Building my own ocean

I've started building my own ocean. 

Been sleeping under hand stitched houses for a while now and always wishing it were just a little bit bigger all the way around.  This one will be lots bigger and it will have beach houses.


The studio help was just helping too much this morning so I've taken the whole business outside for now. 

salvation & inspiration

Most days I don't pretend to work out. The Manatee wallow is my stroke of choice.


There are those who say having a pool is too much work. I do it for free and this is my reward.

Chillin' as we can

The cats take advantage of the night cooled concrete and flooring and I take advantage of the first light from the east.

The heat will break later today with  storms, hopefully more rain than thunder and lightning.

Time to shut the door - I can feel the heat coming in with the light.

new work, day one

I have oceans of blue fabric just waiting for the call.

designs on paper won't do this time - going straight to the cloth.

cloth of purpose

All of the fabrics that I overdyed this weekend turned out to be heavier cottons. A broadcloth tablecloth cut into fourths, several yards of what feels like double weight muslin and some lightweight twill.
Maybe I was looking at the pile with my hands rather than my eyes when I selected pieces for another chance at better color. That worked out well.

It is all cloth of purpose and I left the pieces large because I intend them for several large pieces I've been dreaming about making. Works that will be built with techniques and materials intended for use but designed for display. Does that make sense?  I like to think that the flag bearers who carried medieval banners into battle got to sleep under them at night for warmth.

sweeping up after the fireworks

Over 700 people checked in to find out more about mounting small fiber pieces to canvas! I shoulda sold tickets! But really am happy to share the info. Whether or not it's right for other artists is up to them.

These are the winners that got to spend the 4th in a dyebath, poaching for a while before I do anything else to them. The racket in the neighborhood was incredible last night but there was nothing to see through the treeline so I skipped around the TV shows with fireworks. As I expected, nothing comes even close to Macy's Show with Boston a close second. In my opinion having fireworks accompanied by contemporary pop music is just friggin' awful! It's the classics or nothing!

Nobody does it like NY!!

Happy 4th!

 It's just us this year. Colin is at work and Jake & Missy just left for the lake.

We are celebrating the 4th quietly. A little swimming pool, some grilling, roast corn on the cob, watermelon and a little overdyeing.

What? You mean not everyone overdyes on the 4th of July??

There's a Braves game on TV at 5 and by the time it gets dark there will be fireworks all over the neighborhood with the patter of lead shot falling on the roof from errant shotgun blasts. Ah, living in the south!

rain

It's drizzly day for the first time in ages which means it's a stitching, quiet contemplation day. Breezes are slamming open doors. Sleeping cats draped everywhere.

I continue to sort/fold/iron my way through the two big baskets of dyed fabrics - three for me, one for you...


As I go along, I find pieces that relate to one another, color and texture, and fold them together into project bundles for some future time. I have a lot of projects on the back burner.


Large, hand stitched pieces, take a lot of commitment to the outcome so you want to be really sure of your path before you take that stitch. I find myself taking extra care with each stitch so there will be no false moves to take away from my satisfaction with the finished quilt. For now, building my own beach is taking the place of being on one somewhere.


 It's been a long time since I have submitted my work to any kind of venue. The crapshoot of funding an entry has become an extravagance and I'm just not in any kind of mood to be judged. I'd rather play poker if I had money to piss away!
My time for art has become so precious that I can only please myself and I've been plenty happy about it all lately. Of course, the White Whale of Quilt National is looming and what (fiber) artist can resist that challenge, so I won't be putting up any more pictures of the big things in progress (jeez, that sucks so much!). Then there's one of my favorites coming up too, Art Quilts XV: Needleplay  where they don't yet care about pre-publication complications, amen.

back to the studio.....

Happy Birthday Colin

Happy Birthday Colin.

30? Nah, that can't be right...

the days were packed

Despite all the frenetic and exuberant color you been seeing these past few days, I've made time to sit quiet and start the long delayed satisfaction of  the handwork on Beach. I'm already feeling the pangs of the last stitch although this piece is very large.


 Thanks to everyone who had advice about the pain in my heel. All the recommended treatments and exercises are already making a difference. This too shall pass.

 

now I MUST go upstairs and sort, iron and fold all that exuberance!

As promised

I was trying to embed the video of Sweetie in the swimming pool but I seems to have gone web stupid this morning so here's the link instead.