Slowly But Surely In February. . .

Whew!  What a month this has been!  And this one piece, due by the end of the month, is finally coming together!  Above you can see my cut circles, the front of one yo yo and the embellished back of another, and a smattering of supplies.

Toying with the concept of my memories of fundraising for a variety of causes with my mother, who was involved with tons of them, was what first led me to the idea of "March of Dimes" for my February TIF piece.  As I said a while back, my own concept of the year's challenge pieces will be to complete in the present month, a piece themed for the succeeding month, so that by December, I'll have come full-circle and will be working on a January-themed piece.  But how to make the March of Dimes concept into a visually interesting and appealing piece was a huge challenge, that many times I thought of over-throwing for something else altogether.  Then it came to me - - yo yos.  The quilting kind.

But what to do with them?  So I cut the circles, hoping for inspiration to strike in the process.

Give the piece 2 right sides, then display it creatively when finished.  OK, then the yo yo side will be one front, and the circle side will be the other.  How to make this interesting . . . embellish the circle side before gathering it into the yo yo . . . OK! 

My work almost always starts as a means of illustrating a theme or a concept.  Sometimes there's a clear idea of how I'll proceed from start to finish, and in these cases, I just do it.  Other times, the piece develops more or less by itself.  In this case, it usually begins with a choice of material and/or colors.  Usually colors first, then materials, but sometimes it's the other way around.  At this point, a thought on general design is considered . . . very general, and very flexible.  Then I start working with the materials, and they tell me what to do next, what to keep and what to throw away, and always, they lead me toward completion.  So there you have it.  Sometimes I am my own art director, and sometimes I am directed by my stuff.  Usually it's a combination of both.

The next few TIF posts will come quickly over the next couple of days, so keep close to my blog if you're interested in how this develops.  Now that I know where I'm off to, I'll be spending hour upon hour getting there, so this will seem to come to a rapid completion. 

One last note:  It will not be an "in-the-box" yo yo quilt.  It will be mixed-media with possible elements of collage and maybe even a painterly technique or two.  Off I go. . .

Comments

[Barbara]

You have my attention!!!!

[Deb Fair]

Barbara: I am liking this idea a lot. Looking forward to seeing it finished.

[Meg]

This is a great piece and has a lot of movement to it. its also very cheery, and I think it expresses the feeling of contrbution to a cause you believe in.