Seamless Skin

Good vibrations are contagious!

Yesterday I attended the summer social for Louisville Area Fiber and Textile Artists (LAFTA).  This is my 3rd year having a membership.  Joining 3 years ago was a part of my plan to re-socialize and get out more after coming to grips with how my life had changed due to pulmonary hypertension.  Now slinging my portable o2 tank and breathing treatments are old hat and I think very little about it and my life is once again centered around my aspirations first and my limitations second. 

Anyways, I had a great time yesterday at the social and received fantastic feedback on the 3 6x12s and woke up this morning itching to return to my workshop today.  Good vibes are contagious! I'll go this evening for a few hours after some appointments that I hope will not take too much energy from me...there is a heat advisory warning today.  Louisville is situated in a regional valley and pollutions travel from afar and just settles...couple this with high heat and high humidity and it is nasty...no matter how blue the sky looks and bright and beautiful from inside, it is not healthy. 

Looking into my basement workshop from outside:

I keep promising myself to order a portable door screen to go over the doorway...I love to keep it open on cooler days for the light but then I find myself swatting at flies.  Its a great working space and I'm still trying to make it more efficient and supplies accessible.  After flipping through the art studio magazines, I feel this pressure to make it pretty...but I know that would last all of a hot minute.  When I walk into this space it says to me "are you ready to get down to work", it asks "do you have what it takes today? if not, you better go play somewhere else".  The space feels very purposeful.  Pretty would relax me and make me feel whimsical and detached from the reason I have the space in the first place.

Part of LAFTA membership is the availability of monthly workshops offered free and lead by other members.  Two months ago Joanne Weis, who just finished Jane Dunnewold's 2 year master program (YOU GO GIRL!), did a basic soy wax workshop.  Here are my samples using ink, paint, and dye and no, I didn't bother to mark which was which like I was instructed, so i can't tell you which piece received what.

I do believe the one on the left was ink since it is black...the other two where black dye/dye paint.  I added a second layer of colour when I was testing out the old dye stock and here it is now:

Issac, my 6 yr old nephew is here for the summer from North Carolina and he and my great-niece Zaria took interests in watching me sew.  Issac wants to paint.  When I set up my workshop space I seriously considered having an area set-up for children.  From time to time on Craiglist, the old school children's desks and chairs can be found very cheap. (I do not want the bright coloured contemporary plastic ones, yuck!) I think I'm going to keep an eye out for 1 or 2 of them just for moments like this.  I'm just a hair short of being cramped but I don't want to regret not making space when a child in my life requests to share it.

If you've read this post, or stopped by to browse my blog, I hope your day is everything you need it to be! Peace,

 

Retrospective in Photos

 

First, a cuppa tea. 

 

My assignments from online workshop, Graffiti Chic with Alisa Burke.

 

And I thought it was finished.

 Six by Twelves in the making.

The 5 images below summarize our staycation week activities.

 

Jefferson Memorial Forest

 

One of the many toys made by Marvin Finn for his children when they where young.

 

Another early Finn toy.

 

This is a small representation of what Finn is famour for.

 

Mr. Finn, I believe painted by his son, who carries on his legacy in wood.

 

Such an elegant shape in glass.  The five above images were taken at the Kentucky Musuem of Art & Craft.

 

Family Funny Business at Lynn's Paradise Cafe.

  

A day trek to the Columbus Zoo

And finally...what is this?  I picked them up from the ground at Yew Dell Gardens.  Some type of conifer?  I'm in love with the shape and colours.

Testing

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The effectiveness of old dye stock

I pulled out old dye stock and 2 strengths of thickener from the fridge and allowed them to come to room temperature over night for use last Friday the canvas.  Since I didn't feel like bothering with soda soaking I used Afterfix which goes on after the dye is completely dry.  The Afterfix is brushed on dries in about an hour.  It has to completely dry and then the fabric can be washed to remove the Afterfix and the dye remains.  

The dye and thickeners are 9 months old and have not been removed from the fridge since I put them in.  There is no odor to the thickener...seems like I remember reading in Complex Cloth that an amonia smell indicates the thickener is bad. 

I hand-washed the pieces in warm as my hand could stand it water with synthrapol.  I was satisfised with the results and plan to use the remaining dyes for dye-painting.  Here is what I painted today. 

The dye is still wet and will be good and dry when I return to paint on the Afterfix. 

I also tried ink-jet transfers using soft gel medium...the top was on a lighter background and the image was in gray scale.  The image directly above was in colour and the background fabric was darker and I'm thinking the values where too similiar resulting in the lost image.  While I was doing these samples it dawned on me to have my journals either dedicated to "transfers", "embroidery", for example, or either divide up a journal into sections so that I will not have to flip through journals to find (or most often, rediscover) previous samples.  What can I say?  Always slow but sure.

Memorial Day is starting out gray and wet...we are not trekking to the "country" cementary this year but I have fond memories of tradition of going with my Aunts and cousins.  For my mother's family, Memorial Day morphed into remembering the ancestors and not just those who served in the military.  I always used the time to collect family genealogy and stories which I entered into Family Tree Maker, a software program which has since been lost.  Even if I find the back up disc I'm not sure it would even open in the operating systems we have now.  I've thought about re-gathering, rebuilding the information but genealogy is much like quilting for me...enjoyably consuming in time and attention where anything else ceases to exist.  I loved the hunt involved in digging up records (of course much can be done online now) and oral interviews.  Even though I anticipated picking it back up, I don't think I can do it without stressing myself out which would take the pleasure from it.  I don't know if there are any young people in my family who are interested or not...its kinda entertaining to think of the 2nd (3rd?) wave hip-hop generation undertaking genealogy research.(what age demographic is that btw?  15-25).  I think of the first wave being my brother's age in their early 40's now.  The group that was weaned on it.  My 17 year old is writing a paper about the history of hip-hop.  He sees Rap as a sub-genre in Hip-Hop.   He has been struggling with the paper because I can't get it through is thick head that strong research paper goes beyond just citing historians and views of others but should at the heart be his own thoughts, ideas, and impressions of what he has learned, or what he thinks of the thoughts and ideas of others.  When we are talking about it, his self comes through, but he struggles with transfering his spoken words to paper.  At this point I've stopped bumping my head against the wall and I'm leaving him to his own devices and see what transpires between he and his teacher about it.   

I need your help...

Really, I need suggestions on how to attach this piece of copper.  What would a mixed media artist use to attach this, is the question I posed to myself.  I really don't want to use thread...I thought about copper jewelry wire but I'm not sure how strong it is...would it snap or break?  I thought about stringing the charcoal beads and using them to intertwine throughout the copper circle and it would also secure them down using fishing line. 

 

 

I didn't go with the black lines, instead I pulled the colours at the top into the bottom using thread and then will pull the charcoal into the top with the tiny beads.

I want to make 10 of these before the end of May.  These are small, 6"x12" simple designs and exercises in colour combinations.   I like the size and the design and after flipping through old sketch books I saw several of quick sketches just like it...here is even a postcard I made in 2006 with pretty much the same design.  I called it House of Peace. 

 I'm also still uncertain how I'm going to finish the edges.  the canvas is to stiff and thick to roll back using a facing and I do not want to zig-zag...if I did a satin stitch I would want perfect matching thread for the charcoal and the coppery coloured top half.  What if I mounted it on foamcore and then used heavy weight card stock to cover the edges????  I even thought about mounting them on stretched canvas and either using rice paste glue or Y.E.S. glue or a permanent spray adhesive to attach it to the canvas? 

Since I declared Wednesday that I'm getting back on the good foot and shaking off the funk, I've spent 6.5 hours at my workshop.  I did bring somethings to work on while I'm home just in case I do not make it back tomorrow.  On weekends I have to have flexibility since my guys, youngest son and adorable partner, are out of school and off from work.  But I'll be back at the gym tomorrow and am looking forward to it (I can't remember ever feeling like that before...I use to look forward to jazzercise because my sister and I would stop afterwards and get ice cream that was next door to jazzercise).

Eat, Pray, and Stitch

Outside looks inviting with the soft blue clear sky and the soft brightness.  Based on appearance I could think it is pleasantly warm outside.  The temps actually read too-cold-for-Karen-to-be-out.  My goals today included 3 things; eat, pray, and stitch.  I've been successful.  While sewing on a binding I reasoned that what I do well in my quilts is create good backgrounds.  When I start I aim for the entire quilt to be an all over focal point (it has a name but I can't recall it at the moment but remember it from Lorraine Torrence's book on design) but and once it is finished I become unsettled thinking it needs a more easily read focal point.  Here is a section of the quilt that I scanned.  The entire size is 24ish x 30ish.  I placed a 1/4ish binding around it. 

Some options I'll consider is adding beads in blues, a couple of circles in metallic or light blue threads in blue, and words from the poem in larger lettering using Scribble paints in blueish/grayish.  Also on tap for next week is picking up my Janome Jem from the repairman (don't ask, sad story), and selecting some hand-sewing I can do here at home and practice some calligraphy on paper and working through the artist's workbook on marketing.   

For all who might be interested I've started a Calligraphy and Creative Lettering group on Creative Souls (see sidebar).  It is for anyone at any skill level who has an interest in the graphic possibilities of writing, script, by hand or digital.  Also, I started reading Cherryl Floyd-Miller's latest book of poetry, Exquisite Heats.  Cherryl is also a quilt artist and her blog is here.  A beginning review of the book has been started on by book blog (see sidebar), My Eyes Have Seen the Coming of the Word.

And I ponder what should the New York Post suffer for its gross and cruel offense? (plus I'm still on the journey)

This morning I had a very distinct consuming Black moment...even more discriptive, Black American moment because my reaction (REACTion) was weighted by the peculiar history of the past and the not-so-past that is rooted and steeped in the formation of this country and its rise as a world power and the injustice of it all.  Check out the cartoon in the New York Post today and tailor your response (or not) to your own leanings as I most certainly will.  Beyond this I will not elaborate further as I will again hyperventilate.  For awhile now I've considered creating a cultural blog as an outlet for my essays on a wide range of topics but keep deciding no, since my RL is filled with a multitude of love and personal and intimate connections that I bounce with daily and as often as I need to.  There are joys and pains associated with living consciously and as encompassing as possible in the way I've chosen as an African American Woman...I'm sharing this much as a way to recognize that which is deep and the backdrop to everything I do today while also updating this journey I'm on as an art quilter which is the purpose for Seamless Skin (of which I could re-examine what I now intend by "seamless", but I will spare you and myself at the moment).

Monday I took myself on an artist date and went second hand browsing.  One place is kinda upscale antique mall...4 floors and is located in the building where I had my first job at 14 in a summer youth program.  I worked the same place for 2 summers as a typist and all around office grunt which included running a mimeograph machine which I thought was cool at the time.  I purchased this embroidered round, very sheer, placemat that feels like papyrus of all things.  It was a handmade thing that cost me a buck so I was thrilled.  I want to tranfer an image onto it but for now its pinned up high on the design wall.  I also went to another 2nd hand furniture dive that has great stuff but isn't located in a high rent district and found lots of old creative looking stuff but I only came out of there with a red linen table cloth.  I have this idea percolating around roughness representing hard times...for now it seems connected to the quilts on prayers.

Yesterday morning I reconnected with a dear friend over breakfast at Toast.  Hi Cari!  Its been close to three years since we've spoken, maybe longer, but it energized my spirit and after we parted I made an impromptu stop at Actor's Theatre to see Upfromsumdirt's piece in the exhibit in the lobby.  As prolific as he is I was underwhelmed with the piece he submitted.  He cultivates an "outsider" as in outsider art philosophy toward creating his digital images that he describes as Mythmatics(c) so he isn't all that open to input but if he ever wanted to know what I thought, Hi Ron, I"ve only viewed his strongest work at his solo shows and online and not in his group shows.

Now to my own artistic issues------I completed the quilting on the current quilt and its stretched out on the design wall drying for blocking...BUT! this puckering grates my last nerve and the solution I thought so brilliant a few weeks ago (embellishing with stones) just seemed a notch above stupid yesterday.  So my new BRILLIANT idea is to go whole cloth with 2 sections (the ones without any puckering) and create 2 smaller quilts.  The red section and the yellow one will be a go!  Peter didn't think the green section was as dynamic as the other two...he thought the green needed to be more intense to hang with the vibrancy of the green and yellow and the green is a shaded green and doesn't have as much going on in it as the other 2 panels.  Parts of the green section will be salvaged into postcards like I did with these from another quilt.

I also made my first fiber ATC's. 

One is destined to Emmy in the Netherlands.  If you'd like to trade with me, buzz me an email.

I have postcards like the ATCs for sale, 3 of which are listed on my new Etsy set-up.  Check here  or click on the page at the top of this blog.

Hangeth in...

Did I ever mention my aversion to winter? Okay, nevermind then. I'll move on.

Guess what this is?  Okay, okay, so what if it is still quilt #2 in the Poetry Series...if I wanted to be all technical about it, I could claim it as quilt #5 if I include the 3 smaller pieces that inspired this series to begin with, so there, now! And no, that is a gum ERASER and not chewing gum sitting on the pointy thing for the circular attachment.  I lost the little knob for it.

I was at the workshop for less than 10 hours this week, four of which included napping.  With the limited time I was there, I rearranged my workshop space again with the help of my youngest son, so the other hours had to be dedicated to doing the most important which was going in circles on quilt #2 above.  The weather is warming this weekend and I hope it holds through a few more weeks.  I had planned to be there today but I'm honoring my body's request for rest. 

I started physical therapy last week for the sciatica and it helped tremendously but I was unable to make it in 2 days this week due to muscle and joint pain followed by a trip to the ER which turned out to be for dehydration.  But the flip side of all the discomfort is the opportunity to stay still long enough to read through the stack of books about "prayer" I was able to get from the library before all the physical trauma. When I embark on my next series, I'm thinking it will be on Prayer.  If, this will be the 3rd of series work that I have going.  When I first started to think about doing a body of work I imagined that I would work on one quilt after another until a series was complete but that isn't and hasn't been the case.  I know that I could never keep up with what my mind thinks up so I tend to latch on to the ideas that become most compelling due to what is going on with me through experiences, emotions, and ideas.  Even though I'm reading on "prayer", I'm thinking that I'll do another Liberation quilt after I finish #2 in PS.  The Liberation quilts can be seen on my website (which isn't complete) at http://www.wix.com/karoda/karen-r.-davis 

Liberation (LS) was my first attempt at series work.  It came about totally unplanned.  In the first one my goal was to work with foiling and couching and applying metal on a quilt and while working on this quilt I would have this all encompassing sensation of being FREE.  The sensation would start out physically and then move into what is called in African American slang as "being on the one"...everything was vibing on the one when I worked on this particular quilt.  The second in LS, Cilium 2, has been in 3 shows and several locations and a few weeks ago I decided to retire it and hang it here at home in the hallway and the first one in my bedroom.  Here is Cilium 2 hanging up at the Calving Barn hallway at the Mary Anderson Center during a demo I was doing on silk fusion for Magic on the Mount Festival a few summers ago.  A partial view of Cilium 1 is the next photo.

   

For next week,  my goals are to focus on lettering/calligraphy and reading and going back through the workshop I took on digital collage brushes with Gail Schmidt from Creative Workshop ning group and a minimum of 5 hours at my workshop toward the end of the week.  Also, to return to physical therapy.

And I was going to leave this photo off, and not gush over the time I spent with my grandson this week but he is an old soul and she is just a wild woman and they brung me such joy :)

Mean-spirited posting

Don't think I've not noticed all the recipes on blogs over the holidays that included the drug of sugar!  I have and I just think its pure meanness that compels one to share such horrible things with others. So in keeping with the spirit of things, here goes my contribution:

Princess' Potato Chip Cookies:

Cream together:

1 cup butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup of sugar

(if I remember to, I cut back to 3/4 cup of each sugar)

Add 2 eggs and mix well

Sift and add:

2 1/2 cups flour w/ 1 tsp. baking powder

Add:

2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 (12 oz.) package butterscotch morsels

2 cups crushed potato chips (crush them in a ziploc bag and work out your frustrations)

Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a baking sheet.  Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes or until lightly golden.

Makes about 4 dozen.

Everything I attempted to bake over the holidays came out a mess. Finally, I decided to fall back on a trusted favorite and go with these cookies!  This recipe was first given to me by an online buddy from back in the day when I was a member of an online board for the book The Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood.  At the time my daughter, from the age of 10-12yo, ran a cookie business which was all her idea!  She did this alongside her cousin who is one year older and they employed me for free as I had the vehicle to deliver the goods and access to paying customers.  Anyways, she was reluctant to try this recipe but it turned into one of her most requested.  Their business was called Mo and Jo's Cookie Bakers...and just where are they today?????? 

Speaking of family, more about my beloved bro, UpfromSumDirt.  First, here is a podcast interview of him by Elijah Saint:   Real As It Gets  Its 30 mintues long and Elijah does most of the talking which translates to my bro being a "mush mouth" but since he's-family-I-still-dug-his-words-even-though-I-had-to-read-between-the-lines-and-because-I-know-him-I-knew-what-he-was-trying-to-say. 

And here is a down and dirty opinion of cell phones written by him: (but if you're offended by bastardization of the english language or profanity, stop here and come back another day)

cell phones: it can no longer be justified
Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes

and neither should it be condoned any further, but after several years of using one ive finally reached the conclusion that CELL PHONES IS EVIL! ...or cell phone COMPANIES actually. i firmly believe that the expense of maintaining them has SINGLE HANDEDLY RUINED THE ENTIRE ECONOMY! back in the day we all came up in households that had one (and if extremely privileged, then two!) phone lines - biggo yellow, tan or black boxes that clung to the walls of our mama anem's kitchens like ceramic fungus... one phone for the distribution of one family of maybe 4 individuals. one bill. it wasnt perfect but it was a damn good system. and now? nowadays, a single home averages 3 cell phones each one EQUATING TO A CAR PAYMENT PER MONTH! in some cases, folks ARE MAKING THE EQUIVALENT OF A MORTGAGE PAYMENT per month just to send 'i luv u baby' by way of text messaging... this shit is crazy. folks who have lost their homes still have cell phones. ... the system has conned us that we need to have our phones be the ultimate machines, but who continues paying indefinitely on a luxury good? want to play games? buy a playstation handheld - pay it off in a couple months. want to watch a movie? rent that shit/stick it into your dvd player/return that shit. wanna listen to music? go buy a walkman or an ipod, PAY THAT SHIT OFF and listen to your jams all day long... wanna make a phone call? go into the kitchen, dial 7 to 10 numbers say "hello" hang up and go on about your business. but we need to stop giving these cell phone companies carte blanch authority to run rampant thru our bank accounts... WHERE'S THE CELL PHONE WITH JUST THE GAHDAMN NUMBERS ON IT?!?! sprint: this is what i need my phone to do: make a call, receive a call. voice mail is a good option. but who needs to download beyonce's latest hit onto a phone when you can buy the damn cd and listen to it on the music player of your choice with no further financial obligation to your PHONE COMPANY or anyone else... this shit is illegal. they use humor to placate you! you've all seen the ads where some poor joe drops a phone book on the table and threatens to bury his family in the backyard for all the outrageous charges forced on them - it aint their fault! i cant even call it BAMBOOZLED... this is straight up piracy. they got us focusing on wall street and detroit - but one of the biggest drains on society today is being carried around in the pockets and purses of 75 percent of the american population. ...beyond 'gangsta' this shit is terrorism! and yeah, I'M CALLING SPRINT OUT! what are they gonna do? drop me? not until my contract is up you can believe that! consider this a call to arms!

 

My Muddy Brother's Art can be purchased

in card or print formats at RedBubble <-----go ahead and click the link :)

Where is the bail-out for non-profit community programs including ART!?!

I'll just let the title of this post hang in the air and we can all stew over the answers until,....um, until, until....until....well, lets not hold our breath, okay.

  Here is a collage of photos I took Friday at Ron's show.  He had a few new pieces and my favorite he still has...If after the first of the year its still available, we are gonna have to talk lay-a-way!  He has a new series called the The 45 Series inspired by records, the 45 size.  Now, if you're younger than a certain age, there might be some pauses while you've figured out what records are and then what are 45s.  And he uses vintage cloth as a backdrop for them!!!!  Ummmm, it hit me immediately, I'm just waiting for him to catch up because a collaboration of some kind is in our future.  He also had napbooks for sale for a couple of bucks...napbooks are one page of his poems.  One of them cracked me up...it read "..." well let me show ya, but give me a second to scan it--- 

this is the front-

  flip it over and its one of his poems-

For all the USAians, I'm wishing a week ahead of gratitude, peace, and laughter for those who have traditional and non-traditional Thanksgivings.  Ummm, rethinking that...I wish everyone world over the same, holiday or not. 

Honoring the Call

for Ron and Crystal...Your talents are your infinite wealth...

Here is Ron's art work on the cover of African American Review...he also has up-coming cover of another scholarly journal due out next year.  He is also preparing for another solo show.   Praying for continued blessings in honoring your calling as artist, my brother.

In Studio 3 Once Again

Well I made it!  This is Studio 3 once again.  I had 3 days of dyeing. 

Thursday I just unloaded and mixed my dye stocks and that was enough.  That was five hours of my time.  I did do something different this time.  I used blenders to mix my dye stock which I didn't mind at all.  I can't shake and stir like I use to (and that goes for more than mixing dye stock although I just listened to Celia Cruz singing and I almost hurt maself ;) ).  All 3 blenders came off of Craigslist for little or nothing.  If you've got the patience it is a great place to find odds and ends for art and studio supplies.

 

Two other artists where in the house...their names have lost me at the moment but one from Arizona has a month to work on her printing and painting; the other from Indianapolis works in mixed media and was working on etching in metal and some painting.  The artists tend to visit with one another but in a very unintrusive way. 

On Friday Petra joined me.  She isn't an artist but appreciates what artists do.  She accepted my invite to come and play but declined to use the Reduran to remove the dye from her arm.  She said it made her feel like an artist so she wore it home.  I believe she had a very full day.  But the crazy woman plopped one of these

unidentified berries in her mouth until I admonished her to remove it immediately for fear she would fall over dead under my watch.  Geez, can't take her anywhere!

 

Here are some of the fabrics batching in the heat.  Some of which I left in the containers outside at my workshop when I returned all my supplies today with the help of youngest son who is standing next to his grandmother, aka, my Mama!

 

He was a huge help loading to go and loading and unloading upon return.

 

These are the fabrics I left outside just at the top of the stairs leading into the basement, aka, my workshop.  I will get to them sometime toward the end of the week after I put everything back in its place.

Here is the door leading down into my workshop.  Whenever it is open like this it means it is an invitation for every fly in the neighborhood to come party.  Ummm, I just thought about placing a fly repellant by the door to see if that helps.  That way I will be able to leave the door open sometime. 

 

These, I love a lot!

 

This is a small isolated section on a small piece.  Reminds me of the tips of spears or arrowheads.

This is a part of the window covering in Studio 1.  I isolated this section with the leaf.  The background is paper.  I find this very calming.

 

 

Congratulations to Ron Davis

aka Bruh Dirt, my one and only brother!  He has been juried into the state's art council marketing program!!!!  Read about it here.  He was one of 7 artists accepted!

And preview some of his work and personal style and words here.   An excerpt:  Commercial fame is an elusive thing for black artists to achieve... so shouldn’t we at least create work that identifies our positions on life/love/society? In actuality, I’m really asking for a lot... this is no small task. Knowing yourself well enough to express who you truly are can be a daunting thing... to make art challenging again, either thru its message or its ambition.

Newport Aquarium 2008

Every couple of years we seem to find ourselves at the Newport Aquarium...we seem to never tire of it and we've been going as a family since the kids were in elementary school and then we maintained an annual membership because we went so frequently.  I was surprised that Mo and Ade wanted to return.  Peter took these photos as I decided not to lug the camera around this time.

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the most unique creatures can be found among nature, uh?!

 

Going blank for a title, but read it anyways...

Mo and I had a late lunch.  She was excited about scoring the highest A on her summer mid-term in her Intro to Pan-African Studies and blabbed on and on about how she is among the few of the 20 students who seem to have had previous exposure to some of the topics of discussion.  I refrained from getting snarky but I did gently remind her that her mother (me) was aiming for a double major back in the day in Educational Psych and Pan-African Studies...(I was only 4 courses away from the PAS major but I was more ready to be done with school).  It is a little reassuring to see some of what I've tried to incorporate has stuck. 

Yesterday I worked on quilting preliminary studies for The Poetry Series.  I finished 2.  The one above I'm putting in seed stitches and decided afterwards that the larger pieces really call for machine lines.  The machine lines seem more of a compliment to the organic nature of the surface design of the fabric.  Brings in more a sense of order without taking over...and for the same reason I'll put on a small binding.

******************

 

How about one big collective "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"?!  How beautiful!  Grace, blog author at Barnyard Chatter awarded me one of her hand-dyed fat quarters for being one of the winning recipients of a blog contest she hosted. Right now, I'm leaning toward placing it into one of the poetry quilts.  Reds, Greens, and Yellows are the main colours.  Thank you Grace.

***********

I enjoy blogging because I enjoy writing and it has also helped support my novice interest in taking photos.  It enhances self-communication as well as communicating with others and I've found myself wishing that more family and friends would blog. 

A few days ago I picked up a new local publication that profiled "The Creative Class".  It profiled about a dozen or so artists in this city and how they have impacted the image, economics, and culture of Louisville.  Since I'm not one to be all up in the mix, I appreciated the coverage and wished for more coverage of local artists, emerging and well established.  Then I thought, "if" I had the energy and time I would start a blog for just such a purpose.  It would make communication with other artists more accessible. If you're from Louisville and you're reading this, feel free to take this idea and make it your own!