clean slate

It's easy to see how the possibilities never end I want to be completely satisfied  with each aspect of the piece as it develops - why push ahead and commit when it's just not right or working.

I will be leaving this one alone for a while since I'll be leaving to visit with family in NY and can't take it along chock fulla pins as it is.
And I have a notion that this is only half the finished size. When I get back,  I'll get another backing panel this size and mount it on the left.

I'd like to bring along some hand stitching but I don't really want to check a bag and don't want to risk losing any of my tools to the TSA. It will be a fiber free visit unless I go scrounging for used cloth with my sisters.
A change of scenery, climate, and activities will be good for me.

Failed at..

...being off the machine. mostly.

But at least it's been a productive day. This went up on the design wall between loads of laundry and during the Falcon's game. I don't follow football but the excitement of the locals, including my son Jake, is contagious.

All around that Jim and I watched, and thoroughly enjoyed, all of season one of Californication.
 Given the surprise ending of the last show, I don't want to see any more, happy endings being such a rare and endangered species but it's so well written and acted I'm happy I just found out that season six is just starting. We'll parcel out the rest over time.

I also mentally dragged my novel out of memory's closet and killed our little heroine on the second page. Who was it  said we must kill our darlings? This one on the wall is in deep shit right now.

Happy Friday!

Thought I'd leave you with a little color before I get off this electric treadmill for 48 hours...it's a test.

There's a lot of work brewing on all fronts and I don't want to let the moments fritter away.

This was a quick and dirty sketch to see how those Inktense Blocks work...not so great in my sketchbook, I should have known because the paper is very closed, almost greasy.

I finished basting K4 this morning and already I'm looking around for more scraps of black and white cloth. The sun peeked out just as I snapped this shot, and then it retreated.

Karma IV wip

I've stopped looking at the other candidates now that this one has been peeled off the nasty, heavy base it started on and pinned to an nice expanse of black fleece. I'm not sure if I am going to lose the formerly irregular edges in exchange for this oh-so-tidy rectangle. There will be time enough for those decisions as I try to work from the center out to the edges. I'm not certain about that big central gold "butterfly" either. Even after I baste everything, nothing is carved in stone - all remains in flux.

still uncommitted

Judy, I was inclined to agree with you at first and I still haven't settled.

What I do know is that if I really want to, I can approximate any of the runner-ups another time, thanks to the digital gods.

What I do know for a fact is that this piece was built on two pieces of thick, synthetic mattress pad which is terrific (especially for large  pieces)  for its stability, but grisly to do hand stitching on. When the layers of cloth on top are three, four, even five in places, as this one is, hand stitching becomes tortuous.

The plan is to peel this off the base, one pin at a time, and then relocate it onto a piece of black fleece.Stitching through damask over fleece is like sewing butter -it's lighter, more flexible and very portable.

 I've got an acre of warm and natural cotton batting hanging around and I love it but experience has taught that hand stitching through vintage cloth over a  cotton batt is asking for gross bearding, especially bad when the piece is mostly very dark. I'll save the cotton for baby quilts.

hooky Wednesday?

one

I'm ever tempted but instead, just going to spend the shift eyeballing these four on the screen and see which one makes the cut.

Right now it's just all pins, 24" x 40".
Once I make the final choice I'm going to do most of this one by hand. I need time to think and I'll want this one with me while I visit with family in NY next week.

Cast a vote in comments for your favorite if you have an opinion. Saying why would be a sweet bonus. I'm seeing just how contrary I can be

two

three

four

series finale

What was originally planned as a small, hand-stitched piece has ganged up with some other cloths and may turn out to be the largest in the Karma series.  Way to early for anything more to see. It's still brewing.

I know a lot of visitors came here for their daily  overdose of color and must be grumbling over this series. My motto has always been "fuck 'em if they can't take a joke" but this foray to the polar ends of the rainbow has been deadly serious for me and feels like a fork in the creative road. I won't know for sure until I take up with the colors once again.

Way back in the day at SVA we learned about black being the absence of color and white being all colors at once - or something to that effect. Keep in mind the teacher sold loose joints from his shirt pocket.  Any way I mix it, paint (in my hands) can't approach the complexity of cloth in black and white and all the stops between them.

I used to be impatient with the necessary techniques of cloth and raved about wanting to fling paint to achieve my vision, but, through this series, I've finally come to appreciate that cutting, trimming, pinning, basting, and stitching have forced me to take the time to consider at each step, keep one foot in front of the other and my eye on good design principles as each piece develops. It only took removing color from the equation for me to finally get comfortable.

Karma III

"Karma III"


36 x 36



(this is an updated photo..all machine quilting is finished)

I wasn't happy with the level of intensity on some of the black damask so I laid in what was left, piece by scrap, from those black linen slacks and now its jumping.

Karma 2

Karma II (20"x 24")

Just a quick and dirty snapshot - I shudder to think what the actual photo sessions are going to be like with this lot and I'm not totally convinced of the orientation of this one just yet, worked in the round as it was.

 I put the last delicious stitches in the pink just as Lady Mary came down the stairs in her so chic bridal gown. I explained to my son that in the twenties women didn't go out and buy breasts. Two hours of the new season of "Downton Abbey" put cream cheese frosting on a busy studio weekend. And now, right on it's heels, one of my Mum's favorite movie "An Affair to Remember". I'll be asleep before the weeping begins; I recall this movie was about an hour longer than it needed to be.

#3 is on the design wall now, chock full of pins and standing buy for about four hours of machine stitching tomorrow. I'd really like to wrap this series up before I head up to NY mid-month.

the details

I have four pieces in this series in varying stages of  "almost finished" and I don't want to get sidetracked and  let them languish.

This one has been backed and blocked and I'll spend some time anchoring the layers with (invisible) hand stitching for stability. I'm already thinking "bigger" and will be scouting around for more black and white clothing to recycle.

fiber apostasy

I felt the need for some retail therapy yesterday. I got some nifty gift cards for Christmas and have waited to pair them up with some 50% coupons. At Michael's I  scored a long coveted set of Derwent Inktense blocks and busied my self seeing just how 'tense the ink was. I opted for the blocks instead of the pencils -why pay for wood?

They are pretty blazing amazing on paper but not worth wasting on cloth..I've dyes for that. Can you tell by the rainbow riot that I'm a little parched for color so deep in the B&W series? I feel a tattoo coming on.

inktense on muslin

questions from left field

The strangest things will come in dreams.

I had a dream that I was looking at a painting - it was a very large, old oil landscape, something like a Frederic Church spectacle - quickly, the painting morphed into an intricately worked leather belt and, when I looked again,  a bracelet of layered silver links and then, a very large watercolor seething with flowers.

Then I realized that I was looking at these things from the perspective of a person who had no concept of "making" anything - a pure consumer of end products made by others, the mysterious Makers.

It was the oddest feeling; an off-putting incompetence with a dash of defensive arrogance. I thought of a TV show where a crystal skull was being examined and it's provenance could not be explained so it was attributed to aliens. It was a little scary. Who are the Makers? What was their objective in creating these things?

My Maker guise quickly stepped up and took back control of the dream and I was left with questions.

Who are the non-makers and what do they think of Art? What does Art matter to them. Are they another tribe altogether? When does resentment fade and wonder take over?  Do they ever get over being on the outside looking in? I have to ask around outside of this space since I know 99% of my readers are Makers of some sort.

2013

"Starwatcher"  by Moebius

"The start of a new year can be like opening a magnificent gift"
 Thomas Haller Buchanan