old computers must die

...someday, but not today.

 But the warning bells sounded last night. Right in the middle of a nice session of Lexulous, a grunting clank issued from the box and a strange Blue Screen of Death popped up with a dire message about the Nature of the Soul or some such gibberish about the inner workings, both hard and soft, of this computer that I have been abusing since early 2005. 

The fan goes through spells of making sounds like a coffee grinder or guinea pig sex. The heat that comes off this machine makes this corner of the room cozy on a chilly morning.


After a night's rest for both of us, I powered it back up this morning, tinkered with the OS a bit and was able to restore to a few days back but time is running out on this one I fear. The errors are too widespread and diverse for it to be other than a impending motherboard  implosion.

Saturday Afternoon at the Cathouse

We took advantage of another gorgeous fall day to sleep outside while she stitched away on that blue thing.

sun day on a friday

Took myself and Ocean Homes to the park for some sun and fresh air today.  Stitching, solitude and a good book on the ipod. There was not a soul there
but me and the geese who were less than interested after I made it
clear that there would be no snacks.

They  seem to think that everyone who sits at that table will be sharing but I had nothing to offer but bits of thread and they milled about and muttered amongst themselves for a while before they lost interest and moved on. This is at Bethesda Park which is a short three minute ride from my house.

Caesura

I'm still in the clutches of a cold and will probably hang on to the cough until sometime in March just like last year.

Although I got up full of piss and vinegar yesterday I made the mistake of tackling a long put off cleaning project.  And this on my day off! "Hoarders" is really getting under my skin.

It's not that bad but I was thinking that months and months of dust piled on stacks of books, CDs, mail and UFOs right next to my bed wasn't helping me get better. Digging it out an doing away with it may have set me back a few days but it's done now and the opposite corner beckons. Maybe Saturday. 

After a spell of rest, I settled into bed with this piece to see if some hand stitching could bring some light. After cross hatching a handful of the white shapes with full ply floss I realized that it was not going to help and picked it all out and fell back on the comfort and ease of crocheting with cotton.

Next for this one, and irrevocably, will come paint but not until I'm feeling more focused. My head is full of echoes and hollow places full of NyQuil fumes...

slogging

I stitched on this one between coughing and sneezing this weekend. I have a world class head cold and should probably sterilize it when it's done.

The Janome continues to puke up when I try to use the Sulky 12wt cotton so the white was very slow going.

I still can't help feeling that I have done these pieces of cloth a disservice using them this way, but I'll see it through to the finish I suppose.








Meanwhile, this one continues to tantalize me over my  shoulder and I am thinking over how I want to build this one before I start the same unsatisfying dance I'm in right now. Back to handwork on something this large? Maybe I have to experiment with a sail maker's needle and full weight embroider floss.

Happy Diwali !!

Never heard of Diwali  before I hit the Bing front page yesterday and since the forecast was for freezing temperature I ran outside and snatched all the open blooms off my potted marigolds. Even if I was a bit hasty (70's predicted all next week) the plants are still covered with buds.

Arlee, should I dry them, freeze them or squash them between the pages of the OED? Right now they are really stinking up the laundry room and I'm about to move them to the trunk of my car. Don't get me wrong, I love that marigold stink but this many in a small room makes the head swim!

I've added a few new thing to the Small Things page and  spent the morning with the intention of making up sets along these color lines but I got swept up in the stacks of colors and textures and came up with these new ones.

home on a Friday...

...with a sore throat and fever. I'm grateful that I don't have to talk to a bunch of crabby asses on the phone this afternoon.  The sun is bright, the air fresh and I'll get some exercise outside later.

    There's nothing like a  good patch of give and take with fellow artists to stir the creative pot. Did some looking around, looking back - and so spotted a light on the path forward.  The card of the day was right. These pieces are stuck up on the design wall now and having a lot to say.

I'll let them perk a while and get back to quilting the one in progress now, refreshed hopefully, for the stitching and what it could bring to the design.

Here's a much better photo of the container that's still evolving.

WIP...finally

What's tech-wiener speak for spilling a cup of sugary coffee into the keyboard?  I did it  while working the other night and had to quick swap out the keyboard from my main machine and pray it worked..it did.  On half recalled urban legend, I rinsed the coffee flavored one in the kitchen sink, and gave it overnight to dry out. Not quite enough.  I took the whole thing apart to see what was affected or still damp.  Very interesting what goes on under those keys. Swabbed everything with alcohol, gave it another 24 hours and it's back...well 99%. Who needs the 2 or 0 on the number keypad anyway?  

    

I need a better lamp at my workstation so I can actually see what I'm hand stitching. Appliqueing bits of rusted crochet cotton to cusspots is like putting decals on fly's wings. Now I notice the resemblance to those Mayan scribblings.

Meanwhile, I've finally committed to a design for this piece and have started to machine quilt it. So far, I'm not enthused. Somehow, by backing, batting and machine stitching this piece I've fell like I've killed it by eliminating it's potential as something of utility. The artist in me seems to have left town in favor of the working stiff.

freemotion warmup

After tinkering with Elizabeth's Janome yesterday (we both have 6500s) I decided I had better give mine some attention and was appalled at the crud under the throat plate.

I have NO needles and NO oil. Quilting on anything will have to wait on a trip to HoAnns but here's a little test Mayan graffiti. I think it's the symbol for agita.

the bitter fucshia lesson

It took several hard lessons before I learned that anytime you dye with the color fuchsia, it's imperative that you rinse, rinse and rinse again before you wash them, and when you do wash out, DO NOT WASH OUT WITH ANY OTHER COLOR FAMILIES!

Not if you don't want those other pieces tinged with pink where they used to be white or other pales. I have ruined entire weekends worth of dyeing by mixing those hotties into the washout loads so carelessly. This bunch will go by themselves but the piece below, a hand appliqued and embroidered vintage hankie (and the three jacquard scarves) are getting the hand treatment!

Halloween Dyefest

I had an amazing day yesterday at Elizabeth Barton's studio helping her use up the season's end dyestock. We worked and talked, talked and work all day. I tried to teach her Janome to like metallic threads to no avail and got to be the first to see her latest work which I will only describe here as awesome.

I know it can be folly to post
"wet" pictures (before the washout) of dyed cloth but I have a good feeling that most of this bunch will stay strong.

 I hung the buggy oatmeal bunch outside to dry out first - I don't think I want to run oatmeal and bugs through my washing machine.  These three spectacular pieces are a cotton jacquard that has a patterns of leaves and flowers woven in.

This is one fourth of a king sized sheet that I picked up at Goodwill. Gorgeous but I suspect that although the label said 100% cotton, there is some manufacturers process that may be resisting the dye. This one may be a lot paler after washing. 

There are also a whole lot of miscellaneous cotton scraps of all types bagged up and waiting their turn. No trick or treating for me today. I'll be washing and ironing!

frantic friday

In an effort to avoid the ceaseless zombie and vampire nonsense on every TV channel we spent yesterday with back to back episodes of Ancient Aliens on the History Channel.

Only a few steps removed from nonsense, the show is hypnotic in it's effort to be sincere and scholarly.  From the looks of this Mayan alphabet, they watched too much TV too.

I've always found Mayan imagery very compelling. The balance and proportion of line to shape, the boundaries all appeal to me and some of the images of ancient wall constructions got me to thinking about how I want the machine stitching on this piece to look. 


But that's down the road some.

I've gone back to using the original instigator, that golden tongue. Still working it out.

















Meanwhile, last night between customers, I got busy with what was  merely within my reach. My grandma really did use to say

"Idle hands are the devil's playground!" just before she set me to doing something like cleaning out the parakeet's cage. I can remember looking at my hands for the playground and thinking I was missing something.



Now I have to kick it into high gear and round up whatever I am taking to Elizabeth Barton's studio tomorrow.

There is cloth to drown in soda ash because we are having a Halloween Dyefest!

back to the WIP

The background is set in stone, I mean cloth. Machine stitched together with batting and backing as I've planned to machine quilt this one and the others to follow.

I've found that hand stitching on large pieces has seriously derailed my creative momentum. I'll keep hand stitching smaller works but will build the larger pieces with the sewing machine.

additional design elements photo shopped in to look like white silk organza. Cool cheat this...

Action Figures!

You are all probably glad that I've run out of cotton string. I'm jonesing already but rather than risk the dread carpal tunnel syndrome I'm going to put the crochet hooks aside for a while. 

You saw the FILM! now you can have one of the stars.  I've posted the entire cast (except for Sweetie)  over here for sale. If you know someone who works small, these could be great gifts.

Each one is crammed full of fabric snips from that glass pot I keep on the work table.  It's not that I don't throw stuff on the floor. I put the really tasty bits of favorite fabrics , some not much bigger than postage stamps, in this jar. The jar was jammed full so it was time to let go.

narrowing it down

I don't think this is going to help much, but I have leanings and discovered
that  b and j  are really close cousins. I may have to make more of that gray
fabric with the big ghosts on it. Seems I like big spooky ghosts.

g keeps calling me back too.

auditions (more)

As much as I want them to, these pieces just aren't getting along...not without scissors coming into play.








Just throwing things against the wall to see what sticks, what compels, what insists....


For the eye's reference, these are all
  40 to 60 inches on whatever long side..throw your arms wide. THAT  big.


One is moving me to look again, come back and make it real. Why?
Questions I have to answer myself before I'll commit to moving ahead.



The troubling and overriding question right now is "why?"



Time to hide out with the Sunday NY Times I think.












Two more hours of this and I can see this could go on forever.  I'm going to arrange this images on a single page and start the elimination process. It's good to know that even after I choose, there will be lots of uncut cloth left to expand with. Also, know that there are other planned and significant element for the pieces based on sketches I've made. These are the grounds for the rest of what's going on.

Getting ahead of myself in in thinking about that these will be machine stitched but the how not yet clear or decided.













See..this could go on for ever

Stuffing Cusspots with Sweetie

Full Moon Inspiration

See?
I walked under the full moon and asked for wisdom and inspiration. When I went out the moon was a Kleig light 12 o'clock high and it was so cold out the cats looked up from their curled up nests, one-eyed, and said "Hardly" so I went alone.


Here is how it begins.  While looking for something else - and now I can't even remember what or why - I found this fabulous piece of weighty, world weary muslin that looks like a last ditch overdye.

That bites are missing means the color and texture has caught my eye before but the shape that is left is the crown grabber now.

There are drawings in the sketchbook, only black and white ideas. This color will bring the notion to life. Something large, expansive and charged. I am done crouching over the tiny and delicate for the moment. I have to flap my wings and howl, run amok and afoul.

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.

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!

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!

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.

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" .

Season's End

Thanks to my family and friends who have put up with me during the baseball season. I'm not a fanatic, just a fan. The Atlanta Braves season ended last night with a loss to the Giants and retiring manager Bobby Cox said goodbye to the team and the fans. 

It's a long time until spring training....