Melanie Testa

big sigh of relief.

Let me tell you, it feels good to be printing for no one but myself. It feels good not to be working under a deadline. It feels good to take a break in the middle of the day and feel no guilt what-so-ever. It feels good to leave the house. It feels good to write a blog post. I have been busy. I miss the commeraderie and interaction that blogging provides. I miss saying, ‘Hey, this is what I am up to.’

Big deep sigh.

MellyforGenQ

 

I am happy to say, I have a few articles available through our favorite quilting magazines-I will be posting about two others later in the week.

This quilt was featured in Gen Q magazine. I love this quilt, as I dyed, surface designed and printed every piece of fabric within it. This quilt taught me to cut into and use my own hand printed cloth (again-this seems to be a lesson that I need to relearn periodically).

In my ideal world, I would not have a stash of fabric, though I do. I continue to whittle it down, as was my intention when I made this quilt. But, I do not like the concept of stashing, I would much rather know what I have on hand and use it before hand printing and storing, additional goods. For many years, I printed cloth, in loose repeat, using a plethora of techniques and tools, all of this cloth has been stored in the cabinets you see behind my workbench and in some other boxes not photographed for this post.

Rather than use the cloth, I immersed myself in learning other techniques, and I moved the cloth from one house or apartment to another. I would take the cloth out, now and again, and sift through it, wondering what I might do with it. I don’t know where the disconnect lay. Perhaps I felt, that because I designed the tools to print with, printed the cloth, washed and admired it, it was ‘too good to be cut into’. But if this is the theory, then that says that I am unsure I can print more cloth that will satisfy me as much.

And I know this is not the case.

So, I have begun whittling down my stash of hand printed cloth, making quilts with it, and then printing more cloth. This is purposeful. This suits my intentions and space needs much better!

I hope you like the quilt too.

 

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Comments

  1. I love this quilt. I even bought the magazine that it is in so I could look at it whenever I wanted. Its bright cheery colors and the fact that it is 100% Melly made, makes me love it more. Your new work area is looking good, once I could make my eyes look beyond the drying rack of cloth. Something that I have learned about myself that I think you can relate to is that I like the process. The end result is nice and I like making things out of my cloth, but I LOVE the process of dyeing, printing, designing new stamps, stencils, and the list goes on. I am now doing more of that process in my sketchbook (thanks largely to your books). It isn’t as satisfying as working with cloth, but it keeps me creating even when I can’t get into the messy stuff. Sending huge hugs to you, your Man, and Peach!!!

  4. Just beautiful! I’m glad you have been able to print for yourself again. It is a wonderful feeling! Your art space looks great!

  5. Enjoy your lack of deadlines, but congrats on meeting them and all that you have accomplished! I have also been trying to use up some of my ever growing stash, but confess that making a quilt is much more of a project than my short attention span can handle… but I have found a lot of other ways to use it. Maybe by spring I will have made enough of a dent in it that I can get back to making more fabric! Meanwhile, I must go find the magazines with your new articles!