from the other brain half

I'm still tinkering around with the code for the gallery on my website. I've figured it out, I think. but the hard part is deciding which images to show and in what order. And then there's the  re-shooting to consider as some  really crappy pictures come to light.

It was a busy weekend with much more work than play and no holiday doings at all besides eating the bunny's ears.

there are  flower seeds in the ground now and another dozen mason jars with cloth and dye out in the sun until tomorrow.


I am bruised with second hand sadness. Someone I love is in pain from a broken relationship. Nothing I can think of to say makes any sense or difference  so I'll keep mum unless asked.

web work - updated

I'm supposed to be redesigning my website but I keep getting sidetracked by the vast array of nuts and bolts that I've lost a firm grasp of - it's not like riding a bicycle - because it's been such a long time that someone has gone and reinvented the wheel.  Fiddling with graphics is much more rewarding. I've got the framework in place, now it's down to the dirty work..like filling in all those forms when you enter a show. How's this for a splash..it's a real reflection of what I'm about artwise and lately.

(when I focus on the image on the right and synchronize my breathing with the critter's breathing a calm comes over me)

(the gallery viewer is a new tool that I have to learn before using. Imagine?! Maybe by lunchtime tomorrow I'll have figured it out. Right now I am cross-eyed and code crazed. and signing off. )

happy full moon friday

We probably won't get to see the full moon tonight - it's turned damp, overcast and cold, sweater and socks cold, so this will just have to do.

We don't celebrate the religious holiday around here but we never miss a chance for a little festivity. I will color some hard boiled eggs tomorrow.  A chocolate bunny might even find it's way into the refrigerator to be pecked at until gone.


I'm finally undertaking a complete redesign of my website. For those of you who write code  (or write anything for that matter) you know it means putting your head into the necessary place for a while and turning off all distractions or mayhem will ensue. See you after the weekend.

one down, eight to go.

just desserts on opening day

I spent the morning ironing much of the recent dye batches and was once again reminded of the magic of this cloth - how the soft, fuzziness of machine washed and dried damask lies down under a hot steam iron and takes on a glassy iridescence.

Those pieces of silk came out gorgeous as well with no ironing called for.

This afternoon I'll be pulling some small corners and selvedges from this lot and packing them into a handful of crocheted cusspots. Tomorrow I'll photograph the stuffed lovelies and put them up for sale in the store.

I've taken my picks, of course, and there is a lot more cloth to be dyed.






In every dye adventure a treasure turns up. The kind you squirrel away and nip at, the kind that turns up in your work over and over.

 This is a large hand towel, damask and huck woven. It's sturdy and there's an '02 woven into it so I don't think it's vintage but the Hellenia Hotel  looks like my kinda place..hats off to the tourist who brought it back for me.

take me out

Last night the whole family went to a special game at the Braves minor league park. Most of the current major league team played against the best of all the Braves farm teams. I couldn't get over the difference in size and stature..the Baby Braves, as we call them, looked like rag tag teenagers which I imagine many of  them were. The recently retired and widely beloved Bobby Cox managed them. The Allstars beat the future stars 4-3 in a 7th inning rain out. I can't remember the last time I was caught in a spring downpour, the long walk to the car accompanied by the PA system cheerily broadcasting "Singing in the Rain". It was a very special night.

This morning I only had time to wash and dry the latest tasties from the dyedeck.  That blue is one of the pieces of silk!

glory days

Nope, no hand rinsing for me today. I dragged the hose up onto the deck and gave this lot a heavy shower and there was almost no dye run off, as flagrant as I am with the stuff.

I actually ironed the two batches from yesterday and only a very few came back downstairs for re dyeing.
 So many goodies.

I found a large piece of silk that was a gift from my friend Anna. I forget the official name but it's smooth, slinky and shrieks when you rip it.  I snatched it into fourths the other day and Sweetie fell off the back of the couch with her hair on end and hit the ground running at the noise.

All I recall about dyeing silk is that it's vinegar and not soda ash that sets the color. We'll see what comes of this.

I reset the dyestock colors this morning, mixing colors that were very low and remixing some new ones. Topping off others with a little water. There are no labels on the bottles- it's all a magical mystery tour from here on in.

There's still a half bucket of smaller pieces of cloth waiting for color. I'm going to give them the pizza dough treatment in a little bit. Letting things soak overnight  is turning out better for me and the fabric.
 
I have to pace myself today or regret it. I'm off from the day job today because we are going to see the Braves play tonight at CoolRay Field. I could slave at the cloth in the sun til I drop but I really want to enjoy the evening without being exhausted when I get there.  The whole family will be attending, a rare and joyous event.

super sunday

After three hours in the clutches of H+RB, it was a great day on the dyedeck - sails all spanking in the breeze and the pots aboil! Everything will stew in it's juices for the night serenaded by tree frogs under the waxing moon. Meself? collapse, after "the Killing" if I can stay awake that long.

seachange

Remember the magic sewing chair my husband found for my birthday?  I haven't been able to sit in it for a very long time.

Since I started working from home, I shuffled things around in the studio rather haphazardly sacrificing one half of the shortest wall to accommodate my day job computer set-up.Hateful but necessary.

The chair became a catch-all and was buried but worst of all, right next to it was a large basket of nasty tax papers sending out bad vibes like a box of radioactive snakes.

The rest of the papers are now boxed up and going to the tax pro in a few minutes. The chair is free and waiting for my return.

Maybe I'll catch a spring training game this afternoon and stitch on this one a bit. Whomever sent me those beautiful little indigo moons, please remind me so I can thank you. One of them is the star of this piece.

Art Quilt Elements in Philly

 It's opening night!

Thanks so much for sending these pictures Sue!

 It's  really gratifying to see people examining the work close up..seeing what I was seeing when I made it. Maybe wondering "What the heck was she thinking?" or "How was that done?"

I wish I could have been there this time, my first ever rilly big shoe

happy friday

I have to step back from hand dyeing for a few days. My process includes hand rinsing everything before putting it through the washing machine and last night my poor paws were begging for drugs.



So for the next few days I'm falling back on this little bit of hand stitching which is shaping up into something compelling. Tonight after work I'll slather my hands with some Bengay, put on gloves and be well in the morning.




I have also taken huge step in the direction of Peace of Mind and made an appointment with a tax professional for tomorrow afternoon. The 800 pound gorilla is packing his crap and vacating my studio as we speak.

spilling its guts

Here's the original purpose of the original cusspot which is about the size of an apricot - a thread catcher to carry with me when I was still working at the office.


Today I'm decanting everything I was able to cram into it since last nesting season. I've decorated the crape myrtles up by the mailbox and hope that some of the birds have ignored the crazy weather and are just now building nests.




Rather than drive everybody to bored tears with an ongoing project I've created a separate page for the Sun Lion piece....the link is up there on the tool bar.

inprocess

the waxed sunlions are floating in a pool of wisteria.

sun lions

I kept going back to this design and color in my sketchbook. Now I really have to leave it alone before waxing and moving on to the next colors.

in the meantime, a new clutch of cusspots gets the boston beanpot treatment and once they are washed and dried they'll be stuffed with hand dyed scraps for sale. The way I crank these things out would make someone think I was trying to quit smoking - not the case.

work before play

I've spent the morning hatching out some test pieces. Tinkering with the colors, seeing which appeal and which need either flushing or rebooting. I have officially renamed that fuchsia "the Devil's Blood" because it's so seductive but such a contaminating pain to work with. Look at it out there pinking everything all crazy.

I've cleared the table in preparation for doing some (big) whole cloth dye painting but I'll have to wait until later because it's turned nippy..not optimal for the strong colors I want right now..

For everyone who is waiting for a package, please forgive the delay. I hope to get everything to the PO tomorrow!

a very good dog

Don  & Brewster headed out this morning but not before I put Brewster to work modeling the latest WIP. He was so busy posing for the camera he didn't notice the saddle blanket and while I was fiddling with the settings on the camera he wandered away...art in place. At least today he didn't fall in the pool. They have only been gone since 11 and the cats have already figured out that the house is all theirs again.

sunday song

After a deeply overcast day, the setting sun set the evening all a-pink with wonder but Karma was oblivious..exhausted from a day of lurking and hiding from something the cat crew has never experienced; a canine house guest!





Don and Brewster rolled in from Texas for a few days visit. You couldn't ask for nicer house guests, two or four footed!

I dreamed about where this one is going next and hope to spend some time with it today. The base is an woven cotton upholstery fabric and I want to preserve and incorporate the design somehow, maybe embroider over it in another color..so far it's been "sew & pick out, sew & pick out"

shufflin'

I had wanted to sit with this piece and shuffle things around until they started talking sense but there's been a change of plans that call for some emergency, "company's coming" housekeeping.

back to the rubber gloves.

 these will have to wait.

prayer flags someday

I think spring has

come so early

in honor of WAS

Magic Time

Okay...browsing around in the basket I was reminded about the double life that these hand dyed damasks lead. Straight from the dryer they are supple as snakes and soft as clouds. Once ironed..the magic begins as the woven patterns leap into view and the flattened threads take on an iridescence that is very hard to capture digitally. This particular 18" square napkin is a perfect example of why I love working with this vintage cloth.  I'm posting this and three others over at Random Acts of Dyeness later this morning.

update..this piece has flown.

washday at Wingdale

urg...I was run over by a migraine earlier in the evening and my head feels like a spoiled melon...I have a soft spot on my head like new babies do. please don't touch my head, pillow.

I had a lovely note from a reader regarding prayer flags and I sent her this photo of a set I made in the fall of 2010.  Looking at them now I'm reminded of lunatic laundry...washday at Wingdale which was the local nuthatch for my hometown. The place where everyone's mom would swear she'd run off to if we didn't behave.