Wow! I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd posted to my blog. I wanted to wait until I had a "real" piece of free style machine embroidery finished, and now I have one.

But first - for those of you who haven't seen it on my Facebook page -

I GOT A JOB I GOT A JOB I GOT A JOB!!!

I found out Friday at 5:00 after having the interview at 3 pm Friday. Then I got even better news - that I will be keeping my current salary! What a wonderful day!

And then today Keri called to tell my she had won $500 in the Power Ball lottery. What a terrific weekend! It could only be better if Steve were here, instead of fishininmichigan. But it's his annual trip and he deserves it. He's thrilled for both of us - now he can retire next May as he'd planned.

My aunt Allie, who visited at Easter, bought me a beautiful Asiatic Lily for my birthday. My birthday was the day before Easter and hers was the day after Easter. We planted it, but it didn't bloom til I came back from the workshop with Carol Shinn.

Here is the original photo of the whole stem blooming:



Here is the full photo (12" x 12") of my free style machine embroidered Lily. As you can see, it is reversed from the original. One of those things easily forgotten when printing the photo.



Here is the detail photo showing the shadows:



I documented my hours on this for future reference for myself. I put 36 1/2 hours in the stitching. I can't tell you how much thread I used because there are so many colors blended. I can tell you that jus in the dark green background I used 1 whole spool plus probably 1/4 of a second spool. There are 250 yards of thread on each spool. There are layers and layers of thread and it's pretty heavy, but also pretty good and flat.

I am pretty happy with the end results, but I'd love to hear comments on what you think. I need to continue practicing my fm stitching skills, but I also need to decide where I want to go with this, style-wise. Would you buy a picture like this of just a flower, or would you want something a little more interesting and unique? Like maybe a collage of parts of the flower? I appreciate whatever you offer for suggestions.

I also finished a small quilt, but I can't show that here in case certain people look here. Next month.

Thanks!

Springtime? and Workshop

I am back from Carol Shinn's workshop at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshops. I learned so much I can't believe it! But first, springtime was just beginning to peek through in the Catskill Mountains of upstate NY, but here is what greeted me when I got home.


My Lilies of the Valley opened up while I was gone.


And my Solomon's Seal in all its splendor


I was thrilled to be able to spend several days with my buddy, Karen Asherman, at the workshop. We hadn't seen each other since Lowell Quilt Festival in 2006, so it was great fun and we both learned a lot. Here's Karen at the cutting board, with a view of Carol's work table under the overhead mirror.


Here is the porch where Karen, Carol, Kathy & I shared our pre-dinner glass of wine each night. The porch was just the coolest! It was too ironic to learn the names of everyone in the class - Jeannie, Jenny, Jody, Judy, Karen, Carol, Kathy, & Leslie (and a guest named Lynne!) And of course the owners Kim and Mark! J-M. Oh - and one person who cancelled - Martha! Too funny.


This is the gob of (mostly Judy Sebastian's) thread I collected at the workshop. It will show up again in another form.

Here are Carol & Judy checking out some of the work. You can almost make out Carol's piece behind her. It's breathtakingly beautiful, but I don't have permission to post it. I know she is entering it in a really BIG show, so don't want to preempt anything.


So - here at the pieces I made in Carol's workshop. We began with just practicing the direction of the stitches (top left). She then had us stitch "across the color wheel", blending stitches using many shades of each color and keeping the stitches in the same direction. This was very difficult, but the most important for me (top right).


The next step was to draw and paint shapes on white fabric, which we then fused to a piece of canvas backing. When the paint was dry, we stitched over the picture, practicing keeping all of the stitches in the same direction. That's a lot more difficult than you would think, especially with pears. You can see the distortion that so much thread causes (bottom left) - my bottom pear looks like my pregnant goldfish! Carol suggested I do a contour effect around the pears, which turned out to be much harder than I'd expected, having to keep the stitches going in the same direction!
The last piece (bottom right) is of the center of a leaf that Carol had printed out on a iron on transfer sheet. We transferred it to white fabric and then fused it to canvas. Instead of straight stitches in the same direction, I meandered my stitching around in small circles. It gave it a more organic feel and looks more like underwater fan or coral than a leaf. Carol said the purple part is too fat and I should go back and take some out (by adding more blue/green over it), but I have moved on.

Below is the first piece I've made since the workshop. It is a Black-Eyed Susan.

I was happy with keeping the stitches in the same direction, but I really needed more shades of yellow and orange. More thread!
Here is more of a closeup:

I am working on a much more ambitious piece now, but don't want to show it until it's finished (in case it really sux!) I will photograph it in various stages to post later.

Woohooo!! Hudson River Valley Art Workshop!

I am leaving in the morning to drive to upstate New York. Tomorrow night I will stay with my sil, Susan and hopefully get to see my nephew, Keith, and his wife, Mary. Mary is pregnant and due in July. It will be terrific to see them. And as good as that is, Thursday I get to drive to Greenville, NY for a workshop with Carol Shinn at the Hudson River Valley Art Workshop. My friend, Karen Asherman, is driving down from Saratoga Springs to take the workshop, too. This will be so much fun. Not looking forward to the drive up and back, but definitely the rest of it.

Carol Shinn is an extremely talented artist and machine embroiderer. Her work is so incredible - layers of thread that blends so well, it looks like a painting or photograph. I've done quite a bit of threadpainting, using a variety of techniques, but I can't get the blending she gets and mine wants to warp. I must learn her secret to keep it from warping!

I'll return next Monday, so I'll report how it went.

Advice Needed - Thread Lace

Nearly all of my work has been realistic or representational and I have wanted to try my hand at some abstract or simplie collage work. I am finding that I am being drawn to really well-executed collage with simple lines and not a lot of extraneous "stuff". I have been experimenting with different techniques to use in collage, but now find that they are pretty "important" pieces (to me) in themselves and I am really unsure of where to take them. I need some advice/suggestions/HELP! on where to go with these pieces that seem to be "whole works", for want of a better description.

The first piece I'm posting is Thread Lace. I took handfuls of thread that I had been saving in its own wastebasket along with some ribbons, trims, etc. and laid it all out between 2 layers of Vilene (heavier water soluble stabilizer). I machine stitched it all together with several different threads - a green/blue variegated, orange, and clear monofilament. When I thought it was stitched enough to not fall apart when I immersed it in water, I put it in the sink and dissolved the stabilizer. Here is what remains:



I love this on the black background and I love how it turned out. But what do I do now? I love it, but it needs something more. Yet, not so much that it detracts from the main body of lace. Perhaps a particular edge treatment would help? Hand stitching? I wouldn't know where to begin. Beading? The trim in the lace already looks like beads, but I guess more could be added. I'd love to work this into something to enter a show, but it's just kind of "there" right now...
Here is a little more detailed image:


Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Watch Your Language by Christine Kane

I don't know how many of you are familiar with Christine Kane, but she usually has pretty good advice in her newsletter. Like this, which I absolutely believe:

Watch Your Language
by Christine Kane

A few years ago, I was in a car with the promoter of one of my performances. He had picked me up at the airport and was driving me to my hotel. On the way, we talked guitars. We got onto the subject of Olson Guitars, arguably the best guitar in the whole world. At one point, the promoter said, "Yea, well, in my entire life I'll never own an Olson guitar."

There was a time when I'd let a remark like this slide on by, even adding my own "me either" to the mix.

Now, I can't. Yoda steps into my head and says, (in his Yoda voice) "So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done."

So, I turned to the promoter and said, "You are NOT allowed to say that!"

This is because I know the power of language. When you know that words become things, it's hard to let language slide.

I can't help it. I have a rule:

Friends don't let friends speak crappily.

Language is powerful. Words can create reality. Even if my promoter friend doesn't know how on earth he'd ever get his guitar, it doesn't mean he should cut off the possibility with his own words.

If you're wondering how to begin watching your words, here are 7 practical language principles for becoming a better creator of your life.

1 - Eliminate "never" and "always."

Never and always are words of hysteria. "I always mess everything up!" "I'll never figure this out!" "I'll never get an Olson Guitar."

First off, it's not true. If you always messed everything up, you wouldn't have made it out of the womb.

And second off, extreme words are designed to hook you. It's just your emotions taking a joyride. You're more powerful than that.

2 - Use AND instead of BUT.

"But" dismisses the statement before it. "And" includes it. For instance, "That's a good article, but it needs some editing" isn't nearly as encouraging as "That's a good article, AND it needs some editing."

"I love you, but..." is another great example of the dismissive power of "but."

3 - Avoid "Should."

Should is a heinous word for many reasons. It is victim-speak. It disempowers its object. It negates desires, thereby making it harder to make choices. It adds a nebulous energy to the decision making process. Use empowered language instead: "I could..." "I would..." "I am choosing to," "I would like to," "I don't want to," or "You might consider..."

4 - Stop calling yourself depressed.

Also stop allowing anyone to tell you that you are depressed. When you call yourself "depressed" or "obsessive compulsive" or "ADHD" or whatever - you're claiming this thing. You're calling it forth with the most powerful two words in our language: "I am." That creates very little option for the transformation of this condition.

5 - Delete the word "hate" from your vocabulary.

"Hate" has lots of energy. When you use it, you send lots of energy out into the very thing you "hate." Even if it's negative energy, it's still a powerful force, adding its charge to that thing. You're also depleting this energy from your own spirit as you say it.

6 - Be "great." Or "wonderful."

A disease of the creative temperament is a belief that we must be authentic at all costs. So we can't answer a simple "How are you?" without delving into an in-depth scan of our emotional temperature.

Try this instead: When people ask you how you're doing, just say, "I'm great!"

I used to think if said this, then I better have a good reason for saying it, like I just won the lottery or something. I thought it would make me look suspicious, and people would start to wonder if something was wrong with me. But then I did it. And you know what? Most people don't care why you're great. You're saying it for you.

7 - Pay attention to the music of your speech.

You know how some people? They talk in question marks? And you have no idea why? But it makes you think you shouldn't really rely on them? And it makes you not want to hire them?

The music of your language says a lot about you. If you let your sentences droop like Eeyore, ("Thanks for noticing me.") or if you do the uncertain question mark language, take note of what attitudes are causing this. These patterns are created for a reason. Even if it feels like faking it at first, generate confidence as you speak.



Performer, songwriter, and creativity consultant Christine Kane publishes her 'LiveCreative' weekly ezine with more than 4,000 subscribers. If you want to be the artist of your life and create authentic and lasting success, you can sign up for a FRE*E subscription to LiveCreative at www.christinekane.com.

Sacred Threads! and New Work

I'm so thrilled that my quilt, The Stories of Women Are Told in Their Hands was accepted into Sacred Threads 2009. This is of the hands of my mother, myself, my daughter, and my granddaughter. Steve took the photo of all of our hands on the coffee table on a piece of fabric. Our hands weren't entwined. I desaturated them in PhotoShope, posterized them, then colored them. I printed them out individually on fabric, stitched them down to the background and threadpainted them. I created "continents" on the background with free motion threadpainting and stitched that to the night sky background. Then I stuffed the "earth" from behind to make it 3D.


I have been wanting to paint Wonder Under after watching Pokey Bolton do it so effortlessly on her Quilt Art Workshop dvd, so I tried it using Lumiere paints. It wasn't quite so effortless for me. The WU wouldn't come off the paper without the fusing. After ironing one piece again, the paper backing wouldn't come off the fusible & fabric except in small sections. Very disappointing and frustrating. Some of the people on SAQA digest suggested trying other fusibles (most of them hadn't had problems with WU so it must have been a bad batch.) I did manage to pull enough small sections off the paper backing to fuse it to a piece of hand-dyed fabric and it was pretty cool. I decided to put some beads on it, but I haven't beaded much and this is as far as I've gotten with that. Where to go from here?


I wanted to try painting Misty Fuse, which I love anyway and today I painted some on a piece of parchment paper. It was like a dream! And the bonus was that the paint that stayed on the parchment paper was wiped onto a paper towel and now I have that for my paper stash - for someday. Here's the MF painted and fused.


I've been doing a lot of doodling with pen and ink - mostly at work, go figure. I've been looking back at them and trying to figure out how to work them into fabric. Here's one of the doodles I decided to play with:

I saw on a website somewhere - Zentangle - where they create boxes connected together and doodle inside them, sometimes connecting the doodles from box to box. It's really fun and easier to play with on a small scale. So - I took one of the doodles from that box and enlarged it, then traced it onto fabric twice. On one I painted it with Golden Acrylic paint and still have to stitch it:


And the other I stitched and am considering how to paint or finish it. Not sure yet. But it was fun playing with them.

Any suggestions on how to finish this?

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.