Lush Life rescue

What I really need to be doing is cutting and fitting five sleeves onto the black and white series. The biggest, KV, is pinned and I'm stitching away. Hours of mindlessness.

And here's more..."Lush Life" dates back I don't know how many years. There is so much I love here and I hope I can save at least some of it. It's another example of being in love with specific elements  of a piece and totally disregarding crucial design concerns.

The first order of business will be picking out all the insane, loopy and the ill-advised machine quilting buried in the tender damask and a half inch of a felted cotton batting that weighs a ton.

 I'll just sit here and pick.

chapters end

I finished "Karma V" this morning. I never did count all those french knots. Final size - 44"x36".  Nothing new on the design wall right now but soon.

This one is still under the needle but there isn't going to be a lot of stitching. The truth is that I was in love with each of these pieces of cloth on their own and don't want any of the colors or textures to be secondary to any unnecessary surface embellishment. Color field painting has always been a favorite  

b

a tear soaked headless blue horse

Here I am happily working away through the rerun of last week's episode of Downton Abbey blissfully unaware of what was heading down the pike at the end of the one that followed.

Jimmy, it was good you were not here for this one because the weeping and swearing was just awful! You would have woken up growling.

It's crazy that I get so emotionally invested in one or two TV shows a season. The funny thing is I've only just started watching this show and have barely gotten the names and faces straight before the writers started knocking people off!

Juicy

Jake's cat Juicy has lived with us for a while now but he is still extremely shy, mostly of me.

He misses Jim, who has become his best bud.

A consummate opportunist, he has made camp in the first place in the house that gets the morning sun, my sewing chair in the studio.

(the little quilt he is claiming was made for a cat and says "you can help by sleeping here")

adrift

That's me. Headless and blue. Talking about being on my own and actually living it are two different things.
Jimmy left mid morning and was 20 minutes out when he somehow realized that he had left the power cord to his laptop at home. Colin saddled up and got it to him with little to no time lost.
At least it's a beautiful day for driving in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Meanwhile, up in New York, my Pop is having a hard time of it. Life that is.

love all year long

Have I really committed to several hundred french knots? Looks that way...

It turns out that one of the UFOs ("blue headless horse" is the unhappy working title) is going to be machine quilted after all, so this one will be my "hands on" work for some time to come.


In case you were wondering, me and my Goodman celebrate Valentine's Day all year round so we don't do the Hallmark hokey-pokey. There will be much boo-hooing in the driveway tomorrow though when he drives off to the mountains for a few months at a work location.

color comes to light

There has been some scurrying about here at Lacativa Abbey. My Goodman will be hitting the road for a new job and needed just the right sized tub with lid to safely transport his printer and such. My WIP bucket was just the ticket and there were only three things inside. Waiting, waiting and the time is here.

I'll be needing handwork now to keep me company while he is away.  Work is good, being away from home for weeks at a time can be tough.  We just figured out how we can make video calls via FB...funny from one floor to the next in the same house but it will be wonderful when he's five hours away.

This last great expanse of fleece came out of the UFO box too and it's big.

I found it very interesting that a blank white canvas of this size can be intimidating but this black one prompted so many visions of what will come next, it's exciting. For the moment, I'm just going to let it brood over my shoulder.

Season Finale already?

Did the announcer really just say that?  That next Sunday will be the season finale of Downton Abbey? Woe is me. 

 I am so glad that I decided to spend the past two hours in that past rather than sit wondering and frowning over what passes for musical talent on the Grammys.

Once upon a time people conducted themselves with a measure of dignity. I like that. And the hats.

The hand stitching and finishing is done on Karma 4 and I can give over the rest of my studio time to finishing K5.

Changes are afoot in our household (more about that when I know more) and changes are coming in my work. Color is calling me back and I'll be answering soon.

Karma IV (30"x39")

Karma V continued

 Machine stitching continues on this piece alternating with hand stitching on K4. I really should stay out of the morning light.

Sand, Ashes and Roses

I had a long overdue day on the town with my buddy Janice yesterday. The world cooperated and sprung me sunshine and 60's. I ate off the chain at a food court - yeah there was bourbon chicken and a red velvet brownie - and then saw "Silver Lining Playbook" which was terrific. Halfway through the flick my stomach started  flipping like I was on a carnival ride. I'm sure it was a combination of the rich food and the onscreen emotional mayhem but I toughed it out, kept the lunch and was restored by a little more fresh air and sunshine. A good time was had by all.

Today, by several special requests I have put my nose back to the grindstone to update the inventory over at Random Acts of Dyeness. Seems like folks are in the mood for the muted, natural tones that some people work so hard to achieve using a variety of natural dye processes so I've put together a grouping titled "Sand, Ashes and Roses.

I tip my hat to the natural dyers but my colors all come from Procion MX dyes. This grouping comes from my "overdye" basket because I'm inclined to harder edged, more saturated colors and were destined for another dose of color.
 My loss is your gain!  More about it here

shift, grind, shift

I've been plodding away on this still just laying in  what I call the construction lines. My goodman has been stalled by what I hope is merely a cold (the things you will get when being out and about!) so I've had an ear out for him as he sleeps his way through it.

Mid morning I was called upon to write up a deposition for a child custody case - I can't go into any details  but suffice it to say that the mental place I had to go to to write this was ugly and I really hope that my words make a difference in court and the beast gets her just desserts. Pity the children involved.

commercial hang over

We are bleary-eyed and butt-dragging around here today having watched the entire Blackout Bowl. It was my first time actually watching (and trying to comprehend)  the whole game. I kept losing track of who had the ball which Jimmy says is the whole point of the action. I will be sticking with baseball.

Normally I only look up from reading or stitching when the commercials come on but my eyes have been tired so I rested them at 12 feet instead of 12 inches. What I really need is a distant horizon, preferably one over a beach somewhere.

After getting my annual dose of disappointment from the tax Preparer's office this morning, I spent some time at the machine stitching on this one.

Voodoo overturned a large box of prints in the studio and uncovered a set of pictures of magnolia blooms that I took years ago.

And look at this beauty...rescued from sure annihilation at the hands of scrap metal thieves by Grace of the West

K4 revisited while the machine operator rests.

I decided that C. was right about the orientation for this one. Horizontal won out over the possessed palm tree trip.

Two of the three chunks of school bus were pruned out and I cropped the entire piece back to it's black damask edge, lopping off the excess fleece.

I stayed true to the original shape when I cropped it so the wonkiness is intentional but the loss of overall size makes me kind of sad.  I'm thinking I'll grow it back to the original dimensions and keep it closer to rectangular. People who are not familiar with textile work in the first place have a hard enough time with that aspect of the work, let alone the unframed shape wandering off from the box they are so accustomed to.

its Janome time

Today we take Karma V under the needle. No hand work at all for this big bad boy. Enjoy your weekend. I know I will.

storm passed

(Detail from K4)

I thought I was finished with this one last night but this morning I'm finding things I want to change; some places that look waiting/wanting and a few that look overworked. This is what happens when I spend too much time with a large piece in my hands and not enough time looking at it from six feet away. 

I dashed out before the storm came through yesterday and had lunch with Jake and was happy to learn that the wedding he and Missy are planning is going to be fun and not all that formal - a party to remember. This is a shot of Jake & Pop from last June. Poppy is still in the hospital making a slow recovery from pneumonia.

color on hand

The big basket after I dumped and churned it.

The temps outside climbed to  70 today and the tree frogs started tuning up - prematurely I'm sure but all of this has conspired to get me  thinking about and planning out the first dyefest of 2013.

I have a whole host of new colors to work with and a growing stack of  vintage cotton and linen and a great swath of what I think is raw silk. No directions yet, just strong, complex color - a great cure for the blahs of January in Georgia.

unearthed and pending

I was digging through the large scrap basket yesterday, desperately trying to put together a neutral cloth burrito when I uncovered this little treasure. Here's the original post that explains it all.

For a little relief from the B&W series I'll finish it complete with the text somewhere on the panel. I may have to grow it a little to accommodate the word since it's only about 10x12.


My version of the prayer went like this:

we bring you an important interruption

I've been making very slow progress with the hand work on K4. It's taking a long time but I'm determined to finish this one before I commit to the intense machine work that I have planned for K5.

The goal is balancing the mechanical machine stitching with the organic and free flowing hand stitched lines.

 

But a certain feline codger has begun demanding that I devote my lap to his comfort. Somehow stitching can wait until he is back up to speed.

Voodoo anti-sketching

baste-orama

I like to baste. A piece that's had all its pins replaced by big running or laddered stitches is in a kind of transitional state, fixed but fluxable. Relieved of its steel burden, KV felt weightless.

I use a monster long needle and a single strand of king tut cotton thread. It has just enough "grab" to hold things together with minimal slippage. A few, small back stitches will pass for a knot.

Just like moving a mountain with a teaspoon, one spoonful, one stitch at a time...you look up, and it's done.

This is not me being all arty with Instagram here...it's me being all forgetful about what and how my big Canon is capable of. Point and shoot it's not. Time to dig out the manual, tinker a bit and take some notes.

Shopping around, it looks like this one is what I want to replace the camera that my brother and I  dissected last week.

Kv advanced

Some color comes creeping and someone else's orientation. 

working both brain halves

It still feels like Monday, with all that still needs to get done and all the things pending, good things.

I spent a little time updating the store this morning and, bit by bit, I'm tweaking KV...those splattery gray-green bits will have to go, no matter how much I love the cloth, they cannot play here.

That group of colors off to the left is called "Candy Bowl"

KV continues

Karma V

It's good to get back to work.

Although I brought something along to do some hand stitching on, nothing got done.

While I was in NY I paid a visit to the Benefit Shop in Bedford and met the owner Pam Stone. What an amazing place and great purpose.

 I scored several amazing pieces of vintage damask and a length of what I think is Shantung silk.

 I'm having it all shipped because I couldn't cram everything into the two little carryons that I made do with this trip. All of a sudden I realize that I have a bunch of very cool cloth gathering for the coming dye season.

Now I'm going to let this one rest a day and go downstairs with this one and catch up on Dowton Abbey. I think some tea is in order too.

the original

home!

While it was wonderful to see my family, it's so great to be home. 

The chaos of a three generation household with elder illness and mama-baby drama thrown in is exhausting. I give my sibs all props for maintaining relative sanity any way they can.

Travel was thankfully uneventful but I'm not thrilled with Delta being the only choice between ATL and White Plains. On the way up they farted around on the ground 40 minutes past scheduled take off but someone how made up all but 15 minutes of it in the air. I could actually feel the g-forces. Coming back, Delta these winter-clad travelers needed heat on the plane instead of AC. By the time we arrived, envision a herd of steaming buffalos. I guess arriving alive is enough.

There are no pictures today because right after I took the night shots in the previous post, my camera broke when Charlie Brown yanked on his leash and sent it banking off my forehead on hard onto the frozen ground. My brother and I decided since it was already broken, maybe we could take it apart and see what was awry. NOT! Still, it was interesting to see what went on inside that slim little wonder. The other two Canons were waiting at home with dead batteries otherwise I would treat you to the chaos of my studio. Time to get back to work.

reviving tradition

   

clean slate

It's easy to see how the possibilities never end I want to be completely satisfied  with each aspect of the piece as it develops - why push ahead and commit when it's just not right or working.

I will be leaving this one alone for a while since I'll be leaving to visit with family in NY and can't take it along chock fulla pins as it is.
And I have a notion that this is only half the finished size. When I get back,  I'll get another backing panel this size and mount it on the left.

I'd like to bring along some hand stitching but I don't really want to check a bag and don't want to risk losing any of my tools to the TSA. It will be a fiber free visit unless I go scrounging for used cloth with my sisters.
A change of scenery, climate, and activities will be good for me.

Failed at..

...being off the machine. mostly.

But at least it's been a productive day. This went up on the design wall between loads of laundry and during the Falcon's game. I don't follow football but the excitement of the locals, including my son Jake, is contagious.

All around that Jim and I watched, and thoroughly enjoyed, all of season one of Californication.
 Given the surprise ending of the last show, I don't want to see any more, happy endings being such a rare and endangered species but it's so well written and acted I'm happy I just found out that season six is just starting. We'll parcel out the rest over time.

I also mentally dragged my novel out of memory's closet and killed our little heroine on the second page. Who was it  said we must kill our darlings? This one on the wall is in deep shit right now.

Happy Friday!

Thought I'd leave you with a little color before I get off this electric treadmill for 48 hours...it's a test.

There's a lot of work brewing on all fronts and I don't want to let the moments fritter away.

This was a quick and dirty sketch to see how those Inktense Blocks work...not so great in my sketchbook, I should have known because the paper is very closed, almost greasy.

I finished basting K4 this morning and already I'm looking around for more scraps of black and white cloth. The sun peeked out just as I snapped this shot, and then it retreated.