expanses

Like the new header? I needed a change of scenery to go with the change of seasons.

It's a section of my personal "Beach" from back in May 2010. I was rooting around looking for more formal images and there are none. I could dig it out and reshoot it but this snip will do for now. It reminded me of the pleasure of arms wide, eyes afar designing and building a piece that was intended to be used and not just displayed.

Come to think of it, I know  this piece has no sleeve for hanging which is why it never got properly photographed.  More along the lines of this one gives me a lot to look forward to, fiberwise. It's time to climb out of winter's comfy, cozy closeness and aim far and wide.

before the rain comes

It's warm for February, the jasmine on the mailbox has started blooming reminding me I need to cut the crape myrtles back very soon. Like tomorrow.

I've been spending time working on this one with my hands while I work on the writing with my brain; the other part of the brain that wanders all walleyed when you are stitching.

Each element is like a sentence or paragraph in a story that needs to be complete unto itself yet, for the story to be successful, they have to relate to each other in an engaging way.


I've had to completely remove a couple of pieces and start over in the spaces left behind. Brutal editing.

If you notice something odd about the scale of these creatures, good eye!. They are sitting about ten feet apart, acceptable distance per Karma in the foreground.

Juicy (stretching it out in the background) was closing in on twenty pounds the last time he was to the vets over a year ago. Madame K, on the other hand, might be seven pounds soaking wet.

She's been doing better, thanks.

at the washateria

Rather than give my aging washing machine a fatal dose of overwork, I hauled a large load of towels and blankets to the laundromat yesterday. It's not a novelty anymore - I don't sit there and watch things go 'round with one eye and CNN on the tiny screen in the corner with the other.


I trust everything to the largest washer and then sit in my car with an alarm set and read, or sleep or stitch. Although it was cool yesterday the sun was blazing and I brought along the current WIP and put in a good two hours on it between washing and drying.  Below it's spread out on the (grubby) hood of my Honda but I've backed this one with a piece of organza that seems to be bulletproof.

There's more going on in each block with this one. It's almost twice the size of any of the four previous pieces in this series and I've given up any pretense of restraint, block by block the action builds.

In the top picture you can see the variety of fabrics I'm using - the golden speckled is a bit of a vintage woven tea towel, the lavender with clouds is a snip from a cotton lawn scarf from Dharma Trading, feather light and nearly transparent. The rich blue at the bottom a section of a hand dyed vintage damask table napkin, all three from my favorites basket.

mystery symbol

I was skimming around the web the other day and the symbol above (best as I can reproduce it) appeared in one of those annoying little ads littered everywhere. Although I pointedly ignored the ad, the image stuck in my brain and I'm wondering now what it was. Have you seen it? Any clues?

My lesson for the day...never write before going to sleep. Wait until morning.

an escape

I love the Whole Foods Market on the other side of town. It's probably a real good thing it's not closer.

There were bunches of freesias in this display that smelled so beautiful. I stood for the longest time trying to think how to describe the smell but it struck me senseless and I was impeding the traffic so moved on.

No bakery indulgences today but a nice steak for the guys and some shrimp for me and  pound of the best sliced provolone cheese in Georgia.I brought home three cans of their store brand cat food and, of course,  Karma and Voodoo ( the gooey, wet feeders) fell on it like I never fed them before I left the house. I bet they would just love caviar.

The clearance tables at Barnes and Noble was insane. Books heaped everywhere..all 2$ each. You would think they were going out of style tomorrow. I still prefer holding the real thing in my hands with pages to turn, take notes on and probably give away when I am finished with it. Among others,  I bought a copy of "Remarkable Creatures" by Tracy Chevalier and sat in the outdoor cafe and soaked up a little sunshine and tea.

PS...I started using this laptops speech recognition program this morning but while I had it open in my lap, Jim called and Sweetie climbed onto the keyboard to "help" with the phone call. She's not a lap kitty normally but the minute I start talking on the phone she tries like hell to intercede.  In the middle of the document I was transcribing there is ten or twelve pages written by cat's ass. Brilliant stuff too.

For a giggle I turned up the TV and let Tony Soprano (badly edited on AE) dictate to the computer for a while. My computer now has some very bad mock swearwords ...motherflapper!