Cheering myself up!

 2023 was not a happy year for many people on the planet.

There were suddenly 3 wars raging: in Israel & Gaza, in the Ukraine (badly upstaged by the Middle East situation), & the smoldering civil (or uncivil) war in the USA. I know there are more. Tensions between China & Taiwan come to mind, for example. This elder grows weary with war & worries about climate & concerns about friends, family or self getting sick &/or dying.

A woman who is 83.5 needs to self-regulate so she doesn't just .f.o.l.d.

So, as I started out organizing myself to do another blog entry, I got to reflecting on what my latest work looks like. It's bright & cheery. The colors are sweet & bubbly. This is a place where I have gone to give myself some relief from the front page of the newspaper & other sources of not-great news.

And so here goes. I thought I start with showing you some of the things I braked for photographically speaking. And the link some of the things I captured for inspiration with what ensued.

I want to share with you the images-- just a few of many--in the last year, that I have braked for & photographed.

 

So there are some images I capture which leave a lasting impression on my mind & work. This triangle study in a quilt-design workshop has inspired many of my efforts. 

 

Here's one recent one called Fiji Fish, after our trip to Fiji.

From that same workshop this study also got flagged.

And this year I finally had a go at it. The results, for me, seemed stilted, not with the flair I wanted.

No matter, that's how it is in life. Picasso once said to his dealer, "I sometimes paint fakes!" 

Really, it's a true story.

Squared Off

This image had a big impact. I liked the intensity of the stripes & all the drip-dots.

So what followed

Bee, Bop & Spots

Leaf Pile          &       Festive Fall

The quilt on the left was made from the scraps from the one on the right.

Two others:

3-Color Graphic

Polka Dot Fizz

This "ruler knot" was another thing that fascinated me. 

It was absolute hell to piece! Heavens knows why, I just had to really struggle to get my head around it, even though it looks very straightforward on graph paper. But I did't want my effort to look mechanical.

That was followed by two ways of executing a 2nd try

 

In Honolulu I spotted this marvelous old lace collar which had been embedded in paper pulp.

So when I came into some old linens these two projects erupted, one with lace doilies crocheted as the collar above.

This first one is based on expressions my parents often said, but which you rarely hear any more. These out-date expressions are like the outdated linen tea-table-cloth on which the expressions are written.

Gee whizz, not up to snuff, in three shakes of a lamb's tail, knee-high to a grasshopper, etc.

The other is from square 4 doilies mounted on a tea table cloth. It's not finished yet because it turned out to be hell to quilt-- white-on-white with off-white thread. I realize my eyes are dim!

I also made a few small quilts that seemed to be about neighborhoods. They have a map feeling to me.

So New Road, New Neighbors  & the End of a Rural Farming Area!

&

Another Housing Project

When I went to visit with my sister Lynne this fall she liked this quilt, do I made her one like it.

I did have a lot of cheerful fun with these. I call them Roads Interrupted.

In December I took a lantern-making workshop with Julie Paschkis whose marvelous crow & Friendship posters are at the top of this blog entry. I was very taken with her lantern king.

So, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, I made a Quilt Queen lantern & then a Mother Moon.

Finally, the seeds of my next project are on my wall, waiting for me to free up some time. It's in the same cheerful zone I am so needing, wanting & feeling drawn to these days.

 

I sign off with me in Honolulu, bedecked in a lei & very amused with this wine-like cosmic joke.

That's it for now.

PS. My apologies for not identifying all the artists who have inspired me. Sometimes I am too rushed to get it down, sometimes too lazy. I know I am a Bad Girl in this way. Pat O'Hara did the fine Zig Zig painting at the top. And Julie I have acknowledged. That I know. Otherwise mea culpa.