Art, photography, marketing, and more from Carol Logan Newbill
Color TheoryThe Return of Orange Guy! And he’s done in time for me to enter both Orange Guy quilts in the Quilts of Today show.
Detail pictures after the jump.
Congratulations to the Class of 2005!
So yesterday I played hooky most of the day. After dinner, I came back into the studio to finish quilting the borders on Color Theory, which according to The Schedule should be finished today.
I got a good bit of it done. It was going slowly, because I was free-motion tracing some handwritten words with the quilt in a hoop and a bare needle, the foot completely removed. I was careful and rather slow, you betcha.
(No, I didn’t catch my fingers.)
But around two hours into the process, I started making mistake after mistake. I’d forget to put the presser foot down and get an enormous wad of bright orange thread on the back.
Three times I did this.
I finally removed the orange thread from the spool holder and decided to do some big loopy swirls in the background, using dark gray thread that would blend with the border fabric. The first three inches of stitching were puckered up like a pickle after a week in the sunshine. Sigh. Unpick. Adjust the tension, try again. Quilt five inches and the thread pops.
At that point, I put it away and went to bed.
This morning I’ve got most of the background loopies done, but I’m still having frequent problems with the thread popping. I will get the borders done shortly, but I have a bunch of family stuff to do this afternoon and won’t have time to get the appliqué done today.
I should have it in photographable shape tomorrow sometime, and if I get it photographed and the entry forms in the mail no later than Saturday, all will be good.
Oh yeah, and you’ll get pics as soon as I get them done. :)
What a terrific gift.
It’s nearing the end of May, and by now our normal daytime high temperature is in the mid-80s (about 28°C), with dewpoints in the upper 60s or low 70s. This means HOT and HUMID and air conditioning running 24/7 and staying indoors.
Right now it is about 63° (17°C) with a dewpoint in the upper 40s. This is New Mexico weather. Clear, clean blue sky and all the windows open and the house airing out and me wanting to do a little happy dance because the day feels so darned GOOD.
Maybe I will set aside working today, and go do something outside instead. The sewing machine will still be there tomorrow, right?
See ya….
Playing With ColorOrange Guy got some toys to juggle, so now he is more clearly Playing With Color.
I like it better now.
Detail picture after the jump.
As you may remember, my plan is to have two new quilts ready by Thursday in order to submit to the Galeria Aynex show “Quilts of Today” by Friday. Even though I’m less than happy with Playing with Color, I’m going to send it anyway.
After I posted the picture on Friday and got some feedback, I was disappointed in it and in myself (note to self: “good enough” is sometimes good enough. Stop with the perfectionism, already.), but I was ready to go on to the next one.
Yesterday morning I woke up before dawn with ideas whirring in my head. By the time the sun came up, I had three pages of notes, two of thumbnail sketches, and was well on my way to having the full-size cartoon drawn out. I spent most of yesterday at the machine, as my shoulder muscles can bear witness this morning, and I made a good deal of progress.
I’ll meet that Thursday deadline. Back with pictures when I have it ready to show.
Playing With ColorWell, it’s done. Once again I managed to make something that is somewhat disappointing. I give it a B-minus.
On the other hand, it is done, and it will be ready to send off to the “Quilts of Today” show next week.
I think the idea has merit, and I might revisit it a bit later in Version 2. The pieced background is too prominent (darker values next time, please), and I should change the figure so that it’s more obviously reaching for balance.
I also find that I am not particularly comfortable with some fusing techniques — parts of the piece feel slapped together and I am disappointed in my workmanship.
Or maybe I just need a nap and it will all be fine tomorrow.
?
I didn’t finish Playing With Color yesterday. I missed that first goal. However, the tires on my daughter’s car are now balanced and rotated. (It’s free at Costco when you buy the tires there, and they were purchased under my membership so I had to go with her to sign the work order.) And while we were there I got a good part of the week’s grocery shopping done, so that’s something I don’t have to do today.
It’s highly amusing grocery shopping at Costco with my daughter. She’s 26, rather on the skinny side, teaches Tae-Kwon-Do so she’s very much in shape, and she goes through the store like a voracious Hoover, scooping up food like she hasn’t eaten in weeks. We had to stop at each and every sample station in that whole enormous place.
She tried: vegetable lasagna, teriyaki chicken, spiced meatballs, Margaritaville Island Lime Shrimp, garlic pita chips, microwavable cheeseburgers, strawberry cheesecake, an exotic cheese, and some kind of vile green “energy drink” that strongly resembled baby spit-up. My husband, when I told him about all the various foods, turned a delicate shade of pale green from the very thought and reached for the Pepto-Bismol.
So today is less busy than a usual Friday. And this morning Sonji Says “Cut yourself some slack, then I won’t feel bad about doing it for myself.” (Don’t you just love how cleverly I snuck the self-referential name in there?) Embracing that position gladly, I won’t apologize for not finishing the quilt yesterday. I’ll just get to work and get it done today.
I’m making headway on the To Do list and am even on track to have Playing With Color done by tomorrow. Granted, it may be late tomorrow, but as long as it’s prior to midnight, it still counts, right?
Anyway, I haven’t disappeared and the spammers haven’t got me. Back soon.
Now the spammers are adding insult, literally, to injury!
Yesterday morning I had a spam comment on an old post, the first one in several weeks. The spammer linked to the website he was promoting, but the comment itself said something to the effect of “you aren’t as well educated as you’d like to appear.” Hmph, thought I, and deleted it.
This morning the same spammer reappeared with another link to the same porn site, but this time the comment said “If I saw you on the street I’d spit in your face.”
Charming behavior, don’t you think?
A pox upon spammers.
Art- and quilt-related posts. For other business-related topics, please visit my other blog.
