Sometimes I get in my own way when it comes to being creative. I get blocked. Ideas flood my brain and won't stop. Sometimes it goes on day and night for a day or so, but most of the time it's weeks or months at a time. There's no relief. When that happens, I become unable to pull one little idea out of my head and start working on it. Getting better at directing and channeling the ideas is part of my journey. Tho I keep sketch and idea books, it doesn't help. There are just too many ideas . . .
One of the many images that has been gnawing at me is a photo taken by my buddy and wonderful singer, songwriter Anne Hills. It has called to me for over a year now and I just have to do something to start the ball rolling.
So today I said the heck with it and just grabbed some fabric and started painting, stamping, screening. When done I took the one that a dried first and started playing.
After tormenting the fabric, I stitched the bird and tree outline image from Anne's photo.
The fabric that that I used wasn't a very tight weave. Normally that wouldn't have been a huge problem, but my 'batting' choice made for a bad combination. It was from an old mattress pad that had seen better days. While doing the free motion sewing, I had trouble with stretching because the piece didn't have enough body. I see where I went wrong and will definitely make adjustments in the future.
Shortly after starting this weekly project, I decided that it made sense to create a binder of experiments. That way I can play with fabrics, techniques, images, etc. in small quiltlets rather than mess up an already almost finished quilt. (been there, done that) Good thing because this week was chock full of lessons!
Enjoy a song from Anne Hills:
Lovely piece, I'll watch as it develops. I want to play, but am stuck doing a hard job.
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