who knew that just a little thing could make such a big difference
I took out the InkTense pencils and the textile medium and did some work there on the edge of the hat -- wow!
used them on the hat stand too, where it is better but I'm not sure I'm done there -- I may go back with another darker color and color it again
I've started working on the hat box -- found some great stripe fabric to make that out of
I'm working on another small piece that will be on stretcher bars -- part of the moon series I'm doing
this piece is coming along too -- almost done with the edging then it's on to the toggle clasp
when I was in a parking lot the other day I spotted this version of Cerberus -- three little dogs definitely keeping folks out of that car -- the one facing directly at the camera was barking like crazy -- funny
for quite a while I was out here blogging every day (or almost every day) and somehow I don't seem to be able to manage that right now -- between physical therapy twice a week, trying to get some packing in the house done, getting ready to hang a quilt show this coming Tuesday and still have some time to work on projects, the blogging has fallen to the bottom of the "to do" list
bear with me folks!
my word for this year is REACH
yesterday I took a long reach and cut this quilt
and I've already been using the InkTense pencils on it, darkening the hat stand
and now I'm thinking about trying to create a hat box to totally cover the hat at the bottom of the piece
painter's do this kind of rework all the time -- painting over whatever part of the canvas that doesn't "work" for the greater good of the piece
I've never done this before -- in a way it's sort of liberating!
this piece is slowly coming together
after a trip to the fabric store yesterday, I've started attaching the circles to the backing
this one too is a REACH since it is different than my usual style and size
looking good!
the latest piece from the garage workshop!
the DH finished up the stand he built for my new printer -- it has a nice sturdy shelf under it to set paper on
I've already put it to use!
this is his next project
originally it was a closet for doll clothes for my daughter
he's going to rework it into a kitchen cabinet unit for Mr Cute to go with his stove
first step? he's taking the drawers apart to rebuild them
a bit of beading all complete
this started with a challenge to use something out of the ordinary in a piece of jewelry
in this case, the black dividers between the beading is from one of the plastic sleeves they use over a bottle to keep it from banging into other bottles in the bag
while I like this piece (and have already listed it in my Etsy shop), I decided it was not "outside the box" enough to enter in the challenge
so I'm working on this piece for that
the silver rings in this are star washers from the hardware store
not the usual item in a piece of jewelry! and this one will have a much more organic shape than the cuff does
this is as much of a plan as I have for it right now, so it's sort of a "happening"
earlier in the week I finished this piece -- a tote bag for my daughter
she picked out the fabric and I was happy to do a little sewing for her
this piece is titled "First Saturday in May" -- it was originally made in 2011 for the Hoffman Challenge that year (and is the only one I've ever entered that didn't make the cut to travel)
I decided recently that I wanted to try to "rescue" it
I've decided that the way to do that is multifaceted
I'll be removing the label, the sleeve and the facing and then CUTTING it into two smaller pieces
after that I'm going to do a lot of coloring with Inktense pencils and sticks on the piece with the hats on it to improve the contrast
I'm not totally sure what exactly I will do with the other piece -- it will be interesting
you might remember this piece that I did earlier this year
at the time I thought about doing a series of pieces based on the moon, but comments in a critique group sort of dampened my idea
until we had this
and I have decided that while it may not be the most original (read: never done before) idea, the idea still speaks to me, and I think it may speak to someone else too
if I'm going to do another piece as part of this "series", I want it to be the same size
and since I did the original piece over a home made stretcher bar that the DH had created out of scrap lumber, I went to that source again, and he created me another stretcher bar
now I need to work on some drawings
and speaking of drawings, I recently did this one
this idea has been stuck in my head for nearly a year -- seen in that fugue state between sleep and wakefulness on the morning a friend died, this drawing is much closer than anything else I've been able to put down on paper -- it needs color to be understandable
I'm thinking about doing this piece to be submitted to a show that happens every other year titled "Sacred Threads"
we'll see how this all goes
and then there is this
both of my knees have this lovely taped "octopus" on the inside edge
I've done two weeks of physical therapy and I can say that this is largely a three steps forward, one step back process
which means of course I'm already impatient to be "better"!
trying to just do what I need to do --- progress in this case comes slowly
I've had a hard time the last week or so managing time and technology
We're coming up to the hanging of an open exhibit quilt show, which means I'm spending a lot of time figuring out how to arrange some very unrelated pieces together and handling a lot of paperwork
And in the process of transferring a lot of files from the old computer to the new computer, some data on the external hard drive got corrupted so I had to take the drive to the "computer hospital" and get it retrieved --- ACK! (and frankly if it had been anything but the HUNDREDS of pictures of Mr Cute and my art work I would have just tried to live with the loss~)
Along the way I have been working on this piece, and it's coming along nicely
Last night I did the "sandwich" of the beading and the backing around the metal cuff, so this should be done soon
Last week I turned the house upside down looking for the long cable that goes with my knitting needles for the next big project
Finally gave up -- it will reappear in it's own good time -- so I'm knitting on hats for Cheyenne River Reservation until the new cable I just ordered arrives (I figure it's okay to have two long cables anyway)
Time to get busy -- lots of things to do!
I'm working on a quilt project
last night I finished the first step of these, so they now go to the sewing machine to have some decorative stitching done with lovely, "glow-y" rayon thread
last year for Christmas I made my daughter a pair of boot socks -- the first socks I had successfully knit
a couple of months ago, she mentioned that it would be nice to have another pair so there would be one to wear and one to wash
I had yarn left from the first pair -- the pattern was fairly painless -- why not?
so now she has two
the second and last pair
the DH has been working in the garage workshop
as sometimes happens, our projects spill into each other's area of expertise
he built this awesome display box to hang on the wall that holds a modern icon of St Nicholas, Tsar of Russia and a brass key to the Kremlin
but he wanted those pieces to be on a velvet background
he did the wood working -- I covered the background and figured out how to mount the key without damaging it
pretty cool
he just rebuilt this table too
I had used this in a corner, tight between a desk and the wall to set a printer on in my old office set up
he's building me a whole new printer stand for the new, larger, heavier printer, but we couldn't see tossing the old table just because it wasn't stable on it's legs anymore
he took off the old wobbly screw on legs and put on new permanent legs and restained the whole piece
COOL!
my birthday was over the weekend
my friend from California sent me this amazing box -- it had these great fat quarters of fabric in it and this wonderful hand painted card
I think she originally bought these fabrics when she made a trip "down under" a few years ago, and they are very cool
the card will be added to my collection of her art -- I need to get a few small frames so I can hang them all on my studio walls
this was the computer that I had been using for a number of years -- the screen was starting to get very difficult to work on, and it was running on Windows XP -- a dinosaur!
this is my new computer -- and part of the reason that it has taken me a whole week to get a blog post done!
this one runs on Windows 8 -- which meant I needed to get new versions of many of the software packages that I work with -- especially Adobe PhotoShop which I use to "tweek" all of the pictures that come out of my camera and my cell phone so I can use them on the web
but the new stuff has new "features", making just enough of a change that it has taken me all week to figure it out
I think I'm going to like it a lot! and I should add, a huge big THANK YOU to my sister for making this possible right now -- it would have taken me another couple of months to make this happen if it weren't for her generosity
so, now that we're back to normal, it's time to get back to work -- errands and packing and hopefully some time in the studio today
