Scale

No, not the bathroom kind (blankety-blank blank blank). No, not the plant disease. But, scale for contrast. Scale to make things stand out. And, I found the perfect illustration yesterday morning in my garden. This is a bit of green bed. Later, there will be flowers (lots and lots and lots of pink florets, making huge heads of flowers). But, for now, the bed relies on scale and value for interest. We all know that color gets all the credit, but it's value that does all the work and scale the bears the burden of beauty.


Here, I've used small leaves in different shapes to create interest. There's points and curves; wide and narrow, large and small, tall and short. While everything is green, that variety of scale is the only reason to look over here.

That's what I ran into on the silk quilt yesterday. A deficit of scale.

You may have to click on this to see it good. Look at the clamshells in the lower left and compare them to the echo work in the upper right. They're too close in scale. Sydney asked if I was stressed out when I quilted them. The clamshells are going to disappear into the echo quilting when they come together.



As I kept making the clamshells, I got more relaxed and the clamshells got larger. One got way large, but for the most part, I found a size I liked that I could make at a speed that was comfortable and I went to town on them. See how the clamshells on the right are larger than the echo quilting and are markedly different? When those come together, you'll be able to see where one ends and the other begins.

And, here's the first place the two shapes come together. It's the only part of the quilt center that is completely filled in. Three little inches of accomplishment.

This picture I tossed in to show how much I relaxed. The upper left is where I started and then I moved into the lower right. I missed family time again last night. I know it's just while I"m in this manically creative stage. It will end and I'll get back to TV in the living room and everything will get back to normal. Dogs pawing at me and people talking and TV up loud and...the relaxed routine of family time.

The quilt center is almost done. I just have that moat around the central urn of flowers to fill in with echo work. I just finished my first spool of silk thread. $6 for 225 yards. See why I don't want to waste an inch? For $2 I can get 2200 yards of coats and clark 50 weight, with a JoAnn's coupon.

But, OH MY, the feel of the silk is wonderful. As wonderful as the shimmer. And, pulling stitches did not damage the silk or hurt the shine.

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Today, the movit Bully is being released. It's only in a handful of theaters. We'll have to wait until it goes to DVD. I know that some parents are objecting to the language. I would caution them to remember that unless their kids are living in an Amish community somewhere, they've heard it. And, mine heard it at home. On TV. And, from me. So, that doesn't bother me at all.

I've seen footage and interviews from those involved in the movie and I choked up during an article on NPR this morning. You guys have heard me blog about being bullied before. I'm not really feeling like going into it today, but I remember. Eighth grade, ninth grade and then we moved and I got a reprieve in tenth grade, but by eleventh grade, it was there again, even though I worked so very hard to rise above it and by twelfth grade, I just wanted out, so I gave up band and only went to school half day and worked the other half.

College had some of the folks from high school, but on so much larger a campus that I got to meet new people and start over again. But, I found most relationships to be closed and distant because I couldn't completely join in without revealing more about me than I wanted anyone to know.

And, the more the world closed in around me, the more I withdrew.

And, then I found other gay people and it got better. And, for every time I wished I'd died in high school, I made a happy memory to stand between me and that pain. I only remember all that when I see something about another child that's been bullied.

Some guy this morning said "it's getting to the point where one kid can't pick on another without making a big deal about it". That is not what bullying is. That is not what we are talking about when people talk about bullies. Bullying is harassment. Bullying is long term hurt. Bullying is not one kid saying another has cooties and the next day they're playing tag. Bullying crushes.

Bystanders help the bully. It's only people with the courage and character to take action, even if that action is just walking away, that hurt bullies.

Hurt bullies by not being their friend.

Jeez. That got heavier than I intended. I guess I'm having more feelings about it than I'd like to admit.

Have a great Friday. Lane