Lockdown Day 2

It's Friday, Day 2 of Covid-19 Lockdown NZ Edition. I set my alarm for half an hour before everyone else and greeted the day in peaceful seclusion. I think I'm going to do that regularly just to get some alone time.

I made a cup of tea. I stood on the deck and listened to the dawn chorus and the one solitary car that went past in the distance. I sewed a few quilting lines on my quilt. I watched the sky turn light, then pink, then blue.

And I thought about how I got up early to get some alone time, yet there will be other people who are dying to have some people time. Everyone's experience of this lockdown is going to be so different. Will it make our family stronger, or push us further apart? Will the kids remember this as an exciting fun time, or a scary one? Will we have positive things to show from this experience?

I guess we'll have four weeks to find out.

After yesterday's post I thought I'd show a better show of some of my napkins vs. normal cotton fabric. Remember, these are dry but not rinsed, so they will lighten and alter somewhat.

The top fabric is my normal cotton, the second is a damask cotton napkin dyed in the same batch. The third is my normal cotton fabric and the bottom is another damask cotton napkin. So they colour very similarly, but you do get a slight textural effect with the damask. (Click on the picture and I think it will enlarge.)

The top fabrics are the ones I showed you yesterday when they were still wet and scrunched and I've included that picture for reference. If I remember, I'll post one more comparison picture once I've rinsed them.

Monday Musing 25 May 2015

Monday Musings

I think my blog is lacking a little bit in content.  I know I've said that before, but I still don't think I've remedied it.  So I'm thinking (musing, hence the title, but I like alliteration) that I should instigate a schedule of weekly posts with some sort of regular weekly content. 

I guess I've been musing about what I want to use my blog for.  This is related to my consolidation process that I'm going through.  It's nice to have a record about what I've been up to.  And I like that it gives me a venue to publicise my work and my classes.  But now that my kids are getting older I don't write much about them, so what else can I put here?  How can I use it to be a better artist?  Yes, the podcast is fun and I'll continue to do that, but is there more that this blog can offer me?  I think so, but I've been trying to work out exactly what that is.

I've been playing with the idea of starting some sort of creative practice project*.  I think one of the ways to keep strengthening my own style is just to make lots of work.  Have you ever read that story about a ceramics tutor who divided her class into two?  One half was to be marked on volume of work produced over the term, the other half had to produce only one single pot and be marked on that.  Guess which half produced the best work by the end of the term? 

 *A creative practice project it something creative done regularly - a journal quilt every month, a zentangle per day, you've probably seen or read examples of them as they seem pretty popular around the blogosphere in recent years.

So yes, I need to produce more work.  How can I use my blog to help me achieve that?  I do post what I'm working on quiltwise, but sometimes there are constraints about what you can publish if you are wanting to enter certain exhibitions.  And large, finished pieces of textile art take a lot of investment in terms of time, who wants to see similar photos of the same quilt week after week?  

So, is there a smaller creative practice project I could do? I've been tempted to join into other people's year long challenges or projects, but just haven't found the right one for me.  Yet I think it would be an enriching experience, a way to push through creative barriers, to do many small acts that add up to something in the end.

Any finished article takes a lot of investment, but what about something unfinished?  I listened to Meighan O'Toole's podcast where she interviewed Jen Hewett, a printmaker who did a 52 prints challenge (she's onto another 12 month long project now because she found her first one so worthwhile) and as I listened, I realised that she was not making finished items, but just committing to making a print per week.  Whether it got into a finished item or not was irrelevant.  A sketch, a print, lots of things come to mind for me, but what I keep coming back to is complex cloth - surface design but in layers so that it becomes complex and almost a piece of art itself.

And then I could tie my creative practice project back into the blog.  Being accountable to myself but also to you, dear readers.  I'd use my blog to muse about the process, I'd set up reminders to blog regularly about what it is I have learnt and by the end of the project I'd not only have a body of work, but I would also have process notes and journals, and ideas and feedback from others.  

I'm going to muse more about this idea for a little while, but thanks for reading my random musings, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on creative practice projects and if you're interested in starting up one too.

Directionless

This is MV Cerego's compass.  It's a cool old thing, set on gimbals (swivelly, ball thingies that make it level no matter how the boat is sitting) and I love it.  I also thought it was an appropriate symbol of how I'm feeling at the moment.

We are living on the boat - we've been here for about five weeks or so, but I'm still not settled.  We finally have a boat builder working in our forward cabin, building our bed and storage units, but in the meantime Hubby and I have been sleeping on the couches in the kid's playroom.  I'm getting over that very quickly.

Because we are missing the room and storage that our cabin will give us, I haven't been able to sort a sewing area out properly.  And I've been so busy moving, sorting, organising tenants etc, etc that I haven't had much time to quilt anyway.

I let all obligations and deadlines go so that they wouldn't stress me out.  But on the downside of that is now I feel a bit 'drifty' or focusless.

And what do you write on a blog, or say in a podcast, when you have been doing very little and your thoughts are all awry?  It didn't help that I had no WiFi - at least that's mostly sorted now.

So I'm starting with baby steps.  Like writing this today.  A small blog post, with no real planning behind it, just to re acquaint my fingers with the keyboard.

I'll be back again soon.

Update of the renovation of the Vessel Cerego.

I played with a photograph of Cerego in the app called Moku Hanga - and, with just a few commands, made her into an interesting, and I think, beautiful picture.

In real life, Cerego is not looking a pretty picture.  In fact, she's looking a right mess.  I keep telling myself that she has to look worse before she looks better, but sometimes it's hard to remember that when you are tripping over a bunch of wires, sweeping up rusty, cruddy insulation crumbs or pulling out piles of greasy, unidentifiable junk from the lazarette (another new word - it is the back store room/hatch/cupboard thingymabob).

The picture above is the main saloon.  The R2D2 looking thing is a heavy duty vacuum cleaner (and it's needed, believe me).

The entire boat needs re-wiring.  It's a big job, but it's simpler and safer than trying to sort out all the patching and bodging and adding that's been done over the years.

We are pulling off the dark ceiling panelling (that wasn't very well installed in the first place).  This needs to be done to re-wire, but we aren't going to put it back on.  We will paint the ceiling white.  We don't mind the beams - it's a boat after all - and it gives a little more head room and the feeling of light and space.

The top-deck is tarped up to try and dry it out so we can remove the few spots of rot and then fiberglass the whole thing.  She flaps and rustles like some worn-out, forgotten and unloved circus tent.

But one area where you can see a vast improvement is the fish hold.  All the concrete and insulation is gone (she floats about four inches higher in the water now).  The tar paper is scraped off the back bulkhead and the first coat of paint has gone on.

So, to keep myself positive, I have taken a photo of this much improved space and am using it for the wall paper on my iPad.  It reminds me that a huge change can happen in a short space of time, it just takes effort.  I also use it to remind myself to be thankful that we got her so cheap, so we are able to afford some help - we are not doing all this work ourselves!

At the beginning of the year, my 'word' that I wanted to pay attention to was action.  When I think about it, that word must have penetrated my subconscious, because it was me that spurred my husband into the action of buying this boat (after some initial hard-selling on his part).  We talked about it one weekend and bought it on the following Wednesday.  Now I'm thinking my word needs to change.  Perhaps to effort?  It will take effort to get Cerego liveable and effort to get us out of here and onto Cerego.  Or perhaps flexibility?  We are going to need plenty of that as we adjust to our new space and lifestyle.  Whatever my new word, I think I'm ready for the challenge.

PS - I still quilt.  I've been making many moons lately for various projects.  This is a picture of a gathering stitch I'm doing around a freezer paper template - works well and achieves a smooth circle.

Leaf Printing turns into Navel Gazing

When I get back from some time away, be it with the family or without, I always feel a bit overwhelmed and chaotic.  I know it's coming because it's happened so many times, but knowing it's coming doesn't stop it from happening.

I've got a few strategies now that I know help.  First up I write a list of all the things I have to do and work at crossing it off rather than wandering round aimlessly.  Second, I get the laundry under control.  It must be my thing - an overflowing laundry basket does my head in.  Third, I have a clutter purge.  There is a huge bag of clothes, toys and dress-ups in my car boot waiting to go to the Op Shop and it feels soooo good!  And then lastly, but probably most importantly, I do something quilty or creative.

I hadn't realised that this last one was important to me until I sat down with my daughter the other day and did some leaf printing on fabric.  We had been home for a few days by then but I was still feeling antsy.  After doing just that small activity, it was like heaving a big sigh of relief.

What I'm wondering now is when and why has creating art quilts become so important to me?  Almost four and a half years ago I started this blog, all excited because we were moving into a shed on our block of land.  I was to have animals, space to garden, room to move.  And we moved and I had all I wanted.  Well now.... I've got my animals but we've seriously down-shifted in the amount,  I barely step inside the vegetable garden anymore and cooking and baking...well they get done, but maybe with half the care and attention that they used to get!

When we moved here I was already a quilter and I dabbled around with creating art quilts but my ten year plan only had 'have enough free time to quilt' on it.  It had a lot more goals about gardens and orchards than quilting.  Now my ten year plan includes goals like 'exhibit internationally', 'become a successful quilting tutor'.  How did that happen?  How did I morph into that?  Do people really change that much, or did I actually not know what I wanted?  I wonder about my blog followers who were with me because I was all about growing and chooks and sustainability.  Do they wonder who am I now?

Sometimes I wonder if I've just finally found my perfect outlet for my creativity.  I believe everyone is creative but in different ways.  Some people show it in their gardens, or in their interior decor, or their creative business skills, or the way they nurture and grow their families.  And some people just haven't found what it is for them yet.  Could I even be so cliche as to say the words 'it's my calling'?!

Yesterday I spent a lot of it working on my Swallow quilt.  And it felt so good.  But I also felt guilty because it was a lovely day and I should have been working in the garden.  A friend turned up and was busily working on a smokehouse that he's building for my husband and I felt that he would be wondering why I wasn't making the most of the sunshine or maybe thinking I was a bit lazy.  So maybe what's going on in my head is all about whether being a quilter and artist is valid?

Hmm, this is all getting a bit deep and meaningful and is a bit too much to ponder right now, and the chickens need feeding, and the ducks need letting out, and the cows need moving.....!  If anyone has any insightful thoughts, I'd love to read them.