Ah, wait a minute, too easy...
This January marks one year of this cheesy little blog.
It also marks 1 1/2 years I've been trying to quilt.
Ok, guess that is about it...
But, really, I've never been one for "New Year's Resolutions" or any of that nonsense. I'm just way too cynical. I look at January as more of a reset after all the nonsense of the November and December holidays. (Hell, anymore the holiday nonsense starts before Halloween, ugh.) January is back to "normal," whatever that is. Back to a more set routine, less extra stuff to do because that is what society tells us we're supposed to do, etc. (See, my cynicism is showing through.) What does this have to do with the blog, not a whole lot except I'm going to try to "reset" the way I approach this.
I've been doing this, admittedly a bit haphazardly, for a year now. I had no real plan, or goals with it, just something to mess around with. I still don't have a plan, but I do have some ideas. One, I want to get Ang to post a bit. She's only posted once and I'd really like to have her input and thoughts on stuff too. I'll work on that. I think I'll be posting more often, hopefully showing some WIPS and talking about the process more. I know I'm bad about showing all that, but like I've written before, sometimes it comes down to spend the time writing about it or doing it. Easy call, do it.
Something I have been thinking a lot about is why I have this blog (still don't know for sure yet) and what I want it to be. After looking at so many blogs, most about quilting, I do know I don't want it to be like most of what I see. In general there's nothing wrong with what I see, but it is not me. And often, I'm not sure it is really represents the people running the blog. It seems that a lot of people want their blog to be just like so & so's or something. You know, they have all the perfectly staged photos with the immaculate sewing rooms and occasional amazing recipes. Blah. Now, if you're using your blog as part of a business, I get it, you have to present a certain image. But, really, some of these blogs seem like they're trying to convince the world they live inside a quilting/sewing book and everything is always perfect there. Wow, this got real cynical didn't it?
Oh well, this is the You Quilt? blog version 2012. Not new, and not necessarily improved.
If I keep this up I'll have to change the blog title to "Darth Quilter." (Inside joke for my work friends.)
How about a quilt, let say a WIP....
So this is what I've been messing with. On the right is a flower my daughter did this summer. Her medium; poster board, Sharpie and duct tape. Yep, bright green duct tape. Kids are great. Their art is so cool, so real. They don't over think it, they just do it. As soon as I saw it, I wanted to make a wall hanging based on it. So, I did what I do just dove in. That's what she does and it works great for her. We can learn a lot from kids, but that's for another post I guess.
I'm trying some things that are new to me on this one. To try and capture the duct tape, I made the flower out of strips, just like she did, and raw edge appliqued them on the background. Not fusing them left them a bit "loose" and wrinkly and to me helps recreate the duct tape feel. For her squiggles, she used black Sharpie, I'm trying my hand a couching black yarn on. Only one so far, but I think it'll work well. It is a simple piece, raw and spontaneous (well her original was, obviously mine isn't) but a good chance for me to try some stuff and learn a bit from my kid!
