Late and short

So much for weekly updates.

However, I do have some stuff to report.  The sample project I mentioned in the last post is NOT going to be a project.  It just doesn't work.  It was a test of the curved piecing for Karla Anderson's workshop, but I don't like it enough for it to be a project.

Yesterday, two friends and I had some fibery fun coloring about five or six different types of fiber.  This took place here at my house, and I had a blast.

Here is one of the projects, a silk hanky (or part of one anyway).  I dyed this up and duly present PROJECT #1 of 52:

I could put this in a frame and look at it every day.  So I think it qualifies.

GO: The start day arrives, and I begin

This was meant to be posted yesterday, May 5, 2011.  Cinco de Mayo for those of you who notice those things.  I guess Mexico was really excited that I was born.

I jumped the gun a little.  Yesterday, I took a quilting class with Karla Anderson, who is known for "stack the deck" type quilts, in which you choose several compatible fabrics, stack them up, cut them up, and reassemble the parts to make several blocks.  Anyway, I have liked this technique, and the class was reasonably priced, so I took it.

To get my self prepared, I did a practice block on Wednesday evening (May 4) and I was thinking that if I were to use that it would be cheating, since I started it prior to May 5.  But not really.  The block part is done, but the artwork part would be turning this block into something pretty, or useful, or hopefully both. 

Also Wednesday, my quilt quild had a class on beading.  We all got a sample of fabric prepared for beading and some beads.  Again, not a head start, as in the meeting, we just tried several techniques.  However, the fabric is lovely, and the size is right for a small bag, so I am going to turn it into something, and it will count. 

Off to a good start, I say.

Hope your project is off to a good start also.

Get Set: Gearing up for the Start

Added at publishing:  I actually wrote and meant to post this earlier in the week. 

Already, I want to start on one or more of these little projects.  I have ideas, I have materials, I want to start. 

So* I am trying to convince myself that planning IS starting.  I have some ideas: I need to organize them.  I have some materials: they constantly need organization.  I have a goal, and a method, and . . . .

Go buy a notebook, self.  That is a good way to be set to start.

Hopefully, you can be ready to begin when your starting line arrives.

*(changed from "But".  "But" means "okay, but not really" and tends to negate what you are saying.  As in, I would do the dishes, but I'm doing something else, or I like peanut butter, but it is fattening.  "So" is more of  an interjection, so I'm not starting out each sentence with "I".  That gets boring.

Ready: Less than a week

I realized that one of my issues with this project is, What if I run out of ideas?

Fat chance.  I realize that now.  I have inspiration and ideas galore.  My difficulty is translating these ideas into actual work, and not just ideas in my head.

I spent the last week near Houston, Texas, and came up with an idea for a series of quilts or quilt-like pictures, perhaps even knitting projects, based on a picture in our motel room.  It was a black and white photograph of a section of flooring (at least, I think it was flooring.  There was also another picture which seemed to both Nick and me to be hung sideways, which appeared to be a picture of some sort of wall.  We finally figured out that it was a photograph, up very close, of the cut end of a log.  Okay, I know what I like, and neither of these pictures would make the cut.  BUT, back to my interrupted thought....).  It could also be a roadway of some sort.  Anyway, random shaped pieces, polygons, separated by thick grout or filler which oozed up between the "blocks".  Ah, a quilt, my brain said.  And quickly came up with three related projects (bark on a tree, small multicolored pea gravel, log cabin walls, in case you are interested) and bingo, there you have four different quilt projects to make, four small, interesting, colorful interpretations of the world around us.

Okay, I won't run out of ideas.  Next roadblock?

Hope all of your roadblocks are low and easily climbed.