A Day in the Country

Here we are set up (before there was any light to see by) for a day of a little marketing and a lot of people watching at the Bostwick, GA Cotton Gin festival. Optimistic as ever, I didn't think about wearing a jacket and spent the better part of the day looking for a patch of sun to stand in. The "porto-Public" facilities were atrocious so I just didn't consume any liquid for most of the day. When I say this place is out in the country I mean COUNTY. But just because we are in Georgia, don't think "redneck". This town and it's people are steeped in the culture of an American farming community and it was just plain nice to see hardworking people having the only good time for 50 miles around and none it having anything to do with what passes for contemporary cultural past times. A few ladies who might have had a nodding acquaintance with needlework paused by one of my quilts and then fell back clutching their hearts over the high price tag I had on it. "Honey, are these real diamonds sewn on here?" one remarked smartly. "Just WHY is this one so expensive?". My answer seemed to satisfy them- "I just really don't want to sell it". The day started with a parade down main street that consisted of countless John Deere tractors, most of them vintage, and a few old school hotrods. The parade ended up in field just adjacent to the pecan grove where we vendors had our tents pitched. A good time was had by all.

BOO!

As ever, my yard full of ghosts did a good job keeping the less hardy trick-or-treaters at bay. Tied to the ends of the tree branches, these are particularly effective when there is a breeze and I stand behind one of the trees and moan menacingly. One adorable baby giraffe made up for a squad of surly zombies and a parade of Paris Hilton wannabes. What were their parents thinking? I feel like posting a sign on the walk "NO ONE OVER THE AGE OF 10 PAST THIS POINT!" I am going to have to open an wholesale used candy store.

Now that the Season is Over

I congratulated my Dad early today on the Red Sox World Series win and now retreat into a "zero sports" mode until next April. While waiting on a batting purchase for the Big Blue Monster I'm trying to loosen up my freemotion moves with these little practice pieces. At first I had wild notions of hand stitching it. I spent an hour at that this morning, took another look at the deadline and changed my mind. I can make my Janome do what I need for this piece. Saturday I got down to OHCO an snatched up 10 yards of 90" cotton then made a special trip out to Snellville for batting and soda ash - a dyefest planned if the thermometer climbed out of the 60's. It never did but a quick check of dye colors on hand to find a seriously limited palette so a dye day will have to wait. Besides, I'm supposed to be getting ready for Saturday.

WIP fall edition

There are errands to run and a baby shower to get ready for so of course I started the day tinkering further with this WIP that I started on last night . I don't normally conjure up work for specific exhibits but this call for entry "BLUE" from Translations Gallery in Denver piqued my interest especially when I looked at the things I have done in the last few years and found Blue to be seriously under represented. When I was little I always used every single color in the crayon box during a coloring session because I had this notion that if I neglected any colors, they would get mad at me, or maybe feel left out. Blue, I hope I'm forgiven.

You can't go "house" again

This was the house where I grew up in Golden's Bridge, New York, the lower Hudson Valley area just a short train ride to Manhattan but still very rural. I went home for a short and sweet visit this past weekend. ...and this was standing where the old house stood for 5o+ years! My brother is building a palace in it's place. It's an astonishing sight - the neighbors all slow to gawk as they drive by. I told Rob he should put a tip bucket out by the mailbox. He has put an incredible team of workers together to get this far since the first week of August. With any luck, they will be able to move back in before real winter sets in the way Indian summer has been dragging it's heels up in New England. The trees were barely thinking about yellow and orange! We took advantage of the balmy weather to break Mom out of the nursing home to enjoy a construction site picnic the day before I left. That's my brother Rob, my Dad (the ecstatic Red Sox fan) my mother Rose and one of my sisters, Kitty. She's a hair stylist and has worked a miracle on me. If I can make it do , with brush and dryer, what she did, I'll post a picture. If not, it's still a fabulous cut. Mom & Dad celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary yesterday. Whew! We took a ride up to see Jim's family about an hour's ride north in the Catskill area - it was wonderful to see them too. I took my sister to The Country Quilter in Somers to get my fiber fix and she became entranced with the ranks of bolts of fabric and put herself on the mailing list for future classes! A new fiber convert! They have a scrap bin there that should have a sign on it "QUILTER's CRACK" . All the scraps you can stuff into a quart sized baggie for $2.50 - I only got one but will send Kitty round to the shop to see what's new on a regular basis.

Blinded by Eye Candy

I'm leaving for a short visit home to NY tomorrow so I'll leave you with this.

fabulous treats in the mailbox

Today's snail mail was especially wonderful. These are some hand dyed cottons from the dyepots of Gail Myrhorodsky. For the moment, too wonderful to cut into but their time will come . (cue the evil cackle)

Artist's Statements - updated

Update - Here's the final version and thanks to all my brilliant friends.

"Mudmen Procession” is part of a series of whole-cloth, dye-painted and stitched works exploring the translation of simple gestures I call "arc and hesitation". These gestures commonly interpret as beings in various attitudes of interaction ; the similarity of forms and the repetition of actions echoing the behavior of humans congregating, as they will, like for like.

_____________________________________ Your job is to determine if I used the online BS generator to create this artist's statement, or not.

"This piece is part of a series of whole-cloth, dye-painted and stitched works exploring the translation of simple gestures I call "arc & hesitation" into representations of beings in various attitudes of interaction ; the similarity of forms and the repetition of actions echoing the behavior of humans congregating, as they will, like for like."

Jeez Louise, I should get paid for writing these things.

for my birthday I got THE CHAIR!

I had quite given up on finding a comfortable chair for doing handwork to put in my studio. Wasted time looking at pictures of chairs but never got my ass out to get acquainted with any of them. As more and more things came into the room there seemed to be less for even the notion of a comfortable place to sir and sew. When I got home yesterday afternoon I found that once again, Jim knew my mind before I knew I had one and had hunted down and brought home the Perfect Chair, one that met all the rigorous "must haves" and "gotta be's" that I must have been talking in my sleep about, and installed it in my studio. He also had a half pound of cooked shrimp waiting and a good thing because by the time I headed home from the meeting (more on that in another post) road kill was looking good. Previously loved and hardly ever sat in, it's the perfect size, shape, color, fabric - the list goes on. I'm one of those shoppers who most often comes home empty handed due to sheer pickyness. Jim found just what I was thinking about and made it happen for me.

the Baby Blanket Boogie

Did I mention that pending star is a boy? Here it is complete with stitch-in-in-the-ditch! This one is made for love, play, wash & wear and start all over the next day.

baby blanket time

Some fun being had.... One of my best friends is soon to become a grandma for the first time and these 8" sqaures will go into making a Wild Baby blanket for the pending star. Just picking out the fabrics for this one was fun. I stayed with the commercial fabrics for durability but the backside will be one of my favorite pieces of hand-dye that I've been saving since I started dyeing my own fabrics. If this side could be called "Sunny Day" the other will be called "A Sky full of Stars".