Mothers Day

I told the boys not to fuss about Mother's day but I'm glad they ignored me. There were gifts, flowers and a trip to get my fishing license so I can legally drown worms in the sunshine at Lake Lanier.

It's been  years since I've been there and at a mere 40 minute ride away, it will be a fine substitute for the beach.
The fishing is just an excuse.

The weather was beautiful today and I was gifted with a large bag of vintage towels and dinner napkins - dye lovers everyone one of them.  I was thinking about the lilacs I used to cut from the wild up in NY. My mother always loved them.

big blues

Even the commercial prints took the dye well. I should have cooled and warmed two of these just a little more but the summer is long and there's lots more white cloth..

I have another project that is pressing and will have to set aside this hands on stuff for a small ton of administrative work, starting with updating my main website. The biggest chore will be re-shooting all of my major pieces..sweat pours just thinking about it.

the Buggy Oatmeal brigade

Remember these from yesterday? After a rush of strong pure colors these are a complex and delicate breath of fresh air.  The blues are in the dryer and I'll get them ironed and up on the wall in a little while.

Sometimes the Blues

As I surveyed the proceeds so far I noticed a distinct lack of blue so first thing this morning I brewed up some blends, readied the cloth and made the plunge. The greens you see above are some over-dyes and a few commercial prints that needed some help.

I'm  making an attempt at replicating some of the nicer buggy oatmeal pieces from last summer..still have a large box that now sports some dead moths in it too.

There is also little pot of sunshine to balance everything out.

putting it all together

This is what I'm doing with the new cloth. Ironing damask completely changes the character of the cloth and brings out an iridescent quality that is hard to capture digitally.

This stitching is purely functional. It's a good thing that every one is a pleasure because this piece is 48x60 inches.

I'm afraid to admit to myself that I'm making up as I go, one piece of cloth at a time, as they relate to one another and not to the big picture.

The good thing about this technique is that it's pretty easy to snip a few stitches on the backside and remove or reposition an element. The cloth is very forgiving and there's lots of it.