Related Structures

Do you see the relationship in all these pieces? The structure or layout is a cross. You may see it as a ninepatch, which it also is, but in essence, most of my work has been based on this format.

THIS IS NEWS TO ME!
I just discovered this fact in the night. Yup. I was up at 2:30 again trying to crack this nut. I got an idea and had to sketch. I swear my subconscious does all my design work and then makes me wake up to put it on paper.

I had been trying to use the cross as a block to make work and it was never working like I wanted it too. Something was not me in all this, and a little too formulaic for my processes ( too hard to explain here).
There are lots of sites on the web with paintings and I always find myself wandering in the places that have lots of abstract stuff and collecting images and printing them out. I carry them around and nothing happened with them until the middle of the night awakening.
Now I get the attraction. The layout of the paintings is also a division of space that I respond to consistently.
Well. Now I get it. The stuff I want and NEED to do is within the format I have always loved, and never recognised. A GREAT BIG DUH.
I sketched four composition in four minutes and can't wait to get going. I am HAPPY.

Do you have a pile like this?

Only the tip of the iceberg of leftover pieces of batting in my stash. I declare this

Make a Lotta Small Quilts Week.

And my approach will be this: Use up all this fabric in my stash, and make new stuff. There is nothing wrong with the fabric in my stash, it's just that some of it I have been saving for something really important, and NOW is the time to use it up.

#1 Busy Work

I put aside the larger piece I started on Saturday (not thrilling me as I once thought) and went headfirst into a real anxiety/panic attack. Thanks to my good friends, Frieda, Tommy, Lisa and Carol, I was saved from dire consequences. They kept me afloat while I made busy work, which luckily enough led to real stuff, by the middle of the night.
I went back to my cross series and just made thumbnails...these are possible prototypes for larger works, and it felt good to just be composing willy nilly.

#2 I fused a background and placed some crosses in spots where they might disappear or contrast with the background. At first this was not appreciated for its wonderfulness. I wised up later in the day. Now I think the concept has real potential. However I was busy making other stuff first...

#3 I thought the crosses needed more color so I pieced some fabric in light and darker values and built crosses from it. Then I lost the whole theme of the cross as I connected them with more strips and added the fill-in color. I started emerging from my dark fear-filled depths and decided to make some really pretty striped fabrics.

Yummy rich darks, bright mediums and interesting lights, which I got up at 2:30 am to make. I am not kidding. Actually first I got up to sketch at 1:30am, and satisfied that I had recorded my ideas, I went back to bed. Then I thought, I have so many things that require leaving the house at 8am, that I won't have time to finish the planned top. So, totally unlike me, I got up, found my socks and shoes and went down to the studio.

I have lots of prefused pastels and sliced them up and made more blocks and fitted them in and by 4:30am I had finished the top. It is small, no more than 28" square, but I got the thing finished and out of the way. The real picture will be posted when it gets quilted. It is fused already to the batting, and thus portable. I am on my way to have coffee with Frieda and Laura, and want to bring it all with me. One must have a deadline for these sort of things.

Starting

I began my new work yesterday, and although I planned on 48x60 it turned out to be 40x50, not as large but just about as substantial. It could possibly grow, but it won't be because I put stinkin' borders on it.
I plan on doing all the things I pound into my students.
1. Simplfy
2. Don't goop it up, see #1
3. Use a limited color scheme
4. Include space for nice quilting.
5. Use the best fabrics

I have my new Ton Schulten books and calendars to remind me of my goal. However this is not a pictorial design. Nope. I will use the ideas in his work to clarify my ideas. Which are

Big chunks of color.

I had photographed a fabric sketch which I then turned into a black and white and shrunk/stretched to fit the dimensions 4.8x6". Then I copied it onto a transparency and projected it onto my wall. In this case I used actual paper pinned to my working wall and am putting up the pieces in their places as I work. Haven't worked like this in years... but it is keeping me organized a little better. The pieces are so much larger than my usual sized quilts that I know I will finish this top today.

The computer can only do so much for me, and then I have to use my imagination to complete the work. Making my 'roadmap' in black and white makes it so much easier to work with values
and I find myself searching for really dark darks and really light lights.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I bought a new camera to replace the one I lost in San Francisco. My friend Frieda bought one first and being two peas in a pod, I went ahead and ordered one online that is dizactly like hers.
I think this will prevent competition. We also have the same sewing machine, and the same digital projector. We may not actually be sisters, but this relationship is a very close second.

Working toward a goal

Dear __________(fill in name of Famous Art Quilter here),
As you may remember I am a gushing big fan of your quilts. I am also a raging fiend of envy at your output. I want to be able to produce tons of work as you do, but this pesky job of teaching/traveling gets in the way. Whine whine whine.

Anyway, I wanted to say that I finally readjusted to being home and found the time to read your past posts/website additions, magazine articles, tv appearances, show catalogs, and got to see your beautiful new work that is now killing me . Yummamente.
All your work holds together so well as a BODY OF WORK, whereas my work is bouncing all over the place, artwise, stylewise and contentwise. I have this dichotomy of purpose, MAKING A LIVING, and making art, and making quilts that will sell. While I am successful enough (what is that?) I am desperately wanting to be more of an artist and less commercial, without giving up the big bucks.
I am now about to get started making a series of stuff since I have a goal of getting into Visions for the 6th time, entering something new in Paducah and filling my NJ Quilt Fest
one person show with new work.
My goal is also, now get this, doing something over and over again in new colorways each time. For this I look to you. I think that you do this really really well. I hope that doesn’t sound like a left-handed compliment, because it turns out that it actually works in your case, so maybe it will also work for me.
I have chosen the circle as my theme. It has been done to death, but so have the square, the strip and the arc. So I must bring my artistic ingenuity to the work. Argh, where did I leave it?

I am telling you this, (and you may want to ignore my ravings, no problem) as part of the humbling process. I feel that I must become the student again in order to accomplish this feat. I can’t explain it, I just feel it.
You need not answer this post. You need not enter into a dialog with me. You may want to keep your distance from my raving lunacy, but nevertheless I will be throwing my work your way as soon as I can get something made and then if you see me veering off the path of enlightenment, I have hopes that you will stick out your foot and correct my trajectory.

Tamales Part Deux

Not tamales. Taquitos. These use up more of the tamale filling which turned out to be more than double what I actually needed, so I thought I would just make some appetizer sized tacos, which I froze and can pop in the oven at the drop of a visitor's appearance.
OK NOW on to the Tamale making from which we left you hanging...

Soak the corn husks in hot water until softened.

Place the masa in a large large bowl,

breaking it up and adding hot turkey broth to loosen it up to a softer consistency,

add chili powder for color and taste

Whip it up and add to a plastic bag which will be used to squirt out the dough onto the corn husks. Like a pastry bag.

Add meat to each tamal

Wrap and stack

and place in the pressure cooker, and cook at 15 lbs of pressure for 15 minutes.

Remove and drool. The aroma is fantastic. To simulate, make some microwave popcorn, roast a turkey and chop some garlic. It will be close to the same heavenly smell.

Then get on the road at 6 am for the Joann's sale. I got there late, at 6:45 but still got some good stuff.

Tamale Intermission: Pie Making

I felt sorry for these apples on the reduced for quick sale rack. They were only slightly bruised and yet big and red and shiny. For $1 I thought, applesauce or pie? Pie won out.

While the pork roast and peppers were cooking on the stove, we peeled and chopped the apples, removing any brown spots of course. Then I microwave plumped the raisins, adding lemon juice, cinnamon and fake sugar to the huge pile of apple chunks.

I made pie crust in the Cuisinart (ala Diane's method) and wrapped the dough in clingwrap and put it in the refrigerator as Martha directs. We love us some Martha methods.

Meanwhile I had Dave fetch the rolling pin downstairs and I cleared off a rolling spot on the messy counter top.

Minutes later, still no rolling pin. Dave cannot find it. This is not unusual, as most men cannot find their way round a kitchen cabinet, even when the item is in plain view. I went down to locate the pin. I went directly to the baking drawer, and um, it wasn't there. So I searched other drawers, cabinets, shelves, upstairs likewise, even the garage. Nada a rolling pin in sight. Hmm.

OK I recall to giving it to my brother with all the other baking stuff, since being a Holy-Never-Again-Batman-Dieter, I resolved that baked goods would nay cross my lips, thus negating any need for these utensils. Hmm. Now what will I do?

WE must improvise something to replace the rolling pin, since neither one of us fancies going out to the store at this late date, three or four beers having been imbibed...

How about this? It is chrome and is a 'breaker bar' whatever that means.

Brilliant!

We washed off the grease and cobwebs from the garage and proceeded to give it a try.

It WORKED!

COLD METAL PIE PIPE. Who knew?

Dump in those babies and let's make two while we're at it.

I like a crumb crust. This is made from oatmeal, flour, cold butter, cinnamon and sugar, and sometime ground walnuts if I have them. It makes a sweet topping and absorbs some of the juice of the apples, which comes in handy. I didn't have a clue what kind of apples I was using and whether or not they would be too wet. Last year we used some apples that were very wet and it was not a good thing. Really.

Perfectly done. And very yummy.

Later that day (this was yesterday remember) I got a call from Laura and we are invited to her house for dinner tomorrow. It is a last minute fill-in thing since her sister in law and her kids are sick. I don't mind a bit. I know we will all have a wonderful time together, just like family.

My brother is sick too, and called us, and agreed that yes, he does have the stinkin' rolling pin. My sister is in Singapore, so I hope she blogs her celebration today too. It's a very close knit family I have.

Happy Thanksgiving, and stay tuned for the rest of the tamale making pictures.

Move Over Emeril!

This is how we spent our day today,

Making Tamales: Part One.

Take a large pork butt (you know they call it that for some other reason) and lots of garlic and black pepper and place it in a pressure cooker with water about half way up. Let it come to pressure and cook for about an hour.

I buy prepared masa with the salt, baking powder and lard already in it. I refuse to admit to myself that there is that ingredient in all tamales including my own homemade and that I eventually will be eating LARD. eeouww. I also buy way more corn husks than I ever need, forgetting I still have some left from last year in the downstairs pantry.

These are the dried chilies that I will simmer until soft and make into a paste to flavor the meat.

This is the beer that makes all this fun. Yesterday Dave took an all day ride to New Glarus WI to the brewery where he picked up a selection of hand crafted beers. He had a tasting all to himself and they poured liberally. Luckily he made it home in one piece, without a ticket. Another thing to be thankful for...

Some raspberries to add to our beer cocktail.

Back to the recipe. Take all or as many seeds out of the dried anchos as possible, and add them to the pot with water to nearly cover, altho they float while they are still dry, so push them down and see if you can cover them with water. Simmer until softened.

I drain them, but you can save the liquid if you like. I used a bit of broth to help liquify the peppers in the Cuisinart.

Add cumin and salt and mix again. How much? Whatever was in that little jar.

There it is, the chili paste which will go into the ground turkey which I roasted yesterday and the ground up boiled pork roast made today.

This makes it all look too instant. What you missed was the hot pork, falling off the bone, all the turkey meat being chopped up and nibbled on, and the food processor churning it up into fine crumbles. I add the paste to the meats and figuring that since my nose already got burned from the pepper seeds, I would grab a pair of surgical rubber gloves to mix it all up.

The Action Shot.


The Disaster that is my kitchen. It is all cleaned up now. We decided that since the time consuming part, the meat, was finished and we were tired, the assembly of the tamales would take place in the morning.

We also made apple pies and that story will be spelled out tomorrow. We wouldn't want to make you feel all cooked out at once.

Have a super Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!