mslottie

Sunday Seven – February 18th 2024

It’s been a while since I did a Sunday Seven post – seven things I did since last Sunday – but life seems a little busier lately, and maybe it would be good to look back and see what I achieved. I’m a list maker and I love checking off my to-do list. I also ADD things I did to the list just so I can check them off! And, if I’m having a time where I feel like I’m not getting anything done, I’ll write down everything I do, just so I can look back and get a real picture and pat myself on the back.

  1. Had my first two days back as a midwife.
Me at work with the quilt I made. It sits in the entrance foyer.

Yeah, that’s a pretty big one. I haven’t worked as a midwife for almost two years, and when I made the decision to leave, I was almost certain I was never coming back. Looking back I was burnt out, plain and simple. I think a lot of health professionals get that way, and I was lucky that I had another option. Being a campground manager has been so totally different that it’s given me a lot of headspace. And now, the thought of going to work doesn’t make me nauseated, so I’m diving back in, and it’s like muscle memory…all coming back!

I’m only working part-time, so plenty of space in my life for me, my family, my art and anything else I want to do. Finally getting our pay equity claim sorted has made it possible to keep a bit more balance.

2. Finished my Nightingale quilt top

Last year I had the crazy idea to run a sewalong. What’s crazy about that? Well, I decided to do it as a silly season summer sewalong for Aotearoa Quilters. Which means it would run over December and January – New Zealand’s two busiest months. Schools are ending for the year, Christmas and New Year’s happen, Summer holidays are in full swing, everything goes a bit mental. Plus that’s when the campground ramps up to full steam and we were going to be packing, moving house, and handing over.

So why on earth would I choose to run a sewalong then? I tentatively thought that it might be good to have something really simple to work on. In the first couple of weeks I would have all the decisions made and fabrics chosen and cut and from then on it would just be straight forward piecing. My stash could get packed, my big Bernina Q20 machine could get packed and I’d just have to remember to keep sewing and write a few emails and facebook posts to the group to keep them motivated. And it worked!

The group kept me accountable and it was really fun to see everyone’s different colour schemes come together. And I had something to keep me sewing, but in a low stress way.

The pattern we all bought was Nightingale by Lo and Behold Stitchery.

3. Went for a run

Ok, so I went for walk, and ran about 200 metres twice during the walk. But that’s a big ass deal for me! I’d like to say I’m generally fit and active, but my cardio fitness is pretty bad. And I’m only getting older. And my butt is getting bigger.

I go for regular walks. I stretch pretty often. I don’t sit for long periods without getting up and moving. And I’ve been doing short morning work-outs (HIIT, body weight strength etc) with my daughter. But sustained cardio, nope.

So I’ve bought anti-jiggle sports wear and I’m making a commitment to myself. And no, there are no photos of me in said anti-jiggle sports wear…

4. Broke out the paints

Oooo, that felt good! Having been busy for the all the abovementioned reasons, paints and dyes haven’t had a look in. But I did a short play session with some textile paint, some hand-dyed fabric scraps that were all conveniently cut into 6 1/2 inch strips and a hand-carved stamp I made years ago.

I was making a background for a tiny piece of work that (if I get it finished in time) is a donation piece for SAQA, an art quilting organisation I belong to. But breaking out the paint for one stamp seems a bit of a waste, so I kept printing until I’d used up my paint, and now I have a dozen pieces to use, and have reignited my enthusiasm!

5. Hung out with arty friends

A lovely arty friend, who makes the coolest mosaics (quite often of birds – even better!) invited me and some other creative folks round to her amazing little studio for an evening of chat and create.

I used to run a stitch and bitch night, and it was always one of my favourite nights. Hanging out with other like-minded people. And this was just as enjoyable. Relaxed, fun and a good chance to have a no-pressure play around with whatever stuff I brought along.

6. Made this cake

This flourless mandarin, almond and blueberry cake is to die for. Well, maybe not. But it was pretty blimmin’ good. And super easy. And satisfies all the gluten-free, dairy-free friends you might have. I made mine with oranges instead of mandarins. No photo of mine, ’cause I ate it too fast.

Flourless Mandarin, Almond and Blueberry Cake

7. Colour coordinated my scraps

I’ve been stuffing my scraps willy nilly into a couple of pull out bins in my cutting table. There comes a point where that strategy no longer works (the bins get full) and something has to be done. I’m also still in the sorting out mood, having just set up the room.

So I dumped everything out on the floor where I couldn’t ignore it. I put everthing into colour themed piles, throwing out teeny bits and bits of rubbish as I went. I posted about it on Instagram and found a lovely person who does english paper piecing and so I’ve send a bunch to her, then I remembered this set of drawers in the hall that we haven’t managed to fill yet, so I commandeered it for me! Top drawer has yellow, orange and brown, my smallest piles. Second drawer: pink/red and purple. Third drawer is deeper and has blue and green. Fourth drawer has white/grey/black and a bag of narrow strips that I like to use for ties for things.

I have an improv piecing project in mind. But whether that will actually reduce the pile or increase it is yet to be known!

I hope you’ve had a good week, and that next week will treat you kindly!

Sunday Seven – February 18th 2024 Read More »

Looking Forward, Looking Back

Gosh, 2024 just keeps on creeping by, and so far it’s been a busy one for my family and I.

Halfway through last year we decided to leave the campground and our jobs as camp managers, so January was all about managing the hectic Summer camping and Airbnb season, whilst also training and handing over to the new camp managers, plus packing and moving house, then unpacking and settling in to our house, getting our daughter back to her last year of high school, and hubby and I have both just started new jobs! Phew! We’re the kind of family that embraces new experiences and challenges, but sometimes we go a bit far with how much we bite off and try and chew!

Above is the view we left behind, and below is the view we moved back to. There are many reasons why we left, and an ugly view wasn’t one of them! I will miss the beach and the ever-changing, fabulous sea/sky vistas, but after spending our first night back in our old house, we knew we had made the right decision – it really felt like home.

So, just like after any big change, I feel like I’m in a state of flux. And I’m trying to be ok with that, and have patience, knowing that I’ll get everything sorted/unpacked/worked out eventually. Ok, that’s not true – are we ever 100% sorted and got everything worked out?!

I have concentrated on my studio and got that about 90% sorted out. That makes me feel a bit more settled. And I’ve been enjoying my little collection of objet d’art in the morning sunlight.

Just for fun I made a few videos of my studio unpacking. You can see them over on Instagram. I’ve tried to embed one below, hope it works for you.

So, all in all there hasn’t been a whole heap of sewing or dyeing being done – I feel I have a pretty good excuse! But watch this space. I’m only working part time, so there will be plenty of textile art coming right up! I’m also excited to be teaching quite a bit this year. I’ll let you in on the deets soon.

Ka kite for now, take time to breath and enjoy the sunshine.

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Ten things I learnt by being a vendor at Festival of Quilts

I’ve just come back from a busy weekend being a merchant at the Auckland Festival of Quilts. It’s the first time for me and I tried to treat the whole experience as a learning opportunity. I was selling my hand-dyed fabrics, threads, upcycled fabrics and a few other hand-dyed goodies, like socks and zip pouches.

Here’s some of the things I learnt:

1. People are lovely

2. There are dye-hard(!) fans of the colour yellow 💛

3. My hand-dyed threads are very popular, but people like perle 8 (finer) rather than perle 5 (thicker – great for big-stitch hand quilting)

4. Chocolate helps when there is an hour of show time left 🍬

5. Lots of people want classes on ice-dyeing (yes! I’ll come and teach that to you!)

6. Upcycled fabrics went like hotcakes, time to dye some more

7. Aprons are quite comfy as all-day wear

8. Other vendors are happy to give tips 😊

9. Unpacking is daunting (haven’t tackled it yet)

10. My hand-dyed happy heels socks made people smile!

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Sketching Bugs

I like to take part in creative challenges. But only those where I get to choose what I do. Things like 100 or 30 day projects, where I choose what I do, and I do it every day for however many days in a row. They are a great way to stimulate new ideas, build up a body of work or inspiration, or a way to practice something new with diligence.

Currently I’m four days into the Aotearoa Quilters Spring 30 Day Challenge. I’ve been the facilitator of this program for the last two years, and have run it was a Winter Jumpstart, but I’ve handed over the reins, and Jenny, the new facilitator, is running it in the first official month of Spring. It feels good to start something new in Spring.

Some of my most successful daily projects have been sketching. And later this month I’ll be travelling, so I need something small and portable. In fact, one of my biggest pieces of advice to doing this projects is to keep it small and portable! I’ve decided to go for a daily sketch of a bug, butterfuly or bird. I typed bug into the search function of my photos and I seem to have enough to start me off!

First up was the little spider you see above. I have no idea what type, but it was quite small with a pretty coloured back. Day two was the luna moth below. I photographed that when I visited Canada. Quite a spectacular creature, and I remember the kids were suitably intrigued.

Day three was a pūriri moth. They are bright green, ranging from grass to chartreuse, so maybe I should go back and add colour. This one I photographed was almost yellow.

Then yesterday, day four, was a dragonfly I caught in a net as he was struggling to escape from my house.

I haven’t decided what to draw today. But if you have any good photographs that you wouldn’t mind me using as a reference, please send them my way!

The random numbers and scribbles in the backgrounds of my sketches is because I use my old to-do/journal/diary pages as sketchbook backgrounds. It saves space in my handbag and provides an interesting texture to work on. Maybe I’ll show you more of that in another post.

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Collage as an Art Quilt Technique

I often work in a collage method when constructing my quilts. Cutting shapes, assembling them into something pleasing and then fixing them to the background. It’s a satisfying way of working. It’s also flexible, forgiving and can be easily combined with other techniques.

This is how the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines collage:

: an artistic composition made of various materials (such as paper, cloth, or wood) glued on a surface

: a creative work that resembles such a composition in incorporating various materials or elements

: HODGEPODGE

Hodgepodge?! Hopefully not! But definitely a composition glued onto a surface, and often incorporating various elements.

I work in the cut and glue way, otherwise known as raw-edge applique, because it gives me the freedom to create intricate shapes. My artistic voice leans towards the figurative, and this is easier to achieve if I’m not trying to machine piece fiddly bits of fabrics or turn under edges of complex shapes. But another big reason I work this way is that it gives me the freedom to listen to my work as it grows and move elements around the ‘canvas’ until I hit that sweet spot where the design feels right to me.

I played with the positioning of these feathers until they sat just where I wanted them.

I can audition and rearrange and change my mind till my heart is content. It’s almost like a sketchbook, I can work out my textile design on my design wall in real size instead of in the pages of a sketchbook. But don’t get me wrong – sketchbooks are great and have an important role too!

I also work in my sketchbook with paper collage. Paper is cheaper than fabric and you can find so many pretty colours just by opening up discarded gardening or interior design magazines. Cutting shapes from paper is very freeing – do you remember your primary school cut and paste sessions? It’s also great for people who say, “I can’t draw!” They don’t have to! Just grab some scissors and glue and play!

Shapes cut from a free aeroplane magazine ready to be glued into my journal.

I did a lot of paper cutting and collage back in 2017 when I did a 100 days project, which I named ‘100 days of Scissors’. I made a composition every day for 100 days, some figurative, some abstract, and I managed to fill two whole sketchbooks, which I still refer to regularly for inspiration. Often, the negative shapes left behind from cutting were what sparked the next day’s idea.

I had a black-paged sketchbook and a white-paged sketchbook, and used newspaper, painted papers, coloured card and tracing paper.

I take all those ideas from working with paper back to my textile work. Everything influences everything else; creation is a fluid process.

Here are some of my favourite quilts that were made using mainly collage, but with some other techniques thrown in for good measure:

From L-R: Piwakawaka in Dappled Light; Keruru Feather; Fleeting; and Tieke Imagined.

Do you want to spend some time experimenting with collage? I’m excited to be teaching my workshop called ‘Creative Collage’ for Queensland Quilters on the 10th May 2024. We will start with paper collage and work through some exercises to get your creative juices flowing before moving to fusible web and fabric. We’ll experiment with positive and negative shapes, abstract and figurative work, layering and mirroring, and personal shapes/symbols. We’ll discuss effective design choices, learning some never-fail tips and tricks for compositional magic along the way. Most of all, we’ll have fun!

You can head to Queensland Quilters website for further details, they even have an earlybird sign up special if you register now. I’ll also be teaching ‘Level Up Your FMQ (free-motion quilting)’ and ‘Misty Woodland,’ a two day paint and silk organza class. I hope to see you there.

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