I Asked For It

As I stepped off the plane, the icy blast caught me full in the face. "Ahh wonderful.." after being cooped up on the plane for 2+ hours. The the snow and freezing rain started in the early evening but the alarmist hysterics have taken over weather forecasting in the northeast too. When I lived here schools would not close for this measly lick of a squall. Dad mends apace, walking better each day. We took my Mom to a post-surgical gripe session with her orthopedist who prescribed a corset to help her back woes. She's happy now but last night I dreamed she had gotten ahold of someone's Glock and was waving it around, gansta-style, at the nursing home waitstaff. Not too farfetched. This is Reno & Ryder's buddy Mr. Potato Head.

Sweet & Sour & Reheated

Bet you didnt' know I was a secret, closet, reformed and backsliding embroiderer?! Stitching with three or six strands of DMC floss was my very first initiation to the Society of the Needle. I used to calculate my allowance as to how many hanks of DMC I could buy each week. Floss was my crack at the age of five! Back then I made my own colors by pulling one strand from each of several colors and blending them to suit my mood. This UFO, "Sweet & Sour", has been mocking me from the pile for a while now. Last week I went to JoAnns to see if I could use a 50% off coupon on anything I actually needed. Of course not! (Jan, you were right) but I did find myself drawn to the array of embroidery threads and selected just exactly the right colors to set Sweet & Sour on the path to completion. TODAY...DMC Floss is 5 for 1$. I'm putting on my shoes right now. Another thing, I used polar fleece for batting in this piece and there is ZERO coming through as I stitch. No fluffers, no cooties, or whatever embroiderers call it when wool or cotton batting comes a creeping. ZERO creeping with fleece inside. Tasty.

Obama in '08

I predicted this day (if only to myself and my very conservative father) right after I heard his speech at the Democratic convention in 2004. It really is time for the next generation of Americans to stop be so cynical and self-involved and step up to the responsibilities of citizenship and I sincerely hope that Barack Obama gets to lead the way. The best part about his speech this morning was that I got to watch it in the company of some young people who have been so typically steeped in cynicism and powerlessness in the face of what passes for government. They listened soberly, they nodded their heads, they went away quiet and thoughtful. There is audacity in hope.

Packing (mentally)

I'm heading up to NY early next week to spend some time with the folks. My Dad will be sprung from the rehab joint by then, post hip-replacement, and my job will be to remind him to take it easy and do all the the household chores I can get away with so he can ease back into full throttle. I am looking forward to our crack of dawn coffee over the local newspaper. Also, I'm still plotting the March getaway now opting to rent a van each way rather that trying to cram all the gear into my Honda. Someone's blog recently mentioned an elderly horse so that was the excuse to add this photo. Inscribed "Armonk 1930" that's my Aunt Phyllis, Aunt Vera, my Dad and Tom or Jerry, one of my Grampa's horses.

New Venue!

I got word this morning that "3 to 5 For Mopery" and "Cellular Seizure" are bound for a mixed media show "Abstractions, Color & Texture" at the Aurora Gallery in Petaluma, CA. Now for all the scurrying about preparing to ship these fresh babies out into the big bad world.

Dream Fruits

Does anyone else out there every spend the whole night dreaming through the details and possibilities of a new design or technique? The busy box corner of my brain was running on high test the other night to the point where I was still thinking things through when I woke up and wrote it all down in my poor mutilated Moleskine (I left it out in the rain the other day). Browsing through Melissa's blog on dyeing, I was intrigued with the way she used those polished black river rocks to weigh the fabric down into the dye. Combine this image with a rerun of Ken Burns "the Civil War" running on the TV all night and I decided (in my sleep of course) that polished river rocks would make a good dye resist if something soft was place under the fabric to be dyed. Jim stopped at Garden ridge on his way home from work and bought me a selection of stones so today I broke out the dyebox for a trial run of my technique. I folded a large piece of flannel and a large piece of cotton broadcloth (that are usually extra padding on my ironing board) to act as a soft mat but the fabric that I used with the rocks turned out to be a blend that didn't take the dye! It was a mess BUT the flannel & broadcloth soaked up dye like crazy....I discharged them with Cascade in the same crazed mola moves I used for Mopery and I am just thrilled with the results...sometimes dreams do pay off in a cockeyed way. The flannel is at the top of this post and here's the broadcloth which was actually two pieces seamed together.

What Music??

Here's a playlist. Mostly I listen to the streaming archives of Idiot's Delight hosted by someone who has been doing freeform radio since I was in high school. I'm still listening Vin. This was a show from Nov.12, 2005. It's on the air live every Saturday night from 8 to 11 at www.wfuv.org but more often than not I'm nipping away at the archives. Vin plays the old, the new, the mad and the magical. Sweet surprises at every turn and listening to a New York City radio station keeps the occasional homesickness at bay. Artie Shaw - Stardust - Greatest Hits - Fred Astaire - Change Partners - Starring Fred Astaire Mabel Mercer - So In Love Jimmy Scott - I'll Be Around Paul Desmond - Autumn Leaves Strays Don't Sleep - For Blue Skies Winterpills - Laughing - Strays Don't Sleep - Love Don't Owe You Anything Frank Sinatra - More Than You Know Dexter Gordon - Serenade In Blue Dave's True Story - Just Like A Woman Blossom Dearie - I Wish You Love - Kate Bush - How To Be Invisible John Coltrane Quartet - My Favorite Things John Lennon - Gimme Some Truth Neil Diamond - I'm On To You Gary Burton - Cool Nights Doveman - Cities - The Acrobat James Carter - Take The A Train The Fiery Furnaces - The Garfield El Duke Ellington And Johnny Hodges - Weary Blues - Hank Williams - Weary Blues From Waitin' - Paul Kelly & The Stormwater Boys - Ghost Town - Whiskeytown - Dancing With The Women At The Bar - The Mendoza Line - Settle Down, Zelda - Will Kimbrough - I Lie Because I Can - Howard McGhee Sextet - Up In Dodo's Room - Stan Getz - East Of The Sun (and West of The Moon) Ronnie Spector - She Talks To Rainbows - JC Hopkins Biggish Band - Underneath A Brooklyn Moon - Nat King Cole - Darling, Je Vous Aime Beaucoup - 10 CC - Une Nuit A Paris - The Original Soundtrack 10 CC - I'm Not In Love - The Original Soundtrack Ben Folds Five - Fair - Whatever and Ever Amen Bob Dylan - Most Of The Time - Jud Newcomb - Damaged Goods -

"Gravity"

Don't you just love to see someone completely in love with their art? It makes me weak in the knees . Take ten to watch and listen to this

something hatching

These fabrics have been hanging on the wall for months now ( I had to give them a tumble in the dryer for the dust) . Now that the four new pieces are well and truly finished, I sat down with the scissors and started finding things of interest here. It gave my midwinter cranky heart a lift to be slashing away. Once cut up, more fun was had arranging all the parts. I spent most of the afternoon just moving things around like I was playing chess with an imaginary friend. It wasn't going well until I turned off the TV and put on some music. Then it became a dance. The gray ground is a piece of antique cotton damask from Narragansett, the blues are hand dyed and commercial discharged cottons, the orange one of my favorite commercial prints and the "eyes" are discharged and painted Kona cotton. I don't know how much stitching there will be here once the elements are nailed down but I'm leaning towards some hard contrasting colors with the thread. Early yesterday I also got an entry off to my first mixed media show, "Abstractions, Color & Texture" at the Aurora Colors Glass Art Gallery in CA. When I read the name of the upcoming exhibition I just had to enter as it perfectly describes what I have been up to for about a year now. I have to thank Michelle Verbeeck for expanding her online call for entry listings to include mixed media shows; it's the way I want to go rather than staying in the strictly quilt exhibit world. We'll see what happens. When I was filling out the entry form on the "media" line I simply put "textile" and then spent some time puzzling over the fact that they did not require detail shots. DOH! It's Not a Quilt Show! Oh happy day.

PROductivity

This was the first Gorgeous, four-star day we've had in the longest time and I took full advantage. Lookit that blue sky! As soon as the sun was over the yardarm, I dragged the four newest pieces outside for digital pics. All this after doing a mess of laundry and dirty dishes. Didn't want the board of health nailing a notice up on the front door so I had to get that stuff out of the way first. Got the Gallery all updated including "back" links for the navigationally challenged AND got the start of something new and quirky up on the design wall. Maybe some pictures of that tomorrow.

New & Finished

"Cellular Seizure" 43x49 We hung it on the design wall in the bedroom last night and it's been so long since I started it that I couldn't recognize the starting orientation until Colin spun it a few times and Jim stated his opinion. I had spent so much time with my nose six inches from the surface that I forgot where I started and when it was pointed out to me, it was like..."oh yeah, I remember that". Not a good way to work but the results are growing on me even though my feelings of "tightness and overworked" were on this like a bad smell even before it was stitched or painted. I just stayed with a uncomfortable path for some reason. Metallic paint is an absolute bitch to photograph so this shot may be wishful thinking. The sun is shining bright today for the first time in a week and just maybe I'll be able to muster enough energy to drag this outdoors for better pictures. In fact I have four major pieces to shoot and get ready for a show I want to enter.