A Very Productive Weekend

I did a ton of art work this weekend. That means I spent way too much time in the basement, where my sewing area is. There is a project going on to make the attic my new work space, but it is all contingent on my husband, and whether or not he feels like working on this project. The summer is a complete loss, he only wants to ride his motorcycle(s) and his bicycle during the summer. He lives to be outside, and he is not wasting any summer day being inside. Unfortunately, he starts getting depressed during the fall, so that also stands in the way when the summer is over. But I digress.

The fact is, I work in the basement. It's dark and damp and here is a new twist, we have CAVE CRICKETS lately. I don't think they hurt you, but they are really scarey looking. The icing on this dreadful cake is that I am a terrible slob. My space generally just gets worse and worse, until I can't take it anymore and then I clean it up. It takes hours and it is hard to spend that much time down there, even doing fun things, much less cleaning a hellish mess.

Despite everything, art was made. I wonder what I would be like if I had a lovely, well-lit space? The really good news is that I got Kate to make a quilt. It is hard to get her going, and she does not seem to be able to get it together enough to self start a project like that. I began by inviting her to make something. I pointed her to her small stash of fabric. She has some novelty prints and a few otherr fabrics that she has picked out. She also has unlimited use of my fabric. She picked out a fairy themed fabric, and she was off and running. We chose some background fabric. I usually make suggestions like, "You will need a fabric for the background. " and let her pick, then I will say, "What else do you want to put here?" She decided she wanted mushrooms with her fairy. So we went through the process of picking fabric for those, then she drew mushrooms in her sketch book, and we copied them to the back of the Wonder under and she cut them out and ironed them on. Then she decided she wanted logs with moss. I did not think it was such a great idea, but she definitely wanted it. She also angled the logs in a way that I would not have done it, but I have to let her have her own way, because otherwise, I might as well make the thing. In the end, I think it turned out great. I will do the machine quilting, but I will get her to do some hand work. She has sold three little quilts in the past on our etsy site, but hasn't sold much lately. I have no pictures right now but I will see what I can do this week.

I noticed that I have a couple of new followers on this blog (which is a miracle, since I hadn't posted for 3 months) so, for those who don't know, my daughter Kate is developmentally disabled. She is a member of the ARC and a Special Olympic athlete. She is nearly 27 years old, has a job and travels to it on public transportation. She doesn't read or write very well, but has really taken to Facebook. In some ways it is like having a young teenager in the house forever.

Art Club Christmas Project

Check it out, here is one of the ARC clients with a bunch of others in the background. Kind of gives you an idea of how many of these things we cranked out! (13) I gave everyone the choice of sewing buttons to their snowmen, or drawing the eyes, mouth and etc to the snowmen with markers. A distressing amount of people chose to sew! It all worked out and I think they enjoyed themselves. Go to my other blog for more pics.

Tonight I am going to another one of those Department of Developmental Disabilities meetings to find out how difficult my life will be as a result of new proceedures. I guess that's not a very good attitude, is it? I was thinking how it might be nice if Kate's father took on some of this responsibility, but he is such an amazing DICK, he is incapable. He is chronically unemployed and doesn't even have a car. Don't worry, I'll take care of everything!!!!!!!!!

How are you all doing?

I'm Feeling Quiet

I haven't been posting, or even commenting on the posts of others. I feel a little exhausted. But it's weird, because I don't feel bad, just like being quiet.

I have been pretty busy. At work, there are things to do to get ready for the end of the year. I just finished my personal performance grid. How corporate is that? This is the document that states my goals for the year, if I completed them, and how I accomplished everything, and why I deserve a nice raise and bonus.  Everyone hates doing this but there is no way around it. It is due December 1st and I have had several people sneer at me with envy and disgust when I announced I was finished. Also, I've been acquainting myself with all of the websites I will need to use in connection with Drexel University. I usually end up confused at first, somehow screwing up or forgetting my username, password, ID number, etc. I am already on a first name basis with one of the tech guys.

Over the weekend I dug out and reposted on Etsy some things I did for Christmas last year. It would be nice if I could sell them. I also made more prints of antique Christmas postcards on fabric. I will make something out of all that soon. I'm almost done with another woodland postcard. I did some experimental stove top dying over the weekend. I used RIT cocoa brown. Man, is it ever brown. I have no idea what I am doing with all that.

I'm feeling a little bit Christmassy. Looking forward to digging into the decoration boxes. I agreed to go to Cape Cod over the weekend with Joe. He used to live there and has a lot of friends he misses. Thanksgiving weekend is normally decorating time, but I guess I'll just do it when I get back.

Woodland Postcard Number 2

New on Etsy

Making Snakes

This morning I became aware of Drew's alarm going off. His alarm is an i-pod, blasting the most insane music. He wakes up at 4:30 am to go to work, and he needs nothing short of a bomb to get him up. He tells a story of sleeping through a rocket attack once when he was still in the Marines.

Anyway, sometimes I don't hear it at all, but this morning I did. When he didn't turn it down after a while, I thought maybe he wasn't waking up. I went to his room, but he was awake, and he said to me, "Do you know we have no milk?" Being out of milk in the morning at my house is like a tragedy. Everyone NEEDS milk for their coffee. So I left $5 in the bathroom and told him to buy it. He did.

I was glad the exchange took place, other wise I'd have woken up to no milk, but just the same I remained awake from then on. I was laying in bed thinking about making snakes.

Yesterday evening I was to take Kate to social group, as is normal on a Thursday. This week it was cooking, and it was Kate's turn to bring a guest. Usually I end up being her guest, but this time she invited her job coach who still checks in with Kate at her job at the supermarket. Joe mostly does his own thing on those evenings, but this time he wanted to come with me and offered to take me out for Thai food. AWESOME! After a delicious dinner, he and I went to the Library to chill for a while. He took out a biography of Groucho Marx. I took out a bunch of books, a big one about fabric designs, an art quilt picture book, a book about piecing techniques and one about making stuffed toys. I previously had no interest in making softies, but I was flipping through and came across a pattern to make stuffed snakes. I don't know, they looked so funny, and so simple to make, that I decided I needed to take out the book. That brings us back to me lying in bed thinking about making snakes. I have some ideas about how to make the snakes "Mundy style." I showed it to Kate and she is down with that, but she also pointed out a little bird pattern. I would not exactly call it difficult, but way more involved than that snake. She thinks we should sell them on Etsy

I'm looking forward to another weekend with nothing particular to do. Joe plans on working in the attic some more. Slow but sure, I guess. I've been having a fantasy about having an open studio when it is finished, and inviting people like it was a party. I'll have plenty of time to plan it, apparently.

New on Etsy

Here is a quilt that has been hanging around for a while, waiting for more shell beads. I could not really describe this when I was putting it up on Etsy. It really is about an archeological discovery. This is an ancient grave site. That little whale bone doll is the body. I've used this little guy in a number of collages from back in the "old days." That would be the late 1990s.

Book My Ass

I e-mailed the book editor and she has not e-mailed back. This is the part where I feel discouraged. This is the part where I think, that was just a dream. Even if she never gets back to me, I think I will send them a pitch for the book idea this all sparked me to think up.

Here is my latest feed sack quilt, now on Etsy. It occurs to me that I have enough art quilts made with feed sacks that I might make it it's own catagory.

Here is another example of my flower pounding experiments. I really like the colors on this one. I'm not sure what I will do with this fabric. I've been looking at ATCs lately. I see some people sell them on Etsy, but when you read about ATCs on the web, they are supposed to be traded, not sold. I thought briefly about joining a trading group and then snapped out of it. The thing about joining a group is you end up with some kind of obligation.

Last year I made a few things for Christmas, but did not sell much. I was thinking that I could make ATC size items that could be thought of as ornaments. I have 2 half finished pieces going right now. I'd like to finish them before I start up something new. Unfinished objects make me a little crazy.

Joe and I are going out with friends tonight. The National Hotel had it's grand re-opening in Frenchtown on Tuesday, and we are very happy. The National Hotel is a very old establishment. Naturally it has gone through a number of owners, but the place closed down a  year or so ago and they boarded it up! It really looked horrible, like a crack house or something. Maybe I'll take some pictures if I think of it.

Here is what I have been working on

More fun with feed sacks

Work is Getting Done

It's been a pretty fruitful weekend. I quilted 2 small things I started last week. Kate is right now embroidering something she has been working on. Some progress was made in the attic. I've got various scraps of fabric soaking in a pot of water with alum. I finally got some of it, they had to order it for me at the pharmacy. I took the fabric that I dyed by smashing berries into it, scraped off the excess seeds and pulp, and heat set it with an iron, Then I rinsed it. Pretty much everything washed out. I now have a light pink and brown mottled fabric. I still have a bucket of poke berries I picked last weekend. I have been reading up on dying with those berries, and I have learned that they are POISON. I am going to buy a cheap pot and reserve it for dying experiments. I have also learned that the dye is famously fugitive. In other words, it's hard to get it to stay in fabric. I want to try another method of natural dying I heard about, which is pounding flowers. I think that might be cool.

I haven't gotten around to take any pictures of anything lately. Maybe later? We are going to the home depot in a while. We'll see after that.

Supposed Vacation Day

I'm supposed to be having a vacation day, but things have gone awry. Disaster at work had me calling and e-mailing all day to try to straighten in out. This is when I hate my job the most. When I get that dreaded feeling that I have made a bad mistake and I'm going to get reamed for it. We'll see. Also, Kate asked me to get her at work because she felt sick.

In the mean time, I had a very productive weekend. I finished the new Doll Dress and just put it up on Etsy. I almost finished the other quilt I was working on, but ran out of the shell beads I am using. I don't know if I will use something else or search out more of the same.

On Saturday I dumped a load of fabric and feed sacks and other fabric things on the floor of the Living Room and started to play. I ended up with 3 new quilt tops: 2 ready to quilt and one nearly there. I find that what I really need time for is to figure out a design. Once I have the thing worked
out, then I can steal time here and there to work on it.

Sunday was such a fine day that Joe and I went for a motorcycle ride, most likely my last one of the year. It was so nice riding around the beautiful countryside and taking in all of the autumn color. When we were just about home I spied a big patch of pokeberry plants. I walked back with a bucket and picked a whole mess of them. I took some of them and smashed them directly onto some white fabric. Yo, that's purple!  I noted some different berries in the yard next door (The place is unoccupied right now) and helped myself, These were berries from a Lily of the Valley. I was amazed at how orange the fabric became.  I still need alum to properly dye things. I remember seeing it in the supermarket at some time in my life, but not anymore. I went to the drugstore and they ordered some for me.

Windowsill dying = failure

Yesterday I decided to take the fabric out of the jar of pokeberry dye. It was nice and pink, until I rinsed it. Now it has some faint pink streaks and looks kind of dirty. Some people just need to learn the hard way, I guess. Next time I will mordant the fabric. Also, maybe there weren't enough berries? I was thinking how if I got some of this on a pair of white pants, it would never come out. (I don't own any white pants.) I wonder if I would have been better off just soaking the fabric in a glass of cheap red wine? (It was a red wine incident that made me decide to fore go white pants.)

One Wednesday I visited a different location of the Company I work for to attend a seminar about e-learning with Drexel University. It actually looks like they have a very good system. I have all of my signed forms from work, and I have applied. Transcripts are also sent, so if I am accepted, next I will be anxious to see what credits will transfer from my AA degree.

Today I have arranged a sales rep to come into work and demo a Xyron machine. I would imagine many of you are familiar with this thing, I think home versions are popular with scrapbookers and some collage artists. Here, we have a large spray booth in the poster room with a big fan that sucks out the fumes. We had a safety inspection recently and were told we needed an eyewash station in the room if we were to keep using this thing. I can tell you I have no room for an eyewash station, much less room to move comfortably. So, we are looking for an alternative. I'm excited about removing the spray booth, which is huge, and gaining all that space. Spray mount is obnoxious anyway.

In other news that you might actually care about, I have been plugging away at my two close to being finished quilts. Looking forward to a quiet weekend when I will complete both of them. A note too Susan, who commented a few days ago. She asked about the quilt, "A Small Story." She wanted to know how I got the text on the quilt. I actually individually stamped every letter with a set of alphabet rubber stamps.

Window Sill Dying

During the summer I was reading about small scale natural dying on Cathy Cullis' blog. I remember at the time I thought I needed to try that. I had previously taken out a library book on the subject, and it just seemed like too big of a deal, requiring bushels of plant material and complicated instruction. I thought, I'll never do this. Cathy makes it seem quite do-able, by just using plants in the garden and putting small quantities of plant materials, water and fabric in a jar by the windowsill.

I was cleaning out the garden Sunday afternoon, and came across a big poke-berry plant. At least this is what I call a plant like this. It has purple berries that stain anything. I thought of these berries when reading Cathy's posts, and here before me was a bumper crop! All I did was put them in a canning jar and smash 'em up a little. Poured on boiling water and added some cotton.. We'll see what happens.

Too bad I re read Cathy's blog entries after the cloth was in the jar. I forgot the alum, which she uses as a mordant. Well, we'll see what happens. Look at the jar, doesn't it look so pink?

Our dinner party happened on Saturday, and all went well. Except that I drank too much wine. I have recently lost 25 pounds. I don't make a fuss about this, because I gain and lose weight on a regular basis. What would really be remarkable is if I ever kept the weight off. Well, whatever. The point is, I keep thinking I can drink and I can't seem to any longer! By the time the last guest left I was ready to faint. I woke up the next day at 9:30 am. That is really late for me. I was none too energetic the rest of the day. Except for a big load of dishes, the place was really clean, so I treated myself to a sewing marathon. I finally stopped sewing in the afternoon, get this... because I was tired of it!  That never happens!  I have 2 projects almost finished, the scrimshaw guy and the doll dress, which is very cool. pictures soon.

200th Post

Here is what I have been working on lately. The figure in the center is an image of a jointed doll carved from ivory.
I've had that image around for a long time and used it in a number of collages. Now he is printed on fabric. Being able to print on fabric is about the best thing that has ever happened to me. I don't think this comes through in the crappy photo, but the dark brown fabric is actually glittery. It is the only part that I did not quilt. I want to bead that. I have to look through the stash to see what I will use. Beads and a binding and I am done. In the detail maybe you can see that I machine quilted following the marks in the batik fabric. I really love quilting that way. I get into this zen place as I look at the pattern and try to find a path that allows me to sew uninterrupted as much as possible without having to stop and move the needle.

I have an image of a female doll that is around the same size as this guy. I want to make a companion piece with her

Good Deed Nearly Done

I had a pretty good weekend where getting things done are concerned. The Good deed Quilt is totally quilted and the binding strips are on. I just need to hand-sew them to the back. I'm generally pleased at how it came out and VERY pleased to be nearly finished.

When I was finished machine sewing the quilt, I decided that enough was enough and I had to get control of my underground lair. I am a terrible slob and it was becoming difficult to work. So I put everything away, and straightened up my stash. As I did that, I got a flash in the brain and long story short, I now have a new top to quilt.

I'm making steady progress on the Great Depression quilt. I worked on that while watching Turner Classic Movies last night. I saw Wuthering Heights and another movie called Devotion. I've always had a little trouble with Wuthering Heights, the story is just so miserable. I also don't much care for the 1940s Hollywood treatment of these period films, but I did watch it. Devotion was actually about lives of the Bronte sisters. I think some of it was fabricated, but, good outfits, anyway. Ida Lupino was really beautiful in that film.

I also did a lot of work on the vacation photograph book. I just want to proof it again and I can place the order. I've never done one of these and I'm afraid of missing some stupid mistake. I want to give this to Joe for his birthday, which is September 30.

I've got Art Club on Tuesday, and I am getting all of my stuff together for that. I think I mentioned that we are making magic potion bottles. I have been scrubbing the labels from wine bottles. I remember, back in the day, I used to leave a wine bottle soaking over night and in the morning the label would have floated to the top, completely in one piece. Then you could decoupage it or collage it, or whatever. Not so any more. Some of these bottle have such tenacious glue that nothing but Goof-Off will get rid of it. I still have 4 more bottles.

What, No Sale Today??

Well, the day is not over yet...

Someone asked me about the quilt Pebbles in a Shallow Stream. How big and how I made it. The size of it is 52" x 25"

First, I thought of the concept. Don't even ask me how that happens. Ideas literally just "flash" into my brain. This is the best way I can describe it.

I had the background fabric, which looked like sand to me. I then went through my stash and picked out fabrics in colors and patterns that looked like stones. I pushed it out there a little bit, thinking about a beach I visited on  Mount Desert Island, Maine. There is the most amazing variety of beautiful stones on that beach. They actually have a sign that warns you not to take any. I suppose the beach would be stripped bare after a while.

Anyway, I then cut a piece of each fabric, maybe 8" square. Then I ironed fusable web on each piece. Then I cut that into strips of various widths. Then I cut the strips into chunks. I do that to all of the colors. I trim each chunk around the edges, sort of rounding them out so they look like pebble forms.

Now for the fun part, I begin to put down the pebbles. That includes stripping the backing paper from the fusable and ironing everything down in a "pleasing arrangement." Then comes the super fun part, the quilting. I think it is the quilting that brings it to life. I don't expect to ever ask anyone to do my quilting for me. I used a machine, of course, and made sure I ran over the edge of each pebble, then in-between each pebble. This way the pebbles ended up being raised a little. It felt good when I ran my hand over the surface.

The person who bought it says she loves it. That's cool. I think I will make another one like it some day.

The Good Deed

I generally have a number of projects going at any given time. Here is one I revisited this weekend. It is my good deed quilt. Someone I work with, Vickie, came to me with an unfinished quilt. It was really just a shoe box with some blocks and pieces and extra fabric. Her mom started making this quilt with her friends, but died of cancer before she could finish. Vickie asked me if I could complete the quilt, which had been hanging around for years. I had very mixed feelings about this right from the start. For one thing, I don't really like this quilt very much. It is very mediocre, and so cute-country circa 1990. Vickie agrees. At the same time, people made this with their hands, and Vickie's mom must have died so young. (Vickie is not even 40 years old) I am not in the frame of mind right now to be piecing quilts, however, that part was mostly finished. I was just going to use what was there. I decided to take on the project. I laid down some rules. I had no idea when it would be finished, but I would finish it. I also would not take any money. Not taking money frees me from having to make this thing perfect, and let me tell you, it isn't. A lot of the corners don't quite meet up. Some of this was what I was given to work with, but some of it is my own crappy workmanship. I had only 8 completed squares, but I had one orphaned embroidered center square. I worked up a quilt square using the chicken, and I was ready to go. I took that picture yesterday morning, but since then I have set it all up and machine quilted six of the squares. This will be ready in no time! I showed Vickie this picture and she was pretty excited. She does not sew at all so to her this looks like a miracle.

I'm on a Roll Here

Yesterday evening Joe was looking at E-mail, and I came up behind him to give him a hug and look over his shoulder. Second e-mail down had the words Etsy Transaction in the subject. Amazingly enough, another sale! And a good one, too.

Pebbles in a shallow stream will be with a new owner in Michigan soon. I gave the option to hang this one vertical or horizontal; the new owner picked horizontal, so I've got a long sleeve to sew on. The money for this one needs to go toward the studio, I suppose, but I think I'm going to join SAQA with a little of it. Does anyone belong? What do you think?

Corporate Crap

Today I went to a "face to face" at work. That is when the big boss of your department talks to everyone about what is going on. We have a lot of changes occuring where I work, and at these events you will hear about how it is all going.

I like to attend these things for several reasons. For one thing, it gets me away from my desk. Also, it makes me look like I care, even though I could care less. I am also fascinated by executives. I think they are kind of like aliens. I like catching the weird phrases of corporate speak. One I picked up today was "...visibility into the travel spend."  Spend is a noun in this case.

I just admitted that I could care less, but this shit is all these people think about. You can tell when they speak, how passionate they are. I guess this is how you make the big bucks. Then I look at them, particularly the women, and I think, You make all that money and this is what you decide to wear?

At the end, they take questions. I have never been able to think up a decent question, even once. This is why I am so reluctant to go to school for any kind of corporate subject matter. I just don't care.

When I go to these things I always bring a notebook. I jot down any ideas I happen to get. Today I got an idea for a series of  art quilts called Fantastic Costumes. It sounds fun. I have no idea what it will actually end up being.

Here is another art quilt that arrived.  Red and Green Butterfly is the Etsy shop it came from. 2 more to go!

Additions to My Fiber Art Collection

Here are the two fiber art pieces that have arrived so far.

The first one is called "And Moon" by Kim Hambric. I really like it, but the coolness of it was really not apparent until it was in  my hands. There is more drawing and stamping than I had realized. I am kind of regretting not getting a bigger piece from Kim. (The size is 4.5"x6.5")

The second one is called "Factory Sunset" The artist's name on Etsy is EmmaKlee. I had no communication with her at all. It just showed up. It's OK, just kind of weird. This one is 15" x 20.5"

Joe returned home from the motorcycle rally in one piece yesterday, which is nice. I showed him the attic, and we talked about what I would like to do. I want white walls. I can only imagine how much more appealing the whole space would be if it were bright. Joe wondered, did it have to be sheet rock? He did not think we could get it around the corner to go up the stairs. I am sure he is right. He said Luan might work because we might be able to bend it to get it around the corner. That suits me, as long as it is white in the end. There is an old, non-functional chiminey that ends before it gets to the roof. It stands against the one thing you might call a wall in the space. We talked about taking that out. One either side of this chiminey are two windows. One of them has a lame replacement window in it, the other is boarded up from the inside. I want to open it up again to let in more light. Joe says that's OK, and he would to replace both of those windows. I would also like some decent lighting. At present there is one bare bulb. He's OK with that.

He says he will start right away. Of course I will help as much as possible. We will start tonight by taking measurements. Then he wants to insulate. I wonder what all this will cost?