Getting Professional

Help.

Get it?  Getting professional help.  Ok.  Not funny.

Well, I finally broke down and had some name cards made.  That's what they call them here in Singapore - not business cards.  I had 100 made, and I'm so thrilled with them.  Of course, 99 out of every 100 name cards you see here in Singapore have the horizontal format.  But not mine, no.  I'm too tricky for that.  

And don't I have so many .coms?  Actually, the bethanystudios.com isn't up yet.  I just registered the domain last week, and am not yet ready to put my website up.  But it's in the not too distant future.  Of course, I'll post about it, and I'll make links and all that.

And here is the latest werk, with the edges trimmed.
Last night, as I was trying to fall asleep, I came to the conclusion that I really have to stop working on this quilt and pack my studio. We only have 2 weeks to pack and clean and all that. Panic! But, of course I'll finish this quilt at the new place. Actually, I'm doing a little hand embroidery on it now, and that's quite portable, so maybe it will go into my purse instead of into a box.
This too shall pass...

Color Fill

Well, here is the top completed.  I've left plenty of fabric off the edges for the seam I will sew when I bind it. But, I'm thinking that since the design is running off the edges, anyway, I might as well just trim it down, so it is a square again.  Or at least squared off.

My sense of this design is that it's all about color, and the color choices I made don't correspond to any recognizable pattern.  They're just random.  I like this effect, but I would also like to see the color choices more controlled.  So, I will make another one and limit my colors.  

That will be the first thing I make after the move.  So I will have plenty of time to dream about what colors to make it.

Six Days Later...

...and I've only added one measley gear to the quilt!  What's going on??

Well, the good news is that we've found a new place.  The bad news is, now we have to move.

The good news is, it's only across the street and down the block from our old place.  The bad news is, now we have to move.

There's lots of blessings in this new condo.  But, of course, the first thing that gets packed is the last thing to get unpacked, and it's the thing the family can live without the easiest: my studio. Before I start packing, tho, I intend to finish this quilt up.  But for the past six days I have been very busily employed in the particulars (doesn't that sound official?).  

Hey - I would love to know your favorite tips for packing, moving, and cleaning.  Feel free to post or email me.

Coloring Inside the Lines

Here we see some of the colors being added to the pattern I posted yesterday.  The orange to red piece in the lower left corner is extending past the gear so that I have some material with which to bind the quilt when I am done.

And here I've finished the upper left hand corner.  Do you see how differently you relate to this once it's no longer a line drawing?  You're soaking up the color and the shapes, aren't you?  I know I am.

Ursula left a comment on yesterday's post asking about color choice and how do I do that?  I guess when I approach a quilt, either I'm thinking of a very limited color scheme, or I'm thinking in terms of warm colors vs. cool colors or light vs. dark.  

In this quilt, it's about warm vs. cool and light vs. dark.  I knew I wanted to have red at the center of the quilt, and actually it's a red orange I've used as the background of the dark blue gear.  I think as I'm building this up, I'm looking for the color that would contrast the most with the back ground and the colors surrounding, but I don't want to be too repetitive. 

 And now that I have this much of it built up, the high color contrast is a little kiddish or whimsical, and I think I'd better add some brown to tone it down.  And I think I would also like to see this pattern made with a more limited color scheme, too.  

By that I mean: all cool colors, or all blue, or maybe red, black and white.  We all have our favorites, and we see them all the time.  Primary colors would also work, but then it would look like an Ikea quilt.  And then once I've chosen a limited color scheme, say all blue, I would do something to break it a little: like add a little orange (blue's complement) or something to just add a bit of interest and show that I was playing and not being so strict.  I like kiddish and whimsical, I think it's important to give your viewers the distinct impression that you had fun making a piece.  But I also want to be taken seriously.  Adding in the neutrals or earth tones can do that.

Hope that answers your question, Ursula.

And here's what I woke up to as I was having my first potty break of the day yesterday morning:

This is a storage cabinet in my bathroom with colored, transparent drawers. I sit facing it. It made me laff, so I had to share it.

New Werk

Here is the next pattern in the series of Art Werks that I am making.  It's always interesting to me to see the transition from pattern to completed work.  With the pattern, all you see is line; there is no color.  With the completed work, the first thing you see is color, and then you take in the shapes.  The fine line is lost, but it's still there, too.  Or rather, it is suggested.  Shape takes the place of line. 

It's a little like my treatment of leftovers: I'm pleased with saving the food for the laughable idea that we might eat it again (the lines in the pattern), and then I'm pleased with the fastidiousness of tossing the two- or three-week old science project the food has turned into because I'm making the fridge a cleaner place (the shapes and colors).  Do you see what I mean?

If I've confused (or disgusted you), please wait for the finished product.

Creativity

This morning while surfing the blogs I usually look at, I found this very important video clip at BellaDia.  Immediately after watching it, I knew I had to put it on my blog, too, so as to increase the possibility of more viewers.  (If you can't see the whole thing on my blog, click on the link about and see at at BellaDia.)

The clip runs for a little over 20 minutes, and is often very funny.  I hope you will enjoy it and it will make you think about creativity, a wonderful gift.

A Gift For a Friend

On Saturday, I will be celebrating the birthday of a dear friend of mine. Her name is Penny and she is from New Zealand. So, I saw this as an opportunity to try out that free-motion embroidery idea I blogged about days ago.

I got a picture of the New Zealand penny on line and I traced it onto Solvy - a water soluble stabilizer. I used an oil-based permanent marker for this so it wouldn't bleed or smear.


The penny I traced was dated 1957, but I changed it to 1960 - her birth year.




Then I stitched the design. This was not as easy as that sentence would imply. After I stitched the outside circle, I decided it would be prudent to put a layer of tear-away stabilizer on the back. And my sewing machine was most uncooperative. I think I must really replace it soon. I had to rethread and re-bobbin it every couple of minutes. But somehow, I managed to make it look all right.
This is sewn onto a zippered jacket, btw, in turquoise - our favorite color.



The penny had these dots interspersed along the outside edge, and they didn't stitch too well, so I decided to put a copper sequin in their place: three of them to be exact.

So, if you are reading this blog and you know Penny, please don't tip her off!