I've been invited to be interviewed for a blog that should be available to link to soon. The works on the photo wall below will be shown. The dolls were all made over the past few years. I call them the Vine Girls.

The three upper left pieces are themed on garden paths or flowers in a bowl. The longer piece is stitched on paper and called "A String of Spring".

I have finished "3 Sneezes Make a Wish" but still need to sort out how to mount them as a group.

I really don't know how to photograph larger pieces with small details. Is there a good You-tube video out there anyone can recommend?

The little blue girl is "Weather or Nut". The one below doens't have a name yet.

 The snake's tail was fun to do.

The "String of Spring" is over three feet long, stitched on paper.

I finally finished a skirt begun two years ago.

I had used this pattern in the past and made a skirt definitely too big, I sized it down according to the pattern's measurements, but it looked too small. Two friends gave me some advice and between the three of us, I chose a size, took a deep breath and cut. The sewing takes very little time. The sweater was knit about 5 years ago, making the outfit entirely made by me (except stockings, undies and bra) Undies are a future plan. I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

At the end of December I went a little mad with on-line shopping. Two fabric shops, a book store, a calendar and a course with Karen Ruane (link on sidebar) were bought. Then fun of fun, they all arrived a day after my birthday, making another day all about Me!

The long cotton lace piece will be added to a piece I haven't blogged about. The blue is a heavy-ish textured knit for a jumper or sweater. The creamy one and the rose-y one will be winter neutrals next year. The two books from Persephone Press in the UK are a real treat. The catalogue comes out twice a year and after a thrilling adventure with a marker and the past issues, I decide what to buy next, then buy them when I am feeling blue. This season reads are, The Far Cry by Emma Smith, and Mariana by Monica Dickens. I no longer remember the reason for choosing these books, so part of the adventure is in the re-discovery of what captured my attention.

As part of that sewing weekend, I also finished off an old, old project. This little table topper has several old fabrics from the 1940's. I wish I hadn't chosen that dark pink in the centre, it is too dense. If I find a better fabric, I will applique over it, but until then, back in the drawer it goes. Unless someone out there likes it as it is. Let me know, I'll mail it to you.

I made a set of curtains for Steve's office that I will blog about more once the other parts of the room are done.

Steve is sanding paint off of an old drafting table and refinishing it. Could be a while.

Linden Trees 2

I have started work on 'Linden Trees 2' which, naturally enough, follows up on 'Linden Trees 1'.

I had called this piece 'detooR' as a joke on the word Rooted, the name of a show that I participated in a few years ago. I thought it was hilarious, to spell Rooted backwards, because the piece was about looking up into the canopy of the Linden trees and seeing the spring blooms, not down at the ground where roots are. But nobody got it. Back to dull 'Linden Trees....'

Dull might the title be, but the colours are a bit of a hit to the iris (iris plural might be irisii and that's just plain eye googly)

The colours are nearly the same as above, but the sparkly orange and chocolate brown are gone, replaced with a lovely light grey/blue (sky-ish) and two tones of a peachy/coral. The spring green leafs pick up these tones against the early blooms and have these colours again when they die in the fall.

 This is a colour study, the small sections of textiles are over and under each other, the threads are pretty close to the leaf colours. 

The size is 15" x 8" and the eventual shapes will be long, thin rectangles sewn onto a long, thin background. I am worried that the stitching is too hectic. This sheer fabric doesn't photograph well, if I get in too close, the shimmery threads blur. Where you can't see any stitching lines thereare  pale yellow and pale grey/blue lines. The amount of the darker peach would be a lot less. Any suggestions?

You might not hear from me next Monday, I am off to Toronto to visit family and go to a Quaker Representative Meeting. I have no idea what I am supposed to do there but I have about 60 pages of reports to read before hand. I hope I don't have to remember what the reports say. My experience is that only the people who wrote the reports remember them well, the people who participated in the events leading up to a report remember things well enough and those of us reading them say that's enough'. I hope the food is good, since I live by my stomach.

Today is my second last shift at the Out of the Cold Homeless Shelter. It has been a terrific winter for me, as a volunteer. I had a great team to work with, and the support staff were/are wonderful. Consistent, considerate and very compassionate. The guests were pretty darn good natured considering some of the storms and even blizzards they had to head out into at closing time after breakfast. Several of our regular guests found housing and our current regulars have coped fairly well. Some serious illnesses for a few of them. There is no where to be sick in a city other than hospitals and they are not available for recovery.

We had enough food all winter, more cleaning supplies than we knew what to do with, and lots of hot coffee. We ran out of men's shoes, jeans and especially boxer underpants over and over again. Tighty White-ys are not popular amongst men any longer. Who knew about this strongly felt fashion change? Men would go without rather than put on the old style underpants. Treats like hot chocolate, home baked cookies or bread, Monday morning pancakes with syrop and Friday night hotdogs were popular. This year we had cribbage boards and decent movies for anyone who couldn't sleep and we had two air circulators that everyone (!) really appreciated.

The cat is sitting on my wrists as I type, letting me know it is lunch time and she needs to eat. Again.

Resuming Normal Function

Let's see if these photos work? It has been one heck of a learning curve week, with a new software program for two things I do regularly. Shucks, I have a brain. Just not a nimble one any more. I have finally (after Steve did an ether kick to the program) figured out how to upload images and import them over here to blogger. I don't think they will be all pretty and lined up neatly.

While the computer was doing it's nasty sabbatoge to my life, I did accomplish a few neat things. I had purchased this pattern from Deer and Doe (here) when we were in Ottawa. I wanted a pattern with a few options that would work with a variety of fabrics. Since it is still so hard to find locally made or Canadian made clothing, I have decided to try and sew parts of my wardrobe every season. Beyond knitting my own socks and sewing pajamas, this is a big challenge for me. I gave up sewing for myself many years ago, after a few stunning disasters. Sewing for young kids is easy, they don't tend to complain until nearly ten years of age.

I am at the largest size for this pattern and it  is just forgiving enough. No laughing when wearing this shirt.

The sleeveless version doesn't have any armhole facings, I decided to use some old fashioned seam lace to cover the raw edges.  The fabric for both these shirts was also bought in Ottawa, I'll have to track down the receipts to re-discover the store location.

The version with three quarter sleeves seems huge. I added a touch of fabric at the side, so I could laugh out loud. It fits nicely and I think it will be cool to wear. I will sew up the version with collar and sleeves in a light wool kind of fabric for winter. Keep an eye out, but not till September.

You may recall I have signed up for Carla Sonheim's "Year of the Fairy" painting course. See the button over on the sidebar to link to it, if you wish. This month we are putting our energies into interpreting the Princess and the Pea. Pretty short plot. Princess shows up, Prince falls in love, jealous mother plants a pea under 20 beds to see if Princess is a true Princess, Princess sleeps, they can fall in love. (Would you? I mean, what kind of a future marriage would that be, insane mother in law sticking things in your bed, son who can't make up his own mind without mom's insane plots and who has to eat those peas after sleeping on them. Get another man, honey)

After figuring out in advance how we want the layout of the page to look like, we had to draw it in a scribbly fashion with crayons.

Then we smeared various colours of acrylic paint all over the page. I didn't have crayons, I used a magic marker. Crayons would act as a wax resist, the acrylic wouldn't lay over it well and your images would shine through. I could see my original images, but they showed up better after the next step.

We went back over the page with Gesso, to blank out what we didn't want to see too much off, added in some lines, added in some specific colours to draw the images back out, added line work details and then, called it done. I think there is still some work to do here, but I'm surprised at how much I like this.

I finished this piece front and back and it is ready to give away to a special person. I am very happy with it. It won't stay wrinkle free in the transporting, but I can do a quick damp press when no one is looking.

I'm off to figure out how to get the touch pad on this lap top to be less sensitive. The cat walked over the computer this morning and then entire thing froze. I had to find the manual to figure out how to take out the battery (after phoning my daughter who told me what to do) but part of the problem was/is that my glasses have been lost and I can't read anything too small. So, I am really off to the eye doctors to get  a new prescription, then to get new glasses, then I will figure out the touch pad issue. It is pouring rain here and that usually means it is nearly spring here. Happy puddles to you.

Medals and Hexagons

It was a crazy week and the weekend was zanier. Steve was awarded a Fellowship into the Royal Architects Institute of Canada. He was very pleased. We are very proud.

(I think I need a real purse)

Then the crazy bugger agreed to take his music buddies and play the last set at an Architecture Student's fundraiser.

Compared to all that excitement, my week was pretty quiet.
A quilt on a frame, with a cat.

 More work done on my sister's 50th gift. Give it time, it's not even half done.

A really fun idea for the piece above.

I'm trying to see if a sky of black hexagons will work. All the amazing blacks I've been collecting ended up looking pretty grey when next to a pure black. I have to think about this for a while, or as is said around here, "I'll have to tow that one alongside for a while."

On the edge of LaLa

Advice: just when your head is clearing up from a concussion, do not bounce on the bed.

I was bored, it seemed like a good idea when I hadn't been physically active for 3 weeks beyond small walks and small putterings around the house. Bored? Bed? Bounce! Bad!!

What does one do with oneself when one is restricted to the couch with little to no reading, computer, TV or other fun things. Well, after a while, I decided that I could do the dishes and I could spin. To spin, I'm still seated, my head is not bending up or down, left or right, I can let my gaze wander around instead of focusing dead ahead and it doesn't require a lot of intellectual rigor.

I decided to finish some old projects...

On the top is the latest skein of Romney, from the sheep "Floozy", heading towards becoming a woven blanket. In the middle is a two ply of merino. The colours are all muddy browns, pinks, greens and even the yellow is brownish. I received the bag of fleece as a door prize. Unimpressed with the colours, I decided to try adding some pink to liven it up. The bottom skein shows the results. Hmmm.

Floozy is looking like all the other Floozies I've spun. It must be close to 1000 metres by now, all done by the spinning wheel.

The colours don't look so bad here, but they are rather dull, don't you think?  It is spun on the drop spindle several months ago and now plied on the wheel.

Here is a single ply of earth colours plus a single ply of the solid rose pink. It just doesn't work for me. Now there is too much pink and it is kind of loud. I was hoping for a pinky earth affect. Probably I should have carded the two together before spinning, but hey, the bag of earth was free, the bag of pink was cheap and it isn't a project I'm committed to. I'll have to think of what to do with the remainder of the fleece and the entire bobbin of spun earth colours. Maybe a donation to the upcoming Maritime Fibre Retreat, but sssh, in case I change my mind.

Now here is something I can get a bit excited about. Before the head smash, I had put together the fabric pieces for this block and over the past three weeks, I've been puttering around it with needle and thread.

 

Detail shot of the 8" block. Time to gather some textiles for a second block.

And here is the Grand Christmas Present of all times, seen in public for the first time. Steve (yes, he did) asked for a toilet paper cover. I have no idea why. I think he wanted it originally for the camp, but no way Hosay. Do you know how  many pill bugs can hid in this? Ick.

A crochet rose on top...

with a band of stocking stitch around the perimeter. Ain't it grand? Since he asked for this beauty, he is now in charge of making sure it stays filled, meaning, one less job for me. Win-win.

Studio Ready, Get set, tea.

My time spent with Karen Ruane at Contemporary Embroideries is at an end for now.

I have completed three of her online courses and enjoyed and learned a ton from each of them. Next year she is offering an 'Alchemy' course that is very intriguing in case it interests any of you.

http://karenannruane.typepad.com

My mind is spinning from all I've learned and feel it would be good to do some percolating and processing. I've been using masking tape to keep all the ideas from oozing out of my head. I was spinning around the studio in circles this morning and decided I needed to organize.

First, I have to clear out the room of all extraneous things, like recorders and vacuum cleaners and bills.

Then I had to set up multiple surfaces so each 'idea' has it's own home, I piled up any pieces of scrap fabrics or notes, any threads or buttons, even baskets to hold items in. Next, I sorted through the piles of whatever has landed in an idea's backyard and begin to add and subtract.

 This is an old project, based on the colours of a gas spill on water. When I was a girl, going to the gas station was an experience of a wild smell of the gas from the pumps and seeing amazing colours of the gas spilt on the tarmac. Years later I came across a photo of a gas spill and started replicating it in  a grid of these small postcard sized 'quilts'. I stalled because the stash of textiles to chose from was so large. I discovered a trick from Karen's class of using a back ground muslin to pin selected textiles into an approximation of how things might go. I've cut up the next four postcards worth of muslin and will dive into the scrap bin tomorrow to begin creating new groupings.

 In the top left corner is part of a finished piece, Detoor,  that imagines the view is up through the early spring leaves of a linden tree. It exhibited in the traveling show 'Rooted'. It is now time to get the second piece going, also based on looking up through leaves. I'm concentrating on transparent colours, using mostly see-through textiles. The white scrim in the centre and the middle left is a technique I learned, also from Karen, and it allows a nice variety of ways to see through to the next layer of stitching

The Vine Girls on the right need a new gal to join the gang.  There is a pattern for the new doll on the tracing paper, although it didn't show up well here. It is traced on the flesh tone fabric behind the dolls and the threads have been chosen. These threads are a bit darker than those adorning the first three dolls, but then this fourth doll has had to wait rather long to get a shape, so she's already a bit grumpy and aged.

This is where the Vine Girls live at the  moment. I found the tea pot on someone's boulevard grass on garbage day a few months back. I think it is the perfect bling for girls growing out of the earth.

It was at this point in the morning's work that I lost my glasses. I have no idea where they went, I checked the top of my head several times, the collar of my shirt as well. I checked the top of all the surfaces and gave up. I trolled through the house twice and the bathroom three times. Nope. There was too much stuff to look through and under. Hopefully, I wouldn't step or sit on them. I forged ahead, but had not a very clear idea of specific colours I was now looking at. 

 Way back during the first of Karen's classes, Extending Ledgers, I had a brainstorm based on a technique we were learning of doing mad free motion sewing on the sewing machine and then cutting away top surfaces to reveal whatever lay underneath. The bottom-most piece was what I was using to experiment with. There was also water colour paints being used on paper and I decided to try painting scrim, because I found the pure white with colours a bit too unsettling. The scrim here is a pale blue/mauve and it needs to be free motion sewn. I'm kind of excited about this, but who knows what it will look like. This is a cliff to jump off of in the new year.

 This is a sample of some of the cut-away work that started the above idea. There is another sample, but it is in horrible peach tones and I can't bear to post it and admit it is mine.

Everything is all tidied up and ready to begin. I even had a pants hanger available for true obsessive organization.

I promised my mom a quilt the last time I visited, about 6 months ago. Since then I have found a pattern she likes. Very luckily, my good friend, Linda, gave me this gift of hand dyed fabric, exactly the range of blues I had in mind for Mom. I promised to have the pattern all cut out over Christmas, so this is where my attention needs to go first.

 I also decided to offer my sister a textile gift for her 50th birthday this September. She gave me several guiding suggestions. From them all I came up with jewel toned fire works. Above is the beginning. I have only a vague idea where it will go to, I have to think about how best to depict fireworks without being literal about it. I'll have to do some sketches, sigh.

 Cleo Belle is beyond exhausted at this point. I thought she had a good idea and began to wrap things up. Afterall, it seems like a good pile of projects. Then I remembered I had posted on my midnight waters project before and hadn't done an update for a while. I have moved from this....

to this.....

It felt like a huge step at the time but it looked kind of tiny when I photographed it today. I have to remember that the piece at the top of this post is the result of nearly 18 weeks of work with Karen and this had been put on hold.

I took an extra half hour to tidy up, have lunch, get the hiccups and begin this post. I bent down to light the fire, hiccupped, and out fell my glasses. They were under the scarf I was wearing, tucked into my bra strap. I should really get one of those sports bands that keeps the glasses firmly on the head at all times.