Work in Progress

This was my project all day yesterday, except for the hour I went outside and walked on the lake. Once I got on the thoroughfare ( where the snowmobiles travel, kind of like the East Australian Current in Finding Nemo) the walking was perfect and the sun...I can't tell you how much this northerner loved the warmth of that sun. Anyway, this is my interpretation of a traditional log cabin. When you put the above picture with this one:




you will see the two major desing elements I'm using. Washers, (thank you Deborah, though I couldn't find big flat square ones) wire, hand painted fabric to look like aged copper....the colors are a little different in these pics but the true color is more greenish than blue. As soon as I get it done done, I'll show the whole thing.

Messy Room as a Metaphor for Life this Week

It's been one heck of a week, you might say an emotional roller coaster week, but the sun is shining and the chickadees are chick-a-deeing and all will be alright. I've missed blogging, and blog reading... since Valentinge's day when life seemed to speed up to screech. But it's the weekend. One of the many things on my plate has been a deadline for 2 project proposals for a new book on beading. Never done one before, but Frayed Edges was asked to contribute since the editor saw the article and some of our quilts in Quilting Arts Magazine. So there was stress of the self made kind that needed attending to. This is what I should be straightening up today.

After the hurricaine blew through. But all I really want to do is something mindless (knitting squares to figure guage) and play with my new buttons. Pretty?

Love

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Tasty Treats

This is what happens when you try- VERY HARD- not to eat sugar. You run into every beautiful pastry ever crafted and you take pictures of it instead.

Another Sunrise:

...no less beautiful than the previous one. We had a chance to walk Newbury St. last night; actually, we walked from the Commons to BU, about 2 plus miles. It was a feast for the eyes. There's art everywhere, and that's just the store windows.



Most of the displays have some sort of 'red' theme, because of the upcoming special day. And the clothes...I feel like Dorothy when she said "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto".

The ballet, well, Contemporary Ballet, which was the purpose of our trip, was PHENOMENAL. Complexions Contemporary Ballet. And of course Ian was best. This small company of dancers was incredible, each individual bringing a different professional background to bear on their performance. Ian has a strong traditional ballet background as did some of the others, but one of the guys had no professional training and you could see the street dancing/rap flavor to his moves. It was fast, energetic, and sometimes disjointed, a little too modern, (translate abstract,and if you read this blog you know how much I love abstract), but the last piece, set to the music of Marvin Gaye was jazzy, and a heart pumping joy to watch. Makes me smile just to think about it. 13 gorgeous bodies moving in perfect synchronicity.

More exploring today ending at the Science Museum. I'm really disappointed to think we are too late to see the special exhibit of the cadavers...I would have liked that.

Good Morning

This is not actually the sunrise this morning...we have no sun here. Only a black and white landscape with snow expected. Bruce and I are off to Boston for the weekend. Culture. Or as some of us here in Maine say, cultcha. Ballet, museums, art. Stay warm everyone, hopefully I'll have some good stuff to share on my return.

Mornin'

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHARLOTTE!!!

Two years old today...sitting in her present from last year!



...and this year



This is one of those bookshelf dollhouses, top shelf and inside roofline showing. I'm sure it will be used as storage for now, but will evolve into the intended dollhouse as she gets older.

Energy Again!

I'm loving this book. This has FINALLY gotten my creative juices flowing. I was going to say it has finally gotten my lazy butt off the couch and into my studio, but then I remembered it's not that I've been physically lazy as much as uninspired to start on new projects. Big difference. This book by Ineke Berlyn is chock full of COLOR and DESIGN help, and so much INSPIRATION. I guess this is the direction I need to head in. I've been fascinated for a long time by the idea of taking a photograph and interpreting it in fabric, but it's NOT EASY for me. I struggle and struggle because I'm so LITERAL. Abstract does not enter my creative vocabulary very often, and when it does it's usually not intended. I get hung up on DETAIL. But I LOVE the way these illustrations look. The color. The simplicity of the design. So I decided to play a little yesterday and this is what my work space looked like when I started...notice the book opened to my 'inspiration'...



I had some wool roving so I started by interpreting one of her designs. I chose my colors, laid them out on my pad and started needlepunching. As I got closer to the end, (the place where DETAIL comes in), those demons started rushing in...that voice in the back of your head that says, "that looks stupid", "what's it supposed to be anyway?" and the other voice saying VERY LOUDLY "it doesn't have to BE anything, this is only FOR FUN" "Have fun!!!" So I did. I just let go and started loving the colors and the feeling of it...so soft...and the design is fine. I decided I didn't like the moon, so that ended up on the floor...



And in the end:



This is how it finished. With a detail shot:



Needlepunching is so cool. It's very sculptural, three dimensional and because of that you can accomplish depth, not by shadowing as you would on a flat surface, but by directing the needle into the fibers a certain way. And when you blend them all together...I turned my masterpiece over at one point



and saw the back...beautiful!

These were done by my friend and fellow Frayed Edger Kate last fall. You can see the sculptural possibilities with these guys. Aren't they funny?! Endless possibilities.

Frayed Edges Monday

In case anyone missed it on her blog, here's another picture of happy Sarah holding the contract for her NEW BOOK. This is very exciting for all of us Frayed Edges, well for me anyway, since I've never seen a book go from conception to reality. It will be a kick to see the outcome. I've already seen the "proposal" and I'm just sayin' it's a work of beauty in itself.

At our Frayed Edges meeting last monday, Sarah was generous enough to share her expertise and her class material she teaches on machine quilting. We brought our machines and followed along with her instructions. I've done a lot of machine quilting, but I learned so many new things. Like wearing these:



As you can see, Sarah never quilts without them, and the dyes from the fabric on the fingers of the gloves prove it. I do 'alright' without them, but if you've ever seen her quilting, this small thing probably contributes to the fact that she wins awards. Along with the fact that she has a huge table with her machine countersunk so she can really "drive" her material all over the place...demonstration here:



You can't really see the action, but what you can see is the beautiful complementary color choice in clothing!

Happy Birthday to anyone who's birthday happens to be today...especially someone who has a propensity for purple and green! Such nice colors...

A Million Little Stitches

I'm back to working on this piece I started this past summer...now I'm adding hand work and every time I look at this I feel like I'm not doing it right. It looks disheveled and messy to me. Is there a right way and a wrong way? Should I be using a hoop? Should I aim for the same length? When I do the little circles I'm using two strands of floss...if I use more will that make it smoother? Am I really just obsessing?

Of Snow Removal

The plow guy came this morning. January 16th and the first plow of the season. The PLOW GUY. Kinda conjures up images of a scruffy, plaid clad, slightly overweight in need of a shave guy. Who, when he rolls the window down to talk to you smells of coffee and cigarettes. Or worse, cigars. Not that I have anything against cigars. And how often do we exchange words, anyway? When he rolls in at 5:15 and I wake up to the scraping of the blade, the only words are to Bruce, "It's the plow guy".

Our guy is Steve, and he is NOTHING like I've just described, so why does that image come up? He's very handsome, very slim, not too old, not too young. He has beautiful curly brown hair. And I'm pretty sure his truck cab smells more like coffee than anything else. He's a hardworker and a gifted carpenter when he isn't plowing.
He does stairs and banisters, two of the most precise and difficult woodworking challenges I can think of. More precise than putting together a quilt. And he approaches plowing our road with the same quality of care he does to a mahogany handcarved handrail. We're lucky to have him, and I don't mind the early morning call to wakefulness. It just means I don't have to shovel!

Another This and That

I got up early this morning because I couldn't sleep (5:15am). That's not unusual for one whose friends make fun of her because she goes to bed at 7:30. But I read! Well, for about ten minutes and then I fall asleep....anyway, my mind was full of things I wanted to blog about, books I've read, cleaning out my sewing room and digging up treasures (not), but I opened my email and found this:



These are little Lenten Roses from my sister Tricia's garden in western Massachusetts. 70 degrees yesterday. Denver has more snow than it knows what to do with and we have poor little flowers getting confused. I'm not complaining. I hate the cold and the mess most of the time, but I love Maine so you take the good with the bad. I probably will complain in the spring though, when my perennials don't make it.

So. Cleaning out my sewing room. I found projects never finished. Even in a very short time my style has changed so things I started last year, 6 months ago, will never see the light of day. What do you do with them? Back into the closet for awhile. Next time I clean they'll go out the door. Baby steps. Like the yards of upholstery fabric I've been saving for who knows what. This time they didn't make the cut. Gone. Feels good to purge. And it's no coincidence it happens at the beginning of a new year. Weight, physical surroundings, clean out, start new.

Books I've read:



Okay. I bought this book because I liked the cover. The colors and the image made me look twice, and made me wonder what was inside. I've never read any Jodi Picoult before so I don't know if this is her usual style or what. I can't say it was a happy read. Actually on so many levels, I found it disturbing. I think it's supposed to be about the father, Daniel, and his transformation from bad boy to the father who will do anything to protect his daughter. But I saw the moody 14 yr old, who lies to her parents, plays crazy sex games with her friends, gets herself and a boy involved in real life drama. Then there's the whiney mother. I don't know. I don't envy the things parents have to handle these days, but I still think, no matter what, with the right parent/child relationship, things don't have to get so far gone. And this book? By the end, unbelievably far.

Wrapping It Up.

Can anyone stand one more Christmas picture? It's amazing how quickly the holiday disappears after taking so long to get here. I had mentioned in a past post about putting my energies into wrapping, and I must say I was MOST HAPPY with my results. I wrapped all the luggage tags this way (and other small items)...using the most christmassy, beautiful pages from my millions of catalogs as paper, tied with a simple butchers string. I thought they looked great and were a perfect way to recycle. After all, someone put a lot of thought into the layout and design of those pages, so why spend money when you have best designers working for you?



I'm pretty good at recycling and composting, but I think this new year, I'll try to be even better. If everyone would just do ONE THING of their choice every day, what a difference it would make. Top of my list is trying really hard to remember to carry my cloth bags into the market, and NOT remember they're in the car as I'm checking out.

One Christmas Project

I didn't make a lot of things for people this Christmas. I've given so many good and bad homemade things over the years that I've decided not to subject my friends and family to anymore for a while. So I put my efforts into the wrapping and when I felt like I just HAD to do something with fabric I made these for my co-workers. Luggage tags.



The idea is not mine, but I took it and made it better by adding some dangly things and using more than one piece of fabric. And using fancy stitches.



I used the plastic luggage tag that's put out by 3M UNITEK and stitched it to a rectangle sandwich and layed strips of fabric along the top edges to secure it. Some I made fabric ties for and some I just used the loop provided in the package.



They're about the size of a postcard and very bright, so when all those dark blue bags come rolling down the ramp, their's will stand out.

A Litter of Greetings all over my floor...

A day's project. Making little trees that make little cards for the holidays.

Peace

Kate's homemade gift

Holiday Scene

Hanging from the ceiling at work...a sun to celebrate the return of the sun on December 21st, a snowflake (in front of the sun) to celebrate winter, colorful balls and poinsettias (not hanging) to celebrate the holiday season...pretty. And when you're laying in the dental chair, these are right in your line of vision.

Frayed Edges met yesterday for more of a holiday lunch and gift exchange as opposed to seriously sharing art and critiquing. It was wonderful to do nothing but visit at this busy time of year. And everyone had made homemade gifts to share....pictures soon.

I love to finish a project and see the results all snuggled in a pretty box ready for delivery. I might love it as much as red felt flower(check out her show display), though I have great intentions that sometimes never see the light of day. I made these pins for a show and sale my friends Kate and Hannah were doing and it was such a pleasure to send them off, but not before I took this picture.



The pins were in an article in Quilting Arts magazine several years ago, something like "A Hundred Pins in a Weekend", (Issue 9,:30), which speaking of, have you seen the great 2001-2006 article index in the back of the latest QA magazine? What a great idea! They've probably done it before but I don't remember ever seeing it.



Here's a closeup of the pin. Once it's done, I've attached it to a little card the same size as a business card. Actually, I use my business card program to make it and print it on Avery Clean Edge Business Card stock. It makes a pretty piece and people seem to really like them. All made from leftovers, which is the best part!

Nutcracker close up and personal

Every Christmas season my sister and her husband's ballet company perform the Nutcracker all over the state, starting the weekend before Thanksgiving way, way up north in Maine. Robinson Ballet has been doing this for at least 25+ years. Long enough for their son, Ian,( see my archives for the brag on Ian) to grow up and go from one of the little children in the opening scenes, to Fritz, the naughty brother who breaks the Nutcracker, to dancing the Cavalier to his mother's Sugar Plum Fairy, and this year coming home from NYC (Paris actually) to dance with a fellow professional dancer from NYC. Victoria. Beautiful and graceful, long neck, long legs. Youth. By the time we got backstage, they had already changed out of their costumes, but this is what Victoria wore:



They hang them upside down to keep them fluffy.

Ian is like a kid magnet. He's one of those kids that gets right down on the floor with the kids and let's them climb all over him. So, of course they LOVE him and no mattter where they are, start the climb...even in a crowded backstage aisle.



We attended the afternoon matinee and since they had time before the next performance that evening, we hung out at the student union at UMO. The little ones were more than accomodating with well deserved massages for the dancers:



Ella and Maureen



Charlie and the Sugar Plum Fairy. He was a little shy of her at first but then got right into his duties! I could go on about how the kids were so excited to see Ian actually dance and JUMP and SPIN (how come he's doing that?) or how anxious they were for the end to come, but I won't. It's a great holiday tradition, one I hope everyone enjoys with a little kid sometime.

My sister, maureen and her husband Keith and Ian...maureen is turning 50 next week, and when you see her onstage she still looks like a teenager. I told her I was very happy there was finally a sister with a 5 as the first age number. It's been a lonely 6 years.



Family Portrait