Monday, August 07, 2006

Information Please

Craig's List is a listing by regions, states, countries, of all sorts of things for sale or the passing of information. If you go to the groups part, you will see artists and there are interesting things listed there.

I like to use Misty Fuse for my fusing. You can order it directly from Esterita Austin or get it in many quilt shops.

In order to use Misty Fuse, which does not come with a backing paper, you will need teflon sheets for fusing. You can get it by the yard, either 18" wide or 36" wide. I have 3 yards of the 36" and 3 yards of the 18", each cut into two pieces. That is available from Valeria Hearder.

For more information on the arts part of art, a good book is Nita Leland's newly updated The New Creative Artist.. Her Color Book is also excellent.

That's all my information for the day.

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Information as requested

Let's see, Michelle would like to know how to get on the QuiltArt list. Be careful of what you wish! When you sign up, be sure to sign up for the digests...you will get about 10 per day which beats getting 250 individual emails! Go to www.quiltart.com and you can sign up to see what is going on. Do not despair when the talk moves to Jack russel Terriers or cats and their hairballs or cats in the studio or cats eating pins, or cats whatever...can you tell that I am not a cat lover? I like big dogs.

My satin stitching...I got tired of trying to vary the satin stitch on my top of the line Pfaff which I love for everything else but not its satin stitch. Years and years ago I had had a Singer Athena which had a dial control for the width which made it very easy to change the width of the stitch. With my Pfaff the width would jump down in 1 mm increments which wasn't what I wanted.

So I went to my favorite store, The Sewing Machine Shop, in Walnut Creek, CA and sat down at many Berninas, Pfaffs, New Homes and then the Janome 6500. I had already been interested in the Janome 6500 because of the larger harp area and I wasn't that happy with my Juki whatever it was numbered. The Janome did a better satin stitch for me and I can make infinite adjustments to it...not with a dial but with a push button.
Then, just a month ago, I upgraded to the 6600 which is better yet! And, it does all of the stitches that I want and "only" costs $1500. So now I have to sell the 6500 which I will post on Craig's list when I get a chance.

I am currently going through some adjustments in my life. My father is rapidly losing weight as he is not eating due to the appetite suppressant effect of cigarettes and alcohol. I have tried to get someone in to the house to be with him as he lives alone but this is a no-go...I was directed to get "all those people out of his house." His health is rapidly declining and I am his primary caretaker. A year and a half ago his macular degeneration had reached the point that he was legally blind and could no longer drive. I have been taking him out weekly to run his errands and to pay his bills. But now, things are going downhill very rapidly. I am watching closely to see when I need to actually start staying at his house instead of mine. But, he is in God's hands and there is nothing I can do about his situation other than to be sure that he is comfortable and receives the appropriate medical care. I share this with you not for sympathy but simply to share with the world...why, I have no idea. We can both use your prayers!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Critiques and the QA list

Well, Lisa Call suggested having reviews that actually reviewed the work...not just nicey-nicey things and of course, the list has been all over the place. Not being one to keep quiet, I posted the following:

"There is a big different between a critique and criticism. A critique takes an honest look at a piece of art and points out the strong points and the weak points. The idea is to determine if changes need to be made to make it a better piece of art. Criticism just finds fault with whatever and doesn't say anything positive.However, neither one belongs on this list as this list, as much as everyone would like to believe it, is not really made up of serious artists.

Many on this list make things from patterns. Many on this list have never made a real art quilt. Many on this list are crafters. And none of these are bad or wrong but just at a different place than serious artists. When most of the list does not understand the elements and principles of design, a critique would not mean anything since those are discussed.

Our group is made up of people who want to be artists, who think they are artists but don't understand the art part, those who are artists but work at it as a hobby, and professional artists who work all the time at it, whether they feel like it or not and do all the business work to book. Given that most of the list did not sign up for an art class that includes a critique, too many people would have their feelings hurt.

For example, look what happens when we discuss who is an artist? We get into discussions about how everyone is an artist! We are in a feel-good society where everybody and everything is accepted and we are all politically correct!"

so much for my two cents' worth!
PS.
This is fun! I post this on the QA list and within 5 minutes I get two responses. How come no one every responds when I tell them I have put pictures of my new work up?