps and pieces of lace I had in the back drawers of my sewing room.

The flowers were cut from some old flea market hankies that were stuffed in a drawer for 15 years…no heirlooms to me, just hidden away so I pulled some out and found the perfect Valentine flowers.

I used the machine to add embellishments, sentiment and personalization. I also played with a little transfer artist paper to add musical notes that my husband would understand.

And of course I added the date. Because, you know, 40 years from now, this time in my life will be 2 nice 2b 4 gotten.

When I showed it to my son, he said, “I don’t think Dad is going to appreciate that.”

“Why not?” I said, not sounding at all crushed.

He just laughed and shook his 11-year-old-almost-a-teenager head.

Men.

Like I said. I don’t much care for Valentine’s Day.

Christmas Embroidery

Posted on December 20, 2013 by edges

Maybe I’m feeling blue this Christmas. Maybe I’m just inspired by all the recent snow we’ve had. Whatever the reason, the other day, I was driving down Randall road and a small grove of trees (weeds?) against a snow bank caught my eye.

On a side road I can usually stop and take a picture to capture the scene and the light. But not this time. This time I was in a hurry, running around doing Christmas errands, etc. No time to stop and enjoy anything. No time to stop and take artsy pictures. No time.

But the little vignette stayed with me.

And eventually, I had to sketch it out.

Within minutes, I had embroidered it in my mind. If I were using paints, it would be so much easier. Mixing a paint color does not require hunting down the right fabric. When you paint, you don’t have to purchase 3 different colors of paint to help decide which is right. You simply mix the colors yourself.

Besides, I wasn’t thread painting. I was digitizing. When you digitize you can start with a very simple sketch. The rest is done in software. I drew and assigned colors in software.

Here’s my little sketch. Squeezed in during the holidays, because it simply wanted to exist. I had no time for it. But it found its own way out.

Merry Christmas to all of you, and a happy and blessed new year. May all your artwork find its way out.

It’s about 12 inches wide

In progress.

The view from the sewing room.

The 30 second sketch I used to start digitizing.

The 30 second sketch I created to start digitizing.

More Paintings

Posted on September 2, 2013 by edges

I painted both of these…probably 20 years apart. One was from a place I had actually visited, and the other from a postcard.

Can you tell which is which?

Maybe it’s obvious to you. It is to me.

I worked hard on both of them. One is a study in nature, the other…a study in nature. If you’ve ever painted, you know that when you are in the middle of a painting, you are in that location. You have to be. Whether it is coming from your imagination, or from a picture, or whether it was your experience in real life, at the moment that you are painting, you are there.

It would explain why I love to paint landscapes, scenes of tranquility or astounding beauty. Whether I am in that location or not, I have most certainly traveled there in my mind.

But a painting done from life experience almost always has more courage. It is more expressive, and usually more emotional. It may not be the best at capturing details but it captures a moment. And, on a good day, lets the viewer in on the wonder.

Ready for the answer? I gave enough hints. I’m sure you know by now.

The top one was from our honeymoon in Hawaii. I dragged my not-a-morning-person newlywed husband out over a bluff along the shore in Kauai. We sat together in the dark, listened to the relentless surge of the ocean and watched the sun come up. It turned out to be a stunning display, becoming more brilliant with every passing moment.

The other is a painting I did a few years after high school, from a lovely postcard. I don’t really even know the exact location. Wyoming, maybe? But I do love the mountains and so painting it was joyful.

Which is the better painting?

Well. I leave that up to you.

O the Weather Outside is Frightful

Posted on August 7, 2013 by edges

Table runner with text on a path, applique, free standing lace and an embroidery from the new collection Urban Doodles: Lilies with Spheres.

Not really. The weather outside is not frightful at all. In fact it’s quite delightful.

However, in the world of quilting and embroidery, we’re already thinking ahead to fall and winter and gearing up for the holidays. If I waited to start my fall quilting projects until it’s really fall, I’d never get them finished on time. So, we quilters and embroiderers start getting excited about new holiday fabric right about now.

This particular project involved embroidery text set on a path. This month in the August Software Sampler, Amanda Whitlatch will cover all of this in detail and much more, so be sure to visit Sew Generously or your local Bernina dealer to attend or find out more.

Using V6 embroidery software, go into Art Canvas and set up a vector shape for the text to follow. See below. You don’t have to use a spiral, you can create a freehand line, or use a rectangle or another shape. I just had some fun with the spiral.

Next, click the text icon on the left, then go to the text menu and click “Fit Text to Path” . Type in your text. Select all. Then click the icon on the left that says “Convert text to embroidery.” This will open embroidery canvas, and your text will be converted.

Be sure to check your text to make sure it is large enough to stitch out properly. You can always increase the size, but at this point it will be treated as a graphic and not as text.

I want to create a couple of mug rugs to match the table runner using this text below.

Have a little fun with this, and be sure to visit your local quilt shops soon.

The Northern Illinois Quilt Shop Hop is still on until the end of August.

You can still enter drawings, get 15% off your purchases, and best of all, most of the shops now have the newest holiday fabrics in store! So start planning your projects– because as soon as the kids are back in school and that first North Wind begins to blow, we both know you’ll be itching to get behind that sewing machine!

Pour It On

Posted on August 2, 2013 by edges

We had a garage session yesterday. And when we were done we had art.

Here’s all it takes. Some unstretched canvas. We got ours at the Art Box in Geneva.

Side note: The owner is very talented. I love the direction his art is taking lately. His shop is both a studio and art supply store. I believe he also teaches. Ironically, his shop is right across from the Egg Harbor Cafe. So many good things are located near an Egg Harbor Cafe!!

Anyway, you’ll need unstretched canvas and Golden liquid acrylics (which can be purchased at Blick’s in Wheaton.)

That’s it. And water.

I want to give a shout out to Alyce from Fine Line Creative in St. Charles. I took a class with her and learned this technique and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning to do poured paintings. She is a lovely woman, and has the patience of a saint.

As you can see, kids love this technique. It’s very freeing. Here’s the dialogue running through my son’s head: “Oh that is so cool. I see an angel, with people all around. Wow, look at that, now I see a witch and spooky clouds. This is so COOL!”

Adults, here’s the dialogue that runs through our head: “That is so cool. Oh but we’re wasting a lot of canvas, and look that expensive paint is just running down and we’ll have to throw it out, and oh maybe I shouldn’t put that here and what if I ruin it? Maybe the purple is too dark and where do I start and what if I just make a mess.”

I remember a woman in the class who was paralyzed by the blank sheet. She stood holding her paint over it for what seemed like hours, trying to talk herself into letting go. She didn’t know where to begin.

The beauty of this process is that the artist is not entirely responsible for what is created. The paint plays a role which you absolutely cannot control or predict.

That takes a huge burden off of us. It doesn’t have to be perfect. I don’t have to be perfect. Paint does what it does. I can’t control it, I don’t want to control it. If it’s beautiful, then, look what happened? If it’s ugly, then, eew, look what happened.

I love this technique and invite you to try it sometime. No pressure. Just art.

Needle Punch Peonies

Posted on May 10, 2013 by edges

As I wait for this years’ peonies to find the courage to rise and bloom, I am inspired by a picture of last years’, and so I pulled out some wool, some roving and decided to needle punch a bouquet of peonies. If you are not familiar with needle punch, it is the process of using needles to insert colored fabric into another fabric. The process of punching the roving into the wool actually creates a whole new fabric because both fabrics become one.

Here’s an example of some roving, which is essentially semi-processed wool or cotton fibers.

Samples of dyed roving.

Needle punching on the sewing machine.

Using special needles on a machine and a needle punch foot, you can use your sewing machine to “punch ” the roving down into the wool fabric below. You’re not using any thread, and if you have thread sensors on your machine, you’ll want to turn them off. After that, the process is a lot like painting with watercolor, or more precisely, like charcoal drawing, using the different colors of the roving to create shading, shapes and color.

My intent was to capture the carefree way the flowers moved and “relaxed” into the group. I always want to loosen my style. Sometimes my art is uptight. One of the reasons I enjoy working with fiber over paint is the amount of control that one must give up to the medium. That’s exciting and unpredictable. (Some people love precision and this may be frustrating for you.)

After punching out the basic shapes, just add some background texture.

Adding texture through small quilting patterns. I added some batting to the back for stability.

Adding texture through small quilting patterns. Add batting to the back for stability.

What it looked like before I added the topstitching.

What it looked like before topstitching.

As the final touch, add topstitching to the whole arrangement. This brings a bit of dimension, with a “pen and ink” feel. All of this is very textural. Interesting to look at, interesting to touch.

Anyone can do this with a little inspiration, some wool, and some roving. You can purchase hand needle punch kits at any craft store and I’m sure most sewing machine manufacturers have some form of needle punch accessory. (Bernina does, for certain!) After that, the sky’s the limit.

Machine tip: Be sure to clean out your sewing machine really well after doing needle punch.

Now get out there and have fun!!

Final piece. Not sure if I’ll turn it into a pillow cover or garment or something else entirely!

Whooshing Poems

Posted on February 19, 2013 by edges

Have you ever been called to create something? I’m not talking about receiving a phone call, or a commission request, or even an inspiration from a fabric or pattern.

I’m talking about a full-press, hard-core, wonder-full, mystical, unexplainable urge to create. I’m talking about brief clarity from the signal of cosmic consciousness, the Holy Spirit, the Great Mystery, a siren wave of energy from the universe.

Sounds melodramatic? Maybe. But I think we hear from it all the time–especially those of us who are creators. And I don’t think it’s always about huge endeavors. My experience is that sometimes, something in the universe just wants or needs to be created, and it searches for a receptive mind/spirit to assist in manifestation. The key word here is “receptive”.

You can call me crazy for this belief, but one day a couple of years ago, I watched a TED presentation that reminded me that I am not alone. I’ll attach a link to the entire presentation by Elizabeth Gilbert. The part that stuck with me the most was the visual of an American poet who told Elizabeth that sometimes she would be out in the field with her family when she felt a poem coming…she could see, feel it heading toward her, and she had to drop everything, run into the house and write it down before it whooshed past her. If she missed it, the poem would continue on, in search of another poet.

Wow.

I wish I were always so in tune with the universe. Here’s a link to Elizabeth Gilbert’s entire presentation, and a quick view of the next thing I’m going to create. I don’t know why. I don’t ask why any more.

But I’m up for the task.

Adventures in Zentangles

Posted on July 30, 2012 by edges

I’ve never tried this til now. In a project for work, we needed to create a few of these with the idea that zentangle doodles could be used for stitches or for machine quilting.

Drawing zentangles is a simple process from what I can decipher, though I think it is supposed to be meditative. For me, it’s doodling with a purpose. Here are a couple of my zentangles, but if you are interested visit zentangle.com to find out more.

How crazy are these things? The good news is that I don’t think I would ever sit down by myself to draw this way. Ever. Basically, you draw a squiggle line on a piece of paper and begin to doodle around the edges, letting yourself just flow with whatever line formation comes to mind. If you feel like tiny small squiggles, great. If you feel like giant bold strokes, OK too. Miraculously, eventually, patterns emerge and no matter where I started, I was surprised by the ending.

Despite my original skepticism, I did find it calming. Like any repetitive task, it required just enough concentration to stay focused, but not so much as to cause frustration. And in a world where I spend very little time completely focused on one small task, it’s a refreshing exercise. In the end, I’ve created…well, I don’t know what I’ve created–something unusual from my hand and my brain. Good enough for me!

Edgestitch

Sewing is life. Life is art.

Category Archives: art