Monday, January 30, 2006

Plenty to Report

Yes indeedy, Fiber Jedi! It's been a busy weekend.

Just when I thought the end was at hand, there was an emergency light fixture relocation:
Just a Man and his Wiring
In it's previous spot, the light's rays were obscured by my cupboard. It's now been moved toward the center of the room and I can't believe what a difference this makes!

Finally, the Head Elf handed over the keys and I began to move in:
Less Empty
Lots of room to grow here
We're at the tip of the iceberg here. There will be much sorting this week.

Just when you think there's progress, this happens:
Disaster
I don't know how....so much empty floor space, the machine all set up, longly calling me. I don't know. It all went so fast!

In the room, I've splayed out several recent pieces (none of them finished, but we're not talking about that now, -Riiight, PeeWee??-)
Nothing clever here
You can see most of all three works (note how the one on the floor blends in with the Bud Tugly carpet...let's analyze that another day, shall we?). Suddenly they feel like a 'style' to me. I'm often discouraged by not having a recognizable style. These three pieces seem cohesive (along with the little heart in my sidebar). This is mostly by chance, but there are a few probable causes:

-The Tub. Because my sewing room has been such a disaster, I've been working out of the same green tub of fabric since fall of 2004 (see it in the picture?). The tub was assembled for a workshop with Pamela Allen. Segments of it's contents have lived in smaller containers. But the tub always gets reassembled. New fabrics have been added to it here and there as I look for design solutions.
-Problem solving. My first heart quilt was a burst of inspiration that came from months of doodling. Everything made after that has been an attempt to fix some problem with that first quilt---a sense of movement, degree of color contrast, design control---whatever.
-Sticking to one thing. By and large, I've discarded most other assembly method and have focused on collage. I keep coming back to collage and I've purposely avoided trying some new techniques because I don't seem to have reached the bottom of the collage barrel yet. This mindset affects which magazines I buy, where I'm shopping for materials, and even which posts get read from certain lists.

See? I just look like a complete scatter brain. There truly is method to my madness. And I'm very slow. What takes some people two weeks to think through could take me a year. There is impercievable movement in the sludge I call 'brain', but discerning it is like watching grass grow--not exactly high action sport.

My husband, on the other hand, is my polar opposite. Witness the blitzkrieg that happened in my sewing room. I think his path in life is to get it all done.

My path is to figure out what I'm suppose to be doing in the first place .

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are so lucky to have this space and you will figure out what to do. I love those heart thingys you do.

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for humoring me. Love the studio and the work. Now, if I could just get moved into my new space.

teri

Miriam said...

i love your quilting style and your blog. the sewing space looks great... how about an update?