after the crowds go home

We had a BBQ yesterday. Thank goodness one of our guests considers himself a Grillmaster. My idea of barbecuing is when enough smoke comes out from under the lid, it's time to turn things burnt side up, raw side down. Nice folks, too much food, water volley ball and a little thunder and showers. All and all a pleasant change of weekend pace. Company is always a great excuse for a little overdue housekeeping, pre and post party. A Braves game got underway a bit late due to the thunderstorm but once it got started it rolled on to a Turner field record - 17 innings and a badly needed Braves win. Although I missed the first half to hostessing, the cats and I watched the last half of the game right through to the last amazing frame.

Happy 4th of July

My deck garden is starting to make food. These are grape tomatoes which will probably be good for a salad a day for two weeks. The other shot is a green pepper, bell, I think, and a jalapeño which freeze well but may wind up in homemade salsa. I've been thinking about what it takes to "put food up" as my grandmother used to. I used to get to pour the hot wax over the top of the jam and relishes she made. She also put things in Mason jars and boiled them...stewed tomatoes, yucky. Liberty next year would be plowing under my whole front lawn and growing food instead of grass. And now that I think about it, I want a pair of mules and some goats and chickens. Folks are coming by today to grill and eat and swim. It will be nice to have a little company. Tonight I will watch the fireworks from my bed and listen to mariachi music. I can look out across the woods to the next street where, each year, they compete to burn down their houses with illegal fireworks displays.

back to the Studio

I finally feel like I'm waking up from the sludge of a long working trip. Thankfully, it's been deliciously cool overnight (for a change here in Georgia) as our AC has been on the fritz. Throwing the house open wide at night has made for good sleeping weather and renewed energy for the studio. I'm picking up this piece where I left off before I went to Tampa. Finished my one foot squares last night and will shoot and submit them to SAQA later today. Hmm, maybe I should pay my dues first... With an order in the pipe to Dharma and several juicy auctions in progress on Ebay, there's a big dye day coming up at the L'Ville Frankenstein Dyeworx in the not too distant future. Raquel wants to try her hand at color magic and having an assistant would be interesting. There are several handmusic projects in my magik basket and much contemplation afoot regarding a possible career change. Corresponding with AnneP has reminded me of keeping my eyes, hands and feet on my own artistic path. Lots to do, lots to think about.

making them last

I've been missing my Mom lately. She can't answer the phone easily anymore so I can only speak with her when someone else is visiting. This fabric flower is silk and metallic organza and cotton. I'll post another picture when she puts it on. Today we rounded up Jinx & Voodoo for their annual trip to the vet for shots and such. Had to knuckle under and buy that nasty crap for flea prevention (the collars were an expensive joke) and now NONE of them are speaking to me.

Happy Birthday Colin

Twenty-eight years ago today a nurse handed us this fierce little bundle. I told Jimmy "Go ahead and stick your finger in his mouth". Instantly Colin latched on like a snapping turtle. I was fortunate to have my finger on the right button to capture the moment. I may have posted this before but it's one of my favorites.

Home

It's so good to be home. That's my basket in the picture. I made the gentlemen from Africa un-bury almost all of the baskets they were offering so I could eyeball each color scheme until I found just the right one. Here we have the day and the night, the moon and the sun all worked in seagrass and leather. Jinx christened it as soon as I walked in and put it down and now I have put my first work in progress inside it - the eventual recipient will recognize it, I think. Many raveled threads to catch up and set right here at home but one by one each will be dealt with. I have a few pictures from Convergence that won't get me sued (un accustomed as we are to Happy Hour) but I'll clear them with the rest of the crew before any are published. Until then here's this from last evening. After the storm passed I watched the sky go from bright gold through pink and here before I made myself get up and try for a shot. Not doctored, this is really what the sky looked like!

signing off from Tampa.

More of this through the night and on and off throughout the day while I was mummified inside the bowels of the Convention center diddling bits and bytes and shuffling paperwork. I'm handing this laptop off to someone else on the staff tomorrow so I won't be posting until after I get home next week. While the impressions are fresh in my mind I have to thank all the wonderful people I have met and been working with here in Tampa. Folks have been so kind and thoughtful and gracious it makes one guilty to have a cross moment or thought no matter how long and difficult the days might have been. for now, sleep. ->>NOTE --all these photos from Tampa are not my work. All borrowed from public sites and will be replaced by my own photos once I get home where I left my transfer ability. But - the view (of the sky) from my hotel room window was just like this.

sulllen skies

I really like this tropical weather. Each day is bronze and bright and sticky then the breeze picks up and clouds come ganging, lead colored with golden edges. As the sun is busy setting somewhere behind those banks of clouds, fat bolts of lightning split the skies far and wide but they all seem far because it's 22 one thousand before thunder rolls weakly. Sometimes it rains, sometimes it doesn't. Tonight it's just falling. I have seen it rain so hard it seems like there is no spaces between the drops. It was another long day at Convergence gathering up the loose threads of folks' paperwork into some kind of net with few enough holes so that they can go about the business of enjoying the workshop or studio they have signed up for. I try to make each issue matter as much to me as it must matter to them but I confess to a diminished capacity for suffering fools. I want to post a sign on the door "YOUR DRAMA IS NOT MY DRAMA" but I won't. The vendor hall opened this evening and I made a bee line for the people here from Africa selling sea grass baskets. Mine is shaped just like the one in the picture but has different colors - wide bands of midnight blue and sun gold. It smells like life and it's the perfect size for any kind of hand work plus one cat. The sky is purple now and the lightning gold but the thunder has gone to bed.

working working

Even if I had remembered to bring the transfer cord for my camera, chances are I haven't had time to take any decent pictures. The egrets roost across the river from my hotel hoping for someone or something to fall in and float by. The gulls at the convention center are not as shy and very much enjoyed the slice of cold pizza I rescued from the trash for them. They are still talking about me. So far the conference seems a huge success if listening to the attendees is any measure. My job consists of working at the computer making sure that everyone gets everything they want or need. Except me. But I remind myself that I am here working an assignment. For pay. Stop whining. I did get to peek in to a couple of workshops yesterday. Got to see actual looms with weaving happening. One room thrummed with a group of women working spinning wheels. A surface design class was busy dyeing fabric with disperse dyes yielding beautiful and unpredictable results. Felting classes creating what looked like rows of sea creatures. Yes, yes, pictures of everything next week some time. It's 6 am. Time to go back to work.

Tampa, Florida

Tampa is a "foot friendly" town. There is a system of trolley cars that get you all over the downtown area and points beyond. The line I need to get from my hotel to the Convention center is 25 cents! I wonder how something like this would work in Atlanta. We had dinner at the Columbia last night. On the way there the trolley was delayed by an accident on the line (cars challenge trolley cars and the trolleys bellow back and win) so my party all got off and hot footed it through the heat and humidity to make the 7pm reservation. My hip was aching so I opted to "wait & see" and possibly be there in time for dessert. After a few minutes the motorman got a signal to proceed a few blocks to the next station where an air-conditioned SUV was waiting to drive me directly to the restaurant. Friendly town! I had forgotten how much I like Sangria. After the wonderful fresh bread and appetizers I didn't really have room for dinner.

Hello Jelly

Colin is contemplated by a jellyfish at the Georgia Aquarium.

travelling

Tomorrow I leave early for Tampa Bay, Florida to spend a week working in the temporary HGA office that we will set up at the Tampa Convention Center serving all the people who are coming to Convergence '08 Tampa Bay - Textures in the Tropics I have not packed, not even done laundry and what is on my mind? What hand work to bring, as if I will have any time to work on anything. Then I fondly remember dragging this one around with me at the last Convergence in Grand Rapids and working on it mostly in the evenings when I could not fall asleep despite being exhausted. You know what exhausts me most? Being polite and diplomatic when the real me wants to grab someone, shake the crap out of them and lecture them at length on their incredible stupidity, disgusting self-involvement and low rate their mamas for good measure. Self restraint is tiring but it's integral to my job. I think my next job will be taking care of pigs or chickens. No emotional politics involved at all. Feed 'em, clean 'em, kill 'em, eat 'em. So here are some snippets of a piece that I will miss working on - it's right at that place where the free motion quilting becomes fleshing out the details of the places I want the eye to rest and absorb. Laying out the secret codes and signage. The jungle shot is looking out past the pool.It's been steamy here in Georgia. I killed the ivy on the tree looming closest to the pool on the advice of an arborist who was consulting for my next door neighbor. Now I spend my time dipping crisp brown leaves out of the pool instead of the steady rain of bugs.

what's afoot

This is the third in the Environmental Apocalypse series. No titles yet but lots about forgotten highways. America's love affair with the open road is in for rude awakening. Finally, the Three Blind Owlets can see! This one is a companion piece to "Freida Brings Home the Bacon" I've been following this Barn Owl family on a web cam from CA , not quite obsessively this year. Still, last night I dreamed this crew was experimenting with cigar smoking.

Clown College Graduation Day

(addendum up frontum - wiser birds that I have advised that I keep this one under my hat for a while. Since I don't plan on finishing it until some sanity returns, that's fairly easy to accomplish.) At least this one has a name. This has to come first under the "What the HELL was I Thinking" chapter.It's so big I can't even get a proper picture of it unless I stand on the picnic table and that's not likely to happen. All this because I liked the way two pieces of fabric looked snuggles together. Sheesh. I have to calm myself and remember that I had the same frustration and trepidations while I was making this piece which turned out well enough although I still wonder which me made it. They were both started with the same technique of making a discharged monoprint followed by lots of raw edge applique and hours and hours of painting to bring some sort of cohesion to the design. Talk about being seduced by details (and being blinded to the very messy whole!) -> I had better put this one away before it gets made into a doggie blanket.

blankets in Hell?

I must be nuts to be working on this one right now. It's so big I have to nearly wear it to machine stitch it and I keep having to move away from sweaty patches. Our air conditioning system is old and inadequate for this early heat wave so by 5 in the afternoon we just turn it off and open the house up to fans. With the rising costs of utilities, living without AC will be something we just have to get used to .

Highway Series

It feels good to have come to a conclusion about whether or not to enter Quilt National '09. The idea of taking three recent pieces out of existence (for all intents and purposes) for an extended period of time on the slim chance of getting accepted just grated on my last nerve. Simply deciding which three was giving me fits. Now that bit of anxiety is behind me and it feels good. There's plenty more in the pipe. I love working with these vintage damasks - bringing them from pale storage into blazing color with the dyes and then using them in ways the makers never imagined. Even though I'm not hand stitching these pieces I still feel like I'm working in the slow cloth lane by re-purposing the old cloth. These are both 40+ inches wide and ?? long. I suppose I'll finish #2 tomorrow and put a tape measure to them and get some decent photos while I think through what I want to name them. (I wonder if anyone noticed that I flipped this one on it's head since it was first posted? When I finished the stitching today I plodded over to the design wall and accidentally hung it upside down. What a happy mistake.)

history

Today is my 31st wedding anniversary and while I was rummaging around for a different wedding photo I came across this gem. Jake turned 23 on Monday so you get the idea of how long it's been since my first heady sip of success. That blue ribbon was from the first night of judging at the Putnam County Fair - by the last night I had two more blues and the Gold Overall in the Adult Needlework Division. There were some pretty pissed off ladies in the local guild, to which I did not belong. This was my second and last traditional quilt.

a frenzy of productivity

I've had an epiphany of sorts recently having much to do with the little profile description to the left. No quite one of those "what I want to be when I grow up" moments but truly a meditation on what is important to me, why and what to do about it. More as things ripen. I was rooting around in the stash for inspiration and came across two large pieces that somehow escaped my attention in the middle of Mobscene series. No matter where I set up shop the union inspector finds me and has something to say about my process. The piece Jinx is 'inspecting" is the fifth in the latest series, environmental apocolypse. My deck garden is getting lush. The second pot from the left is a gardenia bush that's all covered in buds about to bloom. Off camera to the left are two larger pots with pepper and tomato plants all in bloom. Store bought dirt in all the pots, of course. I have basil, catnip and lavender - all of life's essentials. This was another piece made back to mid '06. I'm sure I put it away because I had no idea where to find a 44"x80" piece of fabric to back it up. Imagine my amazement when a piece literally fell off the shelf this morning. All three pieces are backed, batted, pinned to death and waiting for stitching.

H2H finished

Here's a detail shot for now. I'm beginning to think about which pieces I want to enter in QN09 and closer scrutiny of the rules has me concerned: "Any work that has appeared after September 1, 2006, on an internet site other than your own." This wording does NOT differentiate between the website on the domain that I own and this little rent-free space on the web that I borrow from Blogger. I'm emailing the rulemakers about it and until I get clarification on this point, I'm not going to post any full pictures of work here, which sucks almost to the point where I might say "screw it" and do it anyway. More on this as I find out.

back in the studio

I fear the Kozmik Awareness is onto the fact that I haven't had a productive day in the studio in, oh, maybe a month, if you count all the time I spent in the Dyeworx diddling vintage damasks. The fourth piece in my environmental apocalypse series has been hanging on the design wall collecting cobwebs even longer so today I took it down, gave it a tumble in the dryer and got down to business finding and fitting an appropriate backing and committing to machine stitching. The preponderance of damask in this one is making for some wonkiness but it will work out as I even out the coverage. I've always been sucked in by that acid/poison green too, MarieZ. Jinx approves my FMQ technique but complains bitterly about the pins. This shot of "Clubbin'" was my goodbye before shipping it off to the Rose Gallery in Daytona. Does anyone else suffer from premature potential sales-separation anxiety? What if I never see it again in person? Oh Damn Well. Here it is May and I have only entered one juried opportunity so far this year. Note to self - get busy.

Home

I left NY late Friday afternoon and despite it being the starting gate of a holiday travel weekend, the whole trip went without a hitch. The flight was listed as "oversold" so I volunteered to take a bump but at the very last moment before boarding they told me there were two no-shows so all went as scheduled. Voodoo was particularly happy to see me because I cut big chunks catnip out of my potted herb garden when I noticed it trying to overwhelm the lavender and basil. Along horticultural lines, I found this four leaf clover in a neighbors yard up in NY while I was taking the cordless phone out to Rob who was cutting the grass across the street. It turned out to be lucky for him - a Sears technician gave him information over the phone that saved the cost of a house call and parts for one of his lawn tractors. Here is Rob, getting ready to ride his motorcycle to South Carolina for much needed and well deserved mini-vacation.

family fun

My whole family in New York are big American Idol fans while in Georgia I pretty much watch it by myself so it was lots of fun to be with my Dad, Rob and Kitty last night watching the season finale to see David Cook snatch the crown. We were all happily taken by surprise too. I wonder if the producers realize the folks in my Dad's age group (and mine for that matter) have fond memories of the golden age of TV which had lots of musical variety programs. On the stitching front, I've started to build a couple new 12x12s with an eye toward donating them to the SAQA auction.Much depends on how attached I get to them. And I'd like to bring your attention to a new contibutor to the blogshere, Elizabeth Barton. I had the privilege of taking a few classes with her since I've moved to Georgia (she's almost a neighbor) and count her work and attitudes about fiber art as a major influence on my own developement as an artist. When I saw her one-woman show at the Gwinnett Fine Arts Center a few years back I remember saying to myself "This is what I want to be doing."

my New York nature

The black soil of my home state is why I despair of ever being any kind of gardener in Georgia. I used to fling seeds to the ground in the springtime and yell "good luck!" and, lo and behold, flowers and vegetables with hardly a drop of sweat. My family's home is on a pond that feeds into the New York City reservoir system so there are a lot of rules and regulations about what can happen around this little pond. I have read about the disappearance of amphibians all around the world to either or both climate change and pollution so I was happy to see this whopper lurking in the weeds. Over the next few days I will pay more attention as I walk the property and see if the numbers seem down from what I remember. I wonder if the fairly recent invasion of Canadian geese affected the frog folk. The pond (which used to be a lake) used to be ringed with giant willow trees. I spent a good portion of my childhood about 40 feet up in one of those trees. One by one they are dying. My dad says for the most part, from natural causes as it's been 50 or 60 years since they were planted. Even trees have a life span.

new pocket patch

I only brought a small bag of scraps with me. Just enough to redo the patches I sewed over some tired corporate logos over the pockets of my favorite denim shirts. There are a few ink stains that will get a similar treatment when I get a minute. I'm headed up to the nursing home to spend the day with my Mom. We will commandeer the day room, put the ball game on the big screen TV, have pizza and beer and I will use the big conference table to spread out the leftover scraps and maybe lay out a couple of 12x12s. We will see what Mom is up to. We took advantage of a gorgeous spring day rolling the grounds of the home, pillaged the lilacs, ate pastries (forgoing the pizza & beer) and then spent an couple hours in the community room where I constructed a little "hand bone" for Mom's arthritic hand. A good time was had by all.

working in strange places

The folks at the TSA in Atlanta enjoyed my refurbished carry on - it earned me a wand treatment to start my trip to NY. Do they train pilots on the job? My plane needed training wheels as we waddled, wallowed and bounced into White Plains Airport...I'm queasy just typing about it.

I love YouTube

Neil Diamond has been all over the place promoting his latest album. This morning Jimmy reminded me of this performance during the Grammy awards so many years ago. I was watching it, he was trying to sleep beside me. As Neil and Barbra started to sing I nudged him "Wake up...psstt. Lookit this.This is HOT...they are way more than just friends...pssst". You Tube is getting to be my memory keeper.

Shoot

I pulled this piece out of storage so I could use the backside as a backdrop for a photo shoot of a flock of smaller pieces that I have decided to sell. It was conceived for an assignment in a typography class I took a few years back. The teacher walked around the room and drew scrabble letters from a cloth bag.We each got two letters that we would be stuck with for the whole term. Like my S&M?

On this overcast day, the backside was more interesting than the front and a good backdrop for these pieces.

raw materials finally exhausted

OK. Now I have to stop. All the latest batch of tablecloths have been committed to the colors and I'm just about out of dye stock. For a while I'll be working with whatever is at hand. What pleases me most is that I can reproduce these results anytime I want to. This knowledge makes me kind of greedy to make more. For the moment I have other things to focus on as I will be leaving for NY on Tuesday to spend some time with my parents. I have to put together some kind of handwork to take along. I suppose clean laundry is in order too. Thanks, Kitty, for booking me on Airtran instead of Delta. And don't forget to order the new washer and dryer from Sears today - I'm packing light! There will be lots of things to do and think about while I'm in NY. Many changes are afoot. I'm determined to plant a small vegetable garden down by the lake. Gardening in Georgia is way too much work. Little survives without major intervention on the gardener's part and I am too lazy. In New York I used to put seeds in the ground, wave my arms in some vague blessing and walk away. The soil was so good that things grew and prospered without so much as a second look from me. The Pilgrims didn't know how good they had it landing in New England. If they had landed in Georgia they would have starved to death. Here's an exception. After we moved here in '93, I brought down some cuttings from a peony plant growing behind my parents house that was originally cultivated by my Grandfather in Armonk, NY . I put them in the ground up by the mailbox where they survive on dog piss and benign neglect. Someone once told me that peonies needed ants to help them bloom and now I have the proof.

Mmm mmm good.

Some outstanding results of a process that involves dirty rock salt . This is going straight into the private stock. We're expecting some wicked weather shortly so I decided to hatch these out early, wash and dry them and then scuttle upstairs to the studio and get to work.

batching damasks

This is the last group of damasks bagged up to batch in the sun until the storm breaks over us later this afternoon. I let the other group go overnight and was thrilled with the results until I washed the whole gang together in the machine and got the dreaded FUSCHIA contamination. So a couple of yesterday's pieces will get some additional over dyeing and the rescue will be complete and lessons learned.

No Spring in Georgia

Anyone who's read my blog for any length of time knows that my time of year has arrived. I don't care if that water is only 60 degrees, I will be in it tomorrow afternoon. Maybe Friday. This is one of those quilted bags that have gotten so trendy and overpriced. I just don't understand how something that I bought for half price in the grocery store (because no one else wanted a bright yellow quilted mini duffle) got to be such a hot fashion accessory. This poor bag has spent most of it's life being mauled by the TSA or housing a sleeping cat. It was pretty tired looking so I broke out the scrap bowl and starting making it over bit by bit. I hope it will be fit to travel again soon.