Scrap Baggies Sale

Of course, studio cleaning is always followed by a good sale. These quart sized storage bags are stuffed full with everything from hand dyed damasks to satin jacquard with lots of hand dyed cottons in between. Most pieces are hand sized or smaller, some bigger but not much (I throw out nothing) so there's tons to work with here. Every bag has a nice chunk of something silver and stretchy. I have no idea what the fabric is but it's fun. $8.00 each includes postage in the US. Email me for availability first deborah@lacativa.com

Lucky Break

Late yesterday I found out that both "Exubera" and "Limbo" have been juried into "Art Quilts XIII: Lucky Break" at the Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler AZ along with a pretty star-studded roll of contemporary fiber artists. Congratulations, everyone!

unearthing

Spiders have been routed from the windowsills, UFOs are being tilled up from the subsoil and archeological societies are camped out in the yard. All operations are being overseen by one of my ablest studio assistants. Boxes and bags are being filled with snips and scraps that will be on their way to other people's studios keeping in mind that there is really NO trash. Take my word for it, his eyes are open.

the Stall in the Fall

I know pictures like this of art studios turned into public dumps are both common and boring but taking them and looking at them has helped me diagnose my Stall in the Fall, my unwillingness to take up serious design considerations and start something new besides another .....

...comfort piece. The time for patting myself on the hand and tut-tutting has passed. Lots of people have had tough rows to hoe and come out the other side in one piece as I have.

Nope, it did not kill me and therefore, I am stronger.

And so, in between other things that need accomplishing, today is Fold & Sort Day. Throw Crap Out Day. Spray it and Wipe it Off and Vacuum Day.

Thinking about a Change? Lisa Miller cuts it to the bone here.

Catching up

It's been a busy week. I decided on a nice deep border for the Booby Fling. Love those Cherrywood cottons from A. This one turned out a bit bigger than the others and so will take more time to quilt. As the weather chills down, this one is just enough to keep warm under while I work. I'm going to buy a lingerie bag and wash this one to test my care instructions so I can sell off a few of these. Now that I recognize that making them is an addiction I can not only tolerate but perhaps profit from. Jim had his final, miserably huge stitches removed on Friday. I kept imagining (and snickering over) an old joke that when the stitches were removed, his ass would fall off. The surgeon was mercifully brisk and almost like magic Jim's smile came back, he stood up straight and his ass did not fall off. I look forward to shedding my Nurse Ratchet in Charge of Pain persona and revert to being Queen of His Realm.

To celebrate, I spent the day with my buddy Jan down in her neck of the woods. We ran amok at Los Bravos with taco salads and decanters of Sangria although they didn't serve it with fresh fruit like at the Columbia in Tampa AND they wouldn't let us take the unfinished decanter with us!

OHCO disappointed me yardage wise - for some unknown reason they have removed all the manufacturer's labels from the bolts on the shelves and what was left seemed dirty and picked over. They were delighted to feature tables piled with simple, hemmed tablecloths and napkins. I only bought just this one to see what I might make of it but it was only $3.

scribbler's wednesday

Since my camera is on some kind of Mercury retrograde vacation, I've fallen back on the scanner. The last free pages in the sketchbook are looming but it's taken me since 3/04 to come that far. I'm just not a sketcher. Flipping through the pages, most of them have unintelligible scribblings from meetings, lists of supplies for projects unknown, anything but drawings. Thanks to Susie Monday for posting this quote from Annie Dillard. But here's a doodle that recurs and for once has made it off the page into reality. I wanted these leaves to stay soft, the better to be woven into my own version of Judy Martin's protection blankets, but the batting scraps I used must have had some kind of adhesive on them that activated and hardened when I ironed them. Now they are crisp, stiff ...almost mailable. Watch your mailboxes.

Booby Fling

Maybe these are coming in advance of a colder than usual winter here in Georgia? The birdy bodies are vintage damasks from my recent sugar dyed batch. When this one is finished, it's going to be for sale. I have to start making all this needle flailing pay somehow. Until then, I can look up on the design wall and have a chuckle over this silly gathering. There was a show on TV last night about a lioness who kept adopting gazelle calves. She was cub-less and confused. It did not turn out well. This bunch look as if they would try to hatch rocks as easily as they would eggs. You can't imagine what I went through to find a nice picture of the Boobies they were modeled after! Addendum - the border came out wonderful but I used another whole damask tablecloth to back this one and , due to the shifty nature of the stuff, it's proved impossible to hand stitch. Rather than machine stitch it, I'm going to take it apart and reback it with the plain muslin that has been so successful thus far. Live and learn.

Fling Flung Blankies

I've had some time to think about why these light weight, personal sized utility blankets are all I care to accomplish these days. It's only too obvious to anyone who has ever cared for someone at home who is recovering from a serious illness or injury. It's not that there is no time - between all the little things that are needed by the patient there is too much time. Time waiting. Time planning. Time worrying. So here's to the small joy of inexpensive fabrics, soft and gentle to the touch, white & cream, as clean and inviting as any blank canvas, completely ready to shape to my will without struggle or argument. Hand ripped and unmeasured strips almost ordering themselves without so much as a pin and lying flat, sweet and compliant under the machine's needle never giving a moments birdnest or bunch so much so that I will stitch a foot of inches before I notice the bobbin is empty. Here's to a simple set of bright colors and simple shapes laid into each block with a few hours of hand applique.Then, once the blocks are joined and the top and back fall into place, a few more days of waiting time hand quilting just enough graceful curves and leaves as they occur to me. The twelve weight cotton thread flows through the two light layers of muslin as easily as thoughts flow through the mind and time slips from summer to fall and when it's finished I'm holding pure comfort. Just enough cloth and weight to keep off the chill of a waiting room, a treatment room or a rainy afternoon, it was every moment a pleasure to make and I know will someday bring comfort and utility to someone else for years to come. This one was my fourth and last night I started a fifth. I call the points monkeyteeth. Now I have to consider writing lesson plans for something like this including everything from dyeing the fabric to hand applique. Too much for beginners? The month is young and I made two major deadlines. Time to start something new.

weekend recovery

This piece has been just what I needed these past few days. Something to hang onto and focus on fiercely. I've started the quilting that joins front and back and will go on with it for the rest of the week as minutes and moments present themselves. I keep telling myself "all things for a reason" and heard a movie character say "yesterday is history and tomorrow a mystery". Both sentiments to reflect on for the moment.

Big Blessing

I am deeply grateful for being Easily Amused. This is a big deal in a consumer driven society. I stopped by my favorite Yankee Candle shop the other day and frustrated the clerk by taking an hour to select six votive candles: Evening Air, Autumn Wreath Fireside, Sun & Sand ,Patchouli and Sage & Citrus. The visuals I get from the names alone inspire me.Time to light up and get down to some stitching. There's a Fall Fling in my mind and I need to curl up in my soft chair, breathe deep and just be still for a while.

Reward for Hard Work

I spent the day simultaneously updating my main website gallery and finalizing things for the QN entry. I think I have everything in the right places. Who knows what's on that CD - they may get treated to pictures of spiders and cat asses instead of the pieces I intended as entries. I'm sure the judges could use a good laugh after a bit. As I was building the individual pages for each of the six new pieces (new since December 2007- the last time I updated the site) I had to root around my psychotically disorganized server space for various images. I found that, thanks to my blogging habit, several pieces have good "works in progress" posts complete with images and I though about linking to those posts from the website like this. What do you think about doing this? Later on, a fantastic treat. Colin left us a movie to watch after dinner and I spent most of the whole film with my mouth open and eyes peeled. I'm a real tough customer when it comes to movie entertainment and this one has been newly installed in my top five. A complete visual feast to go along with spellbinding storytelling. Don't blink or step out for a snack, you'll miss something wonderful. Rent the Fall by Tarsem Singh, you won't regret it!

friends afar

All I did was say "me, me, me" when Marie offered up extra cigar boxes and look what treasure turned up. This little flag that came along for the ride lifted my spirits so much. Thank you my friend. Marie and I roll along in the same ditches it seems, from Tarot to fountain pens to audio books, I never tire of finding out more of the little things that amuse us both.

Last Minute-itis

I'm willing to bet the farm that I am not the only one out there scrambling to gather up the threads of the Quilt National entry requirements. Even though the post office is closed, the received by deadline is Friday and there's always Overnight Delivery. Yeah, yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to enter. Did I lie? Nah, I was just unable to commit which three pieces to submit and, as of this very moment, I still haven't decided. We had a delightful day of normalcy around here yesterday hallmarked by the wonderful smell of my husband's award winning chili. Jim is intent on entering the Great Miller Lite Stone Mountain Chili Cookoff this year and decided it was time to start cooking up the public chili which is given away as tastes to the general public as long as it lasts. Jim tries to bring enough to last through lunch - I hate to guess it's around ten gallons or more - which he makes and freezes in advance. The Judge's Batch Chili has to be prepared on the spot at the campground just before the judging begins. It was great to eat some elses cooking for a change.

holding my breath

With Gustav advancing on the Gulf coast here I am mentally whining about the possibility of a week of rainy overcast once it's fringes reach my area. Some gall. I went to a meeting of the GA chapter of the Surface Design Association yesterday afternoon. The group has put together an exhibition proposal and was working out the details of which local venues to approach. Talking about exhibits in 2009, 10 and 11 makes me anxious. For several years I have been unable to project my life or career as an artist any length of time into the future. I started mining out the studio yesterday evening and found myself with a pile of happy playfellows on the work table so I started building houses...again.

pFAn

Joanie San Chirico is right! No one is ever going to see the things I've made if I don't take action on the marketing front. I joined the Professional Fine Art Network a few months back without giving a it lot of thought - I was flattered to be invited. Now I have to work on making it work for me. Now that my free (read "unemployed & broke") time is hopefully running out I'm inspired to take some action. As the song goes "you don't know what you've got til it's gone". I've applied for a couple of small grants and have selected few juried show to enter and my main gallery needs updating. It's August already and I haven't posted any 2008 work yet. The dust bunnies have had babies in the studio too. pFAn is a networking index for fine artists and consultants working in the hospitality, health care, corporate and public art sectors. Having just spent a lot of time staring at some truly hideous not-art gracing the walls of a hospital, I have a new appreciation for how far a little beauty and positive energy might have gone in that particular setting.

groping & sketching

EB had a really thought provoking post yesterday. It actually put my withered brain in gear for a few hours and on into sleep thinking about the answers to the questions she posed. Which art & artists inspired and, more importantly, why. At first I opened an old sketch book and scratched around with pencil in the dark. There were some old drawings in there by someone I barely recognized. Some were good. Some were awful. The questions raised were around what we like and how to stay on the task of bringing those elements into our own work. What is it about a particular piece (mine or anyone's) that captures my attention and keeps bringing me back? The list got long and strange. -energy -stealth -symbolism -gestures -"living" color - that which is not seen but hinted at. - moods suggested rather than stated - a "booga booga" quotient. Not wanting to waste any more ideas (I find that if I commit something to paper it never finds it's way off the page) I dragged some lines around with fiber and thread. I love the way you can force your will on strips of old damask. It's old and full of unknown history and will slither away on it's own if you don't rein it in tight.

August Sun

It feels like I haven't seen the sun in weeks. Between time inside the hospital - the smoked glass panes made every day a cloudy one - and the blow back we've been having from hurricane Fay, my tan is fading and my swimming pool is green. I started this little piece of hand music to try to loosen up my appliqué technique. Leave things a little loose, hairy and puckery. There may even be some beads down the line.

UFO's continued

I got the last 500 or so pins out of this one last night and was dizzy from stitching in circles for hours. It's over 80" wide and is busy overwhelming my design wall. I hardly know what to make of it right now. It's kind of a throw back for me design-wise but I continue to work my way through the UFO pile in hopes of turning up a gem. This one might just be a really nice blanket someday.

house fling

We are under the shield of overcast from Fay. It's dark like it wants to rain but so far only a spit or two. The trees toss with strange smelling breezes - winds from somewhere else. Nothing left for this one but as much hand stitching as it take to hold front to back respectably. I rushed the building of it this morning and the side borders are a bit wonky. Just thinking about hurrying is a signal to me that this is the last of the Flings for this year. I have prayer flags promised and not being much a a prayer, I'm at a loss for the moment. It will come.

Sugar dyeing

A few folks have asked about sugar dyeing. I wish I had done a few process photos while I was doing the last batch but I wasn't thinking about making a tutorial just then. Plus I was working with two left gloves - someone's idea of fun while stocking the grocery store shelves I guess. Sugar dyeing is not all that exotic. There's nothing really chemical going on. "It's MECHANICAL" to quote Bugs Bunny. When I first started dyeing my own fabric I read bits and pieces about different ways to bring the dye and cloth together including the salt dyeing process I found at Paula Burchs' fabulous site. I took a stab at it but wasn't in love with the results on regular fabric. When I started dyeing damasks, I took another try at it but I had a new idea of what I wanted the salt to do for me. Keep in mind this technique may not work unless your humidity is high like here in Georgia. Do you know why you put a few grains of rice in the salt shaker? To keep the salt dry. At high humidity salt and sugar crystals will take on a bit of moisture from the air - simple kitchen science. I started with a half cup of rock salt in a small plastic container. Left the lid off overnight, out on the deck. Readied a piece of damask soaked in soda ash on my work table. Dust mask plus wet neckerchief and goggles in place. No breezes. (I do all my dye work outdoors- ignore safety rules at your own peril). Folded a quarter teaspoon of dye powder into the salt. The dye sticks to the damp crystals. As I work, I change colors by just adding more dye in to what's already in the container. With a spoon, I sprinkled the salt/dye mix over the fabric. Rolled the fabric up lengthwise and then coiled the roll. More or less manipulation of the coil at this point will blur and distribute the dye or not. Pop the coil in a zip loc baggie and let it bake in the sun for the rest of the day. I rinse the fabric by hand in a cold water tub and follow up with a hot water machine wash with Dawn and machine dry. Where does the sugar come in? I ran out of salt! Sugar works just as well as salt.

almost home

Jimmy was sort of half sprung from the hospital today. The medical doctor cleared him to leave pending the surgeon's approval but the surgeon was too busy running through the halls with a chain saw. He finally popped by after I had gone home promising to spring my man in the morning. I nipped out in the middle of the afternoon to come home and see what had become of a batch of damasks that I had pushed into a stew of soda ash the day before Jim's surgery just about a week ago. What was I thinking? When I opened up the container I half expected 20 gallons of mush but the cloth seemed OK so I went ahead and sugar dyed it all. I have a "what if" in mind for some of this fabric. Nothing fully formed, just a notion. I was busy elsewhere so daily life has taken a back seat. My pool has been sadly neglected this past week and all manner of strange things just came out of the skimmer and dip net. I just hope I can get back in the water to do the real cleaning. The water has cooled down a lot and hurricane Fay will be drenching us in a day or so.

caesura

Thanks to everyone who has sent prayers and expressed concern for my husband's recovery. Jim is on the mend. He took his first solid food in a week last night and seemed to be tolerating it when I came home from the hospital last evening. My mock nursing was getting on his last nerve. While I was gone this weekend, Raquel cleaned my house and it was such a pleasure to come home to peace and order when I had expected the chaos and clutter that I had left behind. The only room she wisely didn't go into was my studio. I peeked in, looked around cracked the windows and closed the blinds. A storm is coming soon. The mess in there is dispiriting in a small and laughable way at the moment. I had no photos for this post and found this one in a file on the computer. I know the piece is in the studio somewhere, unfinished, but I'll be dipped if I can find it.

Thanks for asking

No pictures, just the facts. I have been sitting by Jim's bedside in the hospital. He is recovering from surgery to remove a section of his colon where cancerous lesions were found during his first routine colonoscopy. I won't preach. Can't preach because I have not yet had my own first checkup - it will be scheduled shortly - just know that his doctor said that another very few months would have made the difference between a good and a poor outcome. Bumping up against mortality in this way has us both rattled to the core. And that business about sitting by his bedside? That's a lie! They have huge, high tech lounge chair that I spent the first night sleeping in but the next day Jim found he was more comfortable in the chair than in the hospital bed so at any point in the last 72 hours nurses and doctors have found me sleeping, sprawled out and generally lounging in the bed. I'm just home for a moment to count cat heads, change, shower, brew myself a decent cup of coffee and head back to duty. A duty I am so grateful to be performing. More when I can.

Bundles

Pursuant to the discussion I had with myself on the previous post I've started hacking up some of the larger pieces of fabric I have in my stash and putting together little sampler bundles. This from a girl who thought nothing of wearing striped socks with a plaid skirt. The individual pieces are roughly fat quarter or dinner napkin sized and total up to more than a square yard. Plenty to mess about with. I'll be listing them on Like Hotcakes adding more bundles as I keep grouping, ironing, folding ....it sounds like work but it's kinda fun. I just have to remind myself that these little beauties are headed for someone else's studio or sewing basket.

cutting up the cloth

I've been thinking about Elizabeth and Rayna's posts about the reluctance to cut into art cloth once you created it. Looking around my studio, I have to say I'm guilty as charged. Could be partly why I have so many humongous pieces of fabric that are not selling like Hotcakes. If I can't bear to cut them up, what makes me think someone else could be so bold? Time to break things down into imaginable hunks so later today I plan on dragging out the scissors, slashing away and putting together the yard+ bundles that I used to offer. There are also about twenty-five pieces of damask stewing in soda ash solution out on the dye deck that must be seen to quite pronto. Got to mix some colors later today. It' gray and raining and color would help lift the mood.

Hot Houses

No Jude, this one may wind up with a light batting also. What shall we call flings that have grown a pelt because fall has peeked around a bush at summer? Our weather has turned rainy and cooler and I will be spending a good part of the coming week by Jim's bedside in the hospital where they have all the AC one could need in Georgia. Fearful that the red overdye I gave the borders would bleed all into everything, I gave it a good thrash in the washing machine last night tossing it in with a bunch of Jimmy and Colin's socks and underwear to pink up for fun. Murphy's Law at work - no red run off at all. When we first met and felt the need to get to know one another better, Jim came with me to the local laundromat where we did our wash together in one machine. Very sexy. My brand new red chenille bathrobe left everything he owned a loving shade of pink. I plan on doing some of that Indian edge wrapping technique on the houses before I decide if there will be middle to this fiber sandwich.

Safe as Houses

I was thinking about Judy Martin's protection series and the expression"safe as houses" when I was searching for some floating nines for this latest fling. I've pieced the striped border from A's beloved Cherrywood cottons but the grays and browns depressed me so I tossed them into a red dye bath for a makeover. I seem to be attracted to some kind of wayback machine notion of time these days - I actually sat in rapt, if puzzled, attention the other evening and watched all of "Now Voyager" for the first time. Made in 1942 back when Bette Davis really was exotically beautiful. She had on the most amazing pair of earrings for a long stretch of the film and I found myself webslogging for an approximation of same for my own lobes. No luck so far. These are from my deck garden. The tomatoes were just snacked up for dinner and the habaneros bagged and frozen for the Chili cookoff in the fall.

Ni hao World

Who knew that 8's were so fortuitous? Certainly not me when I painted "Congregants" in 2007. I'll take good luck anyplace I can trip over it. I was glued to the screen last night to the spectacle of the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics. Chinese culture is so complex and old, it would take lifetimes of study for a deep understanding and I confess ignorance. I resigned myself to just taking in the visual aspect and kept hearing myself oo-ing and ah-ing over each new image. The general impression I got was of a people who will work together to accomplish a goal, no matter what that goal is. The results were amazing. I won't go all political on you here but I could not help but reflect on how opposite this culture is from ours and how our culture suffers from divisiveness, feelings of entitlement and the unwillingness to accept personal responsibility in the face of all the challenges we face as a nation. I had intended to stitch my way through the evening but didn't get much accomplished beyond sticking myself to bleeding a few times. When the actual torch lighting began I was charmed by the water spirals projected on the screen along Li Ning's progress around the inside of Bird's Nest stadium. My freestyle hand quilting is almost always spirals building out on one another much like these.

Last Fling (for now) - storm light

The thunder is rocking and rolling from the west and the trees are shaking out weeks of dry leaves everywhere. We haven't had serious rain in over a week of 95 degree days. It's time. I had to try to get a shot of this one before I start dragging it around everywhere blankey-style, doing the hand stitching on it. Can't exactly call it quilting if there are only two layers but there you have it. Now, if only the power doesn't go out!

weaknesses

For lack of anything current in the studio to show you , here's what I've stapled to the door outside it complete with my shopkeeper's bell so I won't jump out of my skin when someone enters without knocking - as if the door was ever closed. Titled "She Hears Voices", you would think it might keep folks out altogether. Anyone who's been around in the fiber art world on the web will recognize the strong influence of Pamela Allen. I made this piece when I attended one of her classes during my first visit to ACA in FL. I was thinking about the Wednesday doodling that a few bloggers do when I pulled this out of the UFO pile last night and tried my hand at thread painting. Now I recall that figure drawing was something I never conquered but always wanted to. Like many untrained artists I draw what I think is there as opposed to what really exists. I'll call this cartooning and promise to take up portraiture someday. My mother used to doodle women's faces complete with '40's hairstyles and this looks just like one of her girlies.

Last Fling (for now)

Sometimes you just lose focus, or maybe you never had it, and you were just going through the motions. I've recalled that going through the motions is how to keep one's head above the water.

Blueberry Picnic

I've finally finished this piece and it's time to say goodbye and send it on to it's new home. One problem - I haven't added the sleeve because I can't settle on an orientation. So, dear A., flip it around a few times and decide for me.

another start

I skipped adding the hand appliquéd elements to the second one in favor of letting the focus fall on the rusted fabric but decided I needed to come back to the hand appliqué and take more time with the design of each block. Stop hurrying. Stop time. I made a big selection of colors and loaded up the basket so they would be at my fingertips. I have another idea for the monkey teeth this time also. The Summer Lightness is catching on. Look where Margaret is taking it.

Fireplace finds new purpose

Remember this piece from one of the first dyefests of the year? I am deeply gratified when an artist uses one of my hand dyed pieces in their work. As much as I loved it, I was at a loss for what to do with it beyond wash, iron, fold and squirrel it away for "someday". I'm lucky that "fireplace" fell into Jude Hill's magic hands. See what she's made of it at Spirit Cloth.

people will think I'm unemployed!

A basket full of handwork represents purpose, productivity and comfort to me. Lordy, next thing you know, I'll be darning socks. My grandmother had a carved ebony darning egg and I watched her darn a sock once and thought "that's nuts" but then, I was six or seven and not in charge of keeping decent socks on a hard working husband's feet. I also seem to remember getting in trouble for gently whacking my sister on the head with the sock egg. This is the second not-quilt in what is sure to become a series but none destined to languish on walls or in art galleries. In time, these will be gifts. It seems kinda like cheating as they seem to manifest out of thin air and some otherwise aimless hours. Just as I was tossing it over the railing to be photographed this little feathered jewel stopped by for lunch, gave me the hairy eyeball and went about her business freeloading at the Hummer Bar.I was about three feet away and afraid to lift the camera to my eye so I just tilted it up and clicked. My first ever decent shot of one of these little buggers.