Back to fiber art

The original intent of this blog was to show anyone interested some of my fiber art and I have fallen away from that. The other day I got an idea for some deconstructed screen printing and put dye on three screens. Maybe today I can find time to put the designs on fabric.
  Lately I've been making visual reminders for myself to help me get past my need to control my surroundings. So I decided to explore a self portrait. First I made some trading cards to interpret the theme "Below the Surface" and you can see one of those ATCs on the link to Fiber Antics blog. Also you see the work of the very talented artist who writes that blog, a very bizzy gal for sure!

abstract filler

sequin waste and potato bag for texture

  The drawings I did for those cards inspired me to go further and that's the basis for these screens. How they will translate to fabric via the deconstructed process is anyone's guess, and I will post the results. Fingers crossed.

Another day older......

My birthday was the other day and as a gift to myself I made a meatloaf to go with the lovely tomato jam from my recent trip to Lexington. It was quite delicious. The bread was some I bought at the grubbery in one of those paper bags, the really chi-chi stuff. It has been so long since I've done any real cooking, I was surprised at how well it came out, so I guess cooking goes along with swimming and bike riding.

Wedding dress

side view of bodice

waist to bust dart trimmed

Returning to the wedding dress construction. It might be a little hard to see the actual progression here but I will try to explain it. In the first photo I have draped the lace onto the dress form over the foundation of the bodice which has been sewn from three layers of fabric--the silk cotton lawn over a sturdy base of cotton acetate, which gives the same appearance as the lawn over the bemberg skirt. The bodice is lined with bemberg with a seam along the neck edge. Shaping of the bodice foundation is from side bust and waist to bust darts. You can see where the shaping of the lace comes into play at the side bust dart and waist to bust darts. Following the design of the lace, I trimmed around the motifs and overlapped them, lots of pinning, then free motion stitching along the edges of the lace motifs  to hold it all into place. This way there are no obvious straight line darts on the lace layer. This a technique I saw in a Threads magazine (my favorite sewing mag) article written by Susan Khalje several years ago. Hope I have spelled her name correctly.  
 If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Bizzy weekend

This past weekend we had a wonderful surprise--Vincent came for a short visit. Oh I miss that child!! He has lost his first tooth and seems to be doing well in the 1st grade at his new school. We rode bikes and played at the park, then we had to take that long drive back to where he's living waayyy out in the country. Maybe he can stay longer on the next break from school.
  His big sister, Olivia, has completed her first week as a college freshman. YAY! We have survived for the most part. YAY!
  Here are photos from Thursday's outing to the country.

the cows are coming home

muscadines

  Today, I am judging quilts at the regional fair, and that should be fun since I am such a judgmental person (according to a certain other person) hahaha.

Food

pork chops on the left

After today, I will not have to eat another bite the rest of this week. Bailey's Truck Stop has the yummiest buffet around those parts. Meats and veggies. The pork chops were so good I ate three!! They were dipped in a peppery coating then fried in hot something (probably grease) making them crispy on the outside and tender in the middle. No knife and fork for this little pig, I picked them up and chowed down. Mashed potatoes, green beans, black eyed peas, squash cooked with onion, cole slaw, tasty yeast rolls and fluffy corn bread. Then I went back for seconds!!
  After lunch, when we decided we could actually move, we ventured to the farmer's market in town. There I purchased, tomatoes, green beans, cantaloupe (which smells like heaven) and a watermelon. All in all a lovely day, especially since I had such wonderful companions to eat and shop with me.

A Day in the Country

Today, I'm off to the far eastern lands of Lexington TN to visit a friend there and have lunch at the truck stop near Parker's Crossroads. Yummy. My able traveling companion is the ever stalwart Marion, who has recently moved back to town. This will be a welcome break from my routine. Photos soon if I remember to take some.
  Last night I attended a Memphis Association of Craft Artists member meeting and had a busy time showing how to photograph a quilt. Not really all that busy, but I do hope I was able to impart some helpful information.

The Interwebs

This evening I looked at the stats for this measly blog, and am so surprised at what I found. The Russians are looking at my blog!! How strange!?! Why would a Russian person want to look at this crap?

  But I did discover the most looked at posts were those of the dress constructions. So I need to get bizzy and finish up the postings of the graduation dresses and the wedding dress, huh? I took plenty of pictures and have no other excuse but that I am a lazy slug. And I really have other things to do besides sit at this laptop everyday.
So here are some photos of the lace draped on Mabel (my skinny dress form) to determine placement of the lace on the bodice of the recently completed wedding dress--the one I miss so much!! It was such a pretty thing and I loved every minute of making it.
  Gee, my sewing room is a wreck.