Out of Africa stitching series (& other projects)

It's all complete except for the wood rod that will have the cord for hanging

(the DH is doing staining and varnishing on that this week)

I'm am really pleased with how this came out, and excited about the idea of doing some more things on this theme

Out of Africa seems like the appropriate title for this series of mixed media pieces

Aside from this piece and the zebras (which I'll talk about more in a minute) I'm thinking about doing an elephant and maybe a rhino

We'll see how that all goes



the new zebra stamp is finally finished

you may recall that while I was in California I had cut two zebras, but instead of them facing each other as I intended, they both faced the same way (ok, I'm directionally challenged!)

So, now that I've recovered enough to sit in a hard chair for a while I decided to try again

and here is the very first print of the newly cut stamp

success!!

this first print is going into the mail this week to my friend in California for her to play with





and so I wanted to figure out a way to put the zebra that faces the other way into the original stamping I had do, but how to do it?

Here is what the original stamp looked like

Two zebras facing the same way and on a piece of fabric that does not have enough space for the third one at either end






So my idea was to use some freezer paper over part of the front and the back of the zebras that had already been stamped












then I printed the new stamp over the freezer paper to add the third zebra to the print













after the paint dried, I peeled away the freezer paper

it's neat!

there are now three zebras in the picture and they face in different ways

so, next I wanted to create a picture from them







Then I decided that I wanted to put a blue sky behind the zebras, so I cut another piece of freezer paper and ironed it over the zebras and the bottom edge of the fabric so I could use a big sea sponge to create a blue sky










and here it is after I used Copic markers to add "rocks and grasses" at the bottom of the fabric.

So, now I will be using threads and beads to embellish this piece (like doing turkey work along the neck of each zebra to create a 3 dimensional mane on each one)

Guess this will be #2 in the "Out of Africa" series!






since I'm spending a lot of time sitting as I recover, I'm getting a lot of other work done too

this is the 5th afghan square completed and I've started a 6th one (with a lot of bright orange in it)

I'm finally feeling well enough to go back to quilting on the piece I'm making as a Christmas gift, have finished the sleeves and the back of the sweater I'm working on and I'm making good progress on the beading project

This week I'm still not allowed to drive or go up and down stairs more than once a day, so I need to plan my trips carefully (do I need to shower more than I need to do a load of laundry, for instance) --- a two story house with the washer in the basement is not real convenient right now!

But I'm hoping to get a lot of projects done!

and another square

this makes four since last week --- not bad

When my sister was here over the weekend, she brought along some very cool yarn to share, so this square is made with one of those yarns --- always nice to have new stuff to work with

I've been trying to start the lace work with the silk yarn I bought while I was in California, but so far it's been nothing but frustration. I'm thinking that like most things that are new I just haven't quite figured it out yet.

There has been good progress made on both the beading project and the giraffe piece (even though I picked out the original binding on the giraffe piece to change it!)

Yesterday I was feeling pretty good, so I got the new zebra stamp cut too ---- I hope to get him mounted so I can use the stamp soon.

time to get to it!

Oh look, real projects!

I'm actually beginning to work on things!

This is the beading piece I had gotten all set up a week or so ago, and now I'm working on the beading.

I used a piece of sort of irridesdant fabric over that entire center part for the old ripply glass that was in the original building --- notice you can read the "BANK" lettering on the door.

Once I finish the parts around the door I will be using even smaller beads to do an "X" through each of the rectangular "windows" to look like the original metal work on the front of this building.

(And as soon as I'm allowed to go up and down stairs as much as I want I'll scan the original photo so you can see the bead work and the "real thing" side by side)

Meantime I'm working on the binding around the little giraffe wall hanging, and I've just started shaping the armholes on the back of the the sweater I'm knitting.

slowly getting better

what I've done so far while recovering

not much actually, but I think I'm excused

Since I had my surgery on Friday morning I have worked on a sweater, knit these three afghan squares for charity and just laid around and tried to not do all the stuff that it's just second nature for me to just get up and do

So perhaps today my sister (who has been here since Saturday to help me out) and I will work on some family history too

stay tuned, by the end of the week there might be some real work done

Something else to share

Somehow in all the commotion since we returned from California, I have neglected to post this treasure I got while I was on vacation.

This is a ball of 100% silk yarn --- 1100 yards! --- of hand painted soft fine wonderfulness

And such a lovely colorway --- soft aquas to almost white ---- mmmmmmmmm!

And so, you're thinking, "what are you doing with that?"

Well, after my experiment with knitting lace on a bigger scale, I'm planning to do lace more in the weight that lace is meant to be with this loveliness.

Yesterday I finished the beading of the frame liner for the Carried Away project -- hurrah!!

So today I'm doing last minute things --- laundry, cleaning and moving my printer upstairs to hook up to my laptop for using the next couple of weeks while my stair mobility is limited (surgery is one thing, but don't ask me to do without my computer for that long!!!)

I'll be back soon!

Actual studio work

Along with all the getting ready for surgery house preparations, I actually have taken some time this week to work on some projects.

This is what I'm refering to as the "frame band" for the balloon piece. I still have about 3 inches of flat straight single color (read BORING here) peyote stitch to do to finish this up before I can fit it in the frame and zip it together.

Then I'll just have to figure out how to attach the balloons

All the rest of this project is ready for the contructions stage, so at least "on paper" it should be easy from here --- heh, right ---

I have finished doing the beading and embroidery and marker embellishment on the little giraffe stamp.

Borders have been added on the left side and at the bottom (the one at the bottom is a fabric I created by doing applique of shapes in different colors over the base fabric)

This has now been pin basted and the detail quilting has begun --- in orange thread of course.

Once the quilting is done I'll need to figure out what sort of hanging device I'm going to add to this. Right now I'm considering loops and a rod decorated with some beads and fringe. We'll see how that goes.

Nice to have a small quilting project to work on



(and, by the way, that unidentified big quilting project I'm working on has also been pin basted so I can start the quilting on it)

and here we have the first of the Kansas architecture pieces -- The Bank

notice that the top has been inked in with a blue color

this piece is intended to be mixed media, so I decided that the blue marker made a good "sky" backdrop for the bank building

The center of this will have a piece of sort of irridescant fabric for the glass with rows of size 15 seed beads to serve as the "frames" of the glass.

and I'm planning to use bugle beads vertically with seeds horizontally for the "pillars" on each side

It should be interesting, and I'm sure will change as it moves along

time to get busy!

just a little side trip

over the weekend we made a quick trip to our daughter's house to help out with a little home repair project

since the current knitting I'm working on is for her, I couldn't really work on it while we were there

so, here are two afghan squares all ready to be shipped off --- I'm thinking I may put the supplies to do a couple of these in my hospital bag, so I can work on them if I'm feeling up to it

meantime, I have been working on setting up to work on the first of the mixed media architectural pieces to be framed

I'll be doing the bank first

Progress pictures to come!

new projects

As you may recall, yesterday I was babbling abount needing to start on a new project to get jazzed up to finish some old ones.

I can report that I did, and I am.

Although actually these drawings have been resurrected from about two years ago when I originally thought about this project then couldn't figure out how to do anything with it.

So, now that I'm more seriously working on beaded pieces that go into frames, it seemed logical to pull this out and reconsider it.

The plan is to create 5 pieces as a series in frames. There are two that got me started on this idea in the first place --- that very first one that is the theatre and the last one that is a bank.

We'll see where this goes.

Meantime, I started doing the embellishment on the giraffe print last night, and it's looking good!

Thinking about the "here after"

as in "what did I come in here after"?

I loved being on vacation --- I had a great time working on art projects with my friend. But now that we're home I find that I'm at the "boring" part of some bead work and the "are we ever going to finish this" part on a quilt.

And it's hot, which makes me want to just lay down on the tile floor under the ceiling fan with the dog and do nothing whatsoever.

Add to that the fact that next Friday I'm having surgery so I'm trying to put the house in order so it won't make me totally crazy while I'm recovering and can't just go fix whatever is bugging me.

{sigh!}

So, I need a new project to get me jazzed up enough to work on stuff.

While I was in California someone suggested it would be cool to make a lion out of beads (have you noticed there have been a series of African animals on the scene of late here?).

So I'm thinking about lions and whole new ways to make animals -- as in doing the skeleton out of wire then covering it with batting and unbleached muslin then working beads over the entire thing. (Wow, where did THAT idea come from).

and then of course there is that series of architectural pieces to put in frames that I was thinking about before we left

and the piecing of a suitable border to go around the giraffe print

but I digress -- Oh yeah, that seems to be the problem!

Blocking --- It's not just mental

Most of what I usually knit does not require "blocking"

Part of that is because I usually am using "un-natural" fibers -- acrylics, polyesters -- that do not require blocking, just a run through the washer and dryer and it's done

This project, however, is a whole other critter

This yarn is made of bamboo. I got it in the sale bin during a recent visit to one of my favorite yarn shops.

There were exactly two of the little 82 yard balls of this in the same color (and two of another sort of gray color which I did not like). And the price was low enough that I just couldn't resist getting some to play with.

What I did not expect was that it would work up so neatly

I had decided that I wanted to try the lace technique in a larger format so I could actually see (quickly) what I was doing. This stuff was great for that.

And now I have another finished project --- or I will just as soon as it drys.

Who knew blocking would be so much fun?

What I did on my summer vacation

Remember those compositions we had to write the first day back to school?

I've decided that the teachers were just trying to get a bit more prep time, so they gave us a "make work" project. (I also hated those compositions because we never did anything all that exciting over summer vacation when I was a kid --- hours and hours of laying around in a hot house reading and the occasional camping trip)

Anyway, since I'm talking about my vacation in this post (and the last one), I thought I'd share some things with you.

I had the best of intentions (and we all know where those lead!) to do actual physical journal pages with drawings, etc.

I did exactly ONE of them, and here it is.

Actually I learned some really important things from this idea and my failure to complete it:

1. I'm better with a camera and a computer keyboard than I am with a notebook and a box of pencils --- my drawing skills are just not up to the task of creating (to my satisfaction) some of the complex ideas I wanted to convey.

2. When I'm on vacation I don't spend a lot of time reflecting --- I spend time observing and doing --- and reflecting time is when I do journal (or blog) work.

3. It's okay that I didn't get all that drawing done because I had a great time, did some wonderful art projects and have some fun stories to share.

Odd things seen on the road #1: Windmill Farms

In the two and a half years since we last drove to California, a lot of windmills have sprung up.

These are not the old multi-blade water pump for the stock tank sort of windmills.

No, we're talking about those tri-blade high tech wonders that are becoming a part of our nation's power grid.

I for one find them fascinating --- and I'm happy to see them showing up on the top of hills that are otherwise covered with sagebrush in areas (like Wyoming!) where the wind seems to never stop blowing.

For years there has been a place called Altamont Pass in northern California where one of the oldest windmill farms in the country was. We drove over Altamont specifically to see if those windmills were being upgraded to the new ones. They are --- and they have added many, many more windmills too.

Odd things seen on the road #2: Dairy Cows and Moose

No, I'm not kidding.

When you drive Interstate Highway 80 (the most direct way to get from where we started to where we wanted to go), and go out of Wyoming into Utah, you go down a sort of narrow valley that has a lot of smaller family farms.

In the past I have seen fields with sheep, cattle and horses all together.

This year's trip was a whole new adventure.

As we're slowly crawling along in traffic (it's road construction time), I looked over into the field and saw 6 dairy cows (you know, the black and white ones like on the California Cheese commercials) RUNNING across the field.

I've seen a lot of dairy cows, but I can't remember any other time I've seen them running anywhere. It was puzzling. What were they running from?

But wait, there in the field ahead of them is another animal --- a female MOOSE! They were chasing the moose out of their field!!

What a hoot!

Odd things seen on the road #3: Urban Transportation?

In same areas along the highway, the road runs parallel with streets in little towns along the way.

As I looked out in one area I saw what must pass for urban transportation for one guy at least.

He was riding his horse, with his mule in tow and two dogs running along side right down the middle of the paved street into town.

I wonder if he was headed to Walmart ---

Odd things seen on the road #4: Air Travel?

This seemed to be the trip for oddities of machinery intended for air travel.

#1: Two helicopters without their rotors on trailers behind pick up trucks --- one seen on the way out to California, one on the way back.

#2: A little yellow airplane suddenly appearing from behind a burm that ran along the highway apparently taking off from a little runway that we couldn't see.

#3: Crop dusting with a small bi-wing plane in the Central Valley of California.

#4: A small plane flying at about 10 feet off the ground parallel with the road across the salt desert.

Odd things seen on the road #5: Dust Devil

We've watched dust devils from the car for years as we've driven back and forth to California.

They always look like little dirt tornados, kicking up dust and then disappearing.

This was the first time that we had actually felt the impact of one of them.

As we were driving along I spotted one out in a field ahead of us. Because of the speed and direction of both our van and the dust devil, we had the experience of driving through it --- or it running over us.

After that brief and somewhat scary experience I can tell you that I think those folks that chase after full blown tornados are nuts!

Odd things seen on the road #6: Back in Time

As we were coming home we saw two fully restored Model T Fords headed the other way.

It was pretty amazing to see them rolling along --- although not at 75 miles an hour --- in with the other vehicles.

Makes me think of a lyric from the musical Ragtime:

See my people?
Well, here's my theory
Of what this country
Is moving toward.
Every worker
A cog in motion.
Well, that's the notion of Henry Ford!
One man tightens
And one man ratchets
And one man reaches
To pull one cord.
Car keeps moving
In one direction.
A genuflection to Henry Ford!

(I have some thoughts about this politically as well, but we won't go there on this blog!)

Odd things seen on the road #7: Awesome Animals

As on every trip, I notice animals. Here then is a sampling:

1. A praire dog sitting on the edge of the highway as if he were counting cars as they went by.

2. Antelope in the fields with the cattle. (Unlike the dairy cows and the moose, the cattle didn't seem to mind)

3. Deer -- but none of them alive. I can't remember ever seeing so many dead deer along the highway.

4. Racoons in any state don't appear to explode on impact --- it must be the slick fur.

5. The last day of our trip we went up into the Colorado mountains with our daughter and son-in-law. On the way back we saw 3 elk in a little meadow by the side of the road. The bull elk was amazing --- the most enormous rack, and all in velvet still --- such an amazing creature.

So, just what did you do on your vacation?

Catching Up

I'm back!

For the first time in a very long time we actually spent two weeks on vacation!! Weird ---

As we have done shows and traveled for those in the past few years, our "vacations" have usually consisted of an extra day after a show to visit a place we've not seen before or to visit briefly with friends.

This year, since I will not be doing any shows that I'll be traveling to, and because a dear friend was celebrating her 80th birthday, we made a trip to California.

The point of the trip was that she and I got to "PLAY"!

In this post I'm going to talk about about the projects that I've worked on the past two weeks, then in another post in the next couple of days, I'll talk about our travel "adventures".


Project #1: The Angels
You may remember this project from a while back.

Even though in general I was pleased with the way it came out, I have long maintained that doing faces, especially human like faces, in any medium is not my strongest suite. This piece was no exception, so I took it and the fabric markers I had originally used on it with me, hoping for some help with it.

The suggested fix? Darker markers to do the shading/highlighting of the eyes, nose and mouth and under the chins.

The result I think is much better.

Project #2: Rubber Stamping
That we should be messing with rubber stamps at all is sort of funny as neither of us have ever been all that into the whole rubber stamping craze, but when we recently got involved with cutting rubber stamps from our own drawings, we got a lot more interested!

These are the pair of zebras that I cut and the first stamps of each of them.

There's only one problem with this -- my original plan was to have two zebras that would FACE each other --- except I got the transfer to the rubber wrong, and so both of them face the same way ---- Pfffttt!!

Okay, that means that I need to cut one more, but I'll have to get another sheet of the rubber stuff to cut first.

Project #3: Rubber Stamping and a Painting Technique Lesson
You probably remember that I've been sort of giraffe crazy of late, and that has spilled over into this project too.

There at the top is the giraffe rubber stamp, and underneath is the stamp with the embellishment of an added tail and mane that are drawn on with a fabric marker.

Because my friend has taken all those classes in painting techniques that come along with a BA in Fine Art she gave me a techniques lesson on using various sea sponges to create the tree and the ground beneath the giraffe.

My plan next is to use thread and beads to further embellish this and to create something that can be hung on the wall from it.

And yes, I'm thinking about something that will involve even more stamped animals.

Project #4: Dye Workshop
Ok, perhaps we should have labeled this "playing with dirty soap"

This project involved squirting dyes into a pan of shaving cream to form patterns then laying the fabric over the pan to take up the colors and patterns -- sort of like you do with marbling techniques on paper.

After that you pick up the fabric and let it dry for about 24 hours before you wash out the shaving cream and residual dye.

And these are my pieces from the project.

My plan is to use them as parts of more stamping/embellishing projects in the future


The Shopping Spree
This was not a trip where I did a whole lot of shopping for anything.

I did get the chance to go into a quilt store in San Jose while we were there and picked up a piece of fabric for a wall hanging we are working on that is titled Breakfast on the Hoof.

The "cow print" fabric was just too cute to resist especially since they were having a sale.

And here's the next question --- which is more useful, the purchase or the bag?

Since I work with lots of media, the bag will be just as good to have as the fabric!

A Project Complete!
One of the things I can do quite well while riding for hours in a car is knit.

While we were traveling I completed the last of the mittens for this year's Mittnz challenge.

I'll be sending along my picture this week.

Since those were finished by the middle of the second day out, I started working on this year's sweater project. Because sleeves are usually the last pieces I knit and I usually dread them if they are just plain sleeves, I decided to knit those first this time. And I'm now within 10 rows of having both sleeves complete.

And there have been some other knitting experiments which I will be sharing in the next few days, incuding the purchase of some absolutely amazing silk yarn.

And so there we are.

I'm back, I played, and now there is a ton of laundry to do ---- more soon!

last minute odds and ends

You'd think after 4 loads of laundry, helping to mow both lawns and packing for our trip that I'd be too tired to do anything but go to sleep ---

But no, the brain would not stop babbling, so after all of that I worked on the beaded band for the balloon piece, and on the Christmas quilt project, and knitted on a mitten

Then I drew this little swan

Another addition to the doodle collection -- and a possible candidate for creating a rubber stamp from

I packed my rubber stamps and the materials I have on hand to make more of same (tools, rubber for cutting) hoping that we'll get to play with that idea while we're in California

So after breakfast we'll pack the car and head on out

Watch for posts on the road and while we're in California "playing"!

Giraffe!

Finally complete!

And isn't it adorable?

I especially love the ears!!

While the ears looked like they would stand up okay on their own, I ended up putting a pipe cleaner on the outside edges of them by doing a single crochet over the pipe cleaner all around.

The nose is two rows of contrasting color single crochet too --- worked right into the knitting stitched in a curve around the nostril outline.

And see how long the neck is? I used a piece of 1/2 inch PVC pipe inside, and the butt is weighted with a combination of plastic doll pellets and copper beebees.

Yes, this is definately the most off the wall critter I've created yet!!

So today (even though it is NOT Monday) I'm doing laundry so I can pack for our trip. We will be heading out to our daughter's tomorrow, then on to California on Saturday morning. I'm planning to blog some while we're gone, but probably not every day. I'm taking along a paper journal kit to do drawings, etc., on the road, so I'm hoping to have some of that to post when I return.

time to get busy!!

The package is here!

ordered last week and arrived last night

This means I will definately have a big project to work on in the car as we travel

yippee!!




ok, back to work!

glue resist and balloon backgrounds

The fabric that I did glue resist on went through the washer with the laundry yesterday

The color seems a bit more muted and not so speckled

Even after the trip through the washing machine, there is some stiffness to the places where the glue resist was.

It's not as stiff, but it is definately different that the rest of the piece

I think this piece now needs a lot more embellishing with stitching, stamping, beads, etc. I may make it into a pillow --- we'll see



I realized I had been talking about the background for the balloon piece, but I hadn't let ya'll see the great painting the DH did for it!

Here it is

Even though it's hard to see in this picture, this is painted on a piece of clear plexiglass, and the paints let the light come through really well --- which was exactly the "look" I want for the back of this piece.

The beadwork band for the inside edge is coming along.

The strip began there on the left side where the dark blue of the mountain begins and I'm now about half way through the green on the bottom edge. (And I'll be real happy to get the green done because those are the one bead I'm using that has to be sorted for size, thickness, etc., etc., because they were a bulk purchase.)

movin' right along

mittnz, progress report and "image"

So here is the 6th pair of mittnz

Only 3 more pair to go, and I started another pair (bright pink!) last night, doing about half of the ribbing before I got too sleepy to remember it is supposed to be K2, P2, not some other odd permutation of that count!

Which means I need to think about picking out the yarn for the other 2 pair to be knit and getting that packed up for the car trip.

I'm happily anticipating the arrival of "The Yarn", which is supposed to arrive tomorrow (according to the UPS tracker). Just about this time every year I start knitting a sweater that will be a Christmas present, and I figured that getting it before I start on a cross country car trip will be good as that will give me lots of swatching time. And hopefully it will be well underway by the time we return!

After thinking about possible ways to put color inside the shadow box frame that will hold the balloons, I decided to do a strip of beading that will go all the way around.

Here is the little "map" I drew of where the colors need to go based on the painting the DH did on the plastic for the back.

This little piece of beading is the bottom, dark blue edge of the mountains, and I'm starting to make the transistion there to the green section

My thinking about doing this beading strip is this:

1. The reflective quality of the glass will brighten the inside of the frame and improve the look of the piece

2. I can stitch through the beadwork at the top and the bottom to attach the balloons and "suspend" them in air

I can tell you that working on this strip reminds me clearly of why I don't do bead loom work. This folks, is the beaders version of 999 rows of garter stitch ---- it's boring, best done while watching an interesting TV show or movie!

At least one of you has noticed that I've been playing around with the format of this blog. The answer to the question asked on my last post about this is -- Yes, all of the above!

Part of the issue at work here is I'm working on revising my website, and that always leads me to examine what all of my studio online presence looks like. Right now I'm trying to decide if I should change my Etsy shop as well and make the whole "who are you?" issue clearer by having everything carry the same name. (When I first set up the Etsy shop I was deliberately trying to create a different "persona" for some of my fiber arts things, but all of this work has merged since then!)

So be patient with me here as we have a sort of mini "identity crisis" and try to figure out what we want to look like.

a little more work

and the final ballon is complete!

the DH has finished painting the piece of plastic that will be the back of the shadow box frame

now it's on to creating a beaded band to fit all around the inside edges of the frame



meantime, we're still fussing with the frame for Birds in the Mist

even though the test sample looked pretty good, the attempt on the actual frame did not, so sanding and re-gesso-ing is probably the next step, then another approach

yesterday I mailed off the two necklaces to Fire Mountain Gems for the competition --- I'm now back in "waiting" mode

and the premium book for the State Fair is now available, so I can think about entering things there --- my main complaint is that this year the catagories I usually enter in are supposed to be turned in on three different days instead of all on one day like they were last year ---- grrrrrrr --- I wasn't really planning on making three drives down to turn things in --- sure would like to know what their thinking was on that point

I really am putting in quite a bit of work on projects just now, but one of the biggest ones I can't talk about here --- all to be revealed at a later (after Christmas) date

so there ya go