Patching it Together

Back from our whirlwind of a getaway! I did a little stitching while we were away but not much to show yet.

Last night after arriving home I poked at the shirt repair. It has arrived at a place that I like, the little blue flower has been attached and everything is tacked down well enough to go through the washer and dryer. I want to soften the hard cut edges a bit and make sure it will hold up to that sort of treatment.

Lar doesn't think he will wear it and that is fine, I think when it is done I may list it in the ETSY store if I don't give it as a gift to someone. It occured to me that it has a hippie vibe that might appeal to some of the people who visit the shop. I may look at doing more of that sort of thing to try to create a bridge between the products that are in there with the sort of thing I am more interested in doing. I would like to bring Shibori Designs the business more into tune with who I am as an artist... As it stands now the shop seems to belong to one artisan and the blog another. (actually that disconnection applies to most of my life... food for thought)

Post Dye

My moons seem to be melting away!

I dyed a little blue flower too.
I will be gone for a few days, not sure if I will get much done but I plan to bring a bit of stitching along for the trip. We have one "pool day" so I hope to spend some quiet time then. See ya in a few!

Folded

next the clamps...

Later the dye...

This experiment is inspired by Glennis' Moons

Mmmm... no.

As usual feeling a little done in after karate class.

Prepping for a test is stressful for me, I have a little problem with performance anxiety. Second guessing myself is second nature.

Thought I'd mess with some mending, its an old shirt of Lar's with the collar worn through, possibly from his guitar strap.

Pulled out a few fabrics.

Snip snip, pin pin.

Interesting, but no.

Accumulation

Tonight as I am straightening up the studio I noticed this relationship between these two projects that had run out of steam. They seem to need each other to continue. I am rethinking how I use this space. I need more display area and a larger work surface. There is one dead corner that is inexcessable and ends up being a dumping ground. A cheap and easy remodel may be in order. Something to consider as a fall project... I've made some notes.

I found a good way to store the strips and resorted all of my fabrics bins in a sort of strata according to "potential for use" in current projects.

Next up I will tackle the In-Box, I may need some wine for this one.

leafy tapestries

Saturday we saw the sun! After my race was run I spent a good portion of the afternoon toodling around in the garden taking pictures and pulling up the occasional oak seedling. Between the compost and all the rain things out there seem to be doubling in size this year. I foresee some digging in my future.
Everything was looking like tapestries of color to me that day. Today the rain is back. However since I don't live next to a flooding river I'm not gonna complain (I may sigh a little though).

Excitement

I'm pretty excited tonight for a number of reasons...

I just got this... I heard a good review over at Geek With Curves.

I have managed to clean out my google reader in the last week or so. Now I am left only with blogs I read. I'm trying to keep up with them, and add the occasional new one.

Geek With Curves is a new one that I like. Amy Ratcliff is more immersed in that culture (Geekdom) than I am but she seems to have a similar taste to mine and is articulate about what she likes and why she likes it.

Tomorrow is my first 5K of the year, and I think I'm ready.

The new book is being saved for our mini-vacation next weekend

I can't believe it but I'm finally going to Disney. No, its not a dream vacation but it will be fun.

Finally we have been approved to adopt 2 dogs the weekend after that.

(yes, we are that crazy)

Dillon:

and Zena:

coming soon!

Corvidae

Still have birds flapping around in my thoughts, tonight a corbie landed on the page.

I think crows are interesting, predatory, alert, intelligent...

I share my love of shiney things with them.

speaking of which,

Oh my, I do love this !

Knotted Up

It was a quiet day here. A few errands, a run, the final episode of Justified on the DVR (so. good.) and a whole lotta knots to tack down the new border to the original piece.
It has begun to look a little quilt-like in pattern and color. For whatever reason I didn't envision this. I think it is saved from being too country-kistch by the dyed fabrics and the color scheme. I'm rather fond of the organic look that the unevenly dyed fabrics bring to the weave. I used the knots to try to emphasize the color blocks. Now it will have to stew for awhile until it tells me what to do next.

No birds today but I did grow this older piece by adding a border. This is a very slow piece of cloth, taking its time to develop. Not really sure if the thing in the center is a tree (it is tree like) and the different colors are referencing the compass points/seasons I figure I will let it gel awhile, just tack the weaving and let it suggest the next step.

Blogger Ate My Comments

So blogger has been a little wonky lately and I seem to have lost a couple of peoples comments. Who knows they may show up again tomorrow.

I know one person commented on the drawing and I just want to say that drawing is like riding a bike no matter how long you are away you don't forget, just a bit shaky for the first few seconds then it evens out and you start to remember again.

Tonight I had a rather strenuous karate class, I am currently practicing for my Nidan test and DN my Friday night teacher is enthusiastic about putting me through my paces in preperation. He must know what he's doing since he is a Godon but I'm kinda pooped now and I whacked my knee on one of the harder parts ofsomeones anatomy, its achy and should get a couple of minutes of ice.

I think this calls for a nice glass of wine and a little quiet stitching.

I've almost finished with the background of the LBB so that is where I will start.

Gesture

As I'm focusing on trying to get a sense of drawing with these fabric birds, I thought it would be a good idea to actually draw some birds. I haven't done much drawing in the last few years(more like 10).

At least not gesture drawing.

Very fast loose captures of the form,

Its is a good way to learn which are the important shapes,

And which lines instill the character,

Nothing precious about it, digging it out of the paper with my hands.

Fixin' Pie

nope not cooking, just fixin'

I've spent quite a few days stitching the Magpie to the eclipse moon, enough that I don't want to unstitch it all...

too bad then that when I got done I was unhappy with the result.

I couldn't read the 'Pie from the background, not enough contrast in tone or temperature.

I considered a few alternatives, then inspired by the discharge experiments at SEW I opted to bleach the background out.

I stuck packing tape over the sewing in a sheet

Then I created a custom pattern by cutting (carefully) around the shape, peeling away the excess. I left extra tape around the edges to further protect the stitched motif.

Shiney!

A bleach paste was then painted onto the unprotected areas.

It worked really fast and more powerfully than I expected. So I had to put the whole thing into some vinegar water to stop the process. (not really recommended but effective)

Stuff I learned:

1. Water makes packing tape peel off of fabric

and

2. I should really test a bleach paste prior to slapping it onto a piece of stitching I'm fond of so whole heartedly.

In spite of myself it worked rather well.

For Mom

I love this picture of my mom

This little girl with her barefeet and dungarees who grew to be the woman who taught me that going outside and gettting some fresh air is absolutely necessary.

As a kid she brought me to Audobon Societies, state parks and fabric stores.

She never flinched when I'd hand her one of my slimy or skittery finds, although she never let me bring home sea creatures.

Today she is an avid bird watcher, traveler, beader, crafter, and quilter.

I thought I would try to make a little something for her.

Since she is currently off on another road tour, its OK if it is a little late.

The project attracted intrest...

curiouser,

and curiouser.

Another bird, one of those LBBs

a little something to stitch, for mom.