still doodling

 

more drawings for the fall project

I'm enjoying the drawing part -- pumpkins are a shape that is deeply ingrained in my brain, so I can draw them without having any "models" to pose for me

in actual fiber creation, this one would probably include some autumn leaves too

so which one do you like best?

Saturday studio time

it's been cooler the past few days, and since I'm still not supposed to be doing heavy lifting, bending, etc., I spent quite a bit of time in the studio yesterday

the redesign of the clasp for the piece of jewelry I'm working on is complete

I've only used one of these slide clasps before, and that was on a bracelet -- I'm starting to get the hang of installing them

next step is that little cubic right angle weave project

all of the stitching of the sky is finished now -- this picture was taken while there was still that little area at the right hand side that had pins in it, but that has now been stitched as has the very first of the mountain pieces

cool

seems once I started drawing again, it just continues to flow out onto the paper

a while back my daughter asked me if could do her a fall wall art piece (I've already done her a Christmas one and a Halloween one)

I'm not sure if this is more "formal" than she had in mind, but I do like this drawing

it has that "did I do that" feel to it -- so I think rather she likes it and I do it for her or it just goes in the sketch file for future "slice of life" work, I'm hanging on to it

another afghan square got completed when I talked with my sister yesterday

we have good news -- her DH is home!  he still has health issues to be dealt with, but they'll be doing it together with their doctor's advising

I offered to help if I can

I see more afghan squares getting knit!

a new "slice of life"

for a while I've been working on little sketches for a series of pieces I want to make that is titled "A Slice of Life"

this little drawing is the latest in the series and it's titled "The Entry Way" -- when I was a little girl the house I spent the most time in was my grandmother's -- you came in the front door into a long narrow room -- on one side was the old, upright piano, and on the other side under the 6 over 6 windows was a row of white bookcases that my grandfather built -- on top of those were pots full of violets that my grandmother lovingly tended (it's funny that even now almost 60 years later I can close my eyes and see this room -- and every other room in that house)

I decided to go back to using the smaller bead embroidered piece at the back with the clasp, but because I changed the rest of the layout, I needed to have two of these smaller pieces instead of just one

so yesterday I did the bead embroidery on the second one -- today I should be able to get the backing onto both of these and start the next part -- I'm going to try doing right angle weave with the tiny size 15 beads -- we'll see how that goes

you may remember this little piece I did a few weeks ago

the voting in the competition it is entered in has begun

you can go and vote on your favorite piece  HERE

some design work?

ok, I'm getting a little better every day -- still can't breathe through my nose so I wake up in the mornings with a sore throat from mouth breathing, but I'm feeling stronger every day -- and getting impatient about being able to "get back to it"!

I sat at the table for a while yesterday and worked on possible layouts for connecting the embroidered pieces of this necklace

my response to this -- meh!

it really needs more beading instead of using just the silver cubes

so I'll be doing some more "fiddling" with this piece to get it to what I see in my head

I've been doing some mindless work in the studio ---

I had picked up an assortment of wool yarns that I plan to make into felted bags -- in order to knit the yarn so I can felt it, I needed to get the yarn into balls or "cakes" that I can knit from

these are all ready to go (and yes, each one of them has the paper label that came on them tucked inside the center of the cake)


have almost finished the sky on the big quilt I'm doing applique work on --- looking good --- I'll try to get a picture in the next couple of days

time to try to catch up on paperwork

moving slowly

I'm slowly recovering

the nasal packing from the cauterizing is out and there has been no new bleeding -- still taking an antibiotic to stave off the sinus infection

you don't realize how much bending and lifting you actually do in the normal chores of something so simple as loading and unloading the dishwasher until you're told not to do that bending --- the DH is having to deal with all that for now (and doing a very good job!!)

the up side of not being able to do much real physical work is that I've spent a lot of time working on the two quilts I'm in the midst of and doing some knitting

this fabric arrived in the mail along with a couple of spools of Sulky thread and my pin for participating in the Hoffman Challenge for this year

when Iopened the envelope my first thought was "what will I ever use that for", but it's growing on me -- I'm thinking about using it for the lining in a felted bag --- we'll see

there was also the flyer for the fabric for next year's Hoffman Challenge --- it's very different from anything they've had in recent years, so I'll need to think about it for a while to see if it speaks to me

I've spent a bit of time on the phone with my sister this week -- getting updates on how her husband is doing -- which means another afghan square is complete!

the real good news here is that her DH is recovering -- he has some challenges to be faced in some life style changes as they are unraveling the interrelated issues, but if he'll do what he's told he should be ok -- now begins a new challenge for them


today I hope to get a chance to actually work on the piece of jewelry that has been languishing since Saturday -- we'll see

short update and a request of my readers

just because I like to put in at least one picture -- here is my mother's day violet sitting on the window sill in my kitchen

my daughter was worried that she would kill it -- but it's doing really well


just an update on my little journey to the doctor yesterday -- the nasal packing from Saturday night's ER visit was removed and it started bleeding again, so the doctor cauterized it

the new packing comes out today and I'm restricted for the rest of the week -- no bending over, no lifting, no stressing of any kind --- I'll be ready for the funny farm by then -- thank goodness the DH is doing well and we got the lawn/sprinkler issues handled last week

my sister was with me on Saturday evening, and little did we know it was just prologue for what she was going to deal with next -- when she got home on Sunday evening she had to call the EMTs when her husband stopped breathing

he's now in ICU, and we're praying for his recovery -- I'd appreciate your prayers too

just in case you thought you had any control

a little catching up is in order here

the burning bush plants and the new mulching has been all installed

and after three trips, the sprinkler system is back in running order -- whoot! whoot!  no more hauling around hoses and we don't have to worry about watering on the proper days when we're not at home for some reason


on Thursday I got the backs all done on this piece, and it's ready to be strung together

since my sister was here, we did a "field trip" to the yarn store --- I picked up some yarn from the discount bin to do some felted bags with --- I have a plan for what I want to do with these, now I just have to get to it

on Saturday evening around 9 pm I was sitting in my chair quilting on a piece and my nose started bleeding (for the third time in a week)

unlike the first two times, it just kept bleeding, so off we went to the ER where they packed one side of my nose and sent me home with antibiotics to stave off the possible sinus infection

this picture is the inside of my arm where they tried to get blood to do lab work -- they could have just put a tube under my nose instead of doing all this digging around -- I would have been less bruised!

since my little ER trip, I've largely just snoozed in my recliner

I did get this afghan square finished

this afternoon I go to the doctor and they will remove the packing and hopefully tell me how we can put a stop to this

thank goodness I now have health insurance!

I can't come back, I don't know how it works!

 ok, we're not in Oz, but on yesterday's "walk with lab", I spotted this above the houses across the street from us

this is a different balloon from the one that used to land in the field behind our house before they built apartments there

but it might be the same pilot (he lives around the corner)

you can't see it in the picture, but he was close enough that I could see the flame

the edging has begun! 

I'm using a soft gray leather on the back of these, and I love the way the single row of red beads around the edge pulls up the color of the lilies in the center

soon as this step is finished, I'll start working on stringing it all together

my sister is coming to spend a few days

we originally planned to do this back in May, but other things got in the way

her room is ready

I've done some special grocery shopping

still need to vacuum the floors in the family room and the studio

who knows what kind of trouble we'll get into!

weekend update

we're doing little renovation projects around the house and yard

last winter the specialty grass at the front edge of the driveway got killed off (this is what happens in a climate that sometimes does a bunch of 60 degree days in January then goes back below zero!)

the DH dug out all of those grasses over the weekend and we picked up these three little "Burning Bush" plants to replace them with

these are actually little shrubs that are supposed to handle down to -30 degrees and are a really pretty bright red in the fall (hence the name Burning Bush) -- they'll make a great little hedge there

of course a trip to the big box hardware store meant I got to wander through all of the plants

with a cell phone that has a good camera

snapped these pictures (don't you love the water droplets on some of the leaves!)

they're going in the "future artwork" file

did a little more on this project too

have decided that the bottom edge needs some braid and some decorative tacks to finish it off

I'll be going to shop for those today

just one more of these pieces to finish beading

moving right along here --- I've reached the "are we there yet" stage with this project

there's another piece already "cooking" in my head!

this piece gets more exciting every day!!!

loving the way it looks

then there is this little cutie

sent it off to the Hoffman Challenge a while back

and I'm happy to say that for the third time I'll have a piece traveling with the Hoffman pieces all over the country for another year

WHOOT! WHOOT! 

upholstery continues

the work continues

it's pretty cool actually seeing some of the fabric actually on the chair!

next step includes the making of a couple of yards of covered welting (cord) to go along the edge of the back of the chair

this is a good example of the danger of over thinking the project -- but now that I've read what I could get my hands on, I have at least come up with a plan

onward!

more beadwork

all of the lily flowers are stitched, and yesterday afternoon I got the first of the small panels all filled

only four more of these to go

the walking with the lab has been good for something more than her rehab --- since I take my cell phone with me when we walk, I also have a camera with me --- which means I am back to taking photos of the little things that catch my eye along the way

a week or so ago we had the mystery plant (which I have since learned actually ARE tomatillos, which is what I thought they were) and this morning after the brief attempt to chase the neighborhood cottontail I spotted this pair of leaves standing upright in the grass -- cool!

time to get busy

one down

and a few more to go!

looking good

as is this -- I've reached the edge of the tree that has little bits of the sunset peaking through it

then there is this project

which I finally figured out in the last couple of days that I had been going at it the wrong way

a bit of time taking things apart and a fresh start produced this much progress in one session -- Yippee!!

might get this done yet

and once again I love the fact that I have access to a camera at all times!

snapped this photo during one of the "walk with lab" exercises

this is getting filed in my "future inspiration for an art quilt" folder

what am I working on

even after spending a lot of time dealing with paperwork, a trip to the store and doing the laundry for the week, I got quite a lot of work done in the studio

this piece is coming along nicely

 and now that the quilt for Mr Cute is all complete, I'm back to really working on this piece

this is already taking on that "did I do that" feel that happens sometimes 

this morning we had a bit of excitement -- after the big black dog and I had done our walk and she had her breakfast, she had a full on dog alert at the patio door

I looked up to see the shadow of a small doe walking the fence line in the field behind our house -- how cool is that!?

unfortunately for my camera, she was so small and so close to the fence that I couldn't even get a picture by going upstairs -- maybe standing on the roof would have done it, but I'm not going there

things have settled down now --- guess I'll have to do real work now

a big quilt for the big boy's bed

I finished the last stitch on this project last night

it is bigger than for a single bed, not as big as a queen bed size, all ready to grace the bed of Mr Cute when his folks make the big switch

it has a label on the back (which I wrote on the back of a left over piece of one of the print fabrics) that includes his name, the name of who made it (his mama and his gramma) and the date

consider it a future heirloom --- if he doesn't wear it out first

wasting no time in turning that pencil drawing into a 3 dimensional reality

I like the way this looks!

and I think this whole piece will all go together quickly now

time to get moving --- laundry to do and groceries to fetch before I can get back in the studio

new ideas

since I wasn't happy with the way the Egyptian piece was going I did not work on it yesterday except to think about it

at the end of the day, I ended up with this sketch for a whole new approach

the next step is to draw out the patterns on the backing material and start on the beading

YEAH!

the quilting on this project is complete!!  last night I started doing the hand stitching of the binding --- almost done

knitting continues on this piece --- I've turned the corner and now I'm knitting the gusset

one of the coolest knitting tricks ever was the way the ears are knit in as part of the top of the head --- this is where knitters accept the magic of the written symbols and follow blindly along then suddenly you have something you totally did not expect!

 

sometimes, if you are looking at the ordinary things in life, you see something amazing

this morning I set out my fruit to warm a bit while I emptied the dishwasher and fed then walked the dog

when I returned from the walk I picked up the bowl from the counter and with the sun shining on the fruit at just the right angle I could see all these tiny droplets of moisture