Keeping a Balance

The Quilty Resolution Challenge for this year is all about Balance in our quilting/sewing. The one that I made was: To pay attention to keeping the starting of new and finishing of old quilt projects so that overall my quilting time feels more balanced.

I decided to quantify for myself why I was feeling so out of balance lately as far as my quilting/sewing has been going now that I've gotten going again. Quantifying of course means...making some lists!

So last year, I finished these quilt/sewing projects: 

1. False Flag Sorbet
2. Tumblers
3. Retreat 
4. Midi Bag
5. Halloween Banner
6. Pulse Donation Quilt
7. Purple skirt

But I began and have yet to finish these new projects:

1. City Sampler, I've made all 100 blocks, but now need to assemble them into a quilt.
2. Italian ABC's  ditto.
3. Row by Row barely begun making a few blocks
4. Mini Waves cut out, some pieces sewn together
5. Pies n' Points a lot of it cut out, some pieces sewn together
6. Door Quilt - started in class
7. CQFA Round Robin at the ready to be quilted stage.

Weekly Study Square - well maybe this shouldn't really be on these lists, or it could be on it weekly I suppose. So that's 20 on the projects begun side and 20 on the projects completed side, so pointless to put on here.

So I'm actually balanced! Honestly, that surprises me quite a bit. I think the surprise comes from having a pre-existing way-too-long list of quilt/sewing projects. I think I'm up to 78 now. It's almost too much to keep track of, much less store in my workroom. But in the end, no one but me knows or cares about the length of that list, what's on it, how long it's been on there.

So far this year I've completed 0 quilts and have begun 2 quilts (Solstice and Calendar) so I'm already out of balance after a week and a half into the year...

Thanks, Sandy, for getting me to think about balance for the coming year.

Happy Happy New Year!

2012 is gone and 2013 is here.  Now what?  After quite a long blogging hiatus, unintentional and unplanned of course,  I'm getting back to it, so here I am.  There will be more art made this year, 2012 was quite a year of fallowness for me.  Not a whole lot got done, and I felt stymied and uninspired to create.  The blockage was created out of many things, and I picked the knot apart all the past year and figured my way out of the mess. 

At least I think so.

The picture above is a detail of a small rug that my husband brought back from a recent trip to India.  I believe it is probably intended to be a prayer rug because of the size, and it feels like silk.  We are not going to put it on the floor, because it would get ruined immediately.  Instead I plan to hang it on the wall.  The colors are intense and the design is lovely, I see something new every time I look at it.

A couple years ago I did a weekly six-word memoir quiltlet, and that was a really useful and inspiring exercise.  This year I am going to do a daily one. Daily, because I need to get back into the daily art making process.  That's what it all comes down to for me, the art doesn't happen unless I'm in the studio.
Many other quilt artists pick a size for projects like this and then stick with it all year, but I know myself and I just can't bring myself to put constraints like that on such a project.  I am going to start out trying a 9x9" shape and see how it goes, if I like it, then I'll stick with it until I don't.  Hey, it's for me right?  The only rules are that there are to be 9 words somewhere on it, including on the back.  Because I found with the six-word project, that sometimes the words don't need to be seen.    I'll be posting those here in groups of three. Yes, you're right, it's all multiples of three.

New Year's Day has such a different feel than any other of the whole year.  Anticipation of what's to come is high, there's freshness and newness that is unlike any other day.  It just feels more momentous somehow, the things I choose to do today, as if they'll echo throughout the year coloring it all with the intention and focus I bring to what I create.  So I'm choosing to make some art, make some good food, go for a good walk, those sorts of things.  I hope and wish for you a wonderful year ahead, may we all have good fortune, abundant health, and joyful inspiration.

Looking Back/Looking Forwards

1. Sculptures Left Unfinished, 2. Kate Winslet in The Reader, 3. København - Gammel Strand, 4. Happiness*, 5. 189/365--------roll with it, 6. Swinging the Blues, 7. pajaristco 3, 8. Immensité - Infinity, 9. CROP CIRCLE MAKER - Matthew Williams, 10. Lake Tekapo, 11. Knocking at the door of our heart!, 12. remains of the day

I got this year-turning Flickr meme from Chez Sacred Suzie.

Below is a list of questions.

Type your answer to each of the questions into Flickr search.

Choose an image using only the first page that comes up, then copy and paste each of the URL’s into the mosaic maker (adjust it to 3 by 4 or 4 by 3 to get 12).

1. Looking back on 2008, what might the theme have been? Unfinished

2. If 2008 was a movie, who would play you? Kate Winslet

3. What was your greatest gift of 2008? Family support

4. What is your New Year Resolution, or, what are you committing to this year? Blessedness

5. If January could be represented by one song, what would it be? Roll With It

6. What do you wish for your body in 2009? Relief

7. Name one new thing you would love to try in the New Year. Screen-printing

8. What do you long for 2009 to bring? Dreams

9. If that happened, how would you feel? Relieved

10. Where would you love to vacation in 2009 if money were no object? New Zealand

11. What would you like the theme of 2009 to be? Follow-through

12. If 2009 was a book, and the title was 5 words or less, what might the title be? Follow through Or Else