POURING RAIN

As I sit at the computer on this day in late June it is pouring rain and my feet are cold. It's crazy, but what can you do? 

Faith Takes the Place of Reason, aka the dead baby quilt, is finally photographed  and on Etsy. I don't have any high hopes that I will sell this, but that's OK.

I read the rest of a book last night. A memoir called "Girls of a Tender Age," by Mary-Ann Tyrone Smith. I don't read much. I really like to read, but, I'm trying to focus on so many things, reading just goes by the wayside (I read the newspaper a lot, though) However, if someone plops a book in front of me, and it's good, then that's it, I'm hooked. Someone at work leant me this book, and I actually left it there for a few days, because I was afraid it would become an all-nighter. (I lack a certain amount of self control) I was reading one chapter at the end of every work day this week. Then, somehow it came home with me, and I was up til 2:30 am last night. It is my favorite type of book, where people tell stories about their lives. This woman has some whoppers. I don't care if it is fiction or not, this book happens to be true. She grew up in the 1950's in Hartford, CT, she had an autistic brother, her mom was out there, emotionally, but her dad was great. When she was in the fifth grade one of her class mates was murdered by a serial killer. She surpresses all of this until she is an adult. It is grim, but really interesting to read. Things were VERY different in the 50s. Anyway, check this one out if you think it sounds appealing.

This Thing was Moving Right Along, Until...

This piece has been up a few times now. I had company coming Saturday, so I really needed to be getting ready for that, but when I woke up, all by myself in the early morning, I went down to the art cellar to work. I started filling in around the main quilting I had already finished. I was doing contour lines, which is very relaxing to me. I was in the zone, moving along nicely and BAM!! The needle broke!

I was stupified for a minute. God, I hate breaking a needle. It's so violent. I've done it a few times in my life. Always when I had hit a pin. But, there were no pins.

I have had this sewing machine for about a year now. I bought it at a quilt show, from a store in NJ that had a booth there. I was definitely ready for a new machine, and I spoke to a sales person, who had me sitting trying out this amazing machine... and I had just gotten a big bonus at work... It was so different from my old machine, which was a high school graduation gift in 1978. I was literally afraid of it for a while. It did things and made noises that I could not understand. Once I had to take it in for service because it would not sew. The thread kept getting jacked-up in the bobbin area. The nice man at the store informed me that I had it threaded wrong. Like, duh. How could that possibly be? I've come along way with the thing, but this new needle breaking development really stumped me. I took the bent and busted needle off and went to the trouble-shooting section of the book. There were a number of reasons why a needle might break, but none that would apply to this case. I had a special free-motion plate on, and to me, it always looked like the needle was too close to the edge of the hole. But, as I mentioned, I had been sewing with it just about a year. I put in a new needle and looked down from the top of the machine to get a better idea of the needle's position, and it didn't look as bad as I thought. Still not in the middle of the hole, but not as close to the edge as it had appeared. Still, I could not bring myself to sew any longer. I was afraid of it again.

I will go at it again soon, most likely tonight. I am very close to finishing the work I want to do with the machine on this piece, and start on some hand work. My machine, by the way, is a Janome 6600.
Anybody have one?

Tuesday Was Better.

I did a little quilting on this experimental piece here. Part of the problem with not working with a pattern and just winging it is that you might fail. It might not come out that good. When I was going to college for art it was called taking a risk. The jury is still out on this one.

This morning it has snowed, and is turning over to that much maligned WINTERY MIX that is so common in New Jersey. That means I take it slow this morning.

Disappointing Photos

I'm back to work. I feel better, but I sound ridiculous. I woke up with my throat all rough. I was probably snoring or something.

I posted Clinkers to Etsy. I have a picture of my Valentine quilt, but I find it is really dark and the color is terrible. I need to re-take before I post it to Etsy, but I can give you all a peek.

The center panel was actually cut from an old flour sack. I quilted around some of the graphics to enhance them. I put a black border around the whole thing, and I have ironed on the vines, leaves and hearts. What I like to do is quilt around the edges. Then I have quilted and secured the elements at the same time. I rely almost entirely on fusing, but I really don't expect it to last very long. I always sew the edges. I don't know why the photo came out so dark. Our camera must be on it's way out. It is 4 years old. I now see the same camera for less than half the price with twice as many features, and it is so much thinner. I made a vow to spend less money this year, but it isn't going so well. I would hate to live without a digital camera!

While I was on the couch the past couple of days, I finished 5 small quilted Valentines. I'm excited about getting them up on Etsy, and showing you.

Illness Interferes with Art

I've got a pretty bad cold. It's annoying, because I'm usually good at fighting this stuff off. I'm definitely not going to work today, but I still have to drive Kate to work. After that I'm going to take some photos. I have 3 pieces completed and ready to go up on Etsy: Pebbles is totally finished, Clinkers is ready to go and I have a valentine quilt done. I'm excited about this one. It incorporates a 10-pound flour sack and has the most adorable graphic. The thing is I can't get these photos up until I get to work, and I'm pretty sure I'm taking Tuesday off as well. I think today I will break down and purchase Photoshop Elements. The more I get involved with things on the web, the more it becomes apparent that I need to be able to do these things independently.  And besides, I figure I could be downsized at any time.  You'll know if this all went down when you see photos on my blog later.

UPDATE: I purchased it as a disk. Should arrive the 16th.

Clinkers in the Coal Stove

Here is a little something I worked on between New Years and today. It is nearly done, I just have to sew on more beads. The name of it is "Clinkers in the Coal Stove." An explanation is in order.
When my husband, Joe, was a younger man, he lived in a small cottage on a horse farm. The heat source was loud and annoying, so he got himself a small coal stove. When he left that situation, the coal stove was transported to a friend's basement, where it has been these last 25 years. It has recently been rediscovered, and, to the relief of his friend (and his friend's wife) Joe has reclaimed the thing. He set it up in our cellar and it now provides heat to the area, which would otherwise be freezing. This is where my sewing machine is set up, so I'm grateful for it.
Joe was having a hard time keeping it burning, but now seems to have remastered the knack. One of the problems is "clinkers," which are bits of coal that haven't burned all of the way to ash. When you "shake down the stove," (shake the ash out from the bottom) these clinkers don't fall through the grate and can clog things up. The stove won't draft right and it can go out. That is where the name of the quilt comes from.

My First Post

My very first blog post: Hello world, are you interested in what I am doing? I really do wonder why anyone would care what I have to say, but I've created this blog to somehow promote my etsy site. (www.frenchtown.etsy.com) Apparently all of the cool artists have a blog. Now, I'm cool too.

I have a number of vacation days to use up before the end of the year. Today is one of those days. I've spent some time working on a new piece of fiber art. A quilted wall-hanging that I will call Pebbles in a Shallow Stream. Soon I will post pictures of it. It is in the quilting stage. I use a Janome 6600 sewing machine to quilt. Before I had this machine all I had was an old Singer that was my high school graduation gift in 1978. I find this new machine fabulous and still sometimes daunting.

Anyway, back to the quilt. I ironed that WonderUnder stuff to the back of  a bunch of "pebble-like" fabrics, cut them all individually into different sized "pebbles", and ironed them to fabric that kind of looks like sand. I really liked how it came out. I find myself just looking at it, noticing the different shapes and colors. I quilted over the edge of each "pebble" and then in the "sand" around each "pebble." Now, when you run your hand over it, it feels bumpy. Like very smooth pebbles, almost. I need to finish quilting the border, and then bind the thing. 

Binding is my least favorite activity in this whole process. It's boring, and I'm not that good at it. And usually, by then I'm already working on the next project in my head.

My studio is in the basement of our very old house. It looks like a dungeon but it is the space I have carved out for myself. It is currently a mess, but it's the kind of environment where only a few things need to be out of place and you have a disaster.

What kind of work space do you have?  Tell me about it. Recently I went down to my studio and found a squirrel looking right at me. We think he came in through the chimney that we had not been using at the time. My husband had it stuffed with insulation, but the squirrel was not deterred. we opened the outside door and he took off, but not before leaving behind some kind of fear scent that grossed me out for days.