Martha's Studio

Daylily

2008-04-30T09:34:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, I sold this piece, Daylily. It's 16 x 16, and framed, though not in this photo. I've had my work exhibited in a retirement community's gallery, and one of the residents, Mrs. H, bought it. When I went over there yesterday to take the work down, she was there checking her mail. She said "Are you Martha?!" and proceeded to tell me how lovely the piece is, and how happy she is to have bought it. Mrs. H and her daughter were looking at the work, and when they saw it, they both started to cry.

It turns out that Mrs. H's best friend, now deceased, was also the daughter's godmother, and grew daylilies the same shade as the fabric in the piece. When she died, Mrs. H and her daughter took some of her bulbs and planted them in their gardens to remind them of their friend.

Today, the daughter is bringing her husband home from the hospital to die. He's 48, and has been struggling with a brain tumor for 5 years, and there's nothing left to do for him. Mrs. H will hang it so that it's the first thing they see every morning. I am so honored.

I made Daylily in 2003, using commercial and artist-dyed fabrics, embellished with machine embroidery, oil pastels, and beads. It has been exhibited locally and in Cergy/Pontoise, France.

Spring has arrived!

2008-03-27T16:48:00.006-04:00

Well, even though we were wearing coats, it seemed like spring to us. My sister and I took our cousin from South Dakota sightseeing in Virginia this week. Monday was Monticello and the University of Virginia. Here we are in front of the Rotunda. I wonder how many photos like this have been taken!

This next photo is of a piece I finished recently, and hung in an exhibit at the Columbia Art Center. I wanted to go back to the tree idea I was working on last spring. It too has a lot of paint on the surface. I used Shiva Paint Sticks among other paints, and I like the effect they give. It's called Blue Marsh, and it's 23 x 17.

And it sold, too!

Art Consulting

2008-03-06T10:40:00.006-05:00

I met with an art consultant this morning. She has owned a successful gallery for 35 years. The goal of this morning's meeting was to get started thinking about what I want to do, what my goals are, and how to achieve them. She is very enthusiastic about my work, although it doesn't fit in her gallery.

So I came home all jazzed up and ready to work. I painted 10 pieces of fabric when I got back, but they are still curing so I can't show photos of them. Instead, here is a piece I did recently:

I collaged fabric and painted it with Lumiere, Setacolor, and Shiva sticks. Then I cut it up and collaged it again, and painted it one more time. I used the grids because I wanted to create a sense of looking through a window.

2007-07-01T18:08:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure if this is wretched excess or not, but it's cool. My husband got this at a business meeting the other day. You might think it's just a travel mug, but you'd be wrong.

It's a travel mug that plugs into the cigarette lighter power source in the car! So your coffee will stay warm while you drive! This is the best freebie he's brought home for a long time. Usually it's umbrellas or gimme hats.

I've been working on things I started at QSDS. I did as many of the exercises as I could as 8 x 10's so that they can be weeklies. So I have the first year of weeklies finished, and I'll photograph them soon and publish a few.

2007-06-29T17:48:00.000-04:00

QSDS was great, as usual. The class I took was Sue Benner's Driven to Abstraction. I'm awfully literal, so it was a great exercise in letting go. On Tuesday, we were to have 5 small studies completed by 11 AM. Well, at 11 I had one. Exactly one. I really struggled, but once I quit being so literal, I got them all done quickly.

Another exercise was to make a piece in an odd shape. I like it a lot, but I haven't finished it. Here 'tis.

Polka Dots

2007-06-14T09:57:00.000-04:00

I'm supposed to be packing for QSDS, but instead I thought I'd show you what my sister, Nancy, has been up to. I have been painting fabric and generally messing around in the wet studio, so not a lot to show for myself. But not my sister! She's nothing if not productive. This is the front of an old dresser she got from a friend. It was very brown and tired looking when she got it, and she couldn't wait to sparkle it up.

Here it is with the bookshelf on top. It sits in the corner of her (blue and white) kitchen.

Here are the detail shots. First, a side view:

This is the other side.

Here it is with the bookshelf on top.

This is what the top looks like.

Now you can see why my friends all say that "Nancy" is a verb!

My only contribution was to suggest more polka dots when she said it needed something else. Polka dots: my solution to every design problem. Well, almost every design problem.

I suppose I should get moving. All my stuff is packed, I just have to get it in the car. Cathy and I are leaving this afternoon. Tomorrow we will see the Fiberart International Exhibit, and then head for Columbus.

Weekend art classes

2007-06-04T21:08:00.000-04:00

Over the weekend, I went to the ArtExpo! event in DC. I took a class called Tantalizing Textures, in which the instructor used various mediums to make texture on a background for a collage. I learned a lot about mediums. There is one called tar paste, which holds its shape when drizzled onto a surface. It can be tinted with acrylic paint, too, which is really cool. I think it would also be good for making stamps. Abstract stamps, that is. It would be difficult to drizzle it into an image of anything. She also used molding paste and extra heavy gel mediums. They also have potential for making stamps.

The other class I took was pastel drawing. I'm really interested in pastels, so this was lots of fun. My end result is nothing to write home about (or blog about, either!) but I learned a lot. I also spent a lot.

The merchant mall was jammed with vendors selling all sorts of art supplies, at a discount, no less. I bought a few sketch books and some pencils, a starter kit of mediums from Golden and stuff like that. There were paint companies, brush and paper reps, you name it, if it had to do with painting or drawing, it was there. Nothing related to fiber, though.

During a break I went wandering around to see what other classes were doing, and happened upon a class in watercolor collage. They were painting paper with watercolors to use as elements in realistic collage. The examples were very realistic, and lovely. So today I painted paper with watercolors, just to see. Also fun. Here is a photo of a piece of paper towel I painted.

I really like the texture. Almost too cool to tear up for collage, but. . .

Notan

2007-05-31T18:14:00.000-04:00

The new Quilting Arts Magazine came the other day. Jane Dunnewold has an interesting article in it about the positive/negative exercises called Notan. So I decided to try it, and this is what I came up with:

For the above, I cut a blossom shape out of the dark paper, and reversed it for the positive/negative effect. Very lacy, and the black and white squares are very quilt like.

Next I tried a more involved design, of a Christmas ball. Unfortunately, after a considerable amount of work, it looks like baseballs to me. I like the pinwheel effect caused by the roundness of the image.
Read the article and try it. It really is fun and it's way different from the way I usually work. I remember that Jane taught a weekend workshop in Notan a while back at QSDS. Now I wish I had taken it.

Image transfer

2007-05-29T11:05:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, well actually Sunday and Monday since it's a long process, I tried image transfer with gel medium. I had an old letter copied (it has to be a toner based copy) and coated the paper with four coats of gel medium. After the last coat, it had to dry for 8 hours. Then I soaked the paper in water and rubbed the paper away, leaving a rubbery copy of the letter. It was a lot of rubbing, since it was an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. I like the results, and I need to practice applying the gel medium so that the brush strokes don't show. I plan to use it in a collage, but I don't quite know how yet.

Here is the most recent weekly:
I need to work on shadows. These make the trees seem more grounded, but I don't think that that is how shadows really work. I should go draw some trees, I suppose, so that I know what they actually do. It's a very pretty day, not too hot yet, and that would be a great way to spend the afternoon.

Another Memorial Day

2007-05-28T08:52:00.000-04:00

It's Memorial Day again. Since this is an art blog, I'll stay away from the current war, and instead here are photos of the American Cemetary in Normandy, where 10,000 American service men are buried. They died in the Normandy campaign, not just on D-Day. It's a very sobering place.

I took these pictures in the spring of 2005, on a trip to France with other artists.

Painting Fabric

2007-05-02T19:50:00.000-04:00

This is a piece of fabric I painted over the weekend. It's about 18" square. I used black and burnt sienna Setacolor transparent paints, and scrunched it up to dry.

I've been having such a good time painting fabric that I called Testfabrics to order pfd. In the fall, I toured their facility with Cathy Kleeman. It is very interesting. At one point, there was a big pile of narrow bolds heaped in a corner. Seems taht they have a client who wants narrower bolts than Testfabrics usually carries, so they cut the ends off. Those cut ends are great for painting, so I ordered one. It's 18" by 135 meters. I won't need to buy any pfd for a while! But I'd better invest in more paint.

Weeklies Update

2007-05-01T18:37:00.000-04:00

Here is weekly #39.

As you can see, the background is the same woven technique that #38 used. This weaving did not have enough contrast, so I screen printed the trees on it. I wanted to make the tree on the left come forward, and the one on the right recede. More or less successful.

But while I was getting ready to photograph it, I looked up at the rest of them. I have them hanging on the wall of my studio, just below the ceiling, in chronological order. I started this series in July, and the first 8 are relatively bright, not cheerful really, but light and airy I guess. (Except the fish.) September's output was less so, and they get darker and darker until April, when they begin to lighten up again. I've always hated winter, and I dread fall, because I know what's coming. It's interesting to me how this has played out in the choices I made when making these.

Here are photos of them in my studio. The light is bad, but you can see how I have them displayed.

Monday doings

2007-04-30T17:04:00.000-04:00

I've been painting fabric. Several friends came over a week ago, and we spent the day in the yard being messy. The fabric I painted turned out well, and I'm pleased to report that I've gotten the hang of using a curved-tipped syringe for painting. I was getting blobs of paint, but then I began to put the tip of the syringe directly on the fabric, and use it almost like a pencil. Much better! I took a bunch of photos, but I mislaid my camera so I can't post them. Next time.

Meanwhile, I'm behind on my weekly series, and this is the most recent one:

The blue and green landscape was painted with Setacolor on dry fabric, and the in-between fabric was done with Caran d'Arch (I think that's how it's spelled) water soluble wax pastels, and liquitex gold. I used the syringe for the gold.

Anyway, the idea was to suggest a field of flowers, but I think that I should keep the flowers in the lower part, and weave clouds or something like that in the sky. I also think that the horizon line is too centered. But I'm my own worst critic.

And speaking of which, I saw a play Saturday night, Things of Dry Hours, by Naomi Wallace. The main character said at one point that he worked hard, so that he could silence the voice in his head telling him his work was futile. I could relate: my inner critic is loud and opinionated!

Pissarro Exhibit, Baltimore Museum of Art

2007-03-21T20:25:00.000-04:00

I went to the BMA today, with my friend Ruth, to see the Pissarro exhibit. It focused on his landscapes throughout his career. It's an exhibit that's really worth seeing. Impressionism is not my favorite artistic period/style, but the impact these people had on the course of modern art is unarguable.

Ruth had asked me to make a postcard for her to hang near her desk at home. She had specific colors she wanted me to use. They were lime green, dark green, purple and yellow. Not the dark and somber pallette of browns and deep purple that I've used recently. It was fun to use such bright colors again. Maybe it's a mistake to veer away from a pallette that I so obviously enjoy. Anyway, here's what I took for her to choose from:

She bought this one:
and this one
But not this
or this (well, this one doesn't really have the color scheme, so it hardly counts.)

I have to say I agree with her choices. She had a hard time choosing between the first two, so I said "Flip a coin, and see how you feel about the outcome." I do that a lot, and if I'm sad at the result of the coin toss, well, I choose the other one. It's another piece of information to help in decision making. So she did, and was happy at the outcome, but decided to buy both anyway. A good outcome for both of us!

Show Photos

2007-03-19T08:58:00.000-04:00

I mentioned the other day that I, and two others, have work on display in the lobby gallery of RTKL, a Baltimore architectural firm. Here are photos of the show. The lighting in the lobby is really odd, so you'll have to forgive me.

These are by Adrien Dawson.

This is Cathy Kleeman's work.

And these are mine.

Weekend travails

2007-03-19T08:34:00.000-04:00

We drove to Virginia yesterday to my brother's to watch Virginia play Tennessee in the basketball tournament. There was no joy in Mudville, as Virginia lost a close game. Oh, well, it was great to be there, and it was a really lovely day for a drive.

Here is today's photo: my brother's dog, Bama, looking for a scratch behind the ears.

And to make this art related, here is a small piece (12 x 12) that I've been fiddling with.

I like the bright spring colors. It's far from finished; I'll add some stitching of some sort in places, and trim the edges. Finishing it is today's goal (I don't want to aim too high!) and then I'll finish cleaning the studio.

TV Update

2007-03-14T10:24:00.000-04:00

Lately, my life has seemed way to boring to inflict it on the blogging public. But here I am, back again. However, an update on the tv problem: after a period during which it did not turn itself on at 8PM, it has begun again. Maybe I need an exorcist.

I have some work exhibited in the lobby gallery of RTKL Associates, a Baltimore architectural firm. The other artists exhibiting now are Cathy Kleeman and Adrien Dawson. We are members of a local fiber group, Fiber Artists of Baltimore. RTKL's Art in the Workplace committee found the group on the web and asked us to submit slides, and Cathy, Adrien and I were chosen to exhibit. We each have one wall in the lobby, and we share a wall in one of the conference rooms. Since I have a series of small (8 x 10) pieces, I was able to show them in another conference room.

I have photos, but the new google-blogger won't let me upload. Great first impression of the new blogger.

OK, I give.

2007-02-05T18:07:00.001-05:00

Will whichever nephew who thought at Christmas it would be a great joke to program our tv to come on every night at 8, please call and tell me how to undo it?

Here are two of the latest weekly pieces. Number 29 uses foil on the trees, which are pieced into the background.

For Number 32 I used only foil for the trees. I think #29 is more successful, partly because it has more interest in the background.

I'm now working on number 34, which puts me a couple of weeks ahead. That's a change!

More Weeklies

2007-01-25T08:13:00.000-05:00

Another of my 2007 goals is to learn to take better photographs of my work. The weekly exercises (each is 8 x 10) are a good subject since (ideally) there's a new one each week, and they aren't meant to be sold so the photography is less crucial. Here are two consecutive ones that I photographed this week.

This is number 17. I don't date them other than the year, so I can only estimate that they were done in December when I was working on the larger pieces in this color scheme, which are on display at the Slayton House Gallery.

Naturally, this is number 18. I am pleased with both of them, although I like the richer tones of #17. I like working large and small at the same time. Some of the challenges are similar, but there are significant differences in making something work in a piece that's 26 x 40 and in a piece that's 8 x 10.

I'm a couple of weeks behind, as usual, and this week I've moved into a different direction on the weeklies. But I like these enough to go back to this style. I guess I'm still interested in trees, and these alternately look to me like trees in a forest and bark.

It's getting late in the morning, so I need to get to the studio. I have another show looming, and I want new pieces for it.

As long as there are postmen, life will have zest.

2007-01-22T15:35:00.000-05:00

In today's mail, I received a gift from a friend in Hawaii. She was cleaning out her mother's things, and thought I'd like to have this kimono. I am truly touched by her generosity.

I'm sure I have it hanging wrong, but I wanted to get it posted right away, so I took the photos without doing any research about how the front pieces should be crossed. Here's a detail.

It's a lovely blue background, with the design in a creamy blue, shot with red. As far as I can tell, it's all hand sewn, too. It really is beautiful, and my friend Marie Milks is generous beyond description to send it to me. She said that she hoped I could use it in my work, but I don't think I could ever put scissors to it.

Thank you, Marie, from the bottom of my heart.

And thanks to William James, the author of the above quote.

Another Photo from the Slayton House Gallery

2007-01-20T09:05:00.000-05:00

Here's one more photo from the show at the Slayton House Gallery. On the left is "Tap Dancing to Heaven" by Linda Taft Walburn, and on the right is "Subterranean Homesick Blues" by me. I love the whimsical nature of Linda's piece. Those shoes!

Jumping on the Goals Bandwagon

2007-01-19T08:32:00.000-05:00

My goals for 2007 are modest, I suppose, partly because I get overwhelmed by excessive detail - all the lists and dates and deadlines make me want to take a nap! So here goes: I want to keep up with the weekly series of 8 x 10 pieces that I've been making since the first of July and contact at least 2 galleries about a solo show (gulp!) I'd like to make production goals, but I really don't know what's reasonable and attainable. Maybe goals should be beyond attainable, so that I have to stretch to reach them, so I have to think about that. But what's reasonable for me? One a week? What size counts?

Then there are the artistic goals, those that make me explore different ideas or push me in different directions. For 2006, I wanted to explore perspective, which I did in a couple of ways. I took a drawing class, which really showed me how much I don't know, and I've had as a "rule" for the weekly pieces that they should use perspective in some way.

This is one of the latest weeklies. I used foiling and a thermofax screen to create the trees, and black netting for the shadows to anchor them to the ground. I wasn't all that happy with it, so I used the netting on another one, which still needs work. After I get the shadows fixed on that one, I'll post it too.

As I think about it, perhaps I should make a distinction between long and short term goals. Production levels could be a short or medium term goal, which might contribute to a lower anxiety level on my part. More musings on that later.

Gallery Reception

2007-01-15T10:21:00.000-05:00

The Fiber Artists of Baltimore (FAB) is currently showing work at the Slayton House Gallery in Columbia, Maryland. The Artists' Reception was yesterday, and I have a few photographs of the gallery and the work.

From left to right, the pieces this photo are by Cathy Kleeman, moi, Cathy Kleeman and Linda Strowbrige. Sorry about the tote bag in dead center.

This is one wall of another room. From left to right, the artists are Gail Gutierrez, Jeannie Marsh, Jeannie Marsh, Linda Taft Walburn and Adrien Dawson.

These two are by Linda Taft Walburn (l) and Linda Strowbridge (r).

Another fiew of the main gallery, with a piece by Cathy Kleeman in the background.

Finally, another wall in the smaller room, with work by (left to right) Rosemary Epperson, Adrien Dawson and Lynn Tarakan.

The reception was well attended, and the staff at the gallery did all they could to make things easy for us. Many thanks to all of them, especially Bernice, the director, Carol, who did all the organizing, and Cathy, who held down the reception desk during the reception.

2007-01-05T20:34:00.000-05:00

Liz (Dreaming Spirals) talks about making trifle for the holiday meals. Here's my recipe: burn 2 chocloate pies (making great amounts of smoke every time you turn on the oven.) Despair over having enough dessert for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners (seatings for 14 each time.) To the rescue: one resourseful sister-in-law, who scrapes up one pie out of the pie pan and into a trifle bowl, covers with a layer of whipped cream, adds the second pie and another layer of whipped cream. VOILA! Dessert is saved.
Here is my sister-in-law, and her trifle. She lives to bake!

I Don't Get It

2007-01-05T10:50:00.000-05:00

Somehow, in the last few weeks, our TV has programmed itself to come on every night at 8. I'm certainly not savvy enough to make it do that; I can barely watch a dvd on the silly thing. Actally, when my husband was away for the weekend, I would have to call him to walk me through it. I had almost gotten to the point where I didn't need to call for help when we got one that, when you insert a dvd, assumes that you want to watch it and starts it automatically. But that's not the TV that's turning itself on. It will probably turn on every night at 8 for the rest of our lives, because we can't figure out how to stop it. But at least the timer isn't flashing 12!

This is a piece I finished in December, "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue." 26.5 x 41 I've been using these browns a lot, and they aren't my usual palette. I've managed to work some purples in, though not in this piece, and I'm please with the results. I found that I like the richness of the browns and golds, and the contrasts with the black and/or purple. Next I want to move to another color scheme, but with the same idea. We'll see.

Small work

2006-12-29T20:35:00.000-05:00

I've spent the last few days in the studio, and I've been pretty productive. I finished 2 pieces which were tops, finally, so that they can be juried for a group show next month.

Since June I've been making a small (8x10) piece a week. Well, that's the goal - I tend to get behind. I have some rules, or rather guidelines that I work from: one a week, 8x10, explore perspective, use scraps, aim for abstraction. So far, I'm pretty good at making them 8x10. I haven't kept up with them weekly, but I'm close to caught up for '06. Close. Anyway, this is the latest one. It's pieced.

I'm pleased with it. I did 3 this week, all of them trees. I'll post the others another day.

Today's Holiday Hint

2006-12-22T09:08:00.000-05:00

I've discovered that you can freeze homemade pumpkin pie, but once it's thawed out, it's not worth eating.

2006-12-18T20:00:00.000-05:00

For some reason (maybe there's a warp in the space time continuum) but things have been jumping out of my hands for the last week. Today, a spool of thread leapt across my sewing table and down the hall way. Friday, a bowl jumped into two mugs and knocked them onto the counter and then to the floor. A million pieces. And the list goes on. I'm glad I'm not carrying a baby around!

It's been a long day. I planned to work all day, but I found out that a big fabric store not too far away is having a liquidation sale. I bought more than 22 yards of fabric (he was very generous with ends of bolts) 10 spools of thread (6 metallic, more about which later) and 6 small rotary cutter blades for less than $100. Including tax. I can't dye fabric any more, and I'm not patient enough to paint it, so I use commercial fabrics a lot. This was a good opportunity for me to get some monochromatic pieces with texture, and the like. I loaded up the cart, and then went back through it to cull the bolts I really didn't need.
So here's what I bought.

That shiny piece on the end is silver tissue lame. I know, it's really hard to work with, but it will make cool purses.

The thread is Coats and Clark, and it works well. A lot better than Sulky metallics.

Then I tried to finish one little piece, just one! But the thread broke, I lost my place in the quilting (black on black, always a bad idea.) I don't know how many time I ripped stuff out, and I'm not that particular! But I persevered, and finally quit to go to yoga. Which I discovered I wasn't signed up for, after I drove through rush hour traffic. But enough people didn't show up so I got in, in the end.

Tomorrow is another day.

2006-12-15T08:42:00.001-05:00

Here is a quote from Nancy Crow's new book: Nancy Crow, by Nancy Crow. It shows her work and has exerpts from her creative journal. Anyway, this one appeals to me because my husband thinks I over-react when he interupts me.

He gets really put out with me for being impatient, so Cathy sent me the quote. I showed it to my husband this morning, and he was not amused. But at least he knows now that it's not just me. I'm not sure what good that will do me, but . . .

New Drawing

2006-12-13T19:57:00.000-05:00

My brother and I are encouraging each other to draw more. He sent me a drawing that he did of his workshop, and this is the drawing I'm going to send to him tomorrow. It's graphite, of a child's rocker that belonged to our Great Aunt Kitty. I see some things I need to correct, but over all I'm pleased with it. I think that the proportions are pretty close to correct, and I've made great progress in the use of perspective. Understanding perspective has been one of my goals for the year, and I have a long way to go, but not as far as I had to go 6 months ago!

Diane Rehm Show on Art Quilts

2006-12-12T12:47:00.000-05:00

Diane Rehm had as her guest today a woman name Gayle Pritchard, who has written a book called "Uncommon Threads: Ohio's Art Quilt Revolution. I thought they'd actually talk about the art quilt movement.

Very little was said about art quilts. Penny McMorris was mentioned twice and Nancy Crow once. QSDS, zero. I don't remember any other art quilters mentioned. Oh, someone mentioned David Walker. I suppose the show sort of has to follow the lead of the callers, and they were all of the "my grandmother used to quilt" variety. I was so disappointed. I really thought there would be something substantive; that show is usually pretty good. They actually talked about t-shirt quilts and Holly Hobbie quilts, which are fine, but hardly fit the "art quilt" category. There was a little chat about Gees Bend, but even then, those quilts don't meet the author's (not my) definition of art: something made purposefully to express a concept. Pritchard also implied that only people with formal art degrees can be artists, and Diane said that she thinks all quilts are art. The discussion perpetuated the image of old women sitting around a frame. One caller even mentioned coffee cans for the women who dipped snuff. That image is about as far from most contemporary quilting, traditional or original, as it could get.

Makes me mad. If the guest had been a painter, you can bet the "my grandmother used to paint" calls would have been rejected.

Post Thanksgiving update

2006-11-29T08:18:00.000-05:00

I had big plans for posting over the Thanksgiving weekend, but alas. We had a great holiday, 14 members of my family! It was really nice to be together. I made 9 pies, including a new recipe for apple pie. My family doesn't cotton to changes in the menu, especially their apple pie, but the new one went faster than the traditional one. I guess it's a keeper.

This is my latest. I've been doing postcards, but this is about 18 x 24. I like the curved piecing, and even though I rarely use browns, I like this a lot. I have several more tops finished, but not quilted. This one needs the edges finished. I'll probably face it.

I'm in a local group, the Fiber Artists of Baltimore, which is having a group show in January. I'll need all new work for it, so I've been busy. I will also have some postcards for sale in the Columbia Art Center's holiday art sale, so I've been cranking those out too. Maybe I'll get some of them photographed today, before I take them over.

Thanksgiving Tradition

2006-11-20T16:28:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving is here already. Our weather has been cold and clear, but today is gloomy. #2 son flies in tonight from Atlanta, and tomorrow we'll be joined by #1 son and my sister and her family. My father and stepmother will come on Thursday, with my stepsister and her husband. My nieces and nephew will join us too.

I love Thanksgiving. It's such a family holiday, without all the tensions and anxiety of Christmas. No decorating to speak of, just food. And I can do food. I'll start the pies in a few minutes. We have to have the pumpkin pies made by Wednesday, because our tradition (for the 4 of us) is to eat pumpkin pie for breakfast on Thanksgiving. It began when the boys were little, and we would drive to Richmond on Thanksgiving morning. I bribed them to get moving by saying we'd eat pumpkin pie in the car! And we've kept it up ever since, and the boys are 26 & 24. I hope we always do it.

New Drawing

2006-11-20T16:25:00.000-05:00

This is my most recent drawing assignment. We were to sit in a dark room and draw a lighted space. I chose to draw in the den looking out toward the hallway.

Valley of Fire

2006-11-01T08:02:00.000-05:00

Not being a gambler, Las Vegas has never been high on my list of places to go, but when my husband offered to take me along on a business trip, I went. We were only there for a few days, and it was not at all as I had imagined.

While he was at his conference, I took a tour to Valley of Fire State Park. It was really interesting. Since I'm a life-long East Coast resident, the landscape fascinated me. The color palette is so different, and there are no trees to speak of. There were some palm trees around the resort/casinos, but I don't think they are native species. Here are some photos I took in Valley of Fire.

This is what the landscape looked like.

There are lots of petroglyphs in the park, and this boulder fell off a high cliff, so it's more accessible than some of the other petroglyph sites.

Here is a close up. If you look closely, you can see the various animals depicted: a snake, a sheep, and a mountain goat.

This is another site, higher up. It's been defaced with spray paint (WHAT are people thinking?), but I don't think any of that is in the photo.

I like the places in the sandstone where the wind has created holes, or little caves. Once a hole gets to a certain size, the wind whips the sand around inside it and carves out a circle in the side of the hill. This cave is big enough to stand up in, and it curves around inside to a point where the wind has carved a window looking out over the landscape. Pretty cool.

This arch is tall enough for a person to walk through. I'd guess it's about 7 feet high.

We stopped by a hot spring, and this sign was by the water. Eeewwww!

Here is another petroglyph site. I loved the way the blue sky contrasted with the red of the sandstone.

And this is what the sky really looked like. I've never seen such a blue and cloudless sky.

More Trees

2006-10-26T20:44:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I made another small (8" x 10") piece with trees. These trees were free-motion embroidered on a light weight fabric, and then cut away using an exacto tool. Finally, I stitched them to the background.

After drawing the trees on sketch paper, I traced them onto the lightweight fabric, and put the fabric in a hoop. I used a straight stitch, whereas in the previous example I used a free-motion zig-zag. I like the way they look, but the free-motion embroidery is too labor intensive to use for anything larger. I'll keep looking for another way to make trees, so that I can make larger pieces with trees as the theme. I suppose I could just make simpler trees!

Trees

2006-10-24T17:36:00.000-04:00

In my drawing class, we've been drawing trees. So, I figured I'd try a little (8" x 10") embroidered piece with trees. My goal was to make the trees recede or come forward in space. I think I succeeded.

Where I've Been

2006-10-08T13:37:00.000-04:00

I spent a week with my sister in Jonesborough Tennessee, and she helped me (ok,ok, she did most of the work!) do this mosaic. It's called "We See You, Too." I drew the design on plywood, and we used broken stained glass to make the images. The black is grout, not leading. It's not translucent like stained glass because it's on a wooden support.

And I've finally finished and delivered this dresser. I donated the labor to a fund-raising auction, and this is what they wanted. The owner gave me a mug which had belonged to her mother to use for the design, and I'm pleased to say that it matches well. We delivered it this afternoon, and the owners are tickled with it. I always have palpitations before I deliver something, whether the owners have been involved in the design process or not!

This week's drawing homework

2006-09-14T18:52:00.000-04:00

I turned in this drawing today. The assignment was to draw 2 boxes, three bottles and something else that starts with b. The bottles were to show how well we understand elipses, but I didn't know that and chose a milk carton, which is mostly square, and a big juice bottle (the black one; grape juice.) I didn't realize I needed 3 bottles until I had drawn in all the others. Hence, the bottle at the far right, almost off the page. I need to plan better - my bowl is almost off the page, too. And, in case you didn't notice, I've drawn "breakfast." Another b word.

Latest Piece

2006-09-12T14:28:00.000-04:00

This is called Blue: Last. It's 40" wide by 29" high. I named it that because I'm trying to get away from using so much blue, and I just finished reading The Blue Last by Martha Grimes. I finished this piece yesterday, except for the sleeve. Mostly these days I use velcro and plexiglass, but this piece is going into a show that requires a sleeve.

Here is a detail. I used lots of different threads, rayon, cotton and specialty threads, such as metallics and pearly rayon.

This week's drawing

2006-09-08T14:59:00.000-04:00

This is my homework for yesterday's drawing class. The assignment was to do a representational line drawing that showed the concept of unity and the effects of cropping. I chose the cups because I was fairly confident that I could render them recognizably. There are a lot of problems with this drawing (and the photo of it, too!) and it will be interesting to see as the semester goes on how much I improve.

Poppies

2006-09-07T08:53:00.000-04:00

I've had an urge to use poppy images for a while now. Probably due to the war, white poppies being a symbol of death. Anyway, this is one I finished recently. I've been messing with it for a while, and finally decided that it was finished. The poppies are white fabric with white zig zag embroidery. The background is collaged, and stitched vertically.

One of my goals is to understand perspective better, and use it more effectively. To that end, I've enrolled in a drawing class at the local college, and I need to go finish my homework - class is at 2 this afternoon. After the homework is finished, I'll post a photo of it, along with a description of the assignment.

Home Again

2006-08-31T08:43:00.000-04:00

My sister, father and I flew home yesterday. South Dakota is a pretty place, and everyone is friendly. Saturday was taken up with family things and the wedding, so Sunday Nancy and I did touristy stuff. We drove out to Mitchell to see the corn palace (everyone kept saying "It's really small.") Turns out it's about a half a city block, and the entire exterior is covered with a mosaic made from ears of Indian corn. I can scratch that off my list; only 999 left.

On the way, we passed the Porter Sculpture Park. Since we had no schedule to keep we stopped, and it was well worth the $4 we spent to go through it. The artist was there, and he walked us through the park.
That's my sister standing next to this sculpture of an Egyptian steer. I think the artist, Porter, said it was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, but I was only half listening, I was so fascinated. It's hollow, so we went inside, and the interior details are incredible. The sculptor's father is a blacksmith, so Porter worked in the blacksmith shop all his growing up years, and uses smithing techniques to make his pieces from scrap iron and parts of old farm equipment. And it's all just sitting on the prairie, next to the interstate.
This is a reproduction of a dugout. The settlers came for the free land offered under the terms of the Homestead Act, and often the first shelter they could build was one of these, dug out of the side of a hill.
This is the interior. When there was rain of any amount, it could take 3 days for the roof to dry out. It's no wonder they had consumption!
This is a claim shack, only marginally better than the dugout, in my opinion, but at least it's not a hole in the ground. It's approximately 8 feet by 10 feet, and an entire family would sleep in there.
And this is the view. Practically nothing but sky and grass.

Shoe Shopping

2006-08-24T18:11:00.000-04:00

I went out today to do some errands before I go to South Dakota tomorrow, for a family wedding. Anyway, my friend Denyse has a saying (I call it Denyse's law) that if you don't buy something in the first 15 minutes of a shopping trip, the trip is doomed. And she's right! This time, my first stop was Lord and Taylor, and I didn't find what I wanted. Next I went to the library, where I was only marginally successful.

Dispairing, I went to the Designer Shoe Warehouse, hoping for some footwear consolation. No luck, but look at what I saw there!

These lovely green shoes are a thick rubber, and while I found them on the sale rack, they started out at $299. And no, there's no decimal point in that price. Now, though, some lucky soul (yuck, yuck) can have them at 40% off. They really aren't so bad, but $299?

But wait! Look at these next ones!

No kidding, these are fish skeletons attractively running down the wearer's insteps, cunningly topped off with rhinestone fish heads. And the price? Another bargain at $299, on sale for 40% off. That makes them $179, on sale.

I resisted.

Hair

2006-08-21T07:55:00.000-04:00

Lady Godiva in South Baltimore by Helen Glazer; 48 x 52, acrylic on canvas, cropped.

Here is the postcard for the show I mentioned yesterday: "HAIR, a Juried Exhibition Art work Interpreting the Theme of Hair" August 31-October 8, 2006. Reception and Awards Presentation Saturday September 16, 6-8PM
Sponsored by Hey Red!, Inc, Laurel, MD, and presented by the Columbia Art Center, 6100 Foreland Garth, Columbia MD 21045. 410.730.0075

I have plans for the 16th already, a weekend away sewing with a group of friends (see archive for April) but I'll skip dinner Saturday night and come back for the reception. It's only about 45 minutes away. Of course, it does cut into my vqt (valuable quilting time) but it can't be helped.

Living Well

2006-08-20T17:06:00.000-04:00

I'm back! I've been puttering around, happy to be home. I finally managed to upload this image.
This is called "Living Well" and I made it in response to a divorce in my family. She's 38 x 50, and will be exhibited in a show here in Columbia, at the Art Center, from August 31 to October 8.
This one is called "My Husband's Name is Art" and it will be in the show as well. It's much smaller, 23 x 22.

CRS

2006-08-15T10:19:00.000-04:00

I have CRS - Can't Remember Stuff. It would be nice to check my messages while I'm visiting my dad, but no. I can't remember my email password, and I could just change it while I'm here, but then I'd have to figure out how to change it on my pc at home. I think I'm just too lazy. And if I'm not reading email, I might do something productive instead. Imagine!

I drove down yesterday after lunch. I95 from DC to Richmond was pretty busy, but there were only a couple of places where the average speed was less than 75, so it didn't really take all that long. About 3 hours, I guess. I took an exercise walk this morning, for about an hour. I grew up here, so walking around for an hour really showed me how much has changed. It's not the quiet country town it was years ago.

New Postcards

2006-08-13T19:30:00.000-04:00

I've been using the postcard format to experiment with the t-shirt transfer method. The images are small enough to cut out close to the edges so there isn't discoloration around it. I don't really like the results transfer process. I'm going to try printing directly on fabric next.
This is a statue of Santiago high in the mountains in Galicia. The statue is at the highest point on the Camino, and it's cold and windy there. You can see how he is leaning into the wind. Incidentally, I read today that there have been fires, deliberately set, in the forests where we were walking.
The hand on this postcard is a door knocker.
The scallop image is everywhere on the Camino, and I've used it on several postcards.

2006-08-10T11:49:00.000-04:00

I've been experimenting with photos that I took in Spain. I'd like to have a thermofax machine to make screens with the photos, but I'm afraid it would be something else to distract me from what I should be doing! So these are iron on transfers, on fabric postcards. I took the scallop shell from a photograph of an iron fence. On the Camino de Santiago, the scallop shell symbol is everywhere, since it's the symbol of Saint James, and the symbol of the pilgrim.

I used Photoshop Elements to lift the shell image from the photograph, and printed it on t-shirt transfer paper. Having long ago lost the directions, it took a while to get a good print. First I ironed it on the wrong side - results below.

As you can see, my goof left a sort of afterimage of the shell, which I like. Another important piece of information I did not have is that the paper needs to be removed immediately, or it won't come off at all. And the iron needs to be moved around, otherwise the steam vents leave holes in the design.

Maybe I should invest in a thermofax after all. . .

The end of July

2006-07-31T19:46:00.000-04:00

Here it is, the end of July. I think August is a sad month. Summer is winding down, and all the fun things you did when the weather first got nice are sort of old hat now. The garden is tired looking and it's too hot to plant anything. Even if you could stand the heat, the plants couldn't. Even the dog is listless.

I didn't have any plans at all for August, until last week. My sister and I are going to Virginia to see our dad and stepmother for a few days, and then we, along with our dad, are going to South Dakota for a family wedding. And it won't be any cooler there, trust me.

Trying again

2006-07-26T11:40:00.000-04:00

I managed to get one more photo uploaded. This is called "Get Over It!"

The first one I did was very colorful, and a friend wondered aloud what it would be like in black and white. I had to add the green shoes, and then of course the green lettering. I just couldn't make myself stick to black and white.

Here She Is

2006-07-24T16:46:00.000-04:00

Here is the latest in a series of "Spokeswomen." I used to call them wild women, but it seems too trite to me these days.

In a class I took recently, there was a lot of talk about "the big idea" behind artwork. I don't think I have a "big idea." Hence, this piece.

I've been trying for 3 days to upload photos of her sisters, but Blogger isn't cooperating. Maybe tomorrow.

Another Chasuble

2006-07-22T11:00:00.000-04:00

Here is another chasuble that I designed for a priest here in Baltimore.

The fabric is hand-dye European sateen, bought from Heide Stoll-Weber, from Frankfurt. The inserts in the sleeves are heavily stitched silk dupioni. The silk was green to begin with, but I put it in the same dye bath as the sateen, to be sure that it blended.

You can see from the detail that there is stitching in the background, too. This chasuble is lined with rayon, and the stitching holds it all together, similar to quilting, only without a batt. I think priests' clothing is hot enough without adding the batt. The stitching is green pearl rayon, in a grape leaf design. The altar set that this chasuble complements has a grape vine design. I'll post photos of it later.

Absence Explained

2006-07-18T10:23:00.000-04:00

Back in the spring, I took a break from blogging. I was working on a commission pretty much all the time, and didn't really have anything else to talk about. Thinking that it wasn't really fair to show images of the commission to the blogosphere before the client saw them, I just took a break. But now the pieces are finished, and here they are, for the world to see.

I had been asked to create a 5 piece altar set for St Thomas Episcopal Church, in Richmond, Virginia. The stained glass in the church is from about 1910, and is a sort of prairie/Frank Lloyd Wright style. Each window has a simplified dogwood motif, and that's what I decided to use for the altar set.

This is a detail of the altar frontal. This is the right side, and the left is identical. The entire frontal is 72" wide and 7" deep. The dogwood is painted and couched on silk dupioni.

The chasuble is a festival garment worn by the priest. This one is made of raw silk, and the design is painted and couched onto heavily stitched silk dupioni.

Here is the stole, also made of heavily stitched silk dupioni, painted and couched. The other two pieces are lectern and pulpit hangings, and have the same design on the heavily stitched dupioni.

I worked constantly on these pieces for most of the spring, and delivered them to St Thomas right before we left for Spain.

Photography woes

2006-07-12T09:43:00.000-04:00

Photographing my work is like a comedy of errors. Every time I set everything up, it begins to rain! Today is no exception. At least I got one piece shot before I had to quit.
But, first I used a gray card to get the settings. I set the camera for aperture mode, set the aperture at 8, and filled the screen with the gray card. Shutter speed indicated was 1/5. OK, I changed to manual mode, used those settings, and the exposure meter said +2.9. Naturally the image was wildly over exposed. I cropped this image, but didn't do anything else to it, not even rotate.

So, I set the camera back to aperture mode, and used the exposure meter to find the shutter speed. So this photo was taken with aperture 8, shutter speed 1/80, exposure meter -0.1. I clearly don't understand the gray card business!

When it stops raining, I have another piece to shoot. Let's hope it doesn't get rained on, too!

What Kind of Coffee are You?

2006-07-08T15:50:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure that this is flattering!

You are a Black Coffee

At your best, you are: low maintenance, friendly, and adaptable

At your worst, you are: cheap and angsty

You drink coffee when: you can get your hands on it

Your caffeine addiction level: high

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

2006-07-07T10:27:00.000-04:00

I'm testing this image to see how it looks on the web. It's the lettering that worries me: is it legible? So we'll see. I've been working on my images in PhotoShop Elements, changing all the backgrounds to white. It's a chore, since my pieces generally aren't exactly square. I usually trim the edges without a ruler.

Animals and cool shoes

2006-06-30T16:19:00.000-04:00

The part of the Camino we were on is in Galicia, the northwest part of Spain. It's very rural and agricultural. There were animals everywhere, very close to the road. Often, actually, *on* the road. This cow watched us eat lunch one day.

Check out these shoes. They are very common among farmers. They are carved from wood; the funny sole keeps the feet out of the muck and they are easy to hose off.

These chickens were also guests at one of our hotels.

More Camino pictures

2006-06-30T16:07:00.000-04:00

A lot of the time the Camino looked like this. We were often in forests, with no one else around. I walked alone alot, pretty much going at my own pace. Other pilgrims were respectful of one's need to chat or not.

This is a typical village. Narrow streets going between ancient stone houses and barns. There was always a little church, too, usually open. In one little hamlet, there was a woman standing in the path, selling fresh sugared crepes (I don't know the Spanish word for crepes.)

This woman was walking between her home and a nearby village. 250,000 people walk the last part of the Camino every year, so she hardly noticed us.

Camino de Santiago

2006-06-29T06:27:00.000-04:00

My husband and I went to Spain, to walk the Camino de Santiago. It was a beautiful trip, but not for the faint of heart. We walked 140K, or about 85 - 90 miles, in a week. We had great weather, and I took loads of photos. The shell is the image of St James, and it's everywhere. Here is the shadow of a fence in Samos, at the monastery there.

This is our group, starting off on the first day. There were eight of us and a guide walking every day. There was also a "sag wagon" for anyone who was tired of walking, and every couple of hours it would be on the side of the path somewhere, where Carlos , another guide, would make sure we all had water.

Here we are on the second day, at the highest (and coldest!) part of the trip. See how the pilgrim in the statue is leaning against the wind? We were way up in the mountains, and the wind was sometimes fierce. Fortunately, after this, the weather warmed up, and we weren't quite so high up. The rest of the week we had great weather - cool mornings and no rain.

Tomorrow, I'll post some photos of the Camino. I'm hoping to use some of the recurring images in quilts.

Home Again

2006-04-03T08:44:00.000-04:00

We had a great weekend away, sewing. Seven of us met at the Methodist Retreat Center a few miles south of Annapolis Maryland for 3 days of sewing and catching up. The weather was almost perfect - one brief downpour, but the rest was sunny and bright.

I have a million purses, and I hate them all, so I'm constantly on the lookout for a better one. After making a bunch from other people's patterns, I took matters into my own hands and designed my own. It was pretty successful, and I carried it for so long it fell apart. So this weekend I dediced to make another one out of an old pair of jeans. Here's the result. I took this pocket off the rear and sewed it onto the front, but it's not really functional because everytime you open the purse, anything in this pocket will fall out!

This pocket is on the back of the purse, and it too is a rear pocket. Here, though, I just cut the fabric so that the pocket would land there. It might be useful for keys or something like that.

I'm pleased with how these pockets worked out. I can use the little key pocket for my cell phone - it fits perfectly! The bigger pocket will hold my camera. I made pockets for the inside for other things like my iPod and lipstick. The lining fabric is from a dropcloth I used while doing soy resist painting at

Cathy's

house one day. After I finished the purse, I decided that the drop cloth fabric should have had a higher use than as purse lining, but oh well.

It needs something!

2006-03-30T11:14:00.000-05:00

It's really too sunshiney to day to take photos, but I did it anyway. You can tell that the lighting isn't right; it's much lighter at the bottom than at the top. Anyway, in person, so to speak, I love this piece. It's 2' x 3', intended to be a processional banner. In the photo, however, it seems to lack something. But what? I've covered this olive green silk with layers and layers of thread, and I think I'll paint on it with gold paint. I love the effect of the paint over the thread.

You can't see it, but the photo is in blogger somewhere! And I've spent enough time messing with it!

I've done another, as well, with a bluer green silk: "irredescent emerald" I think the bolt said. It's intended as a pulpit hanging, and I think it needs rethinking completely. It may end up as a painted banner, too, and I'll do the pulpit hanging again.

Anyway, I'm off this weekend to sew with 6 other art quilters:

Linda, and Dale. We have done this every spring and fall for TEN! years, and here's a photo of us from last fall, when Mary Beth's sister joined us. That's the West River behind us, and aren't our shirts cool? Elizabeth and I found them at KMart for $1 each last fall, while on an emergency search for a coffee makerand barbie shoes.

Unfinished projects

2006-03-19T12:03:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted since last week, before I went to New York. We had a great time, visiting galleries and museums. We saw the Munch exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, and clearly we haven't suffered enough! He was really depressed. There is a scathing review of the show in today's Washington Post, saying that Munch wallowed in his mental problems and used trite and bland imagery. Other reviews have been more positive - there's one in a recent New Yorker Magazine, and this month's Smithsonian Magazine has a big article, too.

Anyway, back to the topic. I have had to put off finishing a couple of things (no deadlines!) for working on things that are coming due. This past week I was in Virginia with my sister, putting a stained glass mosaic on a counter top. We got carried away and put one on the back splash, too!
The photo of the counter was taken from the stairs, leaning over the railing; that's why it's so skewed.

We arrived at the house about 2:30 on Monday, and by 3 we were hard at work. We worked steadily until about 11, except for a sojourn to the emergeny room for a tetnus shot for Nancy. She cut herself on a sharp piece of glass and since her last tetnus shot was way more than 10 years ago, I made her get in the car and drove her to the hospital.
But other than that, it went quickly and by Tuesday evening we had both surfaces ready to grout. The grout needs 72 hours to cure before sealing, so next time I'm there, I'll seal the backsplash and pour a two part epoxy resin over the countertop to give it a smooth surface and protect the glass from us and vice-versa.

Off to NYC

2006-03-09T20:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm off to New York tomorrow with three friends for the weekend. We're going to see the Edvard Munch exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, and other than that, we're playing it by ear. No husbands, so we get to do as we choose. The weather is supposed to be warm, with only a chance of showers. Warm is the operative word here, in my opinion. So, when I get back on Sunday, I'll have photos to share.

Dallas Miniature Textiles Exhibit

2006-03-09T10:10:00.000-05:00

I am participating in the International Miniature Textiles Invitational-Dallas. I decided to try the iridescent fabric on darks for that piece, and here's what I submitted: Night Garden.

While I worked on this little piece (11 x 14) I struggled with being so rigid. I need to think less about fabric and more about value. Maybe I should re-organize my fabric, but OH! what a chore that would be. Maybe a big sign over my work space would do: THINK VALUE

The Waterfall Diptych is finished.

2006-03-08T20:41:00.000-05:00

I finished this piece last week (a month ahead of the deadline!) and we hung it yesterday. I'm pleased and so is the client, and the decorator who recommended me, too. It's hung on either side of the entry from the client's living room to the dining room, pretty high up. Each piece of the diptych is individually lit, and the lighting emphasizes the iridescent fabric. The beads look like stones, and the client actually thought I had sewn stones on it. I put way more beads on it than I had planned, but I love the look.

Progress in the Dirty Workroom

2006-03-08T20:32:00.000-05:00

Finally! I painted that white plywood this wonderful red-purple color: Dark Iris. The color (on my screen anyway) is pretty accurate. Next I taped it, with the idea of adding stripes.

The blue tape will come off, revealing the original Dark Iris color, with stripes of a lighter color in between. I painted the edges of the blue tape with the background color. It makes a seal, so that blobs of the next color won't ooze under the tape. Well, that's the theory, anyway.

This is the room where I paint stuff. Fabric, furniture, floor cloths. To the right of the newly painted plywood is the utility sink, and under the work surface in the foreground are two small dressers and a rolling set of drawers. In another space I have a raised work table, and there are shelves along one wall. There are also a freezer, miscellaneous chairs and most of our holiday decorations.

A Blank Slate

2006-03-03T14:10:00.000-05:00

I was messing around in my utility room, also known as the dirty workroom, and I wondered if my husband had ever put up those plywood sheets he bought for me. Voila! there they were, and I have no idea how long they've been there. The idea is to hang shelving in front of them, and the plywood will keep the stuff from falling off between the studs. Ask me how I know this.

Anyway, all that bare wood called out for paint. So here it is, all primed and ready to be tarted up. Or Nancy-ed up, as we like to say, since my sister will paint anything that stands still and isn't suitable for mosaic. Stay tuned. As soon as the primer dries, I'll start with the paint.

Weather Notes

2006-02-20T08:53:00.000-05:00

Last week's snow storm left us under 18 inches of heavy wet snow. It split two branches on an ornamental red maple outside our front door and was generally a nuisance. But it was pretty while it lasted. My town, Columbia Maryland, was the "epicenter" of the storm. We're finally in the middle of something, and it turns out to be a major storm!

My husband and I spent the weekend on Virginia's lovely "Northern Neck." The weather was gloomy and wet, and it snowed a good bit on Saturday. It didn't amount to anything, but the sky was an interesting mix of clouds and clear spaces. We took this photo on the way back to Maryland, outside of Warsaw, Virginia, at about 5:30PM Saturday. I like the shaft of light radiating upward from the setting sun.

Progress!

2006-02-07T18:01:00.000-05:00

I have gotten far enough along on the waterfall commission to post a photograph of the test piece. It's quilted but not bound, and I have not put the beads on it. Since this is a test piece, it may be a while before those finishing touches get done.

Here is the detail. Most of the irredescent fabric is sewn into the seams, but there will be a few curly-queues on top, with beads on them. I think this piece really needs lots of beads and lots of seed stitch, but. . .

Get Over It!

2006-01-31T17:31:00.000-05:00

This piece, Get Over It!, just sold. This photo is not very good - it's keystoned, but it's the one which shows the color the best. I'm about as good with PhotoShop as I am with the camera, ie not very.

I'm happy to have her go to a new family who will be glad to have her in their midst, but I'm also sorry to see her go. I have a big blank spot on the wall where she hung. There is another one in the same series hanging there: Living Well Is the Best Revenge. I suppose it's an invitation to do another one.

How Many Irons Do You Have?

2006-01-26T12:53:00.000-05:00

As I've gotten older, my definition of "toy" has changed. Dolls used to be toys, yo-yos were toys, but never something like a car, a chainsaw, or an iron. Now, though, think how cool it is to get the car that you want, how much fun it is to drive it around. I gave my husband a chainsaw for Christmas (yes, he is qualified to use it!) and he was thrilled to death. Ok, bad turn of phrase, but you know what I mean. And so I turn to irons. I use my iron everyday in my studio, so it's technically a tool. But I use it so much that it qualifies as a toy, in that it was fun to go buy it.
I have three irons. This one I bought recently when I decided I needed automatic shut-off or I would burn the house down. Contrary to popular images, I wasn't loathe to spend money on something as pedestrian as an iron. I was looking forward to seeing what new features, in addition to the auto shut-off, I could have in a new iron. Actually, there weren't any. But it was still fun to go buy it.

Here is the one it replaced. This is a great iron, but it gets really hot. That makes it good for ironing lengths of fabric and shirts (Ha. Like I'd know.) but not so great for fusing and foiling. And any fabric that had too much finish on it would get scorched easily. So this one has been sent to live out its days in the laundry room, where its auto shut-off lets me have some peace of mind. I only iron clothes in a hurry, which is a recipe for forgetting to turn it off. I actually thought about having the outlet in the laundry room connected to the lightswitch, but I realized that it would be much cheaper to get another iron.

And here is the really old iron. Note the classic avocado green handle, dating it to the seventies. This was my mother's old iron, and I took it when she died. I keep it by the sewing machine for pressing seams and quick things like that, and it's connected to a power strip along with the lights and the machines. I don't worry about leaving it on anymore. And it reminds me of my mother, because once she looked in the laundry basket, took out the heirloom linens and gave all the rest of the stuff to Goodwill because she was sick of ironing it.

Apologies to TS Eliot

2006-01-24T16:09:00.000-05:00

Actually, I don't think April is the cruelest month. It's interminable January, with its short grey days and cold nights. Of course, interminable February is right around the corner, with its short grey, wet days, always with the chance of snow. I want to get in bed, pull up the covers and stay there until spring.

Bearing that in mind, you can imagine how tempting it was to go back home this morning after torturing myself at the gym, instead of going to a friend's for lunch with 5 other women. I'm so glad I went. The antidote to January greyness is lots of laughter, with a heathy dose of chocolate on the side. I'm fortunate to have such good friends.

Making a 1/4 inch border, Part 2

2006-01-23T13:56:00.000-05:00

These photos describe how to finish making the quarter inch border that I began to describe Friday.

Start this next step by laying the piece with the border attached on top on the new piece. Place the edge of the presser foot against the first seam line.

Sew the seam using the left side of the presser foot as your guide, as it butts against the first seam you sewed.

Here it is! See how even it is? Wasn't that easy?

Making a 1/4 border for your quilt

2006-01-20T08:58:00.000-05:00

The other day I showed a friend how to add a 1/4 inch border onto a quilt, neatly and easily. I thought others might like to know how to do this, too.

First, cut border strips 3/4 inch wide. If you need longer strips, trim the ends at a 45 degree angle, so that the seam is angled. A border this narrow can't handle the bulk of butted seams.

Using your quarter inch foot, stitch the border strip onto the quilt.

Iron the seam allowance toward the quilt. This makes the next step mcuh easier.

Here is the skinny border, ironed and ready for the next border to be added this afternoon.

Another big step

2006-01-12T19:39:00.000-05:00

Here I've inserted in the seam an iridescent fabric, cut on the bias, to simulate water. Being directionally impaired, I put it on the wrong side. The dark green/blue fabric was supposed to go on the other side of the light section, so I have to re-do it. When I make mistakes like that, I know it's time to quit for a while.

Auditioning fabric

2006-01-12T19:29:00.000-05:00

I was busy today. In these two photos, I was auditioning fabric for the commission I'm working on. The photo on the bottom has the fabrics that won. I'll add another darker piece to the edge when I get all this assembled. But now that I look at it, I like the one on the top better. It's not to late to change it.

Latest Work

2006-01-11T15:21:00.000-05:00

This is the start of a commission I've been working on for the last several days. I figure if I chart my progress here for the world to see, I'll stay on track! This is essentially the upper right quadrant of the first piece of a diptych. I'm learning a lot about curved seams. I took this photo this morning, and I've made a lot of progress since then. Now I'm goofing off, eating popcorn while the gas man works on the gas fireplace.

I've Been Tagged!

2006-01-11T14:47:00.000-05:00

I've been tagged!

four jobs I've had: lifeguard, dental assistant, banker, researcher

four movies I could watch over and over: It's a Wonderful Life; and all the Harry Potter ones

four places I've lived: Richmond, VA; Charlottesville, VA; Akron, OH; Timonium, MD

four tv shows I love to watch: 24; Gray's Anatomy; Six Feet Under; Desperate Housewives

four places I've been on vacation: Italy; Costa Rica; Mexico; Zion National Park, Utah

four websites I visit everyday: www.nancysstudio.blogspot.com; www.fiberstudio.blogspot.com
and that's about it.

four of my favorite foods: egg custard; 1234 cake; coffee ice cream; rack of lamb

four places I'd rather be: Costa Rica; Italy; Jonesborough TN; Timonium, MD

four albums I can't live without: Between Here and Gone, Mary Chapin Carpenter; Desire, Bob Dylan; High Tide and Green Grass, The Rolling Stones; Abby Road, The Beatles

four people I'll pass this on to: everyone I know has already done it.

Mindless sewing

2006-01-11T14:40:00.000-05:00

I have been mentally working on a design for a commission, and while I was working the kinks out, I did this. It's just strip piecing, using scraps. As you can see, I used any old scrap! No color scheme for me. It's not sewn together, just pinned to the wall. I like this, even though I don't do bed quilts much. I think I'll give this to my goddaughter when she graduates from high school this spring. I have enough blocks to give one to her sister, too!

Draw Something You Collect

2006-01-08T14:54:00.000-05:00

Here is my EDM challenge for last week: draw something you collect. Well, I don't really collect pitchers, but I have several. This one is white, and the handle really is out of proportion to the body of the pitcher. It's my first attempt at pastels. I'm not happy with the handle because I don't think I got it round, and I think I over worked the bottom.

Boathouse in Lewes, Delaware

2006-01-08T11:05:00.000-05:00

We were in Lewes, Delaware this weekend, and while we were rooting around, we saw this little boathouse on the Rehobeth-Lewes Canal. The illusion is all done with the wood - the wall is really as flat as a normal side of a house.

2006-01-04T13:22:00.000-05:00

These are some postcards I made for Singular Sensations, the holiday art sale sponsored by the Columbia (Maryland) Art Center.

Most of them are 4x6, but the red ones are 5x7. They take letter rate postage.

They make great thank you notes and birthday cards, not to mention get well cards.

I usually make 4 or 5 at a time, adding the fabric to the stiffener before I cut them into postcard sizes.

Then I add the thread to each one. I have a hard time restraining myself. I always figure that enough is never enough, and neither is too much!

They are fun to make, and fun to receive.

And of course, they can be framed. My step-mother keeps her birthday postcard in a frame on the shelf with all the family photos! High praise, indeed.

December 30, 2005

2005-12-30T11:22:00.000-05:00

Another old piece. This is a print of a drawing of a photo (got that?) of our old dog, Pooch. I did this in a printmaking class shortly after she died. She was 17. Someone once asked what kind of dog she was, and I said "Beagle-terrier mix." He said "Great. Barks and digs." I still miss her.

December 30, 2005

2005-12-30T10:56:00.000-05:00

One of the EDM challenges was to draw your purse, or something like that. Anyway, this is a drawing I did a while back. I've been a fiber artist for a long time, and when I showed this drawing to my father he said "Wow. You really are an artist." Granted, he's in his 80's, so I excuse him from thinking fiber isn't really art.
But I know I'm an artist, because my sister gave me this lapel pin for Chrismas.

Martha's Studio

Daylily

Spring has arrived!

Art Consulting

Polka Dots

Weekend art classes

Notan

Image transfer

Another Memorial Day

Painting Fabric

Weeklies Update

Monday doings

Pissarro Exhibit, Baltimore Museum of Art

Show Photos

Weekend travails

TV Update

OK, I give.

More Weeklies

As long as there are postmen, life will have zest.

Another Photo from the Slayton House Gallery

Jumping on the Goals Bandwagon

Gallery Reception

I Don't Get It

Small work

Today's Holiday Hint

New Drawing

Diane Rehm Show on Art Quilts

Post Thanksgiving update

Thanksgiving Tradition

New Drawing

Valley of Fire

More Trees

Trees

Where I've Been

This week's drawing homework

Latest Piece

This week's drawing

Poppies

Home Again

Shoe Shopping

Hair

Living Well

CRS

New Postcards

The end of July

Trying again

Here She Is

Another Chasuble

Absence Explained

Photography woes

What Kind of Coffee are You?

Animals and cool shoes

More Camino pictures

Camino de Santiago

Home Again

It needs *something!*

Unfinished projects

Off to NYC

Dallas Miniature Textiles Exhibit

The Waterfall Diptych is finished.

Progress in the Dirty Workroom

A Blank Slate

Weather Notes

Progress!

Get Over It!

How Many Irons Do You Have?

Apologies to TS Eliot

Making a 1/4 inch border, Part 2

Making a 1/4 border for your quilt

Another big step

Auditioning fabric

Latest Work

I've Been Tagged!

Mindless sewing

Draw Something You Collect

Boathouse in Lewes, Delaware

December 30, 2005

December 30, 2005

It needs something!