September TIF underway

I've finally gotten underway with my September project. It's been pretty much a one-step-at-a-time project. I realized my problem with lists is that I have really mixed feelings about them. On the one hand, they are a huge help for someone with the memory of a gnat. On the other, they sit there on my desk and just nag at me endlessly, all these lists of things that really need to be done. Sometimes I write down things I've already done so I have something to cross off!

I began with the selvedge meaning of list that many of us liked. I shipped selvedges from fabrics lying about and overlapped them and stitched them to stiff felt with a running stitch. In a way, they make their own list--of projects I've completed and those waiting to be done.

That's the photo here.

Then I took a sheet of plain paper and wrote down all of these lists--the good ones and the nagging ones--shopping lists, to-do lists, supply lists, chore lists, book lists, instruction lists, member lists, lists of things I want to do, lists of things I should be doing. I used gloss gel medium to back the paper with some muslin that I'd used as a paint rag--I like the random splotches but never quite know what to do with it other than backing things. In keeping with the randomness of this month, I used an old catalog to keep glue off the counter and some of the images transferred ink splotches to the list.

Then I cut the list into strips and will make them up into a chain--the chains that keep me going and together or the chains that weight me down with shoulds. I'm not sure how this will work or how I'll attach the chain to the background but, as I said, it's a step-by-step process this time. I don't think it's going to be really readable, but I think that's okay.

This month I've noticed I've integrated the TIF project fully into my life. At first, it was overwhelming and seemed to be all I thought about or did. I was exhausted at the end of January! Now it's just part of the flow of my days. I don't think I really think about it less overall. Perhaps the designs are a little less time-consumingly stitched. I already know a lot about the engineering of the pages and don't have to spend as much time on it.

I am very much more relaxed about the whole process. At the beginning of the year I was in a panic until I came up with a viable idea. Now I'm trying to work with the ideas a bit more, at least on a conceptual level. And if one doesn't manifest immediately, I keep trying to look at the question from different angles and see what I learn.