January 31 Block

A leafy basket weave for the last day of the first month.  One month down and eleven to go.... Mary

January 30 Block

Stripes, I never use stripes, but I love the colors in these and the linen-y feel to the fabric.  Stretching my boundaries.... Mary

January 29 Block

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I started this project.  Doing a monthly quilt/bead journal page was just not working for me, but making myself accountable every single day, no matter what, has worked thus far.  We'll see if I can keep it going.

The bubbles on the January 5 block are beaded below.  I will probably trapunto the bubbles once the blocks are sewn together.  (Can trapunto be a verb?)  Mary

January 28 Block

Very long, twelve hour day.  So tired.  I came home to an envelope of new fabric in the mail.  Points are lousy.  Fabric is beautiful.  Block is done.  To bed.... Mary

January 27 Block

In the pink....  Mary

January 26 Block

Wonky day, wonky nine patch from the scrap bag.... Mary

January 25 Block

It was a challenging day: a student in tears on the phone over a class I could not let her into; a co-worker quoting Fox News about President Obama and the State of the Union Address; forty students waiting in the hall for a classroom that was listed on the time table but not reserved for them.  All in all a day that could have used some calming greens and blues in it.... Mary

January 24 Block

Aren't red and white quilts just so beautiful?  The old ones, the new ones, they're all great.  Perhaps I'll get ambitious and make one myself some day.... Mary

January 23 Block

At least the sun shone today and the temperatures rose from -12 degrees when I got up to 19 degrees by the end of the afternoon.  But I need flowers to go with the sunshine!  Hopefully there will soon be inexpensive bunches of jonquils at the grocery store to brighten the kitchen.  Our second batch of paper whites are growing but have not yet bloomed.  The white flowers and heady fragrance will help once they're open.... Mary

January 22 Block

Blue is my favorite color: sky blue, Dresden blue, cobalt blue, forget-me-not blue, chicory flower blue, just about any blue....  Mary

January 21 Block

It was a long week, even though is was short one work day!  So tonight I did something simple, but I think visually fun - a rainbow stripe block.... Mary

January 20 Block

The image in the center is not a mushroom.  It is my lovely titanium hip joint.  I had my four year "hip check" today.  They gave me a photocopy of the x-ray which I then photocopied onto muslin.  It's odd to actually "see" this big chunk of metal that is working away in my right hip, since I completely forget about it most of the time.

 This is the January 4 block with the center beaded.... Mary

January 19 Block

This is the fourth block that I started this evening.  I wanted to do something inspired by Cezanne.  The fabrics were the same all four times, but hard as I pushed it the first three just did not work at all.  It was getting closer and closer to bed time so I just threw this one together.  I really like the result.  Seems like getting out of my own way may be a good idea.... Mary

January 18 Block

Happy Birthday, A.A. Milne!

January 17 Block

It's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, so I had to commemorate it in today's block.

Pretty basic beading for now on the Jan 3rd block.  The rest of the beading will happen later once the blocks are joined.... Mary

January 16 Block

This block is really exciting.  This is the best point match I think I've ever done!  I guess that's sort of the whole point of this 365+ project - to learn and/or get better at different aspects of quilting.  So I guess it's working.... Mary

January 15 Block

Spent most of the afternoon and evening cleaning and reorganizing my studio.  It's not a large space, but things had gotten quite messy in the past two weeks.  Then I realized I had not made a square for today.  These are two fabrics that I love.  I've used them in other pieces and just never get tired of them.... Mary

January 14 Block

Happy weekend!  Lucky for me, it's a three day weekend so hopefully I can get my studio picked up at bit.  This pace of one block per day is leaving things quite disheveled.  More dots and circles today.... Mary

January 13 Block

Being a cradle Catholic of a certain age, I have very fond memories of holy cards.  I use them in my art all the time (www.beadedicons.com).  This is image is "Our Lady of Perpetual Help".  It's so lovely and so traditional, and yet Mary is such a strong and courageous woman in the face of culture and tradition.... Mary

January 12 Block

It's probably time to watch "Enchanted April" or "Waiting for the Moon".  I need to see flowers, fields of flowers, gardens, meadows, and it's only the middle of January.  Who knows what shape I'll be in by March?  Thank heavens for narcissus bulbs.... Mary

January 11 Block

These fabrics are all so lovely and muted.  I particularly like the pinks and the feather.  Probably echo quilt/bead around these.  We'll just have to wait and see.

Here's the beaded rose block from New Year's Day.  The leaves in the background will be beaded/embroidered once the blocks are sewn together.... Mary

January 10 Block

I love dots, circles, bubbles, rings and using the fabrics as stripes is just fun.... Mary

January 9 Block

I wonder if fabric manufacturers are making the selvage edges even more colorful and ingenious now that folks are making entire quilts out of them?  My small square took enough time and effort to line up all the strips, I cannot imagine doing an entire quilt.  And yet the ones I've seen are just beautiful! 

When I decided that this would be today's block, I went to my scrap bag to look for any selvage edges I had stashed in it.  There is a picture of the bag below.  Someone spent a great deal of time embroidering and finishing this delightful laundry bag so I could one day find it at an estate sale and use it not for dirty linens but for the flotsam and jetsam of sewing.... Mary

January 8 Block

Simple block but I love this fabric.  It's going to be loads of fun to bead....  Mary

January 7 Block

 It's been a long week with a full five days, after very short holiday weeks.  This block is just for fun.  Again, no idea what the beading will be like, but then it's fun to just make it up as I go along.... Mary

 

January 6 Block

Happy Epiphany!  Today's block represents the gifts of the three Magi: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.  I have no idea how I will bead this one, but it should be interesting when it's finished.

Happy birthday to my very best friend, JK (pronounced Jake)!  We had coffee today after work - mine not hers because she took the day off.  Such a wise woman!  Together we make up the entire membership of the World's Smallest Quilt Guild.  We have weekly meetings, but no dues, no agendas, no bylaws, no committees.  There are, however, officers.  This year JK is queen and I am princess, and in October at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo, we shall exchange titles for the upcoming year.  So happy, happy day, JK!... Mary

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January 5 Block

At work our truly wonderful IT guy switched me over to a whole new email/calendar/contacts system.  It was not a seamless transition, so today was a little stressful.  But my screen saver is pastel floating bubbles.  Sometimes you just need to stop and watch the bubbles.... Mary

January 4 Block

Today I definitely needed a creative nudge, so I did a wonky nine patch in honor of the nine Muses.  Invoke the Muse and you can't go wrong.

Below is the center spiral of the January 1 block with beading.  I won't bead/embroider the background until the blocks are sewn together.  Beads can definitely get in the way of the presser foot when sewing.... Mary

January 3 Block

Went back to work today after lots of holiday time off including a furlough day to sit in front of my computer, which is what I'm paid to do, hence the chairs. 

Wisconsin also inaugurated a new governor and legislature today.  The black hole in this block represents the huge unknown of exactly what these folks will do to the benefits of state employees.  There was definitely a sense of dread and gloom in the workplace today.

Oh well, only time will tell.  As Shakespeare said, "There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so."  Time to stop thinking about it and just enjoy the moment, black holes and all.... Mary

January 2 Block

This block was inspired by looking out the back window and seeing grass, some of it surprisingly green.  Most of our foot deep snow cover melted during an end of December heat wave - high of 47.  We had an exceptionally mild and warm November followed by an immediate six inches of snow, so that may be why the uncovered grass is still green in places.  I'm sure we'll see more snow, but for now there's grass.... Mary

January 1 Blocks

These are "raw" blocks that I'm posting.  Being a bead artist by practice and inclination (www.beadedicons.com) these blocks will inevitably have beads sewn onto them.  I seem incapable of not beading things, so why fight it?  I will post pictures of the blocks again as they are "finished".

The first block is a spiral for the spiral of time that is the New Year.  The second block is because the Wisconsin Badgers played in the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day.  While I am not a football fan and have never been to a game, I do work at the University so it felt appropriate to commemorate the game.  Alas, they lost....  Mary

My New Year's Project

Welcome to my New Year's project, the 365+ Block Project!  For the coming year I will make at least one 3" quilt block each day.  There will actually be 378 blocks total so that the final piece will be 18 blocks wide by 21 blocks high, or 54" x 63".  I'm going public with this project in a blog because for the past six plus months I have struggled with getting into my studio to make art on anything like a regular basis.  This will, hopefully, make me accountable out loud, in public for actually showing up every single day to do something, anything creative.

To say that Resistance has been kicking my ass would be something of an understatement.  (If you have not read Steven Pressfield's book The War of Art, you should get a copy immediately and read it cover to cover.  I'm currently rereading it for something like the twelfth time.)  Anyone who works in any creative endeavor from painting to performance to entrepreneurship, actually anyone who is human, can identify with the battle against Resistance and just how brutal it can be. 

One of the many important things that Mr. Pressfield tells us is that we must be professionals about our approach to our work whether we are ever paid for it or not.  For the past six months I have been acting like an amateur, making the work too precious, too special, and not just showing up to work no matter what.  My favorite quote from the book is, "[The professional] reminds himself it's better to be in the arena getting stomped by the bull, than to be up in the stands or out in the parking lot."

So it is time to get into the arena for me.  I may get stomped publicly for making really ugly, badly executed, or cheesy quilt blocks, but I will be doing it.  That's all that matters at this point.  So into the studio/arena for 2011!

Mary