Chez Boo Rae

2012-02-03T12:58:00.000-06:00

1/19 tiny baby lettuces

Okay, folks, I've been away for a while. I want to catch you up on what I am up to these days. I am garden-obsessed. I am putting in more raised beds, upping compost production, introducing chickens into the cycle, raising plants from seed, keeping a big garden journal complete with photos, and poring over garden related websites. I want to raise a ton of vegetables, eat them to be healthy, give them to friends, and freeze, dehydrate, or can what's left. This is all with the cooperation of Oklahoma weather conditions for the next several months, so it could go south in 5 minutes of hail (last year) or a few weeks of 100F+ days (last year). I want to put in a tornado shelter/root cellar and expand our small greenhouse into a larger aquaponics operation.

(I feel a sense of urgency about this, no doubt due to my recent birthday. It's so strange to be at a point in life where year to year plans seem so tentative.)

I've been inspired by Ruth Stout, a 20th century gardener who sometimes shocked people by gardening naked. I don't intend to do that (although it does sound nice) but she had a method of growing that makes more sense than the traditional tilling and weeding. Here's a two-part youtube video of an interview with her.

I am reading City Chicks: Raising Micro-Flocks of Chickens and laughing my head off while learning about integrating chickens into my garden. Here's the basic plan: Put some straw down on the ground in a pen. Turn the chickens loose in the pen. Feed the chickens kitchen waste and let them peck around on the ground. When the straw gets nice and poopy, move the chickens and their pen to a new site. Put the poopy straw on the garden or in the compost bin. When the plants in the garden get big enough that the chickens can't eat them, turn the chickens loose in the garden and they eat pesky bugs and poop right on the garden. Of course the garden is well mulched so the chicken poop doesn't burn the plants. Do I have the stomach for all this poop? It remains to be seen. Can I connect with chickens spiritually? I doubt it. Oh, one more thing of course, eat the eggs!

I have ordered plans for a chicken coop and I have hired someone to build it. I haven't decided what kind of chickens to get. Any chicken raisers out there want to advise me?

People are growing potatoes in containers, which takes up less space, and results in potatoes that can be harvested by simply dumping the container over. I have salvaged some big plastic trash cans and plan to use those for growing potatoes. Trip to the nursery for seed potatoes today! Shopping on the Champs Elysee? Getting my nails done on Rodeo Drive? Attending runway shows in Paris? Booooooring! Get me to the seed potatoes at the local nursery!

This is Darrell, my garden assistant. Actually, it might be Darnell, they are hard to tell apart. Either way, I don't expect much of them and they oblige by not doing much.

Allison Aller's Blue Ribbon Quilt

2011-11-04T22:29:00.001-05:00

Allie has done it again -- a blue ribbon at the IQF! After 9 hours of looking at quilts and shopping, I am so tired that I can't remember the details; sorry, Allie -- would you mind leaving a comment with the information? I spotted the quilt from several yards away, and the first thing I noticed was that it appeared to glow! This photo does not do it justice.

International Quilt Festival

2011-11-03T22:02:00.001-05:00

Fabulous art in every direction. These are not your grandmother's quilts, for the most part, although grandma's quilts are here, too. Abstracts and representational quilts which have been painted, stitched, stamped, composed of the traditional 3 layers of batting sandwiched between 2 layers of fabric all the way to multiple layers, even 3-dimensional attachments ... a feast for the eyes in every direction in the enormous George R. Brown Convention Center.

The shopping is incredible and I'll post photos of my best "finds" after I get home.

I am poised between inspiration and a sense of complete failure as an artist. These are the best of the best and I know I'll never be that good. But I can be inspired and persevere so I am planning on going with that.

To be cont'd

Quilt Festival!

2011-11-01T10:11:00.000-05:00

Slightly unfinished ATC

Tomorrow morning I'll set off for my first trip to the International Quilt Festival in Houston, TX. I hate crowds, jostling, and loud talking and from what I've heard from others who have attended the Festival it is made up of crowds, jostling, and loud talkers. My friend Colleen persuaded me to go by offering a chartered bus, uh, motorcoach trip. Someone else drives, handles luggage, lets us out at the door of the hotel, and takes us to and from the Festival each day. And, we'll only be at the Festival for one evening and two days. I think I can handle that arrangement in exchange for fabulous shopping. Yes, I know it's a quilt festival, but I am interested only in the crazy quilts and art quilts -- a small part of the exhibition. Shopping is the big draw. Over 1,000 purveyors of all things textile selling their fabrics, laces, ribbons, and more. Buttons galore. Things I've probably never even heard of but desperately need. Colleen and I have even made Artist Trading Cards for the big swap over by the Quilting Arts magazine exhibit. I hope that I run into old friends in the aisles, wouldn't that be a great surprise?

Think of me in that crowd, jostling and being jostled, screaming to be heard above the din as I smack another woman's hand to get that last package of gorgeous lace. I'll let you in on my acquisitions (that word sounds so greedy, doesn't it?) when I return.

Time to finish those ATC's.

Lavender Sage Art Retreat

2011-10-05T18:10:00.000-05:00

Four days with 10 wonderfully creative women, making art in a beautiful studio in the Texas hill country with two amazing teachers. Wow! We learned about monoprinting, collage, sketching, watercolor painting, blind contour drawing, continuous line contour drawing, image transfer, journaling, making a box, and best of all we learned about ourselves as artists. We visited art galleries, ate some great barbecue and Mexican food, and our chef Tess fed us very well at the Studio. We spent time sketching at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I am truly grateful for the connections that we made with each other, and for the opportunity to observe such talented artists. Oh, and I had all kinds of fun, too!

Next Lavender Sage Art Retreat is in April, 2012.

Thanks to Sona for lunch and a visit to her beautiful home and studio on Monday. What a treat! From Sona's Colleen and I went to S. Congress to visit Uncommon Objects and Tesoros where we managed to acquire even more "stuff" than we did in Salado. By then we needed a snack and hit Guero's down the street before we left for Oklahoma, where we arrived home about 1:30am. Tired but happy.

I have posted my photos to MobileMe and I'll upload to the flickr group soon. Here's one of my favorites from the Wildflower Center. I believe this is Texas sage; it was blooming everywhere.

Big CQ Countdown -- Block 4

2011-08-29T20:03:00.000-05:00

Making progress!

Big CQ Countdown -- Block 3

2011-08-28T16:39:00.000-05:00

Anyone who knows my friend Martha Green will recognize this "tribute block". Martha is a tremendously creative, prolific crazy quilt artist, and I've learned more from her than I can possibly ever thank her for.

I've tried to stay true to the vibrant colors the Martha uses, and the skeleton image is an original piece of art by Martha. She made the image for me, and if you click on the image to see it full size, you will see the lizard on the shoulder of the skeleton, who is holding a mug of beer. There's a story behind it, of course, but I'll save that for another time and place.

Day of the Dead image, compliments to Martha Green

More blocks to follow!

I love gifts from friends!

2011-08-28T16:23:00.002-05:00

I am so lucky! I have such talented friends. Two of my favorite friends were kind enough to bring lovely gifts to me at the Crazy Quilt Retreat in St. Louis. I received a crazy quilted tissue holder from Yvonne Streeter, and a bracelet from Lisa Caryl. Both gifts are handmade by the givers. (I highly recommend double clicking each image for a larger, clearer image.)

Top side of tissue holder.
Yvonne chose lovely colors.

Backside of tissue holder.
Lots of delicate hand embroidery!

My photography leaves much to be desired.
This bracelet has beautiful soft pinks and purples,
and lots of sparkle.

It has been such fun wearing the bracelet and using the tissue holder this summer. Both have collected lots of compliments. Thanks, gals!

What I did on my summer vacation

2011-08-27T18:24:00.002-05:00

I didn't have any plans for the summer, and it's a good thing I didn't. Life happened and I've been busy traveling between SW Colorado, Northern New Mexico, and Southern Oklahoma. More about that. First, apologies to all the people I've neglected. Unreturned phone calls, unanswered emails, brief instant messages ... I have been terrible at keeping in touch. I was either busy as a one-armed wallpaper hanger, I was out of ATT's service area, or I was with other people.

Here's the story. I don't expect anyone to read it all the way through. Only my mother would do that.

When I returned from the Crazy Quilt Retreat at the end of June, I had just a couple of days before I took off for Durango, CO. The Las Conchas fire, the one that threatened Los Alamos, was burning when I drove from Albuquerque to Durango. See the two smoke plumes in the rear view mirror of my car?

Aunt Helen showing how tall the sunflowers are.

My favorite Aunt Helen wasn't feeling well, and she needed to me housesit and dogsit with her adorable dog Muffin because as soon as she felt well enough she wanted travel to Birmingham to see her sister, my Auntie Irene. Auntie Irene is in a place that cares for people with dementia. She's not doing so great. Despite this sad situation, Aunt Helen and I had a great time visiting, cooking, and just hanging out. She watches Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune every day, which is when we would have a beer and feed a few peanuts to Muffin, her adorable dog. I had time to work on my crazy quilt while we chatted, and finished up several blocks; I'll post more photos of the completed blocks.

Muffin

Helen's backyard is a tiny work of art -- even the deer think so!

[Update: Last week the deer's fawns showed up in the yard, and Muffin got a little beat up by Mama Deer when she (Muffin) barked at the babies! As far as I know she is bruised and scared to death, but not seriously wounded.]

I was in Durango for five weeks, and had time to visit with my son, Barry, who lives there. I enjoyed becoming better acquainted with Barry's girlfriend Shannon, who is smart, beautiful, fun, generous, kind -- everything a mother wants. I'd better shut up before I jinx it. Shannon's parents were in town for a few days and after meeting them it's easy to see how Shannon turned out to be so special.

The weather in Durango was wonderful. A little hot during the day, but cool at night. The weather in Oklahoma during that time was brutally hot and I was grateful to be in the mountains.

Cloudy sky from Aunt Helen's garden.

At the end of my stay in Colorado, my son and I drove back to Oklahoma, where he spent two weeks helping around the "place". He and his Dad are working to make us more self-sufficient, and they installed a large drip irrigation system in the orchard. I didn't take any photos because it was too hot to go up to the garden.

We celebrated every day by having a pool party from about 5pm until about 10pm. We stayed cool, had a wonderful time with each other, and laughed our heads off. No photos because I was wet!

After two weeks, Barry needed to return to Durango to prepare for a mountain bike trip through Arizona (and he missed Shannon), so we drove him to Albuquerque on Sunday, August 21, where Shannon picked him up for the remaining four hour drive back to Durango.

Rather than immediately return home, Bruce and I meandered through Northern New Mexico. We spent a night in Santa Fe, a night in Taos, and took an indirect route home through Northeastern New Mexico. Bruce took me to Philmont Scout Ranch where he spent many summers as a Boy Scout. It is beautiful and I'd like to visit again. We stayed in an old hotel in Cimarron, NM called the St. James, where we found excellent food and tales of the gunslingers who stayed in the hotel while in the area robbing trains and banks. A fair number of them shot up the bar at the St. James while killing each other.

Adobe walls outside our room at La Posada.

St. Francis Cathedral, Santa Fe

Sculpture at La Posada.

Garden at La Posada.

El Santuario del Chimayo.

Crosses on tree at El Santuario del Chimayo.

Cimarron River.

Palisades at Cimarron River State Park, NM.

Bruce taking photos at Cimarron River.

Sunrise over Philmont Scout Ranch, NM.

We visited the Capulin National Monument, a dormant volcano, which has spectacular views from the top.

By Thursday, August 25, we decided that we'd go home. You know the feeling, you know your own bed will feel wonderful, but it's hard to say goodbye. Glad to be home!

Big CQ Countdown -- Block 2

2011-08-02T16:24:00.005-05:00

I had fun doing this block ... well, I always have fun embellishing blocks. Unfortunately, my iPhone camera didn't do a great job on the colors. The oranges are brighter, and the blue area behind the big yellow flower is actually purple. I'll be leaving Durango for home tomorrow and I'll use my better camera to photo the rest of the blocks.

10" block, muslin backing, silk, taffeta, velvet, cottons.

Thank you, Betty Pillsbury, for the
paisley class.

White sequin flowers, pink stop beads,
green wool stem stitch vine

On a different note, I've enjoyed spending the last month with my aunt, who continually amazes me with her energy, generosity, creativity, and intelligence. We have enjoyed talking about old family stories and current politics. We've eaten healthy foods, and enjoyed a 5pm beer every day. When we followed the beer with wine at dinner we called ourselves drunken sluts and laughed like maniacs. She is only 12 years older than I am and we have become more like sisters than aunt/niece. She has an adorable dog, Muffin, who makes us laugh every day with her persistent attempts to finagle food. (She is very well fed, but not allowed to eat all day long, as she seems to want to do.)

Muffin, 2011

I am not looking forward to returning home as the temp in my hometown, Norman, Oklahoma, today is 108F, with a predicted high of 110F. Durango is very cool at night (50's and 60's) and usually in the 80's in the daytime. I hope I don't melt in the driveway when I get home and get out of the car. I feel so fortunate to have air conditioning. How did our foremothers survive weather like that?

While I'll be sad to leave, I miss my husband and my little dog, Abby, (at left) who has probably forgotten me.

Wish me a safe journey -- it's a 12 - 13 hour drive from Durango to Norman. My son is riding back with me, and this will be the first time we've been alone together for that many hours since he was a little boy. He spent 3 months in Chile earlier this year, and he just spent a week in California. The purpose of the California trip was to take his girlfriend to see Stevie Wonder in concert. I am hoping for lots of good travel stories.

Safe journeys to you and yours,

wherever you may be on the planet

Digital Poppies for Houston ATC Swap

2011-07-28T14:32:00.002-05:00

I took time out from stitching to work on a few Artist Trading Card designs for the ATC swap at the Houston quilt show in November. I plan to print this on fabric, probably draining every drop of ink from my printer's color cartridge, iron it on to peltex, and embellish with beads and embroidery. I'll iron a fabric back on it, and finish the edge with a machine zig zag stitch or a hand embroidered buttonhole stitch. I love the colors, and I hope my printer will duplicate them as vividly as they show up in PhotoShop.

I started with a layer of solid fuschia, then added layers of brushstrokes in various colors. I added the flower photo (taken in my front garden in the spring), and placed it between layers until I got the effect I wanted. The green floral design across the bottom is a brushstroke, and I even tried some embroidery stitch brushes (didn't like the effect). PhotoShop brushes are fabulous, and with so many free ones out there it's easy to build up a large library. Some of my favorites are French handwritten script, kanji symbols, floral designs, and abstract designs.

Big CQ Countdown

2011-07-26T11:53:00.001-05:00

I do believe that I see a tiny light at the end of the tunnel. I am working through my stack of "Big CQ by 2-0-1-2" blocks for the final time. I've finished a few blocks, and will be posting them here until they are all completed. I don't remember the exact count, but I think I have approximately 45 blocks in this project. Block #1 (below) has not been blocked, and intend to use Gerry Krueger's olderrose's blocking technique to straighten it out.

The working title of this quilt is "Hats' Desire". As always, I look at my work and I see so many of my friends represented there. The little butterfly in the bottom right corner is one of Cathy Kizerian's Crazy by Design "golden lace" pieces. The hand dyed cotton lace across the center and the yellow sequins are gifts from KG. I purchased the purple crushed velvet while in Arkansas attending a cq class with Martha Green. I learned to make the yellow fargo roses in one of Judith Baker Montano's classes. Every block in this quilt is a reminder of happy times.

St Louis blues ... and greens and reds and mauves and pinks ...

2011-06-27T15:19:00.002-05:00

For four days we stitched and shopped and laughed. Twenty eight crazy quilters met in O'Fallon, IL for the second cq retreat, put together by MaryAnne Griffin. We spread our projects over half a hotel ballroom and dropped threads and beads all over the carpet while we sewed and laughed. And what a talented group! I wish I had taken more care to get some good photos of people's work because there was plenty of eye candy spread around.

Martha Green and I traveled by car to the retreat and Martha dragged me into a huge candy store on I-44, somewhere in MO. We left with more sugar than we came in the door with. Enough said.

The first day of our visit, MaryAnne took us to a scary warehouse where we pawed over old jewelry and fabrics spread over an entire floor of the building. Donna of Donnaland, dealer in things old, was there to show us around.

Most of us left with some cool old jewelry to either wear or take apart to sew on something beautiful.

Martha and (I think) Bonnie (above) on the creepy warehouse elevator. It was the kind of place that might have been a set for a horror movie.

Things got even spookier when we went to a nearby restaurant (all part of the Lemp Brewery of old) said to be on the Top Ten Most Haunted Houses in the US. The food was great and I, at least, didn't run into any haints.

Then it was back to the hotel for more stitching and carryings on.

A few of the crazy women ... (as you can see I need some practice photographing people from the front).

A couple of the Kansas City group. Sorry I don't know names!

Yvonne and Kay

Lori Bates working hard. Lori was my roommate for the first night of my stay. It was a pleasure to meet her and get acquainted.

Marci Henkel laughing evilly. (Or maybe she is just laughing, but she has such a great evil laugh.)

It was a wonderful retreat and god willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll be back in 2012. Thanks again to MaryAnne and her helpers Willa and Mona for putting together such a great event.

Tornadoes and Friends

2011-05-25T13:39:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was glued to the tv, watching the progress of the three major tornadoes that wreaked havoc on my little corner of the world. I am not a big fan of viewing live devastation, but these things were headed for me at various times and I wanted to know if I needed to get out of the way. I was one of the lucky ones yesterday. The tornadoes came close, but not close enough to hurt me or damage my home. Others were not so fortunate; several people lost their lives, many more people lost their homes. Oklahomans are a resilient bunch. We help each other, and we rebuild lives and property. We love the land and we love our state. (Oklahoma has some terrible things wrong with it, and change is needed, but we all agree that we help our neighbors in times of need.)

In the midst of this tv vigil, my phone rang and it was Yvonne Streeter, a crazy quilting friend from Texas. She was driving up Interstate 35 and found herself in my city just as the storms were coming in from the west. Since I live a good three hours from her and she was on a very long drive to Nebraska to see her mom, it was kind of an amazing coincidence that she was just a few miles from my house when she realized that she should get off the highway. She came over, we watched the storm together on tv, and my husband cooked dinner for all of us. It was such a nice thing to be able to provide, literally, shelter from the storm for a friend. When the storms had passed, we calmed down enough to stitch on our crazy quilts, and Yvonne spent the night in our guestroom before resuming her trip this morning.

I feel doubly grateful today that we were spared the horrors of the tornadoes at my house, and that I had a friend with me while the storm raged.

gardenia

2011-04-22T22:02:00.002-05:00

I have a gardenia bush in a pot on my deck and it is in full bloom. It smells heavenly and it has attracted a beautiful butterfly. The butterfly was so overcome by the fragrance that it didn't even notice me as I was snapping photos. (At least that's what I am making up about its lack of attention to me.)

Crazy Button Quilt by Pam Kellogg

2011-04-19T09:18:00.003-05:00

Pam Kellogg of Kitty and Me Designs has made a lovely video of her crazy button quilt, complete with beautiful music. It's about 3 minutes long, and packed with the kind of eye candy that crazy quilters love. Pam has put together some of her wonderful stitching in an e-book, Elegant Crazy Quilt Seam Treatments.

the least among us

2011-04-15T21:08:00.001-05:00

Okay, sorry, I've gone all political on you. I just needed to get this stuff off my chest. I have a surprise for tomorrow! Some cute little gift tags that are fun to make from fabric, but that's all I am saying for now.

does it seem hot in here to you?

2011-04-15T20:59:00.001-05:00

Sen. James Inhofe doesn't "believe in" climate change, despite the assurances of the world's scientific community that it is real. I don't know if he doesn't believe in it in the sense of he has no faith in it, or if he does not believe the scientific evidence.

It's kind of amazing, isn't it?

madrecita

2011-04-11T18:17:00.001-05:00

I found this prayer in a photo, and I don't know where it came from.

In English, it says

"Little Mother,

Woman of corn, of the earth, of the moon

Thank you for the children,
Thank you for life,
Thank you for light

Thank you, thank you for everything"

Isn't that beautiful? What do you have to be thankful for today?

updated bird and bride

2011-04-08T21:42:00.000-05:00

I made a few changes and I like the image much better.

japanese musicians

2011-04-07T11:45:00.001-05:00

These lovely Japanese musicians are on a journey, carrying their belongings in bundles. After playing for a wedding in a nearby village they are making their way home. They have stopped at the edge of a stand of bamboo to rest and have tea. While waiting for the tea, they are playing for their own entertainment. No harm will come to them in the peaceful countryside.

Their names, from left to right, are Jin, which means gentleness; Chizu, a thousand storks; and Sen, wood fairy. Their lives are devoted to their music and simple pleasures.

What is Jin thinking about?

bird and bride

2011-04-07T11:26:00.001-05:00

She seems to be looking toward the bird, but her eyes are closed. Perhaps she is imagining the bird, hoping that it has some wisdom to share.

The brightly colored bird is wearing a crown, indicating that it is special in some way. Why has it come to her on her wedding day?

divas d'este new etsy shop

2011-03-30T11:59:00.004-05:00

Divas d'Este have a new etsy shop, Urban Renewal Designs, featuring vintage/antiques/junque, unusual jewelry, found objects, old postcard images, and the like. I am a big fan of the Divas' themed image cd's because not only are the images diverse and interesting, the cd's have saved me immense amounts of time otherwise spent on searching for images.

Most of the images in my January journaling posts have come from the Divas' collection. If you would like to know which cd a particular image comes from post a comment and I will track it down.

De, one of the Divas, is a designer and crazy quilter. When she is not adding to the company's collections she makes beautiful handbags.

(Image at left is from the Divas' Girls collection.)

kathleen

2011-03-18T18:07:00.004-05:00

I think my BFF Kathleen is hilariously funny. She has been cracking me up for 41 years. (For example, she once remarked that someone we knew had "a keen perception of the obvious".) Most of the funny things she says are of the you-had-to-be-there variety, the kind of thing that has you gasping for air and hoping you don't pee in your pants. "So then I said to the guy" is one of those things. It doesn't bear explaining because it will never be as funny to anyone else as it is to us.

The same goes for the camping trip we took a long time ago in her 240Z crammed with a big smelly Army tent which we put up while standing in the mud on a creek bank in our nightgowns. It was dark. It was hot. There we were, laughing like hyenas as we struggled with the tent, when a boat came down the creek. A boat with some guys who shined a light on us. I swear they started rowing faster when they got a good look at us.

Then there was the more recent champagne-fueled nighttime swim in her pool when we got locked out of her house. It took some time for her husband to get a ladder, climb up to the second story and break in. We were laughing like maniacs the entire time and it is a miracle that the neighbors didn't call the police.

Do you have a BFF who makes you laugh your head off?

japan on my mind

2011-03-17T18:59:00.046-05:00

tears of the geisha
fall like snow on Sendai town
after tsunami

red gates of Shinto
shrines are swept away in the
raging surging flood

hearts are torn with pain
for loss of loved ones as the
earth trembles and shakes

prayers for japan

2011-03-13T15:38:00.002-05:00

Join with me
in offering prayers
for the people of Japan.

mothers' fears

2011-03-07T18:29:00.007-06:00

My son is in Chile, and from all accounts, is having the time of his life. He has been working on an organic farm, making new friends, and learning Spanish. He sends me a short email message every few days, not so much to communicate about his trip, but to reassure me that he is alive and well perched on the Ring of Fire. He is nonchalant about the earthquakes that occur almost daily, saying that anything less than 5 on the Richter scale is a "tremor". Today he told me that he is traveling to Valdivia where the strongest earthquake on record (9.5!) shook the town to bits in 1960. It occurred to me that my feelings about this are somewhat akin to those of mothers of soldiers. I am in no way comparing my son's trip to Chile to the experiences of soldiers facing enemies on front lines in the middle East. I am talking about my feelings about his being far away, with potential danger near, and my being powerless to help him if he needs it. My son is in a relatively safe situation, unlike our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. My level of fear for him is quite uncomfortable. I would imagine that for the mothers of young soldiers the fear can be unbearable at times. I think of a friend whose son is in Iraq for a second tour. That has got to be hard. Yet we do what mothers have always done. Pray for them and put one foot in front of the other until they come home.

bluebonnet

2011-03-03T11:30:00.000-06:00

bluebirds

bluebeard

blue note

(the) blues

blue skies

(devil with the) blue (dress on)

blue curacao

bluetick (hound)

(ol') blue eyes

(my love is) blue

blue sage

herb garden

2011-03-02T19:24:00.008-06:00

This is a list of herbs that I want to plant this year, and I have some redbud tree seeds if anyone is interested in trading. I also have some beautiful blue morning glory seeds that the hummingbirds love.

woman with pansies

2011-02-28T22:26:00.000-06:00

downhill

2011-02-28T17:08:00.001-06:00

Who can forget the feeling of flying when riding a bicycle down a hill. You work so hard to get to the top, then with a rush of wind and a thrill of exhiliration you scream toward the bottom, and it's all over so fast.

silkie

2011-02-22T21:10:00.002-06:00

Here she is, just waiting to be printed on fabric and stitched to your cq block. If you want a high resolution file, just say so in the comments below and tell me your email address so that I can send it on its way to you.

The image of the woman is from Divas d'Este Victorian Women Collection. De and Dawn, the Divas, have wonderful collections of all kinds of images, on cd and reasonably priced.

violetness

2011-02-21T16:23:00.002-06:00

I love the process of making these journal pages but I am getting bored with the format. It's much more fun to do this work if I can share it with others. Starting tomorrow, I'll be offering some different sizes of high res images -- cigarette silk, atc, and post card -- that can be downloaded and printed. I am taking requests. If you have a theme, a particular (non-copyrighted) image, or just an idea of the colors you want, let me know in the comments section and I'll see what I can come up with.

For now, I am limiting this to the first ten people who reply. I don't think it will happen, but I don't want to promise more than I can deliver.

So, what'll it be? Your name, a lovely geisha or Victorian woman, maybe your kitty or your dog? (You supply the pet images, of course, I'll make the collage.)

passion

2011-02-20T15:53:00.009-06:00

Another "secret" journal page made in photoshop. The words are obscured by a partial image of a painting that I did, combined with a photo of a rainy day in in my backyard. The hot red painting and the cool green backyard worked together somehow, one of those happy accidents.

a kinder, gentler way of cleaning

2011-02-19T15:14:00.000-06:00

This morning I walked by my laundry room shelves for maybe the 10,000th time. For the first time, though, the load of toxic chemicals on the shelves caught my attention. There were obvious nasty things like chlorine bleach, and there were less obvious, nevertheless, nasty substances. It occurred to me that this is something I have some control over. I can't control the toxic Tea Partiers, but I can darn well determine what I am exposed to in my own home. (At least for now; who knows what the Repukelicans will get up to next.) Enough politics! Sorry!

Here are the before and after photos of the shelves:

I am so inspired that I believe I might make up that recipe in Mother Earth News for an entire year's supply of laundry soap.

flowers ... sunshine ... i am ready

2011-02-12T21:12:00.000-06:00

intellectual geisha

2011-02-10T13:06:00.002-06:00

The image of this woman is one of my favorites. Something about her seems schoolmarmish, the glasses I suppose. And the bun on top of her head. The crane is her daydream as she sits, perhaps, facing a roomful of noisy children. Maybe she wishes she could fly above the earth in silence.

frou frou birthday banner

2011-02-08T13:43:00.001-06:00

In contrast to my brother's wild and crazy birthday image my sister sent a pink birthday banner. She wonders if either she or my brother is adopted. :)

She makes beautiful things from paper. The banner's flags are about 1" square and strung on tiny pink satin ribbon. The banner was wrapped around the pink card and it was held in the pink envelope. The little white heart has a birthday greeting stamped on it. The whole thing is very girly and pretty. I keep telling her she should open an etsy shop.

My husband is making me a gift which is not finished, my son did not even remember that it was my birthday, and I am grateful to my two siblings for making it a special day with their very cool remembrances. A Junk Yard, for lack of a better word fiend, and a frou frou girl gift. I'll be smiling about this for a long time after my birthday has passed.

(Oh, I am also enjoying the book, The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, that came along with the banner.)

on the road again

2011-02-06T21:51:00.000-06:00

My 22 year old son is leaving for Chile in the morning. He is familiar with travel in other countries and I know that he will do fine, but if you are a mother, you understand that letting go is really, really hard. One of my favorite photos of him was taken about 4 years ago at DFW while waiting for a flight to Mexico. It was one of the first times I could see him as an adult, which is sort of a shocking experience for parents, I think. At least it was for me. I love his intent look as he sits reading while waiting to board the plane.

The photo is four years old and he has since, of course, become a man. He planned this entire Chile trip by himself and has lined up work on organic farms. He has even rebuilt his mountain bike so it will be suitable for the terrain where he is going. He wants to become fluent in Spanish and learn more about sustainable living. I am proud of him.

My feelings about him and his departure are tucked away on a barely visible layer of this image. I have said what I needed to say, both on my journal page and to him in a phone call earlier today.

It all seems so normal and a growth opportunity for him and blah blah blah. But I am his mom, and my chick has hopped further out of the nest than ever before, so I am allowed to cluck a little.

brotherly birthday wishes

2011-02-06T17:36:00.000-06:00

My brother and I don't have an easy relationship. I love him dearly, I am sure he loves me, but somehow we manage to stay sort of crossways with each other. It doesn't help that I am a slightly crazy bossy big sister or that we own a business together. So, you can imagine that a birthday email from him was very much appreciated. The image below is what he sent along with happy birthday wishes. I laughed out loud when I saw it. I think it is a hilarious image, especially since he is in his late 50's and I am, as of this b-day, gulp, 65. It's the kind of humor we would have appreciated at a much younger age when our relationship was much simpler. I remembered once again, how funny and smart and cool he is. I wish we could unring the ball and go back to those days when we laughed together and just had fun.

depression

2011-02-05T19:57:00.000-06:00

For the last several months I have been depressed. Clinically depressed. It's not pretty. The Cymbalta commercials say that depression hurts. I can confirm that. The only reason I have not been hospitalized is that I don't have to work and I have a husband who is the most encouraging, loving, patient, kind man in the galaxy.

I wish I could say something original about clinical depression. Something that would lift me right out of it. Something that would replace sadness and numbness with joy and creativity. Something that would give me back control of my life. It would be a short statement that would simply change my brain chemistry, because different brain chemistry is what I need. Everything I do to cope with depression is hard, hard work meant to compensate for having been dealt really crappy brain genes. (If I knew what to say, I would share it!) Barring magic words, I have to come up with a plan for getting better because what I am doing now is suicidal.

I know that I should eat right, get the right amount of sleep, exercise, take my meds, meditate, connect with other people, do something creative every day, and so on. Having the energy to even make a stab at it is another story. Most days I don't even get dressed, much less comb my hair and put on makeup.

Something I have learned about myself is that I feel much better in orderly, clean surroundings. The rub is that it's sometimes impossible for me to make the effort to clean and organize my living space. The rest of the time it's just very, very difficult. When I barely have the mental or physical energy to take a shower, I probably won't scrub down the shower stall. When I sleep too much because even the thought of getting out of bed is overwhelming, I probably won't make the bed when I do drag myself out.

One of my unhealthy tactics to avoid the pain of depression is to focus on my computer for hours at a time, days at a time. It has started to feel like an addiction. Uh, make that "it is an addiction". I get up in the a.m. and make a cup of tea, then it's straight to the computer. Sometimes it's all I do all day, which means that I am not contributing to clean, orderly surroundings, making healthy food, making art, or exercising. It's utterly self-defeating. I don't feel well because I don't do the things I need to take care of myself, and I don't do these things because I don't feel well. Bummer. I don't want to give it up, but if I don't give it up I am not going to get better. As a solution, I have decided that I have to earn computer time by doing what I need to do to live my life. 45 minutes of doing what I need to do earns 15 minutes of computer time during the day. If I stick to it, I get a couple of hours on the computer in the evening. I'll just have to see how this works.

So What Am I Going to Do About the Depression?

The only way I know out of this black hole is this: baby steps. Yep, just do one little thing at a time. Establish routines, build good habits, keep putting one foot in front of the other, one day at a time. If I vow to clean out every closet in the house today, I will assuredly crash and burn. I can probably manage to clean out a shelf in one closet, realistically. Maybe that will feel so good I'll put some dishes in the dishwasher. If I can let that be enough, that one shelf, and give myself credit for progress, I think I can find my way back to my life. Slowly but surely, I can plod back to that place where joy is my state of mind. And then I will fly!

If you read this far, I am amazed. But if you did, and you relate to what I am talking about, please leave a comment. We are all in this together!

birthday

2011-02-04T21:27:00.000-06:00

Birthday card to myself. How could I not be happy while looking at those colors?

dog dreams

2011-02-01T21:06:00.002-06:00

snow

2011-01-31T20:42:00.001-06:00

winter

2011-01-31T19:50:00.004-06:00

sisters are doin' it for themselves

2011-01-29T20:08:00.001-06:00

bamboo garden

2011-01-29T19:45:00.002-06:00

dreams of the forest
swaying with the wind as does
the ancient bamboo

in the rain

2011-01-28T22:44:00.002-06:00

soft drops in the trees
the damp air is golden
walking hand in hand

bicycle

2011-01-26T21:17:00.003-06:00

It doesn't seem quite finished. Not sure what to do next.

medieval knight

2011-01-25T15:18:00.005-06:00

When my son Barry was 12 years old he joined an organization called the Arthurian Order of Avalon. The AOA was a wonderful experience -- lots of choreographed swordfights, performing a human chessboard play every year at the local Medieval Fair, feasts, parties, armor-making, jousting, costumes, singing, dancing, even cooking and sewing. Part of this image is a small beaded quilt that I made with a photo of him in costume.

the bird is the word

2011-01-24T16:15:00.003-06:00

Another PS CS4 creation using layer masks. My formula (or rut) is to open a new image using a template that I created for my journal. I duplicate the background layer (Cmd J on mac, Ctrl J on pc), then select a font and start typing. This is a personal journal where I say whatever comes to mind. I fill up the page, and if I am not through writing, I have a file on my computer where I can continue, so that I don't have to stop if I am on a roll. I lock the text layer, then start Placing images on layers. I choose a central photo, like the bird, and add texture with pictures that I have taken, brushes, and acquired texture files. Then I play with positioning the layers, changing colors, and so on. I add layer masks to expose or conceal parts of the images. This is starting to feel very comfortable, so I need to find some new techniques to explore in photoshop.

My journal template is 5X7 and I am using high resolution images so I should be able get good quality prints. I am imagining a crazy quilt using some of my favorite images. Or maybe I could wait until the end of the year when presumably I will have 365 images and make a quilt that would cover the roof of my house. Sort of a Christos installation. I wrote those last few sentences to see if anyone is actually reading my blog. Surely someone will comment!

come into the woods

2011-01-24T02:44:00.003-06:00

Created in PhotoShop CS4. The flowers and woods are a picture that I took, and the girl is an image that I got from Divas D'Este on one of their great cd's. The purple lace pattern is a photoshop brush that I downloaded from a website -- and now I don't remember which one, sorry.

I decided that I liked the lace over the other images, although I did remove it from around the face using a layer mask.

These collages are great fun to do, and I am getting much faster.

My studio has been a wreck for at least 6 weeks, and I going to spend this week cleaning it up so I can get crackin' on all the projects running around my brain, including printing some of the journal pages on fabric.

my music album

2011-01-24T01:37:00.003-06:00

This is the album cover for my band's newest release. Actually, this was a little facebook game. To make your own album cover, follow these directions, as quoted from facebook.

1 - Go to wikipedia and hit random. The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band. 2 - Go to quotationspage.com and hit random. The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. 3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”. Third picture no matter what it is, will be your album cover. 4 - Use photoshop or similar (picnik.com is a free online photo editor) to put it all together. 5 - Post it with this text in the "caption" and TAG the friends you want to join in.

It makes as much sense as lots of album covers that I have seen.

disconnect

2011-01-24T01:34:00.002-06:00

bff

2011-01-22T09:20:00.003-06:00

more gratitude

2011-01-21T21:16:00.004-06:00

2011-01-19T15:58:00.004-06:00

If all the mother love in the world could be concentrated in a beam and shot at all the hate-filled people in the world, they would be transformed, and so would life as we know it. Imagine a world where peace is normal and war is regarded as pure insanity. Imagine a world where no one goes to bed hungry. Imagine a world where sick people -- all sick people, even the mentally ill ones -- are treated with kindness and provided with the help they need. Imagine a world without violence of any kind. Imagine a world without fear. Imagine a world filled with love.

Hemingway's Garden

2011-01-18T17:51:00.000-06:00

Wanderlust

2011-01-18T01:57:00.003-06:00

January 16 Journal Page

2011-01-16T21:38:00.002-06:00

Scrumptious Scraps with Christen Brown

2011-01-16T16:34:00.001-06:00

Scrumptious Scraps with Christen Brown

What a wonderful idea. Christen Brown has found a new way to make beautiful things with scraps of lace and silk ribbon embroidery.

Girls and Swan

2011-01-15T19:34:00.001-06:00

Since I plan to print my pages on paper or fabric I've decided to leave open space for hand embellishing.

Dreams of Paris

2011-01-15T19:32:00.003-06:00

This would be a good day to go to Paris.

The Loveliness of Snow

2011-01-15T18:40:00.004-06:00

We have not had a beautiful snow this winter. As much as I do not like the inconvenience of snow and ice, I do love looking at the blanket of snow outside. I have used an image from a storm that occurred about a year ago. Our woods were covered and we even had icicles hanging from the roof. We were snowed in for several days and spent lots of time reading by the fireplace, venturing out only for more firewood. We may not get a snow like this in 2011, but I have my snowstorm picture to remind me.

gratitude unlocks the fullness of life

2011-01-15T17:34:00.002-06:00

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

~Melody Beattie

It's a Boundary Thing

2011-01-14T17:20:00.004-06:00

I am journaling more than I ever have. I love to write whatever is on my mind, then cover it up with images. It's still there, it's a design element, and it becomes something I can share with others.

My word for 2011 is "learn". While making these journal pages I am learning about myself (writing), and learning about design and photoshop while creating the collages. As Ina would say, "What could be better than that?"

Vantage Point

2011-01-14T15:12:00.003-06:00

Hoop Love Vintage Transfers

2011-01-12T14:37:00.008-06:00

Just found this website, Hoop Love Vintage Transfers, and I can't wait to download and stitch some of their designs.

Can't you just see these on a crazy quilt? All the images are uploaded by members, these two are from cntryquilter. Any flickr member can upload their own images, provided that the images they are not copyrighted.

As of this date, there are 6,232 images for download. Oh, did I mention that they are free?

Milliande Art Community for Women

2011-01-12T12:32:00.004-06:00

One of my favorite online communities is Milliande's. Take a look if you like to make friends, share your art, be inspired by others' art, ask questions, answer questions, and get birthday cards, among other things.

Visit Milliande Art Community for Women

Armadillo Tracks in the Sand, January 10

2011-01-11T16:54:00.000-06:00

Hidden Feelings, January 9

2011-01-11T16:42:00.001-06:00

Frida Says to Persevere, January 8

2011-01-11T15:42:00.002-06:00

Alcoholism Sucks, January 7

2011-01-11T15:40:00.002-06:00

Post Wreck Stress, January 6

2011-01-11T15:39:00.003-06:00

Depression Hurts, January 5

2011-01-11T15:38:00.002-06:00

Never Too Late, January 4

2011-01-11T15:37:00.001-06:00

Self-Portrait in Taos, January 3

2011-01-11T15:35:00.002-06:00

Mother's Birthday, January 2

2011-01-11T15:32:00.002-06:00

Learn, January 1

2011-01-11T15:08:00.005-06:00

No more failed new year's resolutions for me. I decided that this year I would focus on learning: about myself, art, life, whatever comes along. The idea of choosing one word, rather than a list of resolutions came from Linda Matthews, a designer whose blog I follow. She is a talented designer and a great teacher. I have taken online classes from her and I own her Titivations dvd. Her website includes links to over 270 free handbag patterns and tutorials! (See linked image below.)

Since I want to learn more about PhotoShop I have started making a digital journal page a day, which I will post here. My first effort is this page with my word at the top.

I will probably print out some of the pages on paper or fabric and embellish them with foil, stitching, beads, embroidery, and so on. Each page is 5x7" and could be a journal cover, a featured element in a pillow, or part of a quilt. Right now I am having fun working with textures, brushes, fonts, and colors in PhotoShop so embellishing will come later.

Want to try this yourself with PhotoShop or PhotoShop Elements? Linda's website has lots of tutorials. Just scroll down until you see "PhotoShop Elements". You might also try Kim Classen's free Skinny-Mini eCourse. Registration closes January 17, 2011.

I'll post the pages I've made to date, and one a day after that, as long as I can keep it up -- life sometimes happens so fast that there's not time to write about it!

2010-07-01T11:35:00.006-05:00

She says she's "benignly crazy" and her passion is crazy quilting. Longtime friend and fellow cq'er Cathy Kizerian (formerly Flox) has a popular blog, Cathy's Crazy by Design, that reflects her engaging personality and showcases her beautiful needlework. Cathy has announced the July 1, 2010, opening of her etsy shop where she is selling her hand-dyed "golden" lace, a highly sought after embellishment for crazy quilts. She promises handmade aprons, vintage laces, trims, and linens to come.

Help Cathy celebrate the opening of her new shop by visiting Crazy by Design where you can enter to win one of two wonderful giveaway items, the laces shown above and a collection of Parisian-themed treasures.

Friend's Birthday Needlefelted Pincushion

2010-05-28T13:49:00.004-05:00

Here are the instructions for this pincushion, made for a friend's birthday, unillustrated because I forgot to photograph the process.

I marked a piece of canvas with the stitching line ~6"x6" and left a 2" margin around it to allow for shrinkage. I used wool, soy, and silk roving for the background, and some ready-made craft flowers into which I sewed pearl bead centers. Before I started felting, drew some composition lines on the canvas, just to give me a general idea of where I wanted to change colors. I backed it with a floral fabric and stuffed it with polyester batting and ground walnut hulls. My plan was to stuff it firmly with the batting and then pour the walnut hulls into a center pouch in the batting. It didn't work very well so the walnut hulls are scattered around in pockets in the batting.

This project didn't take a long time, but I really like the result. My friend said that she liked it, too, which was what I wanted. :)

Shoes to Die For

2010-04-13T14:16:00.002-05:00

Marina Dempster's amazing shoes.

Sewing Machines Suck

2010-04-05T14:45:00.004-05:00

I am working on my painted lace cuff bracelets. I need to finish the edges with a satin stitch. My sewing machine is not cooperating and I am ready to resort to violence. Which leads me to this: Why are sewing machines still made like they were 100 years ago? Yeah, I know, you can spend $9,000 on a Bernina embroidery machine and it will do all sorts of fancy stuff. But the basic machinery is the same on all sewing machines. Clunky threading process, dangerous banging up and down needle, hard-to-get-to-and-impossible-to-adjust bobbin, all arranged to make us go blind and/or suffer permanent nerve damage in hands and neck.

For now, the bracelets are on hold until I can get someone to help me figure out how to adjust the bobbin tension, which the manufacturer has deliberately made almost impossible to adjust. It's completely trial and error. Like we have nothing to do but sit around and fiddle with this stuff for hours.

I bet if men sewed these machines would be made much differently.

The Blessings of Spring

2010-04-04T16:16:00.003-05:00

Today I am grateful for the flowers blooming in my yard.

(Enter the contest at communal global! Entries end midnight April 4.)

Lace Collage

2010-04-04T13:16:00.007-05:00

This is lace that I have fused to crinoline with MistyFuse, then painted with Jacquard Lumiere and DynaFlow paints. I followed (loosely) instructions from Three Creative Studios free projects, which are available on their website. If you are as clueless as I was, you'll need the one for Painted Lace Surfaces and the one for Painted Lace Cuff. These are pdf files that you can download to your computer. Thanks, Three Creative Studios!

First I fused down a layer of very flat lace, the wide kind that is probably made of nylon. Or you could use torn silk strips as the instructions show. Then I put down another layer of Misty Fuse and fused Venice Lace over it. MistyFuse is great because it can be layered several times and it does now show or add bulk to the piece. I added paint after all the lace was down. I used water to thin down the paints but fabric medium would have worked as well and left the piece with a softer hand.

My plan was to back it with ultrasuede, cut it into strips, and make cuff bracelets from it. I had a senior moment and cut it into strips before I backed it. Oh, well, it's just a little more work to back the pieces individually.

I used free motion with clear thread to stitch over the bracelets and secure the lace. Now it's on to decorative stitching, beads, backing, and edge finishing, in that order, if I can remember it long enough to do it.

Artist Identity Crisis

2010-03-14T13:13:00.003-05:00

For years I have made crazy quilts. I love them. I love everything about them. Making them, looking at them, touching them. If I could hear them or smell them I am sure I would love that, too. They are the original mixed media fiber art.

A few months ago I found myself drawn more and more to mixed media of a more contemporary nature. Those strange raggedy little fabric collages. Highly textured and passionately colored canvases. I took a calligraphy class with Lisa Engelbrecht and became enchanted with making marks on fabric. I learned about Lesley Riley's TAP, and now I want to transfer images to everything. I have two art journals and love painting and collaging in them.

And I have no desire to work on crazy quilts right now. How can this be? It is my passion, for goodness sakes. I am having the hardest time letting go and following what my heart is telling me. I should finish that big quilt that I have been working on for three years. I should finish all the other crazy quilt projects that I have in the works. I should be designing new crazy quilt projects.

But I don't want to do any of that. Will someone please give me permission to make what I want when I want so I can let go of this guilt?

Gold Foil & Painted Gold on Fabric

2010-01-24T15:10:00.006-06:00

My local quilt shop has lovely batiks -- nice colors and designs. But the thing about quilting cottons is ... well, they don't sparkle or shine. I am all about sparkly and shiny. So, I got out a fat quarter of one of those batiks, fabric medium, jacquard sparkly powder stuff, foil, and foil adhesive.

First, I drew glue lines along the spine of the frond, then drew a few lines down the centers of the leaves. After it dried overnight, I laid a sheet of foil on it, rubbed it a little, and amazingly the glue was covered with shiny gold. Since I seldom want to stop with just a little shine, I mixed fabric medium with gold metallic powder, and painted that on more leaves. (It's a little hard to see in the photo, which I took with my iPhone and my hand must have moved a little.)

I like what I got and will use this technique again.

2010-01-23T18:03:00.002-06:00

Pale gray twilight outlines the leafless black trees. I hear the blues coming from the living room where Bruce is setting up his ultimate iPod playlist. I sit in my studio, waiting for paint to dry and drinking a glass of champagne, looking out at wintry dusk. Barry is in Durango, and I imagine him missing Bandy and dreaming of his new Chum Bucket Red Karate Monkey bicycle, which is schedule to arrive any day now. We are reasonably happy, healthy, and productive. I am tremendously grateful for this life.

Art Journal

2010-01-17T13:15:00.004-06:00

I am playing art with paper, paint, collage, crayons, pens, and pencils these days. I love working on my art journals for the same reason I love crazy quilting: the results are unpredictable and random. Unlike crazy quilting, however, the finished piece comes together very quickly.

The photo is a two page spread from one of my journals. I gessoed the pages because I wanted to use acrylics, then layered paint, stamping, and collage. For the collage I used an image from a Cherry Republic catalog, some torn strips from a linens catalog, and white tissue paper.

I know it isn't great art, but I am developing a finer sense of what shapes, colors, textures, and so on appeal to me. Lately, I have thought about using the art journals to explore what I'd like to put on canvas. How odd. I never imagined that I would like to paint.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T08:19:00.005-06:00

Wishing you peace, love, and beauty in the coming year. And lots of time and energy to create. Joy and inspiration. Chocolate and champagne. Happy times spent with family and friends. The thighs you've always wanted. Only good hair days. Challenges. Naps. Laughter. The love of a good man (or woman, you choose.) Time to reflect. A sense of living your life well.

Spraying cheesecloth with dye

2009-12-04T08:45:00.003-06:00

I wish I had taken more pictures because this was fun. In a nutshell:

You will need cheesecloth, several colors of dye in spray bottles, a bowl of water, and something to protect your work area, like a drop cloth.

Unroll package of cheesecloth from cardboard.
Do not unfold, leave it folded into multiple layers as it comes off the cardboard.
Cut into sections approximately 12" long.
Dip a section of cheesecloth into the water and wring it out.
Lay it on the dropcloth. You can lay it flat or wad it up into a ball.
Spray with your choice of dye colors.
At this point I took the dyed piece outside and spread it on a bush to dry.
After they were dry, I unfolded the cheesecloth to a single layer, which I will use for mixed media projects.

Notes:

Don't be put off by having to put the dyes in spray bottles. Get some little spray bottles from a craft store and mix about 1/2 c. of each color that you want. I put the dry dye in the bottle using a funnel, added warm water, and shook it up. It was easy and I mixed about 10 colors in less than 15 minutes.
If I were doing this for crazy quilting, I would use what I think is called scrim. It's like cheesecloth, but much heavier.
I used Dylon dyes from England because they do not require soda ash. The colors were not as brilliant as I had hoped. I don't know if I didn't use the dyes correctly or if they just won't give the results I want. I would like to try this with procion mx dyes and see if I get better results.

A mother's dilemma

2009-12-04T08:17:00.006-06:00

When my 21 year old son told me he was bringing his girlfriend of a few months home for Thanksgiving I didn't give it a second thought. He is my only child and he has lived 750 miles away for over two years. I don't care if he brings Godzilla home with him just as long as he gets himself here.

I assumed that the new girlfriend would be smart because he likes smart girls. I assumed that she would be pretty because he likes pretty girls. And so on. What I didn't assume was that I would like this young woman as much as I do. She is accomplished, brilliant, funny, talented, beautiful, adorable, interesting, and kind.

They are very young, they are in colleges that are 6 hours apart. They both want to travel when they get out of school. I have no right to think that this will last.

So how are mothers supposed to keep from getting too attached to their children's significant others? What if she dumps him? I don't want my heart broken for me and for him. What if he dumps her? I don't want to have my heart broken for me and for her. While I think I have appropriate boundaries in most personal relationships, this one baffles me.

2009-11-29T16:55:00.006-06:00

I took advantage of the warm, sunny weather and dyed some cheesecloth on Friday. I spread the pieces on bushes and had a colorful display as they dried (photo below).

I used some Dylon dyes from England and I didn't get the vibrant colors that I wanted. I have been reading Judith Montano's new book Fibreart Montage, and she recommends Colorhue dyes. These dyes are for silk, so they would not have been much use with the cheesecloth. However, I have some silk to dye so I went to Ginny Eckley's website and bought a set 10 bottles of Colorhue and 10 pipettes. Amazingly, they arrived Saturday, but I haven't used them because I have been spending time with my son and his girlfriend, who are visiting for Thanksgiving (photo above).

I know that to get the colors I want, I am probably going to have to learn to use procion dyes and all the chemicals that go with them. I am dragging my feet because it sounds like so much trouble and expense. Sherrill Lewis of the Bead Ranch says I can come to her place to dye lace and fabrics, using the procion dyes, with friends Martha Green and De Crow. I think I will do that before I invest in procion dyes of my own. Maybe it's not as hard as I think.

We have had a wonderful family Thanksgiving. Barry's girlfriend is just delightful and I was was so happy to meet her. The photo doesn't show that she is smart, beautiful, and generally adorable.

Studio Bunny Has a Name!

2009-08-22T18:47:00.003-05:00

It wasn't easy choosing from Minky, Fleece, Chenille, Barkely, Bilbo, HoneyBunny, Fiver, Alice, Snowy, Casper, Stitch, Stump, Zipper*, Button, Spool, Mr. Silkie, Chester, Dillon, Charlie, Oreo, Winston, Moire, Snuggle, Dusty, Hare E. Potter, Hare E. Etta, Mo Hare, Mr. Palestrina (Pallie), Stitches, Buttons, Snapp!, Marie Antoinette, Marianne, Tonette, Annie, Fluffy, and Fancy!

*I used to have a bunny named Zipper. He was the hare-of-my-heart and he died tragically and at a young age. I couldn't choose that name, as much as I like it, because there will only ever be one Zipper.

The name Mo Hare (think mohair) was entered by a "friend" who suggested that, reminiscent of the Three Stooges, I could start calling myself Curly. I will get even.

One entry included names suggested by the children of the adult entrant. I suspect that these little ones have been watching re-runs of Gunsmoke as two of the names entered were Chester and Dillon!

After carefully considering Studio Bunny's views on life (we have talked for hours), and his love of parties, I have decided, with his agreement, to name him Bilbo. Congratulations to Skye for naming Bilbo Bunny! We haven't decided whether to add Baggins.

Skye, if you will send me your snail mail address I'll get your silk perle on its way to you.

Bilbo and I wish to offer our heartfelt thanks to everyone who participated. Your names were creative and most bunny-like.

40's Music and Crazy Quilting

2009-08-18T20:42:00.004-05:00

I especially enjoy stitching to the sounds of Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Count Basie, the Andrews Sisters. I feel saner and more centered. I've always believed that the 40's were a time of ... well, integrity. In the midst of killing and mayhem our forebears believed that our country was "doing the right thing". I haven't had a feeling that anything was "right" in a long time. Maybe, briefly, last November. But not for a long time before that. I have this perpetual lump of tears in my soul. I want so badly, as do we all, for things to be "right" for our children and their children. So, I stitch and grieve while Frank Sinatra makes soothing sounds in the background. Sometimes it all seems too hard. And then Little Brown Jug comes bouncing out of the XM radio and my heart and feet are filled with joy while I dance. As we asked ourselves in the 60's: "What does it all mean, Mr. Natural?"

I love this marking pencil!

2009-08-08T09:39:00.010-05:00

These are some of the pens/pencils I use to mark embroidery lines on my blocks, so that my stitches will be more even and straight. Not shown here is the plastic shoebox full of chalk liners, air erasable pens purple, water erasable pens in blue, and so on. Either the color is wrong, they don't really come out of the fabric as the mfg. advertises, the line is very thick and hence useless, and/or they wear off long before I stop needing them.

Yesterday I was sewing with my little group at the quilt shop, all sane quilters except me, and I mentioned my marking tool problem. Their heads popped up and they almost said in unison, "You need a Sewline!" A couple of women had their Sewlines with them and let me try them. I loved the results! It's a mechanical pencil with "leads" in various colors. The pens are marked with the color of the lead on the barrel. For example, the yellow one has a yellow band around the top. The display in the quilt store included blue, yellow, white, and black. Evidently there are more colors and even a trio pencil which holds 2 different colors of lead and a "tracer" (stylus).

The pencil was priced at $12.95 in my quilt shop, so they are not cheap. It came with lead in the barrel and a little box of several more leads in the package. Of course, there is no reason that you couldn't buy one pencil and change the leads as needed. I asked if anyone had tried to put the leads in a cheaper mechanical pencil and was told that they were too fat for a 0.7 pencil, but no one had tried a larger sized pencil.

The pencil makes a skinny line, does not require much pressure to make a mark, shows up well on fabric, and comes off with the built-in eraser or a damp cloth.

I really wanted the trio pencil but there were none in stock so I settled for a yellow one.

The line is narrow and easily visible.

The mark is removed by the pencil erase but there is the tiniest bit of fuzziness, probably from little eraser crumbs.

I used a damp q-tip to remove the residue, and the mark is completely gone.

I have been looking for this pencil for a long time. I am going to get the trio pencil and keep it in my sewing box.

I think this pencil will work very well with Carole Samples' Dream-a-Seam templates or marking with a ruler. I know I will be doing more layered or stacked stitches now; this pencil makes it so much easier to get a result that pleases me.

As usual, I have no affiliation with the Sewline company in any way other than owning one of their pencils. Carole Samples is a brilliant author, designer, and teacher. Val Bothell is a vendor of lovely cq supplies. I am not connected financially in any way with either one, although I am very fortunate to call Carole a friend.

Studio Bunny & Name Contest

2009-08-07T08:58:00.005-05:00

Do not ask me why because the only answer is that I am nuts. I got a bunny. He's getting some fresh air while my dog Abby protects me from my studio door.

He doesn't even have a name other than Bunny, Bun, Mr. Bun, and Bunzer. Hey, a contest! I'll send a 10 yards of of Gloriana silk Princess Perle to the person whose entry I choose. Post your entry in the comments. Do not send directly to me. Contest ends August 21. If I don't want to use any of the entries, I will have a drawing for the winner of the thread.

I wonder if bunnies will start to appear in my work.

Is That Light at the End of the Tunnel?

2009-07-25T15:11:00.004-05:00

I have been working on a "big quilt" for 3 years. Sometimes months go by and I don't touch it. Somehow, my studio makeover has inspired me to get it out, and leave it out, so that I can work on it daily.

My friend and teacher Martha Green says to "work your stack". This is an excellent piece of advice. If you work through the blocks for your piece in a stack, you can achieve a kind of continuity that's difficult to get any other way. At least it is difficult for my ADD brain. For example, as you work your stack, choose a particular thread, and go thru every block, stitching next certain pieces of fabric with that thread. Might even be the same stitch. As you continue to go through the stack over and over the quilt begins to take on its own character.

I have diligently "worked my stack" for three years. The blocks are mostly finished. A few days ago I decided that I was on my last pass through. As I work on each block, I complete it. I have left beads and silk ribbon embroidery for last, so this is what I am working on. Today, I am working specifically on beading, and is it fun! I love Nancy Eha's book, Bead Creative Like Crazy, and I meander through that every day to inspire me.

I am listening to music from the 40's today and remembering my Mom and Dad dancing to Glenn Miller in the living room when I was a little girl. I am beading up a storm and counting my blessings. Life is good today.

UFOs: A Special Kind of Crazy Quilters' Hell

2009-07-20T12:27:00.004-05:00

The evidence is everywhere: the big quilt started three years ago, the crazy quilted clock, the bright colored wall hanging, a piece for my sister's birthday (last April), numerous ribbon flowers, origami flowers, yo-yo's, fabric books, postcards, atc's, class projects -- all unfinished!

Crazy quilts take time to make. From beginning to end, it takes me weeks, months, and sometimes years to complete a project. I don't know how to sit down and work on one project until it's finished. I get bored. I decide that I need a break from it in order to see it fresh the next time I work on it. So I put it away for a while. And then, I engage in dangerous, high risk behavior -- I start something else. Dangerous and high risk because Future Me is going to have to confront what the Past Me did to her. Poor Future Me is going to look at these projects hanging around from the Past Me and wonder what I was thinking. She's lost interest in these old projects and finishing them seems like a chore. But abandon them? Not a chance!

So here I sit, with literally dozens of unfinished works around me, and boiling over with ideas for new things to make. Present Me plans to finish up most of these UFO's before saddling Future Me with more. I am diligently working on finishing the blocks for the Big Quilt, about 90% complete. I am finishing this year's class projects from the CQS retreat earlier this month. Then I'll prioritize what's left.

Of course, finishing these projects has to be squeezed in between making Christmas gifts (it'll be here before you know it!) and the odd hostess gift or friend request.

You can find me in my studio.

Generation Gap

2009-07-18T08:46:00.007-05:00

My son, who will soon be 21, is living a much different life than I would have chosen for him. And like most mothers everywhere I love him with all my heart and want the best for him. Which includes standing by him even when I completely disagree with him. I made this little piece to reflect my dilemma about one area of his life. You will have to see the image full size to understand. The words circled in gray stitching are his, the words circled in red stitching are mine.

This is quite a departure from my usual crazy quilting. And I am kind of scared to post it, for obvious reasons. I hope it touches some other mother or mothers who might need reminding, as I do from time to time, that we don't have to approve of our childrens' actions, we just have to keep loving them and encouraging them. It's hard, at least for me, to hold kindness and compassion in my heart when I am in pain. And this situation has been filled with pain for me.

Enough serious stuff! It's Saturday and my husband is working on the wiring in my studio so that I can finally start having Art Day with my friends next week! Anyone up for a trip to my house?