I am still flying very high after Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last night! Wasn't he magnificent!! His message has filled me with such hope not only for those of us here in the US, but also for the rest of the world. and what a message to the younger generations! I am so looking forward to January 2009....but we've all got to do our part to elect the Obama/Biden ticket! I hope you're with me on this. Leave a comment and let me and my other readers know!!!
I had two pieces of very important mail arrive on Wednesday afternoon: First, the pretty one:
a lovely fabric postcard from my friend Terry Grant in Portland, OR. I had sent Terry three colorful wine bottle corks, and she sent me this in thanks. I think I got the far better end of the deal, don't you!!!
The other package was from Pro Chem and included this lovely accessory:
Cute, huh?!!! I already had a respirator, but decided to update to this one, which ProChem claims is suited to Thiox. Since I use the stuff a good bit in my 'work' (and my play) I decided I would bite the bullet and get one....besides, I know that I am stylin' with the purple and yellow against my red hair! (By the way, the latest word from my ENT since my CT Scan is that all of my sinuses are gunked up, so I will be on a round of prednisone AND antibiotics in hopes of remedying the situation! I am so full of hope these days!).
And lastly, I want to share this with you:
I have finally put the finishing touches on this silk charmeuse halter top for K! I hand-dyed, dishcharged and stamped the buttery soft charmeuse, and then used Amy Grant's Cabo Halter pattern to construct it. K is so tiny that it required much alteration, but we've finally gotten it right. Ethel, my mannequin, is a bit larger than K, so she doesn't show it off quite so well, but you can get the general idea!
That's all for today............but don't forget to leave a comment about the Obama/Biden ticket! We finally have HOPE for a CHANGE!! WooHoo!!!PEACE & HOPE
"Losing Track" has become an obsession, so I am taking a break from it for the weekend. Well, it's a physical break, as mentally and emotionally I'm still under its spell. Here is how I left it yesterday:
I have made a few more minor adjustments since I snapped this last pic, but I'm tellin' you, this art quilt business does not come easily to me right now! All that said, I find that photographing the piece makes it easier to step back and critique it. Already I can see another spot where the placement needs changing!
I took about a half hour out of my day on Thursday to stick a couple of pieces of charmeuse in the dye pot. It was such a good feeling, after being away from the dye studio for a few weeks. This is a part of one of the large pieces I dyed:
It almost looks like sky, doesn't it?
I really love this piece:
Here is another one:
I don't know how those little wavey lines on the right happened. They weren't there when I left the piece to dry, and I didn't return to it for over 24 hours, so the little elves must have been tampering with my goods!
Here's another part of the same piece:
I just love this one.....very exciting piece!
It's a lovely day here in Atlanta. We walked Barker early when the temps were still in the mid 60s.......I almost wanted a light jacket! We ran into our friend John and his two Standard Poodles Luna and Hillary, over on Myrtle, and then Bobbie met up with us for coffee at Caribou after which we went to the Saturday Soup Sale at MetroFresh. MMMMMMM! We also did some much-needed shopping at Trader Joes, went to a birthday brunch for our friend Ashley, and soon we'll be off to see Up the Yangtze at Midtown Arts.
Before I get started, I want to give a special shout out to my new friend Debra, a fellow Georgian whom I have yet to meet. She left the sweetest comment after my last post. I think a lot of other bloggers will agree that when posting, we are really hanging ourselves out there, exposing both ourselves and our families, not to mention the highs, lows, and mediocres in our lives. It is always nice to receive comments (yes, even the negative ones), so that we know who is reading us. I also want to say hello to Ineke, the lovely lady from whom we purchased our beautiful home over ten years ago. We had been next door neighbors and friends for quite a long time, and I still miss her and her husband, Martin, as they have moved away and we never get to see them now. Ineke purchased a scarf from me the other day......one that I had posted a pic of on the blog a week or so ago! What fun!!!!
My friend Roberta (aka Dr. Sock) came over yesterday and gave me a great lesson in yarn dyeing. We had the most fun playing in the studio, and I really wish that she would have stayed longer. Maybe next time Roberta??
I didn't have my camera with me for the first couple of skeins of yarn that she dyed in pink gradations, but I ran back into the house and got it so that I could take a few pics as we did round two:
She had brought along her Jacquard acid dyes, and had mixed up some lilac and some chartreuse (YUMM!) and I offered up some of my blue Japanese acid dye. Here's how the skein looked after applying the dye:
Then Roberta carefully wrapped it all up in the plastic wrap which she had placed underneath before dyeing:
Isn't that just yummy looking? Sort of reminds me of an Easter egg! Here are her four skeins of yarn ready to go into the steamer. (She uses an old pot with a steamer basket in the bottom, and they steamed for only 20 minutes.)
Roberta went home shortly after lunch and washed and dried the yarn. She sent me pics this morning, and I am just in awe of how beautiful they all came out:
I'm in love with this last one, and have to tell you that I'm ordering some yarn to dye! Oh Lord!!
Last week I set out to dye my first silk yardage, stretching it on some saw horses that I had found discarded by the side of the road (hmmmm: sounds like Virginia Spiegel's Tuesday Garbage Day Project, doesn't it?). You may recall this photo, or one similar to it with Barker guarding the silk!
I wasn't too terribly excited with round 1 of my process, but photographed it anyway:
The next day, I came back in and added more red and also lots more salt, as I just love the salting effect on silk:
It looked good then while it was still wet, but after it dried, the silk was quite blah and I was pretty darned depressed about it. So yesterday after Roberta left, I did some discharging on it, and then stamped some thickened purple dye on top of that:
At that point I figured I had nothing to lose and just tinkered away with it until there was no more silk to tinker with! Because this silk is 45" wide, I had to add the "top floor" to my rocket steamer (this was a first for me) and had to climb up onto the top of my stepstool in order to load the silk package down into the steamer:
I was thrilled almost to tears three hours later when this gorgeous piece of silk emerged from the steamer! You've come a loooooong way baby!!!
I'll bet you're wondering what I'm going to do with it. Any guesses?????PEACE!
a lovely fabric postcard from my friend Terry Grant in Portland, OR. I had sent Terry three colorful wine bottle corks, and she sent me this in thanks. I think I got the far better end of the deal, don't you!!!
Cute, huh?!!! I already had a respirator, but decided to update to this one, which ProChem claims is suited to Thiox. Since I use the stuff a good bit in my 'work' (and my play) I decided I would bite the bullet and get one....besides, I know that I am stylin' with the purple and yellow against my red hair! (By the way, the latest word from my ENT since my CT Scan is that all of my sinuses are gunked up, so I will be on a round of prednisone AND antibiotics in hopes of remedying the situation! I am so full of hope these days!).
I have finally put the finishing touches on this silk charmeuse halter top for K! I hand-dyed, dishcharged and stamped the buttery soft charmeuse, and then used Amy Grant's Cabo Halter pattern to construct it. K is so tiny that it required much alteration, but we've finally gotten it right. Ethel, my mannequin, is a bit larger than K, so she doesn't show it off quite so well, but you can get the general idea!
