Samples, Stitches and New Directions
Another quiet week in the studio – but a satisfying one.
I’ve been spending my time working on samples using the new fabrics and panels that will be coming to the website soon. It feels good to finally see them come together.
I’m making a series of 12″ x 12″ pieces – there will be three in total – each using one of the 7″ square panels paired with a fabric pack. See photo below.
This is the first one I made and it’s finished and mounted on a 12″ x 12″ – 5/8″ wide canvas board as you can see from the second photo. I zigzagged the edges first and then stapled them to the back of the board. The last step will be to cover the staples with white duct tape, so it will be nice and neat and the staples won’t scratch the wall when hanging.
The second piece is still in progress and in my list of “To Do” this week – the free motion quilting part of it. This one is in blues, greys and greens, using – again – one of the 7″ x 7″ packs and a 5-fabric block pack.
Alongside those, I’ve also made a small quilt using one of the panels printed from my monoprints, combined again with a 7″ square and coordinating fabric.
So far, I’m really pleased with how they’re coming together. A few more still to go.
In the evenings, I’ve kept up with my stitching—working on both the book pages and my daily stitching. It always surprises me how quickly the month fills up, one small square at a time. As for the book pages, I’ve had to revisit a few after a trimming mishap earlier on. So I’m treating them as a kind of “Version 2”—repeating some designs, but changing them slightly. More stitches, different stitches, small shifts in design… and in some cases, entirely new pages emerging.
One thing I did differently this week: I stopped.
After lunch one day, I sat quietly and did nothing for a little while. No stitching, no planning, no thinking ahead. Just a pause. It felt… surprisingly good. And afterwards, I noticed ideas coming more easily, gently finding their way in.
I also had some lovely news this week. One of my pieces, A Walk Among the Rocks, has been juried into Grand National: Textures of Canada. I’m especially excited about this because it’s not a quilt, but a textile book I made last November during the Unbound class. It feels good to see that work out in the world.
And to round out the week, I taught a Sophisticated Monoprinting class on Friday – which, as always, was a joy.
A full, steady week. The kind I’m grateful for.
Thanks for reading. Until I write again, I’m off to do some free-motion quilting.
Ana
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Always enjoy your newsletter. I have been mono printing incorporating my photos then having the final print reproduced by having a local printer print it on fabric for me. Opens up tons of possibilities. TTFN
Sounds like you are enjoying the process. And it’s great you found someone local to print them for you. Have fun!
Hi Anna,
Thanks for sharing. I am happy to see that you are sending out emails again.
I think about what I learned from you often. I am with a new pain management program now; it seems that disc replacement is possible in Spokane if you know the right doctors.
To your point of “stopping”, we live with so much noise in our lives. TV, radio, podcasts, email.
I read once that it takes 16 pokes for a vendor to get someone’s attention.
My husband and I moved to a little farm in Washington. I was filled with ideas about what to do with the property when we first arrived. Pain slowed me down, ne….stopped me. Three years later I still have ideas about what to do, but the how to do them has changed. Listening is sometimes a difficult skill to learn. Filtering through the noise is more so. I know that I will get back to the projects that are pending. I know I will. When? After some very needed pain management procedures are completed. In the mean time, I will keep myself busy with a little knitting, a little reading and a little house work. Angel huggs and kisses to you, Missy.
Thanks for your lovely comment Cheryl. And I am so sorry you are dealing with pain. I hope you get a disc replacement soon. As far as doing stuff, the stuff will be there when you feel better and up to it. But it’s nice to know that the things you love will be waiting for you. In the meantime, reading, knitting and whatever your pain allows you to do is enough to keep creative. I send you all the best wishes for a prompt recovery. Love to you.
Hi Ana;
I love your circular embroidered block – the colours, the shapes, the
embroidery stitches.
It reminded me of the Home Decorating class I took decades ago. We made
a big poster collage of pictures torn from magazines of anything we
liked. I discovered I liked arches and circles in everything!
Your productivity impresses me. If I sewed every day for as long as you
do, I wouldn\’t have dozens of UFO\’s! I did do the Opus Art Supplies
Store Daily Practice Art Challenge again for the month of February. The
challenge is to do some art every day and post it to their instagram
gallery. They give away some weekly prizes which I\’ve never won but I
was inspired to send in something for 27 days. I did have two or three
1am bedtimes (extremely late for me) but I did it. I also took a three
day pen & watercolour course (two hours per week) on outdoor sketching
from Wendy Mould. I submitted my homework for three days of the
challenge. By the end of the month I had a nice collection of art to
show for it. It felt good. I think I did over half a dozen fabric art
pieces and the rest were pencils, pens, watercolour pencils and paint. I
finally can say I\’m an artist, with a straight face and not shaking my
head. If only I could keep doing some art every day. It would only
happen if my husband kept doing all the shopping, cooking, laundry,
phoning to check on relatives and we gave up socializing. and I quit
reading the paper and my email and watching TV. Maybe I could start with
doing art every other day.
I watched the SAQA Textile Talk today (like every week). They
interviewed \”Sunshine\”Joe Mallard. Lovely man. He said, \”Anyone can
start a quilting project. It takes a very special kind of person to
finish one.\” He made me want to try harder.
Bye for now,
Susan Penty
So nice to hear from you Susan, and to see that you are keeping busy and doing different things. I always think that it doesn’t matter what you do or how often you do it, as long as you do it, right? We all have different lives and obligations and it is nice to know that our art is there waiting for when we have a minute to add to it. Keep going! And stay in touch. Wishing you all the best,
Stunning work!
Thank you so much.