November change & suprises

Jake convinced me it would be good for me to get out in the sunshine and stomp the woods for while. We went to Suwannee Park and walked and talked and suddenly he pointed out a mile marker to me and to my amazement we had gone a mile and I was not falling down. Bless him, he did go get the car and picked me up at the end of the trail. Not bad for my first outing in ages. My feet are singing.      This time away from the usual Sunday routine gave those jars extra time to batch and Jim  took them out into the warm sunshine for me. There was little dye in the rinse water but how these will finish out always remains to be seen. For now it's all eye candy. Enjoy.

new WIPS big & little

It's been a good day for the art. There's been progress on both the new WIPs, little unamed by hand is waiting for me to settle down and sew,  the big one below has been under the machine needle all day.  

Add to that a whole flock of vintage damask napkins and table scarves found their way into the dyepots today. For now, there's a dozen or more mason jars flocked around the little heater in my living room sort of poaching.  I promise not to get up in the night and start hatching them out. Dawn maybe.

Sesame Street

I've been enjoying all the media coverage given to the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street which, I happily confess, I used in loco parentis   when both my sons were little. It was so different than other children's programming and I counted on SS so heavily to entertain the boys that I religiously taped shows just in case it wasn't renewed.

We didn't go overboard in the consumerizing department but Jake had the large talking Big Bird that came with a cassette player in it's belly and books that went along with the taped stories. His mouth and eyes would move as the story was told in his voice.Jake tired of those book tapes pretty quickly and we discovered that you could feed Big Bird any cassette tape. Strauss waltzes were a favorite and one Frank Sinatra tape would cause Big Bird to open his mouth wide and roll his eyes up in his head gruesomely. One day when Jake was about three I came upon him in the living room feeding  Big Bird a bottle of Robitussin cough syrup. Jake had enough on his own face and clothes to make me call poison control. Big Bird was never quite the same.

passing time (on the left)

The internet provides endless opportunities for inspiration, solace and plain 'ole passing time. Equal measures for all.                                        Elizabeth Barton continues to kick my ass at Lexulous, (far more insidious than crack) even as she opens a solo show!

Visiting friendly old blogs and a few new places feels like being driven through interesting countryside like a recovering gork. Take a peek in on theWorstHorse,  come to from Whiskey River, and a very illuminating and thought provoking post here. Even the comments are important.        



In the studio, two new avenues of idea and action. Above, a large piece developing with the intent of mounting it to a canvas.  On the left, a new piece of hand music giving thought to an empty space in my life right now.

distracted

                         Without heart for much else, I have been cleaning and putting other things to work. I found  some unused canvases and have started mounting smaller hand stitched pieces with acrylic medium, basically mummifying the fabric in plastic.  Once dry, the textures are still there but the hand is gone. Hand? Given that we discourage people from touching the art was                                                     hand ever a consideration for this kind of piece? This is one of the Gray Grid series now up for sale at the Hand Music store                                                                 
                                             

bereft

My constant companion Jinx has been missing for two days and we fear the worst.

She started Firefly  with me just  after my birthday and she finished it with me curled in my lap on Sunday morning.  I am sad beyond words.



To all the kind hearts who have offered encouragement, hope and prayers, I thank you. My thoughts wander back and forth between imagined horrors and the hope that she is doing what animals do - find seclusion, curl up and wait for whatever may be.

Catch and Release

This piece announced that it was really and truly finished this morning and it was time to set it free. Well, not exactly free. We had our first sunny day in ages and I was able to get the photographs I wanted to launch my new online store for all the smaller scale things I have been working on for months :  Hands Music Fiber Art

October

I took my camera to work with me yesterday to get a picture of my pet mosses. Here's one wall of my cube. Some of you might recognize your gifts. I get  a lot of compliments for you, Karen and Marie.


The pomegranate was perfect.













Fall sneaks up you here in Georgia.













Here are my pet mosses growing in a crack out in the parking lot. I stopped and petted them the other day. I was going to up root the family and make an indoor desk garden but they seem to be thriving right where they are now so who am I to open up a Moss Guantanamo?

re-purposing dead sweaters

Remember this poor wool sweater that I accidentally felted? (Note the bare, cold toes who are wondering how people can wear wool socks?) It was lying on the floor in the studio by my stitching chair and I just scooted my  feet inside it just to see what all the fuss about wool footwear is. Amazing!

The sleeves from the sweater (which fell into a dyepot too) have been made into the toastiest, softest slippers and gotten a job as the photographers assistant. I couldn't wait to sew on the other eyes to show them off.

Lightning Bugs

This piece continues to amuse and entertain me. I hope I'll know when it's time to quit. There's a basket full of little things like this that I have worked to death.                       

Off to JoAnn's before my coupons expire!