Sewing Again

Seems like a long time but it's going well. "Mopery..." is under the needle and making me very happy even though I really don't gravitate to reds, especially the bluish reds, but there you have it. Up close, there are many other little color things going on that I plan to accentuate with stitching. Machine stitching- so you know I haven't gone totally round the bend. I've added a Work In Progress link to the sidebar and created a non-Blogger place to keep better track of work in progress so I don't have to scramble all over for information once I decide to add the piece to the main gallery. Also (whispering) I don't trust this new Beta Blogger all that much. I must publicly thank Shoshana for featuring me in the sidebar of her blog with Senator Barak Obama and Knit Tits. What an honor! She also asked aloud about what folks do when they become creatively adrift or stale. Beside cleaning, I go digging about in my old digital files. I'm a fiendish collector of bizarre miscellaneous digitalia specializing in round things. Go figger. Here's a few I dug up:

Mopery in Progress

I have been having great e-converse with the Empress of Dirt (don't I hang out with the nicest crowd?), author of Fabric Dyeing 101 a wonderful and generous resource for folks who want to take a crack at dyeing their own fabric. I was reading through her take on the whole process and occasionally giving myself the old "Palm to Old Forehead, Sharply" gesture - the way you do when you know you are screwing up even as you do it...like ironing the wrong side of the fusible crap. Damn I hate that stuff but it's the only way I can think of to close up the birthing slot left when I pillowcase a backing...(who else but another art quilter would know what the hell I was talking about.) So I took a moment to tell her about Table Moppers, but she'll elaborate on that. Anyway, to finish off the discharging session I started last night, there was this one piece of fabric left on the kitchen table, one of nastiest Table Moppers from the last dyefest.I got rather caught up in the thing and before I knew it, there were seams and batting and backing and birthing and "3 to 5 for Mopery" was hatched, another whole-cloth monster just begging for lots of paint & stitching. It's just amazing what can happen when there's a clean place to work and you (mostly) know where all your stuff is. Just a lazy eyed jump from mopper to mopery, the title refers to a family joke around here. If one of the boys was sulking about and had the nerve to utter the phrase "I'm bored" they would be convicted of Mopery, something I had a nodding acquaintance with as a teenager. Somewhere on my permanent record it must say "suspected of mopery with intent to creep", not convicted mind you, just suspected.

New Stuff, Like I needed More New Stuff

The deal is, for every hour I spend sorting, folding and making order in the studio I get at least two hours of messing around with stuff. Today I went the lazy mystery route and picked a few pieces from the stash to discharge. This fabric was from a very old nightgown. White cotton with the shoulders and bodice crocheted from pearl cotton. This interesting effect on this turquoise commercial batik came from putting dishwasher gel on dry fabric, waiting about 15 minutes then misting it heavily with water and popping it into a hot oven on a cookie sheet for about 5 minutes. and yes, yes Anti-chlor for everyone at the bar! Ain't it cool?

Born with the Platinum Spoon in her Mouth

My husband has long suspected that in several past lives I was a duchess or baroness or queen of some such. Not merely some aristocrat but one of the FEEELTHY rich. No one had to convince me. Given any choice of goods I will invariably choose the most expensive thing in the group without ever seeing a price tag. Needless to say, he is also happy that in this lifetime, I recognize value, live simply, am easily amused and don't covet material things. Still, this car pulled alongside me on my ride home today and I was spellbound and drooling. As it pulled ahead of me so I could see the badge and identify the maker, I said aloud "Of course it is..." I tried to put it on my Amazon wishlist but they don't stock them.

Photoshoot

Sunny days are for taking pictures outdoors. In the service of gross and wondrous commerce, I spent a few hours taking pictures of a slew of small things from the last two years that have never seen the light of day. Now, I'll spend the rest of the afternoon putting some them up on my online store Like Hotcakes and a few over at the Etsy joint. I will be happy when I can stop being a merchant and go back to being an artist. I must have uncovered at least a half dozen UFOs!