Studio Kit

I have 't been spending as much time in my sewing room lately as I would like - it isn't that I haven't had the opportunity, only that I have been feeling strangely unmotivated.

I realized on Friday night as BSP and I discussed our weekend and the usual question came up "What will you work on this weekend?" that though I have a host of WIPs to be completed and approximately one thousand quilts in my head to be made, none of them were speaking to me.

So, it was with some reluctance that I approached my sewing room on Saturday morning. I worked on my Wednesday WIP for a while, but apparently, as I was quilting, a plan was forming in my subconscious, against my conscious will.

When I finished (well thought I finished but that's a story for Wednesday!); I pulled out a group of fabrics that I had set aside for several months now, fabrics I had been collecting for a certain quilt; pulled out my notebook to refresh my memory about layout and began to cut and prepare the fabric for sewing (again, this quilt is a mix of silk, satins and a silk cotton blend from Japan, so stablizing of some of the fabrics was necessary).

And then I began to sew. And as I began to sew, I immediately began making something different than I had planned. The process was a meditative one, and when I post the finished quilt, I'll explain what happened and why.

But in the meantime, here is the finished top. When done, it will be called "A Sparrow in the Rain".

Our fence is not tall enough to hang this quilt in the right direction, so I've rotated the picture from its

horizontal hang to the vertical you see before you. Please forgive the odd folds!

Although i fear it will be as time consuming to quilt as Berkeley Square was, I'm really looking forward to quilting this. I could see the quilting as I made the top, and I'm itching to get started.

So how was your weekend?

1. dispersion quilt, 2. recycled fabric container, 3. Arlequin, 4. Expression libre

Why these are this week's Flickr Faves, after the jump.

Two of these quilts (the ones on the right) are by the same artist - Cecile Meraglia. The red one is by Deborah O'Hare and the third is by Carol Taylor. What all of these pieces have in common is an unabashed love of saturated colour and a certain fearlessness in their construction.

I admire these women as artists - not only because of the beauty of their work, but their lack of inhibition in producing it. Some day, I too hope to produce work as beautiful and free as this - with my own voice.

In the meantime, I hope you have a weekend filled with beauty. See you on Monday. :)

I mentioned the other day that I've decided to once again join Jacquie in her pursuit of cleaniung out our WIP closets - she's doing something called Joy in The New Year. You may remember that I participated in her similar projects in the spring and summer.

I did manage to get quite a few WIPs done, but sadly, I still have more! These days, when I make a quilt, I want to quilt it right away because the quilting is an integral part of my design right from the beginning.

But when I first started quilting, I was all over the map.

In the first few months, I was experimenting, creating things in my sewing room that were my dimly seen visions of what "quilts" were, with no knowledge and few skills.

But then I started looking around, in quilting magazines and online, and found a world wide community of quilters! I decided to start trying different things in a more structured way, without any regard for those quilts I saw in my head, clamoring to be made. But every time, when it was time to do the "quilting" part of the quilt, I was stumped.

My goal was to learn technique, develop the skills necessary to quilt, so I could make those quilts I see in my head. But in the process, I made a whole lot of quilt tops that are either "not so great", or are stylistically, quilts I wouldn't make today, or both. And now I have to quilt them, whether I like it or not! ;)

It's those WIPs that are languishing in my sewing room, and those are the ones I'm going to be working on for the next couple of months - on and off. I plan to finish a WIP, do something "fun", finish a WIP, do something "fun", etc.

So, strap yourself in, odd WIPs are ahead. It's going to be a bumpy night!

A while back, I showed you a sneak peek of a quilt I was working on. Well, I both started and finished it this weekend.

1. japanese quilt 2009, 2. DSCN1802, 3. Quilted Colour Study Art Quilt, 4. Reconstruction no.1 - Denim Art Quilt

My sewing machine and I were reunited and immediately commenced to work together on our latest project. She ran satisfyingly smoothly and well, and Zen Garden was finished in no time!]

That gorgeous Japanese silk fabric used on the back and on the squaures made me think of all things Japaense,