a week of finishing stuff

because I work on a lot of things all at once, it sometimes seems like nothing is happening

and then suddenly, a whole lot of things are all finished together

this necklace, that I had been fussing with for quite a while is finally finished

it was a piece that had a lot of backwards steps along the way, but I think the final result was worth all that rework!

these two pieces are also finished

so this week I will be taking the photos and filling in the entry forms for the show I want to enter them in

and even though I worried about making the deadline, I should be able to get this done by a week from tomorrow

the costume building is done too -- Mr Cute is ready to be a Super Hero for Halloween

work continues on the windmill

I'm almost to the bottom, which means it will soon be in the que for quilting

which means I'm spending time fiddling around in photo shop, pasting parts of photos together to create the next piece

this one has been fiddled with a lot, but I'm still not quite satisfied with it -- it's a work in process

the coming week promises to be a busy one -- on Thursday I will deliver my piece of art to the gallery in Denver where it will be hung for the Contemporary Fiber 2016 show -- still feels surreal

Onward!

a finished piece -- and a bit of going backward to go forward

this week this piece got finished -- hurray!

I still need to do some good photos so I can list it on my Etsy page -- sometime this week

this was where I thought this piece was going

three pieces to be hung together as a triptych, representing "Progress" -- old forest, farm, city

problem was, they didn't really read that way

the forest just didn't seem to fit with the other two

which left these two, as a diptych, still "Progress", but hard to tell that the farm was in the same space as the city

so I added the mountain range on the horizon behind the farm

now it works

so I need to finish up the quilting then I'll be ready to cut these two and bind them

and I have just about 2 weeks before the deadline to enter them in the show I made them for

I might make it

 

meantime, I'm making progress on this piece too

much to do, but moving right along

doing some very happy dancing

Early in the week I got some very exciting news!

I had entered this piece in a juried show that will be held in an Art Gallery in Denver the end of October.....

and it was accepted!!

I'm pretty excited about seeing me work in that setting!

this piece is coming along

the backing is on, the edging is done and I've started making the chain -- I decided to do this chain that is actual hexagonal links for this piece -- it's a bit "fiddly" and more time consuming than what I've done on some other pieces, but it has a better look for this piece

I hope to get this finished in the next couple of weeks

I have started quilting on this piece

the deadline for this piece (and the two others that go with it) is the end of October, so I need to move this one right along

progress is being made on this piece too

although this week I spent a good deal of time removing and replacing pieces in the sky, and even replaced one of the blades on the windmill

but I'm much happier with it now

meantime, the DH was very busy in the garage workshop

the frame that was originally on this painting had gotten damaged, so he created this new one for it

and now the painting has gone to my daughter's house to be properly hung

and after a long saga of not being able to get the materials and then having to have the table saw repaired, the headboard for our bed is complete!

he used beetle kill lumber that was tongue and grooved for use as paneling or flooring, but I really like the gray tones with the browns of the wood

beautiful!

I had hoped to have this project done, but I've done some moving backward and forward on this as well

the pants were just too small at the first "fitting", so I have remade those and now I can move forward

I got Mr Cute a new book recently, that is titled "Monster Needs A Costume" -- which seemed especially appropriate as a gift from me as I've been the chief costumer for Halloween for him

we had a good time reading it together over the weekend

Last Thursday I made a visit to a specialist to see if there was something that could be done to improve function and decrease the pain in my shoulder that has lingered on since I painted the deck back in September.   She gave me a cortisone shot in the shoulder and I've been resting it as well as doing icing and stretching.  I believe it's getting better --- now I just have to be careful not to overdo it and re-injure it!

the view from my window

over the past few weeks I've been watching the tree across the street slowly change color

it seems like each day it is slightly changed

and if it was not for the fact that I sit at my desk almost every day and work at the computer, it's likely that I would not be noticing this and would at some point look out and think "wow, that changed overnight!"

I sense that my art is undergoing a similar slow, steady progression toward ---- something

with the tree I know what the "end" result is -- all the leaves will eventually fall off and it will be bare for the winter

I hope my art isn't going to that result, but I'm good with it changing

this piece, for instance, has slowly developed and changed from the original idea

yesterday I decided I was done adding to the bead embroidery and will now finish it with a back and some fringe and a beaded chain that is a whole new design for my pieces

and I'm excited about where this is going

last week I managed to get all of the rest of this piece put together

now it's on to the quilting

 

the windmill is progressing nicely

I decided that the best way to create the frame structure was to create the "map" on tracing paper and actually stitch the fabric pieces together through the paper

when the whole unit is complete, I tear off the paper and stitch it down as one big piece to the background

I've never built pieces this way before, but it is working really well, so chances are very good that I'll use this technique again

it's the time of year for the making of Halloween costumes

Mr Cute wants to be Captain America this year

I'm working on it!

when ripping out is progress forward

 you may remember a couple of blog posts ago that I talked about this necklace that I had been working on

I had spent quite a few hours working on it, and I liked the general design, but the more I worked on it the more it began to "cup", until it became very clear that it would never lay flat

which meant it would never be a really "show quality" piece

so earlier this week I took it all apart

everything except the bezels around the stones was removed and I started over

which meant I could keep the parts of the design that I liked best and even improve on them -- like that basket weave look there around the center stone

I have a couple more rows of beading to do on each side and I'll be putting the round stones back on

liking the way this looks even better -- and YES, it will lay flat

and this piece got finished and listed in my Etsy store -- for the first time I can remember, my piece was the first one entered in one of these online challenges

I especially like the eyes on the cat!

progress on this piece has been slow

as I was saying in my last post, after I painted the back deck, I was in a lot of pain

almost 3 weeks later, I'm still hurting, and my doctor has not been able to figure out what the issue is

so I haven't done much work at the design wall

but earlier this week I got back to it -- I'm really pleased with the way it is going now -- the bottom left corner is complete, so I'm on the home stretch!

the quilting on this got delayed too, but I have now finished all of the field parts

next up the rest of the fence then the road

it's coming along!

when I posted the last time I had just begun stitching on this piece, and that blue edge there right beneath the blades is actually the horizon on this piece, which means everything below that will need to be something that is either the wood frame holding up the windmill or drying grasses

so before I headed out to the local fairgrounds for the big Colorado Quilt Council's annual show yesterday, I told the DH that we were on the lookout for "dry grass"

I came home with a nice variety of patterning and color to use on this --

Yippee -- the work can continue!

time to get to it

getting ready for winter -- it's a pain

this is our back deck

it's big, and it was one of the things we liked about the house when we first looked at it

but it has a down side

if you want these things to last, they need maintenance

which means an annual coat of stain/sealer needs to be applied to the decking and the top of the rails to protect the wood

and it needs to be down before the wet of winter starts

this week I did that coat of paint -- breaking it up into two work days -- one for most of the floor and one for the rest, and I finished it yesterday

let me tell you, this work is not for the weak

my arms and shoulders are so sore I could barely dress myself this morning -- YIKES!

it looks beautiful, but it's going to take me a while to recover

of course painting the deck as not my only activity this week

since the rusting project went so well a couple of weeks ago, I decided I could handle dyeing some silk organza for the fire piece

I took the piece of silk I wanted to dye and crumpled it up in a gallon zip bag then added white vinegar and some pewter colored dye powder and zipped it up

the next morning, all of the dye had been absorbed by the silk and I could wash it out to reveal the very interesting random patterning of the dye on the silk

including some spots that have a very pink overtone

great!

I think it's going to be the perfect top layer over the fire piece!!

time to make up that fiber sandwich and start quilting

just as soon as I finish quilting this one 

I've finished the sky and the mountain and I'm working my want across the field and the fence

moving right along!

this piece is coming along nicely too

I really love the way the sky and mountain background came out

the big blank spot on the side of the big building is there because I'm working on how to create the reflection I need to have there without it being too bright

still thinking about that part

and work has begun on the next piece

the windmill has been through several design changes, but I finally settled on something that I like

the part that is being stitched in this photo is the top left corner of the sky

then there is this

one of the online bead groups I belong to has a challenge running that is titled "Shadow and Shade"

I thought it would be fun to create a cuff bracelet that was silhouettes of cats and pumpkins with shadows behind them

it's getting pretty close to finished

then I'll go back to the other piece

the garden is finally started to produce some edible tomatoes

the San Marzano tomatoes are starting to ripen --- and there are some Early Girl and Cherokee Blacks that are a good size for Fried Green Tomatoes!

YUM!

Summer's over -- back to serious work

I know, the calendar says fall begins on September 22, but Labor Day has always felt like the end of summer

time to go back to school -- which always meant new pencils, notebooks -- and CRAYONS!!  -- I do love me a really big box of crayons -- or pencils, or markers, or beads or new spools of thread -- guess it's all about the color

at any rate, this time of year has me thinking about those final projects that need to be done around the house before the weather gets nasty and getting Christmas presents done along with the other art projects that are on going in my studio

on Saturday of our long holiday weekend, my daughter came and got us and we all went off to the fabric store

there's not one of those in our little hamlet just now as the Hancock's store is gone - so we have to drive about 20 minutes to one

this is the annual journey we make to get the fabric for the all important Halloween costume for Mr Cute -- this year I'm making a Captain America costume, which will be fun

along with that fabric, Mr Cute picked out fabric for a new pillow case -- with farm equipment on it of course!  and his mom picked out fabric for a new pillow case for her DH --

these took me about 20 minutes to put together after we ran the fabric through the washer and dryer

so some utilitarian sewing complete -- I'll be working on that costume soon -- and making me some blouses (I picked up some very colorful fabric for that too)

the quilting on the background for the truck is moving right along

I finished the sky and the mountain, and now I've started on the field and the fence

I really like the way this piece is coming out -- it's one of those "did I do that?" moments

and I'm thinking about how I will quilt that road so it looks like parched earth

work on this piece is continuing

after fiddling with the small sample piece long enough to work out the details, I'm pleased with how this is going so far

and this piece is ready for the layering and quilting

but first I need to dye a piece of silk organza gray to be the top layer --

the bead work on this piece is progressing too -- there has been quite a bit of "put it in, take it out" on this as I am working with bugle beads, rectangular beads and square beads and those don't go around curves the same way a row of seed beads does

I think it's going to be a very cool piece in the end

time to get to work!