low

Sometimes it's just us and Don Draper.

well shod

I am so tickled to have finally found a pair of shoes! This may not be a big deal for the majority of you, especially those who are afflicted with shoe-itis.  I know you are legion and there is help if you want it.

It's not that I cannot afford a new pair of shoes (within strict limits to be sure) but I am very fussy and hard to fit. I think I have been looking on and off for maybe three years; since the Sketchers started splitting around the toe.

Having given up finding anything in all the shoe emporiums around here, I went to Bass Pro Shops yesterday and headed for the clearance rack, always my first stop.

As I watched a tall, warrior looking woman clad in black leather picked this pair up and inspected them. For all her grandeur, she had tiny feet. I said "They'll never fit you". She looked at them rather disdainfully and put them back and strolled away, chains clanking.

I snatched them up, scuttled off to the nearest bench and tied them on. As I had hoped, they were made for my feet. I clapped my dear old Sketchers in the box, walked around the store for a while and then checked out. Good for at least another five years if I switch out to sandals as soon as the weather permits.

Seth

Since there is no end of snappy sayings, I could on making these, but I have to stop.

There are other things that I want to do.

Not more important things, just different things.

time tattered

The shawl has been around a long time; whipped up in haste from three yards of panne velvet that had to have been half price somewhere.

The machine appliqued flowers added on years later when I started dyeing cloth.

It used to be my go-to wrap for anything after dark.
The vintage damage is evaporating and I'm not going to try and stop it.

This also reminds me that free motion machine appliqueing damask over a substrate with some softness/depth gives wonderful dimensional results.
The quicker and dirtier the stitching the better.

pool trouble

You know how you should never badmouth your good used car or covet some other set of shiny wheels while old faithful still gets you there and back?

 Yesterday I went to the aquatic center at the park not five minutes from my house and spent a solid hour wearing out my lane of their Olympic sized pool and woke up none the worse for the first real exercise in ages. Delightful.

My blue heaven

This morning I was greeted by the sad sight of our pool down about a foot of water. The hard freeze that lasted most of the week has taken a toll on some point in the pool infrastructure. The liner is fine, but the  hoses that run under the decking have not been replaced since the pool was put in.  We put off replacing them for many years now, but I think brand new hoses would have not stood up to the kind of cold we've just been through. The leak is slow so I'm hoping it's not the tank. At any rate, come spring, it's gonna be a mess but I WILL see my blue heaven restored.

1999..my guys getting it done

Jim & Jake

and the winner is.....

Karoda.....

be in touch.

lenses updated

I probably should have taken more time moving the circular viewfinder over the UFO before selecting this segment.  Even then I was enamored of the pink french knots and the fragile piece of gold/pink damask.  Enough..

It's too easy to keep going, but once the piece is cut from the whole it can quickly become distorted and I want to keep the circular shape/boundary so no text for this one.

lenses

I've taken one of the hoops and used it to isolate a section from an unsuccessful UFO in hopes of rescuing this small segment rather than trashing the whole piece.

But now I'm screwing up my courage to venture out in sub-freezing temperatures to go to the aquatic center and see if I remember how to swim.

the arctic south

It was SIX degrees this morning. I slept on the floor in the office last night next to the space heater with Sweetie and Voodoo. Just finished breaking up almost two inches of clear, black ice on the pool to keep the steel frame from breaking. The cold should take care of the fleas and mosquitoes for the coming season.

Hot summers past are just a dream away.

badges

It's no bigger than this. I just wanted something in my hands while I watched the new season of Downton Abbey last night.  He just had to say "great love comes with great heartache"  or somesuch.

We were talking about tattoos today but instead I'm making badges..

Sometimes we need our stinking badges.

just not feeling it..

I spent most of the morning yesterday in the unheated studio laying this out. Now I marvel at the myriad ways I find to waste precious time.

That piece of brown and lavender damask that is the base of this twenty inch square is going to devil me.

It's been in any number of false starts.  It's only quick basted so tonight I'm going to take it apart, pack all the pieces in a baggy and have a giveaway. Leave a comment and Wednesday I'll pick a winner..maybe you'll have better luck with all this than me.

the Auction

I'm happy to report that my silent auction worked well.

"Solstice Eve, 2013" has a new owner!

I have to admit that I really didn't think the whole thing through beyond the few instructions laid out in the original post.

The odd starting price was to encourage equally odd bids on the crazy chance that two people might make the same offer.


My objective is to clear my studio of all these recent pieces. I need a clean artistic slate and plan on similar auctions in the future. In this age of self-representation I'm going to find new ways of using technology to get pieces out of storage and  into someone else's world at a price that works for everyone.

I have to admit that when I hit "post" that day,  the girl I used to be worried about  how she would feel if no one bid on it. The person I have become was quick to remind her that this kind of worry was a waste of emotional energy and time.

 (advice: don't check the email until just before the deadline!)

There were a handful of bids, two international. Congratulations to the winner!
One thing I know for a fact- as great as digital  pictures of  fiber art can appear on the web..nothing compares to holding the real thing in your hands and seeing it in person.

So, which piece should I put up for next auction? Do you have a favorite from the main gallery? Or something from the mists of the blog. If it's not on the Buy Art page, describe it to me and I will try to dig it out. I won't do it right away but if I know people are interested in specific pieces I will take new pictures and post them here.

What are your thoughts about buying and selling art this way? Will you try it for yourself? Do you have any suggestions to make the auction process easier, more efficient?

Nothing like a big juicy can of worms for breakfast, eh?

The Lives They Loved

I posted this elsewhere but will make it my last here in 2013

_______________________________

The Lives They Loved

The NY Sunday Times magazine runs a feature at the end of each year called "The Lives They Loved". If you go there prepare to lose a lot of time and be deeply moved.

 I don't know if my submittal made the cut, they must receive thousands, but here is what I sent. It was very hard to keep it to the two hundred word limit.

"Jimmy made me laugh and I'm a tough comedy customer.

From the first day we met his mission was to make me happy, to hear me laugh. He wasn't a joke teller – it was all lightning wit and the gift of knowing just which funny bone to tickle. He would whisper something bawdy in my ear just to see me pretend to be a prude all the while peeing myself with laughter.

People were always glad to see or hear from him because they knew that at some point in the conversation there would be genuine laughter. He was a construction superintendent, the guy

 who is caught between management and labor and he always took pride in his ability to bring everyone around to his way of seeing and doing things. I think they wanted to share in his boundless sense of fun and good humor.

He was a wonderful father to our sons Colin and Jake and I'm so glad that he passed on his amazing gift of laughter to them both. Now, whenever I really laugh at something I hear his

 booming laughter in my heart I'm sure that he sent that moment my way with his love."  

Karma VI

Changed my mind about hard mounting this one mostly because I couldn't find the right sized canvas. It's faced and signed and ready to go.
details here.




"Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” 

― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

Solstice Eve, 2013

Solstice Eve 2012

Hand appliqued and embroidered vintage hand dyed cloth, 14"x20", faced and signed, ready for framing.

 I will be taking silent bids via email (deborah@lacativa.com) until midnight on New Years Eve.

Please put SE BID in the subject line.

The opening bid is $86.47  US. Shipping included.

being bothered

While I was looking for something to face this with I was bothered by something about it and took it back to the sewing chair to study.

 I don't consciously compose my work, I generally select scraps of cloth and just move them around relative to one another until I like what I see.  People find things in my work that I never intended and that's ok.  Early on, I did acknowledge the figure front and center. What bothered me was that it was a solitary figure so I brought some other beings into play.

Much is written about the healing power of making art. I don't know about making any healing art myself but I've recently been given a piece of art that makes me smile every time I look at it.  I think you are really onto something here Bamboota.

the gift

It's no surprise that this holiday season has been very hard for our little family.  Anytime someone says" What do you want for Christmas" our answer is "to turn back the clock and have Jimmy with us again, whole and happy". The best we can do is have a hug and a weep and then get on with life as he would have wanted us to.

After a very bad day yesterday I resolved to do better and started picking at boxes of papers; sorting, saving, discarding. As if the pile next to my bed was not enough, I went to the closet and took down a small box I knew contained old cards, letters and the boys' baby books inside - things I knew would make me smile. At the bottom, I found a another box with a few trinkets and this silver spoon bracelet.  I thought it was lost and gone and told one of my sisters-in-law so just the other day.

I had it made for Jimmy when we first got together. The inscription is "Keep on Trying", the title of a short, sweet love song by Poco that he introduced me to.
 A song about persistence and a belief in the redemptive power of true love.

 He used to wear it all the time but broke it twice at work. Twice repaired, it got relegated to "formal wear" meaning weddings and holidays and hadn't thought about it for years. I thought it was gone forever.

Merry Christmas my darlin'. Thank you.

Quick, take a picture..

"Solstice Eve"   14"x20"

Is that sun smiling from the east ?

Done is good. I'm going to face this with something appropriate, work my signature and date into it and then part with it, quickly.
Details and finished photos later in the week. The studio beckons and there is work to do.

Sunday rain

Time stands still for a while...and it's ok. The violent weather that was promised never materialized but the rain seems to have moved in to stay. We are snug.

a hug from afar

     The cloth speaks what the heart cannot find words for............thanks Jude.

stitching with Jesse & Walt redux

I've been saving this little tea towel for something and this struggled into being late last night. It was approved and basted at dawn and has been keeping me company for a few hours now.

We rest.

We wake and repeat...

Libra at work

What I know Jimmy would want most for all of us is to find our feet. For me, that would be getting back into the studio in a significant way. I'm looking to find a balance between the warm draw of living in the past and stepping into the future mindfully.

Although I've been stitching here and there on little fripperies,  nothing comes to mind when I look at the design walls. Not even the desire to see. The studio is in total chaos - this one linear foot of wall space remains an inspiration complete with a fiber blessing by Grace of the West.

Once it warms up a bit, I'll work at restoring order and give the raw materials a chance to inspire.

My finances are in as much chaos as the studio so a lot of those raw materials will soon be available in the store.

There are really only so many hours in any day and I think I have other things on the horizon that are not wrapped in cloth and making.

trees

Yesterday was a particularly difficult day . Acknowledging condolences, piles of paperwork, digging through personal archaeology were all contributing factors to the extra melancholy. Thanks to both my sons for rescuing the day. Jake came by midmorning and they needed feeding so I made a hearty soup and biscuits and when Colin returned from the laundromat they took the dead clothes dryer up to the street (where it was grabbed up by scrappers in minutes!) and hooked up a used but working one that Jake had in storage under the house. Needful, useful things to deal with, pass the time and remember.  I'm better today.

When Jimmy and I were first married, like many newlyweds we were p-o-o-r. A week with swiss to go on the baloney sandwiches was a really good one. That first year together we waited until 7 or 8 on Christmas eve to go the tree lot and see what was left. (We both came from family traditions of not putting up or decorating a tree until Christmas eve.) You knew you were grown up when Mom let you help decorate.

The lot was closed and line of scraggly, forlorn looking leftover trees leaned up against the front of the hardware store where a hand lettered sign said "FREE".  We had been ready to pay a whole five dollars!  (This picture was taken many years later when I always had to restrain him from getting a tree that was taller than I could reach to the top since decorating was my assignment.)

We stuffed the Charlie Brown Christmas tree through one passenger window on the Dart and pulled it out through the opposite door when it got back to our first apartment together at Skyview cottages in Mohegan Lake, NY. The place was so small we had to set the tree up in a corner of the kitchen and block it off with the two chairs to keep Shag from knocking it over (again). The next morning I found a diamond ring in the bottom of my stocking and Jimmy asked me to marry him.
Here we are at my family's house later that day showing off my ring and making our intentions known.

contented confinement

It's just too cold to get the studio up to warm enough and I'm coming down with a cold myself. For now I'll continue hanging stars in this firmament. I've given up on the notion of somehow darkening the sky but I keep thinking about the song lyric "the stars in your sky are the stars in mine" and keep finding places in the sky that need more stars.
  

And this little holiday looking trinket continues and it has me thinking about what I need to put together a "learn to embroider" kit for a five year old little girl that I've not yet met.

Gates of Grace

And speaking of mummies, I pulled this one off the too-large canvas that I had nailed it to because I've never been happy with it's value weaknesses.

It's been sealed under matte acrylic so I'm going to have to concoct some kind of acrylic wash to make the changes I want.

Time to drag the heater back into the studio.

missed summer

"Missed Summer" 11x14
 

Just warming up to my old mummification technique.

Here's the tutorial.

The first piece shown there went on to Art Quilt Elements and never came home. Not lost but sold. Turns out it's a pretty effective way of presenting smaller, hand stitched fiber art.

This one is now available on the store page.

Karma VI

"Our lives are not our own. We are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.” 

― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas


Calling this one done except I'm off to find a 20"x 20" canvas so I can mount it permanently.

gorging

         "Memories Feast" from 2009. The piece that saved Christmas.

detail from Memories Feast

dear friends and family

I really should check myself before I post here lest you all think I'm coming unhinged. It's all true for a few minutes out of every hour and then I dry my eyes and busy myself anyway I can whether the muse moves me or not. 

There's been a lot of rooting and rummaging. We were big on stuffing things in boxes to be dealt with another day. The days are here my dear. The other day Colin and I drove into Atlanta to take most of Jim's winter and working wardrobe to an outreach program for homeless veterans. I know he would approve.

There was an actual breakfast this morning and Jake has taken up his fathers Sunday mission of making sure I have the NY Sunday times which I parse out over the course of the whole week. I've been working on our deteriorating photo archives the best I know how with an ancient version of Paint Shop Pro dreading the day when the next version of Windows will render it senseless and I have to purchase and learn something new.

Ewok costume by y'rs trly

It's been wet and cold here so I decided an old fashioned spaghetti dinner was in order so while Jesse& Walt cooked meth on the tube, I cooked up a batch of sauce and meatballs that will carry us through most of the week in one form or another. 

Later it was Earl Gray and cinnamon scones in the study for a good long stitch with cats in attendance and  Downton Abbey and then Beloved for background.

Thank you all for your compassion, support and love while I am in sadland. (Thanks for that Steve, your perfect description of this time and place)

Who was she

..all full of exuberance and extravagance?

Without thinking about the answer I would have once said "wife, mother, artist" Now I have to redefine my life and maybe not use any of those words for the time being.
Find a broader perspective.

There are baskets of beautiful cloth everywhere. At least I can still see the beauty in each piece even if I have no inclination to make. Anything. Food and clean clothing is almost too much. If it wasn't for Colin, I would have given up cooking altogether and gone raw by now.
Thank the force for Chinese takeout.

a pause for bearings

I feel like my life has been swept from under me but

I am a strong swimmer.