some redecorating

As much as I loved the old header, it's time for some shaking up. In anticipation of the new dye season, the image behind the title above is a damask table napkin that I got "hands on" with last season. Errand number one today is a stop at the pool supply place for a tub of soda ash.

I've also tried to improve readability, enlarging the fonts that matter...let me know if I've made a difference. So much depends on each users viewing settings.

fiber surgery

Nope, not a background....

Freeing the elements from that sad background is underway. One done and my right hand is shot even though I've put my Dad's wire cutting shears to work.

I'm thinking an exacto knife might make things a little easier.

You can see the thickness and density of the cotton batting. This was actually a sheet of printers felt that I scored a long time ago. It was not a good choice for the purpose. Now I'm paying.

a short digression

I finally got all those wormy, deeply carved machine stitches picked and washed out of this piece .

Its' been blocked on the design wall because the thick cotton felt batting that I used has felted and allowed the base cloth, a very old piece of damask, to pucker and wander in places.

I'm still at a loss over its lack of sense. It looks like a chunk of 1920s wallpaper.

Thanks to the magic of digital manipulation, I'm sorely tempted to take the big knife to it and get several small things that work all on their own, like this:

taking steps

After all the festivities and hostess-ing I'm also proud that I made a deadline!

"Material Witness" being held by the WCAGA right here in Georgia.

Time to get some of these creatures out into the public eye. I'd cross my fingers but I have work to do.

all manner of celebrations

It's been an interesting weekend.  Discussions with a young and successful commercial artist (the great Bamboota!) has led me to new paths of thought regarding specialization and niche marketing. This article about the death of art galleries and the games played out there was a brain expander as well.

detail from current wip

Throw in an orgy of unaccustomed physical activity (that pot garden) and few thousand alien calories and I feel like the day after certain illicit activities back in the late sixties with some new grooves in my brain and some old ones paved over.

As an unaffiliated and unshriven heathen I'm always interested in the religious and secular festivities of other groups. Neighbors up the street have roasted something large on a spit and are now soccering loudly. Folks were rioting for chocolate bunnies in the stores around noon today and a local hardware store was giving away bunches of nearly dead flowers. I took some of course.

So I left TB with my holiday lunch (chalupas and lime spritzer) and crossed the street to a decommissioned church and sat in the car listening to jazz and waiting out the sudden downpour. When the rain stopped I could see that I had backed my car right up to the edge of the abandoned cemetery and so, left my raggedy but hopeful and highly redolent purple hyacinths planted over Mrs. L. E. Paris, dead of the grippe in 1888. Once home, I sat through most of my favorite vaguely religious cartoon - "the Prince of Egypt" . Happy Easter y'all.

 Now it's time to settle in for a nice stitch fit.  I dreamed my way through several approaches and have decided that I'm going to spend a good long time embroidering this one.

You can see why the look of this animation appeals to my magpie brain.