Using creative time to feel normal... quilting, painting, memories of a granny

 

I finished the golden circle this week, and here's a photo of it with the other warm colors. I took this to show the difference between the yellow and gold. 

In doing the rsc this year, I picked my last 4 colors to use, since I wanted 12 blocks for my quilt. I love quilt making for the pattern, color and lines. 

The more the merrier says I, so I adore scrap quilts.

Being a painter, I'm used to mixing colors, seeing what colors come from different proportions. I think our eyes blend color which is why pointillism interests me

I approach paintings/drawings/ and quilt making differently although each relies on the same principles of art. 

(thank you for allowing me to talk about something familiar and safe for a moment, carrying me out of the constant worry about the future in America) 

I sewed the half hexies in red to the edge of this little piece by the end of the week because well you have to do something during sit and stare time

I sat and basted the center hexies on a plane ride home from the Houston show one year. It was the year I met my good friend I called "plane-mate-Pat. We sat next to each other and didn't stop chatting the whole ride, kept up with each other in Maryland after that, and became close over the years. 

She's in Heaven now, her breast cancer treatments changed her body, her meds for arthritis reduced her resistance, and she died from what started as a cold. She was such a good person. So I put the hexies away for years and recently pulled them out to sew. 

(Pat's laughing from Heaven) 

I added in the half hexies instead of sewing it to a base fabric. Why? more sewing time to handle it and think of the next step, what to add and how to quilt it.

While mindlessly wandering around the house I spied two packages of pre-cut 5" squares bought on a big sale. I thought, I will just sew them together without too much thought. I put them in mesh bags to wash (yep even precuts get washed here, as I don't need a chemically induced migraine too.

to get to know the patterns I laid them out on the cutting table in groups and thought, wow, meh. Bland. 

perfect for who cares sewing. 

I fleetingly thought of doing more, like 9 patches

but there are 80-ish squares and this won't add up to a lap quilt shape. Plus I don't like it.

I considered 4 patches but those would probably require setting strips to set them off. 

My ribs will not allow me to use a rotary cutter lately, and I don't see the chiro for 10 days

DH is not good at cutting strips for me to use. He's willing but not so able, I think it's his eyes and reluctance to be good at something he doesn't want to do, LOL

Before I stopped for the night I put all squares up on the design wall. I sort of arranged them to give me some order. Stepping back I thought... meh.   The line if from leslie riley, and it doesn't excite me

the graphics are odd when cut in squares and I wonder if I'd like the fabric as a whole? 

It does look better in a photo.  Maybe I'll tweak it by forming more 4 patches with the only bold color, brick red. 

That picture reminds me of Granny...

My granny made quilts from old clothing. She figured out ways to put color and pattern together. An early memory was of standing by her rocking chair and watching her hand stitch squares and sometimes sewing odd shapes to ripped out pages of the old phone book, early paper piecing. She must have gotten tired of me hovering, so she put me to her mother's treadle machine and gave me my own ugly squares and showed me how to stitch a straight line, then went back to her chair.

I was surprised to be handed the keys to the quilting kingdom then left  alone. What power! I spent time planning and learned to control that machine, my long legs were able to set a rhythm and my little head bent over the throat plate watching the needle go up and down. 

It had a certain smell, as did those old patches, but it was mine. Granny left me that precious machine when she passed. I have it still after so many moves. 

It represents so much. 

The connection between an older woman and her adopted grand daughter

The start of a lifetime love of fabric

The joy of controlling a powerful machine to make my art

A tentative connection between Granny's mother who ordered the treadle by mail in the 1800's, to a rural farm in Alabama, and me. What was she like? I assume it cost a lot for her, and she made clothing for she and her daughter (granny) I wish I'd known questions to ask before Granny moved up to Heaven

It was the start of independent art making for me, making decisions and seeing the outcome. 

An initiation into the world of being able to make clothing and quilts unique to me. 

A child who was so beaten down by authoritative parents who took all decisions from her, who controlled even her body, could see a place to go to express herself safely. 

Changing the subject.... painting 

here are some paintings done last month

before doing an art lesson I like to draw and sometimes paint the teachers, in my sketchbook

Iris painted with watercolor on the left, and gouache on the right. Raw, quick, impressions. Free

there are a few more I haven't shared that I think I'll put on an I Like post next week. If ... 

linking to

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com

patchwork Sunday   

oh Scrap Sundays

 slow stitching Sundays

https://melvalovesscraps.blogspot.com/

design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts

https://songbirddesigns.blog/

http://www.inquiringquilter.com/ Wednesday wait loss

Midweek makers wednesdays  

http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/

finished or not

https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/

https://beadwright.blogspot.com/

https://myblog-lunchbreak.blogspot.com/