WIPS

I posted this pic the other day of the rayon twill (left) that I was attempting to coordinated with my '08 round robin rayon twill (right).

I decided that the white was waaaay too white, the red was too brown, and the background needed more yellow, so I've attempted to correct all three:

'My' fabric is now on the bottom (I apologize for changing the order!), and 'their' (the RR fabric) is on top. I'm liking mine better, but still not enough. I have yet to wash it out since applying the thickened red dyes, so I suspect that that will become less intense and perhaps more like the top fabric. We shall see. I don't want the two pieces to be identical, but just coordinating. What do you think?

My Art Quilt Explorations class with Jane LaFazio is going along splendidly and I just love it! This week we are exploring painting techniques, in which we first began with a photo of an animal. Jane had used her kitty cat Buddy, and of course you know that there was no question that I would opt for my beloved Barker Baby!


Here he is semi painted:
I got busy this morning, sandwiching him and then putting him under the needle of the sewing machine.




Here's a detail shot of my boy:



This is a great class!

We went to see the Oscar nominated Shorts, Live Action this evening.......great bunch. My favorite was the Irish, but they were all great! I'll be interested to see which one wins.

YES WE CAN!!!

Studio Works

I had started this ComplexiTee last Fall and then got busy with other things and it just hung around out in the studio. I was doing some other things today, and decided to use Marga's wonderful Thermofax screen to discharge the tee a little bit. Then I thought it might be kind of fun to add a bit of my cityscape screen. So here's how it's looking:


Watch for more updates on this tee, because I'm going to really doctor it up!

Speaking of Marga's lovely Thermofax screen (which is on loan from it's Mama way down in warm and sunny Florida: thanks Marga!), the main reason I had borrowed it was to make a companion piece for my round robin fabric. I purchased more of the rayon twill, dyed it in some of the dyes that were used in the round robin, and then discharged it and also printed with Marga's screen.


I am liking what is happening here. As with the ComplexiTee, stay tuned, as there will be more to see of this fabric!

We saw "The Reader" the other night........highly recommend it! Kate Winslet certainly ought to win the Best Actress Oscar.

YES WE CAN!!!

Berries n' Skirts

Yesterday was a glorious day! Our local farmers' market is open on Saturdays, so after walking Barker, we all got in the car and went to see what seasonable goodies we could bring home. There was so much to choose from, and of course I wanted it all: green beans, yellow squash, okra, peaches, tomatoes and yummy blueberries. I had a recipe for Finnish Blueberry Squares (hope my Swedish family won't be offended!) that I wanted to try, so yesterday afternoon I got busy, armed with several quarts of big, fat, juicy fresh berries. Here's the result:

The squares are so yummy, and you can find the recipe here.

I put the finishing touches on my layered Barcelona skirt the other day, and wore it to church this morning:


This is an Amy Butler pattern and I used a rayon twill that I dyed and discharged. I love the hand of the fabric and the pattern is easy as pie. I serged the bottoms of all of the layers so that the twill wouldn't ravel quite so much.

This is my favorite skirt picture:

PEACE

Wunnerful Wennsday

I never finished showing you what I worked on yesterday, so I snapped a few pics this morning to share with you.

Here are some of the discharged samples:



I like them all, but I think the last one is my favorite.

And here is the scarf I told you about:

I ADORE this scarf, even if it is in jewel tones!!! This colorway is a first for me, and came after a request for jewel tones from my cousin Virginia.


In lieu of an after lunch nap, I puttered around with 'Losing Track'. While swimming this morning, I got a little wonkier vision of the tracks running through my brain and so I have attempted to duplicate it here:

Not sure about the trees. But nothing is glued or sewn in place. I've got some ideas for the upper left hand corner, but ran out of time today.

My knitting buddies are coming here tomorrow, so I've been doing a bit of spiffing up. We are having absolutely gorgeous weather: highs in the low 80s, low temp last night in the 50s, and the humidity is low. You gotta love it!!!

And here are a few more shots of my, shall I say, 'orgasmic' scarf:

PEACE

Do You See What I See?

While walking through our livingroom this morning, I noticed something odd about the trunk of our River Birch:


Taking a closer look, I could see a kitty cat nestled in the middle of the trunks, almost perfectly camouflaged! Not fair! Look what that kitty is looking at:

I know it's only natural, but I can't just sit back and let a cat nab an innocent bird at one of my feeders! So, Barker and I came to the rescue of the unsuspecting birdies and scared the kitty cat away...for now, at least.

I've been working on "Losing Track", a piece that I like very much:


It's time to cut up some discharged fabrics and make something of them! Initially I liked the top 'track' placement best, but now I'm undecided. This was a second choice:


But I think I like this one now:

There's lots more to be done to it, but I'm having fun just moving the tracks around and thinking about what I will quilt into it, and perhaps a few images that I may transfer into it. Stay tuned!

I spent a couple of blissful hours discharging more fabric, working on some yummy samples for a t-shirt client, and finishing up a scarf that I am now madly in love with. By the time C called me in for dinner, it was too late to get any pics.........maybe tomorrow?

PEACE

Summertime......

and the livin' is eeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaasy!

I've been gardening, cleaning out closets and drawers, walking, dyeing, sewing, etc. It's a great life!

While purging items in one drawer I came across the cami below, without the fern design.


I don't recall dyeing it, but I know that I must have, at some point. Anyway, I decided that it could do with some discharge, so the figure you see above was the result of one session in the studio. When I looked at it the other day, I decided it needed even more pizazz, so this is what happened:


Now I like this version a whole lot better!

I visited my favorite yarn shop this afternoon, and walked out with this:



It's called "Casbah" by Hand Maiden of Canada. It is 80% Merino, 10% Cashmere and 10% Nylon AND it's machine washable. Do I need to tell you how soft it is in my hands while I knit this pair of socks????? I can hardly wait to feel it against my footers!!

PEACE

WooHoo!

As seen in yesterday's Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
We've come a long way baby!

I have been redoing a few pieces that have bothered me over the past few months. Here is one:

a silk charmeuse scarf that I dyed, discharged and printed last Fall. I added another layer of dye yesterday:


I did some discharging this morning:


Here is the finished product:

I'm pleased with it now.

My buddy spent the morning in the studio with me:

PEACE

All in a Day's Work

My own very personal "Christmas" arrived this morning at about 8:30. This was the day that I had been waiting for: how were the countertops and backsplashes going to tie in with everything else we had chosen? I've laid awake at night thinking this all out and, quite honestly, agonizing over a few of our decisions. I cannot imagine ever building a house, so my hat is off to all of you who have done so.

The first piece of granite that was installed was our little table/dining area at the end of the island:


My eyes welled up with tears when I saw this lovely piece in my new kitchen!

And then the island piece arrived on the scene:

I was getting a bit used to it then, so I just snapped pictures, and the two installers really thought I was nutso!

Unfortuantely, (or fortunately for the installers!) I had a teeth cleaning appointment at 2:00 PM, so I missed the grand finale! There were errands begging to be run, a much-needed visit to the gym, and then a good visit with my Mom. Barbara Brown Taylor was speaking at our church this evening (now she deserves a blog posting all on her own, but not tonight dear Barbara!), and then we had made plans to dine with friends after the program. Soooooo, it wasn't until almost 10:00 PM that I got to see the countertops and backsplashes all in place. So here they are:

This is the "bar area" looking towards the diningroom. We have Hannestone countertops there, with my favorite granite as the backsplash and the little bar top:


(Hannestone is like Silestone: heat resistant and nonporous.)

This is the Hannestone countertop on the area to the left of the wall oven:

There is now the granite backsplash in back of this area too...but I guess I took this pic before I went to visit the dentist.

Here is the island, finished:


I cannot help but recalling almost a year ago when my sister-in-law Molly and my good friend Bobbie and I stood around one morning planning this whole deal. I love my island!

This is the area behind the island where my range will be slid in and the hood will go above it. It's kind of a shame that some of that granite will be covered by the hood, but it will work! The reeded glass doors on the cabinets are also favorite features of mine. I've got to thank my good friend Shiela for suggesting the reeded glass!


While the countertops were being installed, I spent a couple of hours out in my studio discharging a couple of silk scarves that I had dyed yesterday. Here is the first one, a long, rectangular crepe de chine:


It is actually a lot more coral colored, with bits of grape infused. I just love how it came out!

The scarf below is a large square crepe de chine that I just loved even before the discharging. It reminded me of a tropical storm sky with varying shades of blue, pink, magenta. When I discharged it, the affected areas turned a lovely gold tone:

I discharged a hibiscus-like image on one of the corners:


And look who was waiting in the wings to have his picture snapped:


So, it has been a lovely, lovely day! Any one event (well, perhaps not the trip to have my teeth cleaned!) would have been enough for this gal, but all of them together made it truly spectacular!

PEACE

Take a Leap

Barker woke us up early this morning. I think he has gotten used to having the workmen here, and he enjoys their energy! He has always been "one of the guys", so he feels good about this reno!

The electricians arrived first and then the countertop template man appeared. Like Rayna, I had thought he'd have his arms full of paper, a sturdy tape measure, and a pencil: NOT! He used wood, similar to balsa and a hot glue gun to build his templates. Below is one that he has just completed of the countertop by the diningroom:

Here's another section layed out on the floor:

It was a tedious job, and he was there for at least six hours. So now we wait 7-10 business days for the countertops.

I was disappointed that the Nandina leaves I had brayered onto this t-shirt barely survived after drying and laundering. Better for me to find out than an unsuspecting customer! So, this afternoon I thickened some dyes and stamped on some fish:

This may go, along with the little girl's romper from yesterday, to our church's preschool fundraising auction.

I've been playing around with monoprinting on silk and also discharging, as you know if you have been following along on my blog. Here is the finished product of the 2-day process:

and a closeup:
And for my friend Jeannie out in Oregon, here's the latest development on C's tractor driving t-shirt:

I've done some discharging with a screen. It's always fun to see what colors will remain when the fabric is discharged. I doubt that he would wear this even if I paid him a billion bucks!

As for Leap Day, I read on a friend's website this morning that this is the day that ladies can propose to men, BUT they must do so in a RED petticoat! When I was visiting with my Mom this afternoon, she told me that she was instructing all of her single caregivers to go home and propose to their prospective lovers this evening! At almost 91, she rarely misses a beat!
God Bless Her!

PEACE