Dyeing to Show You

I've been having some fun dyeing new napkins and a table runner for our dining room. Our church dinner group will be our guests this coming Sunday evening, and I probably should be cooking, but surface design interests me more! I began by doing two layers of low water immersion on this cotton:


I serged a rolled hem around the edges and then waxed and crackled each napkin and rolled on some darker blue dye. This afternoon I discharged the stork and feather motifs.


I really like how they turned out. Now I've got to buckled down and quilt the table runner. Maybe I'll even get it done by Sunday....and some food prepped too!

I finally finished hanging all of my beloved art work on 'my' wall in the kitchen. The new chocolate brown paint makes a very nice background for my lovely pieces. Do you see one or two of yours here?


There are so many pieces by Facebook and Blogger friends, and of course several by my beloved church buddies Barbara and Robin. When I am at my sink, I can gaze across the room at this inspirational wall. The colors are so exciting!! To the right of this wall is the doorway into my sewing room, so I can't help but be in the mood to create when I pass by....and then there's Jamie Fingal's reminder at the top center: "Make Time for Art". I just love my new wall, and thank you all for contributing! That said, I must tell you that two beloved pieces are missing: the wonderful birds created by my blog buddy Elizabeth. I just couldn't move them from their perch of honor above my sewing table, where they gaze out the window at the lake!

PEACE!!!

Some Summer Fun

Yesterday was entirely too much fun! Our weather, although a bit warmer, is still quite pleasant for July, and we are enjoying every second of it. We walked Barker to our local Starbucks and enjoyed reading the NYT on the patio. Have you read Maureen Dowd's latest editorial about the Gates/Crowley encounter in Cambridge? She puts an interesting spin on it.

I finished knitting my first Be Sweet Feather & Fan Shawl using the lovely Misti Alpaca Baby Me Boo yarn. With help from Dr Sock, I have adapted the pattern so that it is knitting friendly for the visually impaired, and until my cataract surgery, I will be content to keep my fingers busy using this wonderfully uneven and slubby yarn and size 10 circular needles. If you are interested in the pattern, please let me know and I'll be happy to share.



As you may recall, C and I are season ticket holders at the Horizon Theater Company in Little Five Points. Last evening we had the great pleasure of seeing the very funny but also poignant production of Thomas W. Jones II's "A Cool Drink A Water".

I laughed so hard I cried, and then I cried so hard I was relieved that the sadness had been interspersed with comedic relief. The entire cast was too good to be true, but Mama Lee played by Bernardine Mitchell and Walt played by none other than the playwrite Thomas W. Jones II were my favorites. What an incredibly talented cast!!! This play is part of the 2009 National Black Arts Festival, and if you live in the Atlanta area, I strongly urge you to indulge yourself and go see it!

We met up with our kids after the show and enjoyed a very nice dinner at 4th & Swift. This is the Local Melon and Proscuitto salad which C enjoyed as one of his small plates.


I had the Braised Oxtail with herb gnocchi, summer peas and handmade ricotta plus the evening special of local corn and chantarelle mushrooms: MMMMMMMM! 4th and Swift is located in the Old Fourth Ward in the space which used to be the engine room of the Southern Dairies and Chef Jay Swift specializes in local and regionally raised foods. I highly recommend it!

Hope you're enjoying some summer fun, fun, fun!

PEACE!!!

Braised Oxtail

Herb Gnocchi, Summer Peas, Hand Made Ricotta

Braised Oxtail

Herb Gnocchi, Summer Peas, Hand Made Ricotta

Bizzy Daze

We have been celebrating C's birthday for about a week now....why celebrate for a mere 24 hours if you can extend it over a week? Sunday night we went to the Braves/Mets game, and besides enjoying very cool temps and the company of our friends Sue and Joe, we loved seeing our Braves win big: 7-1! Tuesday night we went out to dinner with Molly and Keith, and then enjoyed watching the GBraves (AAA minor league Gwinnett Braves) beat up on Norfolk. Last night we went out to dinner in Atlanta at The Nook and then went to Joan Baez's concert at the Botanical Gardens. Again, the weather was perfect and we so enjoyed hearing Joan sing so many of her ballads.



I'm feeling so good since my sinus surgery that I'm managing to find time to do a lot of gardening (which pretty much went by the wayside last year) AND play in the dyepots! YAYYY! What a great life!! I saw my ENT surgeon this afternoon and he has totally released me for SIX MONTHS!!!! All of the inflammation is gone and I am on ZERO meds!!! WooHoo!!!

Here's a tee that I tried out some new techniques on:

I really, really like how it turned out. It's a Dharma tee and I can't find anymore of this style on their website (let me know if you find it!) and unfortunately, this one is a Large, and is too big for me. ;-(

Here's a detail shot. The neckline, sleeve cuffs and bottom edge all have that great lettuce stitching. The neck is I think what is called a boat neck, so would look great with a strappy camisole.
Anyway, I'm going to offer it up for sale for $60, which will include shipping and handling. Please email me privately if you are interested.

I made a Thermofax screen from some petite Cypress branches the other day. I've been playing around with acrylic paints and screened this on some card stock. You may be receiving one of these in the mail in mid December!


And very late this afternoon, I finally got "Reflections of Grace" mounted on it's piece of sealed, rusty tin. It is hanging in our Foyer at the present time, hence the railing in the lower left of the photo:

I will take some more pictures of it tomorrow when the light is better, but I wanted to share it with you now, as I'm feeling pretty pleased that it is completed!

PEACE

WooHoo: it's done!

Well, I'm feeling a bit of celebratory relief today, as I've put the finishing stitches on "Summer in the City"! YAYYYY!!! It measures 42" x 22". The background was painted with textile paints, and I created a thermofax screen for the skyline. I used layers of tulle in different hues to create the shadows, and then I machine quilted the entire piece with holoshimmer threads. I decided to do a rolled hem with my serger on the edges, as I'd purchased some lovely heavy red rayon thread a couple of months ago. It worked beautifully!! I will probably add some beads to the main part of the piece at some point, but for now it's ready for hanging at our condo..


here's a bit more of a detail shot:

I've also finished another scarf. This is "Petals 2". I began by waxing areas and applying khaki dye, and then going back in and rewaxing and applying Basic Black, which of course looks more like a nice dark chocolate. I've also printed more petals on the surface.


We are enjoying incredibly delicious weather today........it is dry and very cool, for Georgia in July. It was 59 here when we walked Barker on the golf course this morning, and now it's about 75. I'm thinking that the west coast must be having a heat wave, but I haven't checked.

Hope you're having a great weekend, and as always, thanks for stopping by!

PEACE

Results are in!

Well, the great 'washout' occurred early this afternoon. Most of you will know that by washout, I don't mean that the results were a bust, but simply that I washed out the excess dyes!

So, with the added layer of Midnight Blue, this piece

became this:
I was not thrilled as I had hoped that there would be more remains of the tan and the lighter blue. BUT, the idea is to learn, and I certainly did! If everything went as I planned, I'd be bored and have a swelled head! LOL Oh yes, and those pesky little fuchsia freckles got into the midnight blue as well! Darn, I should have strained it!!

The great results were with this scarf, which I'm calling "Petals". I just love it!

here's a detail shot, which really shows the three layers of dyes:
My comfort zone seems to be in this palette lately, so I am trying a different approach with the next scarf. I'll also get back to work on the first 'project' I showed you, but not tonight!

PEACE!!!

The Carrots

I try to make Tuesday my day to stay at home and clean the house.........pathetic, isn't it? But if I don't stick to a schedule, I would procrastinate soooo much, that I'd never have a clean house. And you might not know it by looking at my house, but I derive a certain amount of satisfaction from it being clean! So, this morning I decided I'd clean a little bit and then play, (er,work) in the studio a little bit, and continue to alternate throughout the day. I hoped that the studio time would be a sufficient carrot to get me cleaning. Actually, it worked!! It was pleasant in the studio (mid 80s by this afternoon, but not too humid) and great conditions for batching! I had low water immersion dyed this piece with both khaki and cobalt blue, and decided that I'd discharge a vine design on it with some Thiox. Then I thought I'd wax a petal design on it.



I LWI dyed it with teal and here is the result.

Since these photos, I've rewaxed petals in areas of this piece and it is now covered with a midnight blue print paste mixture. I'll show you the results tomorrow.


Here's another play piece. This is a silk crepe scarf that I first waxed with the petal design and then covered with print paste with a chartreuse dye mixture. After batching, I washed it all out, randomly applied more wax petals and overdyed it with turquoise print paste. Here it is ready to batch:
and here it is after the washout:
I've again waxed more petals onto this scarf and overdyed it in a darker blue. I plan to show you that tomorrow as well!

So, I'm thinking the carrots were successful: I have a clean house and lots of studio work/play accomplished!

Work Hard/Play Hard!!

This n That

This is one of the pieces that I am working on right now. Have I shown it to you before? If so, please forgive me. I want to finish quilting it THIS WEEK and get it hung in our condo. I really love the sky.


I love each season of the year for so many reasons, but one of the primo reasons that I love summer here in the south is all of the delish fresh veggies! We have a terrific local farmers market and C really enjoys going there once or twice a week. It seems that he is the one in town on the days the market is open, so I am pretty much at his mercy to bring home veggies that I will then cook! He likes fried okra, while I am a huge fan of okra cooked up with some mustard seed, cumin seed, coriander, onion and sliced tomatoes. I've heard folks say that okra is slimey, but even this Yankee doesn't find the okra in this recipe to be slimey. MMMMM: I love it! So, here it is sauteeing up in some olive oil with a Vidalia onion:

and here I've added the spices, some water and the Roma tomato slices. I like to let it simmer, covered, for a while.


We're also having grilled eggplant that I've marinated in olive oil and Balsamic vinegar.........and a small Prime Rib! We are cleaning out the freezer and will no longer buy any meat that is not GRASS FED! I am seriously thinking about going vegetarian, but I'm not sure that that is a promise I can keep!

I haven't shown you any pics of Barker lately, so I thought I'd slip this one in. The longer he is part of our 'pack', the more we love him...........he will be seven in October, which I find so difficult to believe!

Hope you've had a great day!!

PEACE!!!!

Saturday, in the Park

Saturday morning is one of my favorites in the city. Today our walk took us down 8th St to Monroe, where we stopped at Starbucks for coffee, locally made pastries and the morning paper. We walk through a neighborhood occupied by many older and very interesting homes and a smattering of lovely older apartment buildings. I am so pleased to see this garden that has been lovingly installed at the very busy corner of Piedmont and 8th:



look, there are even little squash growing:


but, as I said, it is a busy corner and as we turned it, we saw sad evidence of that fact:


After our coffee, we walked north to Piedmont Park and the Saturday Green Market:


I was not the Pack Leader


The park is always peppered with groups of exercisers:


and then the lovely local produce:


A treat for us this morning: our friend Mary was there selling her colorful and deliciously fragrant soaps:

C bought me these two yummy bars:



All this leads me to tell you that we saw Food, Inc yesterday afternoon. I had wanted to see it, was prepared for the gory scenes, but came away with an increased awareness of the importance of buying local produce and grass fed cattle. I know that seeing this film will make me more aware of my purchasing options in the future. I urge you to see it.....together we can change the world, one seed and one purchase at a time!

I also went to Knitch yesterday. It seems that my cataracts are growing at a galloping pace and I can no longer see to knit the socks that I love so dearly. You may recall that my friend Diane recently sent me some yummy soy sock yarn, but I am dismayed to report that at the present time I cannot use it. I had also purchased some ultra soft cashmere to knit a lacey scarf for my Mom, but I cannot do that either. It is so frustrating! So, I figured I'd try some thicker yarn and some larger needles to tide me over until the surgery. Voila:

Misti Alpaca: 50% Alpaca, 30% Merino, 20% Bamboo.....and I can see it! I'll show you the nice little scarf I'm knitting once I make a little progress.

Go See Food, Inc!!!

Morning Walk

we walked past your home this morning
to enjoy your lovely gardens
c said I was stalking
we didn't stop

Deliveries

Before I get started, I want to tell you that this is my 700th post!! YIKES! Can you believe it? Just call me Chatty Cathy!!!

I delivered six newly created scarves to the gift shop at the Quinlan Art Center today. While there, I was thrilled to check out the new exhibit Local Colour, in which my "Grace on Tenth" is hanging. It is a terrific show, and if you are nearby, you need to go see it. I was blown away by all of the works exhibited, but especially those of Clayton Santiago.

So, I thought I'd share a few pics of the scarves that were included in the delivery. This delivery was particularly difficult for me, as I felt very attached to these babies.


This is "O O"


and this is the crepe de chine scarf I showed you the other day that has the foiled gold swirls on it. It is yummy, if I do say so myself!



I am particularly fond of this one, as it started out as a deconstructed screen printed piece, and has lovely little echoes of light blue and gray and white in the background. Again, I used the swirled Thermofax screeen and some royal blue for the added effect.


here's a detail shot:

Now this one is definitely my favorite of the lot (I think!)! It also began its life with lots of deconstructed screens and then I went back in a folded it up, applied some soy wax and then some dye, and voila!



a bit of a detail shot:

and here's a pure shibori scarf, using some wood blocks that our friend Joe cut for me as the resist.
I love the colors in this one.......very vibrant and rich. The bit of turquoise is sort of a surprise, isn't it?

Thanks for sticking with me for 700 chatty posts!!

PEACE!!!

KaBoom!!

I hope you enjoyed a fabulous Fourth, if you reside here in these United States. If not, I hope your July 4th was terrific. Barker, C and I mosied on down to our local Starbucks to enjoy our morning coffee and New York Times, and were surprised to find the outside deck almost full of Peachtree Road Race 'groupies' (spouses or family members waiting for their loved ones to finish the race....but at that point the race hadn't even started!). [C and I have run our fair share of Peachtrees (easily 25, and we do have the t-shirts!), but we're now challenged with sun issues, so we have opted out of this party.] We were able to snag one remaining table on the Starbucks patio, and enjoyed our morning ritual, accompanied by a phone call from K & D, who are still in Croatia).

I did some beading (no pics to share) and some reading and a bit of knitting and then we went out for an early dinner at the Woodfire Grill on Cheshire Bridge Road. C is a real foodie and subscribes to many Atlanta food blogs, so he had heard that the owner/chef of the Woodfire was smoking a whole hog on the 4th. It all sounded too good to be true, so he phoned ahead and made reservations. IT WAS FANTABULOUS!!!! Check out the menu for July 4th: it was so great!!! We got back to the condo in time to take Barker for a nice long walk before the fireworks began, and he was pretty fine throughout: hanging out in our bedroom.

As for the fireworks, they were awesome! Our condo is on the 14th floor, so we were able to see above most buildings around us, and Stone Mountain was in our view to the east. There were displays at Lenox (to the north) plus an incredible number to the east (was that Decatur or perhaps Avondale Estates?), plus numerous in the neighborhoods between the aforementioned and ours. We had opted to dine out early so that we would have ample time to walk Barker and get him settled before the festivities began. We didn't want to leave him alone during the boom-booms!

So, it was a win/win situation: we were able to enjoy MANY fireworks shows while Barker had us there with him during an otherwise trying time.

Here are a few of the pics I snapped from the condo.....please bear in mind that we were many miles away.

PEACE!!!!