Cusspot decanted

This is the first cusspot I ever made. I keep it with my hand stitching basket to capture thread ends rather throw them any old where which caused the early demise of my Hoover upright vacuum.

After a year, it was bulging at the seams. We had hellacious storms in the night with high winds, hail, lightning and threats of tornadoes all night. It went from 80 degrees at 11 pm last night to barely 50 degrees this morning but everything looks fresh scrubbed as if Winter was blasted away and Spring can finally get on with Summer.

I went out side and put all the clippings and snips in the shrubs around the property so they can become nesting material. We are aswarm with cardinals, eastern bluebirds and many other birds in this neighborhood all rioting around the property and setting up housekeeping.

small stitches and grand plans

I started this bit of embroidery last night during "Mildred Pierce" but I was too tired to get into it and it may languish. It's an odd little cartoon that I've had in my head for a while - I think the gesture comes originally from a H.Bosch painting, a pickpocket working the crowd.


Saturday JR and I met at HoAnn's to confab over the weight (not!) for the batting in her quilt and not arriving at a choice for backing fabric - there's plenty of time for that, and 50% coupons still unripe. I did have a couple to use up and went back yesterday and was compelled to by a pattern and two lengths of fabric intended for wearing.

After spending some time with the pattern instructions I'm tempted to email McCalls the meaning of the word "easy". I remain doubtful but having once upon a time replaced the engine in a 1963 Ford Fairlane, I think I can handle building a garment from cloth. As you can see, the quilt has affected my color sensibilities. My wardrobe tends to the "denim mudhen" spectrum so these will be a welcome change of pace.

a tiny snitch of blue

"She's In the Pink" is well underway. Making utility quilts in this manner is so satisfying, like spinning straw into gold. Bonus, setting aside the handwork for awhile is giving my aching paws a rest.

I spent my work shift using a frozen picnic coolie as a wrist rest while I moused about. Trying to tab my way through my work is pestiferous but necessary.

For you Idol watchers out there. do you think there is work for my son as a double? (Colin has long since gone clean shaven but needs a haircut even more badly)

Opening Day!

Finally!

Gotta go buy me some peanuts!

GO BRAVES!

the efforts of others

I love seeing what other artists make of the cloth that they buy from me.
Made for one of Jude's online classes,
 Helen was kind enough to send this.

It always amazes me when my cloth is seen through other eyes and and felt through other fingers, to see what's made of it after I have thrown up my hands at a loss - yes, dear customers, you only get the fabrics after I am well and truly finished with them. If I had hours to waste I could backtrack and give you the provenance of almost all this fabric...hours!   

If you've made something, anything, with fabric purchased at Random Acts of Dyeness, send me a picture and I'll show the world, with your permission of course!

time constraints

After working the weekend and using yesterday to catch up on errands, I woke up this morning fully convinced it was Sunday, fell back on my face and wasted half the morning of what's really my Monday. Ugh.

To compensate for the disjoint in time, I set about building my friend's Pink quilt with wild abandon. Ripping, ironing and piecing without a measuring tape or pattern in mind is very freeing.  Once the top is finished I plan on some very organic machine quilting - more fun for me and a good warming up for working on the Big One.

stalling

 one of many neocolor sketches from last night. it's still on my mind.









I'm still thinking about how I want to proceed with the new piece on the wall. I like it for it's simplicity and vigor and don't want to screw it up, bog it down with a technical misstep.

I gave fleeting thought to finishing it like "Beach" - only two layers, aside from the design elements and all hand stitched. It was finished as a functional summer quilt, one of my "flings' and I spent most of last summer stitching on it. The pale blue in this one is cotton lawn, the blue in the one on the wall is silk chiffon. Is the energy and immediacy of the new design cancelled by miles and hours of my very small Kantha stitching?

It feels that way to me.  I am more inclined to layer it over a light batting and machine stitch it, the way it did with "Innocent Bystanders" or "Roadkill"

So the question, dear readers, is machine or hand stitching..and why?

detail from Roadkill

new on the wall

Just something to think over in my sleep.

this is big, 4x8 feet (hear it crack in the wind!)




I met my friend Jan for lunch at our traditional place los Hermanos Taqueria in Lilburn where the California Quesadilla is  so reliably delicious I don't know why we bother with the menu.
One of Jan's sons, Ryan,  has been recruited to be on the Taiwanese version of American Idol!
Does anyone know how to access Taiwanese TV via the internet?

Sunup

I spoiled my own coffee yesterday and walked around with a headache until after lunch, grumpy. This morning I got up to find the dishes already done and good coffee (correctly made) just a button push away. I love you Jimmy.


In a few minutes the sun will have cleared the eastern horizon and come blazing into the studio and I'll go back up there and take advantage of the light and work a bit more on this which has to be named "Clara's Tattoo Dream". 

I'm off from the office today so it's going to be an art day for me with a tentative break for lunch with humans at an actual restaurant. Wonder if I'll know how to act??

There is cloth to select, sort and iron, a big New piece to get up on the design wall, stitches to stitch and laundry to catch up on before the weekend rain sets in. ciao4now.

after dark

My end of the swap arrived yesterday! It's more subtle and mysterious in person than it was on the web and impossible to do justice to with a hasty snapshot. Thanks again, Clara. For now, I have it stuck to the mirror right over my monitor.

I was inspired to take up tools and doodle a bit and a little later, I closed my eyes and reached into the scrap basket for two pieces of cloth and I was amazed that I never found them together with my eyes. This will be a part of a much larger whole:

worky worky

The morning was given over to a combination of cooking, laundry and cleaning - all satisfying pastimes with immediate and visible outcomes, unlike art.

But a new dye season is on the horizon and I'm already collecting the white goods. There's an Antique Depot nearby that has a great load of old damask table cloths with a half inch of dust on them, in time I will make them an offer they can't refuse.

My wish list at ProChem changes almost daily. I have to keep reminding myself that old dyes still make great fabric.

Lest you think I have been consumed by cooking and cleaning, (those who know me well are having a good laugh) above are two single sized tops waiting to become quilts destined to be shipped to Japan when I finish them on the machine.  I'm grateful that there are those in the US who are organizing the transport and distribution. I knew when I made them that they would be useful someday to someone.

This little exercise  is already finished off.  It's now a kindergarten sized quilt with a tiny black and white checked border and a soft blue and white pin striped cotton backing, built for living.

dream influenced

I wanted to show this new piece in progress the other day but Voodoo decided I should go do something else for a while.  He was quite insistent.


I'm glad everyone else took great pictures of the super moon last night - although it was clear as a bell last night and I could see the craters and such, I still couldn't persuade my camera to come up with anything more that a fuzzy white ball. I did remember to take my tarot cards outside for a blessing.

We've been extra busy around the house this week. Jim is about to start a full time job and I am going to have to relearn how to shop and cook. Prepare for tales of woe from the kitchen.  

 
I'm been daydreaming about making this since I saw this.

the Big Swap

 
"Deranged" is being prepped to travel to it's new home.  I've worked out a swap with artist Clara Fialho and can't wait to show you what I will be receiving in return.

The sale is going really well. Thanks to everyone who has participated so far - it's been real a shelf sweeper!

Helping Japan

I was going to raffle off one of my larger pieces but local regulations make that idea a headache I'm not willing to live with. Instead, I'm throwing open the store at Random Acts of Dyeness  through March 31. Here are the details:

Any fiber bundle or grouping is $22, any crocheted cusspot is 12$. 
First come, first to make off with a bargain and help others.
Email me for availability and a PayPal invoice.
I hate it, but I can only ship to the US!.

50% of the proceeds will go to the most direct "to the people" relief fund
I can find and I'm still doing research, all suggestions will be welcome and investigated.

painting, not.

Did anyone else think how incredibly arrogant I was  to think I could just pick up a brush and wail away in a medium that I never came close to understanding, much less mastering?  

My husband won't even let me paint the window trim.

Watchover completed

And not without some bizarre challenges. I went to press it and saw something dark in the water reservoir of my iron.

Rather than spew unknown crud on a finished piece, I took the iron into the bathroom to empty it out and clean it. The dark stuff was a horde of ants that took me close to an hour to evict down the drain. WTF?

That background damask is such a difficult color to photograph. This was taken outside just a few minutes ago, the sun down in the trees.


I haven't measured it so here is Karma to help with the scale.

with clara's permission

With Clara's permission, this is listed as

"Untitled"
2005
watercolor & gouache on paper, 30"x22"

but the name of the jpg file is "dream" which suits it perfectly.

stick a fork in this one

Isn't early morning light peculiar?
This looks like a sonogram!


I'll post a decent picture once it's blocked and finished off but no more needling for this one.

I still haven't taken a moment for some painting - I'm relearning my way around the kitchen now that Chef James will be having better things to do during the day. My problem is that we are all spoiled rotten and his culinary magic will be a hard act to follow.

other mediums

  this is from the Scribbler
 
this weekend I'm going to take a break from sewing and feel around with paint and see what I find and how well I like it.

The fragrance of  this day is "Un Jardin sur le Nil" by Hermes. I think I have a winner.

link love

Get out your happy faces and party hats! No time to ask permission to post an image so you'll just HAVE to go there and see Clara Fialho's work for yourself. 

And....they are whoppin' huge!!