You Old Sew (#16) and Sew (#17)

Sew (#16)

Another day of sewing interspersed with errands, including a foray to Joann's to buy nearly $100 worth of fabric. (Merry Christmas to me.) Details, details:

Up all night. Strange dreams when I did manage to sleep. When I didn't manage to sleep, I read quilting blogs and looked at quilting videos on YouTube.

Got up and practiced sewing traditional quilt blocks. I'm finding that there's a strict and quiet logic to traditional quilt blocks that doesn't mesh well with my personality. I transitioned to sewing half-log cabin blocks using scraps. Those I liked. I let them go as wonky as they wanted to go and they appreciated that. I made four of them.

Dave came over in the late morning (I was with the pups) and we had lunch (hummus, salad, pita, feta, et cetera) and then I had a shower and got dressed. The lipstick of the day was a "lucky dip" by Dave (meaning he drew it out of the gallon-sized bag that holds all the lipsticks I haven't worn this time around): NYX Matte Lipstick in the shade Tea Rose (mauve-pink, which I'm not sure about on me).

We ran out to Penzey's to buy his sister a small gift and gift certificate. Then we went by Joann's. Then we went by the giant fizzy drink store and bought giant fizzy drinks. Then we went to Whole Foods. Nothing crazy happened at Whole Foods this time around. Yes, we were just there day before yesterday, but Dave wanted to buy some berries because he's making Eton mess to take to his mother's for their Christmas dinner and we didn't want to buy berries too far out from Christmas. Salad for lunch was holding neither of us, so we picked up a couple of slices of stunningly bad, insultingly bad pizza from the deli and ate those in the car.

We came home, fed all the assorted animals, and then made our own dinner (bean and cheese nachos with avocado and sour cream) and ate while watching another episode of The Great British Baking Show.

After, Dave went back to the casita to relax and I sewed some more. I sewed until I couldn't see straight and then I went to bed.

#17:

I was up in the night, a few hours after going to sleep. Sigh.

I got online and read more quilting blogs and followed one down a rabbit hole to the work of an amazing quilter named Freddie Moran. Her website is here. I found a small handful of videos of her online (she apparently doesn't like being filmed while working) and a lot of photos of her stunningly beautiful quilts. I ordered a book she wrote and another by a quilter with whom she collaborates frequently, Gwen Marston. I watched a few videos of Marston working, too, building up my quilting vocabulary, so to speak. They both do a kind of quilting that is often called "intuitive quilting." It basically uses a handful of techniques that are tangentially related to traditional quilting and a color palette that would make most traditional quilters feel woozy. But in the end, they have these dizzying quilts that I like very much. So I decided to go off in that direction.

I finally fell asleep again around after a few hours and was up a bit before 7:00. I fed the dogs, made a cup of coffee, and started sewing. To warm up, I sewed a traditional quilt block using half-square triangles, then I started experimenting with some intuitive quilting techniques. I sewed a linear border made of triangles, then I sewed a trio of houses. It takes me hours to put things together, most of that time being wrestling with decisions about fabrics and having to get past the thought of cutting all my beautiful new fabric into tiny pieces that may or may not work out. (I know it sounds strange, but every artist knows that sometimes materials get too precious to be put to use. Which is an insane idea, because that's what art supplies are for, to be used.)

I remember years ago reading something from Annie Dillard about writing. I don't remember her exact words, but her advice for writers was to essentially go for broke each time, to never hold anything back for another time. (I've heard Ze Frank say the same thing.) Each time you start out, trust that the ideas will generate other ideas as you use them up. And most of the time, that happens. That happens with writing, with art, with everything.

Later:

We ran errands all afternoon (co-op for last minute things, the studio for pottery to give as gifts, home, the giant fizzy drink store) and then came home and I started making pinto beans and vegetarian posole (which Dave finished so I could sew some more).

Dave went off to meet his mom and sister to drive around and look at luminarias. I stayed home and babysat the posole and took a shower (today's lipstick was not a lipstick but a plain lip balm from Badger Balm) and then sat down to sew some more.

When he came home, we both went out to look at the lights and luminarias. Then we came home and had posole and gingerbread cookies for dinner. Then, you guessed it, I went back to sewing.

It's almost 11:00 p.m. and I'm absolutely knackered now, already hunkered down in bed with the pups. I'm ready for a slew of YouTube videos and then sleep.

Merry Christmas Eve!