It's All About Choices

For quite a few years, I worked as a Psychoanalytical Assistant. I administered a variety of tests around intelligence, preferred work environment, learning style, and personality type. Our typical client had been injured on the job and was being assessed for re-training. As part of my work, I reviewed the client's file prior to the appointment. What intrigued me most was meeting two clients with a similar - horrendous - case file and vastly different attitudes toward life. One would choose to focus on all that was good and one would choose to focus on all that was not. It was an amazing experience. It taught me that instead of saying "I can't..." a better approach would be to ask "how can I...".

Karen wrote - Now you have really convinced me that a serger is an important tool in the sewing studio. Your suggestion for setting aside a little from each paycheck is excellent...

When I look around my studio, there is so much to chose from. I'm stashed up from here to there and back again. While I'd hate to know what the total value of my stash is, I do know from a previous shopping trip - ten years ago - that one stack in my fabric cabinet is worth $1,500.00 plus inflation. There are 16 stacks in just the two cabinets of batiks and hand dyed fabrics alone. That's a significant amount of money in one small area of the room.

In Canada, quality cotton fabrics average around $20.00 per meter while (glossy, sewing or quilting) books average $40.00. The total cost of my serger was $650.00 which equates to 32.5 meters of fabric or 16.25 books or a combination of the two to say nothing of thread and other supplies. I've learned that when I want to buy product X, it is entirely possible if I'm willing to do without products Y and Z until the funds are in place or to put a little aside each paycheque as you're doing Karen. You'll be so thrilled to see that total grow. It's empowering. Way to go. Life is all about choices.

In 2007, I recycled a quilt from my book Strip Quilts in a Hurry into the central design of RM1 shown below. At that time, I was feeling overwhelmingly responsible for the quilts stacked in my linen closet. They were the samples from my books and it seemed I should be preserving them and yet, while I was no longer interested in traditional quilting, I had packed and moved and packed and moved them several times. They took up space while not doing anything. There was no longer any purpose for these pieces. Recycling them opened up a whole new world of creativity that continues to expand for me now. It was a fabulous choice.

In January this year, I started mounting my work on gallery stretched canvasses. Some of the earlier pieces like RM1 needed custom sizes. These are a lot more expensive. Because of the cost, I chose to research standard sizes and work within those guidelines. That choice has led to the outline of the show I'm working on now which I think is my most exciting one to date. I'm really happy about the direction my work has gone in since I realized what canvasses could do for it and chose to work with them even though that choice completely removed me from the familiar world of quilting and placed me in the unfamiliar one of art.

In May, three of my pieces on exhibit at the Ashpa Naira Gallery sold just before the opening reception. The new owner wanted to pick them up the next day so I needed to fill the holes in the exhibit with more pieces including one big one. I quickly mounted RM1 on the canvas as shown above however, I didn't have a lot of experience with painting edging. The black against the white ended up looking rushed and not very professional. I wished that I had chosen to work slower and to take the big piece at a later date.

After the exhibit, when I picked up the remaining pieces, Carolina - the gallery owner - said that there had been a lot of interest in RM1 and that it didn't sell because most people felt the edge looked like a mistake. Her and my photographer both gave me a lot of feedback on how to better present the piece as well as some other suggestions for my work. Feedback is AMAZING to get. I have chosen to listen to feedback, evaluate it against my goals, and use it as much as I am able. Feedback - whether from viewers, buyers, or gallery owners - can only help me to improve my work. I wasn't always that open to other's opinions.

Yesterday, Francine gave me a lesson in how to tape off and paint a clean edge on the top of the canvas. We added a 1" black edge all the way around as you can see in the detail above and full shot below.

Compare this image with the one earlier and WHAT A DIFFERENCE! Before, it looked like the canvas was too big for the piece. Now, it sits squarely within the canvas, anchored in place by the border details, while still floating on the speckled background. Much better. I'm glad I listened to feedback and I'm glad I asked Francine to help me. As a result, I'm that much more knowledgeable and professional in my approach than I was just a short while ago.

Listening to our intuition (or not) is a choice we make every time we create. When I saw the purple with lime burst fabric at the store that I used for the inner outline above, I thought it would be just perfect. Earlier in my creative life, I'd have been so sure of myself that I would have traced and cut out all the pieces and, if at that time my intuition suggested that perhaps this choice was not the right one, I would have ignored it and most likely have regretted it later.

Now, I've chosen to listen more carefully to my intuition and, because of that choice, my inner artist speaks more often and much louder. When I pinned the fabric above in place on the design wall, she sent a little niggling that perhaps it was a bit too bright and too busy to work the way I wanted it to. I listened and tried the fabric below. It was a good choice. It added luminosity.




After I'd pinned all of the inner outlines in place, the piece glowed like glass. This fabric enhanced the piece and didn't overpower the fuchsia focal points as the busier fabric would have done. By listening and making choices, I was able to maintain my vision for the piece. Choice leads us to all kinds of interesting places.

The top of the lines & shapes piece is at the layering stage. I'll do that this morning and then stitch some lines through the common blue sections. Once those are in place, I can determine which fabric the bubble shapes will be made with - cut, paint, and place them - cut the three sections apart - and finish the stitching. That sounds so quick. It'll take days even though it'll be much easier to work with the piece when there are smaller sections. It looks FABULOUS. I'm so excited about each group of pieces and the entire exhibit.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - significant progress on these pieces with the end in sight