Although I just finished the dishes, I spent most of the day being creative. After doing my Qi Gong exercises, I sewed all the Feelin’ Blue, Too blocks together.
Later this morning, my friend PG came over and we worked on our photo albums together. It is what we do together and I am glad that we do it. As a result most of my photos are in order. I have a backlog-from before W was born, mostly, but nothing out of control.
Having the photos in order means that W can look through his babyhood and enjoy the photos, laughing at himself.
Unfortunately, I don’t have enough time to spend really making the pages gorgeous, rich and supple. For me, it is most important to get the photos in order, documented and on the pages. The scrapbook magazines show layered pages with few photos. I find that I need to put many photos on a page and write the stories about the photos. I do some embellishments; I want my pages to look nice, but not like everyone else’s.
Still the album-making is not like quiltmaking. The feel of the fabric is much better than paper. I feel so relaxed when I touch fabric.
Sewing the fabric together and making something new feels wonderful to me.
Feelin’ Blue, Too is typical for me in some ways. There are many, many fabrics and the fabrics work together in a wonderful way. I like using many fabrics, because I never seem to have enough of one fabric to satisfy my need for yards of it. In a way, having many fabrics makes each one special.
i was doing really really well with pictures and getting them into albums until irene was about 2 1/2 or 3…i hadn’t done ALLLLLLL the documenting, but they were in albums and in order (and yes, acid and pvc free). then around the time rhys was born, we started doing a LOT of digital and didn’t have a decent printer. so i am dreadfully behind in album making. the last time i had a big gigantic catchup to do was pre children when i got ridiciulously sick and had to be off of work for 1 week. spent my down time organizing pictures and getting them into albums. so i am completely impressed with you. and i agree with you on the putting lots of photos on the page (well, heck! just look at the photo montages i’ve done for rhys’ first and second birthdays – LOTS of pix on one page!).
and feeling blue is really looking beautiful! how are you thinking it will be quilted?
AND thanks for posting the seeing red bulls balls. just stunning. i love all the movement in it and how it scans. loverly!
Don’t buy a printer and print out your own photos. It will take too long and be too expensive. Just use Shutterfly (http://www.shutterfly.com) or some other online service. The photos are good quality. You can crop and share and make gifts like mugs, calendars, cards, etc out of your photos. It is just much better. I bought a printer that can print photos and never use it for that. I just don’t have the time and energy to tweak and figure out stuff. I have been pretty happy with Shutterfly. I tried all the services about a year ago and found them to have everything that I needed and the best customer service. I have other friends who use other services like Yahoo Photos and Kodak EasyShare. I have ordered photos from them as well and the photos are great.
I haven’t figured out how Feelin’ Blue, Too will be quilted. I do know that I want the ‘endcaps’ to have an echo of the actual bullseye squares. I probably won’t quilt it myself, as usual.
I am glad you like Seeing Red. It turned out really well and I am pleased with it. I am pleased with the whole project and am looking forward t the next one.
As a fellow practioner of Qi Gong, I can appreciate the calming energy generated to sew your blocks together. Your quilts are beautiful.
Hi Jen,
Thanks for reading the blog. I appreciate it. My Qi Gong practice time is an excellent time for me to contemplate a design. I think it is also good for my Qi Gong practice to have something unrelated to letters and numbers – something visual – to contemplate while practicing. It sounds like a strange sort of symbiotic relationship.