Better late than never

This is the photo I used for my Xmas cards this year. The guy across the street owns a photo booth and has a photography studio as well. His photographs are of a very unique style and he has the coolest props for his pictures. The name of his business is Amurica, and can be found on Facebook.
  He and his wife bought the house about 18 months ago and the family is the perfect addition to this slightly bohemian neighborhood.
  Thanks, Jamie for helping me with my little bit of Christmas cheer!

Christmas is Merry and happy!

This is one of the best holidays I've had in a while, at least so far. I can only hope the upcoming new year will be good too. I know from recent experience I will have to make it good and face each day with a fresh focus on being productive and finding joy in that new day. 

Guess four years of therapy is finally paying off. The meds help too! Hahaha. Being with my friends and family the week or so is the real reason. Thanks everyone!

Party time!

This past Sunday was most excellent. For the first time in seemingly forever I had guests over to have a meal. Since I hadn't entertained in such a long time, I decided brunch would be a good place to start.

And only a few friends who are close and nonjudgmental were invited. Hahaha. 

  The get together was wonderful, the food terrific and tasty, and everyone seemed comfortable....the MOST important part of entertaining in my opinion. 

I certainly will be hosting other events soon as I have missed having my friends and family together for meals and enjoying each other's company. I don't even mind the cleaning up before and after. It is so worth it!!!!!!!

Pesky Winter Holidaze are back!!

Oh my goodness! The end of 2013 is upon us. This seems to happen every year and it just sneaks up, doesn't it?? My house is currently undergoing a major cleanup and I'm not finished with the scrubbing. There is still painting and flooring issues to deal with, but that may have to wait til spring, when the weather and my financial situation will hopefully be more cooperative.
  Holiday decorations are getting put up and tomorrow is the winter solstice, so there has to be a fire of some sort, although rain is in the forecast.
 Sunday, I am serving breakfast to some of my friends. It's kind of a warm up entertaining event, to get back into a normal sort of social life. I haven't had anyone over in such a long time, so I figured breakfast would be a good meal to start.
  No photos this time, but pictures of the weekend festivities will be posted next week.

Upwards and onwards

This past week has been such a blur. It seems like last Monday was a year ago! I went to a lawyer's office expecting to undergo a horrid deposition, but came out with a divorce settlement. I have waited so long for this to happen.
  I know that sounds awful to celebrate the death of a marriage, but mine had been on life support for months. It was a blessing to pull the plug!!
   A new chapter of my life is about to begin. I am so thankful for all my friends who helped me through this rough patch, as well as my family who let me whine incessantly. Of course, my therapist, who provided me with the crutch of validation every other week.
  Gosh, this is starting to sound like an awards acceptance speech!! !

Speaking of acceptance speeches, I have been threatening to write a movie script about my recent adventures. Meryl Streep will play me and she will win a fucking Oscar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!hahahahahaha

Stay tuned. There's plenty more to come. Heaven help me!

Better days ahead

Finally, my life will be moving in a more forward direction. Huge adjustments loom ahead of me, but I will be able to make them, because I have the best group of friends and my family to encourage me.
Seems like I have waited forever for this change.

Upcoming pesky holidays

Yes, I know the title sounds very much like the curmudgeon, but I have never been a fan of the winter holidays. The bear in me would rather hibernate until the warm fulsome days of spring return, even though the area in which I live has the mildest of winters.
  Fortunately, I was blessed a little over eight years ago with a sweet grandson, who can pull me from the depths of lonely introspection with a funny face and offer of assistance.
  Having to alter my original plans for a Thanksgiving feast, I will face the task of providing one with the help of said boy. We both suffered the disappointment of not being able to show up with our hearty appetites at the original destination, but soon got over that.
  The menu was quickly narrowed to the dishes deemed the most important, namely turkey and pumpkin pie. Opinions and suggestions from would be guests at the upcoming feast were gathered and the menu expanded upon. Ideas from trusted foodies (who read the New York Times) are being seriously considered as well.
  Grub is being obtained at various grocery stores with the aid of guest's very welcomed contribution of government funding--aka food stamps. The generosity of the American system will be mentioned in the predinner prayers. Since space is at a premium in this hovel, we will be dining in the breakfast room, in the kitchen or off laps.
  In my dreams, I envision a proper and lovelier holiday season in 2014. My heart goes out to sports coaches, hunters, fisherman and gardeners everywhere. Because, you know, there's always next year!

Another day

This week has been nothing but ups and downs. Yet I am surviving and feeling okay, despite the incessant waiting. Ugh. Making progress with day to day activities and looking forward to a fun filled weekend. Tomorrow will be busy and take me out of my own head. It's good to be in touch with ones own feelings, but not so much to be burdened by them from having no outside stimulation. 

  No photos lately. Sorry. Stay tuned. 

Just for fun

This new design is pretty good and I need a change anyway. Life has been stuck in a holding pattern lately and changing the things I have control over helps right now. The old template and design were getting corrupted somehow. Lines appeared around the blocks of text and I didn't know how to make them go away.
  The big change in my life that I've been working on, seems far away most days, but I know it will come soon. It HAS too or I will fall into madness. My creativity is at an all time low and that is NOT good. In fact, it's killing my soul. My only relief these days is to turn on the music and dance around the house when I can.
 Fortunately, I sleep fairly well and my dreams haven't abandoned me like they did a couple of years ago. I am very happy to have them back. The time while they were gone was a scary period.
  I want to keep up with this blog experiment and try to find the time to post. My depression is lifting and hopefully there will be good news to report soon and lots of champagne to drink!

So I lied......

On my last post, I said I wouldn't wait so long between postings. Hmmmm....
So much is happening right now and most of it is NOT related to fiber art, which was the purpose of the blog originally. I hate that I've been sidetracked from creating art and sharing it with all my faithful readers. Hahahaha...
  In the future, when things have settled to a new normal, I hope to get back to more creative pursuits. Mainly for my own peace of mind. I'm looking forward to a dull and boring existence, where my mind can roam free and take refuge in inspiration for projects that speak to me in kinder gentler tones than what is clamoring in my head in recent months.
  Wish me luck.

Still here

Gosh, I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted here. There has been a lot going on, so I will use that as my excuse.
Yard work has occupied a good bit of my time, but I manage to squeeze in some sewing and artwork. My most recent ATCs for the Fiber Antics swap turned out better than expected, especially since I did them at the last minute. And they were fun to do. I asked a couple of the gal pals to take my picture, printed it out on cardstock, altered the photo, scanned and reprinted to the size of trading cards, then embellished with a rubber stamped caption. Whew!!

You can see the finished card on Fiber Antics blog. The theme was "On the Fence".
  The dress I am working on is nearly finished, and will make its debut at Sewing Guild next Thursday. The dress is kind of a birthday present to myself, since I hardly get to sew for me.
That's all for now. More later and I won't wait so long to post.

Summer

This has been an incredible summer here in the midsouth. Usually this time of year is brutal with high temps and higher humidity. So far the weather has been great and many days have been perfect for yard work. Of course the tomato growers haven't loved it so much.

after photo of corner near pond

after photo of space near house

  My yard is shaping up, slowly but surely. Probably by the time I finish it, it'll have to be done all over again. I took lots of before and after photos and put them on Facebook, so as soon as I get them off my phone and figure out how to post them here, you can see what has been accomplished.

Surprise!

The naked ladies are coming up all over the yard especially since we've had so much rain lately. I will have to make an effort to get up in the morning and pull more weeds since the ground will be nice and soft. 

Summertime

So far this summer has not had the usual killer heat as summers past. We've had a few miserable days sure, but for the most part, there have been many days when the humidity has been reasonable. Today was one of those days. The sky was blue. And it was hot, but the breeze was sufficient. Now if the mosquitoes would go on vacation.......

Celestial Happenings

The day after the solstice there was another cosmic event---a Super Moon. It is a lovely sight. So bright and clear. So last night I had myself a fire to celebrate both events. 

Happy Solstice

Today is the longest day of the year and the actual event occurred at 12:04am. Of course, I was sound asleep then, so I celebrated around 6am with a flame from a table torch and coffee accompanied by biscotti. A lovely start to this auspicious day. 

Quilt show photos

Here are a couple of pictures of some of the art quilts in the Wings show. I don't want to put some of them on this blog as that may cause problems down the road if one of the artists wants to enter another show or competition. It was really beautiful and all the lighting was perfect. These photos were taken the night before the opening. We even got a couple of sales. The show will be up til the end of June at the very least maybe into July. 

Wings show

Tonight's the night!! The long awaited opening of the recently remodeled gallery at West Clinic featuring quilts by my friends and myself. 

  Last evening, Vincent and I assisted Sarah, the gallery director, with hanging the show. It looks really great and I can hardly wait for everyone to see their artwork on display. 

  Photos later, so stay tuned. 

Yardening

Spring has very kind to us this year. Lots of rain, cool temps, lovely breezes. So I took advantage of all that today and tackled the back corner near the firepit, whacking bamboo and removing vinca major. As you can see, the pile of stuff on the curb is huge. I feel like I walked 50 miles from the back to the street getting all this crap out. There are still two buckets left to toss. If I work on one spot at a time I might be able to get this yard in shape this year. 

Postcard for Wings show

These are the front and back of the postcard and YES I know they are crooked. That's because I don't know how to straighten stuff from the scanner, just how to crop.
  Anyway, I am excited to be in this show. My friends are talented and generous and the gallery at Wings is redecorated. It will be so beautiful.

Wings update

Boohoo. The postcard came in PDF format and I am unable to access the file to post to the blog because of my technical deficiencies. 

This is the quilt that's on the postcard. Of course it looks super nice with all the text and show info. When I get the actual card I will scan it and post. I know how to do that. 

  Anyway, I am looking forward to the show and hope for a good turn out. 

  HUGE thanks to Vanessa for making such an awesome quilt. I am really lucky to have so many wonderful and generous  friends. 

Quilt Show!

The long awaited quilt show at the Wings Gallery in West Clinic is opening on May 31. It was delayed by a remodel of the gallery space and this show is the inaugural of the new renovation. 

 All the quilts shown at the symposium in Little Rock will be there as well as others we created during the delay. 

  I am very excited about the show. We had such a positive response last year and hope everyone enjoys this show too. Most of us made pieces especially for the exhibit and we are calling it "Healing Elements". 

  The postcard is awesome and when I get to my laptop I will post it. (Maybe someday I will figure out how to do that from this phone, which btw I am in love with). 

  So stay tuned kids for photos. 

Happy Mama's Day

Success

Paper piecing without tears! It's hard to believe this was accomplished with so little angst. Of course I must thank the gal pals who gave me such GOOD advice.

Challenge quilt

The idea for the Beatles inspired quilt formed quickly and I got the mechanics for construction pretty much nailed down too. Chose fabrics and got the patterns made. The most challenging part of this challenge is the technique I have decided to use. Paper piecing. WAY outside my comfort zone. Paper piecing makes me cry but with the help of friends I will finish this project and be happy with the results.
The photo shows my color palette. Stay tuned.

Second thoughts on spring

After the last post exuding such happiness about the warmer weather, the downside of the oncoming summer here in the Mid South is the invasion of airborne vermin. Mosquitoes!!!!
They have arrived!

Spring

For the first time in forever, we are having a nice long spring. We are getting much more rain than last year too. Beautiful warm days between the rainy ones and cool evenings. Lots of sweater weather which Memphians love because of the rarity. The plants and trees are happy too. Their blooms are lasting longer and the foliage is lush. The true sign is spring is the neighbors hanging out on porches and front stoops.
What's not to love about spring.

R & R

Wednesday was a very good day. Road trip with gal pals to the big show in Paducah. Fabric shopping, vendor food, quilts all around. What a great day.
Of course we went to the Yeiser Art Center for the Fantastic Fiber show. Such a wonderful exhibit but then the Yeiser always has something new and exciting to offer. Fantastic Fibers is up til May 4 so if you are in the area this is a must see.
The AQS quilt show was fun. I hadn't been in a few years so I needed to go and was happy to be in such good company. Took lots of photos and got tons of inspiration for future projects.

Testing again

So now I am posting from the iPod. Gradually I will catch up with the 21st century. It's a process.

New challenges

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from one of the peeps about a group of like minded artists who are making art quilts inspired by Beatles song titles. So of course I responded and got the song title I wanted "She's Got the Devil in Her Heart". Yay! I have an idea and am thinking about how it will come to being. Just the right thing to clear my current creative block. This is going to be fun.
In addition, I have signed up for a surface design challenge too. Busy in a good way. Stay tuned.

Testing 123

This is to try out the app recently downloaded to my iPhone. We didn't get the flying cars we were promised as children but smartphones are a pretty good second.

Whew!

A quick update on the iron situation, because I know you all are holding your collective breath over whether I was having to send the new one back or not!!! It's staying here to become my new favorite, I hope.
  I called Wawak the other day (Tuesday I think) and talked to the nicest person at customer service. By the way, ALL the customer service people there are VERY nice and helpful. When I told her the problem I was experiencing, she asked if I had removed the blue sticker covering the LCD display. WHAT?? Just peel it off...okay....duh! So we both had a good laugh and she says it happens all the time with this particular iron. We laughed some more and I suggested the instructions should have that on the first page. She agreed and we laughed a little more, I said thank you VERY MUCH, she said you're welcome and we both got on with our respective day. Which I must say was a pretty good day, considering how crazy my life is right now.

RIP Bernette is60

A week ago yesterday my trusty iron bit the dust. After several years of service, my faithful companion decided it was never going to get hot again.I really loved this iron. It had everything going for it that I needed to make all my creations more perfect. Plenty of steam when I needed steam, big water reservoir so I didn't have to fill it repeatedly, quick heat up, simple controls, long cord, and most importantly, it did NOT turn itself off. I cannot stand an iron with the automatic shut off!! I was heartbroken.
    So I had to scrounge around in the iron graveyard (don't all sewists have one?) and find something to use until I could find another iron to fill the void. The catalog from Wawak Tailoring supplies was handy and I considered for a moment to upgrade to a gravity feed system. But decided that was too much of a jump, especially now when my finances are in limbo. The catalog had another iron that sounded like a decent replacement for my departed friend, so I went online and studied the reviews, which were fairly glowing.

 So this is what I came up with---a Reliable Digital Velocity V100. I ordered it from Wawak on Thursday and it arrived Monday afternoon. It has the option of automatic shut off, but that "feature" can be overridden--whew--the water tank is is big enough so there is not constant refilling and it produces TONS of steam. The controls are a tiny bit complicated and we all know how technologically deficient I am. I think it is supposed to light up somewhere, so it might have to go back, but in the meantime, it is working very well.

So the jury is still out on this iron and it will never replace the Bernette in my sewing heart, but maybe I will learn to love it for what it can do to help me create masterpieces.

Altered Book--from long ago

 This post is for my sister to look at so everyone else, avert your eyes! Hahaha...This is an altered book I made years ago. We were talking about it the other day and she wanted to see what I had done. The first photo is the cover. I got the idea to make the book from another book I found at the bookstore---a translation of a fifteenth century German manual on the rules of combat. These pictures were from the chapter on a fight between a man and a woman.

 Of course these photos are out of order (grrrr) because the photo above is the first page. Maybe you can enlarge the pictures to read the captions and make some sense of the pages.

 I made several books and gave them to married couples as gifts. Some ended differently mainly because there were more pages in some of the board books I used. In my versions, sometimes the man won and in others the wife won the fight. The board books were from the dollar store and were sanded to rough up the shiny pages. Everything was attached with acrylic medium. I used the original pictures from the manual, then added paint, my own captions and rubber stamped images. I had so much fun making these books and laughed the whole time I was working on them, which took several days. Of course, I am easily amused.

The covers were fabric from the stash and shiny embellishments I had squirreled away for years. There is a reason to hang onto everything!

Spring Artisan Market Update

The market has been a success. Lots of sales, although none for me--boohoo. I worked the morning shift last Saturday and had a great time seeing my friends who came by and meeting lots of new people.

The real estate manager/owner for the shopping center was so impressed with our art work, he asked us to stay another week!! YAY! So we are going to be open next Wednesday through Saturday. If anybody didn't get a chance to drop by last week, come on over this week.

MACA Spring Artisan Market

It starts Thursday, March 21, at 10 am. Twenty three artists from the Memphis Association of Craft Artists will present a variety of fine craft and art for show and sale at Chickasaw Oaks Village in Memphis Tennessee. I am one of the participating artists and look forward to seeing all my friends and colleagues at this springtime event.

St. Patrick's Day

 Don't pinch me! I'm still full! Yesterday I was invited to a St. Patrick's Day feast, with real Irish people. I made and brought the Gougeres (pictured above). They were quite tasty as was all the other food and beverage served.

                                      Cupcakes with green sprinkles.

                      Fortunately, the beer was NOT green.

 Coronation chicken salad, smoked salmon, artichoke heart appetizers, cheese and crackers, yummy!

Many, many desserts to choose from--Irish cream brownies, Queen's pie, chocolate mint brownies, cheesecake.........oh my! Simple food for me today!

Crazy Stuff

 This was a particularly fun project. It's a tux jacket for a young man going to his prom. The fabric is cotton printed with a glow in the dark spider web design. And, yes, it glows in the dark!! Green! I tried to take pictures of that but they didn't work out.

The vest was made from the same fabric. I found black satin covered buttons already made. There's a bowtie too, but for some reason I didn't get a photo. The young man promised  to send me pictures from the prom, so I will post those when they arrive.

More Gold Stuff

 These buttons came from M&J Trimming Co. It.s a highly recommended store that some of my sewing pals visited in NYC. I ordered the buttons online and got very prompt service. The only problem was they were not quite gold enough. So I decided to paint them. First I put a little white paint on the antique gold colored bullion thread that was used to embroider the  fleur de lis motif, kind of like a primer coat.

I finished with a couple of coats of gold paint. They turned out much better than I had expected. Good thing as I didn't get any extra buttons to practice on. I used the more expensive paints instead of craft paint because Golden paint has more pigment in its formula. I had to paint very carefully so as not to mess up the velvet base the embroidery is on.