I took a workshop from the noted teacher Ms Z and here she is making a critique.
It was tough but I came away with the distinct impression that she was very pleased with my work. If you get the chance to take a workshop from her, be prepared to hear the hard truth and don't let her cuteness fool you.
At what point does being intrigued with oneself become vanity? Being in my own space to work has me studying myself...the discovery today is that I really love auditioning fabrics...having a focal point and placing fabrics around it to imagine the finished piece gets intense...let the images stew, the ideas shape and shift around in my head gets in my body physically, not just in thought. When I'm stuck I pick up something else that involves my hands moving and giving my mind another focus.
Today I was working on the piece in the previous post below...(the fertility doll was taken out of the equation, just didn't command enough attention with the fabrics surrounding it)...but when I reached a point that I liked what was up but not yet ready to commit (letting it stew), I moved onto beading on a study (the blue grid), then back to the design wall, sorted fabric looking for "perfect pieces" to compliment the focal point...the sorting of fabric generates new ideas for a totally different piece (set aside for later), then relax in the comfy chair while staring at the design wall. Moving from one thing to another creating a cohesion and order and chaos at the same time.
I'm so intrigued with how I work in the space and how I move around. I'm using the desk much more than I thought I would...I bead on it, I read at it, I paint on it, I sketch at it...my mother's ironing board is too low and it hurts my back...I have an ironing cover on the cutting table but the mats are on top of it and I don't like moving them to the side to iron. When I'm relaxing I replay back in my mind what I've done and how I'm utilizing the space...I work unhurriedly but steady.
I missed a deadline to submit to a juried show. I'm giving myself permission to concentrate on working at creating quilts this year and will hold the goal of learning to submit to shows in a timely fashion for next year. It seems too overwhelming to me right now to jungle both aspects of creating and submitting.
I went to Artist & Craftsman Supply today to pick up an acid dye (will need to order silk soon) and right beside them was a new Jacquard product (packaged very well) that caught my eye. These little dye packs for a cleaner and simpler process. One for cotton, silk, linen, rayon and wool and one for poly and poly blends. According to the packet directions each one will dye 2-3 pounds of fabric...the iDye Poly requires simmering for 30-60 minutes in a pot with just enough water to cover the fabric. There were about 8 colours for poly and about 20-30 colours for the natural fabrics. I picked up about 10 packets and will give them a try sometime next month. If anyone uses them before I do I sure would like to hear from you on how they perform. There is even a colour remover...you can click on the image to enlarge- 
My mother has asked me three times in less than a month, if I sell anything. I think this means that she like what she is seeing. My mother is short on words and although she is much more mellow these days, while growing up, she advocated strongly to me that a woman needs to generate and have her own cash. That is what I thought about when she stands staring at my design wall followed by the question of selling. My mother is near 80 and I don't have half of her stamina or good health. She is a blessing in my life.
Red is finished. What is the best way to photograph a quilt with uneven edges?
I began sorting the beads for Blue and thought I would dye the silk for it yesterday but I'm out of silk...this put me in a tail spin to go through my fabric to see what I did have for dyeing which then led to a beginning attempt to organize (kinda, just enough) the stash by colour and value. After a bit, I thought, colour would suffice and I'd worry about value as I work on future quilts. I've waited too late in life to get anal now.
After the (kinda) organizing the stash, I threw some fabrics up for audition. The African fertility doll and the two rainsticks sit in the corner behind my front door. This photo is printed on silk and I've been wanting to use it for a while now...if it goes in this piece I'm seeing it would become the main focal point and the fabric with my poetry written on it would become a secondary focal point. I'm thinking the other panels that I'm going to write on will have to be the same poem with the circles over stamped. The poem is a tribute to timelessness of African movements and rhythms and music and dance as communicative elements with sacred energy. I wrote it as a teen-ager and even though it is not a poem I would read aloud at a reading, the sentiment and words seem more interesting as part of a quilt where they would become central to supporting evidence of designing with print and making quilts as communicative element with sacred energy.
Ancient African Music Makers, your rhythm flows through time reaching days that the sun has not touched. your rhythm, waiting there for the winds to catch up, moving sofastsofast.
Ancient African Ones, making musice that pulls us into memories of ceremonial movements where the gods recognized the dance by the design stepped out of the earth by dust black feet.
Ancient African Music, of a people that never will die because souls and soul live forever.
Juanita Yeager's solo show is going up very soon at the Carnegie Center in New Albany, Indiana!
Pathways and Stepping Stones May 23 to July 19, 2008 Opening reception May 23, 2008, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm Gallery Talk by artist, Saturday, May 24, 10:00 am The Carnegie has the best receptions filled with music and food and people! I'm really looking forward also to hearing Juanita give her gallery talk...having been known for her flowers, her work has taken off in a new direction, sorta like giving new soil for the flowers to grow in I guess. She has teased us a little with showing some of her new work on her blog so I can't wait to view the new work in its entirety at the exhibit. Her workshops are also being offered in conjunction with the exhibit at super fantastic prices! q Flowers on a Grand Scale $50.00 q Singing the Blues $25.00 q Great Finishes $25.00 q Meaningful Marks and Images $50.00 To get descriptions and lists of supplies and dates, go here. I'm not sure which I'm going to take...would love to take them all but Meaningful Marks and Images is at the top of my list followed by Great Finishes. Singing the Blues really put me over the edge in understanding how to work with value. I'm really looking forward to her being in the city for a week! Also, if you ever get the chance to hear quilt journalist Kyra Hicks speak on the history and development of African American quilting, DO NO PASS IT UP!!!! I MEAN IT!!! Her information and presentation is of the caliber that causes my head to spin with new ideas and my heart to swell up with love for my people and culture. And I'd bet that is a common feeling among those in any audience! I had the blessed chance to hear Kyra back in March at the Speed Musuem and share lunch with her prior to presentation. The connection between Kyra and I go back to when Prodigy ruled the net! So is was a huge gift to meet her finally in person! I'm off like a prom dress!
I'm beading right along on Red. 
I need to pick up 2 more odd shaped beads for one section and place red foil in small spots and it will be finished tomorrow. Here it is on the left waiting for the glue to dry. So far this has been the best photo image I've taken of this piece.
The electrician came yesterday to give me an estimate on another wall outlet and overhead light that will prevent me from running extension cords.
For next week I have to set aside some time to dye some silk...will use MX dyes and the microwave and also introduce myself to using acid dyes. I hope I have enough silk.
Here are some close-ups of Red.
And to end this post, how about another shot at the current state of affairs from The Basement Workshop.
Beading can become monotonous. I jump around on the quilt and change up which beads I'm working with to break up the routine of it...similar to hand stitching it is very relaxing. Unlike hand stitching, the squinting to pick up beads onto the needle breaks the meditation of it.
I used the gourd bead stitch to encase the cabochon (btw, I like the way saying this word sounds and feels in the mouth). This is my first attempt. The above picture shows the base layer followed by rows of bead one, skip one pattern, followed by an increase row and a decrease row. Rereading the instructions over and over still didn't allow me to "become one" with them...laying the base row gave me a sense of accomplishment that over-boosted my confidence. In addition to having an even number of beads in the base row like the instructions called for, I think it is necessary to mark the first or last bead as the bead one, skip one pattern in the successive rows became confusing to me.
My completed encased cabochon (this word sounds of French origin), did not have the tightness like experienced beaders but it does hold it in. 
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Yesterday Peter hooked up my computer in the workshop but I'm not on-line yet there and not sure if I will hook it up. Afterward we spontaneously made a trip to IKEA in Cincy. We squeezed in a quick trip to Jungle Jim's International Grocery but didn't have time to linger as we wanted to get back before it got dark...Later, I'll show you the great selections of hot sauces that I grabbed.
Peace,
Yesterday's dinner plans got laid by the wayside for a good deal on craigslist for a computer desk for the workshop and a metal locker style chest of drawers for my son...my energy level and mental focus wasn't up to cooking anyways so it was not a battle for me to push it to the side and go pick up my items. Long John Silvers and Kroger's deli rescued us from growling stomachs. Today it was tuna salad, carrots, and grapes...another easy fix after being in my workshop from noon until 7pm. I took a break for light lunch and for 3 breathing treatments which take less than 15 minutes each. The remainder of the time was spent putting bead embellishments on Red Sea (working title).
When I first started today, the bead work made me think about fossilized plants and animals like I have seen at the Falls of the Ohio...when I had placed a good number of beads on one section, the idea of a quilt being sculpture came to mind. When I wrapped up the day I placed Red Sea around my neck (it measures 10"x36") and I thought of wearable art. A quilt can be so diverse in the art form it takes.
The bead work feels really right for this piece and the more I add the more it speaks to me. What I discovered about random beading is that it isn't really random at all. The color of the bead, the shape and size, the spacing, the line they create, etc. have a right place. I found myself taking beads out, redoing them so that the thread lines and the bead lines talk with each other. These images are scanned because it doesn't photograph well but since it is my current beloved I wanted to show him off. He is subtle with his come on but 
I still swoon when he whispers in my ear.
I'm going to add 2 cabochons for a soft focal point...they are red also...one is smaller than the other and it will be the "eye" of the piece...right now, I'm thinking the eye of God. The larger one measures about 2 inches long, 1/2 inch wide and has a slight curve. I've never encased cabochons before but I'm looking forward to the challenge.
My parent's neighbor wants me to let her know when I start selling my quilts...I knew she meant bed quilts and instead of me taking the opportunity to talk about what I'm trying to achieve I just nodded and said "sure". She'll be the first on the invite list when I hold an open house. It will be easier to show her than tell her.
Peace, 
Its very challenging to work with one colour...here "red sea" in black and white...the texture is mainly created by the hand sewing and the beading...the colour on the silk is varied which helps with subtle value changes...the beads are in the lower right corner and you might get a better view if you click on the picture to enlarge it. There is a lot more beading to be done but before I continue I'm going to stop in at a few bead stores tomorrow and look for varied red beads. I contemplated adding another colour or two but it didn't feel right...the original idea still holds. I tried to find the 3 pieces made by Sam Gilliam online to inidicate what I'm trying to achieve...I think it will be clearer once the 2 cousin pieces to "red sea" are made.
Yesterday I worked on 3 seperate pieces in progress...after the red bead shortage I beaded the "blue grid" for a while then sat in my comfy chair to read Beading on Fabric and woke up almost 2 hours later. I auditioned fabrics for a piece inspired by Willie Pearl, my great grandmother and a poem I wrote about "weusi" (we, us, and i). It was 5 hours of actually working.
I'm home today and my plan is/was to actually prepare foods for the rest of the week...black-eyes peas and tomato stew, baked sweet potatoes, green salad, beef steaks, and I'll make salmon croquettes on Friday. First I have to clean the kitchen which Ade was suppose to do last night...it never fails, if I fall asleep before he cleans the kitchen, he will not do it. This is his regular chore which he does well when he does it.
I couldn't find "for"...it should read a "thousand sleeping shadows beneath her bed chant for rain". I had the shadows, whispering, singing, incubating...for honey, death, songs, blue flowers, etc. before I settled on chant for rain...why rain? why chant? I don't know...and how can shadows sleep and chant at the same time....ummmm, through dreaming maybe? How is that for a peek inside my mind?
Peace,
Today was my 3rd day in my workshop. I'm not sure if this will become routine, but so far I start my time when I arrive by slapping some paint on pages in a book being altered, followed by 5 minutes to focus on what I'm going to achieve for the day then I'm up and sewing...right before I leave I slap 2 more pages in the bookwith paint and then I go upstairs to chat with who ever is in the house, one or both of my parents and/or a niece and great niece...then I depart for home usually around 7ish. Its a steady 5-7 hours of me actually in my workshop...anywhere from 15-21 hours a week. At this point, no hard and rigid rules or goals as long as I'm rocking steady.
I'm still finishing up the red silk hanging that I'm calling Red Sea. The facing method which Kathy Loomis featured in American Quilter a few issues ago is what I selected to finish off the edges. It is more user friendly than the pillowcase method for me. The bead work will get under way tomorrow.
The primaries will be held tomorrow in Pennslyvania. I think the tv will stay off until the polls close, but I will try to give Dee a holler tomorrow to see how she experienced the selection process.
Yesterday my mother, an aunt and myself rode a purple chartered bus to Cincy to see the The Color Purple on the stage. I cried through most of it and when I wasn't crying I was laughing. I haven't reread the book since it first came out in the early 80s...through my tears it hit me just how powerful a story it is about love...the triumph of love...no matter how horrendous we experience living, our souls are always seeking to move toward love, to become love.
Three days each week will be devoted to being in the workshop.
Today was devoted to working on the grid. The grid is balance, predictability, calming...but then I thought about my grandmother and great grandmother who where huge bingo fans...they could work the grid of bingo cards about 15-20 at a time and still keep an eye on me playing at the most 5 which kept me hopping. After I was old enough to drive, I inherited the duty of taking them to bingo which meant I eventually was drafted to stay versus dropping them off and coming back to pick them up. I don't know what is happening currently, but bingo halls had the best fried fish sandwiches! The fish sandwich was a pay off for staying with them. I have a bead that is a blue fish...I might add it onto this grid which will be moderately beaded when it is near complete or completed.
The above thoughts came to me while sewing the grid and playing with the beads for this piece...one audition reminded me of loads of bingo chips on a card. I really don't know what it all means other than these where the thoughts I had and I wanted to get them written down. Bingo is anything but calm and I want to lean toward the grid being calming and balanced...
