I Can See Clearly Now - Almost

I'm now almost one week past my long-anticipated cataract surgery in my right eye.

I was born with bad eyes. My left eye turned out and was only partially corrected by doing much-hated eye exercises as a child. I was so near-sighted my good vision was about 2" from my face in my left eye and about 4" in my right eye. Way past legally blind. My world was blobs. I learned to read holding my books very close to my face.

This was normal for me. As with anyone who has a different normal, I learned compensations. I hated the thick glasses I had to wear and was very grateful when soft contact lenses were introduced and I could afford their very pricey cost. Even with contacts, my left eye was pretty much useless. I was in the "oh, you poor dear!" category.

That changed about a decade ago when a cataract was discovered in my left eye. Yes! I was young to have a cataract! Following surgery I suddenly had good vision. I could actually watch TV. I finally had depth perception! Although I had contacts for both eyes, I discovered that I could do quite well with only a contact in my right eye and bifocals tuned for my computer distance. Because of the power difference between left and right eye, glasses only were impractical. Think of wearing a lightweight glass for one eye and a very heavy lens on the other! No way! And no need because the contacts did a great job of correcting the vision to about 20/30.

At the time my first cataract was discovered I was told there was a slow-growing cataract in my right eye. My OD watched it and finally told me I was at the point where I needed to consider surgery. Night driving was becoming especially difficult. Streetlights were fuzzy globes. After wending my way through the conflicting medical/vision providers, my opthamologist and I made the decision it was time for cataract surgery.

Most people want to have near perfect distance vision for driving. That wasn't my choice. My right eye was like having an 8x magnifying glass. When I did my handwork or beading all I had to do was bring the work close to my eye and I could see perfectly. I didn't want to lose that! I took in my "Begin" project and told my doctor that I needed to be able to see well enough without any correction to continue that kind of work. We made the decision my correction would be to remain nearsighted.

So the surgery and eye measurements were scheduled. What I hadn't realized was that for a week before the measurements and surgery I would not be able to wear my right eye contact! Oops! I've moaned about the result -- I couldn't see at close distances! The left eye was great for driving in daylight. At night or in rain, the right eye created globes -- no way to drive! No glasses and readers didn't work either. My eyes were constantly at war for near vision. About all I could do was beadwork ... lifting the project to within 4" of my face. Good thing I could spend time learning the peyote stitch!

Surgery was interesting. It's done awake with some kind of anesthesia. I wanted to join the operating room conversation but was told not to talk so there was no chance of my eye moving. Shucks! All I could see was interesting blobs -- and no way to photograph or draw them! Suddenly, a clear view of the operating light. Goodness! I could see!!!!

I have to wait about 3-6 weeks for my final results and new glasses/contacts, however the initial result is just perfect for me (though it freaked out my doctor's assistant when I could barely read the top line of the eye chart). I have perfect 20/20 vision about 12" from my face ... ideal for handwork! My left eye takes over for distance. The blobs are gone and the world is so much brighter! From about 14" to 5' I have some fuzzing ... that's what will be corrected by the computer glasses. Overall, I am thrilled.

For the first time in my life I have something approaching normal vision .... what a joy!

-- Joanna

A Sunday Artist Date

Sunday I had the pleasure of going out with a new frined explore some of southeastern Arizona. My friend is a professional photographer and I've dabbled in photography throughout my life. First we went to the ghost town of Pearce. It's along a major highway and not totally abandoned, but it still meets the definition of a ghost town.

Then we headed to the Chiracahua Mountains and the famed Chochise Stronghold. While I've been by the mountains on a number of occasions, this was the first time I had gone into this section of the Coronado National Forest. It's definitely an area that is off the beaten patch and there were few people around. Perhaps becuase we were flirting with the triple digit temperatures common to our Arizona summer!

There's a wonderful ranch that is now an historic site. This photo captures some of the beauty of this wonderful area.

I was thrilled to get some wonderful photos of texture ... perhaps they will become photo fabric in future projects. What fun!

-- Joanna

The Agony of Learning

If you are accustomed to reading the newest blog posting first, that isn't going to work with this posting sequence. As you'll discover, there is a very specific sequence to these three posts. I'm posting the last first and the first last. So please continue reading!

After starting improvisional bead embroidery and joining the Bead Journal Project I decided it might be a good idea to really learn beading. You know, the kind where the beads are attached to each other without any fabric. That is a skill, incidentally, I've had absolutely no desire to learn my entire life.

I bought a couple books (I'm not going to mention names because I will not recommend them ... at least not for learning!) and pulled out two colors of beads. Then I spent about three hours of total agony to create the top item in the photo. I want to stress that this was total agony! Trying to do this brought me close to tears. If I didn't have a persistence gene that refuses to accept defeat you would have heard my screaming from here to whereever you live!

Despite the agony, I tried again. A couple of hours produced the next sample. Better. Then I tried smaller beads (not pictured). I don't like doing samples so I decided I would try a project.

And that is the next posting.

-- Joanna

My First Peyote Stitch Project

Where to start? What to do? I decided on a necklace purse or amulet. No pattern. No instructions. Just a folded up dollar for sizing. I looked through my slowly increasing bead stash and selected five tubes. I love texture created by color and I liked the 'bead soup' I made when I poured out the beads. I don't remember if I started with odd- or even-count peyote. I simply started and kept on beading. And beading. It was wonderful! I learned a lot about tension, burying threads, decreasing and making fringe.

I made many mistakes and here are some of them:

- I didn't make the flap long enough. It should have had about three more rows before I started the decreasing.
- I didn't know how to make fringe. I initially did a six bead drop fringe on the flap. My tension was all wrong so they didn't hang right. After creating the bottom fringe (and getting a clue about how to make the beads hang right!) I went back and ripped out (well, cut out would be more appropriate) the fringe. I added a focus bead drop.
- As a result of tearing out the flap fringe and reworking the edge, I bowed out the flap with my buried threads. No one will notice unless an experienced beader looks at it closely.
- My peyote base row for the chain was far too long. All things considered I'd rather have too long than too short!

Despite the flaws this meets the quilters' galloping horse test ... if you can't see any mistakes riding by on a galloping horse it looks fine! Being a perfectionist I generally go by the inspect under a magnifying glass for problems rule. With this first peyote project, I'm giving myself a break. I do like it and I will be making more of these in different colors. What fun!

Except ... I'll try different stitches. RAW ... isn't that supposed to be meat or a camera setting? Hm, I must be a glutton for the agony of learning.

-- Joanna

How (Not?) to Take Jewelry Photos

I like to take photos of my projects in natural light whenever possible. I have a wonderful chiminea in my garden where I can place projects. The result is nicely organic and different. Sometimes I photgraph on one of my cactus as well. And there are times I put down some gray felt and stand above it to take the photograph. That does, however, have hazards as this photograph shows. Miz Paws likes to get her paws into everything, including anything I try to photograph.

So I decided to show this photo of my "studio" ... feet, Miz Paws, rocks and all!

I hope you are enjoying this Independence Day as much as I am. I remember something my son's second grade teacher, an immigrant from a repressive society, told her students: "How wonderful your pencils have erasers. When you make a mistake you can erase and do it over correctly." That's what she had her students do: erase any mistake and do it over correctly.

How wonderful we can make mistakes and learn from them. Always keep those "corrected mistakes" ... they will remind you how far you have come.

-- Joanna

June Journal as a Necklace

The headline just about says everything!

This photo shows my June Bead Journal Project medallion detached from the page and added to one of my beaded cord necklaces.

I'm going to wear it to tonight's concert in the park (the last one for the Spring season ... sadness) and see if anyone comments!

And I may just wear it to work tomorrow as well.

-- Joanna

Bead Journal Project - June 2007

I had barely begun on my adventures in beading when I learned about Robin Atkin's Bead Journal Project. I signed up (along with almost 250 other people!) and made a commitment to do one beaded journal project a month. I decided that I would work small. My concept was to do a miniature (about 3") totally beaded piece that I could put in a small frame.

Good concepts can turn into disaster and that is what happened! I beaded on a batik fabric fusted to Timtex. When I tried to cut the Timtex to frame size I cut into fabric edge as well. Plus, it was too small to fit into the frame! So I let it sit while I went on with other learning experiences, including necklaces and pins. (See my Picasa album: http://picasaweb.google.com/shimmers411/BeadingAdventures).

Yesterday morning I awakened and the vision of the project was so real I had to start on it immediately. The result is an 8" x 10" page done on batik fabric backed by stiff felt. "Begin" is in bead embroidery. The medallion is turned into a pin. I solved the problem of the cut fabric by adding Ultrasuede to the back and then doing picot edging around the medallion. I created a way to attach the pin to the fabric using beads. Then I did a beaded cord so that I can turn it into a necklace.

"Begin" represents both my beginning in beading and my beginning into a new era of eyesight. As I worked yesterday I was able to examine my feelings - and mourn in som ways - about my upcoming eye surgery. My right eye will no longer be an 8x magnifying lens when I hold items 4" from my face!

-- Joanna

On the Fringe

This past week has been dreadful in many ways. In preparation for the measurements needed for my upcoming cataract surgery I had to go without my right contact lens for the week. Without going through the entire agonizing story, my eyes sans contact lens are severaly unbalanced. After my left eye had a cataract removed about a decade ago I have perfect focus at about 12". My right eye, however, focuses at about 4". Most of the time I wear a contact in my right eye and computer glasses. Without the right contact ... disaster!

I managed three days of work with my eyes constantly at war then took a vacation day. Four days without work. Great, eh? Just the opposite. Can't do anything on the computer for very long. Can't read for very long. Can't see well enough to do housework. The only thing I could do was bead. I'd simply bring the beading to about 4" in front of my face. That's where I have about an 8x magnifying lens with my nearsighted right eye.

So bead I did. Here's the the first result of doing almost nothing else but bead and create beaded fabric necklaces.

The blessing, in addition to learning more about beading, is that when I whined to some of my online friends I was reminded that, while this is at the top of my life's current disaster scale, so many others are dealing with, or have dealt with so much more.

I saw a t-shirt at the concert last week: Life is Good. Despite occasional bumps on the road, I am very blessed that my life IS good!

-- Joanna

Concerts in the Park

Last night I remembered to take some photos when Sargeant and I went to the concert. Since I can't get Blogger to post the photo for some reason here is the link to the photos:

http://picasaweb.google.com/shimmers411/ConcertsInThePark

Pictured is our usual gear: mat that folds up nicely so I can strap it over my shoulder; folding chair that also goes in a bag over my shoulder; and the newest addition, the umbrella. It's hot and sunny here until the sun goes below the trees!

I pack necessities in my backpack. Book or magazine or beading or quilting. Necessary bags for Sargeant. Dinner and treats. Towel/napkin. Camera. Cellphone. Wallet. Thermos for me. Water bottle and water tray for Sargeant. After a couple weeks of going to the concert everything is organized and can be put together in less than 5 minutes.

Sargeant now knows that when I pull out the backpack it's time for a concert. Oh, does he dance!

-- Joanna

Learning Frustrations

The one thing I wished I could have done for the author's party was to have a pair of earrings that match the medallion/necklace. Alas, no time. Besides, it's been a long time since I've made jewelry. What to do?

I solved part of the problem by buying a book (of course!) This morning I took a look, got a few hints, then made these earrings. Other than the frustration of wishing I had four hands, I managed OK.

Then I got the bright idea of learning the peyote stitch. Good idea except for my eyes being at war with each other. Ever tried to do anything when the focal point of one eye is 4" and the other is about 14"? It was a complete and total fiasco. I dropped beads. I dropped my needle from the Nymo thread. I couldn't find the needle. (My feet will probably find it one of these days.) I couldn't see the book at the same time as I was trying to figure out what to do. Why is everything always so nicely lined up in drawings?

I will learn the peyote stitch. But not today. Not as long as my eyes are having this war!

-- Joanna

Book Signing

What a great afternoon it was at Quilters Market! First we had Market Madness where we were treated to a presentation about the Spring Quilt Market in Salt Lake City. Always fun to see what's coming (and what has already arrived) to the quilt shop.

Then it was time for the book signing. There was a table arranged for us and Jean Biddick's cover quilt was our backdrop. I don't know how many books we signed but it was a lot. I know that one person bought a dozen copies to give as gifts.

This was quite a thrill for me. I've been published before before but never been to a book signing. It's enough to make me want to write a book!

-- Joanna

Author! Author!

Today is a special day!

There's going to be a book signing party at Quilters Market celebrating Jean Biddick and the Tucson contributors to her new book, Blended Quilt Backgrounds. My quilt, Stretching Tradition, is one of the quilts featured in the book.

Two years ago I took a class from Jean on doing blended quilt backgrounds. I brought my laptop to the first class and used Electric Quilt to design the quilt. The reason this is named Stretching Tradition is that the quilt design comes from a single traditional block. To date, no one has been able to guess what block was used! It is, of course, named in the book.

This quilt was completely different from any I had designed previously. I'm not sure if it was the beginning of my path change toward doing art quilts but it does highlight what has become my style: doing things differently with color.

The book contains complete instructions and templates, written by Jean, for recreating the quilt. (So go buy the book!)

I wanted to do something special for the party so decided to create a fiber and bead necklace to wear with one of my pins. It's been many years since I did any jewelry so I had to do some improvisation. I do like the result. It allows me to easily change the focal point medallion.

I love the jewel tone colors and will be making more pins. This is a good way to develop my beading skills. Another advantage is that the projects are small. I can tuck them into a small case and take it with me.

-- Joanna

The Buttons That Became Pins

I've continued to work with my beading, following the receipt of the second of Robin Atkin's books, One Bead at a Time. I believe that may have been the first book that she wrote. It's given a name to what I do: improvisational bead embroidery.

I'm trying to make more buttons, larger this time. I didn't do a good job of sizing to the button form. Simply didn't look right so I turned these two "buttons" into pins. The larger one, on top, is 2" in diameter. The smaller one is 1 7/8". I chose to cover the back with Ultrasuede and held the pin back on using Robin's technique.

Tonight I'm going out for dinner with friends so I'll choose one to wear and see if anyone comments!

This has been an odd day as my eyes are at war with each other. I'm going to be having cataract surgery in my right eye in July. I've always considered that my good eye even though my left eye really went from best to worst after cataract surgery a decade ago. Being extremely nearsighted does have advantages. It's like having an 8x magnifying glass when I hold items about 4" from my face. I'll lose that and I'm already mourning the loss.

I've worn contacts for decades to bring me to about 20/30 vision. So that the measurements can be done properly, my contact has to be off the eye for a week. I did negotiate with my doctor to be able to wear the contact for driving. Other than that ... well, let's just say my eyes are very unbalanced without a contact in my right eye. Fortunately I can still bead but trying to use my machines for quilting may not be a good idea. And I think I'd better stay away from the rotary cutter!

Short term pain = long term gain. When I saw my surgeon I showed him a beading project and said, "I'm an artist. I need to be able to do this after surgery."

"You need to see," he replied.

"Yes. I need to see."

-- Joanna

My First Buttons

My adventures with beading continue!

Friday I received Amy C. Clarke and Robin Atkins book Beaded Embellishment. This joins Larkin Van Horn's book Beading on Fabric as my beading library. I had followed links on Larkin's site and found Robin just as she was announcing the 2007 Bead Journal Project. So I joined and made a commitment to one journal page a month for a year ... and it must include beading!

Then, I volunteered to start a Yahoo group for the project. (Don't bother looking for it if you're not in the project. It's a private group for the participants only.)

Being inspired by these wonderful books, I'm venturing into the world of buttons. They are a great way to try stitches and color combinations. Great "carry along" projects too!

What do you think of this first effort?

The background is a barrel cactus in my garden. I thought it would be interesting, a bit different and allow me to shoot in the sunlight.

-- Joanna

Never Say Never!

For the past nine months I have been participating in a closed Yahoo group "Fast Friday Fabric Challenge". This is a group of fiber artists and art quilters who are issued a challenge once a month to create a quilt in a little over a week. Different techniques/themes are chosen to allow members to stretch their artistic talents. Although the group is currently closed to new members, you can see some of the projects in the public blog:

http://fastfridayquilts.blogspot.com/

This little quiltlet (9" x 12") was for the May 2007 challenge. We were tasked to use only one fabric!

Before this challenge was issued I was reading Lesley Riley's book Quilted Memories. She covers a number of techniques including subtracting color with bleach. I read and mentally thought "Nah, not for me."

Then came the challenge. I read about black being a mixture of colors. The result can be "surprising" according to Leslie. So when I was at Quilters Market and saw a black batik that looked solid except for some barely discernable brown I decided to buy some yardage. Still hadn't decided what to to but when I saw "Bab-O Gel with Bleach" at the dollar store I figured, "why not?"

Leslie said the bleaching process would take 2-8 minutes. Per her instructions, I clipped about an inch square to test. No results. Hm. I experimented further and put a length in a cookie pan. Covered with gel. It took about two hours, but the result was a lovely tan batik.

I decided my piece would be a process piece. One of my goals for this year is to really learn to do machine quilting. Earlier this month I took a class from Robbi Joy Elkow where she recommended practicing on two pieces of felt. I grabbed a couple pieces of felt, tore off a section of fabric, used small squares of fusible to secure the fabric to the felt, threaded some varigated thread, and started quilting.

The result is a process piece that was a great learning experience.

-- Joanna

Concerts and Beading in the Park

Each Spring and Fall I enjoy going to the concerts in the park. In high school I played French Horn and have been involved with musical activities from time to time throughout my career.

My concert companion is Sargeant TopGun, my Miniature Pinscher (trivia: NOT a miniature Doberman ... Dr. Doberman developed that breed after deciding he wanted a big dog with MinPin personality). This photo, my favorite, shows him sunning on my patio table with that "I am the king of the house" look. No, he's not spoiled! I'm sure everyone makes homemade treats every week!

Before each concert I take Sargeant to the dog park so he can run around. At the concert he has to be well-behaved so it's great he can expend some energy. We get seated early and have our dinner. I bring him treats (and water) and if I eat anything with meat in it he's sure to get his share. Then there's time to spare. Thanks to an article by Chris Lynn Kirsch "Well-Behaved Beads" inn the Spring 2007 issue of American Quilter, I now take my beading with me ... and the beads don't spill!

Chris' tip is to put beads on the sticky side of packaging tape. The beads are held securely but can be easily removed with the needle tip. I don't get much beading done, but even an inch is an inch completed! Plus it's fun and between the beading and Sargeant it's easy for folks to start conversations with me.

At last night's Memorial Day concert, I especially appreciated conductor Laszlo Veres comment that "America the Beautifiul", a traditional end to the concert, is not "walking music". It is a prayer. He said he'd play a march first so people could pack up and leave early. Some did. None did during the beautiful tribute to our country. I wrote and said I hoped he'd continue this reminder every concert!

Now to get my concert kit prepared for tonight's concert...have a wonderful Memorial Day!

Beading to the Edge of the Mat

When I completed my first beading on fabric art, I simply cut my Timtex-backed fabric about a half inch larger than the anticipated 5" x 7" size. Of course, when I started this first project I had no idea what it would look like or what I would do with it!

After it was completed, Larkin Van Horn, the artist whose book Beading on Fabric inspired me to start the project, commented that the beading ending abruptly looked like a mistake. I took the project, by then named Beginnings, marked the edge of the mat, and spent a couple hours carefully adding more beading so that it would reach the edge. By then I had decided that I would mat it and put it into a picture frame.

I had more of the focus bead and batik background fabric so created Beginnings #2. The photo on the right shows how I mark the mat frame and then remove all trace of the markings.

I use a Clover White Marking Pen (Fine). I was introduced to this several years ago when I began working with applique. This is an unusual pen in that it does not make an immediate mark. It takes about a minute for the white line to appear. Unlike chalk or other pens, the line remains until removed with water or heat.

I didn't want to use my steam iron on the beads so used my Clover mini-iron. I snug the edge or point against the beads. In an instant the marking is gone!

You can see both Beginnings and Begainning #2 here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/shimmers411/BeadingAdventures

Please see Larkin Van Horn's gorgeous artwork here:

http://www.larkinart.com/

As always, comments most welcome!

-- Joanna Strohn

And Your Cat May Hallucinate

Gracious, you'd think a computer expert (me) would be able to figure out this Blogger! But I didn't get to the new Blogger conversion in time. I won't go into what it took to get my account active again but I finally managed.

Mary Stori gave a workshop at the Tucson Quilters Guild on beading. While I've done a bit of jewelry creating, I've never really used beads on my quilts or done beading. I decided I would practice on this piece. Of course, I'd already put the backing on!

I decided to put a beaded border on using one of the border technique taught in the workshop. A little more beading here and there to accent foiled areas. Then I found a couple fish charms and added them.

This is a fun quilt that I really enjoyed creating. It used fusing, zig zag quilting, quilted words, BoNash, foiling, glitter and beading.

You can see more photos of this quilt on my Picasa Web Album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/shimmers411/ChallengeQuilts

Everybody Has Blue Days

There I was, early afternoon today, printing off the first book lines I had researched when the challenge was issued. I'd been wondering what to do and didn't have a clue. I got to the last book on my list:

The Blue Day Book
by Bradley Trevor Greive
"Everybody has blue days."

This is a small book that was given to me by my daughter-in-law after my mother died. It has a lot of good thoughts in it! I started pulling blue fabrics and wondered how I could express the value/contrast theme and blue days in a quilt.

Then life interrupted. I had to pick up Miz Paws, my kitten who is usually in the middle of my quilting. Instead she was getting "the big snip" to celebrate her coming of age. As I read the post-operative instructions one line sparked the quilt:

"Your cat may hallucinate..."

Everything came together then. I found a perfect cat silhouette in my PrintMaster 16 clip art. My stash yielded a great batik that could represent hallucinations. Although they don't show well in the photo, the words "blue" and "day" are quilted throughout the sky. "Everybody has blue days" is quilted on the bottom. Size is 14" x 22".

I'm considering adding some puff paint, beads, glitter, and other embellishments ... what do you think?