Which Came First

The destination cannot be described;
You will know very little until you get there;
You will journey blind.   T.S. Eliot

Creating art is a process. Working in a series seems to open up creativity streaming in from multiple directions. While there are parts considered foreground, and others that are background, it has become very apparent during the making of my “Little Metals” series that one can never tell which comes first.


When you start creating,
which come to you first?

The answer is "it depends," sometimes I find a beautiful embellishment that needs a wonderful background to set it off. Other times it is fun to sit down with a bunch of fabric and let it spontaneously create wonder-filled background quilt pieces that get my mind spinning up various shapes that may ‘be perfect’. Sometimes its a combination.

 

When working on the ‘Little Metals’ pieces I find myself working in both directions at once. I note shapes that come to mind in my sketchbook, but right alongside might be ideas and sketches for backgrounds that might be Fast-Piece Appliqued, painted, or improvisational pieced. All begging for some special copper enamel piece.

I am loving how this process of working in a series seems to work from either direction.

Are you thinking of working on a new series --- have you found some recent inspiration from a special color, mark making, stitching in a fun new way, or some other idea just spinning in your head?

When nothing seems to spin do you have things you do to kick start everything?

Home, home, home

Hi All,
I've been home from Tucson for a couple of weeks now -- and one would think that being home was to be laid back and lazy time. (wishful thinking on my part, really)

Since my return I have been working on one largish task and two high on the list 'things to do'. The largish task has been the reworking of my website rosehughes.com.   Since my plan this year is to stop with traveling too far afield for teaching there needed to be a major overhaul. I believe my part now is done, and it is now my webmaster's turn.

The first of the high on the list 'things to do' was to get ready and actually film my episode of PBS Expressions. The filming took place on Friday and it was a blast, the photos here find me first in the green room, then caught mid-sentance during the interview. I look forward to sharing the particulars on when it will air with you all, but for now I am happy to have this behind me...

...so jump in the 'things to do' number 2.
Number 2 is working on my latest on-line workshop. To kick this year off I chose to work on taking another of my favorites & my students favorites real world workshops into cyberspace. The workshop is Color Journaling, and I have a whole week of days this week to continue with preparing and recording some of the fun activities that will be part of this class.

Today it has been snowing... lightly all day...
The perfect day for some more color fun.

Stay tuned.
~Stitch on

Quilt Market = COLOR Adventure

I have made it home from a fun filled, time exploring all things new and new to me at Fall Quilt Market. There was a game plan to check on certain - must see - products, but other than these I was on the look out for inspirational color.

At market so many fabric companies are there sharing their latest, but most include a bit of a 'how we got here' view, or a lookie, lookie at just what colors are 'in'! It is one of the things I love, so I thought you might want a peek, too.

Mind you there were 25 rows of vendors and an awful lot of color that had to be left behind, but I hope this little peek has got you thinking of all the new possibilities.

Happy Stitching!
~Rose

Where the shapes take me!

I have been taking time this week to:

• Get the word out about my on-line workshop opening its cyber doors on Friday
• Starting a quilt that has been buzzing around my head -- seemingly forever
• and putting the final stitched & beads onto a couple of almost finished quilts

So, I thought I might share one of these now finished pieces.

Last summer when I shared my five minute warm up drawing exercise. The word 'boardwalk' produced one of my favorite resulting pencil drawings.

I loved it so much I took it further until I came up with a quilt design that celebrated my time in and the color of the Caribbean. Some of my fabric was actually purchased on my 2013 Quilt Cruise and some popped up in the new colors that were being offered by Cherrywood Fabrics.

The quilttop was stitched together lickity-split using my Fast-Piece Applique, but note it did not stop me from piecing my boardwalk directly. The quilting & decorative stitching though took longer to complete..... more so as right around this time I started making this quilt my mind turned to book projects.

Feels wonderful now that the piece is done, and loved working all the stitching.

Hope you like the final results!

September Just Kinda of Slid In...

OK, can anyone tell me just what happened to last week?
One day I am writing about visiting Maddie, for the opening of her new store 'SPOOL' and whoosh...this is all a thing of the past.

My week was one filled with so many ups, downs & in betweens...
my new laptop went quite dead - was wisked away and replaced -- and I can happily report to be writing this on it's replacement -WOO Hoo.

The trip to Chattanooga was quite remarkable. My husband and I had never been and we just loved everything that we encountered --- especially Maddie's store. Boy, talk about lucky stitchers!!!

But, enough.... as I sit here sipping tea out of my new BadAss Quilters mug (yes a must have!) I realized it is September and all about FABRIC.

Part of my reason for picking FABRIC as my topic this month is that I am all wrapped up in the planning, choosing and very soon to be cutting and sewing the fabric for my newest book. It is pretty exciting.

Once I have a design in mind I just begin the fabric choosing by first thinking of COLOR. Now we spent a whole month earlier this year chatting about color (click on April posts), but really....
can we ever say enough about the most important part of our quilt making or art making process??

Some pieces actually begin with the color and the design is created to support it.
Color is magic - It plays with our eyes and our emotions.
Blues, cool & soothing; Reds, wild & hot; Yellow can make you feel happy....
and I was once told that Orange (the new black) is the color of conversation.

And, conversation we had --- so much conversation under the orange fabric of "The Gates" --now long gone are the miles of gates of Christo's Central Park installation, but it was a gate keeper who told me that the color was selected so there would be lots of conversation.

 

 

 

 

 

I took these and hundreds more photos over two days back in 2005 -- I flew in from LA and my sister flew in from Seattle --- and we had a grand time walking through the snow to be part of this.

Orange fabric -- kicking off the month of conversation about fabric....

So, how do you begin choosing fabric?
is it color --- or something else?