I did finally work on the Halloween quilt this week. I stitched the pieces down that needed to be stitched in place and darkened the Jack-O-Lanterns at the bottom with Intense pencils. I have a few small pieces to stitch in place, but I think next week I can pin this quilt and get it ready for quilting.
Thanks for reading….now to think about how to quilt it!
Chris
My hand tendonitis is pretty good. It’s not completely gone, but is much better. Now I just have to get motivated to work on the Halloween quilt. I have been making bread again and my hand has been OK doing that.
While I have been taking it easy in terms of working on quilts I’ve been thinking about all the art challenges that I have participated in. Seems that I have done a lot of them. I guess I must like the challenge of coming up with a quilt that fits a particular word or idea. Years ago I belonged to a quilt guild and I never did the quilt challenges that others participated in. I wonder why I never did them.
In 2012 I found an online challenge group that made a 12 inch by 12 inch quilt every other month. A word was chosen and you had to make a quilt representing that word. I was in the group for 2 years. I don’t remember the words and have given away most of the quilts. Here they are for 2012 and 2013. Apparently we only had 5 challenges in 2013.
When the 12 by 12 wasn’t enough of a challenge I found an online 15 inch by 15 inch challenge group in 2013. It was basically the same process as the 12 by 12 group. I did that for 2013 and only one in 2014. I dropped out of that group because one member was especially insulting of other people’s work. She never specified who she was insulting, but I took it personally. Also I was taking Elizabeth Barton’s year long master class in 2014. Each month was a lesson and a challenge. That was already a lot to deal with plus I was still working.
The master class in my mind was also an art challenge. Each month we had to make a quilt that fit the lesson. The lessons were things like line, monochromatic, value, motion, or a quilt based on a photograph. We made 10 quilts that year. We received the lesson on the first of the month, had to submit 3 sketches by the 10th, have it blocked out by the 20th, and finished by the end of the month. I still have all of those quilts. Here’s my summary of the class. It was definitely important for my art quilt development.
https://chrissquiltinguniverse.blogspot.com/2014/12/this-years-master-class.html
Since I retired and joined a local art alliance I have taken on the challenges for the recycle art show. You have to make an art piece from recycled material that fits a certain word. I have really enjoyed those. My favorites have been those made from plastic bags or my dad’s drafting vellums. I love the first 2 below.
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| From the Inner Mind to the Outer Limits |
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| Dad Built Pittsburgh |
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| Abandoned Cement Works |
This year I also did the word challenge for a local art museum. My word was wonder. This was made of fabric.
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| Warhol’s Lunch |
Turns out I have tendinitis in my right hand and wrist. Usually when I do too much it hurts a little and it quits hurting when I stop and take a break. This time it’s not getting better. I’ve already been to the orthopedist and he told me to see him in 2 weeks if it doesn’t get better. I’m trying not to use it too much. Lots of ice to deal with the inflammation. It’s not even really from the quilting that I’ve been doing lately. I blame it on bread making and cleaning. And I absolutely hate cleaning.
So what do I write about this week? I think I will talk about how I got to this point of my creative life.
Childhood and high school
As a child I always was drawing and painting. Nothing was better than a new box of crayons. When I was in 8th grade I was recommended by my teacher to go to Saturday art classes at Carnegie museum in Pittsburgh for free. I attended those classes for 3 years and then went one year to a Saturday class at Carnegie Mellon. I really did not do that great in that class. I think it was about design and I was not really ready for it. I think I got a C in the class. I wish I could take it now!
When I was in high school my mom sent me into a department store in Pittsburgh to take a week of sewing classes. That’s where my sewing started. My graduation gift from high school was a Singer sewing machine. I had that machine for about 12 years.
College
You might think that I majored in art, but you would be wrong. I loved math and majored in math and then eventually physics and math. I was preparing to be a high school teacher. I wanted to teach since I was in grade school.
While in college I continued to do art and sew clothing. I never stopped being creative.
After my undergraduate degree in physics and math I taught for a year at a school south of Pittsburgh. Then I went to grad school for a masters in Physics in Arizona..
After college
My masters in Physics lead to a teaching position at a community college in Wyoming. It was only a one year position so I had to move on from there. I decided to move back east and get a masters in Meteorology at Penn State. That’s where I met my husband. We moved to New Jersey after grad school where I taught physics, math, astronomy, and meteorology for more than 30 years. I still continued to do art. So if you ever wondered about the title of my blog it’s because I taught Astronomy.
Finding quilting
Before I found quilting I did all kinds of art and crafts….sketching, painting, metal punch, stained glass, basket weaving, embroidery. I also sewed a lot of my clothing as well as my daughter’s.
Other crafts that I have done. https://chrissquiltinguniverse.blogspot.com/2014/04/other-crafts-i-have-tried.html
I made lots of Halloween costumes and Christmas ornaments. Most of the ornaments on our tree are hand made. https://chrissquiltinguniverse.blogspot.com/p/cloth-ornaments.html
Once I found quilting more than 30 years ago I was hooked. Initially I did traditional pieced quilts. I pretty much learned how to quilt from library books although I did take a class on creating a double wedding ring quilt at a local quilt shop. I mainly machine pieced and hand quilted my early quilts. A lot of those quilts can be seen under the miscellaneous quilt tab above. https://chrissquiltinguniverse.blogspot.com/p/misc.html
At that point in my quilting I only bought fabric for one project at a time. I did not have a stash of fabric. Boy that changed along the way. Now I have a huge stash of fabric.
Finding art quilting
In 2004 I made my first art quilt. Or maybe I should say I started my first art quilt. I finished it in 2011. I kept it on the back burner for too many years.
It’s called “Over the Sea to Skye.” You can see my other landscape quilts on the tab above. https://chrissquiltinguniverse.blogspot.com/p/landscape-quilts_12.html
As soon as I posted last week that I was unmotivated to work on the Halloween quilt I started working on it. I guess posting that I was in a slump got me out of the slump. I worked on the path this week and I think it’s nearly done. And yes I lifted the one pumpkin that has the pin in it and moved it. Where it was originally located bothered me. I ripped out the zigzag stitches and lifted it up carefully since it was fused in place. It lifted fairly easily.
Here’s the old path and the new path.
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| Old path |
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| New path |
I’ve decided to do a block of the month next year. I need some less challenging think to do.
Here’s the quilt..
Linking to Nina-Marie. https://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com/
Thanks for reading.
Chris
