Christmas Greetings

I've been part of the children's Christmas program at church this year. In their play, my part was to tell them a story about what Christmas was like when I was a kid. Rather than tell them the same story every time we rehearsed, I told them a different "practice" story each time. What fun--and what memories!

The years change and so do we--but Christmas is still Christmas. The story we celebrate is still the same. And so I wish for you my friends, personal and virtual, the richest blessings of this joyous season.

Answering fractal questions..

I've been getting a lot of questions about how these images were made, so here is a bit of generic information.

Fractals are patterns of repetition that are self-similar at any scale. Trees--leaves, branches, roots-- are fractal because they share similar patterns no matter how small or large the tree. A spiral is a fractal pattern whether you are looking at DNA, a snail shell or a galaxy. There are many other things that have fractal qualities, ranging from music to economic growth.

There are a variety of programs that create beautiful and very complex images based on mathematical patterns. These are available for download on the web. Most are free or fairly inexpensive. A search for "fractal images" will give you links to all kinds of sites with fractals. A search for "fractal programs" or "fractal generators" will give you links to a wide variety of sites that either have downloads or links to downloads.

These are image generating programs, not image manipulation programs
(like Photoshop or Print Shop Pro.) When you select various combinations
of possibilities from drop down menus, the programs generate one or
more images based on the information you have given it. Most programs
also have options for modifying either the image and/or the ways colors
are applied. The majority of the programs are Windows based.

The two programs I used for the fractals on my blog are Vchira and
Tierazon, which you can find by searching either for them or for Stephen
Ferguson who is their author. These are both quite easy to use, although
Tierazon is more complex. Just ignore anything that asks for a number
until you are comfortable with playing with the program.

Fractal Forge and Fractal Explorer are other fairly simple ones. UltraFractal (not free) is one of the best available. Apophysis is very simple for beginners, but complex if you want to learn to master it. It creates a different kind of fractal than the others mentioned. I do not recommend the program Fractint for beginners, however, unless you have a very strong math background. (Besides it is DOS based.)

If you download a program, don't forget that there are usually help files, often online tutorials and/or forums.

I teach a class that is an overview of fractals and their possibilities
as a design resource. The next session opens the first of October at
http://QuiltUniversity.com

I've also opened a Yahoo group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fractal-quilters/ as a place to talk with
others who are using fractals as a design resource. It is a varied
group--experienced and beginner quilters, fractal beginners and experienced fractalists, mathematicians and math-handicapped. There are also several needleworkers in other media.

Fractals are a very big subject. But be warned. It is very easy to get hooked!

Katrina images

Isn't the mind a remarkable thing! About a week ago I had made a couple dozen images in the fractal generating programs, Vchira and Tierazon. They didn't seem to be anything remarkable although probably worth saving.

In going through some images I looked at these again and was struck by some of them which reminded me very strongly of what we have been seeing on the TV this past week.

These images are unchanged except for resizing and a bit of contrast enhancement afterwards.

If you can use a larger image of these in any way, please email me (Katrina images zip as the subject) and I will send them to you as a large zip file (PhotoShop .psd or .tif files.) Just make a donation to the Katrina charity of your choice. Better yet, make it somewhere that is matching funds...

I am posting the images below.


New Orleans


Hurricane Warnings!


The Big Easy


Category Four


Storm Surge


Levee


Oil Rig


Superdome

Curiosity did NOT kill the cat

How do you learn a new computer program? Do you start with the Read Me file and then the manual and go step by step by step?

Me? I plunge right in. The manual and help files are a last resort. Most computer programs follow fairly predictable conventions in the way you use them, so experience helps, but curiosity is your best tool. Try everything--every button, every menu. If it doesn't make sense right now, it will later. Explore, experiment, try different tools to see what each does. Play with possibilities. Then read the manual.

Now, obviously part of this is simply differences in learning style, but I think there is something much more critical at stake here. When you follow the manual or tutorial what have you learned? What is in the tutorial. That is it. You haven't learned to apply it to another situation or discovered any other possibilities. It is like following the directions for a quilt pattern. When you get done, that is all you have--a quilt pattern translated into your fabric. And a lot of quilts get made in exactly the same fabric as the pattern...

Frankly, this scares the daylights out of me. We are becoming lazy thinkers. It is much easier to just let someone lift our lids and pour it in--no work, no muss, no fuss--Instant Learning.

One of the things I have learned in the past few years (and that will be another story) is the incredible power of pattern. If you think of a pattern (whether it is a computer program or a quilt pattern or any other "Proper" way of doing something)as being something to be followed exactly or you will have made a mistake or done something wrong, then you have immediately set yourself up for the possibility of failure. No wonder people get scared of learning or taking classes.

If on the other hand we can think of a pattern as simply a starting point, then a whole world of possibility opens up. Technique becomes a tool, not an end in itself. You can play with ideas and learn techniques when and if you need them. Curiosity and "what would happen if...?" become the keys to creativity.

To be continued...later...

Following Directions

Tips for following directions:

1. Read the directions very carefully. Look for what it doesn't tell you as well as what is specified.

2.Now you have 2 options--
a. If it isn't required or prohibited, you can do anything else you can imagine doing.
b. You _always_ have the option of choosing to modify or ignore the requirements.

I just did this for a little quilt I am making as a challenge for my art quilt group, Uncommon Threads. It is a triptych (3 panel quilt.) I decided to push the definition of "triptych" as far as I could--the definition doesn't specify size or shape of the panels. The panels are intended to be hung as a unit, but doesn't specify placement or positioning.

My quilt ended up being three sinuously curved panels that hang separately from a common rod, but their hanging points overlap and the panels intertwine and interlock.

I call it "I Lead Three Lives" because as I was ready to choose fabrics I realized (as so often happens for me) that the image I had worked on as simply a design problem had also acquired a profound meaning for me.

The three panels represent three significant areas of my life -- pastor's wife and mother, artist and teacher--often separate, but always intertwined. The fabrics I chose were a fairly traditional floral print, and gold and bronze lame, which also then acquired meaning--and no, I'll let you guess which fabric I used for each.

The mind is a remarkable thing!

Computer Art

Using computers to make art? Of course! My first computer back about 1990 was a 10-year old DOS dinosaur, one of the early portables (at 35 pounds, more like transportable.) I was a total beginner at computers but it had a graphics program on it and I was hooked--irrevocably hooked! I was also very glad when my son gave me another hand-me-down and I could forget DOS!

But let me emphasize--the computer is only a tool just as brush or pen or rulers and fabric are. The computer doesn't make the art--I do! I draw the lines, set the experiments and make the choices. The computer is more accurate and faster than pen and ruler for making patterns--and no ink smears ever. I can do things to photographs with a few clicks that used to take me hours in the darkroom--and then go far beyond that. I can paint pictures--and no little fingers will smear my paint. And I can get effects in minutes that are impossible with brush and canvas. I use a drawing pad and stylus and the strokes on the monitor respond to my touch just as a brush or pastel would. I can play with more variations of an idea than I would ever have time to do otherwise.

But don't mistake me, I still do things traditionally--sometimes. It is just that the computer allows me to explore things I could not have done otherwise--and many more of them. I like that!

I use drawing programs (mostly CorelDraw,) painting programs (mostly Photoshop and Painter) and fractal generating programs (Ultra Fractal and Apophysis and more) I also use several image modifying programs (like PhotoShop and Kaleider.)

Do I use computers to make art? Of course. That is how http://QuiltUniversity.com got started. Carol Miller and I have never met, but we brainstormed via email and we have talked on the phone just twice. We plan to meet in Houston this fall when QU celebrates its 5th anniversary with a special student quilt exhibit. In many ways, I consider my teaching to be the finest art of all!

Another Version of Murphy's Law

Kerns Korollary #15:
Just THINK about taking macro photos and a breeze begins to stir.

Hurrying

Why is it that the less time you have in which to do something, the longer it takes to do it?

Must be another version of Murphy's law!

Creative Quilting

I've journaled off and on for a long time. Lately, I've done it more informally by philosophizing when questions come up in discussion in the creativity and design classes I teach online at QuiltUniversity.com.

If you want to follow along, you can expect observation, commentary and wild ideas on a variety of subjects. I know something about a lot of things, a lot about a few things, and I’m curious about a whole lot more. I guess that makes me kind of a Jack- (oops, make that Jill-) of-all -trades. It would be nice, though, if you would just call me a Renaissance Woman. (Either is better than my irreverent kids’ assessment: You’re weird, Mom. Weird!)

Whatever you call me, I do have more fun!

Fractals: The butterfly effect

In Chaos theory (and please understand that I'm far from being an expert) the idea is advanced that a butterfly flapping its wings in California can affect the weather in New Jersey. Infinitesmally, perhaps but the effect is there.

I don't fully understand the butterfly effect, but I've seen it in action... In fact, I talked about it Sunday morning in a worship service (without labeling it that.) I was a member of the first Journal Quilt project. It wasn't what I had planned to do, but my quilts chronicled the last nine months of my husband's life as he struggled with the very nasty effects of Parkinson's disease. I think his ministry during those last months when he was totally helpless was as effective as anything he had done during 39 years of active ministry and 15 years of retirement. Without my realizing it at the time those little quilts were also a record of my own growth and healing during those difficult months.

One of my little quilts was selected to be included in the Quilting Arts magazine's article about the Journal Quilt project. As a result of the article I was asked to prepare a class on making journal quilts for Quilt University (which I had helped start two years earlier.) The first class opened with more than 80 students from round the world.

Students received the first lesson on Saturday morning. By Sunday morning I was already reading stories about how this process of journalling was helping students deal with pain, depression, grief and anger. I'm not a psychologist and this was pretty overwhelming. I happened to be preaching that morning (filling in for an absent pastor) so when it was time for prayer concerns, I simply explained what I was doing and asked for the congregation's prayers and support for the next seven weeks. I've taught that class online several times since then and the result is always the same--stories of healing and reconciliation.

I spoke Sunday morning at the church where we had retired nearly 20 years ago and left when my husband's health had deteriorated to the point where he needed more care. I reminded them that they had also been an important part of our life as we had shared some very difficult times together. I told them too, that in this very unusual way, through these classes, his ministry, which had always been one of healing and reconciliation, was still continuing and going around the world. They too, each in their own way, were part of this continuing story.

The butterfly effect--small things, often unnoticed and/or forgotten, carry an influence that is long lasting and far reaching.