Friday, May 06, 2011

Breaking the Silence


Hello!  It's been a while since I've posted, so I hope I can remember how to do this!


My time in San Antonio was terrific: productive, learned a tremendous amount, spent quality time with friends, and was energized to hit the ground running when I returned home.  That said, we've since taken a birding trip to western North Carolina to get glimpses of the migrating warblers, and we are now about to embark on another trip: this time to the beach!  WooHoo!  This will be a family vacation with our little Charlie and his folks.  I'm very excited!!


I've managed to squeeze in some productive studio time, and am relearning some disciplines.  I used to be a list maker, as I found it so rewarding to cross things off.  I fell away from that habit several years ago, and just wandered willy-nilly through my days, often forgetting to do things that were quite important.  Well, I realized last week, that lists really are a good thing for me, and I'm back at it.  I find that I'm much more productive and focused, which in itself makes me extremely happy!  Are you a lister?


  
This is one of several pieces that I dyed this past week.  I was particularly pleased with the outcome of this session in the studio.




This is just another section of this piece - it is quite a large piece of cotton canvas: one yard in length and about 54" wide.  I love working on canvas!




Above is a piece of silk crepe de chine that I've just started working on.  It will have several more layers when I finish.  The black motifs are screened using thickened black dye.  I was pleased with how they turned out.


We have had our fair share of thunderstorms recently, but thankfully no tornadoes.  The other evening I was doing some work in my sewing room and I could tell from the weather radar that we were between thunderstorms.  I happened to look out at the lake and this is what I saw:


  
I hope you can see it too: not the woodpecker on the feeder, but three young deer and our resident Great Blue Heron. I should have videoed the scene as it was quite comical.  The deer were running up to the heron, it would fly up into the air and come down with its wings spread, and then the deer would jump up and run toward the heron again.  This ballet went on for several minutes, and then the deer saw me at the window and ran off. 


The next morning as I was eating my breakfast, I glanced out onto the patio and saw this adorable baby bunny




 It also had a sibling, and the two of them provided me with much entertainment.


I went out to my flower garden to pick a bouquet of peonies for my Mom shortly after breakfast and saw this new family:


I hope you can see them too: Canada Geese parents and their little goslings. 

Ah Spring!

Thanks to all of you who have emailed me to make sure we were safe after the storms blew through, and also making sure I was ok since I was so quiet.  Sometimes I just need to take a break and catch my breath!

PEACE

6 comments:

Karen said...

Glad you are back Judy, and thanks for the comments on my blog. I'm sure you had a productive time at Jane's and the pictures of what you've done since you came back are wonderful. I love cotton canvas also, there's something about the roughness of it. Have a great time with Charlie.

Gerrie said...

Oh I love those greens and yellows. Yum! Have a great time beaching it and cuddling Charlie.

Vicki W said...

I can't function without a list! When I don't keep my list updated I seem to just wanter around aimlessly.

Eva said...

This crepe de chine is stunning! Last summer, I took a picture of a shallow lagoon with the water reflections and plants -- that's what this wonderfully dyed piece shows imho. Will send you a copy!

Jeannie said...

I love the deer/heron story! A Disney movie in your own yard. The fabrics are beautiful! I love the yellow one. Have a great time with Charlie et. al. and play. I make lists, but I had to learn not to make them too overwhelming. The lists would be so full that I would feel defeated because I didn't accomplish the month long list in two days. LOL! Now, I stick to a daily list.

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