thinking ahead

I'm mentally packing some art to take with me on an upcoming trip. The blocks will be backgrounds for a new piece that will have some very different appliqued things along the lines of the recent sketches. The little bundles are in for a dye experiment this evening. I'm tired of coming home exhausted, feeding like a pig and then going to sleep. Unused to working for a living, I have been putting in very long days and console myself with the knowledge that my schedule won't be like this when I get back from NY. Tonight, some music, some wine and some Arting around.

Black Cover Contest!

Remember my cool new tool? I had a day long panic recently because I couldn't put my hands on and was afraid that it had slipped out of my bag and was LOST, but then I found it. I hate that I haven't been using it but the problem is that I can't find a suitable notebook. A hasty purchase turned out to be a disappointment but now Black Cover has come to the rescue in my search for a Moleskine alternative. I'll be thrilled if I win the set but if not, there's a Borders just across the parking lot from my new job. I think I'll go take a peek today 'cause I really want to get my hands on the large one. New ideas have been passing by and I've been jotting things down on scraps of paper that more often wind up in the wash. And thanks to MarieZ for tipping me off to this contest!

hopey birthday

My hope won't measure or be confined, my hope is expansive and has a wonder filled full moon today, my birthday. I got up early because I wanted to steal some studio time from a busy day and make my own HOPE banner. I confess to not having read the rules or the mission or any of that stuff and it looks like something is odd here. I just liked the notion. Having hope means looking to the future beyond any troubles or concerns of the present. Before anything else, one has to have hope. I have a lot of hope for our future but I feel like, at this point in time, I have to protect it like a candle in the wind. I have to remind myself daily that a lot of people feel the way I do and it's not just the folks who put stickers on their cars or go to rallies and get on TV that get the job done. It's also the people who have HOPE. The translation from pixels to cloth continues to please me. As most of my stuff , it's a bit wonky but I thinking about mounting this one somehow so all will true up eventually.

not just imagining threadpainting

Feeling much better today. Being recently under the weather gives me a good excuse to avoid big issues like pressure washing the pool. Instead, I spent most of the day working on making this come to life. Unlike Jude, I have no patience for silk's delicate sulkiness and am only too happy to pinch it, stab it into submission and then nail it into place with a million little thrills. Much related to my new job, I have a new appreciation for my Janome.

Laid Low

I have been knocked flat by some sort of domestic Montezuma's revenge. You don't want the details but there is no good way to lose ten pounds in two days. Now that I can sit up for fifteen minutes on a chair that is not porcelain and have the energy to thread a needle and pull a stitch, I've started work on what will be a very slow cloth. Something about the scope of my design mind has contracted but things that might have died on paper will get a second chance in cloth and thread.