Long Skinny Batting and Anger Management

I think those two things are related...I don't know about you...

My daughter reminded me last night that I had told her to remind me that I was supposed to make long skinny quilts for a while to use up all those long skinny pieces of batting that are taking over my house because I can't bear to throw them out and I don't like piecing batting even though mom tells me it works fine but I just don't believe her. I personally think (and my cat Juniper agrees) that long skinny pieces of batting are supposed to be cat beds. Just pile them up and let the sleeping begin.

Tomorrow I'm supposed to teach a lesson on Anger Management. That ought to be interesting. The kids are supposed to draw what they look like when they're angry. I'll try to get permission from a couple of them to photograph those...I love kid drawings. They are wondrous...if you get them before someone tells them they're doing it wrong. I can look back at my old drawings and tell you EXACTLY when someone (not a family member) told me I was doing it wrong. 10 years old. And I didn't figure it out again until I was 19 or 20. I still drew all that time...it was just very hard and I spent more time trying to draw what other people wanted (or what I thought they wanted) than drawing what was in my head. I'm so much happier about drawing now. It's so much easier. Now all I need is the TIME to draw.

Grateful Dead on My Head

I was looking at my long skinny drawing again and trying to figure out from whence it came. It's not Mouse & Kelley (although they did influence my art), but Rick Griffin. I was looking at one of his books, which I think I got way back in college, and I see the skull and roots (wish I'd looked at this before I finished the drawing...I really like his skull...OK, maybe I'm glad I didn't look at it before). This is a detail from one of his Grateful Dead posters.



I was a little paranoid about copyright, but I found the whole thing online here:
http://www.sixtiesposters.com/images/aor2.24.jpg

or at least another version of it (it shows up in more than one place). And then I saw THIS one (ooh aah) and about 14 new ideas popped into my full little brain.

http://www.sixtiesposters.com/images/aor314.jpg

Sigh. There are not enough hours in the day. Or night. What I really need to do is start drawing for the next Husqvarna show. And THIS year, I'm going to make sure I read the correct theme...so I don't mess that up like last time. But I don't ever draw things in squares. Except for Husqvarna.

Long Skinny Drawing update

I finished the drawing today, I think. So much for my trying not to make this future quilt way too long...it's 34" long now, and it needs to be blown up at least 200%. And that's without any borders on it. Oh well...life sucks and has lots of little pieces to be cut out. I'm really happy with the drawing itself...it has lots of details and strange things happening in it, and it looks like a cross between Mouse & Kelley psychedelic posters and Dr. Suess on LSD. And I'm OK with that.

Long Skinny Drawing

I started this drawing this morning (this is just a small part of it). It begs to be really really long and skinny, so I'm dragging the kidlets out to Kinko's today to copy the bottom of the drawing so I can continue drawing the legs on the next page. It has no name yet. I'm going to try to keep more quilts in progress during the school year in 2006. It's hard to do, because school sucks up so much of my brain, but I don't feel like I made enough quilts last year. There are bits and pieces I can work on more at scouts and soccer and meetings. Anyway, ask me how I feel about that in 3 months' time...



All my quilts start out as line drawings on 14x17" paper, then get blown up, numbered, traced onto Wonder Under, then ironed onto fabric, blah blah blah. For an average quilt, it's about 60-100 hours from drawing to finished quilt. One of my students (age 12) asked me last week, if I won the lottery, would I still teach? I said I would finish out the school year, but if it was enough money, I'd stay home and make art. I might volunteer in school or elsewhere. Anyway...it's not an option (in fact the lurking need for a second job has been looming over my head the last few months). If I'm lucky, this drawing will become a finished quilt sometime in April (can you say Spring Break???).

Star Wars cake

Minimum Day at school today because of finals. I finished up early and came home (with kids...remembered to pick them up...good idea) ready to pick out the rest of the fabrics for the misty Grand Canyon block next in the Southwest quilt (remind me to bash the designer of this quilt for picking a misty grayed-out picture...a true pain to pick fabrics), but NO. First I must make a cake for the scouts' Cake Bake pack meeting tonight. The theme: Star Wars. I ask my son what he wants to do (whole thing has to be edible). He knows about the Star Wars movies. He's seen most if not all of them. He doesn't like it when there's kissing. He wants to make a cake with the constellation of Orion battling the constellation of Scorpio (Scorpio wins, in case you're wondering). So. Get it? STAR WARS...a war of star constellations. What a geek. That is what I did with my "free" time on Friday afternoon. I have an hour left, so I will try to finish picking misty Southwest fabrics...a contradiction in terms there. I don't have colors that are a sort of orangy-brown with mist in front of it. Enjoy the cake. It's chocolate. No fabric was harmed in the making of this cake.

More Husqvarna News

I like the word "husqvarna". It has so many interesting things going on in it.

1. Here's my "rockstar" story. My mom was in the local sewing machine store signing up for classes, and when they saw her last name, they asked if she was related to me. "Why yes, I am," she replied (a friend thinks she should have said, "Why yes, I MADE her," but I'm kinda glad she didn't). Then they pull out the Husqvarna MasterPieces catalog and show her my quilt. Man, I haven't even seen the catalog (well, until today, yay!). So I am a rockstar in this tiny sewing machine store (which happens to be the same store that told me I should start saving for a new machine because my 25-year-old Viking may bite the dust any day now).

2. My daughter read my statement for the quilt in the Husqvarna show. It's a horrible statement. I won't even admit here why it's horrible, but it is. In it is the statement "Born in Alaska, lost in California." My daughter wants to know what I mean by that. She's 8. I ain't explainin' it. I'm not sure I can anyway.

Finishing Things

I finished appliqueing Natural Bridge in Bryce National Park. Um, OK, I finished appliqueing a picture of Natural Bridge in San Diego. The bridge is in Bryce. I was in San Diego while I was appliqueing. Are you confused yet? I have a friend who photographed a bunch of southwestern landmarks and rocks and bridges and arches, and then she's turned them into applique patterns for this small group I've been sewing with for a long time. I do these kind of as a hobby. I find them relaxing to make, even if they are someone else's pattern. I still pick the fabrics, and as Susan (the designer) will tell you, I occasionally revise the pattern.


On New Year's Eve Day, I hiked up Cuyamaca Peak in San Diego County. I had only gotten halfway up this peak on a previous attempt, because it started snowing and I wasn't dressed for it. Then the Cedar Fire went through Cuyamaca in October 2002 and I had a hard time returning to the park. Hiking the peak this time, it was like walking through a graveyard in some ways, but despite the incoming storm (I have a thing for hiking and storms, apparently), there was new growth everywhere...although you can't tell that from this photo. I guess I'm finished with avoiding Cuyamaca.

Getting into (or not) shows

That's a really badly worded title. I didn't get into the Changing the World One Thread at a Time show. Oh wait, I didn't enter! Bwa ha ha. Thanks to my school district for scheduling three or four 11-hour days of parent-teacher conferences.
I did enter Visions. Oh wait, I SHOULD say, I sent Visions my biannual donation. One wishes it were tax-deductible. I am posting only a detail shot of the newest quilt, So Deep, So Wide. More later.

Here's part of Congenial Liar in progress. I have ironed this partial face together (it's Wonder-Undered) and it's ready to be put on the background. Big Mouth. It needs inking. This quilt top also needs stitching. It's huge, so it'll be a while before it gets done. I'm thinking Spring Break.

Quilt Art Journal Quilts

The journal quilts in the post from October were exhibited in Houston at the International Quilt Show. They then travel for a year to a variety of shows along with everyone else's journal quilts. You were supposed to make 9 quilts and then pick 5 for the exhibit. The main page for the journal quilts is http://www.quiltart.com/2005journals. My quilts are on page 15 (http://www.quiltart.com/2005journals/2005journals15.html). I'm intrigued by the naked woman being paired with the...is that a bear with a globe for genitalia? I'm REALLY intrigued.

Limbo's Butt

This is Limbo jumping off the dryer. Limbo's butt (and legs). I really like this picture. It is the essence of cat. My son took it. He was going to delete it, but I wouldn't let him. Rejoice in cat butt.