Safe Life Adventuring

Because I have a passion in my life that I am free to pursue, I am always having new adventures in quilting. So much less nerve-wracking than bungee jumping or cave diving…and I’m good with that! My excitement comes from learning that soil filter cloth makes a great foundation for collages. And that cloth Tyvek is perfect for packing and storing and safely shipping quilts. And finding out more about using paper in my work…wow!

Now those of you that know me in person, know that I can often be quite sarcastic and might be skeptical about the above paragraph. This was NOT my sarcasm speaking. I learned an incredible amount at my weekend workshop with Laura Cater-Woods and I truly get excited when learning new techniques and processes that I can apply to my textile work!

I took a few pictures of what we were doing so that you can have an idea of how we played.

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Admittedly, I was the skeptical one when I signed up for this workshop. I didn’t think this was really an area that was right for me. But I’ve not done much collage work and what I have done never made me very happy, so this sounded like a ready-made mind-expanding experience. An exciting adventure, right?

Workshops like this are hard for me to pack ‘stuff’ for, even though ‘stuff’ is my favorite supply list ingredient. It seems as though I always bring the wrong ‘stuff.’ And, of course, this was the case…only because the new environment brings new ideas and when I gather supplies it is from a base of the old ideas. This means that I’ll make whatever it is from whatever I bring, but it’s often not what I would create if I were picking from the whole studio of materials. But…hellooooo…it stretches your imagination and creativity to work with what you have and not what you wish you had!

So what did we actually do? Start with some type of base–fabric, paper, soil filter cloth…whatever. If you have an idea, great–start placing fabric, paper, quilt pieces, “stuff” on your background. If  you don’t have an idea, do the same thing until you start liking what you are placing and moving and using. When you are happy with even one thing, make it ‘permanent’ with fusing, or glue, or gel medium or stitch–whatever is appropriate for that part.

Continue and continue and continue, one part at a time until you think you are finished. Then step back again and decide if you are ready to perhaps quilt, perhaps paint or write or stitch in some more details. At some point, you declare it done, with finished edges and ready to hang or place on a shelf if your finishing takes you in a more sculptural direction. Done!

This sounds kind of simplistic, but the whole process depends on your artistic viewpoint and getting to what you want to express. I thought it would be quickly slap on some stuff and call it good. Not so. Taking time and thinking it through make for better design decisions and better finished projects.

That’s the kind of adventures I like…stretch the mind and not a hamstring…break through to new ideas, not break an ankle! Oh, yes, I’ll stick with my safe life adventuring, but it’s just as exciting to my textile passion as the adrenaline rush is to a skydiver…and my worst fear can then be getting my fingers stuck together from the glue I’m using…even safe accidents in my world!

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