Tuesday Thoughts

I've been watching Drop Dead Diva on Netflix while working on the current doll.  Cute and funny--love the characters.

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the type of doll I'm currently making is a fairly quick one. However, if there is anything I'm good at, it is complicating things.   I've been working on the darn thing for about 5 days, and yesterday, I spent ALL day working on her.  From around 8:00 in the morning until around 10:00.   There were frequent breaks, but I the darn doll ate  my day.

Today, I'm taking a break from her and doing some straightening & putting stuff away as my work space is total chaos right now.  I'll work on her again this afternoon, but my butt still hurts from too much sitting yesterday.

I really, really want to see this:


While we were keeping Bryce Eleanor Sunday night, Amelia was throwing her annual Oscar Party.




That's Amelia in the front.



Our area was delighted, of course, with James Joyce's win.  We love our locals--and Joyce is definitely a Shreveport boy!

Lovely Weekend

O.K. - I love the encrusted calico (or muslin, to us Yanks).  Love the process and the product.

Here is the first one, trimmed and edged-- ready for whatever I end up deciding to do with it.

 And two more in the making.  This one will be shades of cream and white.

 This one will be more colorful.

The doll now has arms and hands in progress and is getting some face paint.  She has a long way to go, but is getting there slowly.  At this point, not much personality has emerged, and I am not sure where to go from here until some kind of sparkle reveals itself, but B. E. has named it Caillou, I assume from the cartoon and because the doll is still bald.

Bryce Eleanor arrived around 1:00 yesterday afternoon, and she kept me busy and entertained until bedtime.  We walked around the neighborhood (she ran), played with buttons, had conversations with various dolls and stuffed animals, searched for ponies in her coloring book, ate strawberries, played with the cats.

One thing she loves to do--and requests on every visit--is to watch Funny Cat Videos.  She chuckles and howls at the antics of the various cats.  This was yesterday's favorite:
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After a rough night (B.E. sleeps sideways in the bed), I am not up to par this morning, but B.E. was bright and cheerful.

Getting her to be still long enough to get her school clothes on was a bit of a wrestling match.

Well, I have several hundred buttons to sort out and put away, toys and blocks to pick up, beds to make, clothes to wash.  Then, maybe a nap, since I didn't get much sleep last night!

Then...I'm going upstairs to play!

What do you have planned for the last few days in February?

Two New Prayer Flags

Joy is a series of paisley leaves.  In life, the appearance of spring leaves on the trees provides a joyful experience denoting the end of winter, in summer there is the joy of watching the leaves move in the wind or dapple the ground with shade, and in fall, the joy and wonder of the leaves turning all the various shades and colors, in the leafy piles, in the sight and rustling sound of leaves blown across a path.

Explore has an eco dyed scrap that I embroidered with running stitches in the fall, then attached to the flag.  I then added chain stitches over the other stitches.  Bad photo.

I've finally reviewed Heading Out to Wonderful by Robert Goolrick over at A Garden Carried in the Pocket.  Geez, I love his language; although I could hope for a happier story, it is so beautifully written.

Continuing to read my books of essays, a little at a time.  A Dyer's Hand by Auden is a re-read, A Common Reader by Virginia Woolf is new to me, as is A Visit to Vanity Fair by Alan Jacobs.  No hurry to any of these, an essay here, an essay there.  None of the compulsion of my mysteries --which I've been trying to wean myself from temporarily.

Oh, and I won a give-away which I will share with you when it arrives!  I'm very excited about this because I love winning anything and this one will fit so well into my various crafty projects.

Good mail: Yesterday my sign from Goldiloo's Etsy Shop arrived!  Love it.  Can't wait to put it up!  I might have to order another one of her signs--she has a-plenty.

Mish Mash

I've been working on a doll in approximately the same style as my Halloween ragamuffins, Bitter & Boo, although they are reversed in the picture.

 Of course, there will be a lot of changes including the color scheme.  I'd planned to make one of these  out of some Valentine fabric in my stash, but never got around to it.  Still, the basic idea is great for seasonal changes: Valentine, spring, July 4th, summer, Halloween, autumn, Christmas fabrics.  The body of this one sews up so quickly (unlike many of the others) and the only thing that takes a lot of time is building up the clay face, layer by layer, sanding, applying gesso, and painting.

No name yet, very androgynous so far.  Typical.

Top right:  A bunch of waste floss from all of the embroidery (there is a weird satisfaction as I pile it into the little peat pot and think about making fabric from it using water soluble Solvy) and some fabric beads that need to be put away again--although it may be time to make some more as they prove useful when least expected.

This little sewing/needle kit that I made several years ago is something I use regularly, but never look at.  Yesterday, I looked at it and realized that I still like it...and it gave me some ideas.  

I've finished a couple more prayer flags.  This afternoon, after my errands, I'll take some pictures.




I'm finished with the encrusted piece and will take pictures of it this afternoon, too.   This picture was taken several days ago, and I've added more to it--a few more enclosed items, more stitching, beads.

This afternoon, I'm going to trim it down and make a patch for a cuff (or something, I'm not really sure).  I love it now that it is finished and beaded and thick and heavy and really feels "encrusted" in some Renaissance sense.

Fee has only been home one night this week, and will not be home until Sunday.  He will be back from south Louisiana today, but the guys are having a hog hunt down at the cabin.  The wild hogs are causing problems, and weighing in at between 100-300 pounds, are extremely dangerous.

We kind of ignored them for a while, but after Amelia found Oscar (or the other way around--a long story) and spent a fortune in vet bills, the guys decided to do something about them.  See where he has all of the hair shaved around his middle?  He has spent a lot of time at the vet.  Even after he was home, the wound had to be drained daily.  Not pleasant.


I found this pic on the internet to give you an idea of why these creatures are so dangerous.  They are very fast and aggressive.  Texas has been battling them for years, but they've only appeared on our land in the last couple of years.

At any rate, hopefully there will be fewer after this weekend.

Wednesday Plans

Fee got home last night and immediately settled in for his favorite shows on the History Channel.  You will know one of them if I mention Chumlee...

 Today, after tai chi, I'm going to begin a new project.  I'll continue with the prayer flags, but I need to begin something new.  Or at least finish something that lies languishing on the design board or on the cutting table.

I was picking through my eco scraps yesterday for a new prayer flag and pulled out the spinach and rosemary dyed pieces.  The leaf print is a funny one--I'm not sure now what I did on that dye batch, but the leaf came out white with dark outlines.  I think it was from some fabric I wrapped on copper pipe for dyeing, but I'm not sure.

The scraps include muslin, flour sacking, silk, cheese cloth, gauze, and some very thin, loosely woven fabric from I don't know where.  All these scrappy pieces will become a prayer flag at some point.

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Back from tai chi and running errands.  Ready to head upstairs to make something.  I don't know what, but maybe it will come to me when I start straightening up and putting away a few things.

Should be a good afternoon!

Today is dedicated to catching up on house cleaning and laundry chores and wiping the Triad's paw prints off the windows.  I've been neglectful lately because there are so many things I'd rather be doing-- but today, I'm in a rare mood that calls for dusting, straightening, finding a place for all the books, (those read and reviewed, those  read and not reviewed, those in the TBR pile), etc.

The trick will be to avoid going upstairs at all.  Once I enter the studio, I can find way too many things I'd rather do.

I'm blaming Susan Cuss for my latest obsession.  I had looked at this several times and have seen other versions and love both Jennifer Rochester's and Karen Ruane's work, but when I saw Suz's lovely efforts, I could no longer resist.

So far I've included buttons, pearl beads and flat beads, a tiny twig, an almond shell, a washer, some jewelry findings, and gravel, all sandwiched between two layers of cloth and embroidered over.  Another time-consuming passion.

White, ivory, and pale brown floss and a wide variety of embroidery stitches.  Filling one spot and then another.

And what else do I want to do?  Make some felt with wet felting, get out my embellisher and needle felt.  Oh, and some more eco dyeing experiments.  And papier mache' items, the messy kind with torn newspaper and flour paste.  And work on some dolls with air drying clay and flea market treasures, AAQI quilts, more prayer flags, and work to prepare the garden, read, do yoga and read yoga.

But first:  laundry and vacuuming and all of those things I've been putting off.  There went the buzzer on the dryer.  I need to fold those things and put them away and return to chores while still in the cleaning mood.

Monday Musings

I'm such a doofus.  My camera was on the table ready to go, but when we got to the party, I realized that I'd forgotten it.  I had planned to take pictures of Ricky & Teresa's wonderful house all decorated for Mardi Gras, all the lovely food, old friends, etc.  It was frustrating to realize that I couldn't.

Here is a pic from last year of Teresa's library, which I adore.  This is only the corner, there are more shelves and books out of sight.  Don't you love the ladder?

Patty and Dave, Yogi and Susan, and Carla were unable to make it from Colorado and Texas, but Sheila brought some old pictures she'd found of everyone--from the 1970's!  It was fun to see all those young people before marriage, kids, and grandkids.  Who'da thought we would be old and grey, with grown children....

We had to leave early and missed seeing many old friends that arrived later, though we did get to briefly see Tim and Lynn as we were leaving.
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For some reason, the cats won't leave me alone this morning.  I push one out of my lap and another one takes its place.  Lucy left my lap to try to dial the phone and step all over the keyboard.

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 I've removed Blogger's new version of word verification from this blog and from my book blog.  I can't read it when trying to comment on other blogs.


  How many of you hate the new word verification on Blogger?

I've been working on some leaves, strange leaves, while listening to some of the music on Magnolia Pearl's music list.

I love Pearl's music list--and her clothes, even if they are more in the realm of fantasy for me.  I'm a yoga clothes or jeans kind of person in real life, although my imagination ranges further.

The sun has come out!  Wonderful...because we have a Mardi Gras party and parade to attend.

Trust

This week's TAST is the detached chain stitch, and I used it in Trust.

More eco dyed scraps in linen and habotai silk.  Hapa-zome prints of grass and salvia (the brown stem-- even the purple flowers,the little round spots to the side of the stem, came out brown; dianthus which is only a purple blob over which I embroidered detached chain flowers.

The term trust works well for both eco dyeing and embroidery; I have to trust in the outcome as I seldom have a plan in mind.  Of course, we also have to trust in ourselves and in others in this often chaotic life.
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Prayer Flag Project

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Valerie's Thankfulness Project has been featured at Lucid Communication!  Wonderful photos--stop by and check out the interview and the photos.

Have a great weekend!

I was dismissed from jury duty.  I didn't even make it to the selection stage, but I'm grateful not to have to undergo trial procedure.

The blue habotai silk and gauze that took the red cabbage dye so well worked for the latest prayer flag.  When I first saw the blues the red cabbage dye produced, I thought of Dylan Thomas' "sky blue trades" from "Fern Hill."  I love that poem, and although I tend to like almost everything Dylan Thomas wrote, "Fern Hill" remains one of my favorites.

I included some fabric beads I made several years ago from discharged fabric and also found a yoyo in my yoyo stash of the same fabric.  (if yoyo isn't an amusing enough word on its own, having a yoyo stash completes a ridiculous picture).  I used some blue linen embroidery thread and some of that lovely variegated fine perle cotton from Sassa Lynne for the detached chain stitches and the button hole wheel.

I really liked the blue of that discharged fabric and used it for an outfit, quilted with metallic thread, for this doll.  I used the fabric beads for her arms.

 I only have scraps of the fabric left, a small piece of the quilted fabric, and a few fabric beads left, but it goes to show that sometimes hoarding stuff pays off.  :)

I said I was going to straighten up the studio today; I said I was going to work on dolls today. So far neither has happened.

Lovely Photos and Nora Ephron

If you'd enjoy seeing some gorgeous photos of almost anything, check out Pink Is the Word.


Like the contrast of winter/spring in these two
photos.

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I've just finished reading Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck and loved it.  I haven't reviewed it yet on my book blog, but Ephron's voice is so engaging and her short essays have both universal and personal appeal.  Some of the essays are so funny and truthful, and the last one is so touching and so honest about the loss of friends and loved ones that inevitably become more frequent as we grow older.  

Ephron takes such mundane topics as maintenance requirements of women of a certain age and makes us laugh at our own personal challenges with aging and our regrets about the process.  Who doesn't, after a certain age, regret the need for reading glasses and our inability to locate them (despite having multiple pairs), the temptation to dye our hair or resort to Botox, the effort to maintain our physical fitness, and more--whether we succumb to these temptations or not?

In one way, some of the essays are superficial; Ephron highlights some of the common situations women encounter (finding the perfect purse and then being able to locate anything within the dark recesses of said purse), but although this may be superficial and not an earth-shattering situation, it is, at least for me, a search that continues--both for the perfect purse and for locating anything in that black hole of necessary objects.  The real problem is more that disorganized people like myself believe that a purse will solve the problem that results from stuffing everything from lists, receipts, old tickets, another chapstick, books and notebooks, etc. into a purse.  No purse will solve my disorganized tendencies, and yet....

Anyway, thanks Nancy (of Pomegranate Trail) for recommending the book!

Still reading two other books of essays and a couple of novels, but couldn't resist celebrating Ephron's witty essays because they made me laugh and, truthfully, even think.  Maybe not always about important topics, but certainly about the vagaries of our culture.

More Prayer Flags and Jury Duty

Two more prayer flags.  Wonder features the chevron stitch.  I had two main thoughts about the meaning of wonder while working on this flag:

 1) to be in awe of something, to marvel.  The world is full of things that cause one to be amazed and full of admiration--nature, art, music, the talent of individuals in so many fields of endeavor.  So much to fill one with wonder and appreciation.

2) to be curious, inquisitive, to reflect--"I wonder about what would happen if?" or "I wonder how he did that?"

Wonder uses a practice patch for the chevron stitch on a linen flag.

And for Valentine's Day, a quote from Shakespeare.  I didn't have enough room to add the name, so used his initials.

Below--some of the prayer flags hanging in the studio; they aren't all up there, and there is no more room.  Soon I'll string them between two crepe myrtles in the back yard.  Or begin doing some guerrilla art and just finding places to hang them...

Fee has been out of town since last Monday, but came in last night.  He's at the office now, catching up on paper work.  Poor man.

Tomorrow, I must report for jury duty.  I'm not pleased about it, especially as there is an 80% chance of rain tomorrow.  I've only served on one jury,  a Grand Jury at the Federal Court House in Shreveport over ten years ago.  While I'm all for of a trial by your peers, I didn't like being responsible for the decision.

The jury I sat on rendered a unanimous guilty verdict, and I did think the man was guilty, but was uncomfortable about sentencing a man to jail.  Right after the trial, the judge called the jury into his chambers and told us that he realized it was a difficult decision, but that he thought we'd given the right verdict and had performed our duty well.  That helped.  The evidence presented by the FBI was pretty overwhelming, still--a verdict that sentenced a man to Federal Prison was not an easy thing to do.

This will be in Petit Court at the parish courthouse, and I'm really hoping to be dismissed.
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On a more pleasant note, I ran into an old friend Friday at Sunshine Health Foods and had a great time catching up!  We taught together at Byrd, but she and her family moved to Austin.  Now, they have returned, and Lisa has a cookie company.  I have bought her cookies before without realizing that Middlebrook Bakery was hers!  Delicious cookies, all natural ingredients,  and very, very good.

Chevron

I've tried some chevron stitch variations.  I've cut two out, fringed them, and will attach them to prayer flags.  I kind of like the chevron.  It requires a bit of attention, but not too much, and can make a great filler stitch.

Have a great weekend!

Grounded

In yoga, being "grounded" refers to the ability to focus awareness both on a pose and on the present moment.  A grounded pose enables strength, stability, and ease in the asana and a sense of mental alertness and intention.  Being grounded helps us with proprioception, awareness of where our limbs are in space and where our minds are in time,  allowing us to correct our stance physically and keep our minds in the present moment.

Of course, being grounded also means having the basics, the fundamentals on which to build in any area.   TAST is providing me with a grounding in the basic stitches of embroidery and ways to build on those stitches through variations and additions.

Grounded has eco dyed flour sacking and a Dorset button I made several years ago.

Making Dorset buttons can be as addictive as embroidery!  I was on a kick of making Dorset buttons for cuffs for a while.

I used all of the suggestions from Tuesday Stitchers (thanks, ladies) and improved "Cultivate" -- still don't really like it because the trellis looks so messy and out of place, but I like it a lot better than I did before.

I toned down the stark white, went over the vines with some darker floss, added leaves, and lots of kantha stitching.  What I liked is using my favorite stitch; I love kantha stitching.  It is the most pleasurable and meditative stitch for me.

This week:  the chevron stitch!

TAST
Prayer Flag Project

Prayer Flag -Bloom

Bloom is linen with a strip of eco dyed habotai silk.  I used India Flint's hapa-zome technique (flower pounding) on the silk strip and just attached the strip to the prayer flag.  The flower was a pink dianthus, and I think I used vinegar as a post mordant.  At any rate, the pink became mostly lavenders and purples.

I used this one to practice the Cretan stitch.  After embroidering the word "bloom"--it just couldn't support any more embellishment, stitching or otherwise.

                                                                                                         

I don't like the next prayer flag.  I was working on this flag with nothing in mind and then decided to add the herringbone stitch (last week's TAST stitch) -- but I wasn't pleased with the addition, a kind of trellis made mostly of herringbone stitches.

The words "bloom" and "cultivate" kind of go together, but I also wish I had not used the floral images twice.
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I've just read some comments about Cultivate over at Tuesday Stitchers, and although I had decided to just give up on it, I may return to it keeping in mind the suggestions!  :)
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Another Chloe-ism:

Ren: What did you learn in school today?
Chloe: We learned that dinosaurs are extinct.
Ren: And what does that mean?
Chloe: It means I can't have one.

I've written about Ren's daughters Chloe and Alison on this post.  Chloe is just so quotable.
She cracks me up!