Mixed Media Textile Surfaces

My 3-day class at Peter's Valley is just 15 days away and I have received the materials list. It is extensive. I think I will just pack up everything I own and be done with it! The teacher, Barbara Schulman, is asking for a lot of things you would expect, like sewing needles, floss, pins, embroidery hoop, a sewing machine, "if it is a basic tool for you."  But she is also asking for black and white laser copies and gel medium. Apparently we will be transferring images! Also, every imaginable type of fabric, including industrial fabrics, like nylon window screen, which I did not think of that way. She is also asking for "found textiles" and I sure do have that in spades. It may be a chance to use all the things I have been collecting.

I'm pretty excited. I need a vacation from my life, which has been off the charts busy for a couple of months now.  This morning I went out to the front yard in my pajamas and did some weeding for a half hour before I went to work. The garden was so pretty, but it has rained for a whole week and now it is a weed-choked mess! I'll wrangle it back into shape soon.

Tuesday was the final class of Art Club. That went really well. I had the collages at work today so I could make little title cards, and also to wrap them up to give them to Patti, the recreation director. She wants to hang them at the main office. Anyway, all of my graphic artist colleagues really enjoyed seeing the art.

Tomorrow We have to be up bright and early to go to the Princeton Museum with the ARC. More soon...

UFO!

I've been seeing a lot of UFOs in people's posts lately. My husband has been trying to find the slides from his trip to England in 1985. (FYI, we did not get married until 2005, although I have known him since I was 13.) No luck yet, but he did dig up a UFO I had forgotten all about. I'm pretty sure this is the last fragment of a conventional quilt I ever worked on. I can't see finishing it, not really big enough to be anything, but  I can imagine using it in some other quilt. I guess it will just go into the collection, waiting for some inspiration.

It was a pretty nice day here in New Jersey. After weeks of 20 degree weather, it was in the 40's today, which felt spring-like to us. Joe and I went out to breakfast, and then went over to Lambertville. It's the premier charming river town in NJ (Frenchtown is one of the other ones) but I think the place has turned the corner and is now a tourist trap. We went to an antique mall we've been going to forever, and realized it is now a bit upscale for us. You know of my fondness for old and weird textiles. Well, the "Housewife Craving a Cocktail" tea towel cost $8 and I winced when I paid it. Today I could find no towel under $20. I just wasn't into it. I saw what looked to me like a rag made of velvet. Had some interesting flowers on it. I'm looking to try to get away from using only cotton in my work, so I thought this might be cool. Turns out it wasn't a rag, it was a "tapestry" and cost $45. I did find some nice embroidery and an interesting silk handkerchief.