Stitching together remembrances

Today some slightly different stitching on a big communal project.

Off to the Henderson RSA with a old friend to work on the 5000 Poppies project.

We stitched hundreds of knitted, stitched, crocheted red poppies onto a three-metre banner which will be part of several WW100 exhibitions and commemorative events over the next year.

Hundreds of people all over the country have been making poppies for this project, it felt great to be part of that big group working together to honour our history and make sure we learn from it. Find out more here: 

http://5000poppies.wordpress.com/new-zealand/

Among the many laughs on this happy day, also some poignant moments as we read the individual commemorations that accompanied some flowers.

They shall grow not old as we who are left grow old.

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning...

...we shall remember them.

Habits

Blogjune comes to a close. Thanks Con!  I think this year I managed to post almost every day - and I think most of them were worth reading.  Its not over - I like routine and have a few drafts in the holding pattern.

Here's another of my sillier routines - the Bed Head Project. Selfies when the sleeping hairstyle is especially good. It does you good to laugh! And to sing, don't forget that invitation.

Working small for a change

Today I picked up scraps and made some little quilts. Postcard sized.

What a change and relief from the recent giants!  Working at small scale is quick and easy. Everything fits in the hand, holds together without pins and doesn't need special engineering support to get through the sewing machine.

Of course they don't have quite the same impact and they wouldn't keep much of you warm. But great to freshen up with a change, use some scraps and to try out some new ideas.

They also serve who only stand and puff

Sometimes my role as Fairy Godmother includes being a stand-in Gymnnastics Mom.  It's a highly specialised form of sideline athlete. 

Today's challenge involved cardio-vascular fitness, aesthetic sensibility and marshalling tiny gymnast-siblings into a production line.

Yes - the moms and tinies prepped the practice gym for tomorrow's junior competition. My favourite bit: the balloon walk!

Starting over

Yesterday I shared a fabulous knitting technique. http://stitchsarah.blogspot.co.nz/2014/06/knitters-delight-perfect-tubular.html

Tonight I finished the ribbing, admired my work, unpicked the contrast yarn and discovered...an orphan loop!  I'd missed picking up one stitch. Aue!

No cunning idea for rescue came on a flash of inspiration, so the oldest strategy in the knitter's repertoire came into play.

Unpick it all and start again.

A bit of a bother, but to be honest I made a better job of it second time round. It took about the same time as it takes to sing the Beatles "Starting Over" five times.  I wish this strategy were available in more facets of life!

Knitters' delight: perfect tubular ribbing cast-on

For a change, I share this technique learned two-thirds of a lifetime ago. Credit to Heather Halcrow Nicholson

1. Using any contrast yarn and speedy method, cast on HALF the number of desired stitches.

2. Knit one row in contrast.

3. In proper project yarn, knit 5 rows Stocking Stitch, beginning and ending with knit rows.

Now for the cool bit. 

4. P1 from the needle, move the yarn to the back.

5. With the left needle, pick up the bottom-most loop of project yarn where it pokes down below the contrast.

6. Knit this stitch. Move yarn to the front.

Repeat steps 4-6, alternating purling from the needle with knitting from the bottom row of project yarn loops, until all stitches have been purled from the needle. 

Voila! The knit stitches have created the tube and you have the correct number of stitches. Continue in k1, p1 rib as required. Unpick/snip out the contrast yarn whenever you like.

Singing again, dressed up!

I've said it before, it's great to sing. And everyone can.

Tonight, I sang in Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Ode to Joy, with our own amazing NZSO. Pictured, me in concert rig. Any opportunity for sparkling cleavage, I say!

You can find my next public singing dates here http://www.acs.org.nz

This is not simply an attempt to sell you tickets - though that would be great! - but you'll see there are a couple of opportunities to come to an Open Rehearsal, see what we do and even try it out for yourself in the anonymity of the chorus.

Remember, everyone can sing!! I invite you to take up one of these free opportunities to enrich your life with this beautiful activity. Wear whatever you like, but please join me!

Pre-concert nerves? why yes, just a little

Final night of review and rest, for tomorrow I'll be a Beethoven 9 gal.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=L7lQ_KplYHs 

We're performing this incredible work - from memory! - with the wonderful NZSO 

It's more than a little scary to look forward to. Utterly amazing and exhilarating to do!

Life as a working artist. Part 6, Delivery

Today I delivered my first artquilt commission to very happy clients. I'm rather happy myself.

The work looked great, met/exceeded expectations and was ready slightly ahead of schedule. 

This project was a gift in so many ways: Recycling my professional skills in project management, client relationships and service delivery management.  

Working with people I respect, admire and enjoy spending time with.

Making something unique and beautiful, inspired by a joyous event.

Can't share the whole thing, but here are the last stitches going into the binding.

So, today is definitely a day living the dream and feeling truly grateful.

Out Of Order...

...and Otherwise Occupied.

I'll be back when I've beaten this virus. Hopefully in time to sing the big concert on Sunday.

I am my mother

We are so alike.

Once upon a time this would have bugged me terribly. Now it's comfortable, friendly, a source of comfort and compassion, a foundation for cooperation.

No doubt it's been true forever, but it seems recent. Maybe it's to do with a bit more relaxation on her side and more maturity on mine.

Maybe as we both grow up we are learning to like ourselves and the reflection of ourselves in each other.

I am my mother-in-law.

I realised today that my quiet, no-fuss, engineer husband is even smarter than I thought he was.

Not only was he smart enough to recognise and secure unto himself the marvel that is me, he has also Married His Mother.

This realisation has been dawning on me for a while. Spent the last 24 hours with my lovely mother-in-law. If course she's lovely, she's Just Like Me!

*we like the same breakfast

*we find the same things funny (almost everything but especially the male members of the family)

*we are both crafty needlewomen

...the list could go on for some time.

We had a super-fun day together, sewing, knitting and playing with her extremely flash embroidery machine. Now I know I don't need one myself, I've got a pal who loves to share.

The blokes didn't get many words in edgeways, but the clever chaps like it like that.

Being able to be friends with the in-laws is a great blessing.

The legion of teachers

I've learned a lot from books but more from humans.

Almost every skill, piece of knowledge or strong memory has a person attached.

Maybe this is a result of my gratitude practice http://stitchsarah.blogspot.co.nz/2014/01/gratitude-again.html. Each time I exercise a skill, use some knowledge or review a memory, the person arises from my memory and I thank them silently.

Chris, who clarified depreciation accounting; Annette, who gave me the key to perfect mitred bias binding; Julie, who taught me how to find my "head voice". There must be hundreds of others. 

I think of you all as the benefactors of my life. I honour you by using your gifts as well as I can - and by sharing what I have received.

If you can speak...

... you can sing.

I've been singing in choirs most of my life, even had some individual lessons to improve how I sound alone. Nothing special to begin with, but over time I've improved, and I expect that to continue. More about that in this earlier post http://stitchsarah.blogspot.co.nz/2012/10/learning-to-sing-at-last.html

It's the Best Thing. Better than chocolate. Or sex. It may be that I'm doing either/both of those unskilfully, or that more participants/lessons might help, but you get the idea.

If I were given a diva's bouquet for every time someone said to me "I wish I could sing" or "I can't sing" ... florists would be our most profitable business sector.

I don't know where Voice Shaming comes from, but it's a horrible thing we do to each other. 

Why do people with zero expertise choose to sneer at others' voices?

Why do so many of us take that baseless criticism on board?

Honestly folks, if you can speak, you can sing. 

Singing uses exactly the same physical equipment as speech, just some additional skills required. Some people may find those skills easier to learn than others do, and some people's physical equipment may offer a more pleasing basic sound than others, but it's something we all can do. And it feels so good! If you sing with me, 100% guarantee I won't be judging what you sound like, I'll just be so happy we're doing a fun thing together. 

The picture is my view at rehearsal in the Auckland Town Hall. A whole lot of happy people doing the good stuff.

Personal best

Walking is a key part of my mental and physical health programme. The favourite is 6km at low tide on Muriwai Beach, but anywhere with a reasonable surface will do.

I use Map my Run on the iPhone to record my efforts. It's a simple enough app but like anything, prone to issues caused by the User.  This morning I somehow fumbled an unintentional Pause at the beginning. Over a kilometre later I noticed and resumed. Net effect: significant distance covered in tiny time.

The resulting spectacular pace makes my regular brisk walks look rather, well, pedestrian - it will have to go. But I'll keep it for a while out of vanity. A 93 km/hr split - not bad for a middle-aged artist.

What shall I do about it?

Something is wrong somewhere, the details matter not. I shared my thoughts about it with a friend.

With great perceptiveness the friend responded "that's what you get when xxx and xxx. Welcome to the future"

I don't want to accept the inevitability of that kind of future. I want to find the sweet, powerful effective place between doing nothing because it's pointless, and doing any old thing out of impatient reaction.

Somewhere between my friend's clever cynicism and my passionate anger, surely there lies a powerful source of energy and direction. To take meaningful action that might improve the situation.

For now, I'm making the world a better place one beautiful warm artwork at a time. While looking about for other leverage points.

Going to the water

When I'm angry, sad, afraid or hurt - thankfully a diminishing proportion of my time - I go to the water.

A swim or a walk on the beach is exercise, always a good tactic for emotional balancing.

There's beautiful or at least neutral sensory input (scenery, sound of waves, texture of sand, buffeting by the wind) all of which help me get out of my head and into my body.

Even more beneficial, the ocean or river is an unmistakeable reminder that everything changes, all difficulties wash away in time. That anger, fear or sadness need not be permanent.

Life as a working artist. Part 4, Going boldly online.

I think I made my first website in 1996. I've been posting pictures of my working process to my Facebook timeline for some time, and today I made a FB page for my studio or business or whatever it is. As a former cataloguer the proffered categories seemed incomplete, unhelpful. Curious to find out if this will be an effective way to share what I'm doing. There are a few more developments in that line still to come.

It's been a long circular path to come round to making an online presence for myself. It seems a little strange when so much of my recent energy has gone towards making in the physical realm. We'll see!

How long does it take? Part 2, Are you really asking about duration?

I am still figuring out how to answer this question.

It comes most often from the non-crafty, non-artist person looking at my work, with perhaps a degree of horrified fascination.

They are (at minimum) intending to show a polite interest. They are (I think) baffled by the mechanics of creation.

Like a good former reference librarian, I can't take this question at face value. I want to climb into their head a little, figure out what it is they really want to know.

If the question was "how long did it take?" that's amenable of a brief answer:elapsed time at x intensity.

However, the question is almost always "how long DOES it take?" and I think that's a deeper question about ongoing process and the experience of making. 

Am I right? 

The photo shows a king-sized quilt of hand-pieced 3-D bow tie blocks, 4 inches square. By the end of the project I could stitch one with my eyes shut, in about 15 minutes. I made them only when travelling, over a period of about 7 years. How long did that take? To me, it is the least interesting element.

How long does it take..? Part 1

Once upon a time I had hair long enough to sit on (which is a most unpleasant thing to actually do). I lost it as the result of a bit of drama. A story for another day.

People were always wondering if it took a lot of time to care for. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. Undo the overnight braid, Rapunzel; twirl it around a few times and stick something interesting through the nest. 1 minute. Easy-peasy, super quick.

Now it's short and to look good requires a daily soaping, a selection of sticky products, hot-air drying with 2 sizes of brush, generally quite a bit of fuss. Minimum 15 minutes.

Or, I can leave it be. In the interests of doing something more interesting with my time.

If you know me on Facebook, you may have seen my Bed Head Project. Selfies straight out of bed. Immortalising the wonderful styling efforts of the feather pillow. Much more fun than all that hot air!

Thanks to Corin for the inspiration for this post :-)