To the Moon, Alice....

I took the leap this morning and reserved myself a 2'x2' panel space on a new art project.... The International Fiber Collaborative (remember the tree?) is wrapping the Saturn V rocket outside the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville...how very very cool is that?!?!? check out their site http://www.thedreamrocket.com/ and stay tuned to it for pictures of the art submissions!

Chickens, and Lions, and Learning Things

This week was mostly catch-up and handwork. Put a binding on Cosmic Chicken (finally) and I was pleased enough with it; now I just need to make a label for it... Also worked on the lion - I believe I can safely say it's in the final stages and hope to finish him off by next weekend. But a new trick, for me at least, was that I finally dropped the feed dogs on my machine (those are the little toothy things under the needle that feeds the material through). By dropping the feed dogs, I was able to free-stitch...which reminded me of using an etch-a-sketch....but let me just say it was a blast! I made a quilt sandwich (about 18"x14") and just started doodling. I know a lot of artists have done this but it was really cool...it was the little things that stumped me - I mean did I like doing the little circles clockwise or counterclockwise? was there a wrong way to do this? and just how do I adjust the tension on this machine...CAN I even adjust the tension? Took me several evenings to do this and after I filled up the entire piece I put a binding on it. I had a great time and I look forward to adding this type of thing to a 'real' piece. (p.s. this piece is more rectangular than it appears in the picture....bad camera angle....). Now...where did I put that machine manual???

Prime Lion

We just came back from seeing Julie & Julia - cute movie and a little endearing to those of us who grew up watching Julia on television. It did make me want to rush out to the bookstore and buy books about Julia to learn more about her!

But it also made me think about blogging and when we blog and why we blog - I blog so that our family and friends can see our vacation pictures and my art friends can see my latest work without me having to lug it around all of the time. I also think some of our home projects (such as the bathroom re-do) is easier to share this way - it's not like any of the kids live close by.

Earlier this week a friend of mine was sounding slightly guilty because she doesn't blog more often - I reminded her that that was fine - I only blog once a week, or when something worth sharing occurs, because what is there to say on a daily basis (except when we are traveling)? "got up at 6:45, went to work, became one with my spreadsheets and bureaucratic paperwork (the Zen approach to a job), came home, accomplished one or none part of some project-or-other, and went to bed"

I'm not complaining; we love our non-exciting life, getting things done as we can, visiting friends when we can, and traveling as we can. But on a daily basis, really, it's nothing to write home about. Literally.

I do find myself treating Sunday like a deadline of some sort...it's as though in a week's time I've got to have something to share....I've actually worked really hard on the weekend to finish some fiber project, just so I can write about it!

Yesterday was spent with friends and I truly enjoyed their company. I have also finished priming the lion. Now, for those of you who have never painted on a Venetian plaster wall (and I haven't before now), you should be informed that it absorbs paint just like regular plaster. In other words, the paint is almost dry by the time it leaves my brush. There is no 'blending' time available. I discovered this while painting that first paw. It has taken a lot of paint until I don't see some wierd shade of brown. So I finally figured out that if I primed it in the darker versions of the final paint colors, anything that shows through in the final round will just add texture. This also means that I get to paint the lion about four times before it will be finished. First there was the sketch. Now it's been primed. Next is the final colors. And last will be the details. But I'm beginning to believe he's going to turn out okay.

Changing my mind....

okay...I changed my mind about this....

The more it stayed on my design wall, the less I even liked it...so taking my rotary cutter by it's lovely flowered handle, I cut it all into 3" squares!

And I cut batting and backing for all of them and now they get to be carried around in my purse (a few at the time), along with embroidery thread and I will just embellish the (now) abstract little squares as time permits (commuter time, end of lunch break, waiting for med appts etc.) and I will then bind each one seperately and connect them in some manner.

Thus I have saved some infant from being exposed to murky design at an early developmental stage!

Whew! I feel better...

Tail's Tale and Blocks

Welcome to Isabella Grace Appleton! and Congratulations to Richard and Sondra! We look forward to meeting this latest addition to the Grandchildren List!!

This week saw some work on the lion - now that the new gold paint has come in - I thinks it's going to look great once all of the base coats are down and all of the highlights and 'hair' is added (that mean a really small paint brush and gold and brown paint) - the texturing is supposed to visually remove the color lines...

Also took time this week to put blocks together - I handpieced the blocks last year and this week I machine-stitched sashing - I think it would have looked better if I had sashed it in black to make the blocks stand out as right now it's just kinda muddled - but I'm not going to worry about it - I'm just going to add more sashing to size it up and quilt it and then let some baby enjoy it. That will get it out of my house and let it be useful - I was just trying the Jane block patterns using cut up small pieces of the butterfly material just to see what it looked like - what it is, is far too many seams and I probably won't try that technique again. I also made some blocks using leftover scrap strips that was in my scraps bin and some squares of rainbow fish fabric. Okay but nothing to get excited about.

The rest of the weekend will be spent on hand-stitching (the fish is coming along) - it's way too hot to spend time outside.