Ten Eleven Twelve! Number, order and humor!

Happy eleventh of October in 2012.

I love numbers, order and humor - and some things we get honestly.

Yesterday my Dad celebrated the 71st anniversary of his birth. Always good to acknowledge the numbers in order to maintain your sense of humor.  

My Dad's mom was one of my first role models for aging, humor and creativity.  She had a sense of humanity that I appreciated as a child.  I always felt like she saw me as a whole person even though the number of my years was less.  I love this photo of Abuela Marta with my dad, when he was very young, very blonde, with just a little Dennis the Menace look about him!

A recent email from a friend included: "I love that you see and respect his amazing personhood even though he's just five." Wow, without even knowing my Abuela, she paid me the greatest compliment, in letting me know I am carrying on her trait of connecting with people young and old with a respect of their wholeness.  

One of my favorite Abuela Marta memories is account of how she lost her good sewing scissors only to find them later in her refrigerator... 

Happy Birthday Dad!

Long May She Wave - Reveal Day 6

You know the last 2 words from the USA National Anthem?  It's "Play Ball!" for this baseball fan.  Seriously, I'm a big baseball fan, love the sights and sounds of the game.  I'm also very patriotic, so I mean no disrespect with my Play Ball joke. 

 
In my region (I'm ashamed to say its the Nation's Capital and Baltimore, ); we have a horrible disrespect of the National Anthem.  Some Baltimore Oriole fans yell out "O" during part of it at baseball games and some Washington Capital fans yell out "Red" during those parts of the Anthem.  If the Flag and the Anthem represent our Country, what does it mean when people yell words while we are standing respectfully holding our hats in our hands and with our hands over our hearts.  I want to ask each person that yells, if they realize that they are disrespecting my nation when they do that.  Even if it's not your nation, when a national anthem is sung it's still a time to be respectful.  That's my humble patriotic opinion...

So when I was playing with ideas, I caught this symbol and gave it a wave.

• Wrong side of denim used as background - great color
• Appliqued fused bias wavy strips free cut using a Multi Step Zig Zag stitch - I love the shape created where the strips in the center meet forming a nice curvy v in lower right corner.
• Free Motion Machine quilted - leaving the center bar unquilted
• Hand stitched 13 cream buttons and 37 "X's" using 50wt sewing thread (4 strands red, 4 strands blue)... 13+37=50, get it?
• Free Motion Zig Zag edging

Lessons Learned - when the machine starts complaining and making noise - CHANGE THE NEEDLE - before it breaks - you still will need to change it if you wait, but them you need to find the piece of broken needle and hope that the machine didn't suffer. 

Lost Track of Time - Reveal day 4

One of the joys and dangers of the sewing studio is that you get sucked into the vortex.  From watching SciFi I know that once the fabric of space and time is torn, it's hard not to lose track of time.


I love the image of a clock - round, numbers, metal hands, movement, so many great symbols.

• Background handdyed and gold lines and dots painted on left upper corner*

• Stamped background with 3 different spools !!! using the leftover pain from the Day 3 stencil (in fact it was a "I have too much paint left over, what can I paint on?", and now I have extra spool prints that I added to my box of altered fabric)

• Clock hands are "MicroSuede" from Joann's, cut and appliqued on (if UltraSuede is ultra good, Microsuede is micro good, it's ok, really - it just doesn't handle raw edge, but it's a Micro price compared to the Ultra price.  I can buy a 8"x10" piece of UltraSuede or a Yard of 45wide Micro Suede for the same price, but since the amount I use is small, may be worth the investment.  Cause as they say, time is money!

• Cut out numbers from freezer paper and pressed onto background - tight quilting made each number an island of quilted puffiness!!!
• Free Motion Machine quilted background and inside numbers very tightly - I really enjoy quilting the heck out of a quilt - this time quilted in a horizontally elongated meander!!!
• Hand painted the numbers with gold fabric paint!!!
• Free Motion ZigZagged edge - kinda heavier stitching than on Day 1 Peace, Love and Joy.  This time did a back and forth 5 times motion, covering about 3-4inches at a time  - I like the navy blue stitching with the black ink

  * - These steps were done prior to 12x12x12 challenge
!!! - First time I ever did this type of thing

I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.
- Golda Meir

Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.
- Samuel Smiles

Time may change me, But I can't trace time

- David Bowie

I lost some time once. It's always in the last place you look for it.
- Neil Gaiman

I picked some fresh herbs from the garden for dinner tonight. Now I have thyme on my hands.

- Misty Cole

Numbers Count

Happy Triple 11's today! 

Wednesday was reveal day for the 2011 challenge quilts.  Challenge was to make a quilt inspired by page 73 of a nonquilting, nonart magazine.  I checked about 73 different magazines before selecting my page 73.

Peaceful Passage

Yes, I've come full circle back around to circles!

I had fun with numbers, such as the olive branch is made up of 7 leaves, 3 of which have stems.  There are 3 blue flower-cogs (flogs, cowers?), 3 sides of quilt have facing that takes the silk right to the edge.  There are 3 double flogs, and 7 single black/grey flog shapes, 3 silver circles.  Love the juxtaposition of wool felt and silk - the only cotton is a single green line on the left edge. In Cognition (my Power Suit entry) I didn't want to admit the shape could be a flower so I denied it's graphic daisy-osity;  with Peaceful Passage, I embrace it's inner flower and gave them a little spin.



Here's my inspiration page...

I wanted to put number 73 in the quilt, but slightly hidden... do you see it now?

Serendipitously...
Saint Leigh and her son spread their wings and carried me as we embarked on a quest from to silver water  to the land of rocks to rescue my silver stallion from it's incarceration.  Yes, you guessed it my car was towed from Silver Spring to Rockville...  Leigh's sister is a great friend, Nickie (or five-cent as some of us hockey players know her), so I know one day through Nickie, our paths would have crossed, but if not for the tow I wouldn't have been inspired to add the peaceful dove and olive branch, so I guess I should say that I must say I was lucky... And I do feel lucky, overall it was a positive experience. 

I wanted to honor their kindness in my art, with both the image of the peace dove and on the backing a delicious chocolate colored fabric.   Leigh Lambert is an experiment artist as well, now I crave to experience her art and I predict that I'll be trying these brownies in my not so distant future...

The hand dyed silk was a gift from my sister, so you need sisters for Peaceful Passage.  My sister also asked what is the Chinese character means - I think it's "peace", based on the Internet - but I don't read Chinese, so it could be "soup"...

Sorry for the humorous diversion - back to math...
So I thought I would count up the parts of the quilt not including the shadow silhouette, tada! There are 33 (oh yes I counted 3 times to be sure) 

33 is 11+11+11

what an auspicious number!

Cognition Unveiled!!!

Tada!



Finally, my Power Suit Challenge quilt unveiled! 

the fine print below my quilt reads...

Cognition
Inspired by mental power = cognition...  My Nerd-self focused on power, movement, force, and then a “power series” in mathematics.  Athlete-self added Power = strength = denim.  Fashionista-self = dark suits.  Cogs with French knots feature felt made from machine needlefelting 4 layers of suiting.  Tied together with the silk “Power Tie” binding and at the bottom “denim”; Cause a great pair of jeans is my power suit.  Wishing you fun from A to Z!
Amy Morusiewicz Mitchellville, Maryland

I was limited to 75 words - that was a challenge.  I feel very connected to this piece - the background is PFD that was handdyed at Southern Comforter's winter retreat.  The cogs are a result of hours on the needlefelting machine creating felt from 4 layers of the wool suiting samples.  My goal was a piece that would have visual appeal from 30 feet away, drawing you in and giving you little surprises such as the french knots in the flower/cogs and the lightning bolt embroidery.

Here's a glimpse into how my brain works...

Power Nerd

I remembered power series in my mathematics methods for physicists class (my last math class after 4 calculus classes.)  The only book from college I still have - a great memento of another time in my life - and a lovely book in teal and silver!  So the background contains selected equations and terms that were part of my life studying Physics in college.  Machines and movement, thoughts and ideas abound.

Power Athlete

Hockey? Dark grey and black circles, larger ones are closer to me, smaller as they go away - hockey pucks? During hockey practice, many pucks fly my way as a goalie with the Washington Wolves women's hockey team. 

Power Style

Denim and black - that's the powersuit of my generation.  The blue cogs are made with the plastic cover of the wool suiting samples.  The kit contained a silk tie in a beigey grey (somehow my kit knew I could use a plain tie - others artists got stripes or print ties)

Movement, strength, depth, serious and humorous...    Cognition

Oh, I need to tell you about the opening reception for the Power Suit Challenge, and that's a story for another day...

fun with numbers

2011 – prime number extraordinaire

if you add up eleven consecutive primes

157+163+167+173+179+181+191+193+197+199+211

tada! you get
2 0 1 1 

I love'm the numbers! 

Eleven, my favorite number, the only 2 digit, prime that has two of a number, tis also the first prime with a one!


I especially love the prime numbers

they are the building blocks of numbers

like  atoms are the building blocks of the universe

like thread and fabric are the building of quilts

so why this attention to the numbers?

Today is April 23
23 is the 9th of the first 11 prime numbers
2,3,5,7,11,13,17,19,23,29,31
Serendipitously, I started this blog on a prime number day, 17 and there are 11 primes that land on days of the month.  So for fun with numbers, why not blog on the primes? Sounds like fun!
Count on 11 posts a month or so..

cause I don't always color within the lines

often the winds of whim take me where they please!

and what am I doing on the next prime number day?

http://www.officialroyalwedding2011.org/

what else am I doing lately for fun?
five weeks of fun in Quilt University class

Artist ToolBox class with Lyric Kinard
just opened last night - so much fun and frivolity - no seriously it's a great chance to learn some tricks, tools, get critiques and practice

So to leave you with a question...
does art have just a few simple building blocks?

  lines, color, perspective, shades would be the building blocks of art techniques, what about just "art" not the making of it - what are the building blocks of that?
I think humanity, joy, pain, fear, and the need to communicate and the need to create might be some of the building blocks, but what do you think?