testing new waters

Started machine stitching on the WIP  which is still  Unbaptized (which is almost  the name of one of my other pieces so I can't use it again). This one doesn't speak to me as much as it grabs me by the face and hollers.

I knew the machine stitching was going to be lost if I did not put something under all that damask, lawn, lace and linen so I basted the whole thing down to a raft of white polar fleece, properly oriented to be sure.

I've committed to mixing hand and machine stitching now but I have to stay my hand from cranking up the dials and using broad bands of machine satin stitching just because I want to see something materialize that can be seen from across the room.

Still looking for those broad strokes.

hanging on to summer

With hurricane Isaac bearing down on the southeast, today and maybe tomorrow could be the last really beautiful sunny summer days for this slice of heaven. My mission for the morning is to get the chores, house & studio, out of the way so I can get out there and make like a fish for a few more hours and then dry off with some stitching in the sun....restoring my soul.  Grace is right when she calls it "church"





TADA !!  nine new cloth burritos!   

Giveaway time!

Why wait for someone to copy my work (as if!) ...I did it mysef!

Inspired by something about making art accessible that floated through the info-waves and into my brain, I spent the morning cramming fabric into  a machine and pulling out these paper clones.  The detail is amazing - I'm so glad I remembered to bring the sticky roller in with me or you'd be marveling at the cat hair and cooties worked into the stitching.

This is an 11"x17" section of  one of the "grand rêves" printed on nice matte card stock and this one in the background .   While I do some research on archival inks and paper, signed and numbered copies and such, let's just have a giveaway with the proceeds of this day!

If you want to play email me  or leave a comment, which ever is easier,  and next Tuesday night I'll persuade Sweetie to pick two winners.

PS.. I recently discovered that blogger had decided on it's own to moderate who and how people could comment..I think I've whipped it into shape and will keep an eye out that there's no backsliding ....

camera historica

Once upon a time I had a wonderful camera called the Canon Pellix. It had a very short focal plane which made it great for stills or portraits.  This was way back in the day when you took pictures and sent the film off to be developed and printed...days, weeks of waiting to see if you got what you thought you were shooting. I had no training and I can tell you for every one good shot there were six or more crappy ones.

 There were no manuals available. At the time it came into my hands the camera was already 30 years old. Over time in the heat and humidity of the south, the interior light meter failed and the mirror film inside became clouded. I could never find anyone who could repair it and gave it up to a collector in England. None since can compare. I can still remember what it sounded like when you pressed the shutter..zzzwuck-clikt.

Karma  about nine months old, in 96.

touched

It's only ten in the morning and I have been moved to tears four times.

First, with coffee while I check email and such, the opening ten minutes of  the Prince of Egypt. The lullaby will be moving around in my heart for a long while and if you have seen it and really paid attention to the story, the music and the expressive animation and visuals, you know why. I will put it on later and watch it all, stitching.


 and then there's Wendy and Velma

 I got back up to the studio in time to catch CBS Sunday Morning's piece on Rufus Wainwright and then, the life and passing of Woody Davis



now I have to sit down to all this work and find heart there as well.

sun lion redux

I started this back in March and it went through some terrible changes and  has been languishing in the closet. This morning it was re-worked with soy wax and spent most of the day in a stew of Fa-geddaboutit Blue and Ch-ch-ch-chino.

Here it is rinsed and still crusted with wax...it's in the wash right now! More pictures later.









  Now I'm happier with it.

holes, dots..ah Friday

Seems like the Spot is floating high in the Zeitgeist these days...what it's meaning for others I don't know..Gerdiary calls it a fever, and there's "rabbiting" at Stitchworks


what are these particles today?

spotz, dotz, holes,   got some??


TGIF

details, big & small

I was in the studio all morning moving from one detail to the next without a lot of thought about the fact that there's a whole herd of them waiting to be run down and dealt with, one by one. Making lists of things never works for me - I lose the lists. I send myself emails with cryptic subject lines "whip the green over the red & gold" or "rescue rags from sauce"..that sort of thing.

Yesterday it was "198 inches of invisible hem stitching -dk gr" . I have to get three very large pieces photo ready by the end of this month so I can take advantage of the wall space over at the gallery and get some good pictures. Or build a photo wall big enough....hmmm. I'll have to consult with my Goodman on that item. I  still prefer natural lighting.

rainy day stitcher

 We were awakened this morning at 5am buy a soul stirring thunderclap that had Sweetie shivering in my armpit until even she gave up hope that I could protect her and dived for her storm haven under the bed. It's gonna be an all-day rain,

In the good company of the Buddha and his Fish, and under the spell of music from WFUV.org ,I'm settling into miles of machine stitching on LDE.  It's been some time since I've done a lot of free motion stitching so I did some warming up first but it really is like riding a bicycle..

...only I was one of those unlucky folks who had to really focus on maintaining my balance on a bike...none of that crazed "look ma, no hands stuff" for this kid. Scabs galore was more like it.  Working hard at being good at something that seems to come so easily to others can be galling if you let it.

No one could ever tell how wonky my inner gyro really was as I whizzed by, braids flying but teeth gritted.



I guess most of you have figured out that this is going to be one of my QN entries so there won't be any good photos until after Judgement Day.  That is of course, assuming I'm satisfied it's finished by the deadline.

(just took a measure..36"x 60"...not so huge after all)

black and white lightning

inspiration and instigation for using all the black and white things I have been making continues to strike

"Los Dados Encantada" was born this morning at 11:43 ...there are spots of blood everywhere - the base piece had five pounds off pins in it and I was in a spazrush to see these shapes fall into [the right] place..



more pictures when the time is ripe

switching gears smoothly

 I went out on the deck last night around 3am and caught two shooting stars scratch across the night sky like matches being struck. signs and portents.



While I was at HoAnn's yesterday couple of batik fat quarters leaped off the rack and grabbed me by the throat and forced me to used my coupons to spring them from the store.  I went there for a yard of white polar fleece and a giant cookie cutter and came home with degenerate cloth!

Once I came to my senses, I plunged them both in the black dyepot and later worked them over with softscrub. This morning it was evident that they take part in the WIP via the Machine now that I am confident that I can integrate both kinds of stitching in this one.

Now it's back to the dyepots - the humidity has lifted and the sun is hot - it's going to be a beautiful day and I want to wring the max out of it.

lashes

2:45am and I'm wide awake in anticipation of several hours worth of thunderstorms passing through the area.
 If I am tired enough, maybe I will sleep through them but I doubt it. The air is so thick outside that the freight train announcing itself in the distance sounds more like an ocean liner bellowing for a tug out past the lights of the harbor.

I've found a way to stitch many marks, bold enough and quickly enough to use on large pieces - this passage is roughly six inches across - was done with six strands of floss, doubled  in a split chain and then wrapped with the same 12 ply..it really sits up and signals.

I stitched this while listening to/watching an hours worth of  "America in Primetime" on PBS. A dialogue about the nature of storytelling. It has me thinking of ways to bring the sprawl of this piece under control, get it talking.

a mad hand

"Memory's Feast"  2009

I've been working on the large  black and white piece and find myself getting grumpy and unsatisfied with my hand stitching. Twice I've sewn long passages only to spend an hour picking the stitches out. Mulling it over, I looked back over some other pieces with hand stitching and found some reminders about Keeping Things Loose, Not Getting too Trixie and few other examples of the exuberant hand...hard to maintain when you are looking at Acres of work. Every day I have to take it out of the hoops and get it up onto the design wall to make sure that the stitching isn't getting too precious.  other lessons...don't forget the last minute shreds and white fleece makes great batting if you need it.

riot on the wall

yesterday's graduates...a cheeky lot. Now I'm not going to be able to sleep until I get them dancing.

gambol and cavort

 

 I think I need to find some real live baby goats to draw. Still pictures are just not helping. They move so fast and seem to be going in several directions all at the same time..capturing that kind of energy is going to take some first hand observation.

There are heaps of cloth to cull, iron and stow, more raw cloth steeping in the sauce and there are a bunch of deadlines for venues that I am going to have to get serious about.

So what did this slacker do with her enforced idle time?  Updated my "Buy Art" page since I'm getting a lot of traffic generated by the show.

and across the deck

color playing the boundary game. pieces poaching in the heat and humidity.

more B&Ws

Some B&W experiments this morning  didn't turn out as hoped. Too much dye creeping on dry cloth but still interesting.

And then discharging brings in a whole new way to look at things.

transparencies

four different weights of silk and two of cotton waiting to become transparent wisps of color...vinegar for the silks, soda ash for the cottons..



I'll leave them until tomorrow and tend to the batch from yesterday. It needs some TLC - Aquasafe, a gentle wash out and rinse, drying and ironing. Enough for one day.

remember that white linen dress with the little shell buttons on the bodice?

timewarping vintage cloth

A little research and I found that the Colombian Line operated between NY and Colon in the mid 30's.

This piece had a few holes and when I made the mistake of hanging it, the weight cause the wet cloth to tear in a few places. Tender as the night.


More tomorrow.

The new palette  has some surprises..

practicing for Los Dados

the cat house

After Friday night's excitement all I wanted to do this weekend was hide away and do the work - and so I did.

Had lot's of help in the studio. The words stitched into her quilt say "You can help by sleeping here"...of course it's the first time any cat has done what it was told since I made it five or six years ago.


She's being more than the usual Mommy's girl because a stray is lurking in the wings. We are putting up signs today because last week a tearful little girl bravely knocked on the door asking if we had seen her cat..at that point, no. But two days in a row a pretty little longhair with turquoise eyes has poked her bold head in the front door and eaten dry food from Juicy's bowl. With a cat door, for all I know, Little Stranger has been sleeping on the couch.

but right now...we are preparing for a DYE DAY!!  

 

Did you know cat hair is an essential ingredient!

Show Time!

makers mark

I made this piece back in May of this year and I need to find it in the stash..on the "mine" shelf, I hope. Something made me think about it today and I have a craving to make more along the river of this one. The Makers Mark.

Two big boxes were waiting for me when I got back from putting the finishing touches on the show. One from Dharma with some new-to-me colors, soy wax and a few yards of sheer silks and cotton, and a large box of beautiful double damask won from Ebay. These and the linens I picked up the other day  will have me  lost in  dye wonderland for the rest of the summer and deep into fall.