A month of tiny projects

Vacation cottage

It's been a few years since I made this little quilt of our cottage at Jensen's in Captiva, FL. The piece was part of a month-long project I'd forgotten about. But this morning, as I was searching my files for an old poem, I stumbled on a how-to piece I'd saved. I liked what it said. Then it dawned on me that of course I liked it -- I wrote it! It's about my month of tiny projects. Finding it has inspired me to do the same thing this summer.  Here it is:

I was drowning in a sea of ideas, techniques and materials to explore.  Then I tried a month of tiny projects. At the beginning I was a wanderer; at the end, people were calling me an artist. Working hard every day for a month without thinking too much about perfection gave me speed, discipline, and freedom to integrate my creative self. If you too feel fractured, try this.

It began one morning as I looked out my studio window while it was still dark. The full moon floating behind the pecan tree was so beautiful that I gasped. Right then I decided to make art every day for a month, starting with the pecan tree and moon.

Pecan tree and moon

Here’s the process:

Pick a schedule. Mine was a piece a day, but it could be weekly or even monthly.

Pick a theme. Mine was gratitude. I expected something amazing every day for my subject. Other themes might be: a dream a day, or a world event, or a visit to a new neighborhood or fresh piece of your city. Alternatively, you could be inspired by the same place (or person) over and over, noting subtle daily changes. Or make art based on the day’s recipe, or prayer, or confusion, or memory, or your first thought of the day. I want to make art about my evolving definition of God. Choose anything you want to explore. Don’t worry too much at this point.

Limit your size and/or materials. I decided to make 6 ½-inch squares that would be quilted – three layers that would have a muslin base and batting, with the top varied. For many I used the sewing machine. You could just as easily make a larger piece each day – say, every day’s work would involve some material you found in nature, like a branch or feather; or it could be based on a daily foot-square rubbing of some part of your neighborhood’s surface.

List techniques you want to explore. I was forever jamming the printer when I tried to copy a photograph onto fabric, so I wanted to master that machine! I also wanted to try out different ways of writing on fabric, and to work in three dimensions, and to alter fabric with stamps and markers and paint, and to make new surfaces from old materials, making faces, and to freely collage with fabric. And practice free-motion quilting.  You could explore color all month, or line, or another element.

List your inspiration. My inspiration was the poet A.R. Ammons, who said,

"Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful."

List references as you find them. I bookmarked web sites and put pertinent books and magazines in a special spot on the shelf. I saved only the most helpful web sites. As I learned to print on fabric, I explored many, but one was most helpful.

Be easy. I let a few days go blank. I needed some space to write about the pieces and write a poem. But I didn’t stop, not even while we took a week’s vacation at the beach. I packed small pieces of fabric and a tiny sewing kit that included glue, scissors, and muslin squares. Every day I worked on a picnic table outside our cottage.

Pretend you are not in charge. Let the day tell you what your subject is. The day we drove to Captiva Island had plenty of inspiration: the long trip, meeting old friends, and seeing the lovely Gulf of Mexico. But at 10 p.m., as a group of us were finishing a late dinner at a restaurant, we were shocked by a frightening flash, and then the island went dark. Naturally, this blackout was my subject, trumping all the other highlights of the day.

After it’s all finished, look for trends. What are your colors, lines, subjects? Much to my surprise, I didn’t use yellow! I seem to love layers and texture. I write messy. I want to explore printing. 

I want to do this again.