Where the Walls Have Eyes, Part 13

Where the Walls Have Eyes, Part 13

This part took so long to complete! Wahhhh! I took hundreds of photos along the way, and it has taken me a while to narrow it down a bit.  And, it is still too many photos for one post, so I will be making two posts about the building.

It is all hand sewn, like the prototype. Every seam is a different color.  Some of the seams have 2 squares, some have 3, and some have 4.  As expected the ones with 4 pieces being combined in a single seam were the most difficult physically.  I am pushing a needle through 4 quilted pieces while it is threaded with 6 strands of embroidery floss. Chonky! 

And, trying to remember the orientation of the thing while it is rotated many times during stitching. I selected one face (the front), and put a safety pin in it, to ease my confusion. There are also a number of different color patterns INSIDE the cube, that were a bit cumbersome to remember. 

The first row is completed, and now I move on to those even more tricky seams with 4 pieces at a time. After the first one, I wanted to quit! 

I am starting to get the hang of it! More rows on the first layer! I am also learning that the hand sewing is very stressful to my hands. And it tweaks my tendons, so I started doing hand therapy and getting out the forceps to pull the needle most of the time.

But, I did not. Breaks and rest time are a crucial part of this project! Here is the complete first layer. Every little interior cube will have 4 walls, a floor and a ceiling. The little interior cubes will share their walls, and floors and ceilings with adjoining little cubes. The beautiful colors and threads kept me going!

My stash of embroidery floss.  I had no idea when I started how much thread I would need.  I ended up shopping for more thread about 4 times throughout the project. 

I also changed the color scheme before I started. I liked the aqua blue so much better than the navy blues, that I opted to have all the external sides the brighter and lighter blue. I worked out the math because the entire structure was envisioned with a different set of colors, which were made to order. And, with a few modifications, I was able to make the change. I am so glad I did. I absolutely LOVE the aqua color on the outside.  

I also preplanned the layout of the external sides, to make sure that I was able to both have enough pieces, and that I could arrange those pieces in a pleasing layout.

You can see some of the missing pieces above, which shows how far along I was when I took this photo! 

On to the next level!

And flipped over...

And looking through some holes...

These process photos of looking in the holes before the 'ceilings' are sewn on, have an abundance of light, which really shows off the wonderful colors.  Once the ceilings are sewn on, this beautiful view gets lost, or maybe I should say, goes private? 

Stay tuned. I will post the rest of the process photos and the final project next week. Nearly there!

Eulogy for my mother, Mary Lou York

Mary Lou York

1940-2024

I loved my mother so much and I am completely overwhelmed now that she is gone. She was my number one supporter in my life and my work. She bought me my first sewing machine and got me started in quilting. She never tired of showing my work to anyone and everyone. And no matter how busy she was, she always had time for me and her grandchildren.

My mom loved dominoes and dancing, cooking and gardening, making money and spending money. She played the piano and was an excellent seamstress. She was always fashionably dressed and perfectly coiffed. She loved to wear beautiful clothes and eat delicious food. She loved to laugh. She loved her friends and her family. She was a real ‘people person’. She adored her grandchildren and she loved her cats. She had a great wit and loved to travel. She was smart and loved to read. She also loved discussing books in her bookclub, even if she didn’t read them, or so I have been told. She worked full time (until the return of the cancer last fall) as a real estate manager and had a savvy business sense that served both herself and her agents well. She was a mentor to so many. She had a generous spirit and loved giving to others, which included people she never met. She volunteered her time and energy to many fundraisers and worked on weekends at the Assistance League of Austin. She loved to cook and host parties in her home. She was resilient and strong. She had a fierce can-do attitude and the agency to follow through.

In the end they said it was the metastatic breast cancer and the fall that killed her. However, without the cancer, she would not have been on the meds that made her bones so fragile, her body so weak, and her balance so bad. Or maybe the cancer did all that? Cancer is a hostile monster of a disease.

Where the Walls Have Eyes, Part 12

Where the Walls Have Eyes, Part 12

I almost did not make this in a 3D form.  I was looking through my second prototype, and I realized that beyond one block in, I could not see most of the work I had done. I could not see the batik, I could not see the satin stitching, I could not see the colors of the blocks, I could not see the colorful threads I would use to sew the blocks together.  All I could see was the hole, and some of the stitching around the hole. (ps. if you are wondering where the eyes are, remember, this view is on the prototype, not the actual project)

I also realized that the parts that I could see were only visible because of the placement of a light above the holes. This would not be the case for the rest of the cube. It would be dark inside.  I bought some fairy lights to light the holes.  I was planning to sew them into the seams, and leave the control boxes on the bottom of the giant cube. Sadly, they did not help much at all. It was disappointing. It felt like all that work was wasted on an idea that didn't work. Utter failure.

And yet, I had all these finished quilted blocks that were so colorful and pretty. I regrouped and tried them on my design wall.

Since I had over 1200 blocks, it completely filled my 8' x 8' floor to ceiling design wall, and I still had over 200 that weren't used.  I opted for a log cabin layout for several reasons. One is that I LOVE the log cabin block, it was the first quilt I ever made. Two the log cabin block references the home.....which is where the loss of privacy is happening on home computers. Of course, this version of log cabin is more reminiscent of courthouse steps in construction, or even square within a square, but those work too. Every white circle you see is a hole. Imagine this sewn together, and hanging some place where you can see people on both sides of the quilt! That would make the physical quilt an illusion of a solid surface, but holes everywhere that prevent privacy. I loved the symbolism of it!!

Also, this layout accommodated the colors of the pieces that were all ready finished.  My original idea of a cube, inside a cube, inside a cube (each being a different color), gave me the right number of pieces to be able to make a flat version of this idea. (Note: I hadn't started cutting out the eyes yet, so there aren't any on these photos, and if I made it flat, I would have decided where to put the eyes, which was also fun to contemplate.)

This lead me to want to be on both sides of the holes, which I could not do with them pinned to the solid design wall. So I took some of the remaining pieces and taped them together with painters tape.  Then I attached it with more tape to my sliding glass door in my studio. I wanted to be on the other side and look through the holes.

Now I could generally see what was on the other side, and as I got closer to the hole, I could see more.

Sorry the lens made the picture on the other side blurry.  It is a car with brake lights on (which means it is one of the few cars that actually stop at the stop sign on this corner!).

Then I went outside and looked in to my studio.

Mostly you see the painter's tape that I used to hold the blocks together. And, the view through the hole is pretty much what you would expect if you stand close to it.  I angled myself to see the iron on my ironing board. 

I was pleased with the results. But it was hard to give up my original idea. I got stuck here for a long time, not willing to proceed with the flat version. And not ready to commit to making the 3D version either.  I decided to be patient with myself. I knew that when the answer came to me, I would be ready to move forward.

And so I waited. Then I looked through the prototype again, without the lights on, and saw once again how dark it was.  That was when I realized that conceptually, I like the idea of loss of privacy on the internet so much better with the darkness, as in the dark web, and the dark scary thoughts of someone constantly trying to hack my into my personal space. It would be okay to leave parts of my project in the dark, and essentially make them private.  With the right technology, and motivation, you could spy into the holes of the cube, but without them, those hidden recesses would be private. YES! 

Time to commit to hand sewing all those very difficult and awkward seams.  Stay tuned, those are coming up on the next post!

Where the Walls Have Eyes, Part 11

Where the Walls Have Eyes, Part 11

I was looking for a way to more literally and visually show the loss of privacy when I remembered this expression.  So I decided to put eyes on the insides of the walls, and ceilings, and floors of the project.

How?

I tried a few things, but this is the one that stuck! (ha ha!)

Mistyfuse (to the rescue again!) on the back of white fabric.  Draw the eyeball with a pencil.  Outline it with the black posca paint pen. Yes, it can leak through the fabric, so I put a magazine under it.

And then cut them out with scissors.

I did not have perfect cutting technique, so after the center circles were cut out, I touched up any of the black edges with the black posca pen.  I used this magazine cover to keep from getting paint on my table.  It used to be a frog...sorry, frog!

There were never enough eyes....

Here's a few of them with the centers cut out, one on a white table background, and one on a green fabric background. 

                                                 

I had fun arranging these shapes into patterns before I used them for my project!

Time to add them to the little quilted squares. All it takes is an iron and a few teflon goddess sheets (so they won't stick to the ironing board cover should there be a slip up). 

I love how the irises of the eyes lines up with the holes in the blocks! Also, these are the fronts of some of the blocks that need eyes, but there were also many times when the backs of the little quilts needed eyes.  

This gets more interesting as I begin to build the blocks into their cubes and you look inside, through the holes, to see eyes there!!!

Next week, the problem with the holes and the eyes, and how I almost didn't build this thing! Stay tuned!

Untitled, Part 10

Untitled, Part 10

It began with a concept, the loss of privacy.

And morphed into a big project.

I started forming a very long list. A list of events, places, and ways to loose privacy. I drew a distinction between ways to loose privacy in public, and ways to loose privacy in your own home where there is supposed to be an expectation of privacy. There are so many privacy losses related to the internet that I knew that was the focus of my project. I had to question: who is doing the 'looking'. Is it friend or foe? It kind of haunts me.

.......Cambridge Analytica, algorthims, hot mics, third party cookies, social media, doxing, hackers, cyberattacks, hot webcams, malware, spyware, data mining, backdoors, trapdoors, the dark web, etc......

I started seeing my computer as a tiny little window that has the potential to let an entire world of unsavory characters into my home. Scary thought!

That started with....wondering if I could build this:

Ah, yes! It works. This was constructed from leftover blocks from previous projects. It is quite structurally stable, but I noticed that the overcast stitch made the pieces slide out of alignment. 

My final project will be a giant cube made up of these tiny cells. Visually my project vaguely reminds me of my first computer, the Apple Macintosh cubey thing. My structure will be composed of 7 x 7 x 7 little cells. I debated about having individual cubes sewn together, or having the little cubes have shared walls. I opted for the shared walls. Also, the big cube structurally references the myriad of links we follow when we are on-line. And the holes in the walls, and ceilings, and floors remind me that if I can look out, someone else can look in.

I also did not know if the little fabric quilts would be able to hand the weight of a BIG cube. Would they collapse in on themselves? So, I decided to build another prototype, a 1 x 7 column. I could stand it up and see if it could handle the weight, and the force of gravity. This also gave me an opportunity to test a different joining stitch for all the pieces. I opted for the ladder stitch. 

This is the bottom, (or the top), with 4 sides attached to the base.  Next, I will fold them up and sew the sides.

Previously, I was only attaching two pieces at a time.  Now, because there is a floor/ceiling on each cube, some of the seams will require attaching 3 pieces at a time. I came up with an altered version of the ladder stitch which worked quilt well.  Unfortunately, I am using 6 strand embroidery floss, which means a needle with a big eye.  And, I am hand sewing through layers of thick quilted blocks, 3 of them. It is physically difficult to have the hand strength to poke all the holes and pull the needle through. I am limited by how much I can do in a day without causing tendon injury.

But, the colors! The colors are fun! And the column is beginning to take shape!

I finished the prototype, and stood it on it's end. Success! It was able to hold the weight easily! Sadly, it was not stable as a single column, but this will not be a problem for the actual project.  All the columns will be sewn together, and they will give each other structural support to not fall over. My questions have been answered by these two prototypes and I can proceed with the actual project! I am also fully aware that the REAL thing will have many, many seams where I am joining 4 little quilts together in a single seam. I am not looking forward to that part!

With all those holes, you are probably wondering what it looks like inside? Yes?

Next week, I reveal the title of the piece, and add the last artistic element that pulls everything together!

Untitled, Part 9

Untitled, Part 9

This week, I show you one of the less glamorous stages of the work, but very necessary.

I have now cut the sections into ONE block wide strips.  From there, each block will be trimmed to a 3"x 3" piece. Keep in mind that each of these blocks is already quilted, cut, and embellished with thread work, a complete LITTLE quilt, if ever there was one! Only, there are a lot more than ONE of these.   In fact, over a thousand!

The rotary cutter makes my shoulders ache. So I limited how much time per day I could work.  Very slowly, all the pieces got cut neatly into little blocks.

After working for so long on this project, it was nice to see the fruits of my efforts, and know that the real work of building the thing was coming soon!

You can also see a bucket in the background.  I kept all the trimmed off edges.  I am not sure why I did that.  Partly to see how much waste the project generated.  And, also, I might use them later in a different piece.  

One more step was to finish the edges of each little block so that the newly cut threads do not unravel into an unsightly mess.  I opted to use Fray check on the edges.  I grabbed a stack of blocks, and applied the glue with a paintbrush to the all the edges of the stack.  Then I quickly peeled them apart and let them dry on freezer paper.  My hands got so sticky. Yuck! And, for those of you who are curious....it took 4 bottles of Fray check to do all the edges.

Here are some stacks waiting to have their edges finished, along with some in the background that are finished and drying. 

Note: Next week, I will talk about the meaning of my project and show you a prototype or two of the build. Cool!! Stay tuned!

Untitled, Part 8

Untitled, Part 8

Finally a title has emerged!! Unfortunately, I am not sharing it with you yet. Ha ha! Sorry!

This stage requires me to deal with a giant mess of tangled embroidery floss. I did not take a photo of the giant pile, but this is what it looked like after I pulled the threads out carefully, one by one. Wahhhh, so tedious and not fun!

I learned to wind yarn around my hand to make skeins back when I was a weaver.  So, I tidied these up the same way.

And, then stored them in color coded boxes, a yellow box for the warm tones, and a blue box for the cool tones. And while this pile of thread looked like a lot to me at the time, I think I purchased embroidery floss at least 4 more times because I never got enough, and a future step required even more and more floss.

Now, I am all set to begin the cut work. I usually cut a small section at a time, 8 to 10 circles, to prevent my hands from getting tired from using the scissors too much. Here I am with some, working out on my deck on a beautiful morning. (Yes, all 1000+ circles were cut with hand held scissors.)

Making thread selections for the hand stitching of the cut holes.

I also discovered that having the blocks in narrow strips, only 2 motifs wide, helped with thread management.  I could attach my thread choices to each block and have work that could go anywhere with me. So I carefully cut all the bigger pieces down.

When I got to the blue ones, there were so many.  Over 700 of these to do.  I wanted to maximize diversity of thread colors with the thread from the satin stitching, the color of the batik, and the color of the background.  So, I made thread color choices in mass.

Here is a sample after stitching.

All the holes...

And, after many months of work, the completed stacks of nearly ready blocks.

I am thinking that it doesn't look like much yet, but in my head, so much wonderfulness, it's hard to contain!

Untitled, Part 7

Untitled, Part 7

note: In case you are wondering, yes, I do have a couple of titles floating around for this project, I just haven't settled on the right one yet.

Meanwhile:

I was a bit concerned that all the tiny repetitive circular free motion quilting (from the last post) would cause injury to my rotator cuffs.  So instead of finishing the quilting on ALL these little pieces, I planned to start the next step at the same time. That way, I could alternate sewing jobs, utilizing different muscles, and hopefully not get a repetitive stress injury.  

The next step is satin stitching the blocks. And, I wanted to use as many different color combinations as possible. So, I got out my thread chart samples and I inventoried my supply. I opted to buy a lot of new thread to extend my stash of threads. It was so fun to have them come in!! This selection is mostly Magnifico from Superior Threads. 

Also, I knew the back sides of the blocks were going to show, so I wanted the thread color on the back to match the thread color on the front. This also meant I had to buy some more empty bobbins, and fill them as I went. I used some Bottom Line (also from Superior Threads) for the bobbins, mostly because I had such a big stash of Bottom Line and also, it works really great in the bobbins and has excellent color choices!

Here's the part where I tried to decide which thread colors to use for each quilted block, trying to maintain a variety of color combinations. I am also very aware that this many color choices will mean that I need to change the thread in my machine frequently. It can be frustrating to have such a demanding muse!

Let the stitching begin! Something about working with these shiny colorful threads paired with the matte finish of the batik blocks was visually satisfying to me. I enjoyed this phase immensely. It was a lot more fun that quilting in a matching thread color.

I also found it easier to turn the quilted pieces under the sewing machine if I trimmed the quilted pages to only 2 squares wide. This will also help out later, for the next round of stitching! Isn't it interesting how the different colors of satin stitching thread make the color of the batik look different? These are all pink batiked squares, but the pinks look different to me depending on the threads surrounding them.

Meanwhile, of note....the satin stitching, especially at the speed I was going, was loud. So, I wore hearing protectors while working.  And part way through the project, my sewing machine broke. I had that machine since about 2008, or maybe before then? It was a low end Pfaff, and I bought it just for satin stitching because of all the machines I tested, it performed the best.  Now, the presser foot was broken, and it just would not work. I opted to buy a new machine instead of waiting the 5-8 weeks turn-around time for a repair. I also did not know if they would be able to make a repair of this nature and had entered a bizarre world of sewing machine repairs previously with my Juki.  I didn't have the heart to go there again. However, I kept my trusty broken Pfaff, thinking I would get it repaired and have a back up, but I haven't done it yet....

The new Pfaff. They don't sell my favorite machine anymore. I was heartbroken. I don't like changes. So, I went on-line, directly to Pfaff, and bought the closest thing they had to my old machine. On the bright side, it came with a needle threader, which I absolutely adore, and it made the numerous thread changes bearable. The day after I bought the machine, it went on sale. Nuts! I called and asked if they would honor the sales price, and refund me the difference? They said YES! Very, very nice of them! Then they sent me a refund for the full price of the machine, and never billed me for the sale price. I tried calling, it took 4 attempts to get through their phone system, but I finally got to speak to a human. I told them what happened and that I still needed to pay for the machine. They thanked me for my honesty, and then, they still never billed me. ??? I really tried to make this right, but ultimately, it didn't happen. So, I got a new free machine, by accident. I would still pay for it, today, if they would give me a way to pay for it. 

Back to the project, I enjoyed working my way through the giant pile of quilting, because the satin stitching was my reward! I also require chocolate, from time to time, to help with the motivation for the huge work load. This was my favorite.