sum up - day 1

No hummingbirds yet but a fabulous Pileated woodpecker stopped by for a second. Got a nice new working surface. Rounded up all the tools including some new big fat brushes. No dye mixed yet. My little deck frig died over the winter so I'm going to stock it with dry ice tomorrow. I can't decide if I got more or less done. There were a lot of interruptions. Post office, plunder JoAnns and Michael's with 50% coupons. {{gasp}}} a Nap! About 50 pounds of miscellaneous cottons, damasks and linen soaking in soda ash solution. Some huge. Some not. I was tickled to find a small packet of alginate in the dye tub. Mixed up a gallon of goo. Here's the first fruits of the venture, I guess. I finally unwrapped those vinegar stinking frying pans. Some Rust. Now, what do I do about my husbands rusty camping cookery? I don't know if I am going to overdye these or leave them alone.

10,000 looks

According to Sitemeter on Mar 31 2008 6:14:44 pm someone from St.Paul, Minnesota,USA was the Ten Thousandth visitor to this blog. Holy Cow! If you recognize yourself (a Comcast subscriber, btw) let me know and I will send one of those relics of the past, a Post Card!

FOF08 - Lawrenceville Frankenstein Dyeworx- day 1

All right folks - daylight's awastin'. I know my awfully early ways aggravated my immediate neighbors at FOF last year but for me, sleeping in is not an option. As I begin my own studio week, one of the things I'll appreciate is having my assistants close at hand. If I can get the Black dye the way I want it, I will be making some cloth in Karma's honor. Such pretty patterns. I did this yardage last night while watching the Braves home opening game. No idea what becomes of Sharpie markings through the rest of the dye/discharge process but I'll find out. The first order of business this morning will be making a big tub of soda ash solution. We are expecting thunderstorms here all day so I'll be inside working the soy wax at the kitchen table. There is also a bundle of cloth, vinegar and rusty frying pans outside that has to be opened and inspected. Is color taking a back seat this year? I dont' think so. Although I have been in a black/grey state of mind for a spell, I'm counting on the dyes to bring me back to myself. C0lor mixing begins later today! Thunder and lightning be damned.

the deconstructed

(mood enhancer just added) I took those shirts apart yesterday and when I was finished I wondered what I would do with the pile of collars, cuffs and plackets . These little headless creatures are not quite what I had in mind. These are benign and silly looking compared to the scary things that I keep seeing in the corner of my mind since Jim showed me this silly thing. At least I got it out of my system before I put all the rest of that great seersucker together. Now I'm I'm sure I'm going to have to do something to it - as yardage goes it's pretty boring. No wonder they put the shirts in the Goodwill box!

Highs and Lows

On the upside, these two pieces, "Baghdad Bazaar" and "Clubbin' " have been selected to hang at the Peabody Auditorium Rose Room Gallery, Daytona Beach, FL. After running a lot of lists mentally, including the things I can and cannot control, I won't be going to Focus On Fiber '08 down at the ACA in New Smyrna Beach. There are too many cons for travel at the moment but I hope to try for the October edition. I plan on holding my own private FOF08 all next week here at the Lawrenceville Frankenstein Dyeworx. There will be pictures and play by play! I plan to try keeping to the same schedule and pace that I set for myself when I was at fiber camp last spring - working "cain't see to cain't see" most days. Both of the pieces above were "born" at FOF07.

recycling old(new) stuff

Deb Roby & I must have been tapping into the Zeitgeist today. She wrote about it - thrifting, repurposing, dumpster diving - whatever you want to call taking old garments/fabrics and using them according to your own design - while I was out doing it at the local Goodwill. Being frugal that is. The awful truth is that if I had waited until tomorrow I could have gotten these 3.99 seersucker shirts for half-price by proudly waving my AARP card around and cackling. I spared myself the mortification 'cause I just had to have 'em. today. (more truth - I may go back there again tomorrow for more stuff even cheaper) I was on the lookout for wool sweaters and silk blouses to cut up and a Bullet Blender (for dye mixing) but I stumbled across these shirts which were never worn! Old Navy just off loaded them. As they are not quite my comfortable size, I'm torn between saving them for the legendary "10 pounds from now" and cutting them into strips for a real bed blanket - something to needle by hand. There is no design plan in my head at the moment so I'll stay the scissors for tonight. ps: to my pure horror the Most Perfect Pair of jeans (that were also had for a song) are un-zip-able and I thought they would be my new second skin. Curse Girl Scout Cookies! Something drastic is at hand.

Quiet Weekend

Some might say "the End Times are at hand!" The bad blood between these two usually runs hot. Now I'm beginning to think the animosity they usually display is a pose for the humans. Jim spent a lot of time at the job this weekend supervising a critical phase and Colin went to Florida to meet the internet GF for the first F2F. Within limits of propriety (and nosy mom-ness) I'll let you know how that went. I couldn't even get in any good consumerizing. All the places I like to shop - Goodwill, thrift stores, HoAnne's & Mikey's - were all CLOSED! poop. Packed? No, I'm still only making mental lists.

Piddling, paddling, it's all good.

I never get tired of catfish. When I was a kid I used to feed them like city people feed pigeons. Catfish raised on Wonderbread! This almost has an Amish feel somehow. Since I don't have a traditional quilting background I know it's an echo of some technique or style but can't say just what. I just know it was fun picking through the scraps. It's a bit too studied (once again) but they are just nailed in place to the wall for the moment. I'll fiddle them around a lot before I pin and baste (you read that right) everything in place so it travels/handles well. It's all going to be hand appliquéd but leaving raw edges everywhere.I like the way the fuzzy edges look water blurry. My point in setting this treat up is so that I'll have something to keep busy with while the dyes batch properly instead of rushing things the way I always do. I might even take it to the beach one afternoon.

We were blind but now we see

I found a scrap of silver lycra that could have come from a great Elvis costume. My little mudcats are very happy to have eyes now. After escaping unscathed through the wild weather yesterday, we settled in to watch three hours of Matt Damon being a stoneface in "The Good Shepherd". Slow but compelling. Three quarters of the way into the movie I smelled smoke. Thinking a neighbor had lit their fireplace to cut the chill and damp that had set in at dark, I dismissed the smell. A few minutes later I caught it again, this time stronger, insistent. I bolted upstairs to see if some nitwit had left the iron on my studio. Nope. A quick trip through the upper rooms and I could tell the smell was wafting in through the bathroom window and I caught an ominous glow just out of view. I dashed out the deck door to see a house completely engulfed in flames not more than a quarter mile away through the woods behind our house. As we stood on the deck watching and hearing that the firetrucks were already bearing down on that neighborhood we watched as the wind lifted sparks high in the air and carried them up over our house and the houses on both sides. We quickly went out and roused the neighbors on both sides (they were sleeping!) to be watchful and anxious with us. By the time we got back to our vantage point it was almost all over. Fortunately we found out today that no one was living in the house and no one in the houses close by suffered any losses. So frightening to think of losing everything in a matter of a few minutes.

hand stitching for stress relief...

[[For family & friends concerned about the tornado damage in Atlanta last night.We're all good, luckier than some with no damage here. We are 29 miles to the northeast of that part of the city and lucky to only have a summer style thunderstorm pass over us. Jim is making the grocery store run right now as we are in for another line of severe storms this afternoon.]] Jude, Lately, the hand-music is all your (inspirational) fault. You and them lions. I wish I could break out and be more free with it though. My stitches just line themselves up like so many little ants. Compulsive hand stitching should be a clear sign by now to myself that I am stressed and should be treated like a minefield until I can broaden my artistic gestures and horizons again. breathe. act. continue. "dervish" (above) and "little sweetie" date back several years.

More mudcats

I've been going back and forth between these little compulsively stitched pieces and the website work. Both things are some very narrow focus kind of doings but I only do what I like so it must be what's called for at the moment. I actually tried starting with a much larger canvas but after a long while of shuffling shapes around in space they wound up congregating again in a tight little ball - all whiskers touching. Must be Spring. (click for a closer look)