Friday, October 22, 2010

Full October Moon

This morning, bright sunshine in the studio demanded work in the fiber mines, so there are exciting new sets in the store. Who made this stuff? 

Later tonight, me and the Kat Krew  be taking my Tarot cards for a walk in the moonlight. More about my ongoing Tarot studies in a future post.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

seeing the work in print...

...is never a cheap thrill...especially when you didn't know it was coming. Thanks to my friend Mary McBride  "Innocent Bystanders" is in this month's SAQA print journal which is one of my favorite things that arrives by mail. She has written a great and timely article  "Taking the sting out of rejection".  This piece was juried into the show she created last year called "The Skinny Envelope" after it was not accepted at several others. I was in really great company at the Gateway Center for the Arts, in DeBary FL. Thanks again Mary!

Monday, October 18, 2010

ocean homes progress

After spending all day building a back by machine cobbling strips of various blues into large spontaneous log cabinish blocks (there's enough for a whole 'nother  top!) I remembered this gigantic cutwork tablecloth that I dyed ages ago.

It was on a hanger in the closet, all pressed and ready for the dance. With a little fussing around holes that I had chopped into it, I fit it to the back of Ocean Homes Since there is no batting I'm now backfilling under the cutwork holes with a little fire.


Sunday afternoon I spent several pleasant hours at a friends house stitching outside in the October sun while we talked. It was a nice way to reconnect with the piece and the friendship- both were languishing.

The decorative edge of the tablecloth has a real water's edge feel where I lapped it over to the frontside and stitched it fast. If I had only thought about putting the glow behind the holes before I stitched the edges all the way around!

Thursday, October 14, 2010

blues, we got the raggedy blues...



Not me! It's my birthday and I'm celebrating with a day off, time in the studio, new ideas, burgers with my crew and a new flick later. Thanks for the many kind thoughts and wishes!

The stash has
beaucoup blues and I'm trying to make some sense of them and start something new. Of course the first order of business is piecing a backside for "Ocean Homes" -what else would I use?

The beating back of Chaos (always a temporary state) has freed up the Janome and its been calling me over..."sit here,... that's it, fiddle about.get the feel of it again..".Then there's Little Feather chirping from under the table "Use ME, use ME!"


As an exercise, I made these batted and backed leaves and now can't think of a really practical way of joining them up to make a blanket of leaves without any other stitching showing.



And did I ever show you the Blue Snakes? I can't remember why I made them.
Rayon stuffed tight with poly. If anyone wants them and are willing to pay the postage, drop me a line.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

speaking of endings




When I set about photographing this one yesterday I discovered that there was an entire section of paint that was unfinished so I dragged it outside (it's over 7 feet tall) and painted in the final metallic elements.

"Pirate Circus"   







and I finished the hand stitched binding on my own private "Beach" .