So far, Sew good...

Busy week at work, but by Sunday night, we have managed to get a few things done of our own stuff... Dave has finished the patching and sanding in the guest bathroom and we primed! Woo-hooo!!! ...he did the roller part and I cut in the seams and door frame and outlets etc. using a brush - not hard work, just tedious... made me think of the guy in Hitchhiker's Guide who did 'Norway - you know, all the fiddly bits'... Next step is replacing the sub-floor so there aren't any rotten spots left...Dave will have to have guy-help with that and he has to measuremeasuremeasure and go pick up the lumber from Lowe's. The lilies made a surprise visit to our side yard (about a dozen of them), just when Summer has made it's debut - must be all of the rain we had over the last two weeks.

And I worked on Cosmic Chicken...here's the reverse side before I started working on the background - unfortunately, I had to put a false back on it because of all of the loose threads from the background stitching - I may use this image, however, in a future piece by printing it on cotton or silk and stitching over it.... But I think she came out just fine! I was going to call it Golden Chicken, but since I watched all of the episodes of Cosmos while I was working on her...well...Cosmic Chicken just seemed to fit better.

now - off to dig through all of the paperwork sitting in my home office - it's DAFA membership renewal time and a great many members renewed last week!

And then maybe I'll see what my box of scraps contain...

Sunday's Door

Pieced this one on Friday at the same time I pieced Imperfect Hand with the original idea of them being parts of the same piece, but didn't really like them together so put this section aside for later. It had several names during its formation - the working title was Broken Threads - I don't know if it was the thread I was using, my machine, my needle or what but I have never had to stop and rethread the machine so many times during one project. After adding the lace, however, it instantly reminded me of all of the doors we have seen in our travels - the ones with the semi-circular glass above the lintels, so that's why I settled for the name Sunday's Door. It's 16.25"x9.75".

It's also the last of the scrap bag, so now I have to move on to something else - isn't it interesting how scraps from someone else are always so much more interesting than our own? Thanks, Connie, for the opportunity to include your fabric into my pieces.

Imperfect Hand

I love Hulu - it allows me, while I am working in the studio, to listen (and sort of watch) Art in the 21st Century - a PBS series that I can never catch when it's on in real time. Yesterday, one of the artists, a painter, was saying that "you won't see me draw a straight line - I have an imperfect hand because I am human" and then went on to talk about embracing the imperfections of the work because that is what made it art by a human. And then another artist was saying how everybody strives for perfection but that is just not possible, because humans are naturally imperfect.

Okay okay...I know is sounds like common sense, but it was a door for me with a big sign on it that said WALK THROUGH-IT'S OKAY. Because at the time I was working on the piece below and I was getting very frustrated because the quilting lines weren't straight but when I took a deep breath and just accepted the piece as it was going, then I liked it more and more.

And so I present the piece (14.24"x15") I worked on all day Friday and Saturday:

Imperfect Hand

Morning Impulse

That's the name of this piece (9.5"x12.75" at top left point).

I'm proud that it's not representational.

Nor is it square.

And I'm really glad I've taken a couple of days off from the office.

Wonder what I'll do tomorrow?

No more excuses...

The symposium went great, by the way, thanks for asking...

And the weekend was very very productive. I can now truthfully say that my studio is now clean enough to meet its function - which is to say, I have no more excuses about not being able to produce some sort of art in there, except the perpetual whine of "there's no tiiimeee...." (whimper, sniff).

But, suffice it to say, the entire room went from looking like this shot of my sewing machine...

to this:

Much better, don't you think?

And so yesterday, I threw caution to the wind and put together this mini-quilt (about 6"x14").

I realized in Deborah's Series workshop I was constantly trying to make things look like something...I seemed to NEED to make it representational. So I took some scraps of hand-dyed fabric that Connie gave me (no, really - I accepted a bag of scraps when my room was in such crappy shape - it's a psychotic condition I tell you....) and threw them together and then decided to practice hand-applique on a circle, beading and binding.

Not perfect but not bad, either - I think I'll work my way through that bag of scraps (they really are beautiful pieces of hand-dyed stuff) - that will keep me working on projects in my room and practicing my weak points and also use up the bag of scraps.

No more excuses...

Hell Week

If anyone has missed me this past week - this is what I've been up to:

And I am the committee for arranging this for 115+ people...so today I put together the nametags, the sign-in sheets, printed the agenda booklet and all of the other last-minute tasks before throwing a catered party.

I did the arranging of the contracted site and the contracted catering weeks ago and then I had to contact the posterboard rental company to confirm they were, indeed, going to show up tomorrow. And I also had to call the caterer to increase the expected attendance.

The event looks something like this:

So - I think we're good to go! And here's hoping all I have to do tomorrow is babysit the sign-in sheets and oversee lunch (and maybe get some knitting done!)...

A Variety

The past week has been interesting - a real combination of things. I got a new phone - nice and slim and, best of all, a flip cover for the buttons - now my butt won't be trying to text message complete strangers when I put the phone in my pocket! And it's a Sony Walkman as well (the advantage of a Sony phone...)

I haven't found my miniMemory card yet (I'm sure it's someplace safe in the house...) but when I do, I'll be able to transfer some of my tunes to my phone (OMG - have I mentioned how much I love this type of technology??? it just makes my geeky little heart run a little faster!!)

- and this phone has a camera, albeit not a great one - but it was cool to have earlier in the week when we got stuck in the HOV lane and I can now share what we got to look at for TWO hours...

such fun and games! and last night at the Quilter's Guild of Dallas, Ami Simms (http://www.amisimms.net/) was the guest speaker and she was a hoot! I don't ever recall laughing that hard at a guild meeting! The "Bring and Brag" quilts were very inspiring - I have to admit I've never made anything that big!

and I was also able to take a picture of the crew working on the building next door - these guys were working in the rain - the amount of mud was unbelievable - good thing they had bulldozers!

it took me two days to figure out how to get the pictures off the phone and onto the computer...but that hurdle has passed and I think I've also figured out how to slightly up the resolution...

and you thought I was dangerous with my real camera....

Interdependence Tree Finished

How awesome is this!!! the Tree is finished and somewhere in there is my leaf. It just makes me smile to look at it. I hope to go visit it someday.

http://www.internationalfibercollaborative.com/html/progress.html