No Crafturday post today. I’ve been in Art Quilt mode but don’t have anything ready to show and haven’t had time for any crafty diversions. BUT… the current issue of Quilting Arts (Feb/March 2012) magazine arrived in my mailbox yesterday and it includes a lovely Q&A with all of us members of Twelve by Twelve!

It’s been non-stop sight-seeing and beach-bumming here since mid-December. I’ve actually got a bit of a tan now! But, alas, there’s not much actual quilting or art making going on. I took today to work on one of my in-progress pieces though.

I was on a roll with sewing tiny bits together and my bin of red scraps didn’t look too daunting after using what I needed for the “real” project, so I took a bit of a detour and sewed ALL my red scraps together.

I cut brick shapes that will eventually be a sibling to this quilt top which I made from neutral scraps about nine moths ago. The photo above shows today’s work in the center red pile, plus the few neutral bricks left over from the Achromatic quilt top, and purple and blue bricks previously sewn at a Saturday Bee. The crazy thing is that both the blue bin and the black and white bin have refilled with scraps enough to make as many bricks as the red pile! I think they must multiply in the dark. My green and my yellow bins are almost overflowing. I may need to take a big detour soon and whip them into tidy piles of bricks. For now though, the red scrap bin is empty of scraps. Ahhhhhh.

This project has been sitting on my sewing table for probably two years, and for no good reason either!

It’s the Julie Tasche and it called to me as a sister to my beloved Multi Tasker Tote. I had some fabric on hand that I didn’t know what I wanted to do with when I bought it, but looked perfect for the Julie.

My first stumbling block though was the elastic and stopper thingies for the pockets. I found a source for the elastic cord, but I would have to buy it by the bajillion foot spool. The local retailer only carried black and white, and was out of white. I waited several months for it to come in. While waiting, I searched for stoppers and came up, again, with boring black or white. At least those were in stock, so I settled and bought white.

I wasn’t sure about the base of the bag, so I mulled over some pink leather I had and mulled having the base continue up the sides and inch. The mulling lasted a few months.

Meanwhile, I went to Quilt Hawaii and learned about Texture Magic in my Threadology class. So, I came back and Texture Magic-ed two pockets. Then I started assembling the parts. But, I didn’t like all the different fabrics for the pockets and I didn’t like the orientation of the handles, so I set the project aside until I could take them off and rearrange. Being a low-priority project, that added more moths.

Luckily, I did some traveling off-island and not only found while elastic cord, but many colored stopper thingies. I stocked up (thank you Mood)! But I was still too busy with other projects to get back to the Julie Tasche.

Finally, a few weeks ago, I decided I just needed to finish the bag. It’s not like it was hard to sew or anything, and at least now I had all the supplies. The pink leather base looked wrong, so I switched to denim from an old pair of jeans. I opted not to alter the pattern, and hey, it looks great. I left my contrasty Texture Magic pockets as-is but flopped the striped center pockets so the stripes became the lining (ah, much better!). I changed the straps so that instead of each one starting on one side of the bag and ending on the other, each strap stays on it’s own side of the bag. This makes it hang “right” for me when I put the straps over my shoulder. I love the turquoise stopper thingies on the elastic cord. Now, I just need an outfit to coordinate with my bag so I can start wearing it.

It’s customary in Hawai’i to give lei on special occasions. The event could be a birthday, a graduation, congratulations on a job well done, or a welcome to the islands. Normally, lei are flowers, but sometimes they are made of shells, candy, origami lucky stars, or paper blossoms. My sister and her family arrive today, and while she and my BIL will be bedecked in flowers and kukui nuts, I figured she wouldn’t appreciate candy for her young kids, and conversely, the kids wouldn’t appreciate the fresh flowers.

So I got crafting. I’m definitely NOT the first to make this kind of lei. Elementary school teachers have been helping kids churn these out by the dozens every May for Lei Day. They make theirs from construction paper, but I used double sided scrapbooking paper for a fancier look. I really wanted aloha prints, but my stupid craft store which used to have them no longer carries such regional stuff, and I wasn’t willing to drive all over the island looking for hibiscus patterned paper. But, I digress. I used two punches to cut out about 40 flowers from three different papers.

After punching out the flowers, cut about 6 regular drinking straws into 3/4 inch bits. Cut a piece of string about 60″ long and thread it onto a large needle. Tie a knot about 6 inches from the end of the string. Poke the needle through the center of a flower to thread it onto the string. Add a straw section, then another flower, then a straw section, and so on until you’ve used up all the flowers. Tie another knot after the last flower. Put a straw bit on both tail ends of the string (as spacers) and tie the ends together with a square knot. If desired you can cover this plain knot with a little bow or puff of curly ribbon. Plastic pony beads instead of straw sections looks really nice too, but remember to punch out about twice as many flowers.

Place lei over the head of a deserving kid and give them a big hug and kiss. Aloha!

The next two themes for work I want to, or have been invited to, do are metamorphosis and rituals. Immediately these words brought to mind the works of Joseph Campbell and I set about re-reading “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.” Reacquainting myself with the book didn’t significantly change what I already had in mind for the projects, but it did get me thinking about books which have stayed with me over the years. I’ve always been a voracious reader, even when family life and the diminished brain cells of motherhood have kept me from actually reading, I still love the idea of being able to read. This, combined with so many end of the year/new year lists in blogland, inspired me to make a list, in alphabetical order so as not to give any special preference, of books which, over the decades, I have enjoyed and which have shaped me in one way or another.

“A History of God” by Karen Armstrong

“Clear and Present Danger” and other Tom Clancy novels up to “The Sum of All Fears”

“Guns Germs & Steel” and “Collapse” by Jared Diamond

“Hawaii” by James Mitchner

“Invisible Women” by Margaret C. Harrell

“Oryx and Crake” by Margaret Atwood (I love Atwood!)

“The Betrayal of Liliuokalani” by Helena G. Allen

“The Bourne Identity” by Robert Ludlum

“The Black Stallion” by Walter Farley

“The Coming Plague” by Laurie Garrett

“The Eagle’s Shadow” by Mark Hertsgaard

“The Hero With a Thousand Faces” and “The Power of Myth” by Joseph Campbell

“The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe” and the rest of The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

“The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien

“The Mists of Avalon” by Marion Zimmer Bradley

“The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan

“The Poisonwood Bible” by Barbara Kingsolver

“The Stand” by Steven King

“Watership Down” by Richard Adams

“Ways of Seeing” by John Berger

“Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert M. Pirsig

Make what you will of my taste in books. I see something of a pattern in my choices, but I think it alludes to more than is actually there. What books have informed you?

Our beloved exchange student leaves today. She’ll be returning to Germany well equipped for the new school year though. In addition to well honed English skills and a suitcase full of American clothes, I’ve sent her off with a Multi-Tasker Tote bag much like mine which she’s been coveting.

This side has a big velcro-topped pocket in addition to the floral lined ones that are part of the original pattern.

I love this side in which I kept the integrity of the uniform blouse front. On my tote the button front is purely decorative. On this tote, I lined it so that the zipper can open to an actual pocket!

There are so many pockets on this tote it’s crazy! My hubby’s favorite is the pen pocket that normally lives on the uniform sleeve. I moved it to the tote interior along with a patch pocket and a flap pocket from the blouse front. And there’s a little loop to clip things on to too.

And, here’s the bag in situ as a fabulous beach tote.

Look what Santa brought for the kids!

I love this silly Hawaii themed fabric and decided it would be perfect for little bags for the kids.

Everyone got Circle Zip Earbud Pouches. The tutorial from Dog Under My Desk was easy to follow and I think the pouches are cute and practical. I’m putting a few on my list to make for myself (excellent use for mushroomy fabric methinks) in a few sizes perhaps.

The girls got Pleated Pouches made from the Skip to My Lou tutorial. Again, this was a very nice, easy to follow tutorial. I’d definitely use it again as I think the pouch is quite handsome. One change I would make would be to add a little interfacing to the top band fabric for a little more structure. I also added wooden beads to the zipper pulls.

I bought this cool house fabric because it was on sale and had houses. I bought it online, so what I did not realize was that it appears to have come with strings attached. I’m not using it to make up cute dresses for a little girls’ boutique, or coin purses galore for an Etsy shop, but there is a small chance that it will find it’s way into one of my art quilts which could, potentially, be sold one day.

I’m not going to worry myself too much about this as the chances that someone’s lawyers will track me down in 10 years is pretty darn slim. And, in digging into some of the related issues blogged about in the last five years or so, this all appears to be more bark than bite. But why then print the disclaimer at all?

All things tech and cool blog Boing Boing delved into the issue here in ’06. Fabric-centric blog True-Up followed here the same year. A rather vitriolic post about another designer is here, covering ’05 to ’09. I thought this had all blown over, but now there’s been a more recent episode that sounds very odd. I understand not wanting Crafter A to pass off handbags (or whatever) made from a pattern by Designer B’s pattern as his/her own, I sort of get not wanting to flood the market with things made from Designer B’s pattern when the designer would rather have more people buy the pattern directly and make the item themselves, and I understand the separate issue of designers using older textiles as inspiration (with a fuzzy line between inspiration and appropriation), but trying to restrict how Crafter A uses Designer B’s fabric in Crafter A’s creations is beyond me.

And what are we to do about these fabrics with restrictions? Not buy them (hard to identify them when buying online), segregate them in our stash (totally not practical), return them (not possible), not use them (such a sad waste of fabric)?

I do not want to stir up a hornet’s nest. This is just me thinking out loud about the strings attached to my new fabric.

Our stockings are hung by the chimney with care. Well, except that we don’t HAVE a chimney. And, we have additional kids here this year who don’t have Christmas stockings.

In Germany, St. Nikolaus comes on his Catholic feast day, the 6th or December. And while often brings candy or a gift, he leaves them in a shoe by the door, not a stocking by the fire. So, I thought our German guests would enjoy getting a stocking from American Santa Claus. And, as long as I was making new stockings, why not update my kids too?

I started with the simple embroidered stockings from Purl Bee, but I sped up the process a bit by using grosgrain ribbon for the loops and sewing it into the lining seam. I used the fancy schmancy embroidery module on my sewing machine instead of hand embroidery for the names. Also, no good linen at the fabric store closest to me so I went with muslin from my stash for the lining.

I probably should have taken the time and effort to go to the fancier fabric store (Kaimuki Dry Goods, home to the full color range of Kona cottons) and get a different color green for each kids. I do have one more green, but it’s a secret for now. These were so easy to make though, so maybe I’ll get lucky and there will be a sale after Christmas and I will get two more greens so Art and I can have new stockings too next year.

I’m in a constant state of trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I’ve already made the choice to be a mother, so that pretty much dictates the majority of my priorities. I also feel compelled to make art. So I am always trying to find the right balance between the two. Lately I’ve been feeling like the art is taking away too much time from the mothering and housewifey stuff I should be doing, and as long as the art isn’t paying any bills or leading anywhere specific, that is probably not the right balance.

In the last few years I’ve set a few goals to focus my work (helps with finding the balance thing). One decision was to enter only local shows if they seemed appropriate, or non-local shows if they were really important ones like Quilt National, with a recognized reputation. In that vein I entered work into Quilts=Art=Quilts and Art Quilt Elements, which seem to be highly regarded in the art quilt world. Amazingly, my quilt “War Sucks,” was accepted into both!

So now I’ve had work hanging in Q=A=Q for over a month but the only feedback I’ve gotten was a flurry of Facebook comments from friends that they are proud of my work being in the show, and emails from the venue promoting quasi-related events at the gallery. Somehow I was expecting more. A catalog (OK, I admit, that’s something I knew going in, and QN and Art Quilt Elements do publish catalogs), or more importantly, some kind of review of the show. I’d love to know if the art world thinks this show is better than last year’s, or not, or reflects some of the current zeitgeist, or shows trends towards larger or smaller work, and which works in particular stood out for whatever reason. Perhaps just knowing that I got in should be enough. That I did not win any of the awards is a critique in itself as well. I asked on the SAQA discussion board if anyone else had perhaps seen a review in a magazine or somewhere, and the general response was that reviews of art quilt shows are not productive and cause more harm than good. I should be happy that my work was accepted. Maybe my disappointment is just a symptom of my tendency to self sabotage.

I have to wonder though, why do I want to get my work shown in these supposedly high cache venues? Are there that many more people coming to view the art than say, at my local library? Is there any more discussion about the artworks than say if they were displayed at the coffee shop down the street? If I’m not actively marketing my work, do I stand any better chance of selling my work than through my website? If I can make it through the jurying process, then why not just try showing in a local gallery where I can at least come see the art in context, and even talk to viewers first hand? Getting back to the balance thing, I wonder what’s the big deal, and why am I doing this? I could probably make a bigger impact by focusing more on my family and creating a healthier environment for them to flourish.

I suspect that I set these shows on a pedestal. I suspect my expectations were too high and my gratitude too low.