January Moby

For Chapter 133: The Chase – First Day
“There she blows!—there she blows! A hump like a snow-hill! It is Moby Dick!”

12 inches x 12 inches
(33 cm x 33 cm)

commercial printed cotton, watercolor and acrylic paint,
metallic and cotton threads, polyester batting

I haven't been keeping the first 132 panels from you for my own selfish reasons. Since I promised myself to make one panel a month for the foreseeable future, and since I realized I was running out of January, I picked up the book again over the long weekend and started reading near the end.

This one is more literal/figurative than the other panels, but I offer as pardon the fact that the book also mixes styles and careens wildly between the abstract and concrete. I'll see how it fits as the series grows. This is the ninth panel in order of creation, 133rd in order of ambition. (One for each chapter, and there are 136 chapters. I won't lack for something to do for quite a long time.)

(note: the brownish bits in the top corners are not the panel but a cardboard under it and my crazy camera 'skills')

January: full moon in Cancer

This is an in-progress shot. The bright red lines are basting, but suggestive of a quilting pattern that I wouldn't have thought of without it. :-)

Dark blue batik with a light blue batik inset. Metallic thread, spiral stitching for the "hollow" moon. There will be beading of some kind. I looked at white and silver bugle beads, but that was before I stitched the moon, so I'll have to look again and see what might do. I think I have -- somewhere -- some clear iridescent square sequins that might serve. It will finish at 9 by 22 inches [22.5 x 56 cm]. I usually like a binding, but maybe not for this one -- or for the series. And, I think, a decorative hanger of some kind rather than a sleeve. Maybe a stout twig and some satiny upholsterer's rope.

According to some general moon lore, the full moon in January is called the wolf moon, the cold moon, the winter moon, and the snow moon, among other evocative things. We did have snow here -- not the 7 to 8 inches threatened by the forecasters, but enough to more than glaze the ground, and certainly enough to demand some shoveling.

Full moon in Cancer -- this was a more poignant beginning than I expected when I decided on this series. The full moon was yesterday, the 10th, which was also my father's birthday. He died of pancreatic cancer in June 2007. Yesterday was hard for my Mom. Her grief seems to expand with time rather than abate. I honestly can't imagine what she feels -- they were married for almost 59 years -- but my heart aches for her.

fun

A new you in the New Year?

for your space pirate name:
http://spacepirate.org/rogues.php

for your Steampunk name:
http://brassgoggles.co.uk/brassgoggles/steampunk-re%3Esources/steampunk-name-generator

I also knew of a drag queen name generator [Barb Wyre, anyone?] but whilst searching for it I got a mad flurry of "malicious code" messages and so shut down for a few moments and hoped that would resolve things somewhat. It seems to have, but one never knows for sure about these things, does one?

low on toner

We all know how that can be.

Up on other things, though.
I've been wanting to try making fabric mosaics, and I think I may take advantage of the upcoming FiberArts for a Cause fundraiser to give it a go. Yesterday, whilst flipping through magazines, I had a cheery little idea that involves childlike drawings of houses and bright colors that I think would support a series/edition of 10.

What?
Yes. I did say "colors" and also "bright colors."
Yes, you're in the right blog -- home of the queen of "is this white too . . . vibrant?" Sometimes I even surprise myself.
So anyway, I'm all excited and will now go Act on My Excitement. But I knew you'd want to be the first to know. . .

and now for something completely different

It's January 3rd, and I have missed the first deadline of the New Year. Huzzah! I may send it anyway, if I FedEx on Monday, it'll only be a day late.

be it resolved

These are my general resolutions:
1. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
2. One thing at a time.

Whilst cleaning, always cleaning, and sorting and organizing, I've found that I have enough fabric and eceteras to open a small store. I knew this already, but not to this degree. I have so much stuff that I've buried essential things and bought another one to serve in the moment because that was faster -- and, seemingly at the time -- more efficient than burrowing around to find the original. Also, the stress of always having to clear space, physical space, before being able to get something started and finished, is taking a toll. So -- reduce, reuse, recycle. This is part of the heritage of quiltmaking, after all.

In 2008, I explored entering reader challenges and making things in response to online prompts (Illustration Friday, Inspire Me Thursday, and such like). I thought it might be fun, but ultimately it was not and it took energy away from things that are more intrinsically interesting to me. Also, the seduction of shiny, untainted new projects is impeding continuing and finishing the things already underway. So -- one thing at a time.

More specifically, I plan to do at least two pieces each month -- one for the ongoing Moby Dick project, the other a moon panel. The moon panels are ever-so-slightly more frequent than once a month, but the Blue Moon is in December and I should have sufficient stamina by then to get it done. And I want to be more inner-directed in what other projects come up.

And that's about it. Modest goals, to be sure, but manageable.

Oh, and lose 100 pounds by Tuesday ;-)

there's always tomorrow

oh no.
no, no, no, no, no.
please, no.

scooting around, checking in with all your lovely blogs and all your lovely New Year's wishes, I find that way too many of you are resolved to one-a-days of various kinds.

oh! the pressure!

And what is this "word for the year" thingummy that has popped up in both Natalya's and Nina's blogs? This is okay, I'm down with words, as you may have noticed, and here's mine courtesy of my deck of angel cards:
but I am not a one-a-day girl. I'm just not. Honest.
I have too tried.

I am resoved to be more productive, but precisely what that means is not yet clear to me.
Aw, come on.
It's only January 1st. Even the Feds have the day off.

In general, I'm more in tune with this bit from the great humanist philosopher Oscar Wilde:
"Good resolutions are simply checks that men draw on a bank where they have no account."
(quoted on the Writers Almanac)

Hear, hear.
And here endeth the whine of the day.
Waiter! Check, please.