Early Morning Club, Week Eight

I started the Early Morning Club as a way to create lots of pieces and meet my crap quota. Each morning I get up and spend 30 minutes or less composing a 6" x 9" finished vertical piece. Here are the pieces from the past week.

Monday, September 1, 2008
This piece reminds me of ice crystals. I've been attracted to the icy blues, teals, and grays of winter. Strange that I have jumped past fall. I wanted to make fragments that looked like tree branches and utility poles. Each fragment was made separately and then I played with arranging them. I added additional strips and fragments as necessary to fill in the design. I gradated the values from light to dark.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008
The central motif is a discarded fragment that I thought looked like a rune. I decided to see what my rune series would look like if I made one that was pieced, rather than fused. I think I prefer a combination of piecing and fusing: the rune and accent squares fused on a pieced background.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Here, the central motif is a fragment from Monday's piece that got away from me. So I decided to make it even more out there by chopping it up and resewing it together while adding other bits. I really like the randomly pieced borders. For whatever reason, this piece reminds me of bamboo growing.

Thursday, September 4, 2008
Here, I wanted to experiment with randomly cut and sewn curves. I found them to be more difficult than I expected. I had had an image of moonlight filtering through a forest during winter's chill, but my technical challenges made it hard to create my vision. That's alright though. I remember reading a quote from a top quilter in which she said that it took her 10 years to gain the technical skills required to make a quilt she had designed. I'll play some more with these curves in the future.

A side note: After I finished my piece on Thursday, I decided to travel to the quilt show in Harrisburg. It was an absolutely phenomenal show that was inspirational beyond my expectations. Indeed, as you will see in the pieces for the rest of the week, it inspired a reboot of my work and movement in a new direction.

Friday, September 5, 2008
The pieces at Harrisburg that inspired me the most were often the simplest, using fewer colors and fabrics and including open space. Hand stitching and embroidery also spoke to me, allowing me to see the hand of the artist. So when I began working on Friday, I sketched a simple design and allowed that to serve as the basis for the design. I chose humble fabrics: a raw muslin and three solid cottons in teal, cheddar, and sable brown. I love this color scheme and I love the contrast between the solid, processed cottons and the raw, organic muslin.

I call this piece, The Chair You Cannot Sit. I shared the title with my husband who said, "You mean The Chair You Cannot Sit On." Nope. It's The Chair You Cannot Sit. Artist's prerogative.

Saturday, September 6, 2008
Here's another piece inspired by my trip to Harrisburg. Again, I started with a sketch, but I ended up deviating from it quite substantially. My sketch was an abstracted utility pole, but when I started constructing it out of fabric, I thought it looked more like a devil's fork. So my idea shifted. It is untitled, although it does remind me of music.

Sunday, September 7, 2008
This idea and title for this piece came to me Saturday night, as I was falling asleep. I got up and grabbed my journal/sketchbook and recorded it. I imagined birds on utility wire after utility wire disappearing in the distance. I enjoyed adding the hand embroidery to the bird. I want to begin using more embroidery in the future.

I call it Bird Wire. Again, I shared the title with Kevin and he said, "You mean Bird on a Wire." Nope. Bird Wire. He asked if I was creating an On-Less quilt series. He's a cheeky one, my hubby.

General Thoughts
I'm very inspired by the new direction of my work. There is a simplicity to them that requires total honesty. They are humble pieces using humble fabrics: raw muslin and solid cottons. All of the fabrics I am using in these pieces come from other people. Deb gave me the wonderfully raw and organic muslin that is my background. The sable brown is a remnant from a suitcase full of fabrics and quilt blocks given to me by my mother. She bought the suitcase at a yard sale from the family of a deceased quilter. And the teal and cheddar fabrics I bought at my quilt guild's sale in honor of a deceased member.

I use these humble fabrics--raw muslin and faded solid cottons--and can't help but feel a connection to the known and unknown women who have quilted and sewed before me.

On Once a Month
Four weeks ago, I wrote an entry about wanting to create a larger piece each month that was inspired by a piece. I chose a cityscape and wanted to complete it by today, September 7. I started working on my cityscape and my vision kept evolving. I've realized that the piece is very important to me and is one that I want to take my time with. So I've decided not to hold myself to that arbitrary deadline and to instead take the time to create the piece I envision.