Coloring Inside The Lines With Only A Small Box Of Crayons

This is the view from the studio just as the fog was lifting and the sun began to shine. The light through the snow on the bushes was so beautiful, as was the color of the sky. The hills were still fogged out. It went from this bright beauty to a grey day. Not nearly as lovely.




I spent a lot of time yesterday thinking about two conversations that have come up in the last week. One is about what motivates you to sew and the other is about palette cleansing projects. As is often true, the answers depend on who is answering.

Nancy wrote: Take a break on the "event" items. Make something easy and tried-and-true. Sort of a palate cleanser.

What's so funny is that the sweater did start with my T & T pattern. I thought I was sewing something easy, not on purpose but because the pattern fit the design idea that I had in mind. There were just a few simple changes - a lower back neck, a higher front neck, and a longer ruched sleeve. Nothing major. AND THEN... there's the fabric factor.

How the fabric reacts - how it hangs and drapes and feels and the emotions it imparts - can change any plan that you might have made. For instance, this purple sweater knit was too thick to cover buttons with which meant that instead of covered buttons I used these black, fancy, like pearls but not, ones that have been in my stash for years. In the past, I've tried to use them deliberately without success. Here I've accidentally" used them and they're fabulous. I love when that happens.

On page 13, in her book The Party Dress Book, author Mary Adams writes:

When I'm creating a dress, I like to work spontaneously, picking and choosing color, fabric, and style without much planning. There are no rules, and if there are, they're mine. I can change my mind throughout the process. It's important to remember that imagining something is a whole different matter than seeing the actual elements together. I change my mind a lot once I see things in place and am always finagling and rearranging, pinning and unpinning, all the way around the making of the dress.

That's how I worked when I created textile art and even though I started out with a simple set of steps in mind, it's how I ended up working on this purple sweater. Although it might seem stressful to some, for me, that's a palette cleanser. A project that is simple and easy, cut it out and sew it repetitively, bores me to tears. It's like a paint by number or coloring only inside the lines with a small box of crayons. A project that gets my creative juices flowing, one that interacts with me emotionally and demands that I work harder with all my creative senses, is far more satisfying. I come away from it excited about sewing again.

This sweater started out as an event piece. That's rarely a pressure because I give myself plenty of lead time just in case, which is what happened here. As soon as the skirt and the sweater indicated that they weren't going to play nicely together, I was no longer wearing the sweater to the party BUT... I was still finishing it. Because I have the time, I didn't need to abandon the project nor rush its finish. That works for me. I'm a monogamous sewist.

Most of my sewing is event driven. When you've worked from home for so many years, you don't need a lot of clothing and when you do, it's for a particular event. That works for me. It's part of what motivates me but only a small part because while at one time my sewing was all about the finished product, it has since become more predominately about the process with the product as an added bonus.

I enjoy putting the parts together and seeing what happens. I enjoy creative flow and problem solving, I enjoy the feel of the fabric in my hands and the excitement of serendipitous moments and happenstance - like this sweater deciding to change directions. You can see the new front above and the new back below.

Changing directions created some issues. I draft my t-shirts with more width around the back and less around the front. Turning the design around, there was extra width at the armhole and barely enough over the back hips. I extended the back darts higher to pull the armhole tighter and lower to create shape through the waist and then picked out the twin-needle hem around the bottom (what a pain) and added a lettuce edge so the hem would be soft and move organically. It worked.

At some quilt shows there will be a collection of challenge quilts. The participants each purchased a kit that contained a specific number of fabrics in predesignated colors and lengths. From the kit, following the rules, they designed a piece on a given theme. Looking at the wide range of results, I would be amazed by some people's creativity, how they could see beyond the obvious to use the reverse of the fabric, to bleach it, to over-dye it, or to manipulate it in some way that I had never thought of. I used to think that I could never think like that. And now I can. It's a matter of believing and of training.

On page 59 in The Party Dress Book, Mary Adams writes:

I've found that I enjoy the creative challenge of being forced to make things work with what I have available. That wasn't hard at the time, because there was always black cotton organdy, and black goes with everything; you can never go wrong using black with another color.

In the fall of 2004, I took a year off from producing products for resale. I planned that time off for a few years in advance and had stashed up the studio in anticipation of a wide range of possible projects and processes. I knew my income would be reduced and I hoped that everything I needed would already be in the studio or could somehow be manufactured from what was in the studio.

It was a fabulous growing year with learning that has extended into every area of my life. After years of sewing, what I learned in that one year became my motivation to continue. Previously I was bored. I didn't know if I wanted to quit fabric and take up another medium or to continue in some new form. It was the year of decision making.

Limiting yourself to working with what you have on hand grows your creativity in leaps and bounds. It makes you go beyond the obvious and start exploring directions you might never have thought about. How can I and what if become all consuming questions. With them, my creativity was once again stimulated, excited, interactive, challenged, flowing.

My work changed significantly as a result of that year as did the work of many of my students. I went on to teach numerous design based and creative thinking courses with the most basic rule - to continue responding to the developing piece and stay with it until it said it was finished. That's it. Although that "rule" is at times frustrating, at other times it is unbelievably fascinating. It's that fascination that draws me in, that motivates me to continue to work with fabric. I can't help myself.

And, although I don't knit nearly as much as I sew, I see the same possibilities with yarn because it's simply a way of thinking. One of the women on Stitcher's Guild has posted several GORGEOUS sweaters in the past week. They are in shapes and styles that appeal to me and are based on the work of Kim Hargreaves although the knitter treated the basic sweater design as a T & T pattern and went in her own direction.

I found myself quickly searching for Kim's book, clicking through to buy it, and then changing my mind. Why? I don't need to spend that money. I don't need another book to store in the studio. I am entirely capable of designing a sweater from scratch by measuring my body, picking some yarn and some needles, and developing the design. There's a challenge and an energy and a world of possibilities in that process that motivates me. What motivates you?

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful - a successful purple sweater

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Personal Growth - A few weeks ago, I told you about a product for balancing blood sugar that I had started taking because of excessive thirst. When that symptom didn't decline, I did some more research and learned the most amazing thing that might be of help. Anemia can be caused by a hormone imbalance.

As you know, I have long believed that my allergies are caused by hormonal imbalances. Too many factors in my life point toward that possibility. And now, thinking back to when my doctor first said that I had mild anemia and should start taking iron, these "events" happened about the same time as when I started gaining weight, when my systems started malfunctioning, and when peri-menopausal symptoms began.

Since he said it was mild anemia, I ignored the doctor's suggestion and didn't take the iron because iron and I do not get along. After reading about the relationship between anemia and hormones, I changed my mind and started taking another product by the same company called Ironsmart.

I'm highly impressed with this company. Lorna has thoroughly researched her products and they are extremely effective. With each one I've taken, I've seen results almost immediately. What I liked about this iron is that it contains an easily absorbable liposomal iron that will raise ferritin and hemoglobin levels quickly without negative side effects. So far, that's true. After three days taking it, I'm already far less thirsty and have no other negative side effects. An FYI for any of you who might have this issue.