Day 142. OMG Quilting is hard...and I think I might not be as smart as I thought

So yay! I finally finished sewing my top piece.  I can't believe how I thought this piece would be a snap...I must have sewn and then taken out my stiches 20 times tonight.  Maybe it's not so easy to see in the picture, but it is so totally off.  But whatever, it's done ( except for the actual quilting process & binding.  But that's next week) and I learned a lot.
Next time:
a) I will not use such small triangles. In fact, I won't use triangles at all.
b) I will use templates to measure and cut my fabric
c) I will not attempt such a difficult thing as points.
d) I will give myself a break for not being any where close to perfect & try to remember this is a learning process after all.

So that being said...3 wonderful things happened today that I am grateful for:
1) Someone at work reminded me something very important and very timely that I had forgot!
2) I thought to go to the grocery store and stock up before this giant blizzard hit
3) For the snow, it's so pretty coming down and it might just get me a day off of work! (My fingers are crossed anyway)

Day 141.

Finished some fixing up of the sewing of my quilt and cut the last two pieces even.  I still have to assemble the border pieces, but alas it must be another day.  This headache has gotten the best of me...

3 things I am grateful for:
1) fresh clean laundered sheets
2) ibuprofen-what would I do without you?
3) imperfection, because wouldn't life be boring if everything was perfect?

Day 140.

Another one of these Pathology / Wish Intention Pieces.

3 Things I am grateful for today:

1) 1.5 hours of exercise & yoga. It's a nice way to start the day
2) Darren Aronofsky-that Black Swan movie kept me on the edge of my seat. plus the costume design was really great (Amy Wescott)
3) Yummy food, namely: blueberries, bok choy, udon noodles & ginger

Day 139.

Goes without saying.

3 Things I am grateful for today:
1. Fat Boy Slim...even after all these years, I still like working while listening to you..Gets me all jivy with energy
2. Rotisserie Chicken..a good substitute for when I get that Fried Chicken craving
3. FRIDAY'S (no not the restaurant-yuck) The last work day before the weekend-oh how I love you

So I live down the street from a Franciscan Monk, he must teach at the Divinity School at U of C, because I can't really figure out otherwise why a Franciscan Monk would live alone in an apartment.  This guy made the best Nativity Scene out of dowel rods and toothpicks.  I see him walking around from time to time in his brown woolly garb and cross belt.  He always smiles at me and says hello, which I think is pretty nice.  Today I saw him as usual out with his usual outfit, even sporting sandals and no socks.  It didn't faze me at the time, but then I thought, WTF? It's F-ing Freezing out.  Excuse me Mr. Monk, where is your coat? your socks?  I don't think God wanted you to get hypothermia.

Day 138.

Umm, I guess this needs a little explanation.  I have been quite angry the last couple of days for a health test result that is disagreeing.  I needed to place this anger someplace and what better place than in artwork?  So I'm calling this piece the "GO AWAY pathology crap" I also think it is somewhat cathartic to tell disease just what I think of it and what I want it to do...ahem! GO AWAY!  Anyway I like this and I think I might explore this idea a little more in the coming weeks.

3 things I am grateful for:

1. Yet Again, My very sweet and loving husband who took the time today to make me laugh AND made homemade oven cooked french fries from SCRATCH! What a guy.
2. I am grateful that my parents instilled a love of art in my early years.  What would I do without you ART?
3. Finally,  I am grateful for my cousins and friends who are having babies and posting their pictures on facebook.  I love looking at their tiny little faces and watching them grow so big so fast and I love that you are SO happy in parenthood.

Today I witnessed a split second amazingness.  I was on the bus coming home from work, looking out the window as I always do-watching the world pass by.  We drive down a busy road, past a church and see a park. That's when I saw it.  3 deer running madly for their lives. Now mind you that I live in Chicago, a BIG city with LITTLE, real nature.  3 Deer!  Of course a split second later I realized that they probably weren't deer at all, but rather large sized dogs running out all that pent up, I've been in an apartment all day energy.  At any rate, it definitely made me smile.

Day 137. Cutting, unstiching

Today's there's not so much to see, but I cut the edges of my pieces so they are square.  Then I had to unstitch parts of one of my blocks because it was creating a very wonky side.  Then it was decided that since none of my blocks match in sizes to the others, I should put borders around each block and decide the border size based on the total size of the square.  It was surprisingly ALOT of work and now I am very tired.  But before I go to bed...

3 things I am greatful for today

1. That my health is not as bad as it could be..It could always be worse.
2. That I have such a loving and supportive husband
3. I am greatful for my quilting bee class, the ladies there are really great, I feel like I have found some friends there.

Awesome thing that happened to me today

I got some excersise and had lunch with a great work buddy.  She and I can never seem to stop talking-it's like the floodgates open.  It gets me in trouble a little bit, she comes in to ask me a question and half hour later, we're still talking.  But I don't care, I worked 2.5 years at this job with only a tiny companionship. It's really nice to have someone to talk with that is engaging and interesting.  And after writing this I realize, it truely is the little things in life.

Day 136. Finished 4th and Final Block

Tomorrow is my quilting class.  I plan to fix the 1st very small and very wonky block.  I'm pretty happy with the way it looks as all together though, can't wait to learn the hand quilting and binding part.

3 Things I'm happy for today:

1. That we, in the united states, have a president whose ideals mirror many of my own
ie: Education, Alternative Energy, Health Care for all, and Equal opportunity in the military
2. I'm grateful for my boss, who at 3:00 today decided we both looked tired and were in need of Hot Chocolate, then spent about 15 minutes telling me his philosophy of life
3. I'm SO grateful for my mom, today on her birthday, so thankful she's in my life as such a strong woman, great role model and a wonderful friend.

Today something awesome happened.  Early this morning when I was so bummed to be awake, I was attacked.  My eyes bleary I could barely make out this speeding bullet of orangish furry wiz whirling around my feet. The blurry wiz jumped up onto the bed and then leapt at me, pulling me down to him.  Then I got whacked in the face, thump! a padded paw... A yowl and a hiss and now my eyes were seeing quite clear, Esau, demanding to play with me.  I jumped into the kitty wrestling play time with great gusto and threw my whole spirit into it.  Then when we were both satiated, I went back to getting ready.  My mood had tremendously improved and I wasn't even late to work. Thanks Esau!

Day 135. 3 out of 4 pieces completed

Today also starts Day 1 of at least 21 where I will write 3 things I am thankful for and a few sentences about something really great that happened in the previous 24hours. (I'm trying it out to help keep away the winter blues)

1. I am SO thankful that I have a job
2. that I have a husband who is just as interested in the Indonesian Kecer instrument as I am
3.  that even though my quilt piece is far from perfect, it still looks pretty good.

For the past year my health has been so-so, a big part of this is because I'm not getting enough exercise on a regular basis  (yup I'm a lazy lump in more ways than one).  I have been trying to start a regular routine of exercise for months now.  I was going to join a gym, but I realized I'd probably never get myself there in these cold winter months.  Then my very generous brother got me a WI fit for Christmas.  It has been great fun, but the last few weeks I found that I can really get a good workout from it.  So the something really great that happened today was that I exercised for the second day in a row. (I have NEVER in my life worked out two days in row!)  How great is that.  But not only 2 days of working out, but I also managed to make a healthy vegetarian chili, relax with the hubby, sew a quilt block and make my post to this blog....AND.....I still have energy!!!!

Day 134. New Project Idea - The final frontier

So I was watching this totaly awesome movie this weekend, Star Trek: The Motion Picture 1979, and well, it has some great special effects.  Then I had this idea, if I could take some stills of some of the scenes-then I could reproduce them in fabric applique and embroidery.  Here are a handful of the stills I took.  There are so many more.  But this is a good start.  I'm sure once I get started in the application of the project, it is going to be ALOT of work, so we'll see how many I'll actually do... But I can totally see them as these strange fabric abstracts.

Day 133. Finished 2 blocks of my star quilt

Can you tell which was my first one??? Ha ha ha, I might tear out some of the seams and re-do it, it is so much smaller than the second one.  My points are pretty bad, seems to be completely random-can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, maybe it had to do with my measuring...hmmm. 
Today was a great day.  I got my sewing machine fixed and it now runs like a dream and isn't making that terrible clunking noise.  I also discovered quilting templates so I don't have to relay on my bad math skills anymore.

Day 132. Finished my latest Dish towel. Sized just for Nico.

Day 131. Floral, root Merge

I needed a break from quilting tonight and made this merge, I wanted to make something based on neurons and dendrite systems but it ended up taking on a landscape type feel.  At any rate, I like it.

Day 130. quilting pieces in class

Well it's definitely not perfect, but it is my 1st attempt at quilting in the "correct" manner.  Tonight my teacher told me I had not cut them the way I was supposed to, so I had to iron out those imperfections before sewing; but now I know and knowing is half the battle as G.I. Joe would say.  I only had time left to sew this tiny piece.  I'm sure more will come later.

I hope I'm not boring everyone with all this quilting buisness.  I'm also thinking of a show I want to put together-but I'm not posting that (I have to have some art secrets to pull out of my sleeve)

Day 129. Replacement background cut

Just in time for class tomorrow, I now have my background pieces,  I like this so much more than the brown patterned.  It really sets off the stars and is in "theme" which kind of makes me smile and kind of makes me cringe...

Day 128. Remembered these early quilted pieces

Last night I dreamt of these flower quilted pieces.  I dreamt that I put them together in rows and hung them like banners in my hallway.  I had completely forgotten about these pieces.  I started making them when I first was interested in quilting, back in 2005.  They are kind of terribly made.  None of them are actually squares and the way they were pieced is quite terrible, but I love them anyway.  They are made from old clothes that I could never get rid of but couldn't wear anymore.  And well I think I love them because they are naive and wonky.  So having the day off I decided to piece them together.  I'm about half way done.

Day 127. More Cutting & Placement_Do I like this???

So I ran into some snags while cutting the last of my pieces for the quilt piece I'm working on.  1st of all the dark brown background fabric I chose happened to be cut on the bias, so the pieces didn't have good straight edges and 90 degree corners when I cut them.  Then when I placed the pieces together, I realized the dark brown pattern was TOO much.  It really distracts from the stars I'm trying to make. So I guess it's back to square 1 for the background pieces, maybe I can find a dark colored fabric without print.

Day 126. Cut the pieces for my quilt project today

Day 125. More Quilting Designs

124. design ideas for quilt piece

Day 123. Quilting, Yey!

Tonight began my first quilting class. Yey! I am so excited about really learning how to quilt.  Tonight we played with different fabrics to put together some that we want to use for our first 18" square.  These are the fabrics I chose.  I'm thinking of either making a star shape or arranging blocks to make some eye popping design.

Day 122. I can't decide which background I like better.

Day 121. A Little Happy Birdie Animation

This summer Nico and I constructed this little birdie out of beach deitrius, then we positioned his wings in various poses, taking a photo each time.  Isn't he cute?

Day 120. Neuron Merge..hmmm

So I have this small idea, which if I hold on to it long enough might just snowball into a larger idea...I want to work with images of Neuroscience and merge them with images from our social world. I have this fascination with the way the mind works and memory.  So here's my first go at it. 
A photomicograph image of "dendrites recieving synaptic inputs from axon terminals" is merging here with images of landscape, lakescape/sunset and an increadible spider weaving.  These images I hold tight in my own memory. Hmmm...

119. Drunken Painting..Happy Birthday Husband!

Detail of the upside down bird coaster

 

 

 

Okay so this is what happens when you are mostly drunk and decide to make a drawing, then hate that drawing and decide to paint over it...now we know and will never have to go back there again...

Day 118. Weaving 101

I was looking up videos on how to warp a Beka Rigid Heddle Loom, when I came across an instructional video for weaving on cardboard.  I thought I'd try it out to get started. It was pretty simple.  But I'm not that happy with the results, it's difficult to get a nice tight warp and really, who likes holding cardboard...part of the appeal in fabric arts for me is the soft feel on my hands.  There were some other ways of weaving I might try out too, besides the loom.  If you are interested in learning how to warp a weave, you can see the videos too. http://wn.com/warp_(weaving)

Day 117. Psyco Dutch Boy and Fun with Fire Merge

Day 116.

Day 115. More Architectural Merges

Day 114. More Merges, Going Merge Crazzzzyyyy

Day 113. The Milenium Park Gehry Merges With the Pritzger Galleries at AIC

Day 112. New Projects for a New Year

I got a new winter's hat to match my new winter gloves over the weekend, but I thought the hat needed a little style, so I found these old buttons and sewed them on.
Another very excellent Christmas gift this year was that my mom found her old laptop loom-she's letting me borrow it and see if weaving is something I'll enjoy.  I have to admit that just setting it up gave me a furrowed brow...and I tried putting in the warp thread, but my two tries tired me out.  I think I might try again once my cold blows over, I think all that head congestion is blocking my gray matter from figuring it out...If anyone out there _if there is anyone out there_ has any suggestions-I'm all ears.