What if . . . ?

Day 3 of the workshop. I'm tired, but excited to find out what is in store today.

Today's theme was Jump-Starting Your Art Quilt. First we talked about how different emotions translate into colors or shapes. Then we had about 10 minutes to sew something that reflected an emotion. Most people chose happiness.

I wasn't pleased with the one I did. My sewing machine started acting up as soon as I started sewing. It wouldn't stop sewing when it was supposed to. Perhaps some of my frustration was reflected in my "happy" piece.

The next sewing exercise involved mind mapping. We had to free-associate words and then make something reflecting the last word. Don't ask me to explain my progression of words, but I started out with "pants" and after about twenty words I had something that had no relationship to "pants."

Can you tell what this is? The answer is at the end of this post.

We had a limited time for this, so I didn't bother to change out my foot to allow free-motion stitching. In other words, I could make better spirals than this if I wanted to. ;) I do like this one, and it taught me that I can quickly come up with something if forced to. 

I can't say I like the idea of deciding to make a quilt when you don't have an idea for it. Maybe if you had some really great fabric and you didn't know how to use it, this would be a good way to go. It makes more sense to me to have an idea first and then decide to make a quilt based on your idea. But that's why I'm taking this class - to learn new approaches to creativity, to move outside of my comfort zone. If you know me, you know that I am excellent at following directions, but not proficient at working without directions.

Next, we had time to finish the project started late yesterday. The prompt was to make something with  three colors. It didn't have to be two neutrals and a color - just any three colors. I like this type of prompt. It is enough of a guideline to make me feel like I am following directions, but enough of an open-ended assignment to make me feel like I am stretching myself to be creative.

I'm still not sure about putting emotions and feelings into a quilt, but I wanted to do more with "design" than stripes. I decided to work on scale. I had some 5" squares that I bought in Hawaii - at Hilo Hattie's, as a matter of fact. (Hattie's was nicer than I expected it to be. Yes, a tourist trap, but they had a lot of things you would actually want, including some gorgeous Hawaiian quilts.) I hadn't been able to figure out what to do with the squares, so I decided now was the time. I took my three colors from one of the Hawaiian squares.

Here it is on my design wall

It turns out that it is quite tricky to sew a lot of shapes together when they are different sizes. I didn't get to finish this project, but I got a few of the pieces sewn together and I have an idea how I am going to do the rest. I will add a blog post when it is finished.

One of the class members works with sun prints and she brought some treated fabrics so that we could all try it out. I had forgotten to find something interesting at home last night, so I decided to use a phone cord, thinking I would get some nice swirly shapes. (It didn't work so well because the cord would not lie flat. I didn't want to tape it down or put a rock on it, because that would become part of the print.) I think if I cut it up, I will have some interesting pieces of fabric. 

Sun print of my phone cord

Some of the prints made by others were much better and more imaginative. Here is a piece Nan made using sun prints of a rotary cutter blade, a pair of scissors, and shibori, which is similar to tie-dye.

I loved many of the projects made by others in the class. It was so interesting to see what they came up with. I took a few photos, but did not have a chance to obtain permission to post them on my blog. (There's a lesson on time management there.)

Lesson learned:

I think the most important lesson I learned from Rayna is to say "What if . . . ?"

What if you moved that piece over here?
What if you added more blue?
What if you made a place for your eye to rest?
What if . . . ?

You can say "What if . . . ?" to other people in all sorts of situations. You can even say it to yourself. It goes way beyond quilting. It doesn't sound like you are being criticized or corrected or told what to do. It sounds like the speaker is thinking out loud with you and inviting you to join in. I love it! Rayna said it a LOT during this workshop.

Nan and Rayna

All good things must come to an end. What if I finish the three pieces from this weekend? What if I make another art quilt, without a safety net? What if I stop telling myself I'm not creative? Thank you, Nan and Rayna!




Answer: I ended the mind map with the words "cocoa," and then "steam." My piece is probably too literal, but at least I came up with something in a very limited time, and at least I left out the mug because I realized that would make it more of a picture and less of an idea.