WISS + WIP

This is my shadow standing in the backyard, the grass dry and bits of leaves blowing around. I came outside to take some pictures of the shadows of the hemlock tree on the fence. It's been really windy and they wouldn't stay put, so this is a bit blurry, but I loved the dark contrast on the faded wood fence.

I am so ready for springtime, but it seems a farway off so I have taken springtime into my own hands, literally. I have been wanting to do some beading so I did. After watching Mary Stori's beading DVD and perusing Larkin Van Horn's book, I finally felt confident enough to try it myself. I brought a little springtime in with this:


I have quite a few flower photos that I took last spring and summer and the sunflower is from one of those. I printed it on fabric and threadpainted the petals. I intend to take Lyric's advice and mount this to a small, square gallery wrapped canvas. I think I will blend some greens on the canvas as a backdrop. And I enjoyed making the sunflower so much that now I am working on a Gerbera daisy. Here it is in progress:


I will threadpaint the petals when the beading is finished.

I have also been rusting some more fabric. I have fallen in love with the Hubble Telescope website and the incredible images it posts. There are some that really draw my eye and they remind me of rusted fabric, but they look a bit "fluffy". In order to capture that texture I decided to try rusting some batting. Here is the the whole piece:


And here is a detail:


I played with adding some paint to it to get the amazing colors that seem to explode from these galaxies and nebulas. It is hanging to dry right now, but I will post it next week if it works out.

I have also been fooling around with some rubbing plates that I purchased from a child's school suppy website a year or so ago. Sorry I can't recall the name of the company. I used my Caran d'Ache water soluble oil pastels - without water - on black and a hand-dyed purple fabric. I love the colors and will keep these in sight as inspiration for something in the future. Not sure what, but I really like them.





So we'll see the future of the rubbing plates brings. Later.

WISS

As you can see, we finally got the new floor down last Wednesday! Unfortunately, the molding and threshold haven't been done. Our contractor swears we are first and foremost on his list for tomorrow. Let's hope so. Steve won't let me put the kitchen table or the butcher block table back in until it's finished.


I've actually accomplished quite a bit this weekend. I rushed home early Friday and made Steve's Valentine card. Yesterday I made two cards for birthdays next weekend - mil and niece. They are already in the mail.

A couple of weeks ago I made a donation piece for the Salisbury NC animal shelter's auction which will be held March 7th. It was very cute and when I showed some people at work, one fell in love with it. She has an old Pug and asked me to make another just like this for her. Warhol Pugs - who'd a thunk?

I played with the photo (from a free-use website) in Photoshop - desaturated it and then played with the hues to get the 4 colors. I arranged them in Adobe InDesign, printed it out on fabric, and fused on a batting. I played with a variety of thread on a practice piece until I found the colors I liked and then threadpainted them using 2 different thread colors on each - a light and a dark. I couldn't decide how to finish it, so after putting on a backing and doing a pillowcase turn, I painted a canvas black and stitched the piece to it. I think that was just the ticket.

I also made some more leaf cards. I scanned some leaves back in the fall and printed them out on fabric to make cards and a donation piece for Alzhimer's. I printed some out today and stitched around them with copper metallic thread. Now I'm going to play with some beads on them to give the impression [hopefully] of water droplets. We'll see!

BIG NEWS & WISS

First the BIG news - we are going to be grandparents again!!! Ian and Laurie just told us last week that they are expecting. Laurie went to the doctor Thursday and is due Sept. 15th. A long way away, but I'm sure it will be here before we know it. I'll have to check out some baby quilt patterns.


Well, this is not exactly Sunday, so the photo will have to be where I Stood Sunday. As you can see, still no new kitchen floor. This was taken with Sarah standing in front of me. Maybe this week.

And no new work this weekend as I had my wonderful girls here to play with. I had to catalog a bunch more PAQA-South Transitions entries and do some office work on Sunday. This weekend maybe I'll finish up my butterfly piece. maybe not.

We had a light dusting of snow last week. Not much, as you can see. The birds were loving having the feeders full. Raleigh got 6-8" so Keri & Sarah enjoyed more than we got.


In this drab gray-brown winter, this is the one bright spot left. The birds don't spend much time on it because it's right beside the carport and in front of where I park.

WISS & finished piece

As you can see, I'm still standing on the grungy old kitchen floor. No new floor yet. I was really hoping we'd have it in by now. Ah well. When you are at the mercy of a contractor...

I've been getting a lot of work done on my butterflies piece. I don't know whether it will be done in time to enter ARTQUILTStransitions for PAQA-South, but I'm feeling good about it. I've never worked on a piece this long. I actually began it last March or April. Now it's headed in a very different direction. So we'll see whether it works out or not. Great learning experience anyway.

Peter's girlfriend, Jill, has a birthday tomorrow. The same day as Edgar Allen Poe. They came for lunch yesterday and I gave her the piece I made last spring at the PAQA-South's spring retreat at Mary Beth Bellah's house in Charlottesville, VA. Jill fell in love with it a couple of months ago when she saw it. It's not very large and I'd been trying to figure out how to show it off to its best advantage. After seeing Lyric Kinard mount small pieces onto stretched gallery canvases, I decided to do that. I painted the canvas a combination of the colors in the piece and it came out really nice.


The photo doesn't do it justice. It looks much better in person and she was absolutely thrilled.
Here is some detail:

I hope she has somewhere to hang it...
Maybe NEXT week there'll be a new floor to show off!

WISS - WIP

Where I Stand Sunday - over my old, beat up kitchen floor. We put this linoleum floor in 14+ years ago when we got married. It has not weathered well, at all. It is impossible to clean and is beginning to peel up where it was seamed. We have made arrangements for a new one to be put in, so keeping our fingers crossed that it will happen this coming week. Maybe a new floor under my feet next Sunday!

I've been working in my studio all day on the butterflies and got a lot done. I really happy with how the crysalis came out. The pupa is okay, but I'll work on that some more. The green is a little too bright.

I got the other two milkweed plants drawn on the background. I think I will paint one on and try to find some silk organza in the right color for the other one. Give it all some depth. If I can find the organza.

I mentioned in the last blog about making postcards for the American Cancer Society for Virginia Spiegel. Hopefully these two cards will be part of her Collage Mania, but I have to mount them on heavy card stock before I can send them to her. We have permission to post them on our blogs. Collage Mania will begin in March, I believe, so be sure to check here to purchase or view some fantastic art (not just mine).
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/CollageManiaCall08.html

This one is called Raven's Jewels. It's kind of hard to photograph well because it's so dark. I guess I think of crows and ravens stealing shiney objects, so here is a lucky Raven catching jewels as they fall from the moon. I don't know why they're falling from the moon, but they are.


This was made from a free stock photo. I altered it in Photoshop to make it into a stamp, then free motion embroidered the raven's feathers. I added the red eye bead and made it a combination of two of Poe's poems. It is titled "The Telltale Heart - Nevermore." I like it.

My Word for 2009

I decided to revoke my New Year's resolutions and, instead, follow the path of Christine Kane and choose a word as my guide for 2009. Christine Kane is a life coach and a singer in Asheville, NC. She's very enlightening and hands-on, and a fun songwriter. http://christinekane.com/blog/

Christine provides a list of good words to choose from as your word for 2009, but I did some soul-searching and found my own. My word for 2009 is Journey. Life is supposed to be about the journey and what you do and learn along the way. So instead of scheduling and planning (most of the time) what I'm going to be doing next week, I'm going to pay more attention to what I'm doing now and with whom. Be Here Now. Be the Journey.

I also intend to incorporate the word and the essence into my artwork. I am ready to let the journey take me places I would otherwise be apprehensive to go. 2009 is the year I am letting the journey lead me to other techniques and styles and designs. I want to be in the moment with my art - not focus on the finished product. I want the journey to help me find my art voice. Or rather, a new art voice. 2009 will be more about the art and less about the shows or challenges. If something artful comes out of the journey and is right for a show, I will consider it. I will not rush to try to make something to fit a show.

Except for the Raven challenge, which I signed up for before I chose my word. And it's for a great cause - another for Virginia Spiegel and the American Cancer Society. The theme is Raven. So here is a stamp - I'm posting because I'm not using it for the challenge fiber card. I just thought it was cool.

WISS and WIP

In my last post I wrote that I wanted to begin the Where I Stand Sunday group. Well, this is where I'm standing. I've had this nasty head stuff since Wednesday (New Year's Eve!) and haven't been out of the house since Wed. morning. Pretty much staying as close to the tissues as possible. Bummer.

I don't want to set goals and don't consider this so much a resolution, but another thing I decided I want to do is show more work on my blog. A lot of people on the QA digest stated that they enjoy seeing WIP (work in progress), as well as finished work, rather than reading about how sick we are or seeing our (glorious) kids and grandkids. So - I will try to do more of that.

In that vein, here are some photos of my latest WIP. First is the original sketch (I don't draw well, but I can usually get the idea down.)

It's not very straight, but you get the idea. This is a milkweed plant. The sketch was small so I scanned it into PhotoShop and printed it out much larger. It is now 17" x 22". And you can see that I added additional plants to the larger version. I didn't want just a single, lonely milkweed plant by itself.

You can also see the sketching (doodles) of some Monarch caterpillars and the various Monarch stages. The butterflies were threadpainted - some on 100% cotton duck and some on Vilene. They are not all shown in this photo. The milkweed pods are in progress and I don't have a photo of them. They're a secret. ! (In case they don't work out - at which time I'll post a photo so you don't try the same thing).

So - what do you think?