Ah, summer. Every year I seem to forget that these months are just not the time for the studio. Even if this season didn’t mean so many other things — travel, picnics, friends, family, swimming, hiking, camping – there’s the fact that my studio is housed inside the cavernous belly of an un-air-conditioned metal warehouse, which holds on to the stifling temperatures for days, even long after the heat waves have broken. But to my surprise there has been a fair amount of progress made, seemingly in stolen moments, a few hours here and there, in pinches.
I agonize about being away from my studio, and it’s always there in the back of my mind, tugging at me, no matter how joyful the activity at hand. I count the weeks, the days, the hours when I’m not there. And yet, I don’t regret how I spent the summer. I put my body under so much water in the last few months and still, it never felt like enough. I swam in rivers, lakes, ponds, pools, Puget Sound, and my beloved Lake Michigan. I sat in outdoor bathtubs full of cool water. I have learned to crave a cold plunge.
But this week I came back from my second trip to the Olympic Peninsula and a shocking reality awaited me: aside from two weekends over the next six months, my calendar, as of this moment is blank. Free; clear.
A quilt idea based on a photo of a vintage quilt in a book I can no longer remember the name of...
It won’t stay that way, of course, but for the moment I feel drunk with the possibility of the long uninterrupted hours, the days ahead. I feel ready to go to work in a serious, uninterruptible way. Back to school, as it were. The progress mentioned has been all on the Red Sister* top, which is so close to completion now – only a few long seams away. I remain startled, absolutely incredulous, at how much I love it – this work that started only as the muddy, unformed idea to create a foil to the well-defined inspiration of blue one, and whose blocks I literally considered throwing away for several months. The Blue Sister* is no longer in the studio but at home being quilted when the time and space can be made (lord, queen sized quilts are large). And, as in my last post, I am actively daydreaming about seeing them together someday. Who wants to give me a gallery show next year?
And so not only the empty calendar but also the nearness of completing this top is spurring my energy, my mind leaping ahead to other things. There are so, so many WIPs in the pile. I am remembering when, after the first of my now-ritual solo retreats, I made a list of “current interests and obsessions,” and I feel called to do so again. For posterity, for clarity, for motivation. May the ostensibly empty calendar be filled with the following:
Acid Vat*: next up on the wall, the moment the red one comes down. I feel determined to finish this top. I had wondered about trying to quilt it “the old-fashioned way” – that is, with traditional quilting thread instead of the much heftier sashiko or perle cotton size 8 that I typically use. Now that I’ve committed to just such insanity on another piece, I am confident it’s the right choice here as well. I’m anxious to move it on to that stage.
Ring of Stars*: Finishing quilting on this darling, which was sadly relegated to the WIP pile instead of being finished immediately as it should have been. I just still haven’t been able to decide how to treat the sashing, and how to treat the stars… and still don’t have the perfect binding fabric, either.
Binding a gift quilt, for another friend’s baby, which was started when said friend was pregnant and whose child is now over two years old. How am I so bad at this? This piece is so old that I couldn’t even find documentation of it, except in my “quilts” highlight on Instagram, with images that are three years and three months old. Let this be a reminder to take more pictures and post them more often (grimace). The binding will be hand finished at home but making the actual binding has to come first and so, I’m setting aside studio / machine & ironing time for that, finally.
Golden Triangles*: hasn’t made an appearance on the blog yet but exists in the batch-tasking, early stage. A quilt that’s been on my mind for over five years, starring fabric I’ve had in my stash for over a decade. I began piecing blocks for this last winter.
A vintage quilt top (crib size) that I bought last year during my annual February pilgrimage. This top is lilac(!) and white, and could be complete as-is: I could baste, quilt, bind it and call it done. But I am considering the possibilities of seam-ripping the blocks and putting it up on the design wall to collaborate with the original maker – someone who I believe may very well be deceased, given that this top found its way to an antique mall / vintage reseller. I like the idea of a quilt collaboration. We’ll see.
A quilt for myself. That little “black and white” block above is part of the beginning of the first quilt I’ve ever begun with the intention of it staying, living permanently, with me. Ten years! The time is right.
Not listed are (at least) two other WIPs and a few burning ideas, but these are what feel like the priority for now, and in this order. If the next month looks anything like I hope, it’ll be time to re-write this list by then, and reshuffle the deck.
A photo kindly sent to me by a friend, of one of my pieces shown in the Thought Object Process show.
And lastly, because I failed to mention it beforehand: last month my work was part of the new Thought Object Process art collective’s inaugural show, The Garden. I am so touched, honored, grateful — there aren’t enough words! — to have been invited to participate, and I am so sorry to have not gotten a chance to see all the other artists’ amazing work myself as I was in my beloved Michigan. A million thanks to everyone who sent me photos, tagged me online, and shared the info around. And a huge congratulations to the Collective; what a way to come into the world! I cannot wait to see what they do next. Three cheers for craft-based art, forever and ever amen.
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(*Y’all know these are nicknames, right? I am definitely not ready to tell you their real names, ha! Some of them haven’t even told me their real names, yet.)