Friday, March 15, 2024

Learning to Fail on Off the Wall Friday

 


So last week, I was talking to a friend of mine and she said, "Ohhhh I don't have a creative bone in my body."  If I only I had a dime for every time I heard that.  I do believe people are born with strengths and weaknesses and there is no reason that you need to be strong in everything.  HOWEVER...I believe that everyone can enjoy the joy of "making" no matter what their talents.  I mean think about it.  How many kids don't like to color and draw?  Hardly any.  It's only when they hit about age 8 do they let the world's perception of their art affect them.  

It's all about silencing your inner critic and being willing to fail.  It's scary for sure but I feel like it's the secret to being a creative success.  

Since we're in the middle of spring rush at work, I'll leave it there - but you get what I mean....

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Friday, March 8, 2024

Pegboards for Quilting on Off the Wall Friday

My Pegboard, white, cut to fit the space, painted stripes, electric orange tape.
Baskets, cups used for additional space, labeled

So today I read an interesting post on my Sewing/Quilting Organization list on Facebook.  A member was looking for ideas for the use of a pegboard in her sewing space and asked for pictures.  My first thought was lots of people must have pegboards and they all must use them the same way.  

Apparently, I was wrong.  As goes it with a list of 110K (yes you read that right 110,000!) quilters/sewers, you get many opinions and ideas on how a pegboard can be used.  With the permission of the owners, I thought I would share some and why I think they are great!


Barb P. hasn't taken up the full wall - cut at a rectangle it can easily be reached plus room for a great bridge painting.


Christina S uses her to store fat quarters of fabric in attached basics


Angie O. proves that bigger isn't always better



             Beth R decided to paint hers individually and place them near her work tables
                                           (notice - another  Janome 7700 owner - yay!)

Shere R. organizes her thread and lets the color inspire her.



                                          Diane P framed hers and added Criscut Lettering  
                                          Plus notice how the envelop baskets are so handy!

Raelynn W uses her corner brilliantly



Perri E. K. uses the pegboard traditionally but look how GREAT this looks
The Mugs are perfect!!


Patrizia S.  Shows how you can store just about anything on a pegboard.




Great Ideas Right?

Do you use a pegboard?  How?  
(Also, I am still looking for people who might want to share their sewing space here on the blog and answer questions on how it came about ... just use the "Contract Me" widget on the right!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Friday, March 1, 2024

It's Been A Week on Off the Wall Friday

Dorothea Lange, Seeing People Exhibit


 Okay so here is this week's tip....don't think you can take a quick 2-day trip to Washington DC and not come home exhausted and your mind a big creative blur.  We only saw 2 museums, The National Gallery and the National Museum of American History and it still was stimuli overload. It wasn't just the museums which were amazing in themselves, but also the whole National Mall area.  We took the metro in from Arlington, VA, and popped up in the Federal Triangle station which is the middle of 10 neoclassial HUGE buildings.  I truly could have gone and toured the architecture of the buildings you hear every day - IRS, EPA, etc.  




The Dorothea Lange exhibit was just as amazing as advertised.  The thing about the National Gallery is that they own so much art, that you never quite know what they are going to have up on view.  Not to mention, I keep getting lost in their galleries!  One of these trips, I'm going to take the map and just mark galleries off as I go through them.  

The American History Museum added the Entertainment Nation exhibit on the 3rd floor.  It's a mass of pop media culture with lights and music to match.  It truly was crazy!

So I came home with my creative soul full and my Fitbit happy.  And it got me thinking....the National Gallery is a free-use museum with all of Lange's work stored at the Library Congress....and it so happens they have a very useable website.....andddddd

Down the rabbit hole, I went!

I am suggesting you take time to look at all the amazing stuff the Library of Congress has put online BUT don't blame me if you end up looking for three days straight.    

I do have a very cool idea for my next series...but I promised my husband I would not start another until I finished my Calendar Cows.  To that end, August Vacation Cow is officially sewn!



Seven down ....Five to go....On to finishing up June Bride Cow!

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Friday, February 23, 2024

6 Facts You Didn't Know about Dorothea Lange on Off the Wall Friday

 

Dorothy's Lange


This week finds me traveling to Washington DC to visit the National Gallery.  We love the National

Dorothea Lange, Formerly enslaved
woman, Alabama, 1938

Mall since we are kinda museum junkies.  But we haven't been back since 2019 due to the dreaded plague.  I keep an eye on the National Gallery's webpage and discovered that they are running a Dorothea Lange exhibit through March.  So Paul is indulging me with a quick trip down to see it as well as the Mark Rothko exhibit and Masters of American Furniture, the Kaufman Collection (see a little something for me....a little something for him).

Am I the only one who is totally in love with Dorothea Lange's work?  Lange was a photojournalist who is best known for her work of depression-era migrant farm laborers in California and the documentation of the Japanese Internment during World War II.  What I love about her work is that she had a way of capturing her subject's true selves and it's like you are there talking to them.  

Dorothea Lange, Migrant agricultural worker's family, Nipomo, California, February 1936



Dorothea Lange, Nettie Featherston, wife of a migratory laborer with three children, near Childress, Texas, June 1938


It's been a while so I thought it was time for another installment of "Facts You Didn't Know".

6 Facts You Didn't Know about Dorothea Lange

1.  She had polio as a child.  Due to her polio, it left her right leg with a limp.  She felt it, "formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me, and humiliated me."  She credits this life experience with shaping the rest of her life and how she saw other people. 

2.  She was married twice.  She married young to the famous artist Maynard Dixon who had his own prolific career as a painter.  The couple had two children.  After 15 years of marriage, Lange was recruited by  Paul Taylor to work on his research paper on the migrant farm workers of the Dust Bowl. He felt that her photographs would be a good pairing with the written word.  During this work, both divorced their spouses and married forming a long working partnership till her death in 1965.

3. She started her career as a celebrity photographer first in New York City and later in San Francisco.  Here she learned about lighting, atmosphere, and composition.  She also realized that to get the best photos, you needed to be in touch with your subjects.  With the onset of the Depression, her business was affected leading her to start photographing street people.

Dorothea Lange, Human Erosion in
California (Migrant Mother), 1936

4. She could not be hired as a photographer for the government,
but rather her title was stenographer.  Paul Taylor was given a grant through Roosevelt's New Deal initiatives.  With these monies, he was able to recruit Lange but the government wouldn't accept her as  "photographer" so instead she had to accept the title of "stenographer".

5. Her iconic photograph of Migrant Mother, Rose Thompson almost didn't happen.  Lange on the last day of the project, she was heading home when she passed the migrant encampment.  She traveled on for 20 more miles, before deciding to go back and photograph them.  She took 5 exposures.  Not only did the photograph become one of the most reproduced in the world, but once it was published in San Francisco, it raised $250,000 for the migrant workers crisis.


6.  Her work was censored.  In 1941, she deferred a prestigious fellowship, so she could document the Japanese internment camps.  Her work was so powerful, that the government seized the photos in hopes that they wouldn't persuade public opinion concerning the unconstitutional camps.  The photos were not publically shown till after the war in 1946.

Dorothea Lange, Grandfather and grandson of Japanese ancestry at a War
Relocation Authority center, Manzanar, California, July 1942

If you want more information concerning the life of Dorothea Lange, I can strongly recommend the YouTube documentary, Dorothea Lange - An American Odyssey

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?




You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Friday, February 16, 2024

The Changing World of Social Media on Off the Wall Friday

 So this week, it was brought to my attention, how much social media has changed over the short life of the internet.   In the late 90's, it wasn't unusual to connect with other quilters on different sites including www.quilt.com.  There were also forums (Reddit type)  where you could ask questions and form groups.  I joined a quilt guild that was active but just virtually.  At the time,  it was all very new and



interesting.  I also belonged to two email groups (one traditional - one art quilt-based) where you would start a topic and people would chime in with their answers or two cents.  These would get very active and it wasn't unusual to come home to 500+ emails.  In the early 2000s, blogging took off.  Here was another way to connect with like-minded people.  EVERYONE and their mother started a blog.  Next popped up Facebook and then Instagram and then TikTok.  Each platform offered something new and shiny to the user.  Sites come and go...apps come and go...(do you remember the first time someone explained to you what an app was?)  I'm sure you, like I , have found it a bit much.  Plus as the years go on, we have members aging out of the platforms where they find they have other ways to enjoy their retirement.  It seems as if the new penny has lost some of its shine.

Or so I thought.

In the last couple of months, I've joined two VERY active maker's groups on Facebook.  Honestly, at this point, I really thought that Facebook groups were a thing of the past.  I apparently was wrong. 

The first is Loose Ends Project Finishers.  Loose Ends are matchmakers.  They match the families of
either passed loved ones or disabled makers who have left behind projects with makers who can finish the projects for them.  It reaches out to knitters, crocheters, embroiders, quilters etc who volunteer their talents to help out.  There are 22,000 finishers (me included) in 64 countries.  The idea has gotten so popular that JoAnn's is an official sponsor and running a current "Round Up " campaign through the month of February to help. You can join in at their site but they also have an active FB group that shows off work that is completed.

Funny Story of the Day:

So my husband comes home from JoAnn's and says - hey I rounded up my change to this pretty cool group - it's a group that will finish projects when you die. I suggest you start finishing up some of these quilts so you don't keep them busy! I said - Ohhh I'm part of that group! He said - well you are a "Finisher" not a "Starter", right?! LOL I told him we don't accept suggestions from the peanut gallery in this studio. Sent him back to his woodshop.

The Second group I've joined is the Quilting/Sewing Room Organization Facebook Group.  It has 91K members (and counting).  This is a very active group that is dedicated to exactly what the name states organizing your sewing space.  As long-time readers know, peeping on other's sewing rooms is a guilty pleasure of mine and this really has fed into this big time!  It's amazing where people from all over the world choose to create.  Some spaces are exactly as you expect...big, no expense-spared kind of dream rooms.  Others are sewers just starting out and asking for ideas on how to use their tiny space the best. Lots, like me fall in the middle.  For the most part, the group is encouraging and very helpful.  I really have had fun reading how people problem-solve their organizational problems and also encouraging those who have gone through life changes and need help getting their space put together. 



To tell you the truth, I have to really watch my screen time on this last group or I could lose hours - reading and answering!

P.S.  Since it's come up in the comments - here is the scoop about why my husband was at JoAnn's - So he went himself as I happened to be out of town that day.  He had to buy some velvet that I did assure him they sell and yes you just bring the bolt up to the counter and they will cut the yardage you need.  He needed the velvet because he was finishing up his "Wedding Time Capsule Boxes" for the upcoming season.  The boxes are made big enough to hold a bottle of wine and any other mementos the couple wants to keep for future anniversaries.  He is currently selling these on his website and they are customizable. 



Do you have any new social media outlets you like to use?



You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Friday, February 9, 2024

Improv Quilts at John C. Campbell on Off the Wall Friday

Fall 1


With 2024 starting, I thought it was a good idea to look into our next creative vacation.  Paul and I both wanted to get back to John C. Campbells Folk School in North Carolina so I started there.  Luckily, 

 I found the class, Intro to Improvisational Quilts taught by Veronica Hofman-Ortega.  The class description reads....

Explore improvisational cutting and piecing methods to create one-of-a-kind contemporary quilts. Dispense with templates, exact measurements, and block-based patchwork, and embrace the unexpected and exciting outcomes you can get with improvisational patchwork. Arrive with a sense of adventure and spontaneity and prepare to break out of the traditional quilt-making box. 

I thought, "Hey, that sounds like it would be fun!", so I talked Paul into taking another class that week.  There happen to be a few great ones to choose front (hint hint - Open Hearth cooking  - I mean who doesn't want their husband to learn how to cook over an open hearth right?) But he settled on, "Hand Building for the Garden" which contrary to what it sounds like is a pottery class that teaches beginner non-wheel clay techniques.  When we go on vacations like this, I, the quilter, want to sew all week while Paul, the woodworker wants to do anything but touch wood!  

Once emailing Veronica and getting the supply list, I could tell it was my type of class.  We're to bring all sorts of light to dark fabrics including a good gradation in gray.  Go figure I have it all here.  I haven't done improv piecing in forever though.  In fact, I really have never worked innately.  I mean I know that people do just sew and put it up on the wall and sew some more, but I still need to have a plan on where I'm going.


Take for instance my Fall Series.  I started out with 8...yes 8...just improved line drawings.  I picked a palette inspired by - gasp - fall colors and then.....just kinda sewed up what my line drawing was like.  I didn't use patterns but at least I had an idea of where it was heading!  I did do 2 out of the 8 and I really can see myself going back and finishing more.

Then there was my Crosses series.  With those, I  started with improv little crosses and came up with the layout using value studies. I think I did 3 or 4 of them.   hmmmm I really liked that series; I should do some more!


So needless to say, as the class date of March 24th approaches, I'm getting excited.  The fun thing about this kind of class is that you never quite know where it's going to take you and where you're going to end up!

So What  Have You Been Up to Creatively?


You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Friday, February 2, 2024

Designing a Calendar Cow on Off the Wall Friday

 I was looking back at previous posts (and when I say "back" I mean wayyyyyy back) and I realized that


I hadn't shown how I designed the Calendar Cow blocks.  So I thought it was a good idea to, since so many times I hear from people who see my work, "I wish I could draw."  I always smile and answer, "Me, too!"

So here is how to design a representational block when you can't draw but you know how to use a laptop, pencil and tracing paper.


1.  Come up with an Idea.  Since these blocks are in series, it makes it pretty easy.  The next month up is June and with that June Brides.  I mean what cow doesn't want to have a June wedding?  So then I started brainstorming the things I wanted in it - I came up with a Cow (duh!) - a veil - an old-fashioned church.

2.  Steal the Elements.  It's amazing how many places have royalty-free photos now online.  Today I used Unsplashed.  I chose this amazing cow photo done by Luke Stackpoole who graciously put his work up to be downloaded freely.



After looking at many, many church photos I chose one by Michelle Tresemer because it was simple and it looked like someplace a cow could have an old-fashioned wedding.


As for the viel, I thought I would work out the composition and figure that out at the end.

3.  Composition of the Block.  So now I'm being brave here and showing you my pathetic line drawing.  But truly that's all you need to get your basic composition down...a pathetic line drawing!  I normally use this step to work out what scale I want the elements.  Also, this is where I get a better idea of the main lines in the composition.  Since this is part of a series, I'm using the previous blocks as a guide.  Notice....big cow in the foreground and the church in the background with the horizon shown.  This block though will have a stone fence rather than a wooden one.  I love stone fences.  



4.  Edit the photos.  I edit the photos using a black and white high contrast filter.  I print them out in a nice workable size.  They don't need to be the exact size just something big enough to trace.   I  trace the photo with tracing paper because at this stage I can add lines and take lines away that I don't find pleasing using the original photo to help guide me.  I am never super careful with the lines.  Once the pattern is to my liking, I trace it onto overhead projector film sheets.  (I use expo  vis a vis markers ... I know my 10 years of teaching is showing but they are washable and won't rub off)


5.  Create the pattern.  Now I drag out the WW II overhead projector I bought on eBay 25 years ago for 20 bucks.  I mean do they even still make these?  I draw out the 16" block and then using the overhead projector, I then move my cow and church to a scale and location I like.  The line sketch from Step 3 gives me an idea of where, but I also trust my eye,  As you can see here, once I got the pictures up on the block, I really liked the idea of the church scaled larger, bringing forward.  Plus you gotta keep in mind this is part of a series, and this layout will look great next to July Cow and his 4th of July Barn.


With the final pattern trace, I can go back and put in a few details.  They will be the veil, the horizon line and hopefully the stone fence.  But it's getting late and I've learned never to make design decisions when you're tired.  


I know it might seem like a lot, but it really isn't.  It took me about 3 hrs.  It does help that I have all the supplies I like to use right at my fingertips.  The nice thing about this method is that its super versatile and cheap and low tech.  I know I'm still using the same box of 100 overhead projector sheets I bought back in the late 90's.

Now all I have to do is finish up the details on that pattern, choose the fabric, and sew it up!

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?



You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter