Seamless Skin

Laid Back Sewing and Design

After clearing off my paint/cutting table, which didn't take me that long, there was no need to wait until Monday to start sewing.  I meditated first and then selected some blocks that I've had for some time and dibbled and dabbled with for a few years.  I purchased these hand-dyed 2 inch squares from Wendy Richardson at AQS in Paducah.  I loved them so much I came home and ordered another box of them.  I used some of them to make placemats for a girlfriend who was having a show of her hand-made dinner works in clay,...but that was at least 3 years ago if not longer.  So these gems have been around at least that long.  Over the past summer when I hung out for a day with some quilt buds I sewed them together in a 4-patch just to have something to sew.

What was important to me today was just to work calmly and steadily and sewing the squares together provided me this.  Once I started arranging them, it became about colour and value...nothing more.  Then after I was satisfied with the arrangement I wanted to introduce another fabric which was a soft entry for me to start thinking about design.  Here is where I left it:

b/w filter applied to check for value placement
 

I'm not going to make any plans for it before I return on Monday but will design in the moment as I go and see what occurs.

Peace,

A Peek at The Basement Workshop

I'm declaring the space ready...come Monday I'm stitching something!

If you've been reading Seamless Skin at least through one season of winter then you might recall how I feel about the season as I do my very best to express my indelible opinion.  However, in light of the blue sky I enjoyed yesterday and what looks like another break in the seasonal reminder that winter is a'comin', I'll hold back sharing so early how I feel about winter until the bitter cold sets in.

This past weekend I took a 2-day workshop with the lovely Lisa Engelbrecht and enjoyed myself with the Kentuckiana Calligraphy and Paper Arts Guild.  The week prior I was nearing exhaustion and almost decided to lose the workshop fee and stay home to rest but I forged ahead and this week I've been taking it easy.  Lisa is a very generous and beautiful spirit and the group is very warm, funny, and creative lot.

The piece with the yellow background, top center, is mine.

I've missed deadlines upon deadlines and meetings but between finding balance in self-care and addressing The Basement (new photos added under Beginning Again album) I have some super-fantastic news forthcoming that I can hardly wait to share...but patience is a virtue and the vision needs more shaping until I can share...but its a good thing, a very good thing!

Beginning Again...

photo album updated.  I was there today with my oldest son and his friend.  I sat and pointed. They moved. 

One step forward, two steps backward, one and half steps forward, and hold...

I really wanted to start this post by reciting Langston Hughes' poem, Mother to Son.  You know the one...Well, Son, I'll tell you, life for me ain't been no crystal stair...or his The Negro Speaks of Rivers...I've known rivers. I've known rivers ancient as the world...but, that would have been overly dramatic really...but the emotion in them could capture the holding patterns with the basement as well as provide some comic release. 

Did you play red light/green light as a child?  You run to get ahead only to be caught in motion and have to return to the starting line.  The Beginning Again photo album has been updated and as of today this is the progress we've made.

I did get to bask in the sunshine of Crystal Wilkinson, (Mud Man's partner) who received this year's Sallie Bingham Award from KFW.  The award recognizes a feminist artist's contributions to social change in Kentucky.  Its pretty damn awesome and the state is fortunate to have Kentucky Foundation for Women and unbelievably, since its inception, its sad to note that feminist philanthropy of this statute has not developed in other states.

Here is Crystal giving her words of acceptance followed by other photos from the event.

There were 4 quilts hanging in this room...please note the one in the next photo.  The first name of the artist is Terry (or Terrie) and the last name, if I'm recalling right begins with a D, but I don't remember it.  The man on the couch is Muddy, my brother.  Sallie Bingham is at the other end of the couch.

Crystal and her beautiful twin daughters.

Crystal conversing with the Wild Woman and long standing feminist artist Mary Craik.

This is not the house were the celebration was held...but this house is sooooooo out of place with the landscape and the older homes and land reminiscent of once prosperous farms.  Even the pockets of new subdivisions do not infringe on the landscape the way this home does.  On the few occasions I've been out this way this house always catches me off guard.  I'm driving along and the city begins to give way to acres and acres of prairie (or what feels like prairie to me) and I'm mellowing out and my imagination begins to soothe down and zen out and bam! this house rises out of nowhere and throws me for a loop!  It would be a beautiful home if surrounded by other homes of this kind of opulence, but as it stands now, its just a blight in the hood.

 

Oh, did I happen to mention my niece in the postcard contest here?  I think I did...anyways she did very very well receiving the most postcards and the furthest or is it farthest away and won a 20 dollar gift certificate to spend at the book fair.  She was on cloud 9 so I heard.  Unfortunately her whole class didn't do well enough to win the pizza party.  But 84,000 thanks to you if you mailed her a card.

It seems like there was something else I wanted to share but its not coming to me.  If I remember, I'll be back.

Peace,

Oh, yeah, Sonji Hunt is blogging again!  Yea! I've missed her chatterings.  And I've signed up for GUT ART, an online class taught by Mystele...I'm in need of a diversion but with some focus so I thought GUT ART sounded like it would be the prescription I need.  Mystele's art makes me think of favorite songs and stories and 2 other favorite artists, Jonathan Green and Brian Andreas. 

Moving right along....

The basement redo has been in a temporary stall pattern but will pick back up tomorrow.  My youngest son will get in on the act by painting the basement floor and my mother and I will make another big box store run.  My father is kinda eager to reclaim his garage space for his man-cave activities but not half as eager as I am to reclaim my basement space for my woman-underground art making!

I backed myself into a corner meeting a deadline for today but with the cooperation of friends it will be met.  Saving the information for what I hope to be a winter annoucement.

A gallery in Yellow Springs, Ohio will be hanging some of my pieces in October and Bev and I will be going up sometime that month to do a demonstrations (of something, I'm not sure what yet).  Although, I came late to knowing who David Chappell was, maybe we'll bump into him while in Yellow Springs and we can have coffee and he'll purchase one of my pieces.  Now wouldn't that be off the wall, on the hook, off the chain, over the speed bump, under the tree, fly the sky fantastic! 

Three things made my day yesterday!!! E. called to say she had takent her last radiation treatment and together we shouted and went ahead and claimed the victory over cancer.  This propelled me out of bed and I went out to mail the Iraqi Bundle of Love feeling good from my head to my toes.  I was imagining what the impressions of an Iraqi woman would have to the fabric selections...where they hip enough, too dull, too bright...would she be an urban woman, rural woman, young, old, etc.  I closed my day out with an email from the woman who will become my youngest son's piano teacher.  He has expressed an interest so we're going to let him get on the bus and see how far he rides. 

 gelatin plate printing

It goes...

which is better than it not going.

Just a summary update on the basement restoration which I'm calling "Beginning Again".  Basement framed, drywall installed, shower is in, sink too wide, toilet works, washer, dryer, hot water heater delivered, electrician called, electrician needs to come back, progress made, FEMA added to the pot...more to come.

I've added a new photo album in my sidebar to document the restoration but so far it only has 3 photos in it. 

I have creative outlets that I've put in place in order to keep my hands, mind, and ideas flowing but so far I've not been inclined to do any of them.  Just been feeling a little flat, ya know what I mean? 

The books and magazines that I had to throw out have been replaced and receiving them has been a source of joy and perks in what sometimes has seemed like endless days.  I greatly appreciate the assistance and kind comments. 

Peace,