(Technical problem may be the wireless router....not sure yet)
I've heard it said that everyone is an artist. Interestingly
enough I don't feel like I have an artistic bone in my body....however....I am
very creative.
When it comes to messes, I have noticed that my creativity
is very messy and I tend to think that an artist would have a purposeful mess. Maybe I’m just splitting hairs here….maybe not….I’ll
let you decide.
Take for instance Mary Jane, my late girlfriend. She did
have some piles, 99% of them were project based and in her sewing room. The projects typically had a container that
could be put someplace so it could be easily found. I always loved that about her. She had an engineer’s mind and lots of
artistic abilities. The yardage of
fabric in her stash frequently contained hand written on the salvage: the name
of the fabric line, yardage she had purchased, store it was purchased from
along with the price and sometimes the date as well.
My brand of creativity is free floating and typically uncontained I have a mess makers mind and it can be a
struggle to find the right container to hold my projects or even find my supplies sometimes. Recently I wanted to punch more hexagons....do you think I could find my hexagon punch? Nope!!! I looked high and low and still no punch. The good news is that Mary Jane and I each had a punch and I knew right where her punch was....in a labeled container!
The engineer in her had put all the fabric she was using along with scissors, needles, thread and the punch to work on her project. Contained artistry....something I have yet to master. However....I am making progress :)
This is what you can currently find sitting in front of my sofa. A re-purposed container from Costco filled with lots of tiny zip lock bags holding my various hexagons. To be really fancy, I have Aaron's discarded pencil box from elementary school to hold my punched hexagons and fabrics cut to size to be assembled later....my travel kit if you will. None of this stacks neatly anywhere...but do I spend my time in the isles of a department store looking for the right size container or do I make do with what I have? My creative mind says... make do and save your money for more important things. See how I think? More like a mess maker than an engineer...the struggles we face...ROFL.
I really like the well engineered discarded pencil case because it is so easy to take along with me where ever I go. Last week it traveled to the snow hill....this week to a few doctors appointments...my well contained little mess.
A small digression.....At last month's guild meeting , my girlfriend Barb brought her English paper pieced project and it is absolutely beautiful.
English paper piecing seems to be all the rage and there are many people doing amazing works of art. After seeing Barb's piece I began thinking about all those little hexagons I have put together over the years...another mess brewing!!!
You see when I learned to do English paper piecing it was with small little hexagons...
yep.....the size of a nickle. Mary Jane taught me and that was the size she was using at the time. Naturally I had no idea that hexagons could be different sizes or that I could put 1/2 hexies with diamonds and triangles in with the hexagons...not a clue. Mary Jane thought I needed a car project to keep my hands busy during those long trips between Ohio and Pennsylvania so I set about making hundreds if not thousands of little hexagons. With no planned project I just kept stitching those tiny little fells and over the years I now have a tote bag full.
I began organically piecing all my hexagons together....letting the "story" unfold.
Some are put together by theme or fabric....I do love the little girl at the bottom of this one....with her legs kicking up to the side...cracks me up.
Another cute piece I like...where will they fit in? The mystery will continue to unfold as I go along.
A larger piece here....just adding as I go.
This is the current size of my "mess" with several other larger pieces I have yet to stitch on. I hope when you click on this photo it will enlarge because I gave a monkey a bikini top.
Artists...I
tell myself...know the direction they are headed, they have an idea in
their mind and they set out to bring that picture or project into
being. My creative mess makers mind sees all these nickle size hexagons
and thinks....just start and let each speak to you and add them as you go.
If you have started any of these English paper piecing projects....I'd love to see and hear about them. Are you an artist or a creative mess maker?
Giggles and Smiles,
Kelly
