So I Took Up Quilting...

So this is it. The blog I decided to write.

Because.. well mainly to see if I could really. I thought if others were doing it, then well, why not me too. And it bugged me, not knowing HTML and the hows and ins of actually getting something into cyberspace. I consider myself pretty technologically aware, but had no idea about the basics, like how to create a logo and add it to a blog, how to upload pictures with the correct pixel size, blah, blah, blah.

The boys

So here it is. Deciding what to write about was a little difficult too. You see, I’m not really a writer, I'm more a visual artist and would rather create a picture of something than literally describe it.This blog is to be a journal of my creative endeavours and a witness to the destructive natures that oppose them; the ying and yang of creation and destruction, Jehnny (me, the creator) and the boys(the destroyers) in one household. Because where there is creation there will also be destruction.

The idea of the dual nature of creation/destruction was something I have dealt with as an anthropologist and totally as a mom, so it seemed a natural theme. Also, it meant that I could blog about practically anything and have it fit with the theme of the blog.

So in my creating I took up quilting. In my search of how to start quilting, I happened upon some talks from the Modern QuiltCon on Craftsy. On one of the videos, Jacquie Gering talked about how her family were "makers" and that resonated with me because when I thought about so were mine. 

My parent’s house runs like continuous episodes of some home renovation TV show- they are constantly changing, updating or building something. Not to mention the other crafty things they’ve done.

I, by nature am drawn to creating too. My media of first choice has always been painting, mostly with oils, more recently with chalk pastels. By the medium that I liked did not work with motherhood, or more specifically with having boys. Oil paint is waaaay too easy to make a lasting mess with. Alizarin Crimson, or any other hue of oil paint is a potent, permanent, and contagious paint that easily makes its way onto everything white or stainable. And oil paints take forever to dry, which means a larger window of time for small hands to touch, smear and inevitably transfer paint to every surface of the house. Ditto for every other artistic medium I tried.

Really, this blog might rival the one, you know, that has all the stuff that kids have wrecked. I literally could have written that blog and provided all the pictures and examples of destructiveness it needed. And then there was the fact that not only were my sons emptying bottles of paint onto everything and spreading it everywhere (expensive tubes of paint, I might add), but everything I created was given their (as in the boys) own personal touch. I mean EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE of art that I tried to create. 

 Yellow flowers on the landscape are not my addition. 

Red and grey blobs on the bottom of an unfinished piece- not mine either.

Scribbles all over... you get the idea.

I needed to create, but I needed to work with something that wouldn’t break, stain or require hours and bottles full of chemicals to clean. That’s when I started getting into quilting. I’m not sure how it happened, but it happened. And I don’t need to tell you that once you get that first hit of fabric buying, you are forever chasing that Amy Butler (or fill in your favourite) high for the rest of your life.

So the switch from paint to fabric hasn’t been less expensive, but I thought, how can my boys possibly wreck fabric.

Scissors. 

That’s how you wreck fabric. But still, no mess to clean up. At least not a big one.

Wrong. 

I highly underestimate the destructive force that resides in our house. It takes the form of a small middle child, who resembles the cartoon Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Waterson, in looks and demeanor.

So yeah, my son has combined both my hobbies. Somehow he found a bottle (or two) or craft paint.

He layered it with playdough on the floor, just because..

  Yep, that’s paint dripping down the bin of recently purchased fabrics.

 And, yep, that’s my sewing machine.

And, why yes, he did dip a scrap piece of fabric in paint and then attempt to run it through my (and my sister`s) sewing machine. And, not shown, he did manage to get paint on a quilt. So now the quilt is his, not to be given away as was planned. Of course.

So there it is, my transition to quilting is complete. Created and destroyed as per usual.