storm passed

(Detail from K4)

I thought I was finished with this one last night but this morning I'm finding things I want to change; some places that look waiting/wanting and a few that look overworked. This is what happens when I spend too much time with a large piece in my hands and not enough time looking at it from six feet away. 

I dashed out before the storm came through yesterday and had lunch with Jake and was happy to learn that the wedding he and Missy are planning is going to be fun and not all that formal - a party to remember. This is a shot of Jake & Pop from last June. Poppy is still in the hospital making a slow recovery from pneumonia.

color on hand

The big basket after I dumped and churned it.

The temps outside climbed to  70 today and the tree frogs started tuning up - prematurely I'm sure but all of this has conspired to get me  thinking about and planning out the first dyefest of 2013.

I have a whole host of new colors to work with and a growing stack of  vintage cotton and linen and a great swath of what I think is raw silk. No directions yet, just strong, complex color - a great cure for the blahs of January in Georgia.

unearthed and pending

I was digging through the large scrap basket yesterday, desperately trying to put together a neutral cloth burrito when I uncovered this little treasure. Here's the original post that explains it all.

For a little relief from the B&W series I'll finish it complete with the text somewhere on the panel. I may have to grow it a little to accommodate the word since it's only about 10x12.


My version of the prayer went like this:

we bring you an important interruption

I've been making very slow progress with the hand work on K4. It's taking a long time but I'm determined to finish this one before I commit to the intense machine work that I have planned for K5.

The goal is balancing the mechanical machine stitching with the organic and free flowing hand stitched lines.

 

But a certain feline codger has begun demanding that I devote my lap to his comfort. Somehow stitching can wait until he is back up to speed.

Voodoo anti-sketching

baste-orama

I like to baste. A piece that's had all its pins replaced by big running or laddered stitches is in a kind of transitional state, fixed but fluxable. Relieved of its steel burden, KV felt weightless.

I use a monster long needle and a single strand of king tut cotton thread. It has just enough "grab" to hold things together with minimal slippage. A few, small back stitches will pass for a knot.

Just like moving a mountain with a teaspoon, one spoonful, one stitch at a time...you look up, and it's done.

This is not me being all arty with Instagram here...it's me being all forgetful about what and how my big Canon is capable of. Point and shoot it's not. Time to dig out the manual, tinker a bit and take some notes.

Shopping around, it looks like this one is what I want to replace the camera that my brother and I  dissected last week.