Otilija and Orlando

I read a lot of blogs. A lot. And it’s true that after a while, you feel like you know someone, even just a little. I always felt a connection with Kathreen Ricketson because she’s from Canberra, and so am I and we went to the same Art School. She was an amazing crafter, quilter and author. She had a wonderful personal website, a great resource blog called Whip up, as well as numerous other online publications all of which she’d written for years.  She had become a big name in the craft world and she inspired me.

Just a little of Kathreens lovely work

Sadly, last week, she and her husband tragically drowned off the West coast of Australia. Anyone not from Australia needs to note, the currents and tides off the coast of most of the country are surprisingly dangerous. Even being a strong swimmer is sometimes not enough. Their family was in the middle of an amazing year long road trip, that ended horribly. Their two kids Otilija and Orlando have a fund set up for them to help with their future, if you’d like to help check it out. In the meantime I am machine quilting my first quilt as I write this which I am loving! Thinking how quick life is, you have to do what you love in each moment if you can and hoping those kids will somehow be ok.

Craftsy fun times

Well this is kind of awesome!  Craftsy, where I love to do many online courses and check out peoples crafts photo’s and get free patterns for knitting and quilting and such, is having a Free Class Day to benefit Donors Choose. For one day only, new members can choose one free course from a selection of favorite Craftsy classes, up to a $39.99 value! If you haven’t taken a Craftsy class yet, Saturday is your chance to sign up for your first by choosing from classes in quilting, sewing, knitting, bread baking, and more!

My Craftsy 2013 BOM’s so far…

Craftsy is donating funds to Donors Choose to fund arts education in public schools across the US. Existing members are not eligible for the free course offer, but will still receive a special treat.

Just so you know I get a dollar if you sign up from my site – but honestly I love the Craftsy online community a lot, so join from wherever you want to, I’m just happy to spread the free course fun!  I’ve already learned tons from the classes.  It’s a great way to start your long weekend : )

Craftsy

binding

Quilt binding is quite satisfying I think. I mean, it’s not as if I’ve finished many quilts (yet! ha) but it’s definitely like putting the finishing touches on a cake. (It’s the thin border of fabric that joins the front and back of a quilts edges, for those who aren’t sure). It can be kind of hard to choose too. For my architextures quilt, I had a binding in mind right from the start, but with my baby girl hot pink one, I wasn’t so sure. Today I was meant to finish the little thing, but an unexpected comedy of errors occurred, which resulted in my going by metro to get a new iron (and board). Which is GREAT, but took up too much of my day. Ahh, weekends are like that aren’t they? Full of good ideas and then – a million unforeseen things get in the way.

The rest of the day was spent agonizing over binding, something matching or something contrasting? Ange tried to help, but in the end I went with my gut, blue and white stripes, because who doesn’t love a stripey binding hmm? The whole thing is indeed busy, but I remember my quilts as a child and I loved nothing more than studying the vibrant colours and counting the flowers.  It should be fun. With any luck next time you see this quilt, it will be in completed form. I cut my binding 2.5 inches, after it’s folded twice and sewn it should be about 1/2 inch.

BTW for anyone who is so inclined to admire irons (I’m sure that’s a select few!)

Yes that’s correct, it says ‘professional’ on there. Who would have thought?

Anne Lindberg

zip drawing, 2012 thread and staples

Anne Lindberg is a widely exhibited American artist after my own heart. I first saw her thread installations and loved the feeling her work evokes, the blurred speed frozen in space, the gradual colour changes, the light. Personally, I love abstract installations that create a feeling or overall sense, rather than more literal or pictorial images. Work that surrounds you and makes you feel something you can’t even put your finger on, for me that’s awesome.

 

 

drawn pink, 2012 Egyptian cotton thread, staples

 

canto yellow, 2011 Egyptian cotton thread, staples

andante green, 2012 Egyptian cotton thread, staples

Here she is in her own words:

Neurologists have determined that the old brain holds the seat of our most primal understandings of the world. Goodwill, security, fear, anxiety, self-protection, gravity, sexuality, and compulsive behaviors generate from this lower cerebral core. 

My sculpture and drawings inhabit a non-verbal place resonant with such primal human conditions. Systemic and non-representational, these works are subtle, rhythmic, abstract, and immersive. I find beauty and disturbance through shifts in tool, layering and material to create passages of tone, density, speed, path and frequency within a system. In recent room-sized installations, I discovered an optical and spatial phenomenon that excites me as the work spans the outer reaches of our peripheral vision. The work references physiological systems – such as heartbeat, respiration, neural paths, equilibrium – and psychological states.

Along with her thread installations, Anne also does drawings with thread, 3d wall drawings, sculpture, photography and architectural works.

Thread drawing 16, 2012, rayon thread

Thread drawing 5, 2012, rayon thread

Thread drawing 10, 2012, rayon thread

Her website is clean and informative and has tons of images which are so nice to browse, it’s like getting lost in time for a little while.  Then again I often get lost in time so maybe that’s just me!

Pink

I usually make any colour quilt for any kind of baby. I’ve always thought gender colours were pretty funny, who thought of pink and blue anyway? I might research that soon. I love colour so much, I feel like each one is special for so many reasons, the more the better. Western culture can be odd sometimes. That being said, when this particular baby girl was born (this weekend!) I knew pink was the best choice for her. I won’t see her for a few weeks, so I had time to make a last minute quilt. Her Mum, Dan is an esthetician from Shanghai, but lived a long time in Tokyo. She now lives in Montreal and I know her through our partners.

Their daughter is their second child and first girl and I knew she’d have the cutest of everything right away. A great opportunity for me to use bright pink, including my secret Mariah Carey stash of ‘hello kitty’ cupcake fabric. (Yes I do own this – hey I’m not against pink, I just think it needn’t be solely for the girls).

I used an awesome tutorial for star blocks from Little Bluebell. Because I’ve seen so many gorgeous star quilts around lately. I wanted to combine the stars with regular nine-patch blocks, to break up the hot pinkness a little.

I tried not to overthink this little quilt and now that the squares are ready to sew together, I’m super happy with the results. Incidentally, this would have been my dream quilt as a child, pink, stars and florals. I hope little Emily likes it too, even if her favorite colour winds up being orange.  One can never have too much colour of any sort around.

Speaking of the Western world, I am obviously the only sad person left in it without a digital SLR camera, photoshop OR a cellphone!  But that’s another story…