Out with the old

C and I have enjoyed our new window treatments in our living and dining rooms so much that we decided to get the same ones for my sewing room. It has been almost impossible to work in there during the late morning and afternoon this time of year because the sun is so bright reflecting off of the lake. Here are some before and after shots:









Preserve & Protect is layed out on my sewing table, here with the old draperies still in tact.













Here's how it now looks. Ahhhh, much cleaner lines, don't you think? That is as far down as the window treatments need to go, and during the morning hours, they are all the way up to the top!















Here's the old view, looking out on our lakeside patio:

















....and here's how it looks now, with the new window treatments snugged up under the cornice board:


















The "old view" looking out toward the pool patio (and our new fence courtesy of the Good News/Habitat Boys):















.....and the "new view" with the window treatments once again snugged up under the cornice board:












I did a lot of window washing, inside and out, before the men came to install the window treatments. Little did I realize that my equilibrium was still off, until I once again became very dizzy. The first time it happened, I was able to overcome it by just sitting still for about an hour. The next time was a different story, however: I was down and out with another severe case of vertigo that lasted for about 12 hours. Needless to say, I am still not over "the crud".

Yesterday I took it easy, finally getting to quilt on Preserve and Protect.


My self-imposed deadline for this piece is today...not sure that I will get it finished, but tomorrow I must begin packing up our kitchen for the great renovation to begin!
I am doing a bit of edge finishing similar to Terry Grant's method around various sections of the wall hanging. I found some lovely fibers at Fiber On A Whim last week, and these are very adaptable to P&P and Terry's method!

I see that Blogger has once again gone a bit crazy with the picture and text placement, but I don't have time to fiddle with it, so please just bear with me on this. I am delighted however that my pics are finally enlarging.......thanks Karen!!!)

PEACE

What's in the Mailbag?

There were two lovely little packages waiting for me in the mail when we arrived home yesterday afternoon! I always love surprises, and even though I sort of knew about this first one, I was just tickled to death to open it. It is from Virginia Spiegel and she sent it to me because I donated a collage piece to her Collage Mania II benefit for the American Cancer Society. I love it, and I especially love the message. I want it to read: "Prove to Yourself", because I am constantly battling with myself in the artisitic arena. I know that that is common, but that still does not make me feel any better.
Thank you so much, Virginia!! Oddly enough I spend about two hours last night half dreaming and half awake, creating a very awesome mixed media collage to send to Virginia. I wish to heavens I had gotten up and taken some notes, because most of it is lost to me now. Someday I will learn!




This is the second piece that was in the mail to me, and it was truly a surprise, and a wonderful one at that! It is from Cathie, aka "Cleveland Girlie". We "met" a few months ago and I owe her a PIF piece, which I will be getting around to shortly, I promise! Cathie is very busy with her family and her work life, so I am truly honored to receive this wonderful fiberart bookmark! And Cathie, how ever did you know that I adore bookmarks and have had to resort to using one of those subscription cards (that are forever falling out of magazines) to mark my place in my latest good read? Thank you so very much...this was one delicious surprise!!!


I have been working away on Preserve and Protect this afternoon. I won't show it to you until it is completed, but I will tell you that I am pleased with how things are going. Fiber On A Whim had some awesome little fibers (of course) that I picked up in hopes that they will add a little to P&P.

Our weather today has been gorgeous: sunny and mild. I even did a bit of gardening this afternoon: just picking up branches that have fallen in our wind, ice and snow. C, Barker and I had an early morning romp on the golf course before church and Sunday School, and then Barker and I went back for another round this evening. I'm so glad that it is staying light a bit later now, because we can actually get onto the golf course as the golfers are finishing up their holes.





What's for dinner you ask?
Here it is:
I'm in the cold weather soup mode right now, so yesterday we picked up a package of Trader Joe's 17 Bean Soup Mix: YUMM!!!! We had a leftover holiday ham bone that was begging to be used, so in it went!












I love TJ's packaging: always something to give you a chuckle...and this one is good: hope you can read it!









PEACE

I was playing around with the picture location on tonight's blog and have really screwed up. I'm not a very patient person, so I hope you have been patient in reading it and sorting things out! From now on I will stick to the tried and true photo placement!

Wild N Crazy Daze

I have no pictures to share, but suffice it to say, that we have lived life to the fullest over the past couple of days! Yesterday afternoon our Silk Painters of Atlanta group met at Chastain Art Center. I just love being with that group of talented ladies. You can see pictures here. On my way back to the condo, I stopped by Fiber On A Whim, had a nice chat with Kristin, and bought a few things.........I could have bought out the store had I won the lottery! They have such wonderful things!!!!! Last night, we got together with friends and had a marvelous dinner at Ecco, just a short walk from our condo, and then we went on down to the fabulous Fox to see The Drowsy Chaperone: a great, great show! After the show, we walked on back to the condo, stopping at Chocolate Pink to enjoy coffee and dessert.

This morning we walked Barker and then enjoyed a lovely breakfast at the Highland Bakery with K & D. We did our usual round of shopping in Midtown: Trader Joes, MetroFresh, and the Cathedral of St Philip Thrift Store, where I scored a few lovely old wool sweaters (more on those later in the week!). Got a call that my Mom had fallen yesterday and was having x-rays on her knee this morning, so we went on home to see what was happening. Fortunately, all is well and she is just bruised. We ordered all of our appliances for the new kitchen later this afternoon.........such a relief to have those decisions made! It's good to be home, although I'm missing the city life tonight.

PEACE

Queen of Sinusitis

Last year when I was taking a wonderful weeklong class under the tutelage of Rayna Gillman at John C. Campbell Folk School, I suffered a horrible bout with sinusitis, ending up in the Urgent Care Center for treatment, and missing a day with Rayna. When I came down with this most recent bit of crud, Rayna emailed me and said to be careful, since I was after all the Queen of Sinusitis. Well, it came on suddenly again on Wednesday night and REALLY layed me low. I am better now, and will be eternally grateful to my sweet husband for his loving care and to our neighbor ENT who knew just the ticket to a somewhat speedy recovery. So from now on I will heed Rayna's warning, and take even better care of myself.

I did a bit of freeze dyeing (that is a difficult term for me to spit out as I want to call it freeze drying, like the coffee!) earlier in the week, taking advantage of our colder than usual winter weather.

First I soaked my fabric (this was some of the leftover muslin that my friend Joani gave me a month or so ago) in a soda ash solution, spun the excess liquid out in my studio washer, then scrunched it all up and put it in a plastic bag, and hung it outside of my studio for about 48 hours. The temp never got above freezing during that time period! Then I poured some leftover blue dyes over the frozen ball, followed by some Pro Chem Khaki Procion MX dye.

The colors aren't very vivid, but what I really like are how they blended together, so in some areas you see the colors together but yet separately....does that make any sense? It is quite nice!

If you've tried freeze-dyeing and have a good technique, I'd love to hear about it. I know that some folks use their freezers for this, so that is always a good option.

PEACE

House Calls

Few Drs make House Calls anymore, but my friend Dr. Roberta Eaton is an exception to the rule. You see, Dr. Eaton specializes in the treatment and prevention of unturned heels, slipped gussets, dropped stitches, omitted rows, reversed rows, and all manner of sockitis. She is affectionately referred to as Dr. Sock, and boy was I glad to receive a call from her yesterday saying that she was on her way to my house! She did however allow that she was making a quick stop at the local wine and cheese store first: hmmmm, did she know that my particular case was going to be a challenge?? It did take the good Dr. about two hours to sort out my many ailments and get me back on the straight and narrow! Here are her three patients:

I am pleased to announce that Pt. Blue, on the right, has made a full recovery, while pts orange-multi and black cashmere are resting comfortably in their respective units.

After Dr. Eaton departed, appearing rather weery and in need of a wine infusion, it looked as if her patients were stable so C and I took a short LOA to see Atonement at our local theater. We liked it, but were not as emotionally overcome as our daughter had been. The cinematography was phenomenal, the acting great, and I must say that the time passed very quickly. I'm not sure that I would give it my vote for Best Picture, but I would recommend it as a must see..........and on the big screen.

We also did a local tour of kitchen appliances and may have actually made some progress in this area! PHEW!! I'm worn out in this department and am ready to move on to the countertops, ceramic tile floor, and backsplash, thank you very much!!! I will divulge the "winners" when the final purchases have been made, but suffice it so say that they will ALL be stainless steel and the fridge will be a French door, freezer in the bottom, and only water-in-the-door, no ice.

We had freezing rain today.......oh joy! Fortunately Barker and I had our romp on the golf course before it started. Unfortunately I had many errands to do (retrieve a "sold" scarf from the art center gift shop, get my allergy shots, visit my Mom, pick up a few items at the grocery store), and had to brave the ugly elements. Our town is fortunate enough to have a wonderfully huge Corp of Engineers lake (Lanier) running smack dab through the middle of it, but for those of us who live on the outskirts of town, we must drive over bridges to get into town to carry on the majority of our business. So on icey days like today, it becomes a bit of a challenge. But then the strong must endure!!!

I've worked on P&P a lot today, with much input from my great friend Robin. The good Dr. Eaton also suggested several methods of treatment, and I have taken those under advisement. I will show more pics when it is completed. Thank you all for you input: it was most appreciated in my desperate hours of need!

PEACE

BRRRRRR

I must confess, I slept in this morning (my cold is still getting the best of me!) and when I finally dragged my lazy butt out of bed it was almost 8:00 AM and the temp was 18 F: Sheesh!!! As you can see below, the thermometer on the pool patio was reading a balmy 23.9 at 10:23! WooHoo!

I waddled on out to the studio midmorning and snapped a few pics. Here are our Hellebores, nestled in ice and snow along the front walkway:

Most people hate Nandina: I happen to love them, but only when pruned properly. Here's a lovely one along the front of the house:


The faucet near the pool has had a very slow leak for a few months now, and so C has attached a hose and keeps it dangling in the pool. This morning it was sporting a long icicle:

I puttered with Preserve and Protect most of the morning. I'm reading "Bird by Bird" by Anne Lamott, which is actually Lamott's advice to writers, but so many of her words apply to all of us who are struggling. She says that you must set aside a time everyday to write/do your craft. I am finding that I am most productive in the morning, be it mid to late morning, so I tackle my projects then, and exercise later in the day. This is my new approach, and it will probably change again when the weather is warmer and it is light earlier, and then I'll get up earlier and exercise at that time. Anyway, here is Preserve and Protect on the design wall this morning:

I'm still not enthralled with her, but I do feel that she has come a long way. Your silence spoke legions to me last week: you were too kind to tell me that P&P truly stank. Is this better? How would you make her even better?

This evening C and I attended the dedication of our church's new organ,

Casavant Freres Organ Opus 3865:

Isn't she a beauty!!! The service was billed as "Solemn Evensong with The Liturgy of Consecration" for the organ. It was a delightful sevice with the most incredible organ and choral music I have ever experienced. Dr. David Burton-Brown, our organist and choir director, certainly did us proud! Each organ selection was fabulous, but I was totally undone and brought to tears by Stanley's "Trumpet Voluntary in D Major". Well done David!! The Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, Bishop of the Diocese of Atlanta, preached, while our beloved Rector, Doug Dailey officiated. It was a lovely service and I was so pleased to be in attendance.

PEACE

Wait Wait!

....or maybe I should title this post "What Was I Thinking??????" Anyway, as we were getting ready to leave for Atlanta yesterday afternoon, I was having huge second thoughts about Preserve and Protect. I basically felt that it was very elementary....ah, another blog title: "Elementary Dear Watson!". I knew that when I next layed my eyes upon my design wall I was going to rip P&P down and rip it apart. Little did I know that it would be less than 24 hours later! (more on that part in a minute)

So, here's the destruction phase of P&P:


It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I'm totally revamping it, and here is something like how I'm planning it:
Right now the studio is warming up a bit, and I'm heading back out to do some more bat painting.

So, why are we home? Well, we woke up this morning to a revised weather report with 3"+ of snow forecast for Atlanta. While that may not sound like much to you, it is HUGE for Atlanta, and will cause the city to come to a complete standstill! Three realtors had made appointments to show the condo today, and we decided that Barker needed to be home and not snowed-in in a one bedroom condo for the weekend. So, we met up with K & D for a quick and delicious breakfast at the Old Highland Bakery and then headed for home:

It was a pretty drive, and thankfully the snow had not yet started to stick. The temp was staying right around 34 until we hit our little town and then it dropped to 32. Thankfully the bridges over our lake had been sanded, so there was no problem with any of the drive.
The snow here has about stopped, with only an inch or two of accumulation, but I hear that it is still coming down in Atlanta. We made a wise move to come home. In the meantime, two more realtors have called to say that they will be showing the condo this weekend. YIKES!!!

Anybody for a swim?

PEACE

Take It Further Challenge

I signed up for Sharon B's Take It Further challenge in December and was lucky enough to make the cut off! I'm new at Sharon's challenges, and I'm afraid that if I don't blog soon about it, she'll give me the boot and let someone on the waiting list take my place!

So, here is January's challenge:

The key concept for January is a feeling we have all had, the feeling of admiration for another. Ask yourself who do you look up to and admire? Why? What is it you admire about them? This is a the first Take it Further challenge in 2008. Take the idea, develop it into a resolved design during that month and apply it to fiber or paper.

I have long admired Virginia Spiegel, not only for her creative and artistic ability, but also her tireless work for the American Cancer Society and Firberart For a Cause. My January challenge result is actually a "twofer" in that I honored Virginia with this piece and I also donated it to her Collage Mania II auction which will be held May 5th and 6th.

And if you missed my piece, here it is again. The photo that Virginia has is actually a scan that I submitted to her, and I was not pleased with it, so I've attempted to do a better job of photographing it here:

(I've added this photo to my Flickr site, so you can see it there, with a closeup.) Winter Sunset was indeed a challenge for me, as I have done very little collaging, and I had not worked with some of these fibers before. Having a play day in my studio is always fun, and then when Virginia emailed me that she would accept my little piece, I was blown away! Thanks Virginia for making my day! I hope to be sending more pieces your way in the next few weeks.

I have a few pics of the progress on Preserve and Protect. I spent several fun hours on it yesterday, and then ended the afternoon in the studio, painting more batting....oh darn, I hate that studio time!

The blue fabric which I had dyed last week to use as the background was so pleasing to me, that it wasn't difficult to pick out some new quilting threads to go with it. I started picking the threads yesterday morning, rather than cutting up the blue fabric, which just seemed too darned painful to me!

Once I took the first cut, it got easier and easier, until I was tearing pieces apart with gay abandon! Here I've torn a few of the screened trees and butted some batting over the edge and free motioned it in place. The batting looks more washed out than it really is.

The trees have so much blue in them and I was thinking that that blue wasn't too indicative of the drought situation. It suddenly dawned on me that when I screened this bunch of blues, I also had a whole other yard or so of rust colored trees!

So, after I had done a bit of fiddling with the top few "rows", I got out the rust colored trees and planted them across the bottom, adding a bit of rusted fabric as sashing:

I wasn't too keen on any of that, so I left it and took Barker for a nice long walk. That's when my brain cleared a bit and I realized that I just needed to paint some more batting in the brown, get rid of the rusted fabric and rip up the rust colored tree fabric into smaller stands of trees.

I am leaving Preserve and Protect for a couple of days. I haven't torn the rust colored trees at the bottom yet, because I'm not exactly sure how narrow I want the stands to be. The brown batting is just pinned on the design wall so far, and I think I will lower the trees a couple of inches. I think that I will probably put a narrown border in brown batting. (I also think that some of the batting on the left is too washed out, so I will go back in and give it another coat of paint...do you agree?)

"A penny for your thoughts"! Don't worry about hurting my feelings. I love good, constructive criticism, and so appreciated all you had to say the other day! Gerrie, I did make this one landscape...you've got a good eye to detect that error in the first one, as there was only about 3" difference in the length and width measurements of the first piece! Carol, I have saved the rocks for another quilt. You were right: they just didn't go! Joyce, there's enough of that blue left over for another quilt, perhaps with the pebble fabric! Kristin and Eva, thank you for suggesting more of the barren brown........is there too much now? I think I was trying to say too much at one time, so your comment helped me to narrow it all down. I also wanted to show too much fabric...so this has helped. Thank you all for posting comments!! Bring it on!!!!!

PEACE

jansjutton

The snow was great and just perfect:


We had little flakes, then those wonderfully big and fluffy ones, but the streets never got treacherous:

We never lost our power

It is still quite cold (for our part of the world), but the precip has stopped and we are just enjoying the change in weather.

The city schools started two hours later than usual, so everyone got to sleep in a bit

Enjoy your day, wherever you are!

PEACE

jansexton part deux

IT'S SNOWING!!!! WOOHOO!!!

But that's not really why I'm double posting today. Since having this wretched cold and trying to rest and lay low, I've been able to complete a few projects that had been partially finished. One is this piece, "Winter Sunset":

I made this for Virginia Spiegel's Collage Mania II, a Fiberart For A Cause fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. Each row has a bit of different fiber (watercolor paper, Lutradur, paper toweling, tulle, wood) that I have painted, dyed, stamped, burned, etc. They are all attached to the hand-dyed cotton with hand-dyed perle coton. I had a great time making it, and hope that I have time to do a few more pieces for this worthy cause. The picture isn't the greatest: I tried scanning the piece in, but will probably go back to using my camera after this little adventure.

Here are a couple of pictures of the snow, looking out towards our lake:

PEACE

jansexton

When I took my Mom to her Eye Dr's appointment yesterday, I brought along the most recent issue of Quilting Arts magazine. I hadn't had a chance to totally devour it due to the holidays, so I thought I might have some time while waiting on Mom. Judy Coates Perez had a great article about painting on quilt batting, so I had to go home and try it yesterday afternoon. I painted the little bug using fabric paints (mostly Setacolors) and then noticed that I had a few Procion dyes mixed up and I thought I'd see what they did: hence the whispy lines around the bug. I went out to the studio this morning to check on the drying of the various pieces of batting that I had fiddled with, and found the bug to be dry. WooHoo! So, I quilted her up and here she is:

I've once again used Terry Grant's edge finishing method, which works like a dream on the batting. The forecast is for snow, sleet, and freezing rain for the next 12-24 hours, so I am planning to bead this little bug if we should lose power. Until then, I'll sew as much as I possibly can.

I think that the painted batting might be a very effective way to convey a drought background on Preserve and Protect, so that is my current plan.

PEACE

janfemton

OUCH!!! Last night I decided that I was just fine thank you very much, and I no longer needed to take my Mucinex-D, so I omitted it and toddled happily off to bed: only to awake with the WORST headache I have ever had in my entire life! To top it all off, it was 30 outside, with a breeze, so the windchill was an ungodly 17....and it was my morning to walk Barker on the golf course AND I was scheduled to have my Mom at the eye Dr's at 10:10. Oh Lord!!

Barker and I survived the walk (he loved it) and as soon as we returned and I had had some breakfast I took my beloved Mucinex-D and got on with the morning. My headache subsided and all went well: Mom and I even had lunch out without a major attack of Pancreatitis on her part!

The sinus pressure returned this evening, but here is the solution:



my handy little buddy, my Neti Pot! Isn't she the cutest?!!! You simply dissolve a 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt in warm water in her little chamber and then irrigate your nasal sinuses. It is so much more gentle and earth-friendly than the plastic, non-recyclable contraption that I unfortunatley purchased out of desperation at the pharmacy last week. I found my little Neti at Whole Foods, but I'm sure you can locate one elsewhere or on line.

Twila, I hope you are feeling better........and don't forget to get yourself a Neti Pot!!

Thanks for all of your comments and very helpful suggestions on Preserve and Protect! I really do appreciate you taking the time to respond, and you know it was funny, but I began to think that it was the background that was bothering me, or perhaps the addition of the pebbles on the lake floor. I tinkered around with some solutions this afternoon and hope to have some samples to show you in the next few days. You guys are the greatest! Thank you!!

PEACE

janfjorton

My horrible cold is nearly gone! WooHoo! Thanks to all of you who emailed me and left comments wishing me well. I found a Neti Pot this morning at Whole Foods, and will begin using it tonite. I think that I owe my speedy recovery to Mucinex-D. Last night was the first night in about a week that I slept almost all the way through the night, only waking a couple of times coughing.

New Love:

Most summers we spend a gloriously peaceful week or two vacationing on the shores of pristine Squam Lake in New Hampshire. When we returned last summer, after a one year hiatus, I truly appreciated the tranquility of the area and the ever-present clean, clear water. It is a joy to lay leisurely on your tummy on a swim dock and peer down at the lake's bottom, with water so clear that you can see the details of every little pebble on the lake floor. So, I decided to honor that privilege in the form of a quilt. Little did I know then, that by the time I got around to making said quilt, we in the Southland would be in the midst of an historic drought! That factor changed my focus, but only slightly. I decided that water purity was no longer quite as important as water PERIOD!

Here is the background for "Preserve and Protect":

I had done some exercises out of Jane Dunnewold's "Complex Cloth" last summer and screenprinted this piece:
The work reminded me so much of our time on Squam that I knew even then that they would be the focus fabrics for "Preserve and Protect".

This afternoon I started playing around with what I had. Here is my first run:

The two blocks at the bottom are inkjet transfers of the photos I took of the pebbles on Squam's floor. My intent here was to go back in and machine quilt mirror images of those fabric blocks directly below each one.

I wasn't sure about that whole idea, so then I rearranged like this:


Naaaaaaaaaaaaah, how about this:

Nope, that doesn't really float my boat, so how about this:

What I'm saying here is not only are we almost out of water, but we are cutting down our trees too. Both are precious and we need to Preserve and Protect. So, that is how Preserve and Protect is looking right now. I'd love to hear your comments...Please???

PEACE

janonce

Thanks to all who have wished me well in my recovery from this silly cold virus. I am better, thanks to Mucinex and a dreaded nasal douche, which seems to help a lot!

I did indeed dissect the lovely blouse! Here's the posterior, again on the paint board:

We've had a warmer than normal week weather-wise, so I put in some good studio time, plus with my cold, I was lazing around and playing with my computer and printer more than usual. Here are two photo transfers on recycled muslin of the lovely and crystal clear Squam Lake that I took last summer. I was lying on my tummy on our boat dock, looking down at the rocky bottom. This first one is pretty much as you would see it, but I've gone over the lighter rocks with a Shiva paint stick combo of several blues:
I adjusted this one to sepia tone and then used the same Shiva paint sticks:

We went condo shopping in Atlanta again today and listed our unit with our agent, Michael, who is very knowledgeable, interesting, and fun to hang out with. C and I both feel very good about our fit with him. This is going to be an interesting few months, with our kitchen reno looming over us, and maybe even a condo upgrade! WooHoo!!!

Later this afternoon we walked up to the High Museum and took in the Impressionist Exhibit for the second time (gotta love those Impressionists!) and also a wonderful exhibit of black and white photography from the 60s and 70s. My favorite was the work of Garry Winogrand: "Women are Beautiful". If you're in the neighborhood, stop by and check it out. We also went to the SCAD museum and were totally awed by the work of Yinka Shonibare, "Odile and Odette". If you go, be sure and watch the video: fabulous!!

There's nothin' quite like a date in the city!

PEACE