Summer's end

I was still going in the pool right up til Friday but the night time temps have dropped off and I've been running a fever on and off for a few days. Probably something I caught from swimming in September. We'll struggle daily to keep ahead to the falling leaves until the cover can be dragged out from under the house and installed. The Braves just finished their last game of the season, their long-time TV announcer Skip Carey made his goodbyes and I found out (where have I been?) that Turner Broadcasting will no longer be carrying the Braves games to the nation. Sad. So far nothing on the upcoming season seems worth watching.

Hooking for Fun (no profit in it)

I picked up a couple of wonderful books at the library the other day and set about to see what all the fuss is about. I like that rug hooking can be a real recycling art using almost anything at hand, and I got lots at hand. With a quick stop at JA's for some burlap (shudder) and yet another crochet hook that I didn't really need. The fact that they didn't have a real rug hooking tool tells me that this technique is not on the trendy scale here in the South. At this particular JAs they are still up to their butts in scrapbooking materials/supplies and probably consider rug hooking to be a bit provincial like churning one's own butter. I worked up this little sample in no time and I like it. The burlap doesn't thrill me but the potential and the notion of using whatever charms me. I missed the chance to observe some pros at work at the ACA retreat back in March; I was too intent on my own thing and boy, they were intent as hell over their things too.

webwork

Come on over and see what's new in "Like Hotcakes". It was tedious as hell getting all them little buggers posted but if know one ever sees them, who will know?

the gesture theme continues

It hasn't taken a lot of contemplation to realize that this new direction is actually a continuation of a theme that I have been working on for almost two years now. The arc, just half a circle, is the simplest track of a desultory lift and fall of a hand. You don't even have to make the effort to join up the ends and there it is. Tongues, tombstones or tonsures, make of it what you will - it's a mere flip of the hand.

backsides and more

Friday brought great mail - this postcard for my new favorite crack house and an acceptance notice from Quilts=Art=Quilts for "Mudmen Procession". I have to think about how this piece should be shipped to minimize the creases in the acrylic paint. The backsides of my work has been preying on my mind but Rayna Gillman over at studio 78 notes has eased my mind about a quilt's less-than-perfect quilt backsides by going public over the matter. Given the simplicity of my stitching you'd think that the backs of my pieces would be fairly tidy- NOT!. I'm sure my machine is overdue for a professional tuneup - the least little change in thread, top or bottom, or needle or fabric, for that matter is usually cause for nests, skipping and other hidden horrors. As long as things look hunky dory from the topside, I'm satisfied. Then I start to think about whether the jurors are going to spend any time looking "upskirts"as it were. I mean really, if you went into an art gallery and started lifting paintings off the wall to check the backs of canvases you'd be ejected . I am still so strongly tempted to go ahead with my idea of making pre-printed stitch or iron-on labels for the backsides of art quilts that say "WRONG SIDE STUPID!" or "NOSY LITTLE BASTARD, AREN'T YOU?" or "WHAT THE F*CK ARE YOU LOOKING AT?". Think I could sell a few? I've been stitching on a piece started a long time back - it's been growing on me as it nears completion. No surprise that I had dreams last night about a variation on the same piece that demanded execution first thing this morning, I mean before sunup even. I don't know what part pleases me more - the hand-dyed flannel, the color scheme or the little 3D tongues standing up smartly and being different colors from different directions. More of this to come for sure.

The Day Job

Did you know that I have a day job? I work at the offices of the Handweavers Guild of America in Suwanee, Georgia. When I first took the job I thought "who knew there were so many weavers out there?" Now I know. Here's my first attempt at weaving. At HGA I answer the phone, do computer stuff and try to make myself useful. They publish a magazine called "Shuttle, Spindle & Dyepot" and every other year put on a gigantic fiber art conference called Convergence. The next one is going to be in Tampa, FL hosted by the Florida Tropical Weavers Guild and promises to be the Lollapalooza of fiber art gatherings. The next issue of the magazine comes out in October and contains the registration information for CO'08. This is when we tighten our chinstraps and hunker down.

cross-eyed & crazy

Limbo 38"x68" I spent most of today finishing the quilting on this piece which was actually late born last summer. I'm particularly pleased that each and every piece of fabric from that session has gone on to be part of a finished piece. That was a really good day a the dyeworx. Here is a detail shot. I'm not sure I am completely finished stitching but I'll let it hang a while on the wall and see what comes to me.

Signatures and such

Thanks to Tracy Helgeson for blogging about it first. Over the weekend I decided to dismantle, clean and oil my Janome 6500 which is well overdue for professional assistance. Doing it myself was the next best thing. Once I had it back together I started noodling around on my test sandwich adjusting the tension and such. I have half a dozen pieces either poised for shipping to shows, or waiting to hear if they are going and none of them have labels or signatures. This came out just the way I wanted it to: Now I have to get busy with sleeves for most of these pieces. Colin snapped this picture of Karma standing lifeguard duty even though it's a race with the falling leaves to keep the pool clean. When the air gets cooler in the evening the water still feels warm and refreshing. We are in for a spell of rain and cooler temperatures so I'm afraid the end of pool season may be upon us.

Summers End Dyefest

Yesterday I spent the day with my buddy JR who is here visiting for a while. While we were wandering around the county I rediscovered a fabric outlet I used to shop years ago when I was still working for AT&T. It's gotten some bigger since then and it's only an hour from my house. OHCO should be a whole day's adventure but in just about an hour we found enough to keep us busy. JR got some lovely lightweight decorator fabrics that she is going to learn to turn into pillows and I scored four yards of 100% cotton, 120 inches wide, for a mere 2.99 per yard. I scoured it quick and dirty last night with one hot water wash and Dawn and this morning hacked it up and plunged it into a soda ash solution. It's a light weight weave, not quite as light as lawn but not as sturdy as sheeting. There was little to no documentation on the bolt. Turns out that it takes dye quite nicely and these dyes have been hanging around in the fridge since March and so not quite at the top of their game. Still and all, some real nice pieces that will go into my badly needed cache of backing fabric. These are really large hunks...the blues on each end are 60 inches square.

GO BRAVES!

Braves stun Phils with comeback

Diaz's two-out, three-run double in ninth caps key victory!

THIS is why I love to watch the Braves play baseball! NOW we are having some fun.

RIP

Drunken Hummers

I think this is what happens if you let the stuff in the hummingbird feeder get fermented....

Time to Make Dennis Miller Proud

In response to a comment on the QA List< As if our current leadership is any less morally bankrupt. I'm a firm believer in survival of the fittest and anyone who mistook the likes of Timothy Leary as a leader deserved whatever snake eyes they rolled. I stand by that statement for today's youth. If you are too ignorant to take care of yourself, please don't breed and please don't come whining to me with your hand out. The strength, vitality and leadership of the baby boomers who came through the test of being Hippies, intact and better for the experience, is a testament to the fact that there were many more people who had a strong sense of self-preservation, self-respect and self-determination than there were victims. And since the notion of taking personal responsibility for one's actions has become a thing of the past, there will be no shortage of victims in the future. I give full props for the survival strengths in my character to to my parents who came from that Greatest Generation, through the hardship of the Depression and the conflict of World War II. They raised us Boomers like weeds, wild free and full of life, how could we NOT have become Hippies at play in the world they made for us with their sweat and blood. Thanks Mom & Dad for letting me have the fun you never had time or imagination for. I still look both ways before I cross. I wish I could have done as well for my own next generation but theirs is a very different world that is going to suffer for our greed and selfishness unless folks wake up and start making changes and once again take personal responsibility for everything they do.

the sandwich shop

Apart from taking a break to see (hear) the Mets sweep the Braves and have a migraine headache (is there a relationship here?) , I've been busy building backs from scraps and getting these dye-painted tops sandwiched and ready for stitching. I've really enjoyed the "Mob Scene" series and don't yet know if I am finished with it . I don't want to start another set of dyed pieces until I've seen all of these (and a few more) through to completion.

Going to the Show!

whoop:whoop "3 to 5 for Mopery" has been juried into Art Quilts XII: Current at the Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler, AZ. Yesterday, Jim asked me if I had gotten over the concern (I won't call it angst) of selling off my "babies". I scoffed and assured him that was not the case but in this case there's still a pang over the thought that each time I send it off I may never see it again. Try as I might, the reality of this piece continues to elude my camera. If the sun ever comes back out, I'll take it outside and try again before I have to ship it.