Traveling under the Radar

Not much to report from Casa del Testorone...my husband's name for our house when all the boys lived at home. Had another one of my insomnia nights Tuesday. Think I was just all fired up over working in the studio....realized I was still there are 1 a.m. Took me a couple of hours to wind down and before you know it 3.30 am had arrived. Made it to bed, woke up at a respectable hour of 8 am...but a little wasted. Basically got some donkey work done, buring dvd's and playing with the new design but not a great day.

Back in the saddle again, forced myself to go to bed early last night....took a couple of melatonin...got up at seven and started to work. No pictures yet...trying a different palette for me...so going very slow. This could be scraped before it gets to far....so don't want to reveal until everything is in shape. Lost day tomorrow, getting samples reading for the filming on Saturday...might be nice if I knew what I was doing before getting on camera. The filming will take up the weekend so don't count on any blog notes until the first of next week....not like this is all really useful information.

Hot as hades, here and beginning to take its toll on my working. Mornings are good but when the afternoon arrives and you could cook dinner on the dashboard of you car....well, it is just too much to even think. However, all the new work is so that I will have pieces to either applique or quilt while on the road so I must forge ahead. Home until 5 August so things are in good shape as of today.

My only artistic contribution to today is about the pressure to produce. In our business, if you are trying to build and resume, get on the teaching circuit, i.e. become a professional quilt artist.
there is an incredible pressure to produce new work. One result of this is that there are many artists who have gone to the smaller formats.....another is to change techniques to get more work done, but you have to have a real skill with these techniques or the work goes un-noticed.

So here's my take....never short change a piece just to get it under the deadline. There is always next year or the next show. Not only do you do an injustice to the piece, but to yourself as well. Of course, since I work by hand I will never produce the same amount of quilts that other techniques provide...but quantity isn't all that important to me. The time spent in the studio is re-balancing of energy for me and basically, a time to play with what I want to say or with how I am saying it. Each piece works it self at a certain stage so give it the time it needs. The analogy I always think of is mother's who can't wait for their young children to get to another developmental stage...only to look back and see what they missed by wishing the time away. All children grow up way to soon....all quilts need time to tell us where they want to go. Do the art you want to do however you want to do it whenever you want to do as slow or fast as your process requires....wow what a great run-on sentence....you can quote me.

Off blog world for the rest of the week end....try to stay out of trouble....don't want to have to come bail anyone out of jail for abberant quiltmaking.