Although half my checked bag was taken up by sewing stuff and things to work on, there has been little time for the luxury of a few handstitches.
Here's a little inspiration from my mother's blue glass collection. She used to be a wildly indiscriminate collector and would even hoard Noxema jars. This one I like a lot.
Sixty years ago today my Mom and Dad were married at the Episcopal Church in Armonk, New York.
Today I heard for the first time that they went to New York City for their honeymoon.
There was dinner at Billy Rose's Diamond Horseshoe restaurant where a rye whiskey and soda was 11.28 (in 1948!) and Jascha Heifetz serenaded the newlyweds at their table. They went to Radio City Music Hall, saw a Hitchcock movie "Rope" starring Jimmy Stewart and stayed at the Clinton Hotel.
This evening we celebrated together.
The bundles that spent the night in the dye container came out very underwhelming. Looking around you can see I have little taste or patience with pastels so they are on a back burner for the moment.
While rooting around in the stash I found these two hot little numbers that had been mummified with soy wax just waiting for something exciting to happen.
We'll see what transpires tomorrow.
Here are the bundles standing on their heads on a felt pad soaked in soda ash solution and sprinkles with some dye powder. I'll stay out of it for the night.
Jackie thought they looked like bones. Hmmm. Now that I look back on them, they did. I have to roll some more tonight and see what comes of it.
I made this jug in 20o3
at the Painted Potter and for the first time it's going to decant something delicious.
I'm mentally packing some art to take with me on an upcoming trip.
The blocks will be backgrounds for a new piece that will have some very different appliqued things along the lines of the recent sketches.
The little bundles are in for a dye experiment this evening. I'm tired of coming home exhausted, feeding
like a pig and then going to sleep.
Unused to working for a living, I have been putting in very long days and console myself with the knowledge that my schedule won't be like this when I get back from NY. Tonight, some music, some wine and some Arting around.
Remember my cool new tool? I had a day long panic recently because I couldn't put my hands on and was afraid that it had slipped out of my bag and was LOST, but then I found it.
I hate that I haven't been using it but the problem is that I can't find a suitable notebook. A hasty purchase turned out to be a disappointment but now Black Cover has come to the rescue in my search for a Moleskine alternative.
I'll be thrilled if I win the set but if not, there's a Borders just across the parking lot from my new job. I think I'll go take a peek today 'cause I really want to get my hands on the large one. New ideas have been passing by and I've been jotting things down on scraps of paper that more often wind up in the wash.
And thanks to MarieZ for tipping me off to this contest!
My hope won't measure or be confined, my hope is expansive and has a wonder filled full moon today, my birthday.
I got up early because I wanted to steal some studio time from a busy day and make my own HOPE banner. I confess to not having read the rules or the mission or any of that stuff and it looks like something is odd here. I just liked the notion. Having hope means looking to the future beyond any troubles or concerns of the present. Before anything else, one has to have hope. I have a lot of hope for our future but I feel like, at this point in time, I have to protect it like a candle in the wind.
I have to remind myself daily that a lot of people feel the way I do and it's not just the folks who put stickers on their cars or go to rallies and get on TV that get the job done. It's also the people who have HOPE.
The translation from pixels to cloth continues to please me.
As most of my stuff , it's a bit wonky but I thinking about mounting this one somehow so all will true up eventually.
Feeling much better today. Being recently under the weather gives me a good excuse to avoid big issues like pressure washing the pool.
Instead, I spent most of the day working on making this come to life. Unlike Jude, I have no patience for silk's delicate sulkiness and am only too happy to pinch it, stab it into submission and then nail it into place with a million little thrills.
Much related to my new job, I have a new appreciation for my Janome.
I have been knocked flat by some sort of domestic Montezuma's revenge. You don't want the details but there is no good way to lose ten pounds in two days. Now that I can sit up for fifteen minutes on a chair that is not porcelain and have the energy to thread a needle and pull a stitch, I've started work on what will be a very slow cloth.
Something about the scope of my design mind has contracted but things that might have died on paper will get a second chance in cloth and thread.
I've been in a nesting frenzy for a few days, cleaning things that have given up waiting to be cleaned. Wanting to paint ceilings, beating carpets...all the things I should have been doing whilst essentially unemployed. That time is drawing to a close. In the meantime, there's some arting going on.
These are some soft muslins that I dyed yesterday and a piece of cotton batting that did a little clean up work and turned into something quite interesting. Yes, more flings on the horizon and there's a slew of sketches for some smaller work. Seems like there's a market for some smaller, less pricey pieces. I have a pile of them squirreled away but I think they need to be mounted on canvas so they won't be mistaken for potholders. Any advice on mounting small works to canvas would be welcome.
I've decided to upgrade my Trunkt listing to premium and will be listing some of my Flings for sale there. Might as well take advantage of all their marketing efforts.
And here's my sewing chair cushion with the printed photo of Karma on it.
This dyed scrap will be incorporated into it. It's from a long ago find on the public beach on Naragansett, Rhode Island.
The weather here in GA holds perfect and I put a batch of fabric into the soda ash pot yesterday. Once it warms up this afternoon I'm going to be dyeing a small batch of fabrics for some new directions. Got to get that Carnegie entry rounded up too.
...is not something I normally get into but Frank Ze's Scribbler lends itself so nicely to it. I go there from time to time to sketch. Too many times I find that when I put an idea to paper it stays there never to be hatched.
Putting ideas into a computer program seems more like dreaming about something than actually doing it.
Makes you wonder how many pieces get wasted .
A friend has decided that the best way to recruit new members to her particular form of crack is to give lovely gifts and I am oh so joyful!
Thanks so much M. I am hard at work looking for inks and papers.
Today was Senior Citizens Discount day at the local Goodwill and I got carded AND I got my 25% discount.
These are all new and close at hand along with what used to be just sewing glasses. I'm on a mission to get the two sides of my brain talking to one another - maybe for the first time.
I took advantage of the alone time today and spent the entire day stitching on this as yet unnamed piece. It was part of the Mob Scene series.
It was dyed, discharged and later overpainted with metallic acrylic paint over a year ago and lost UFO land until the other day.
I'm glad it was put out of "grab and slash" reach.
39"x52"
Here's my contribution to Team Climax.
12 pans of Cliff's Magic Cornbread, oops make that Yankee Climax Cornbread.
We won first prize for it in 2003. This year, it's the chili's turn to shine. Jim looks forward to this outing from year to year the way some folks do Christmas. It borders on obsession but I remind myself it could always be worse and this year all the planning and anticipation contributed to his recovery.
He left early yesterday to set up camp at Stone Mountain for the 2008 Great Miller Lite Chili Cookoff, which despite the sponsor, is a family venue. You are more likely to get your toes run over by a stroller than you are have a drunk spill beer on you. I got up early to bake and Colin will deliver to the booth shortly. I'll post more pictures and judging results later tonight. Cross your fingers!
To the Anonymous commenter who was concerned that this was cheating. Our entries are prepared in camp according to the rules and regulations under the watchful eye of the judge's observers. The food we generously serve to the public for free is prepared with quality ingredients under hygienic conditions. Please come by next year and watch Chef Jim make magic but you had better be up with the chickens! Although we didn't place this year, a great time was had by all.
People who have to cheat to have fun camp out with cowards who make anonymous posts!
This morning I gave my son Jake a ride to work and as a routine part of most morning commutes, I got to grouse about a tail-gater.
Jake told me he had seen this
bumper sticker on a car and was determined to get one for me.
I laughed to tears and made this up as soon as I got home. Just warming up for a big piece to go under the needle later today.
Of course, studio cleaning is always followed by a good sale.
These quart sized storage bags are stuffed full with everything from hand dyed damasks to satin jacquard with lots of hand dyed cottons in between.
Most pieces are hand sized or smaller, some bigger but not much (I throw out nothing) so there's tons to work with here. Every bag has a nice chunk of something silver and stretchy. I have no idea what the fabric is but it's fun.
$8.00 each includes postage in the US.
Email me for availability first deborah@lacativa.com
Late yesterday I found out that both "Exubera" and "Limbo" have been juried into "Art Quilts XIII: Lucky Break" at the Chandler Center for the Arts, Chandler AZ along with a pretty star-studded roll of contemporary fiber artists.
Congratulations, everyone!
Spiders have been routed from the windowsills, UFOs are being tilled up from the subsoil and archeological societies are camped out in the yard.
All operations are being overseen by one of my ablest studio assistants. Boxes and bags are being filled with snips and scraps that will be on their way to other people's studios keeping in mind that there is really NO trash.
Take my word for it, his eyes are open.
