Three quarters

A very quick update on progress completing my two Symposium exhibition entry quilts.

'Flag' is almost done, with three quarters of the binding handstitched down. The more I look at it, the more I like it. It may be my favourite ever. It's certainly the foundation piece for a series in the flag format. The final title is still to come, the perfect phrase uniting the ideas of fertility and absence may arrive in a dream.

'Cubes' is also at a 'three-quarters' milestone- that's how much of the background quilting is done. This is radiating straight lines, I am very pleased with how it looks. There a still an unknown number of cube motifs to quilt...but at least te design for them is figured out. The title came to me during this morning's walk 'Comsentience at Waypoint42' a reference to my recent birthday, and an homage to one of my favourite science fiction writers, Frank Herbert.

and now, for a complete change of pace. Overdrive!

Suddenly realised the deadline for entries in the Queenstown quilt Symposium is January 14th. Since I'm going back to work on the 10th, that's the real deadline. The entry needs photographs, which require natural lighting, which means the photo session will have to be on Sunday 9th.

One entry is complete, another is at the stage of handstitching the binding. No worries. The 3rd is 'Floating Cubes'. It's a very generous queensize. A dear friend's help and encouragement gained me a whole day, and quilting is well under way. But it's still a big job for 5 days. Good thing I love it! So

there might not be any more posts until those entry forms are in the post

Passion vs. maintenance

The word for today was 'maintenance' in the sense of all the things I do, or might do, that are *not* my passion. For example: singing the music of JS Bach is one of my passions, whereas vacuuming the house is not. Stitching an original art quilt? Passion. Cooking dinner, not. And yet, some maintenance must be done. Either I do it myself, or charm/coerce/pay someone else to do it on my behalf. Or decide it need not be done at all.

Yesterday I wrote about the need to make my original art quilts - a passion - my first priority. This is still true. But I wonder how much of my time should be given over to maintenance. How much maintenance did Picasso and O'Keeffe do? Going-to-work is maintenance. So is exercise. Maybe an answer is to do the maintenance with great passion too.

There are heaps of great quilts in my sketchbook...

....but for all of them to come into material existence before the entropy death of the universe, some things must change. Some of these changes are relatively easy, or at least, relatively obvious. Skills acquisition is one major area. For example, several of the ideas really want custom-dyed fabric. I'm not yet confident enough of my abilities in this area, but I also doubt that what the quilt wants is out there waiting for me to buy.

Another significant change needed is to STOP some kinds of quilting. There are works I make purely because I can do so comfortably, or because I already have the fabric, or because I'm copying someone I want to be like. These aren't bad reasons in themselves, but it dilutes the 'real' works.

Lastly, and most difficult, to make my own original work the first priority use of my time. Picasso did that. Georgia O'Keeffe did it too. I don't see myself as possessing talent on their level, but until I make that change, I'm not making the best of the talents I do have.