Wednesday, March 12, 2014

the hunt

Have you ever spent more time hunting for something than you spent making it in the first place? Ha - of course not, because you have a neat, organized sewing room. 

I think I am losing my mind - and not so slowly.  My husband used to say "it'll turn up." And I said "no it won't."  Sometimes he was right and other times, I was. I can't tell you how many times I pawed through the garbage looking for something critical I had thrown away by accident.

Tonight I looked for a small quilt that needs a facing, that I KNOW was in this house.  Nowhere to be found.  Then I drove myself crazy looking for a small before and after example of a rescued UFO.  Just after I sat down to whine on this blog, I moved some papers on my file bin and there it was. Sigh of relief.  


The gray thing on the left (it really is gray, not blue) turned into the piece on the right.  It almost didn't matter what I did with it - anything would have improved it. But I quite like the way it turned out, considering that I didn't have a plan when I started.

Finally got to the studio today and was happy to see my studio mate and two of the other artists. I had intended to do something creative but instead, cleaned out the fridge - wiped the dye off the walls and shelves and threw away the thickened dyes that had thinned out and frozen.

Then I got to work on the mountains of fabric I had printed over the years and needed to iron/sort/throw out, depending on how useful they were. Four hours and I didn't make a dent.  Tomorrow, more of same.  I can't think till it is neatly sorted and put into plastic bins.  Well, neatly is a relative term.

I was going to start stitching a piece tonight but got sidetracked doing the same thing at home that I did in the studio.  Well, no hurry on stitching: first things, first.

5 comments:

Eva said...

I was curious what this quilt would look like if the grey parts were really more blue, so I dived my spoon into the electronic inkpot and added some blue without changing the brightness. And -- tada! -- it was so different from the green-grey. It even got some 3D-effect like looking through a brightly-painted window frame over to storm clouds near the horizon. Amazing.
I guess this is what it really looks like.
When I can't find an item, I try the "walking back" method: I stand where I was when I last saw it, and try to remember on that spot. --
The most embarrassing case of a presumably lost item was when I went crazy about my camera protection cap. I even asked my husband to drive to a place where I had last seen it. Nothing. When we were at home, I found it was in my balloon cap I had been wearing all the time. I had put the cam cap in there to be sure it wouldn't get lost... :-)

Brenda said...

I like to think that creativity has to be messy, but then I can't move in my sewing room and clean up. Last weekend I cleaned out -- got rid of bags of scraps and cuttings and threw out bad quality fabrics and now its waaaaaay better. so I feel your pain!

patty a. said...

I still haven't found the garage door opener, but it doesn't matter now since I got a new lifter system. It just drove me crazy that I couldn't find it. I have weeks like that where I seem to lose everything!

Shawn said...

Hi Rayna from your Kansas friend. I LOVED your post yesterday when you said those major successful artists produced a "crap quota" Wow does that make me feel better! I seems so often my idea for a quilt falls totally flat, and I was getting discouraged. So a huge thanks for the encouragement boost!

You know you are an artist when your work space is a mess and you keep loosing stuff! At least I hope that is true as that describes me!

MulticoloredPieces said...

Hi, Rayna. This is a lovely piece. I like the form and colors, very cheerful and energetic.
best, nadia

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