works in progress

Although I set it aside for a while, I've come to recognize that I need to do this work, this art, for the sake of my own well being. Even if I don't always get enough sleep, even if I can't get a balanced meal,  I must take a few minutes and stitch.

Who knew you could stash your sanity in a river grass basket?

There's a clutch of twenty inch square vintage damask dinner napkins in the closet that I held back from the summers dyefests. They make great, controlled starting places. Boundaries are important to me right now.

As I make up fat baggies for the store I'm pulling out little treats and tidbits of cloth to keep for my own stash, a snip here, a sweet little passage there..most of  these will become part of the Vigil series.

devilish details

It gets too easy to fall into the cloth. Tighter and tighter into the warp and weft and all things on the periphery  fall away and lose meaning.

vigil stitching

It may not come to anything but it has a different feel. Everything feels different now. I call this "vigil stitching"; I was up most of two nights in a row with Jim.

The festivities took a toll on him and yesterday's chemo hit him hard even though his docs were happy with his numbers going into the treatment. He is better today than yesterday which is all I could ask.

One more wedding shot, my most favorite so far; my son standing with the official,  his face when he first saw his bride.

Celebrate!

Celebration!

There'll be no blogging or stitching this weekend. 

We will be celebrating 
Jake and Missy's wedding.

I can't tell you how happy this makes us.

L'chaim!

new WIP

I spent a couple of hours yesterday making a selection of garters for my future daughter-in-law.  The scrap basket on the floor was muttering at me the whole time.  Later that night this was sketched out. Only basted for now, I'm just going to consider it when there is time.

more fat baggies

I have a few orders to fill today and will be spending some time rooting in the scraps. The Fat Baggies have proven very popular. Thanks!

Does anyone want any particular color leaning? I hate to make up bags of blues or grays ahead of time but I will on request of course.

historical velvet

My first splash in the dizzying world of hand dyed cloth was my Velvet Lashes...I really could have run with that one but fashions come and go. We got a good three or four seasons out of selling hand dyed cotton/rayon velvet scarves.

Making these was much like making pizza. The scarves were soaked in soda ash solution, wrung out and then, one at a time, the color kneaded in; more kneading, less color definition. Pop it into a baggie and let it rest overnight before the wash and rinse.  The hardest part was not repeating myself colorwise.  I never failed to make the cost of my table before lunch on day one anytime I brought these to a fair.

That's my first dye partner, Jan Thompson in our art fair set up at the Norcross Art Fest.  It was a perfect vendors weekend. Hot product, great weather and they put us in front of a great Italian restaurant.
I was spoiled rotten.

Jan has since moved on to glass art and you know what I've been up to.

Every year when it turns cold (as it did with a vengeance last night) I pull my two survivors out of the closet and wear them all winter long. Everyone else sits at a traffic light and fidgets with their phone (which will still get you a ticket here in GA, btw),   I braid my fringe.

the hairy hot water bottle

Jimmy and Voodoo

Here is our feline codger dominating his human the way he insists on doing. On a chilly day, a hairy hot water bottle can be nice.

All that mad color is my very first attempt at a quilt that I knew was outside the pale of the traditional. That was all that I knew at the time. 2001 I think.

I  found a fabric place that sold remaindered cloth by the pound.
The base for this quilt was a high quality king fitted sheet. What seemed like and acre of thick navy flannel had been damaged in the manufacturing process; there was a bite sized chunk missing in one corner.

I had amassed a blinding array of commercial cotton prints, mostly from remnant bins here and there, and I was hand appliqueing irregular chunks directly to the flannel with no plan beyond coverage. The stitches are tiny. Under Voodoo's paws you can see an embroidered cotton doily that I picked up somewhere.  The flannel was so lush that I never considered backing the quilt and now the checkered border is evaporating the way cheap cotton tends to. It's warm and cozy.



We were just home from the cancer clinic in this picture. The docs are encouraged by the results so far. Jim is tolerating the treatments well and now we are just building health and strength to enjoy the upcoming festivities.

it's all grand

It's been two clinic/doctor days, all good and fruitful and I am grateful but I'm tired.

This morning I shopped myself silly in the food store in a vain attempt to not have to go there just one day this week. Foolishness.

All my tropical plants had to be brought inside; frost and even freezing in some areas have been predicted. I unpotted all the lantanas and committed them to the mailbox garden as there is no room inside for them. Tomorrow I'll bury them under some mulch and hope they make it through the winter.

A good friend reminded me that I needed a little diversion, she was right. There are dirty dishes in the sink, a dishwasher full of clean ones and mountains of laundry just lurking about wondering what I'm going to do about that balky dryer.  Instead I  spent a few hours just stitching.

I forgot!

To everyone who purchased Fat Baggies last week. Most of them should be arriving today if they haven't already gotten to you.

I forgot to mention the added bonus of how amazing and different the bits of damask will look if you take the trouble to iron them!  Some of the pieces take on an iridescent quality and you will be hard put to choose which side you want facing the world.

Whether you are hand or machine piecing with this cloth, you will get a great stitch definition as the thread sinks into the fabric in a juicy way.

"Lavanderia" my entry in AQE 2013

This is a detail shot from "Roadkill"

high and tight

I snapped this shot of Jim the other day with my cell phone. I think all this Old Dutch Master needed was a white ruffled collar but he thought he looked like one of the dwarves from the Hobbit.

Jake came over this morning to set things right. The last time I used the clippers (on a human) both boys came home and announced they wanted me to shave their heads and I said "sit right here" and gleefully whipped out the cape and clippers. This was back in the days of the fussy  bowl undercuts and I was happy to see them go.

It was over in minutes; bald is easy.
Jake looked like an otter pup and never grew his hair long again.  Colin looked like Knucklehead Smith and there are NO pictures.
The only hair I cut anymore is my own. Jake did a terrific job and Jim looks terrific.

pumpkin moon

I whipped myself into a sweaty frenzy looking for this yesterday so I could pick it up again. No luck.

It's somewhere in a 10x12 room. I hope I didn't stuff it in a baggie and send it off somewhere!

To quell the aggravation, I found these other scraps and started feeling around for the next holiday. Somehow I'll be hooking it up with the wolf/gator head below.

We haven't done Halloween around here since the boys stopped trick or treating. This year, I won't even be hanging up the ghosts because I'll be too busy getting ready for the trip to Big Canoe for Jake and Missy's wedding.

It's been a tough couple of days here. On chemo day Jim woke up with a fever and serious weakness. The clinic told us to come anyway so the doc could assess him. They took blood and gave back a short tank of IV fluids and a scrip for antibiotics. Some random germ brought him low but 24 hours later he's back on an even keel and the blood test showed very happy liver numbers. The chemo was set back by a week but it's all good.