Winter Solstice almost finished

I may have to retitle this "Under the Influence". The doctor gave me several prescriptions with warnings about what you should NOT do while taking them. Stitching was not on the label but I spent an hour last night picking out a whole series of black borders that I put in around the red rectangles which completely obscured the pink glows around each one. Wretched. You think I would have seen how wrong it was as I did all the initial sewing. This one is closing in on done and will be mounted on canvas.

Market Day

Sunday  continues to be  the day I locate pieces in the studio, photograph them and post them for sale at Hand Music

Because I'm including small works that are current and a few going back a few years and one or to of the larger pieces from my main gallery, I wonder if a lack of cohesion bothers collectors. Then again, there's  a little something for everyone here. Maybe I should dig out some of those summer flings now that it's the dead of winter.

Stitching on Winter Soltice

I may rename this one "Winter Solace".

I hurt my back trying to adjust my chair at the office the other day and normal doings, like just walking, make me shake with pain.  The plan is to spend the day sitting in my new sewing chair upstairs with the heater pulled up close, and stitch on this one. Yeah, and get up and move and stretch every twenty minutes or so.....

The sun is bright today but the temps are still in the teens. Brutal. The hot colors in this one are little fire spots. I want to be careful to not over stitch this one as the scraps I used have enough color and character going for them I think.



Jimmy made a batch of chili yesterday so I'm off the cooking hook for the weekend. More heat!


Several people have asked about my method of attaching a finished piece to canvas so I'm planning a tutorial that I will post here in the upcoming week.First I have to find the right sized canvas, a pesky square 22"
Here are some closeups    one   two

Glad Tidings

I'm thrilled to announce that  "Companeros"  and "Supernova" , most recently in Chandler, Arizona at Art Quilts XIV: Significant Stitching ,have both been acquired by a private collector.  Making both of these pieces was all fun.

Companeros is covered with french knots and heavy running stitches  which I did while sitting with my mother she was in the hospital for a stretch. Supernova is newer, one of the first pieces I worked on while at my call center job.

Social Networking

Talk about your slow cloth. I've been dragging this one around with me since the middle of December. Colin pointed out my usual value issues and rather than paint or stitch to amend them, I'm going to mount this one on a canvas leaving a two or three inch border and paint it a flat gunmetal gray. Finding the right size canvas will be the trick.

I've joined Slow Cloth on FB and am amazed at the lively conversation taking place around what's normally a solitary and contemplative pursuit. My personal reasons for working in this manner are purely practical, in fact, almost enforced by circumstances. I don't have a whole lot to say about it but it's interesting and fun to see what others are thinking and doing.

         Sweetie and Colin

"Dirty Pool"

Some time in the night,I got an email letting me know that someone bought "Dirty Pool". 

I did a little research and found that this one goes back to 2005 when I first started blogging. There are links here and here that tell about it.

Update..I spent the afternoon adding eight piece to the store some as old as this one and some that have never seen the light of day!

Concentrated Focus  (the original Handmusic, 2005, unfinished)

wippin'

There should be music here but I dont' know what to play. A tango perhaps.

Winter afternoon light

As if I needed another path to follow, a new piece has sprung into being. I'm still shuffling the spots around.

The afternoon light over my shoulder in this new chair has rekindled my flagging interest in this piece. Under the fluorescent lights of the office I was getting mighty bored with all that gray kantha stitching. New things have been revealed.  And here are two other pieces in progress, one barely thought through and the other one about to be let go. Catch & Release.

Happy New Chair

Not really but a new location. A nice spot where I can catch some afternoon light over my shoulder. And a new perch where Sweetie can watch Squirrel TV. The bold little buggers actually come up and put their paws on the glass! Just wait until she can go outside.

This chair is actually part of a suite that we bought from This End Up back in 1980. In fact, we still have most of the pieces. When you buy this kind of furniture, you had better really like it cause it's going to outlive you.

No pithy thoughts here for the new year. There was a SALE in the store and I have a lot of new ideas perking. Who could ask for more?

read the manual!

I've had this camera forever and I just figured out how to adjust the macro setting for closer focusing.

Back to work

I continue to find things in the studio that have never seen the light of day. Photographing them and listing them at Hand Music will be a daily priority until I finally get to the bottom of all those tubs stacked around the place.    

Four "new" things added to the store today. Time for a break. 
This is Candyland





Do you believe in cat reincarnation?
I do now. Sweetie has crept out of the bedroom and followed me into the studio where she is full of mischief and needs a wary eye kept on her.

The first time she jumped up onto the work table to attack an innocent piece of string I had a chill of mistaken identity and then the warmth that can only come from kitten foolishness.

Christmas

I guess I am coming out of my bahumbuggery about Christmas .   We had a lovely, quiet little Christmas here. Jake was here for the morning and came back later for dinner. Colin took Raquel to see her family in Florida but should be back tonight sometime.

For years I have been wanting to find a place where they skip Christmas altogether and go there a week before Thanksgiving and not come back until after New Years. I'm sure the Scrooge-ness is part homesickness and part stress related. I was glad to snatch about 24 hours of peace out of the season this year. Someday I will learn from my mother's example. When I was growing up she and my father managed, with four kids and blue collar budget,  to pull off a Christmas Orgy that would put Martha Stewart to shame and she did it in stride. Her trick was to start shopping sometime back in August. Someone remind me this year, please!

Letting Go

Please know first that I am not complaining here. These sales could have not come in a more timely fashion. It's just an emotional time of the year. Normally, I am happy and proud as a parent putting a kid on the school bus for the first time when I sell a piece and ship it off, but packing up "Memories Feast" this morning put me in a strange place.

When I start a piece, I certainly don't have "marketability" on my list of design considerations. More often than not, I'm on autopilot. I didn't think anyone would ever see and feel this piece the way I did, but they have and off it goes, priority mail.

One thing I do know for sure, and anyone who had seen artwork made with textiles will affirm, everything looks so much better in person. I know that every one who opens one of my packages will be captivated by the reality of the thing they only imagined from an image found in the internet. Happy Holidays!