Marsbarn Designs...

Mr Fuzzypants: How I assemble a quilt

Hello. I, Mr Fuzzypants, will explain to you how I 
assemble a quilt.

First, you spread out your batting.  Have your human
iron it first.  You can play under the ironing board and
try to catch their toes through the curtain of batting.
It's good fun, and it's best to get all the wrinkles out
before you begin.

Try to get everything as smooth as you can.  My batting
here is a quite a bit larger than my quilt, which is fine.

Lay your quilt top on top on your batting.  You want to
smooth it so there are no wrinkles or lumps of batting.

This step can take some time, and having a second set
of paws hands can be quite helpful.

Once everything is as flat and smooth as you can get it,
have someone with thumbs place pins through out
to hold the layers together.  I use straight pins here,
because they aren't going to stay in for very long.

I like to have a show playing in the background while
the excess batting gets trimmed.  I'm watching Star 
Trek here.  I dig the young Spock.  He has great ears.

With the layers firmly pinned, carefully fold and pick up 
the quilt top and batting as one. 

Now, spread the backing out.  The human pieced the
back as well, but there's no need.. you know. You'll 
notice it's wrong side up.  This is a good thing, the
human tells me. 

Now, the human has gone and taped the back to the
floor with low tack painter's tape.  She thinks this makes
is easier to lay the top on, because the back won't slide.
BUT, I think is a waste.  With the back taped to the floor,
I can no longer race across the room and slide.  Stupid
human.

Now, lay the top and backing piece on top.  Shifting it
carefully  until it is properly arranged.  The human
always makes the back larger than it needs to be, so
she can cheat and trim off the excess.  Cheater,
cheater.  There's a lot of smoothing and grumbling
at this point, so I took a nap.  

Now you get out your safety pins, which are totally evil,
you know.  Ever tried opening and closing a safety pin
without thumbs?  Discrimation!  Pin, pin, pin. Pah!

Now, take a little spit bath while your human crawls
around on hands and knees while she turns and pins the
edge of the quilt, removing the tape as she goes.  

Then she flips the quilt over to double check the back
is smooth and without wrinkles or folds.  At this
point she removes the straight pins from the back. 

My human is LAZY!  Instead of cutting a separate
piece of fabric for the edging, she just folds the back
around to the front, tucking it  under itself, pins it in
place, and then she zips around the outside with the
sewing machine (which I am no longer allowed
to sleep on while she sews.  More descrimination!).
There the edge is finished, and now I can sleep on it
while she gets ready to tie the layers.

 

On finishing a project, being kind to yourself, and letting go. (Or, sometimes what you do is enough.)

So, the Secret Quilt Project is finished.
Well it's finished to the point that the sewing on both
quilt has been completed, both have been tied, and one
has been washed.

And this is where I'm pausing for the moment to breathe.
You see, despite the copious heat setting and prewashing
of the squares, the quilt top ran. Even though the
sample I made was perfectly colorfast, the child-made
item took on a life of its own.  The solid backing has 
a few blotches, the grey sashing has color on it, and a
few squares bled into their neighbors.

And you know what?  It's going to be okay.  It really is.
It doesn't need to be perfect.  When I spent my time in
the school, having the children create the squares, I told
them that there was a surprise factor in this project.
I said, "This is not going to turn out the way you envision
it, and that is okay.  This is the nature of art."  

I think there is a trend with women, especially with
quilters, to be hyper critical with their work.  So much
gets reduced to minutiae. Is this corner lined up with that?
Is my quarter inch seam 1/16th off?  Oh, the horror. (Not.)
Let. It. Go.  Honestly, this is a labor of love, or at least
it should be.  Sloppy and careless is one thing, but anything
created with passion and love, whether it be paint, or
sculpture, clay, or fabric, should be appreciated with its
flaws intact.  Perfection is for machines and things without
love.  Ask yourself, would you rather have a gift made with
love and off square,  or something made by rote in a factory?
The imperfections are what create beauty.  It's the crack
in the ceiling's plaster that makes the bedtime story,
not the smooth blankness of a ceiling tile.

Am I thrilled that the colors ran?  No.  It hurts.
But, this is not a tragedy.  This is not a tornado in
Oklahoma, a factory collapse in Bangladesh, or a gifted
teenager dead long before his time.  This quilt is a gift
made by the hands of 625 students and teachers that will
be loved and appreciated despite, or perhaps because, of
it's handmade nature.  

Why such a long blog post about a quilt who morphed in 
the wash?  Because that moment when my chest ceased
as I drew it out of the dryer was followed by a shrug and a
smile.  I have loved working on this project.  Loved every
portion of its creation.  And my refrain through out has 
been "Do your best, and let it go."  I've said it to children
and teachers unhappy with their ink drawings, to adults
unhappy with their seams, to friends worrying about the
straightness of their rows of knots, and to myself when
need be.   There is just no need for stress in this project.
No need for angst or worry.  This is a project of thanks,
appreciation and love.  The people who are going to get
these quilts have already said they do not want parties
or gifts to mark their retirements.  They did not do their
jobs for recognition or for praise or thanks.  They did
their work because it needed doing.

They aren't going to turn their noses up at unevenness or
an ill drawn circle.  They are going to see the perfectness
of the whole. They will see hundreds of hands at work.
They will know the love and appreciation that powered
those  hands.  And to be totally honest,  a bit of stray color
fits this project.  In their careers, everyday wasn't perfect.
There are things that they would do over. It's the whole
that matters. The flaws are what make this project art and
significant. 

So, be kind to yourself.  Yes, you.  Be kind.  You do your
best, and you let. it. go. 

 

 

G gets a new raincoat

8th grade boy to my 7th grade daughter.

Boy: You're wearing a new raincoat.

G: Yes, I am.

Boy: It's black.

G: Yes, it is.

Boy: Is it because you're depressed?

G: No. It's because I want to absorb the energy of the sun and become an all-powerful being.

Boy: You're weird.

Mr Fuzzypants: nothing gets done without my help.

I. am. spent.

The work is never done.  

The human-who-feeds-us has been working on this thing.
Obviously the need for my help is great.  Look at this!
The fool woman had it spread  out on the floor. 
So boring.

Of course, there is no appreciation for my work.  

It's so demoralizing.  I give so much.  I think I may need
a mental health break.  You'll have to carry on without me.

 

Mother's Day Brunch

Mother's Day was lovely.  Really, really lovely.

Brunch, family, lovely weather, and a walk in the neighborhood.

Just lovely.

Secret Retirement quilts, continuing to come together

The Secret Quilt Project continues.

This is such a fun project to watch come together.
All those squares, made by all of the those hands.

One of the quilt tops is complete, as is its back, and later
this week, I'll be putting the components together.  

The second quilt has been pieced into large rectangles.
Each rectangle represents a classroom in the school,
so they range in size from 20 squares to 36 squares.  
When I clear the livingroom floor to assemble the first quilt,
I'll figure out the placement of the rectangles for the 
second.   It's been wonderful to have so much help in 
this project.  Every step of the way, I've had people helping.
I think I'll be spoiled when I go back to doing my projects
on my own. 

Confessions of the day

Today, I finished one of the quilt tops we're
making as a school wide project.  624 squares.
The top measures 99", and the bottom is 100".
I'm letting that 1" go.  It's a 1% variance.
Really. I'm.  Not. Going. To. Obsess. 

Today, Through the chorus of 
"Mom, mom, mom, MOM, mom, Mom"
by my younger girl I poured a can of chicken
and wild rice soup into a teapot.  

Today, I realized at 3:35 pm that I hadn't washed
our Taekwon Do uniforms, which is why at 5:20 pm
we headed out the door in both hot AND damp
uniforms.  Mmmm, muggy uniforms on an 85 degree day. 

I would also like to confess to a feat of daring do,
concerning a surprise presentation, but I'm in a mild
state of shock that with all of the things I didn't manage
to get quite right, this *one* thing appeared to have gone
really well. 

It has, in short, been a day. I think I might have 
a bite of chocolate now.   

the fun of using what we have

Needless to say, I've been having fun with Inkodye.
What's added frosting to the cake of good experiments
has been the use of so many "Oh, this would be good
for a project" items.  I had a day of "Oh, that 'thing'
I got (insert number of years) ago would work so well
here."  And then, they did.

Like those metal disks from cookie presses that I've been
holding on to. 

This reminds me of some of those Japanese prints you
see in cotton kimonos.

Then there are those copper letter stensils I bought,
which were complete, except for the letter "R".  A friend
figured out that the letter "L" could be turned upside
down to be used as a lower case "r". Of course, we 
needed to then come up with words that only used one
of each letter, and didn't have both an "r" and an "L".  

But, I love the way they look on the final product.

We ran out of time before getting to the key collection,
but one of my friends made some very nice prints using
a collection of watch hands (no photos for that alas).
I'm making a list of things to try next time. I do need
another glass sheet so we can do more prints at one time.
"Next time" has a very nice ring to it. 

Ambrotypes in the continuing fun with Inkodye

The last big antique show I went to, I picked up
this photograph on glass.  The image is a positive one,
not a negative, and it might be an Ambrotype, but I'm
not sure. Ambrotypes were made in the 1850's and
1860's, and had a dark backing applied to the back of
the image.  This glass plate has no backing, and no case,
and I think these clothes are more modern, like from
the 1880's.

Since it has no backing, the image can be difficult to see.
I love the faces and the clothes in this image.  

In my recent spree of playing with sun printing using
Inkodye, I thought I could use this photo to make 
sun print.  I was careful to protect the old image, so
the dye wouldn't touch it. 

After I put the dye on the fabric, I smoothed a layer
of plastic wrap on top.  Then I layed the glass print
on top.

This is what the fabric looked like after I removed the
glass.

And, this what the final fabric looked like.

I'm impressed with how many of the details were picked
up on the fabric transfer.  Eerie, aren't they?  And the
glass plate wasn't injured.  Success. 

Microfilm and Inkodye, perfectly lovely.

I collect.  

I don't think it goes as far as "hoarding", but I am that
person that one calls for a heat gun, 500 pipettes,
grommeters, or.. say.. microfilm from a 1970's New
York Times.


I want to say it was two years ago that I purchased this
roll of microfilm, but it might have been longer.  
Three, four years? (Am I scaring you?)  I actually bought
3 rolls of the microfilm, and I have used it in collage from
time to time, so it hasn't completely languished.  (Just
mostly.) 

I do think I've found the perfect project for the microfilm.
It works really nicely with the Inkodye.  I got two prints
from the film I used before it was too stained to continue.
The film is still interesting, it's just blue now... Now,
what will I do next with blue microfilm of the NYT? Ahh
the continuing challenge.