I've covered the shelves with bits and lengths of heavy vinyl wallpaper that was rescued from some restaurant renovation years ago. It's interesting stuff but I never had enough of it to make sense of the pattern.  So very functional - I came close to chucking the whole many times and now I'm so glad I didn't.

The floor! the floor! I can see it! a beautiful dark navy blue carpeting..badly in need of a thorough vacuuming!

That dark pile in the foreground is the cloth I dyed yesterday..but for one span of ocean blue, all murky and in need of further work.

Time to test drive that new FM foot that arrived the other day.

a good day's work before noon

TADA!  tomorrow I'll cover the wood with a layer of this slickey restaurant wallpaper that fell into my clutches and then get everything loaded back up..
OR I could hang out the Opium Den sign and rent out the shelves to four dragon-chasers...just close the doors and turn off the lights. Can you tell by the crazy that it's FRIDAY!?!!

I have a squadron of flags stewing in the dye - everything bagged up on black plastic to take advantage of the sun's heat and earlier, buzzed around a the print joint this morning and took about 20 Fabulous (if I must say so myself) prints of the pieces that just came home from the latest show..I'll scan a few and drop them into the store later.

Now, it's off to the Whine & CYA mine for the afternoon.

the Pomodoro technique

When I read Robert Genn's newsletter this morning I realized that I have been doing my own version of the Pomodoro time management technique all week, without the windup tomato time.

The studio has been in turmoil as I am finally getting proper shelves set into the closet. Everything that was stacked so precariously  (and impractically) in the closet is piled all over the studio with barely a footpath for my Goodman to work.  It will be finished today!

My own dayjob has had me on early starts all week leaving precious little time for anything else. The weather has been glorious all week so I have been grabbing the River basket and skipping out with this piece to the park. I make camp at a picnic table by the pond and, with no phone calls, no music, no books on Ipod, no TV in the background - just focusing on stitching for a full hour. Why does that small chunk of time seem so remarkable?  When did I let my day get eaten up by stuff that doesn't pay off??

This mornings precious free time is going to a quick  and dirty dye session - today the temps are supposed to scratch at 78 but will plunge to the low sixties tomorrow. This is really it and I want it for my own.

not robot-rabbit buggery!

A good friend has reminded me to keep pushing my art - reaching beyond my comfort zone. Thanks for the prod St. A.

Here's another of the three pieces that I had to keep under wraps all these months.

 "Jazz Takes Over" is 41x40  and was the middle piece in a progression of work moving from all hand stitched to completely machine stitched. This piece is the crossover or hybrid and a jumping off point for all of the things I have in progress right now. It was a lot of fun in the making. This post title was one suggestion from my in-house critic for a title..it was hard to deny him.

detail

calavera

well that was fun but now I'm over it.

facing the work week

It was such a great weekend that I plan to wrap myself in the good feelings and fly them into the next five days. We cooked (chili and home made chicken noodle soup) enough that no one has to monkey around in the kitchen much for a few days. A little laundry and vacuuming out of the way early and I'm already thinking nap.

There was a little picking up (in preparation for the new closet shelves that I have been putting off) which revealed that I four large works in progress and at least two on the mind-shelf.And last night I somehow  convinced myself that I needed to make a calavera since it's been that kind of year.

more help in the studio

I spent 20 minutes organizing these in the basket in order so I could buy some replacements from the web without doubling up. I looked down after staring at the computer screen to catch this performance.

tight focus

I got an early start again today and was alone in the house for most of the morning. Anyone who does free-motion quilting will know that you can become quite oblivious to anything other than sewing your fingers to the piece. (If I do not find a proper FMQ foot for this Janome I'm going to freak). Stitching loosely woven cloth like damask is pesky as hell. The cloth will do every thing in it's power to avoid the needle.

I had stopped sewing to replace an empty bobbin when a hairy paw reached through the harp followed by it's body (who barely made the squeeze) .

Sweetie insisted it was time to stop that noise and do something else with my day. A split second after this shot, I got the gentle face-bite.

with a witness

All this closet digging and retrospection had me asking myself about all the large, machine stitched pieces I was so focused on five years ago - what was the draw? 

I made a point of NOT taking peek back at those pieces and just set about this one before the sun was really up this morning. It's about 5 feet wide and will go under the needle tomorrow with out too much further ado. 

then I went looking and found Roadkill from '08 and remembered why.

out of the loop

Annulus

I was out and about yesterday re-celebrating my birthday with my buddy Janice. We scared them at I-Hop, pillaged the 50% off goods at the Salvation Army (great cloth scores!) and then caught a mid day showing of "Looper" - my idea of a great day on the town!

It's not often that I am lost for words when it comes to a film. I like this one so much that I need to see it again.

Going to the movies in the middle of the day has a way of taking me out of time.

This morning I pulled a box out of the closet and packed it off to NY. Most of the pieces were from 2005. It's weird to think they've never been in public before. I wish them luck.

Leaking Transom

a good days work

I got this one finished by midmorning and gave it a hot water machine thrash and dry  to test the fleece as batting. Very nice result..it has that "been loved and dragged around lots" look to it. Packing it off to Kara tomorrow. Thre are sixteen more blocks waiting to be organized.

Late morning I got outside on the dyedeck to soak up some vitamin D...the sun was blazing but the air was cool and dry..a rare day in Georgia. I was out there so long a group of vultures were circling overhead.

The pool is well on it's way to swampland..these colors are just a little bit lurid. My camera has a "foliage" setting but I wonder on what planet?