big bad voodoo daddy

I'm having a good time with this one as pesky as it's been. There is no batting because most of the elements are a very open damask which is prone to bearding when you stitch with doubled six floss.

There's no freebirding this one..it has to stay locked in the hoops or the pieces wander all over despite the basting.

I may tuck the basket into the trunk of the car tomorrow and bring it along. If there's poker game and no room at the table, I'll take myself outside for some wilderness stitching.

WIP update

This one  has been peering over my shoulder for a week now and it's not making a good impression. It's time for radical dismemberment. First I focus on the passages I like and ask myself  "Why?" These will be saved. Then I go after the parts that I actively dislike and again question self.

There's rarely ever any middle ground.

Then I get out the Big Knife, er, I mean, scissors...

We will be away from home for most of the day tomorrow...there's a big housewarming party up in the mountains. This one will have to wait.

rejects and rescues

the motley crew of the upper deck garden 

I don't know whether to call it a hobby or gambling - it's not really gardening.

I buy the plants that have been pronounced dead by grocery and big box stores. They have a high mortality rate there and a lot of plants wind up in a heap and marked down to a quarter. 

I bring them home, put them in fresh soil, give them a little water and sun and hope for the best. More often than not, they come around. The bleeding heart was a bag of dried sticks that never made a peep or showed a poke of green at all last year. I thought they were truly gone. This year, flowers!

This lush beauty is a bougainvillea and I suspect the entire shipment was not really intended for Georgia. I have never seen them for sale here. The wiki info makes me think they may take over the way Kudzu has if given half a chance and I put one up by the mailbox - the desert of dog piss and neglect. Some thrive, some don't.

The magic invisibility cloak revisited

 I've been doing a lot of hand stitching these past few days and spent some time looking over the Magic Invisibility cloak to re-clue my eyes and fingers.

My stitch repertoire is limited in the first place so I didn't want to miss any tricks and keep from getting bored with the current project.

I wear this often and some of the elements have suffered and need some attention.
The base shirt was a very worn, thin chambray workshirt. I'm thinking I may have to salvage the elements I like the best and relocate the onto a sturdier base..maybe something in a smaller size.

Book Review!

If you are a regular reader here chances are you have more than a dim notion about how to go about making an art quilt but how many times have you been asked by the uninitiated to explain what an art quilt is and how you actually make one?  Now you can point them to a valuable resource.

Some of us know that grabbing fistfuls of cloth, clenching scissors in your teeth and running howling into the woods at night will not get the job done. Like any endeavor worth pursuing, it's good to have a guidebook written by a master.

I'm please to have been asked to review such a book. “Inspired to Design – Seven Steps to Successful Art Quilts”, by Elizabeth Barton, is a comprehensive overview of the process of making a successful art quilt written in a user friendly voice with clear emphasis on good design.

Petergate (36.5"w, 53"h) 

The first time I saw an art quilt was at a solo show of Elizabeth Bartons work hanging in the gallery at the Hudgen's Art Center. I had been making crazed bed quilts and I was stunned by the idea of textile art being afforded all the respect due any painting or sculpture in a contemporary art gallery. I was hooked hard then and have been fumbling my hopeful way every since.

This book is a distillation of her years of experience and success as an internationally recognized artist and teacher. Liberally illustrated with selections from her amazing body of award winning work, “Inspired to Design...” will do just that  and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a light on the path. 

You can buy an autographed copy direct from Elizabeth for $35 (which includes priority mail delivery inside the USA)  by emailing her directly.  

You'll thank me later!

A Summer Day, Long Ago (46"w, 28"h) by Elizabeth Barton