Quilting Quilting Quilting
Long time readers may recall that I used to make weekly or biweekly goals and often posted them here. I haven’t done this since late March (make or post the goals) so it’s time to slowly get back on track.
In late March I decided I wanted to really concentrate on my artwork as I was getting burned out on the business aspect of art. So I dropped just about everything on business side and made a goal of making 9 new quilt tops in the month of April. I came darn close to reaching that goal, and a few days into May I completed the 9th piece.
[An aside for those unfamiliar with the process of making a piece quilt. There are 2 main phases in my quiltmaking: First I design and piece together the top layer of the quilt. The result is generally referred to as the "quilt top" (clever huh!). Next I layer the top along with a back and a middle layer, called "batting". This "sandwich" has to be "quilted" to hold the layers together, this is the stitching you see on the top of the fabric.]
This means I now have 10 pieces in my new series (tentatively named “Markings”), with the first piece being made last October. They are mostly huge pieces – some nearly 8 feet x 8 feet but most well over 6′ and they all need to be quilted to complete them.
My plan for May, June and July is to quilt a good portion of these quilts along with some of the unfinished pieces from my Structures series. In May I only quilted 2 of the pieces – Structures #34 (I was going to include an image but my camera battery just died in the middle of a download so maybe tomorrow) and Markings #1. I hope to pick up my speed and get 3 or 4 pieces done in each of June and July.
I started Markings #2 last week and have made a bit of progress but it’s a huge quilt. At first I was quite worried that quilting these huge quilts would be difficult but it’s really not turned out to be that physically challenging. It’s just going to take many many hours as I do very dense quilting on my work (parallel lines between 1/8″ and 1/4″ apart). Think about that covering a 6′ x 5′ area and it’s going to take a while.
So my goals for now until June 12th are:
- Finish quilting Markings #2.
- Unearth my goals spreadsheet and formulate a longer term plan for the summer.
- Clean my office yet again as paperwork has really piled up the past few months.
- Work with Alyson Stanfield on our plans for the Geek Dinner to taste Stormhoek wines later this month. More on this later.
For those that recall me saying I was going to take Alyson’s Art Marketing Circles. I ended up not signing up. I do believe they are probably extremely valuable and will eventually sign up. But I needed some time to think some things through on my own – which is why I stopped blogging, stopped making goals and pulled back into just making the artwork. While I’m not sure everything is resolved in my head I know that going back to the basics, where just making the work is the only focus, has helped me gain some perspective on what I’m doing with my art and where I want to go with it.
Posted by Lisa in: Goals and Intention
It’s tough to get back “in the saddle” so to speak. Humans are naturally prone to create patterns and habits, which is great when the patterns and habits are positive ones…
I think you’ll get back in the swing of things. You already are. I’m just excited to continue seeing more of your work.
Lisa, I admire your ability to make some decisions about the focus of your work and the business aspects and then take some time off to set some new goals , not to mention working to reach them. It can be hard for an artist to be so practical!
Well and the 2 of you can see from today’s post (http://blog.lisacall.com/2006/06/work-work-work.html) I didn’t quite succeed at getting back organized again.
Maybe next week!