If I go to see all my kids, will I be able to recover from the trip? If I buy this, can I buy that? If I choose to sew this project, will I have energy to tackle that other thing? Or, this is all another way to title a This-and-That post for April 2025. First, the mundane and then the sublime. (Hint: an introduction to one of my favorite artists.)
Feeling a lot of the time like a blue-footed booby; this photo was harvested from Bluesky, from the #naturesky tag. Bluesky is also where I have a new account. We need more quilters over there (tag: #quiltsky) so come on over. If you set up an account, I’d love a follow: OPQuilt on Bluesky. (If you need to know more about this platform, search, and research, buy this book, or ask me a question.)
Apple’s Photo app has a new fun toy: Clean-up, behind the three sliders at the bottom of a photo (apparently not on all phones, my husband tells me). I click on that, then follow the instructions. Can you see what I did in this next pair of photos?
I probably wouldn’t use it to clean up everything, as that can give your photos (this one, of my neighbor’s cactus flower) a sterile and weird look. Life is messy, life has hoses in the foreground and angels in the background.
Early warning notice. I did none of those when the earthquake came, but did decide to hold off on getting in the shower. Just in case.
I sewed up my next batch of 25 Economy/Thrift/Square-in-a-Square blocks. In my first post about these, I noticed that one of the quilters I mentioned had sewn each of hers to a background block, so I decided to do the same. Eventually I will sew them into blocks of 10-patch units, as suggested by Taryn, who is running this (9-patch units? 12-patch units?).
To make all my economy blocks, I opened my drawers and just used up old scraps, cut nearly a decade or more ago. It’s a lovely time-travel experience. Most centers are not fussy-cut, but this one spoke to me, as my heart aches a lot for what is going on. Other centers of other blocks also hold meaning, but I won’t detail them here.
I can’t work if all my projects are stacked up around me, calling me to come pay attention. So after completing this batch, I carefully put them away until some time in May, giving me some mental space. (Fun video, here, with a perky little tune.)
So, March’s 25 blocks are done.
April’s 25 blocks are finished, too.
This came out next. It’s Sherri’s BOM for 2025. April’s block is finished, and now I’ve tucked that away, too, until May.
Posh Penelope blocks are up next, but I’ll wait to work on them until after Easter. (It makes a big happy mess in my sewing room.)
Every April and October, our church holds their Semi-Annual General Conference, which we listen to via streaming broadcast. Through all the talks, I sink deeply into thinking about ways to better my tiny life, but this year I also enjoyed the sights of this young choir, dressed much as I did back when I was their age: hair streaming down from a middle part at the top of their head, their dresses all smocked and ruffled and gathered and puffed sleeves, too! I didn’t have a camera when I was 17, nor were many photos taken of me, so you’ll just have to trust me that I looked like them.
I also like to sew while I listen (hence making good progress on the economy blocks!). I tried sewing them without paper, but it was harder to keep them square. So, here I’m using the freezer paper method. Here’s a free handout, in case you missed it on the last post:
My husband Dave and I took a trip up to see grandchildren and family, as I mentioned.
We also had a chance to visit some of our siblings. My sister showed me the wonderful tree of life weaving she purchased on her last trip. I love all these birds perched on the branches, with companions flying all around.
Another highlight of the trip was to see a mid-career retrospective of the artist Brian Kershisnik at BYU’s Museum of Art. Kershisnik’s exhibit began with a video of him working and talking and interspersed in between were snippets of his TEDx talk, which is worth watching, ending with something to think about. Kershisnik has long been a favorite of mine; he paints the quirks and slivers of human life that we are all familiar with, but don’t seem to see in traditional paintings. He also has a sense of humor about things, so valuable these days.
In this trio of paintings of women, the titles read (left to right):
Holy Woman, 2001
Climbing Mother, 2013
Madonna and Child with the Infant John the Baptist, 2003. Yes, the infant Jesus is poking young John in the eye.
from title card: “While not undermining his holy nature, the baby Christ (still with a visible halo) acts more like an actual child than most traditional versions. Kershisnik humanizes saints and holy figures, suggesting that perhaps they are not as different from us as we might have previously supposed.”
I found so many paintings that echoed into my life. As my father would have said, it was a peak experience. Since this is the week before Easter, here’s a few more.
Even if you aren’t religious, Christ’s palpable straining to let the souls of hell escape their awful fate helped me understand the whole idea of sacrificing for others in a most visceral way. And Christ gesturing, says, “Go.” Get going, get doing, make something of yourselves. Below is a link to a video clip of Kershisnik below where he says he is reticent about “explaining” the meanings of paintings for others, not wanting to limit them. I also don’t want to limit you. This is just my take, after standing there gazing at this enormous painting, a couple of weeks before Easter.
Death has hung around my life in a significant way in the last couple of years, so yeah, I lingered at this painting.
Are we like these little ones in Kershisnik’s painting, Jesus and the Angry Babies (2014)? Maybe. The angels in the background are there to help. (video clip of the artist discussing this painting) Last one, with a theme pertinent to our sewing experience:
The morning after we arrived home, I took a walk in our local park. Right after that photo I saw that some children (not angry babies, not angry adults) had decorated up the sidewalk with all colors of chalk, including a hopscotch diagram, which I most definitely took time to jump through, before continuing. I conclude one of the artist’s names, below.
Happy Easter, everyone!
I had a field day listening to Brian talk on numerous videos. I’m putting these here so I can come back and listen.
Spring Open House Video (long)
On Interpretations [On What Paintings “Mean”]
Working with [Your] Media I love when he says “you have the let it [the media] do what it does.” Boy, do we know this about our fabrics and threads!
Smile!
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The bright green squares paired with the economy blocks is delightful. It sounds like you have a good plan for organization and keeping things moving along right now. I’m hoping to finish up one of my WIPs in the next few days, but life has a way of life-ing, so… at least I’ve made progress on it this week.
Great read. That last photo made me laugh.
Your economy blocks look wonderful in that setting. That’ll be such a fun quilt. I did scrappy tiny pinwheels with a pistachio background quilt and still love it. So many memories can be recalled in all those scrappy fabrics.
Do you think that choral group was told to wear blues? I want to pop a bright yellow in there. lol. I’m always talking about how few photos we have, but we had to take the pictures, use up the entire film roll, send off and PAY for development, throw out most of them and live with “old” pictures. Gosh, that sounds like a pain. Meanwhile, I can have 300 pictures before breakfast now.
I laughed out loud at “Jesus and the Angry Babies”, which of course is much needed these days! I’ll ask my daughter about BlueSky; I don’t do much social media but maybe I want to? Not sure.
You can tell Dave he is right; my phone does not have that photo feature. I wish it did, because I would use it to clean up photos of plants and flowers I want to paint. I’d take away all the backgrounds I don’t want.
The Brian Kershisnik exhibition looks very interesting. The title cards make it more so.
Your sewing projects look very organised. I think that is the key to getting so much done! I love that Posh Penelope block- my favourite so far!
Oh boy…if I do this can I do that? That’s been on my mind a lot lately as I try to navigate different projects in different areas of my life. I’m finding it hard to stick with one thing long enough to make real progress. I get so far and then jump ship and start doing something unrelated. It’s why I struggle to get to the point of true completion on any one thing. Love the economy blocks with the bright green. Good for you using small scraps. With all my yardage to use I feel like I need to use that before resorting to using all the little pieces. Ha. As if I’ll ever use the yardage up!
Wonderful post! How to best spend my time and energy is much on my mind these days. Not sure I want to get into Blue Sky – too much time on social media already! (Perhaps only if I leave Instagram.). Thanks for the tip in “clean up” on the phone – I have it and didn’t know it! Just tried it and like it! Most of all, thanks for introducing me to Brian Kershisnik!! I love his work and look forward to further exploration. “Mending”, especially, speaks to me as playing piano is my husband main hobby and our home is often filled with him playing downstairs and me sewing upstairs 😊.