Corita Kent's Art Rules

 
Sister Corita Kent wrote a set of rules to open up the creative spirit within. The very opposite of the kind of rules that allows fear to stop us.

Rule I
FIND A PLACE YOU TRUST AND THEN TRY TRUSTING IT FOR A WHILE.

• Rule 2

GENERAL DUTIES OF A STUDENT:
PULL EVERYTHING OUT OF YOUR TEACHER.
PULL EVERYTHING OUT OF YOUR FELLOW STUDENTS.

• Rule 3

GENERAL DUTIES OF A TEACHER:
PULL EVERYTHING OUT OF YOUR STUDENTS.

• Rule 4

CONSIDER EVERYTHING AN EXPERIMENT.

• Rule 5

BE SELF DISCIPLINED. THIS MEANS
FINDING SOMEONE WISE OR SMART AND
CHOOSING TO FOLLOW THEM.
TO BE DISCIPLINED IS TO FOLLOW IN A GOOD WAY.
TO BE SELF DISCIPLINED IS TO FOLLOW IN A BETTER WAY.

• Rule 6

NOTHING IS A MISTAKE. THERE’S NO WIN AND
NO FAIL. THERE’S ONLY MAKE.

• Rule 7

 The only rule is WORK.
IF YOU WORK IT WILL LEAD TO SOMETHING.
IT’S THE PEOPLE WHO DO ALL OF THE WORK ALL THE TIME
WHO EVENTUALLY CATCH ON TO THINGS.

• Rule 8

DON’T TRY TO CREATE AND ANALYZE AT THE
SAME TIME. THEY’RE DIFFERENT PROCESSES.

• Rule 9

BE HAPPY WHENEVER YOU CAN MANAGE IT.
ENJOY YOURSELF. IT’S LIGHTER THAN YOU
THINK.

• Rule 10

"WE’RE BREAKING ALL OF THE RULES. EVEN
OUR OWN RULES. AND HOW DO WE DO THAT?
BY LEAVING PLENTY OF ROOM FOR X QUANTITIES." JOHN CAGE
HELPFUL HINTS: ALWAYS BE AROUND. COME OR GO TO EVERY- THING. ALWAYS GO TO CLASSES. READ ANYTHING YOU CAN GET YOUR HANDS ON. LOOK AT MOVIES CAREFULLY, OFTEN. SAVE EVERYTHING, IT MIGHT COME IN HANDY LATER. THERE SHOULD BE NEW RULES NEXT WEEK.

Birthday Party!

 Exhibits A and B
Exhibit C. Heart attack on a plate, but it's only once a year, and truthfully we both only ate half and the rest is all ready for breakfast this morning, after my second cup of coffee.
 The Perp. Mr. 57, while he still can focus at the camera. I sang H.B. to him several times on his big day, and made the dinner. No presents to open, since we both have all we can handle and none of it is put away where it belongs... No pics of the cheesecake with blueberry topping which was his choice for BD cake, since it was gone in a blink.
The Dawgs enjoyed the two ribs from the roast for hours, in my bed! Those bad dawggies!

Keeping Cozy Inside

Over the last week or two we have been having trouble with the internet, our TV reception and the phone. The repair guy Rick has been here twice and we thought everything was fixed. Yesterday he went under the house and found that the wiring for everything had been chewed up by mice! They love plastic coated wires.

It's that time of year when the wildlife is looking for shelter from the constant wet and chilly temps and we are no different. Even the pups are not interested in staying out for longer than necessary. Thank heaven.
I am back to making bread and that warms up our tummys and the house, and now that all the communication devices are working fine again, we are rearranging furniture and watching Netflix streaming. Since Madmen garnered so many Emmys and 52 episodes are available we are set. It is soooo good!


I am getting some knitting done too, and thinking about what to do for Dave's birthday Wednesday. I am sure it will be spent at home...after I get back from knitting and shopping a bit for provisions, like champagne. He'll be 57.
I can't even remember what 57 was like...geesh.
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On another note: I got an email asking about microwave dyeing wool fabric. I have never tried this but I suggested experimenting and here is result.

The wool fabric in the microwave worked great! I squirted dye on each piece.   I put each 6” x 60” strip in a ziplock bag, squished them around, and heated them in the microwave on your 1 min.on/ 1 min. rest schedule.  It was great, because I could do 4 colors at the same time.  I have a ton more experimenting to do.  I want to getnmore high and low values on each piece.  I want to get more intense colors, too. Jan.

Is that cool or what?

+++++
My sister has her blog up now, www.bethanystudios.blogspot.com and is finding time to work in her studio space. Yay!!!

And one more reminder about our retreat in October. The dates are 20-23 and the place is Snowbird Retreat. We are the Fibermaniacs and you can register for a mere $25 at this page. I used paypal which made it so simple. C'mon down!

Uprootin'

The front garden is looking terrible this time of  year. Especially since we had two big hail storms this summer, and the hosta got the worst of the damage. Undaunted, they have grown to massive clumps and I vowed to divide and conquer them this fall when it is much easier to see where they are, rather than wait until Spring when the tips emerge.
Luckily the weather was cool and I had lots of coffee, making me feel I could handle the task of digging out the roots, which extend to China.
O my. I got a big one out and thought I was gonna die...geesh. I had sweat dripping off my nose. So unladylike.

I had to enlist Dave and we tugged and dug and tugged some more and got out three more clumps. And this is only a quarter of what has to come out. My plan is to use this bed for flowers since the begonias and impatiens in the deck planters were so enthusiastic, and I hope to have the same display in this spot. In the front are my ten peony plants which got moved here in the spring and took root like troopers. In the back row are astilbe which barely saw the light of day, once the hosta reached full height. There are also a few odd specimens, like a sedum, European Ginger and a few volunteer phlox, which I will also be moving.
In the adjacent bed I dug out two huge Autumn Bride Heuchera and a giant Sum and Substance hosta and replaced them with a single Endless Summer hydrangea. After all these years I finally have learned to give the plants the necessary room to expand. With any luck this hydrangea will also get big.
Keep in mind that these are all the 'before pictures'. Next Spring this should look much better. I hope.

Instant garden. We moved all the uprooted specimens to Dave's Memorial Garden, on the west side of the property. This area is now fenced in and we visit here daily, watching the dawgs play stick keep away until they are exhausted. 

And then there's the sweet potato vines...I got my money's worth out of those sale plants, for sure.

5 Million Dollars

We've been watching The X Factor, Simon Cowl's new talent search show and the prize for the winner is five million dollars. They ask the contestants "How would five million dollars change your life?"
I have been thinking about that question and it just doesn't resound in my heart like it might have when I was a young upstart.
The things I value the most are friends and family, fresh air and the garden, space to work, good health and creativity. Money might enhance those things but mostly they are working for me just fine.  Can't buy a sweeter husband, altho I wish I could buy a cure for his PD, and can't buy cuter pups, altho I am willing to rent them out on occasion. I don't care about traveling anymore, and don't want a boat or summer home (have a summer home already, don't I?) and more clothes only means more laundry!

Yet I still manage to find stuff on Ikea.com that might be fun to have...if there was any more room for furniture. Nevermind.

um . . . Knitting

I admit I have been neglecting my knitting this summer. Two hours a week is hardly knitting at all. But now that the fall TV shows have premiered, I am ready to sit and knit and watch. This rainbow sock always makes my mouth water, but since I had to make it long enough to get all the colors in, it is too long for my foot. And I do have several sock people on my waiting list (sock people?) It may go to one of them. In the meantime I sat on the deck in the cool breeze, soaking in the sunshine and finished up this drawstring scarf. Malabrigo Rios.

And once I finished it, it was time to block it and the Malabrigo worsted scarf I knit on order, which has been finished and awaiting blocking for like three months! Shame on me. The guest bed gets a lot of pictures on this blog, eh? To block my scarves I filled the bathroom sink with lukewarm water and a squirt of hair conditioner (wool is hair, after all) and squished the scarves in the water. Then I squeezed out the scarves in a thick towel and arranged them on the flat surface of the bed. The overhead fan and warm temps speed up the drying time. Both scarves grew nicely. Yes, I still have to knit the drawstring for the Rios scarf.

I started a new shawl called Mara, but 1. don't need a shawl in these colors. 2. I would rather use this yarn for a larger project. So I unknit it. Zip!
I joined a knit-a-long to make a fast and easy summer sweater and I am the last one to finish mine. The sleeves and neckline are all I have left to do, so that is the project at hand.
The pattern is top down, raglan sleeved and millions of miles of stockinette in white cotton/acrylic. So mindless, perfect for tv watching.











And last but not least a sock started when? that is instant gratification and just the thing to take along when I need to have something for my hands to do.
I am all ready for fall now.

Enough Quilts?

Now that I have finished the Red quilt, I looked back over the 'homework' I have done learning all the fun QAYG methods. I believe I have enough quilts and just enough drawers to put them in. Ha! Not one has any Dawg hair on it and I plan to keep them that way.


I like all the methods, but am most satisfied with the flip and sew+insert batting process, because from the front it looks just like a regularly quilted quilt. The first quilt (below) and the last one used this method almost entirely. The last two panels of the Red Quilt were joined with narrow connector strips, but I integrated those better by choosing red to join red, so it is less noticeable.




Now here's what motivated me to do all these pieced semi-traditional quilts: I wanted that future someone who discovers all my work and may know nothing at all about art quilts, to see this side of quilting to balance out all the other kinds of quilts I've made. Compare and Contrast...

etc.

I feel it is time to return to wall quilts, and see what is next for me.

 

What About the Backs?

I've had a few requests to see the backs of the recent QAYG quilts. I have to say they look so much better than my usual backs. Nice neat rows of parallel lines, but what is requested I am sure is a good look at the way the narrow connector strips are joined. Again please refer to the great tutorials from Marianne.







Here's a close-up which shows the two pieces joined through the narrow connector strip. This is on the Nine Big Blocks quilt in which I cut my strips an 1/8" wider than usual so I could have more space to pin, resulting in a tiny gap. NOT visible from the front.



This is the back (untrimmed threads at the beginning of each row) which I have been doing as a flip and sew + insert batting and quilt method. I cut the batting into long strips and zigzag to the seam allowance, butting, not overlapping, ala Marianne's instructions. This works like a dream and can be done with much wider sections too. So much easier to get it quilted.
But today I will be joining the top and bottom already quilted sections of my red quilt with narrow connector strips so I will have both methods used in one quilt.

I felt I had to learn everything I could about this process, or technique, just in case. It's just the way for me to learn.