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.