It doesn't take much to make me happy.

My new washer arrived and I have started dyeing again, mostly yards and half yard pieces. I did a 2 color multi hued 6 piece set that I love and a 3 color parfait that is awesome. I did some solid pieces as well. I have 2 dogs, woof, that I can live without. One, I can probably overdye as it came out pretty blah. It is a very pale pink with very light green highlights. Not my style. The other is very pale apricot to peach that is pretty but too light for me. I may think about selling some of these. I have taken pretty good notes and can probably duplicate the colors if not the colorations and designs on almost all of these. Thanks to Deb Lacativa, I have a gorgeous red piece. She very generously shared her recipe. I still have lots of dye left and lots of fabric, but I ran out of steam. Ironing them is a bitch. I want a mangle!!! Enjoy the eye candy. You can see larger images if you click here.

Done

I made a covered corded binding that got sewn to the back to finish this off. I forgot what a pain in the butt that is, but it is all done. This was a great learning experience. I am not sure what I am going to do with this, but at least now, I like it.

The plumber was here this morning and set me up with a new washing machine hook up in the garage. Machine arrives on Tuesday and then I will get back to dyeing without breaking my back. Chore for the weekend is putting back the sheetrock and taping it all up. Fun.

Sunflowers in Blue Greens

I am done! I am going to put a corded edge on this piece and call it quits. I added more stitching to it and a smattering of French knots. This seemed to be a lot of work for such a small piece, but I learned a lot in the journey and had some fun on the way. That is really all I ask for in the end. I want to thank everyone who left comments and those who emailed me. I appreciate you all taking the time to look and for the feedback.

Lizard Love

We live out in the desert and we have all sorts of critters, including several types of lizards. I was doing some work in my courtyard today and noticed a whole bunch of activity in the bedding area and saw more movement than usual. The lizards are pretty use to us and tend not to run off but I don't usually see them chasing each other around. For hours these 2 were following each other and chasing one another. I think it is mating season. They were good enough to pose for me.

The downside to living out where we do is the threat of fire in the summer. We had 2 wet winters and the brush and weeds have been going gangbusters. We have been working hard to clear the area around the house out. When we get dry lightening, I start bouncing off the walls. This is going to be a very bad season for fires.

I have some planting chores ahead of me. We bought a seedless grape vine and a climbing rose to go in the back along with my other 12 rose bushes. I had previously ordered a Brugmansia seedling and one of Iochroma.. they arrived yesterday and have to be potted in LARGE pots. I lost my marbles and bought some Basil plants. I love making Pesto but the plants seem to grow faster than I can make it. Does anyone know if you can freeze Basil leaves to make into Pesto later? I freeze the Pesto in portion sizes and can use it all winter.

Progress

I spent the morning gardening before it got too late. My roses are in wonderful bloom. I then tackled my study in blue green. I pulled out the Stewart Gill paints I have been staring at since Houston but never opened, and just played with the colors. I knew the effect I wanted but have never used the different types of paint that came in my set. I wound up using Colourise, Pearlise, Alchemy, and Metamica. What fun! Here is the result. I still need to fix the top right corner. I am going to add more stitching and make it more grass like and then add other bits of it in other places to balance it out. It will not get painted. This piece is starting to grow on me. It is 8.5" x 12". Not sure what I will do with it when I get it done. I will probably put a cord around the edge and bind to the back. I do not think a border will add to this but I will audition something when I get there.
Tomorrow is another day.

Thanks everyone who left comments and also wrote me privately. I appreciate you all.

Trying to make a silk purse from a sow's ear

I belong to a great group where it has been decided that we will have a challenge every month on some sort of Art skill. This month was balance.... I failed BUT, I decided to use it to practice my sorely lacking skills in quilting and I wanted to try my hand at fabric painting. I got as far as the quilting part. I also have an aversion to blue so I decided to work in blue-green.... as close to blue's as I have. I have hated this piece from the beginning and it will probably end up in the round file.
My drawing skills are on par with my quilting skills so all of this was done free hand. Next step is to paint.

Feel free to throw darts at it.

Garden eScape

I haven't updated the blog in a while so I am doing catch up today. Life has a tendency to throw curves just when you think you can relax. After finishing up Pamela Allen's class I took a few days off to relax. I had just gotten back into the swing of things when I found out my Aunt, who had a rare cancer was really starting to fail. She was only 70, 13 years older than I am. I made plans to fly to Pittsburgh in 2 days but she passed the day before I arrived. The memorial service was lovely. I have wonderful memories of visiting her. She was incredibly creative and well ahead of her time as she never thought in the box. We started cleaning out her apartment and I took home a lovely vest made of exotic fabrics. It is too big for me but I will take it apart and create something in her memory.
When I got back I really buckled down to finish the commissioned piece I had promised by the end of the month.
We took a weekend trip to Irvine, California for Passover Seder and while we were there I got the opportunity to see my Grounds for Change piece, And the Circles Go Round and Round, hanging in the the Gallery.... thanks to Annie Copeland ( she is a hoot) who had a key and took the time to show us around. I also spent some time at Rogers Gardens which is a wonderful nursery. Back to work when we got home.
This past weekend we had friends come in from out of town and had previously made plans to go White water rafting in the upper Salt River. We had such a blast! I have never done that before but I am now a convert. We only took a half day trip because we hadn't a clue what we were in for. We are planning to do at least on full day trip next year and if we can handle that, then hopefully we will do a multi day trip.
My piece Garden eScape is now finished and being shipped off today to the new owners. I am planning on acquiring a top loading washing machine from the proceeds so I do not have to break my back hand rinsing my hand dyes!
My next project is to make a veil for my daughter for her wedding. This about catches me up.

Moving right along

The fantastic class with Pamela Allen is done. I am sorry it is over but it sure was a lot of work. The last lesson was more independent and I spent a week trying to get a particular result. I am not happy with it and will not post it. I think I tried for something that is still beyond my technical reach... one day. In the meantime, I finished 2 pieces ... they are quilted and bound and I must admit that my quilting is getting better and I did not have an attack of the hives! I did have to remind myself to breath and to relax my shoulders. Just keeping my shoulders down made such a difference in my movements. I might get adequate at this. I need to finish my commissioned piece then I will work on the other 2 pieces I started in the class.. Then back to dyeing. In the meantime I have lots of gardening to do. My roses have started to bloom and in a week will put on a spectacular show.
I still have a veil to make for my daughter's wedding in August along with the covers of a wedding album and guestbook. I haven't a clue how to do either just yet.

Abstract

The second half of this weeks assignment is to take something that has meaning for you and make it into a quick composition. Color plays such an important role in my life so I decided to do something really abstract using my hand dyes. I added some colored organza overlays.

Self Portrait?

Part 1 of this weeks lesson with Pamela is to create a self portrait. Not sure how accurate this is but I sure am having fun with it. I can imagine all sorts of ways to embellish it. It is going to take me weeks to do all the hand work and quilting for all these projects but I am loving every minute of them. I cheated and did the stitching on the machine. Now I have to quilt it.

The flowers that bloom in the spring tra la

Its finally spring here in Scottsdale, Arizona and the wild flowers are putting on a show. My ficus and apricot trees are starting to leaf out and my dwarf orange is starting to bud. The roses will be another week as I did a hatchet job on them several weeks ago. Some photos to make you smile.


I am going to sit outside and do some hand work on the pieces I have created in Pamela Allen's class.

2nd lesson with Pamela Allen

I sort of got caught up if you don't count that I have not stitched anything! Lesson #2 had us use 2 colors.....either analogous or complimentary to create something. I chose to do a landscape this time. I still have to stitch this one down but at least I will be able to start lesson #3 tomorrow and go back and do stitching during the week. This class has been so much fun. Pamela is a great teacher. This is the first online class I have taken and I like the format. While I also enjoy live classes I find I tend to get distracted because I am curious about how others are doing things. Just call me nosey! It is the Gemini in me. I am also very visual and in this format I can go back and see things as necessary. I need to go back and iron my fabrics!!

Still Life revisited

Back from Detroit. Weather was not as bad as I feared. Cold and dry. I think there was one day of sun. We stayed in the Renaissance center and thankfully, I did not have to venture out too often. I am way behind in Pamela's class but I did manage to get the 1st black and white still life semi completed.... the stitching will have to wait. I think this has some character.I haven't done hand embroidery in years, so it will be interesting to see what I can do to jazz this up a bit.
I am looking forward to starting lesson #2 which is an exercise using 2 colors. Of course I have now spent an hour trying to figure out which 2 colors I am going to use! Stay tuned.

Seeing the world in black and white

I signed up for Pamela Allen's online class, "Think Like an Artist" and our first assignment is to do a still life using only black and white fabrics. I am actually enjoying working in B&W! That is a real surprise to me since I love bright, in your face, color. I think there is inherent drama in black and white studies and while I do not think I am giving up color any time soon, I think I will be trying my hand at some more pieces when this is all over. I am going to miss most of the 1st week of this assignment as I am going to be freezing my butt off in Detroit for the next week. I have posted what I have come up with so far but it is before any critiques. It is not likely I will get to work on it before I leave in the morning. It seems a bit flat to me but maybe with some embellishments it will perk up.

My other obsession in life is duplicate bridge and I will be playing in a bridge tournament all week. If I venture out of the hotel in the freezing cold I will see if there is anything interesting to photograph. No offense to the local residents, but Detroit is not a mecca for me in the middle of winter.

Progress

I am making progress on my commissioned quilt. Next step is sewing everything down and then will come the dreaded quilting! In the meantime, my Coffee filter challenge piece is going to be part of an exhibition in a gallery in the Long Beach, CA area. Wooo hooo, that is a first for me. Wonder if anyone will like it enough to buy it so I do not have to pay the shipping home, heheh.

I have signed up to take Pamela Allen's online class and I am having fun with my Black and white piece. I have not uploaded it yet to the class so I will not give it away here yet.

I'm flying

Woohoo! I got my first commission and I am flying high. It is based on my Midnight At the Oasis quilt; I wanted to do something similar anyway so now someone is actually going to pay me to do it.
In the meantime, I have been working on my Rhapsody quilt and have almost gotten the whole center stitched. Here is the photo:
The fabrics are all hand dyed. I have about half of the rest of it stitched as well. Blanket stitches are boring so I will be working on other things in between.

I don't even drink the stuff!

After getting bored doing nothing but blanket stitches I decided I needed some real play time, but, I hate wasting fabric. I was intrigued by Anne Copeland's http://fiberartsconnsocal.org/blog/
challenge of using coffee filters and figured this would be a good way to play and not feel bad if I had to toss the whole lot. I actually had no intention of participating in this challenge. I had to dig for the filters because I don't drink coffee and I buy loose tea.
So I painted up a storm, got some practice with my rubbing plates and Paintstiks, played with my new stamps, and tried out some foiling. I had such a blast and liked the results that I decided to see what I could do with these samples. I used some hand dyes I had done a few months ago for the background, backing and borders. I was pleased with the results and made the decision to take part in the challenge. The only downside that I found was that the piece will not take abuse well. You cannot fold it and if you bend it too much, the paper will tear. Maybe someone has a suggestion to make it sturdier? It's titled And the Circles Go Round and Round.

Just playing

I have been playing with some of the toys I bought at the various shows I have been to in the past several months. I just had not gotten to try many of them so in the last couple of days I have been painting paper and fabric, stenciling, trying out the rubbing plates, stamping, foiling using Misty Fuse and foiling using glue. All in all I have been having a blast. I am working on a fun project and now need to quilt it. YUCK. When I finish it, I will post a picture.

Picture here is a reject from a different project but I decided to play with it anyway. Orange circle in the middle is a commercial fabric but everything else is one of my "creations". I am not sure where I am going with this, if anywhere but it is kind of fun. I think I will call it Arizona Sunset.

The muse has returned

After several months of not doing a thing, I have finally started to focus again and have gone back to working on my Rhapsody quilt. ( No photos yet). I got all my appliqués cut out and ironed on, and have about half of them secured with a blanket stitch. This part is tedious so I took a short break and did a small fun fabric collage called Eye Spy. I was doing some gardening in my courtyard and my Tonkinese, Sammy, was peering at me from under a plant and gave me a good chuckle and the idea for the piece. I am still lousy at free motion, Oh well. This piece has been accepted in Collage Mania II for the benefit of the American Cancer Society through Fiberart For a Cause .
I am hoping to get back to my dyeing soon .... at least I washed about 10 yards of fabric in preparation!

La Veta Retreat

I am back from some of my travels and the Ricky Tims retreat in his gallery in La Veta, Colorado. I have had the good fortune of this being my 2nd time there. It was wonderful. I went this year with the intention of making a Rhapsody quilt which I had sketched out prior to my arrival. I was also determined to use all hand dyed fabrics (mostly mine). With help from Ricky, I got all my designs to fit the designated areas and was able to cut out all the background pieces and start the appliqué pieces. I have most of them cut out. Picture at right shows about 1/4 of the design. It will be repeated in all 4 quadrants. I don't even want to think about quilting it yet. I have drawn out the designs for the border but have not cut them out. I want to see what it all looks like before I add them.... I may have to add more or take something out when I see how it all balances. Justin has named this piece Bullwinkle and Miranda.

Before going to Colorado, I had the chance to do some traveling in Croatia, Slovenia, and Italy. My SO's company is headquarted in a small town in Italy named Butrio. It is about an hour and a half north east of Venice. They call themselves the City of Wine. There are vineyards all over the place and the grapes were just being picked for the early varieties or just ripening for the later ones. It is very picturesque. Croatia was spectacular. We only had a few days there and I would go back for an extended vacation in a flash. It was all postcard gorgeous, clean, and the people were friendly. In Slovenia we stopped in Lipica which is the home of the Lipizzaner Stallions. This was the original Hapsburg farm for breeding these awesome horses but most of the world is now more familiar with the farms in Austria and other places that were part of the Hapsburg empire. The horses are magnificent and it made me yearn to own a horse again. Been there, done that, and I cannot handle another expensive hobby! For those of you who do not know, the horses are born black and turn white as they mature. Some remain black always but their offspring can be white.
I will not be home much until the beginning of December when I hope not to see a plane or a suitcase again for a long time. I am going to Houston and hope to get to meet new friends there.