I think I've finally worked through my binding problems/frustration. I made three placemats (there's a fourth but I ran out of fabric) with mitered binding. Only had to take the first one apart twice before I got it right; the third I seem to have nailed on the first try.

Now for the excitement of whipstitching the binding to the backs. :P Need more TV on DVD...

Next up: Mitered border strips. I plan to run through some practice pieces--maybe pillows?--with borders the width of my Journal Quilt borders so it's automatic when I attach them for real.

I guess that's my over-arching goal this year: basic workmanship. It's not something I paid much heed to 5-8 years ago when I was making a lot of pieces, and after three years of machine sewing hiatus seems like a good time to pick it up.

Finished!

Marvin Harrison sequined flag!

History here.

I should not try to paint images of human beings onto fabric.

Pictures when it dries...maybe. I started my 2007 Journal Quilt tonight; I have to check the rules to see if I can post pics of it in progress.


Not any further on the mitering, either, which is what I really want down cold for the Journal Quilt. It seems so f-ing simple! Why don't my fingers work!?!

Work in Progress--Marvin

Side borders complete, except for corners. That's two weeks' worth of progress (the blue is three complete seasons of Red Dwarf). I need to find a faster hobby.

There aren't really enough expletives to cover mitered bindings.

Art and Taste

Wow. It’s been over five years since I first read Paul Graham’s essay “Taste for Makers.” I think that was the first time I ever saw the connections between math/science/engineering and art. Well, back when there were still aesthetic standards for art. I came across the essay again today rather accidentally, but it was good! I'm all fired-up again like I was five years ago.

Speaking of aesthetics and taste, a more recent Graham essay explains "How Art Can Be Good."

Thinking on this bit:

Most adults looking at art worry that if they don't like what they're supposed to, they'll be thought uncultured. This doesn't just affect what they claim to like; they actually make themselves like things they're supposed to.

Another art quote

A whole essay, actually, by Roger Kimball in The New Criterion, entitled "Why the art world is a disaster"

Money graf:

Since skill is no longer necessary to practice art successfully, the only things left are 1) appropriate subject matter (paradoxically, the more inappropriate the better) and 2) the right politics.

Art quote

People who think of videos as an art form are probably the same people who think Cabbage Patch Dolls are a revolutionary form of soft sculpture.

-- Frank Zappa