art is where you see it

Early in the week I decided that I needed a tall stool in my studio so I could work for longer periods of time without my legs and back hurting so much.  I figured it was going to be a while before I could find one that gave me what I needed at a price I could afford.

I was pleasantly surprised during my trip to Walmart to discover this lovely one that is exactly the right height, has a nicely padded seat, swivels and is actually attractive -- all that at a price I could afford!!  Whooot!!

And when I headed home from my local Walmart, I went the back road around and the DH spotted this awesome barn, so I pulled off the road and took some pictures.

I'm thinking that at least part of this will make it into a piece of work for the Parched Earth series.

It's all about being aware of what is around you.

This week I've continued to work on the leaves for the beaded piece I'm doing.

These are beaded leaves 4, 5, 6 and 7 -- moving right along here

I've just ordered the beads I need to do the outside edges of all of this piece (since I've decided to enter it in a Fire Mountain Gems competition, I'm being really picky about the finishing process).

By the time those beads get here I hope to have all the rest of the leaves finished and ready.

The quilting on the first panel of the Evolution series (The Forest) is done.  I haven't decided yet what I will be doing for the edges of these, so I'm going to defer the binding for now

The work on the design wall continues on the second panel of the Evolution series (The Farm) -- the sky is done and I'm working my way down the fields to the barn

Since the quilting was finished on The Forest, it's time to change the thread color palette and move into quilting on this piece #2 in the Parched Earth series -- no green here -- just blues, grays and browns and I'm ready to go on it having gotten the silk layer pinned on top of the colored panel

And here is the week's progress on #3 in the Parched Earth series -- at this point it doesn't look like much, but I see progress none the less

Once again this week there are wild fires filling the news. 

This is the concept "drawing" for a piece I'm working on that is tentatively titled "Fire" for the Parched Earth series

I'm not sure if I'm done "tweeking" this design yet -- right now the trees and warped studs look like they are "floating" and I'm not sure that's what I want it to look like

Still thinking about it

Not every moment was spent working on art this week

Some time was spent making up a batch of strawberry jam -- and it's quite yummy

It's been a good year for strawberries, and we didn't have any more strawberry jam in the cabinet, so it was time

I'm hoping to get my hands on some apricots to do a batch of jam from them soon