It's over five months since my last post. For the first 2-3 months, it was because on intensive work I was doing on a capital campaign for my synagogue, and all my writing energy was taken up with drafting campaign materials, and then--happily--thank you letters. When I was able to get back into the studio, I needed something simple, that didn't involve much thinking, so I finished up a couple of baby quilts that I'd started a while ago, and started a 4-patch posie quilt with some fabric on hand. At that point, it became clear to me that I wasn't just taking a break, but that I was actively avoiding getting back to the quilt I was in the middle of last summer, my second "Homage to Ellsworth Kelly." The last time you saw this project, I had completed 82 blocks of a projected 195 (for a queen-sized quilt), and I did a dozen more after this photo was taken.
I finally realized that I wasn't up to making another 101 blocks. I had really enjoyed making the blocks I did, figuring out various configurations of lines and how far I could take a pieced-in curved line. But going on to do dozens more would have been repetitive, without the joy of discovery. So, I talked it through with friends and came up with another plan. I decided to use the linear blocks for a 60x80 medallion that would cover the top surface of the bed, and then add plain linen borders to bring it to the size of a queen-size quilt (90x94). Here's the medallion, with all the blocks sewn together. Since this used just 88 of the 94 blocks I had on hand, I was able to set aside blocks I wasn't so fond of.
I dropped the photo of the medallion into Photoshop, and tried out a black inner border and then wider borders of tan (which will be the same linen as in the blocks). [I wish I knew why blogger lets me place some photos centered, but refuses to move others except to right and left 😐]
So, the image above is the final design for the quilt, and has been approved by the recipients--all set! But there was one more design decision to make--exactly how wide should the black inner border be? I knew I wanted it narrower than in the Photoshop image, but by how much? I pieced together six of the leftover blocks and tried out different widths in the border. First I pieced in a 1/2" strip, and then I cut a strip for a 5/8" border, feeling a little silly for trying something with only an 1/8" difference. But I'm glad I kept the difference that small. To my eye, 1/2" looks good, while 5/8" is definitely too wide!
So then I took out the 5/8" strip, and replaced it with a 3/8" strip.
The 3/8" strip is so similar to much of the line-work within the blocks that it looks like it's meant to join up with them. The 1/2" strip is still in keeping with the line work (there are some lines are are 1/2" wide, and occasionally even a bit wider), but it stands out a bit more from the line-work, reading as a border. Decision made--1/2" it will be.
There's one other thing that helped me get back in the studio--I figured out a different way to manage my time so that it's easier to spend stretches in the studio. I'll describe it here, in case it might help someone else who is having trouble corralling the computer-based tasks that can so easily take up the whole day, especially with the temptation to click on one link and then another.
For all my working life, I've worked each day from a list of tasks that needed to be done. My habit was to work task by task, and I usually tried to finish one task before going on to another. But thinking about this recently, I realized that most of the tasks in front of me don't have specific hard deadlines. So, I now tell myself each morning that I will spend 2 hours of concentrated time on the campaign work, which is what has been most likely to take up expanses of time. I set a timer for the two hours, and make a commitment to not check e-mail, or follow random links during that time. The timer is important. It's helping me finish a satisfying chunk of this work before lunch, and to be able to be in the studio for much of the afternoon. It doesn't work out every day, but still enough of the time that I'm feeling much better about how I'm spending my time. (I'd prefer to be spending the mornings in the studio instead--my favorite time of day--but when I try that, I can feel a cloud hovering over me, the burdensome stuff that still awaits. It feels better to get that done at the beginning of the day, and then to know I don't have to think about it again until the next morning.)
One final note: Every once in a while over the past months, I thought of writing a blog post, but when I went to the blog page, I saw the photo of me on the couch, covered with the blanket made in memory of my mom. I really liked seeing that photo, and didn't want to supplant it with another post. Today when I looked at the page, I noticed that there was no image under the title of "Studio Notes," so I thought I'd try putting the photo there, where I can see it every time. I don't know if I'll keep it here, and if I do, I'll need to figure out how to tweak the placement of the name of the blog, but I like it there for now.
