The Gate, 1

We've had enough nice weather over the last few weeks to paint gates.
So gates are on my mind...started with a sketchbook page that already had fabric sewn to it. Got the vague form of a sketch in pencil then used a black permanent marker (like a Sharpie).


















Started adding fabric...thoughts about rust.

Shadows. Challenge to myself: speed is of the essence here.

To sketch: to make a rough drawing of something.

More Auditioning

While ironing shirts, I auditioned a few more fabrics for the Wing Cloth, 

changed things around, auditioned a few more.

Can't help myself. Given the "plain-ness" of the land and sea, I turned to my fancy fabric stacks. 

Liking this better. Still craving pink...

So the two pinks on the left are cottons. The center pink is a sumptuous brocade, possibly my favorite fabric of all time, however, a bit stiff making it hard to work with. The dark pink is woven, not printed. The beige is a heavy silk and the brown another woven fabric that has some shine. I used to occasionally happen upon formal dresses at the flea market during the summer for cheap. Now, prices have risen steeply.

Just LUV that pink brocade....

Auditioning

Still trying to figure out the center of the Wing Cloth...

Let's see, how does it go? A dark, a light, and a zinger?

 I might settle on this combination. Not sure about the dark gray-blue.

Medallion, 2

Finished gluing the first medallion on this paint bucket.

This particular design requires time because so many pieces have to be trimmed and fit into place. The rows at the top appear deceptively simple (meaning, a pain in the neck to do).


Mosaicking is forgiving. The cement covers holes, bumps, dents, etc. Once the metal ridge is covered in cement, it becomes another design element. I'll add black coloring to the cement.

And then it's just a plant container...

Stitching Pomegranates, 8

Adding pinks into the pomegranates. Only two more big sketches to sew then I can start on the leaves, which will go faster as they get much less stitching.

And once again my blog has kept me focused, and moving forward. Great tool.

Linked to Nina Marie's "Off the Wall Fridays."

Right Side, 2

I've been working on this for the last couple of days 

while I try to decide what to do with the center of the Wing Cloth.

I miss doing the extreme needleturn. I could probably do it for hours on end. The adventure grips me! Ahh what will happen if this goes under this and over that? And maybe I'll cut a hole over here and another one over there.........

Stitching Pomegranates, 7

Sometimes Usually after finishing a consuming project, I feel emptied and unfocused. It's not that I get dead ended or blocked creatively (I only have 5 projects going on at any one time, with a dozen others already backed up and several ideas waiting to come to life), it's just a sort of uuummmfff feeling.

Cleaning something clears the cobwebs. So I cleaned off my sewing table last night where a huge stack of snippets had piled up beside the machine. Couldn't even find the table. Put all the snippets in a plastic bag, which hangs on a hook sticking out from my shelves for fabric. Out of the way, yet conveniently close at hand.

Then I lined up my threads and got back to my pomegranates.

The machine and I were one.

A Peek

To clear my head after living with the ancestors for a number of days, I took a day off and went to a beach town with a friend. No! Well, surprisingly and very uncharacteristically, yes. So here's a suspenseful peek into a future post.

What a lovely design...I was dazzled. It was an excellent day off.

Stitching the Sea, 3

On with the French knots.

I do like French knots. This corner of the sea looks finished. Time to move on....

Linked to Nina Marie's "Off the Wall Fridays."

Coming Up for Air

After being submerged with the ancestors, I'm coming up for air...I finished the genealogies and set up the Picasa Web Albums for old family photos. Still some work left, but the major part is in place.


So this photo tickled me. My grandparents took a trip to Texas in 1943. They saved up ration tickets to exchange them for gas coupons and drove south in December (good choice considering the blistering cold in northern Minnesota). So here's my grandmother picking grapefruits...with her mink-trimmed coat.

Why is this interesting to me? Because history repeats itself--two days ago I was picking grapefruits for market and mine looked every bit as good...but I hardly had a mink-trimmed coat!

New Idea

Maybe I should not have said "no" to my idea of translating the tile medallion mosaic to fabric in the previous post. It has been irritatingly insistent in my mind.

Ok, ok. I'll at least get the idea recorded here and then it will quietly simmer on a back burner and stop tickling me--hopefully.

I've been thinking about this old design for a few weeks, ever since I started putting order in my sketchbooks and photographing them. Also because I haven't got a big maze piece to work on, which is sort of bothering me. So, this design has twining needleturn appliqué around three circular forms. At the time (1996, ouch!), I thought the mariner's compass design would be good for the circles, but now the mosaic medallion seems better.


Or maybe one mariner's compass and two tile circles....











Now, maybe I can have some peace?

Medallion, 1

Liking the irregularity of pieces in this medallion as I build it from the inside out.
The combination of soft blues and greens might be good for my big project of four very large pots that will (someday) sit in front of the house. I have enough tiles of blue and green, just have to buy a box of the mixed tile.

And I'm wondering how this would translate into fabric. A dark green as a base fabric....... No, no, no, I can't start another piece! A bit of discipline here, please.


Because I find the internet magical, I think it must be Santa who generously increased the Picasa web album space allowance to 5 G. Struggling to write the Mount Everest post on MulticoloredPieces and resize photos, I realized that I could finally finish off my huge project of old family photos and my mother's genealogy files in order to make all this available to family members on Picasa. The historian in me says that this is important and if I don't do it, no one will. So I am once again embroiled in the world of my ancestors and spending at least six hours a day on the computer working on old photos. However, I see the light at the end of the tunnel--I will be so glad to wrap this up, and yet, I am honored to do it.

Stitching the Sea, 2

Slowly, slowly I continue to lay down the stitches.

Maybe I'll add French knots and/or thread beads here and there.

The irregular movement pleases me no end and contrasts well with the strait stitching of the land.

Blossoms

Excavating, remembering. While working on putting order into my past sketchbooks, drawings and watercolors (to start the New Year right), I found this forgotten card, titled, "Pear Blossoms in November."

Precedents to my textile sketchbook pages. Nature does odd things occasionally, however, the pear blossoms came in November twenty years ago.  This year they came in December.....

Stacked Squares, 4

This side of the container went tipsy. Rather had fun with it.

Thinking about working on a circle design for the next container, maybe medallion-style.