cutting up the cloth

I've been thinking about Elizabeth and Rayna's posts about the reluctance to cut into art cloth once you created it. Looking around my studio, I have to say I'm guilty as charged. Could be partly why I have so many humongous pieces of fabric that are not selling like Hotcakes. If I can't bear to cut them up, what makes me think someone else could be so bold? Time to break things down into imaginable hunks so later today I plan on dragging out the scissors, slashing away and putting together the yard+ bundles that I used to offer. There are also about twenty-five pieces of damask stewing in soda ash solution out on the dye deck that must be seen to quite pronto. Got to mix some colors later today. It' gray and raining and color would help lift the mood.

Hot Houses

No Jude, this one may wind up with a light batting also. What shall we call flings that have grown a pelt because fall has peeked around a bush at summer? Our weather has turned rainy and cooler and I will be spending a good part of the coming week by Jim's bedside in the hospital where they have all the AC one could need in Georgia. Fearful that the red overdye I gave the borders would bleed all into everything, I gave it a good thrash in the washing machine last night tossing it in with a bunch of Jimmy and Colin's socks and underwear to pink up for fun. Murphy's Law at work - no red run off at all. When we first met and felt the need to get to know one another better, Jim came with me to the local laundromat where we did our wash together in one machine. Very sexy. My brand new red chenille bathrobe left everything he owned a loving shade of pink. I plan on doing some of that Indian edge wrapping technique on the houses before I decide if there will be middle to this fiber sandwich.

Safe as Houses

I was thinking about Judy Martin's protection series and the expression"safe as houses" when I was searching for some floating nines for this latest fling. I've pieced the striped border from A's beloved Cherrywood cottons but the grays and browns depressed me so I tossed them into a red dye bath for a makeover. I seem to be attracted to some kind of wayback machine notion of time these days - I actually sat in rapt, if puzzled, attention the other evening and watched all of "Now Voyager" for the first time. Made in 1942 back when Bette Davis really was exotically beautiful. She had on the most amazing pair of earrings for a long stretch of the film and I found myself webslogging for an approximation of same for my own lobes. No luck so far. These are from my deck garden. The tomatoes were just snacked up for dinner and the habaneros bagged and frozen for the Chili cookoff in the fall.

Ni hao World

Who knew that 8's were so fortuitous? Certainly not me when I painted "Congregants" in 2007. I'll take good luck anyplace I can trip over it. I was glued to the screen last night to the spectacle of the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics. Chinese culture is so complex and old, it would take lifetimes of study for a deep understanding and I confess ignorance. I resigned myself to just taking in the visual aspect and kept hearing myself oo-ing and ah-ing over each new image. The general impression I got was of a people who will work together to accomplish a goal, no matter what that goal is. The results were amazing. I won't go all political on you here but I could not help but reflect on how opposite this culture is from ours and how our culture suffers from divisiveness, feelings of entitlement and the unwillingness to accept personal responsibility in the face of all the challenges we face as a nation. I had intended to stitch my way through the evening but didn't get much accomplished beyond sticking myself to bleeding a few times. When the actual torch lighting began I was charmed by the water spirals projected on the screen along Li Ning's progress around the inside of Bird's Nest stadium. My freestyle hand quilting is almost always spirals building out on one another much like these.

Last Fling (for now) - storm light

The thunder is rocking and rolling from the west and the trees are shaking out weeks of dry leaves everywhere. We haven't had serious rain in over a week of 95 degree days. It's time. I had to try to get a shot of this one before I start dragging it around everywhere blankey-style, doing the hand stitching on it. Can't exactly call it quilting if there are only two layers but there you have it. Now, if only the power doesn't go out!