Tuesday project

Today is the last Tuesday I'll have off for 6 weeks while I cover a co-workers maternity leave. So, I wanted to do something I've put off for a long time...paint some fabric. I've been inspired by the aforementioned book "Art Quilts A Celebration" and all the beautiful hand dyed and hand painted fabrics that went into their pieces. OF course what I had in mind and what resulted are not exactly the same, but I'm happy. I think the real test will be to see what I can do with them. Maybe add some more layers of color or stamping..I have to learn to be less impatient. These were done with paint in spray bottles. It was interesting how the front side and the backside came out so differently.

backside of fabric

And this is the other side:


It's like all the blue/purple soaked through and saturated the other side. I have a LOT to learn.

Abstract thinking?

I was reading an article in the local newspaper about the installation of an art piece and the artist statement went like this: "How does one leap off the cliff of geologic reality into an ephemeral world where articulated paper only indexes geologic forces?" Let me just say at the beginning of this post that I am not a "deep" thinker. That's not to say I don't think about things, but when it comes to art I've realized over the years I'm a "visual" person. So when I read artist statements like this, I just don't get it. Part of it is I'm too impatient to actually analyze it, and part of it is the automatic frustration that washes over me because I DON"T get it. I've been thinking about this because I've been looking at the beautiful quilts in the new book ART QUILTS A CELEBRATION, and the artist statements in themselves are always thoughtful and provoking but sometimes (and not so much with these beautiful quilts) when I try to link them with what I'm looking at I go "HUH?" I guess that's the mystery and curiousity of art. I will just have to keep looking and try to be less literal.

And may I just say that the artist statement is harder for me to do than the piece I may have just finished working on for the last 4 months!

Bears, Birthdays and Postcards

My sister and her husband live in a beautiful home overlooking the Holyoke mountain range(??) in Western Massachusettes. Their house is on a ridge surrounded by trees and at this time of year, snow, which is a good thing because it means the bears in their "neighborhood" are hibernating.



This big guy spent a great deal of time in her backyard one day this fall. Anyway, my brother-in-laws birthday is coming up soon so I made this postcard/birthday greeting for him. I think he'll like it because he's the kind of guy that prefers decorating his home with artwork done by local artists and craftsmen. So, happy birthday Tim!




One minute I like the shadows and the next I think they look stupid. But overall I guess it's okay.

This and that

I'm playing around with this post, seeing if I can do what I want to do with pictures. The picture below, (I think) is what I'm looking at today out of my studio window. Imagine, snow in January. Yesterday was bare ground. I'm so fortunate to be able to look out on this while I sew. It's beautiful no matter what time of year.


View from studio window.












Rocking chair for Charlotte

I had mentioned in my post yesterday I was going to paint a chair for my nearly one year old granddaughter. Once I started painting it all came together and I'm pretty happy with it. I had chosen a piece of fabric that I liked and that I knew my son and daughter-in -law would also like and started there. Purple is ALWAYS a safe bet, not only with me but with Laurel! I had found a sweet little chair at the unfinished furniture store in Portland, hardwood.


Fabric for cushion

close-up of painted area

I've tried to load the last picture of the backside that has her name on it, but I keep getting an error...the size is the same as the others so I don't know what the problem is. Oh well, some things just won't get published until I get better at this. Take it from me, it's very cute!

Boston in the Spring??

Beautiful papers!

My good friend Kim was giving a presentation to the Harvard orthodontic students yesterday so a few of us went along to give her some moral support, not that she needed it. We took the 8:30 bus out of Portland and the 4:15 home...a quick trip but so worth a few hours in beautiful Boston. January 20th and not a drop of snow anywhere and it must have been in the 50's. There were people everywhere in just their shirt sleeves. Anyway, I found time to go to my favorite store on Boylston St., The Paper Source and found these three beauties. I think they're going to be valentines. How I chose these three is beyond me, what with the huge selection. I could have spent more time there but we had to leave so we could start our two hour lunch at the Four Seasons and still make the 4:15. How decadent and expensive (and I'm not talking the money part...it's all about calories these days). Lobster Parfait---caramel banana brownie sundae with fresh strawberries. Never again. Too much.

Early to bed, early to rise:

We got home from work last night to a very dark and very cold house. The wind had knocked out power so we went into "ice storm mode" and found all the candles we could in the dark, lit our big old cookstove, pulled our chairs close and had heated up homemade chicken soup I had made the day before. I say 'ice storm mode' because back in '98 we had no power (like many of our fellow Mainers) for 21 days. We are at the end of the line so we waited till the end. We managed better than a lot because we did have our stove and could heat and cook with it. Those days were early to bed days too. What do you do when it's dark? It made me realize the importance of the sun to our ancestors. I had wanted to come home and finish a gift I'm making for my good friend Deborah, and that's where the early to rise bit comes in.

I had a great day on Monday, starting and finishing this piece. (UP there!...Guess I have a little work to do on learning how to load photos) At our last Frayed Edges meeting, Kate had us playing with Angelina in preparation for her demonstration at our next guild meeting. The center of this piece I call 'Eternity' was the little piece I made. You might not be able to see, but there are little stars embedded in the angelina and it just reminded me of a galaxy, so there it is.

ok,first post...why did I wait so long? For a whole year I've been wanting to have my own blog and now I do. I'm going to have fun with this. Next post will have pictures!