it's Chili time!

 I was up before dawn getting cornbread into the oven for the Stone Mountain Chili cookoff. Jim camped there last night and is preparing the judges batch of the same recipe as I type this.

All the entries have to be cooked on the spot but I bake a dozen pans to serve little samples to the visitors, along with the chili and, this year for the first time, he's making Brunswick stew...whatever that is.

It's quite the rowdy party, and though I have attended in the past to help serve, it's not my cup of tea and I would only be underfoot so this year Colin will be delivering the cornbread and slinging grub for the masses. Later in the day there will be ear splitting live music, and with the spectacular fake summer weather we've been blessed with after a week of muggy rain, there will be mobs of party animals swarming the area. Me, I'll be at a bead show  waiting on the magic phone call to hear that we WON like we did in '03! Good luck my darling...

I may not have anything much going on but its great to see what other artists are making with my fabrics...


I know there are more out there...let me know.






Serena

and Grace

and Vicky

big and wild

Cleared off the dancing table, tuned up the Janome and have this large expanse of hand dyed vintage sack clothe and damask under the needle...winging it. Thoughts only get in the way, just gotta keep my fingers clear. Blood will not do here.

It's turned muggy and warmish again..just as I get out the blanket sized works.
Ah, Murph, you devil me again.

graces moby cloth

the original color was  a very pale pink.




Can you tell by looking if it's silk? It burns like a natural cloth, it's heavy like duck almost, and shrieks out loud when you rip it. tomorrow I'll try dyeing it again only fixing with vinegar instead of (dummy!) soda ash.

a new badge

I had to put on the long pants against the chill today for the first time and was happy to be able to zip up AND be able to breathe! Jim made a practice run of my cornbread recipe last night and I think I ate a pan almost by myself. 

It's rainy and drear and I'd like nothing better than to go back to bed right now but I promised some OT in a few minutes....so stitching and dreaming will have to wait. My little B&W feather break was refreshing - I am back in technicolor mode.

Another great box of white wonder thumped up onto the porch late yesterday afternoon. More about that tomorrow.

feathers flying

this time I remembered to take a picture before sending them off.

Jim is getting ready for the Stone Mountain Chili Cookoff this coming weekend - my dye deck has become an fresh air kitchen for a few days but I'll be jarring up a few experiments later this morning in hopes of a few more 80 degree days coming up. If anyone gets any cloth that has a whiff of a distant campfire, garlic or cumin, you know the reason why.

freepiecing denim

The turn of seasons has me washing all blanket-like objects and this old denim throw turned up with a multitude of failed seams. Time to be useful again. That orange broadcloth turned out to have a bit of poly in it and so it will go two work pulling this blanket together..a nice back of couch piece although I may hang it up and pretend I'm in a museum somewhere.

We were real hard on our denim back in the day. This was built in 1977, one of the first things I sewed on the Kenmore Jimmy bought me as an engagement gift. It was one of the first free-arm portables, indispensable for mending blue jeans. The man knew what he was doing. I did not but, Gees Bend, it's held up pretty well.

september morn

I've been slightly derailed (was I ever railed?) by the sudden change of season - even if it's only temporary,  a flexing day job schedule and overdosed with color.

I was surprised to read that Jude only has 282 feathers to date. I would have thought she's be over feathered by now but I was wrong so I am taking a little black and white eyeball palette cleansing break here before I set to the task of going through the new cloth, taking first picks and then putting things up for adoption and sale.

These pieces dried to be a lot less vibrant than this shot. I've given up being disappointed or surprised when the cloth does what it will. instead, I do what I know to bring the things around to my liking.

A couple of them have been painted with transparent textile paint and I'll post the results later in the day when they are fully dry.

grace moons

this whole group spent the night basking in the full moon. I'll know more after they've been through a machine wash and dry.

These are the Grace Moons, each different but all from the same mother cloth, a section of heavy drapery cotton. Strong, soft and full of weave. These may become part of a larger whole.

avoidance & remembrance

It started with this commercial, the crying, and I knew I would be doing it on and off all day. So I made myself a list of all the things that needed doing this fine sunny day. In between the items, I would pass by the TV, watch a bit and cry a bit more. I had forgotten some things and never knew so many others.

It was almost hot today and I had readied some sample sized chunks of the newly gifted fabrics..three of my favorites got the treatment early.

Serena, you sent two of these simple sqares, hemmed all round with a tiny tag that says "Cotton, EGYPT". Could these have been diapers? Wonderful stuff.
I know she won't be seeing this post for a while because she broke her only pair of glasses. And next, a square of that wonderful, fragile muslin..I left the lavender ties in place and used this piece to wipe up.in fact, decided to dedicate that entire piece, one chunk at a time, to cleaning up...the best pieces emerge this way.

Once these things were in the pot, I took a huge pile of winter blankets and quilts to the washateria and while they were tumbling, cleaned my poor car interior, long neglected.. gross to the max.


Shopped for dinner, staggered home and forced myself into the pool in time for the first pitch. It was chilly but the sun was hot and there was a game on..


then baked ziti into the oven for my hardworking husband and one more  crack at the dyeworx..

This is a multi-layered log of some of that heavy drapery cotton, Grace.
Inside it, a  piece of that fabulous damask tablecloth (yes, I cut into it) layered with rice, orzo, oatmeal and grits...all of them buggy  -and an array of dye color.


tomorrow, we go on.