Surprisingly Cute

Cute is not my thing. But this picture is unbelievably cute -- the creatures are baby bats. They were rescued from the floods in Queensland and are being cared for at Brisbane clinic -- animal clinic, I assume.

To tell the truth this is photo snatching twice removed. I just saw this on Ronni Barrett's blog, Time Goes By, and she had "snatched it", said she, from a blog called Creatures Great and Small.

Honestly -- did you every think you'd call a bat cute?ba

Pondering Poetry and Poets

I have been thinking about selvages. I have used them in quilting since I heard Karen Griska [see side bar, Selvage Blog] talk about using them. She showed some wonderful quilts and, at that time, had just written her book.

I hate to throw things away. I generally used selvages if I could in quilting [though hidden in a seam usually. Selvages are marginal by definition. I've always read poetry and think a great deal about women poets, many of whom have been, in the past and still are, marginalized. How many American women poets can most people name? Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou and ... how many more? There are MANY. Many of their books are on my book shelves. I recently found out about Kay Ryan who was U.S. poet laureate 2009-2010. I had never heard of her but now I am reading a collection of her work and loving it. I discovered Jane Hirschfield this fall and she's one of my new favorites.

Being a combiner -- aren't nearly all quilters combiners? -- I began to think of marginalized poets and selvages and decided to maybe do a series of little quilts for marginalized women poets. So here is a first pass with Kay Ryan. I will turn the photograph into a fabric one and sew it onto the square. I have written in my not very pretty long hand one of her short intense poems -- I think I need to go over it again with the black Sharpie marker -- or maybe I need to make another square and try writing bigger and neater.

I'm also wondering whether to add that multicolored selvage as a binding. I don't need to because the square has been backed pillowcase style. The theoretical me says I shouldn't border it, I should leave the poetry bare, out there, as the poet does, not prettied and framed. But I want my effort to be noticeable. So I'm pondering. I have a list of poets, I could be at this project for some time. I'd love some opinions from others.

Couldn't Resist

Yesterday's Bayberry Quilters' meeting did not have a speaker because of her illness. But they did have a members'flea market. Also the "free table" was especially laden. I took a couple of bags of stuff I knew I would no longer use. Many others did too. I came back with almost as much as I took, but I think I'll use ... well some, if not all, of it. Among the things I picked up were two packages of prestamped fabric "paper" piecing type patterns for a log cabin variation.

I'm a major fan of paper piecing and have seen these printed foundation fabrics but never purchased or use one. So almost as soon as I got home I had to try it. I decided to make a dent in my blue scraps. Here is what I did. Obviously I haven't trimmed the squares at all. You can see some of the foundation fabric behind. It's by Benetrex and very nice muslin. I like this! It feels good and I don't enjoy tearing the paper off my blocks. So I'll continue. Possibly some of the blocks will be another color for more punch and interest in the final quilt.

Also I couldn't resist, since so many blogs I read have done this: a snow picture -- this is what's immediately outside my sewing room window this morning.

Ten new selvage post card

An hour the day before yesterday and an hour yesterday and I have ten 4x6 postcards almost done. I like to use a small print as the focal point in the center, in this case, as you see, birds. It's a great way to use up some of the shorter cuts of selvages.
The ends where I turned in the backing need to be hand stitched, so if you click to enlarge the pictures you'll see pins. That's nice handwork I can do while chatting with the ladies who gather on Thursday nights in the community room of the apartment complex to talk about or do needlework. One of these ladies is 92, in generally good health and making another - many have preceded it -- spectacular cathedral windows quilt. She uses a snowy white and add, in the "windows," very bright modern fabrics. She tired to teach me and I do understand the technique but I don't want to spend so much time hand quilting. I prefer a project like these post cards than can be accomplished quickly.

I always write the words "post card" on the back because some post office employees don't otherwise know what they're dealing with even when the address and stamp should make it obvious. These must be hand canceled so they need a 44 cent stamp instead of the post card 28 cent stamp. You can see I used lavender backing for some, and a light green print for others. Most ballpoint pens are okay to use but I like to use permanent ink Sharpies, a fat tip for the "Post card" and fine tip for other writing.

Unless It Moves the Human Heart

Wonderful title for Roger Rosenblatt's book with the subtitle, The Craft and Art of Writing. This is a slender book which follows a single class taught by Roger Rosenblatt in the MFA Writing program at SUNY-Stony Brook on Long Island. The twelve class members ranged in age from 20 to over 60. The book contains some good pointers about writing, some good quotes to remember and pass on. That includes the title which say the only reason to write a short story or poem is to "move the human heart." For Rosenblatt, I think that is the only reason to teach also.

I loved Rosenblatt and his students and I felt profoundly envious and sad. In college I took writing courses, of course, and later was in playwrighting classes in NYC non-academic venues. In the latter situation there were sometimes the friendships and cares among students and teacher that I find in Rosenblatt's class. But in college no, none of that. Absolutely nothing helpful that I can remember, nothing that touched me, nothing that inspired me to write. I continued writing because I wanted to, needed to, never thought of ceasing to write. But I learned nothing. How wonderful a class like Rosenblatt's would have ben! Not one professor/teacher with personality, with a desire to inspire students back then -- lo, fifty years ago! I hope there are many other Rosenblatts out there today.

Twenty stars

This is all twenty paper pieced stars. Done! Except for fixing a couple of mistakes that are easily fixable. They will have stripping between them so they won't be so on top of each other as they are here pinned to my design wall. This part was exciting and challenging. Putting them together and quilting is boring but I'll do it slowly, bit by bit. These will not reappear in this blog for quite a few months.
I have another quilt in my head that excites me as much as the stars do so I may sew that entire top before I start quilting this. We'll see how disciplined I feel like being.

The book here provided all the star patterns. As you can see at a glance I did not follow Carol Doak's color schemes -- except there is one -- on the lower right of the book that has a near equivalent in the quilt. I feel I have learned by trial and error, changing my mind after making color choices, somethings throwing out the first couple of sections when I saw how they looked. But I feel rewarded and even excited. Sometimes I just turn on the light in the sewing room [studio?], stand in the door way so I have perspective and study these stars from a distance. Then I go up closer and look at the various fabrics I've used - some fabrics repeatedly, others only once or twice.

This was a real stash celebration. I used only stash fabrics. When I bought the background fabric, which is a deep purple with a deep olive green floral design, I knew I would use it for the background for something colorful. That was all I knew at the time. I wish there were enough to do all the stripping between stars but there isn't. I'll find something else.

Break from color, briefly

Challenged to make a "quiltie" for a swap I decided to trying something I've never done before. This little 7x7 inch piece was make using a technique in the latest Quilting Arts Magazine. First I quilted the piece in a squared spiral using thin cotton batting under a tightly woven pine and white striped decorator fabric. Then I finished it with a pillow case type backing so it would not need a binding. Then I painted it lightly with white acrylic letting the pink stripes show through. Then I added the pears using a photo I had taken of a couple of pears that were almost too pretty to eat [but eat them I did] and drew on the quiltie with thin and fat Sharpies.

Of course one cannot blend with Sharpies but I feel I have control and I have absolutely no experience with paints and am anything but secure in my drawing ability. I was pleased that they look like pears and having discovered I actually can draw a recognizable facsimile I may use the technique again for my next quiltie in what may become a year-long series -- I'll tackle some other edible.

Thinking about doing it took quite a bit of time but the actual doing didn't take long at all. And so then it was back to my stars. There will be twenty. I have three and a half to do. I feel I am learning about color, value, and so on. It's wonderful to find myself actually accomplishing something I never felt comfortable with before.