revisitation

Since nothing much new has come out of the studio lately, I thought I'd scroll back some and look for some inspiration.


As soon as I paint my office,
I'm going to start hanging these older pieces, one by one.

Here's the original post.


It's for sale, of course. Email me if you are interested,







"Los Dados Encantada" 

2012

56x34

A days worth of doing before noon

One of those days where getting up early paid off nicely. Made  my lists, hit all the stops and  had all the "gottas" out of the way by noon.

All but one...get a replacement zipper for my fleece jacket. This meant a trip to Ho-Anns and me with no coupons. Oh well, it's only a zipper, right?

The crack was there ready and waiting.
Calicoes and batiks for a smaller quilt for Charlie, big fat cushy skeins of Lion Homespun and a J hook, just in case I couldn't find one of the five or six I have somewhere in the studio.

Not much later I had a visitor for a little while, but I don't think he'll remember.

Later, I put in eight hours in the whine mine  and still had energy to burn, in fact, I was up writing until nearly four. That was the real cherry on top of my day.

The cat crew insisted on breakfast at eight, so another early start only today dawned gray, raining and thunder rolled from time to time.

 A real good day to sit and stitch. The new quilt is well under way.

a day taken out of time

 Yesterday was a strange day. I never got dressed or left the house. I cleared off the stitching chair in the studio and sat with the cloth for  a while, but it was absent-headed fiddling with no intent and the results showed. An hour of stitching equalled another fifteen minutes of picking out. No surprise. The film "Giant" was a colossal bore and complete waste of James Dean.

Some stitching, some boring TV, some napping, and for me,  some dreaming.

A breaker failed last week and I have not been able to figure out which one. There was no power to the bathroom, closet or bedroom TV, so, no great loss at all.  Jake came by, fiddled with everything and still no power. I will call a pro eventually.

Last night when I was done with work,  I went into the bathroom and, out of habit,  flipped the switch and the light came on. It took me a minute to realize that somehow the electricity had righted itself, as if it was sulking and now happy I needed it again.

I turned on the TV on the same circuit just to check and it worked. "Gladiator" was on - gift from my Goodman on a day when I needed it. I left it on and we dreamed together.

A year gone by

"Hollow Places"



How little I knew back then. 

Winter sets in.

My house may be cold, but this room is warm and we are cozy. The only problem with this scene is that they object when I put the wireless keyboard on their heads.

Tough titty, kitties.  I had a major writing breakthrough this morning. Notes are now down, paths and further questions ironed out. It was a great day, even before the coffee was ready.

Time for Art to Work

I've decided to take this one and few others  out of the gallery and put them to use.


What better use that a playground or a cuddle for my grandson?



All of my art quilts were built with the same materials and techniques that I use for utility quilts and bedding. Except for the latter ones that used vintage damask, they can all stand up to machine wash and dry. All I have to do is remove the sleeve.





I'm thinking this one needs at least one backup.

The light of our lives

I have always been a picture taking fool when it comes to the babies in my care. Really, I could just watch them for hours. They are so amorphous at this age, changing right before your eyes. Look at those hands!


Unfortunately, Charlie  is already expecting to see his own face when I point my cell phone at him. The "Selfie" mode works wonders when he fusses.

You can see by his expression below, that he is wondering where the damn baby went!

I get pretty much the same expression when I read aloud to him.

We are working our way through "Gone Girl" right now.

Repercussions? Who knows.

These are dark days if I dwell in the past. Charlie helps keep me in the here and now.

Badges flying

"True Love Ways" should be arriving at its new home tomorrow or the next day.

The proceeds took me for a much needed day away from the ranch. However prosy you might think squatting in IKEAs cafeteria from breakfast though lunch might be, it was just the ticket for me and my friend.

The food is just meh, but the time and space with no one hurrying you away from your table is a luxury. And then there's the store. I'm not much of a shopper, but this place does it for both of us and that in itself is amazing because our tastes are so divergent.

Janice pointed out that I have been squeezing this same pillow every time we got there since the place opened. I finally threw it in the basket.

And for the first time in forever, I was paying attention in the toy department and it's a wonderland.  Charlie likes faces.

Fall on us

Progress on this piece has been slow but hands free/brain free time is scarce. I take it when I can.


It's been an emotionally and physically exhausting week. The other day I took Jim's wheelchair and left it just inside the vestibule of the Catholic church that's so close we can hear the bell. The door was open, no one was around. I just wheeled it in and left it.


I submitted a short story to a literary journal and have since found out that I have a better chance of getting into Harvard! Hilarious.

And there's nothing like being greeted in the early morning hours by a smiling face who knows you and challenges you to bring your A game to his day.

This too will be changing. Jake has changed jobs and will soon get home in time to have some Charlie time all to himself. A good thing for both of them.

Thanks Kit!

A great package on the doorstep has been the buttercream frosting on a great day (so far).

My sister Kitty has a knack for knowing what manner of outrageous appeals to me. (She's the one who supplied me with the purple stuff for my hair)

I've been craving anything with this VeraBradly design forever - I even stalked a lady in the airport to ask about her bag once! This is the Grand Duffle in "Suzani"  and if I ever run away from home, everything I could possibly need would fit in this only I would not be able to lift and so there will be no running OFT.

 And don't send me any spoilers about the book. I might watch the movie if it comes to Netflix, maybe.  I've already heard that Ben's junk appearance is practically a magic trick. If that's the film's strongest draw I feel bad for his wife. I'll get my jollies from between the pages, thanks

Indian Summer

This is the upper deck that overlooks the pool. Looks like a party going on and me still in bed.  The park in Lilburn was glorious this morning. Someone put up a Little Free Library at the start of the main trail since Sunday. The trouble is there's a little bench right there and the temptation to pick a book, sit and read a while is strong and my point in being there is to get some exercise.

I have a bunch of books to put in it. Maybe seeding it with things from my library will encourage some other like minded folks (there were a lot of kids books and beach reads, but hey, they just put the thing in the ground!)

I brought a little stitching along for trail's end. Another walker stopped to see what I was working on and couldn't get over that there were no little printed blue lines on the cloth, that I was designing on the fly.  I told him it was like Paint by Numbers with no lines or numbers.

Collaboration

These are the wooden hoops my grandmother gave me when I was five.

There is no Try.

It was good light for stitching. The Winter Chair has been cleared of clean laundry so when I have time to sit there and stitch, I will. 

Thanks to everyone for the words of encouragement. There will be no more whining.  Nothing is impossible.  I gave the chaos of the studio fifteen minutes and put these four pieces back in storage, for now. Looking at them closely, handling them - I can say without a shred of embarrassment, they are fucking fabulous. Getting them exposure is on me.

 Top to bottom these are  Los Dados Encantada,  Consolation , Jazz Takes Over,  and Karma I . I am not going to let all this passion evaporate.

The first direction I got today, and I can't tell you where I heard it or read it, was "Do what you love". I must have repeated that ten times and decided I sounded senile.

It's a lovely sentiment when it's not set in a framework of  reality, like available hours. Still, there are minutes to be claimed and I'll claim them.

I love what I am doing except for the paying job. How hilarious is that? I found out the other day that my boss and my immediate supervisor have both "moved on". All I have to do is figure out how to replace about 1200.00 a month from some other source and I can catch the same train they did.

We are having a bit of Indian summer here in Georgia so I took the time to tend the temple this morning and got in  a mile in at the park, my knee feeling better for it rather than worse is a good sign. And while I was out there on the trail, a major rough patch in the writing resolved itself.  All of this bounty and tonight, the final game of the world series. Since I have no horse in this race, I'll be watching with one eye and doing something creative with the other.

And for those of you who stop by for the eye candy, here's a treat. Yoda stopped by. He said
                              "Do. Or do not. There is no try."