shop local!

Yesterday, on a wild whim, I picked up my friend JK in the next town with the intention of walking in her town park instead of mine.

Instead, we stopped by this little thrift shop and spent an hour looking to complete my mother of the groom outfit. Very trendy but nothing grabbed my fancy. I kept picking up dresses and talking about cutting them up and making owner grow faint.

I was literally walking out the front door when Kim pulled this out for my approval. Ding!

 It's at the dry cleaners right now and if my guess is right, Procion MX dyes will sort out the garish gold and reds. More to come.

waiting wall

Some days there just are no words. The Braves fell to the Dodgers last night and our baseball season is over. I am in withdrawal.

These are all aimless starts, shiftless scraps, hanging on the design wall so they don't get accidentally-on-purpose hacked into, shredded or otherwise kicked to the curb.

Before almost everything else I have to return to some regimen of self-care.
Now that the swimming season is over I have to carve out an hour of  walking each day and I plan on pairing that with with music or an audiobook.


                 It's too early in the fall to feel like a bowl of cold noodles.

feeling for fall

done!

Last night I spent hours chasing my tail in circles while agonizing over which three pieces I should enter in Art Quilt Element 2014.

Of course Voodoo picked this time to be a needy feline codger and kept jumping from my side table to my desktop with a side trip across the laptop every few minutes. I had the distinct impression I was keeping him from an online poker tournament.

 I had my choices by one in the morning, images in a folder on the desktop, ready to go at the crack of dawn after a good night's rest and hot cuppa joe. But first I had to go ten rounds with Comcast.  I won't fry your brain with the details but know that my conversation with the retention sales rep on 10/18 will be one for the books.

Being a little superstitious so here is one of the three contestants, a fan favorite,

Inspired by Grace's little black and white kids last season.

Los Dados Encantada

rewind, backtrack and unpick

My ability to focus has evaporated.

I've had to take the extreme measure of typing my AQE entry into a word doc from which I then cut and pasted the info into the live entry form. Web entry forms are nerve wracking on a good day.

This little piece of hand music was appliqued this past weekend during a frenzy of anxiety and will be unpicked if only because I don't want to be reminded of the emotions.

I need to find my reboot button.

Again, deepest gratitude to the friends who came through with the patches for my little art ark. We will keep bailing and paddling.

it's come to this

Whoa, my dear people.... you are all too kind. I am overwhelmed and my goal
has been met, entry fee and, the fates willing, shipping too!  A mere thank you seems not nearly enough.

Ok my friends, I've given up trying to figure out where any extra money could come from. I'd like to make the final deadline for Art Quilt Elements but the discretionary spending account has cobwebs in it. And baby spiders.

If you can help financially in the smallest way, it would be deeply appreciated.
Here's my PP address.

And if you have an opinion about which of my most recent works should have a shot at AQE, that would be most welcome too.  All of the Karma series are eligible and Cephalopod (center below)  is first on my list.

gratitude

There was no clean out or restocking because this UFO reminded me that all its piece parts are still in the river basket. It was a good day to remind my fingers what they are all about for a little while. No housework on Saturday is my new rule.

There was my goodmans good company,  bright sunshine, cool breezes through the house, and manicotti and meatballs baking in the oven (cooking is not housework).
 Did I mention a gift of pumpkin cupcakes iced with cream cheese frosting and an invite to work with gouache for the first time? Thanks Crystal.

Right now, there's a sage & citrus candle burning in the studio and the Braves on TV in a short while. Life is good and I am grateful.

the comfort of the grid

The intention was to use these small canvases from HL for mounting stitched pieces but there's been nothing from the needle and thread department lately. It's very quiet in the river grass basket which really needs a good seasonal clean out and restocking.

On whim I decided to see how the various water color crayons would take to the canvas.  Nicely, as it turned out. Intense, vibrant. I'll seal this one with a clear matte acrylic later today.

The grid has made me think about pulling the commercial prints out of the closet and maybe starting something blanket-ish. Whats being called these day a Modern Quilt.

the comfort of doing

After a whirlwind morning of a  clinic visit, shopping and cooking, the cool damp weather made for great napping.

I wanted to be doing something with my hands but had no brain driving that train so I took the crochet basket off the shelf and cranked out two of these while we watched a little mindless TV. Sylvester Stallone should leave it alone.

I made sets of these cotton string pot holders or dish scrubbers for myself years ago and still have them. Like 20 years ago.




The vampires were happy with Jim's vintage today which made all of us happy.

sighs, whispers and echoes

As predicted all that flash washed away leaving these shadows of themselves.

You can get a close up look here

Each of these pieces is a little more than a foot square so I'm going to tear each one in two and then make some small sets that include a range of colors over six pieces.

Smaller than my usual cloth burritos but full of potential for hand stitchers, each bundle is magic $13.00 which includes first class postage in the US.

Here's an example of what each set will be like:

A stitching day?

After what feels like weeks of blessedly perfect weather the sky has clouded over and two days of on/off rain has been predicted for the area. Sorry for the folks going to Music Midtown  but the plants and animals seem to be holding their collective breath in anticipation of a good bath and a deep, clean drink.

The river basket is calling me and there will be some time for stitching I hope.

I have been putting off cleaning up the dye deck but I may do what I can with it between the showers.

My tradition of visiting Elizabeth Bartons studio so we can use up each others spent dyestock may have to be put on hold until next fall so I may dig some un-dyed cloth and put it into my tired colors knowing that the results are going to be sighs,  whispers and echoes.  But that's ok, they will all be beautiful.

 I need to do some shop keeping - the cupboards are bare - so whatever comes from the dyedeck this weekend will be available soon over at Random Acts of Dyeness.




All this activity is predicated on what I'm finding is a post chemo pattern in Jim's treatment. This weekend he will be in a resting phase which somehow translates into less anxiety for me even if there's a little more steppin' and fetchin'. 

I think I've recognized that I was born into service in many past lives. This would account for my affinity for the staff of Downton Abbey as opposed to the upstairs folk who seem to spend all their time fretting about how things appear to others. The staff knows in their hearts that the work of their hands matter, to whom or why is not something they dwell on. It's the doing of the thing with pride that gives them a deep sense of purpose.