Hank the Tank

So, this one was a tad difficult to get going on. I had so many ideas. I’m not the best at drawing, I have a habit of getting the proportions wrong – most things I draw look a little bit squished. 

Thinking that might not be the best look on a person I thought it might work for one of the dogs if I go with a cartoony look. Nothing says cartoon more than a Basset Hound! So Hank, our old rescue that we had to say goodbye to during the second covid lockdown, popped into my mind.

We have photos and quilt creations of Charly, Wilbur (in sihouette above) and Maggie but none of Hank, aka Hank the Tank. He was the biggest Basset we ever had and a complete and total pet. All he wanted was to be minded. As long as your arm was around him he was ok. A good philosophy for life I think. A hug a day keeps the blues away.

We got him at the age of 10 from a lovely lady who had to move house and couldn’t take him with her. Bassets have a lifespan of 10-12 so we weren’t sure what we were in for but we had him for 3 Christmases’ and we loved him.

He got thinner as he got older and my main mission in life was to make sure he was eating enough so I spoiled him rotten. Towards the end he wasn’t able to jump and couldn’t get up on the couch so we would take turns sitting on the floor with him watching TV. We all missed him so much, but Gordon more than he had missed any of the other Bassets we had had before, which was a surprise. Maggie was very mopey for a few months too and eventually we plucked up the courage to get a puppy so now we have Humphrey who is heading towards being as big as Hank and he’s only a year and a half.

So I wanted to do something with Hank as the main subject for ages and I thought Portrait, could be anyone, pet etc. fit the bill. Great you would think, so why the difficulty getting started?

I couldn’t decide how to make a pet portrait of Hank.

• Go really cartoony with Ticker Tape and make something to go with the Wilbur quilt I made a few years ago?
• Go some bit realistic and make an applique quilt with different shapes and colours applied in layers.
• Try a collage style pictorial quilt - I am very drawn to these at the moment. I did make a collage flower and discovered you need lots of fabrics in various shades for this one! I’m fairly sure this would take ages to do too.

I dithered, I dathered (I’m sure that’s not a word!) and I got nowhere very fast. My friend Suzanne reminded me that I am slow to start a project and can take my time to get going. Deadline looming I settled for what I thought would be the quickest and went Ticker Tape.

I have taught this in a day long workshop and estimated 2-3days to complete Hank. Well, that was waaaay off. My friend Paula says however long you think it will take you to make something, double it. For me and my slow starting ways I am thinking triple it. So, I didn’t get this finished in time. But I like it and I like where it is going (even if the eyes are a bit cray-cray). There will be a finished Hank portrait at some stage in my future!

 

I have learned procrastination is the universe telling you a decision needs to be made, getting started is harder than finishing, never be afraid to rescue an old dog (they all break your heart a little bit no matter how long you have them) and sometimes the deadline isn’t the point, enjoying the process can be just as important.  

 

Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has done with this month’s challenging theme.

On a lighter note...

The news can be quite depressing at times, and you really have to hunt for the good news some days.  When I saw the headline that Ed Sheeran was going to be playing in Thomand Park next May, (home of Munster Rugby) in Limerick, (my home town) I knew that was going to be the headline I'd pick for inspiration for a quilt.  Something happy and fun.

My sketch of a guitar in fabric scraps.

Limerick sits on the Shannon, founded by the Vikings and has a city charter older than London.  Limerick also has a population of about 100,000 people so we don't get the big gigs that often.  Most people go to Dublin. 

Ed Sheeran is also really popular and tickets sold out really quickly.  One of my very best friends from childhood has a birthday the week in May that he's playing so I took a chance and bought 3 tickets when I saw the extra tour date go up.  I kept my fingers crossed my friends are ok & happy to go - they are! We are all so excited to have something to look forward to.  After so much lock down in the past 18 months it feels a bit strange.  

So once I had decided the headline, I knew I wanted to make a guitar themed quilt.  I got as far as 3rd grade classical guitar in school and don't play very often but acoustic guitar is my favourite kind of music.

 Two weeks ago, I was asked to teach the ticker tape workshop I had put together a good number of years ago and one of the samples I had put together in an unsewn state was an abstract guitar.  This sample was showing how you can create shapes and create emphasis with scraps of different colours or values.  

I decided to finish it off and pulled out all my orange scraps.  I quilted it with straight lines echoing around the curves of the guitar and some extra lines on the guitar strings to make them look like they were after being plucked.  Ticker tape is a quilt as you go method and in this piece I didn't sew around the scraps just quilted over them in a raw edge state.   

I used an Ikea frame and modified the mat to make it bigger to frame the guitar and hang it on the wall.  The whole family loves it and its wonkiness.  It makes me smile when I walk into the living room and it definitely brightens up the space.  Ticker tape quilts are a lot of fun and sometimes you just need to play.  It's good for the soul!