creating and exploring on the weekend

The weather is better, in the 40s and the snow is melting.  I've spent the weekend journaling, creating journals, and exploring Pinterest.  I haven't pinned anything yet, but have wandered around from color to carnivals, from abandoned decay to childhood toys to clothing styles to paranormal to vintage photos.

I'm using Evernote to clip some pictures and articles for idea generation, and am amazed at how much I can find to really look at.  There's a lot that doesn't register or that I'm not interested in, but quite often I am struck by a scene or a color combination and can save it to really examine it and think about it later.

it's not all pleasant - scenes from wars, Chernobyl, Victorian memento mori images... but it is a way for me to learn.  Many times I go to the original website for the pinned image and can read articles or blogs.  I even discovered a couple of new  to me  musicians and singers.

Here's the fabric journals I made, one for a friend and two for me - composition book covers from a pattern at this etsy shop:  https://www.etsy.com/shop/QuiltersCrib  It was fun to do using some of my leftover hand dyed fabric, and I found that "vintage" composition books are bigger than ones from the dollar store so i had to adjust the pattern.

I also used up some of the paper bags and old notebooks and vintage paper and cardboard I've been saving, to make paper journals.

Did you know that on the bottom of some paper bags, you can see the name of the person who made it?  Really interesting.  I am not sure where I will find time to write in all of these, but recycling all that stuff, a large box of it, into something useful feels good.

Next I am going to make a color wheel using crayon shades, for my color journal, and overdye a jacket for a friend.  I love weekends!

snowstorm's over for now

This storm was a heavy snowfall, we even paid to have the driveway plowed since Keith and Kyle wouldn't be able to shovel it all.  I got to leave early yesterday, and took today off, so after stopping on the way home for a few groceries and bird food I was glad to be safe inside.  The birdies were glad for the food, we have had the usual finches, juncos, tufted titmouses, or is that titmice, and chickadees.  We have an occasional cardinal and blue jay, and a few mourning doves just hanging out.  Today we even had a woodpecker.

I spent time cleaning out books to donate, and then I sorted my paints into bins, by color.  I am so excited to have found a bunch of Golden paints that I didn't even realize I had!  I can't always afford to buy them so this is just wonderful to have the supplies.  The snowstorm before this one, I cleaned out and organized all of my papers - the cardstock, typing paper, accounting paper, music paper, and more, that I use in journaling and mixed media.  I get a lot of them at this very junky flea market in Ravena, NY.  I always find something interesting there and it isn't very expensive either.

I have also had fun wandering around Pinterest, first for art journals, then fiber or fibre art, then textile art, and art quilts... I have found so many things for inspiration and colors.  I seem to either choose very bright, colorful things or very neutral white, tan, off white and then denim or indigo blue things.  Have found some great quotes too.  I am starting to feel like I maybe want to create something, I just don't know what.  It's been a strange few months without a desire to create.  And I still sometimes wonder if it is ok to just be who and what and where I am...

I haven't taken many pictures lately, but will try to post some eventually, once I've got something to show.

the possibilities are endless!

I am good at making lists.  I am good at planning.  I am not so good at doing.  I find that sometimes I am overwhelmed at how many choices there are:

• books to read, 
• free books to download, 
• projects to start, continue or even finish
• blogs to read, 
• patterns to try
• journal entries to write
• poems to revise
• cupboards and shelves to clean, 
• recipes to download and cook, 
• places to visit... 

and that's just my personal stuff, not counting work or family.

It's great to have these possibilities, but I am realizing that I need to be responsible and actually do things.  In the last several weeks I have decided that I want to get back to journaling, create a color journal, continue organizing my stuff, eat healthy, sew some clothes for me, work on some art projects...  the list is quite long and my free time is very finite.  This three day weekend I am setting some goals that I believe I can accomplish:

• I am sorting my pencils and pens and markers into color families.
• I am sorting my rubber stamps into those I absolutely love and those I use occasionally.
• I am putting all of my magazine clippings and paper pieces into one large box.
• I am gathering all of my other paper working tools into boxes.  

I'll see how I do!

reviewing and recycling

Life has been crazy the last few months, and I have made some changes and am planning others to ease stress and make time for me.  Right now, as I'm looking forward to the holiday season, I am working on a long term cleaning out stuff project.  I'm very good at collecting, but not very good at distributing.  And I don't have space for many things that I once thought were important or essential, but aren't really that necessary anymore.

What I am realizing:

•  I know that I will probably never get outside studio space.
• There are so many choices and options everywhere that it becomes hard to choose - which book to read, which show to watch, stuff to see on Facebook and people's blogs, work to do, news to read, art to create...
• I will probably not make everything I want or can think of - I may never learn to spin or use resin or oil paints.
• I know that I want to focus on finding my voice, my style, one more time. I want to use grids and shapes and knitting and words and color.
• I want to dye yarns and fabric.  
• I want to knit.  
• I want to hand stitch.  
• I want to write.  

What I have  done so far:

• kept only those patterns and creative ideas that I want to make and think I will make, discarding ideas that are too complex for me or too "foofy" (as my brother would say!)
• got an Evernote account to put things in to avoid building up paper again - color combos, images, recipes, how to's are all stored and organized and available on the web, anywhere.
• put all my altered books in one place.
• put all my journals in one place.
• stored all but the most meaningful pictures of family and life and stuff, and those are in one container to grab quickly if there's a tornado or something.
• got all my running the household and family stuff files in order (except the budget which will happen very soon)
• got a paper shredder on sale and using rewards points so that I can shred bills and things with names on them instead of storing them
• started saving bank transfer and bill paying confirmation reports as pdfs instead of printing them - computer storage is cheap
• started go go through a couple of my free Kindle ebooks every day, to delete the ones I am not really interested in after all.
• organized all my art and creative books and magazines in the unused dining room space, neatly on shelves.

Some goals:

• to clean out all the art stuff and donate what I won't use but is still good
• to go through my clothes and weed out things I don't like or that don't fit anymore
• to write at least once a week
• to cook healthier meals and plan ahead for meals
• to play in my art journal and not care about how it looks, it's the creating or remembering that is important.
• to revitalize my day job - which is important to me as well

So it appears that I am ready to start the new year.  This season has so many memories, of our house and Christmas trees and Christmas cookies, of getting presents and giving presents, of mom and dad doing all of the traditions, religious and family.  I was so blessed to have so much, not only things but love and caring.  

k2tog (knit two together) - my show at the Iron Spring Gallery in Ballston Spa NY

Here's some shots of my current show:

looking into the gallery room

" intersections"

 "liminal wave"

" urban clouds"

"vintage trims" collage book

All of the pieces use knitting as design elements.  The half circles in "urban clouds" and the feather and fan pieces in "liminal wave" are based on the free range knitting techniques of Jane Thornley, www.janethornley.com, and are used with her permission.  The ruffled circles in "intersection" are my design. 

I am looking forward to continuing with knitting.  I have lots of ideas, and now just have to find the time to create.

On vacation!  A stay at home week which I am spending preparing for my show at Strolling Village Artisans, which I will be hanging on Sunday.  So far I have cooked, cleaned, worked on the altered book, worked on the ocean piece, and successfully changed the light bulb in my sewing machine.  I also completed a set of Artist Trading cards for the group I belong to, Arts in the Cards.

I am now part of a small group making Artist Trading Cards, or ATCs.  They are one of my favorite things to create and I have a collection of over 200 so far.  I've made them with fiber and fabric, collage, drawing, using markers and really just experimenting.  Here's the blog, this month's theme is sky, and I've posted my ATCs there.

http://artsinthecards.blogspot.com/

over-dyed yarns

At a garage sale this past summer, I got some wool yarns that were various ugly shades.  I spent some time over-dying them to make them more usable.  I used Wilton's cake coloring and McCormick food coloring.

Here they are right after the microwave steaming:

Here they are dried and ready to be wound into balls.  The colors are much more subtle than I am used to due to the underlying original colors.  The orange and green were not over-dyed but were natural color amd for particular projects.  I am thinking that the subdued colors will make great scarves or felted bowls, or a knitted backdrop for an art piece.

and here is a view of my hand with lines, able to be seen because of the dyes... it eventually washes out.

I still have lots more to play with and dye.  One batch of four skeins turned out to be acrylic, but I will donate those so someone else can use them.  I want to try using Easter Egg dyes next.

Having a three day weekend is great for getting organized.  I know that this blog is not very active, but I am hoping to change that.

I recently finished a new wall piece.  Technically it's only one layer so I can't call it an art quilt.  The base is wool felt, that has been felted more and shrunk, and stitched with a grid.

The best part of creating sometimes is the gathering of stuff.  I have a lot of supplies, vintage things, yarns, fabrics, buttons....

This is a pile of round things, vintage buttons, belt buckles, metal rings, and buttons. This led to fabric circles:

The fabric is mostly hand dyed feedsack fabric, and I used a set of pastry cutters to draw all the different sizes.

This is about midway through.  I stitched the circles on, and added lines both straight and crossed.  This was definitely an improvised piece and looks nothing like the sketch I did.  That happens to me a lot.  I discover new stuff that adds something, so I use it.  I added some knitted circles and did a lot of beading and embellishing.  Here is the final version:

and a detail shot:

I am very fascinated with the knitted circles and ruffles and how they randomly shape themselves.  I am sure I will be using them again.

And when I made some mac and cheese I saw some other cool circles:

Finally, since his coloring fits in with this entry, here's Rowan contemplating what to write about next:

pictures and patterns

I always have good intentions of blogging regularly, however life always gets in the way... I am working on a larger piece with a base of felted wool, and will soon post some in-progress pictures.  In preparation for creating that piece, I spent a lot of time going through my 14K or so Flickr photos, looking at patterns and seeing what I photographed repeatedly.  Here are some pictures that I really like.

I love rocks.  I pick them up from everywhere.  I have rocks from the Atlantic, from Ireland, from hiking trails... rocks, if you are the kind of person who looks closely at them, have lines and shapes and colors.  I've even started a small collection of heart shaped rocks.

Trees and plants are important to me.  The shapes of sticks and roots, the tendrils and offshoots of a  plant, and the glorious colors of flowers can often inspire me.

Grids fascinate me - straight or curved lines, in layers and juxtapositions.  I use grids a lot in my art.  And I love drawing or writing on graph paper instead of lined paper.

And of course, color.  Right now aqua continues to be my favorite color.  This was a small color study that I did for a Cloth Paper Scissors reader challenge.  It didn't get in, but I still like it. 

I am so glad that I have a digital camera, and can take bunches of pictures without worrying about the cost.  Out of the many shots, one or two will be exactly what I want, but I have to take all of the shots to come up with those one or two.  

color combinations

I have been experimenting, well, actually, having fun dyeing yarns and fabric.  I am not at all precise and sometimes am surprised at the color combinations I come up with.  In an effort to be more organized, and to maybe be able to reproduce some colors, I've been collecting paint chips and yarn samples and sorting them into possible combinations.



lime, blue, teal, violet





lime, pink, purple





blue, lime, teal



khaki, brown, pink



lime, aqua, teal, pink, and will use black as an accent

I remember my mother teaching me about color - the blue purples and the red purples, and never wear navy and green together, unless it's plaid, my sixth grade concert dress of white lace and cotton, with hot pink tights and lime green jewelry... we had an avacado colored kitchen and a raspberry bathroom long before they became popular colors.  She had a great eye for color, and I think of her evey time I dye yarns and fabric. 

vignettes on red - a recap of my solo show

My solo show, vignettes on red, recently finished at Strolling Village Artisans in Ballston Spa, NY.  It was fun to create the pieces for the show - I got to play and forced myself to work in a color that is not my favorite.  Here are some pictures of the show, and then I'll show some of the little book I created during the process.

looking into the gallery, the red triangles piece is directly to the back.  It's all hand dyed fabric and knitted triangles.

mother's apron - hand dyed fabric, vintage apron and potholders, glass heart.

cherry tree quilt - a remnant of a commercial coverlet that my grandmother used on her bed.  Eventually it became part of our vacation bedding when we stayed at a cabin.  This is the only piece that survived.  Vintage doily and potholder, buttons.

detritus - hand dyed fabric and leftover found objects

no more dolls 2 - vintage hand made child's dress, vintage trim and buttons, vintage dolls and doll parts

and here are pages from the small book I made telling about the creative process I was experiencing.

 words

quotes about the color red, and all the different names of red.

thoughts about the way the pieces will look and loving the combination of teal and red.

on to the next set of projects!

didn't get n Deep Spaces

I didn't get in Deep Spaces, but got a very nice rejection letter and I'll get a catalog of the exhibit.  I am disappointed, but I had such great times making the piece that it certainly wasn't wasted time.  Here's pics of the piece "look inward, past boundaries and barriers"

I am working on a piece about foam, and once I do a very time consuming layer of crazy free form knitted lace, I have to figure out where to go next.  Then I am working on a wall hanging that is using three bedsprings as a base with all sorts of things dangling from it.

still here

I didn't become raptured.  I have been reading an interesting book, though -  "The World Without Us" by Alan Weisman.  He talks about what would happen if humans were to suddenly disappear.  The book also suggests scenarios for what happens to the stuff we leave behind - buildings, subways, refineries, and also describes how nature would change.  Feral cats would survive well, domestic dogs would hav a hard time without people.

Maybe between now and October, the "new" rapture date, I'll read some post-apocalyptic fiction.

vacation, relaxation and back to work

DH and I got to take a mini vacation, in Portsmouth NH.  We used the last of the Marriott Rewards Points we had, and he did a photography job to get gas and spending money.

see, I'm really there.  The sound of the waves, the smell of the salt air, the rocks and shells to pick up... it was great.

I love to catch a wave just as it is breaking...

DH patiently Blackberry-ing and waiting for me to finish getting rocks and pebbles.  The round rust circle was a base for some sort of gun, I think from WWII.  This was at the Seacoast Science Center.

I am now a very ferverent convert to the iPhone - got one since I was due for an upgrade, and I love love love it.  I have all sorts of apps on it, and can get work email plus regular email, and can make lists, and read books... I looked at tablet computers but really like the small size of the iPhone and the fact that I don't need to carry around all this other stuff.  i've got everything in one place.  I do still need to get the TeleNave option but I've got the phone, camera, music player, several e readers, games, tasks and to do lists, travel stuff, etc.   DH is still a staunch BlackBerry fan, though.

Inside they had displays and an aquarium set up.  This was a very strange but very friendly fish, came right over when I looked through the glass at him.  Or her, hard to tell.

foam at the edge of the waves.  I'm trying to replicate this in knitting for an art quilt but it is not easy.  I can get the holes but the transparency of the bubbles is something I'll have to think about.

We visited open studios at a mill building in Rollingsford, NH and I picked this room for me.  I can see myself moving in there with all my stuff.  The windows overlooked a river and trees.  We also visited artist's studios in Lowell MA, run by a former art quilter Maxine Farkas.  She's doing really cool boxes and assemblage now. Could only stay a little bit but it was great to see her again.  I could have a studio there too!

Walking down one of the flights of stairs in the NH building.  Very steep but very cool stair shapes.

We visited the American Textile History Museum in Lowell MA.  Great exhibits and friendly staff.  They don't allow flash photos, and only personal photos, but I did get permission to post a photo here.  I highly recommend visiting, you can see hand made textiles all the way up to very technical racing gear.

 Had lunch in an Irish pub, with real Irish food and Guiness.  Got pizza for dinner, ordered online and delivered right to our hotel room.  So convenient!  Went to Portsmouth Fabric Co, and got some great fabric.  Also during the artist studio day I met Wen Redmond, an art quilter, very friendly and great work.  It was so interesting to see her studio and the things she had to create with.
  Here's her website:
Wen Redmond Artist  and I really wish I could take a workshop with her.

Went to a friend's daughter's senior recital at Emma Willard school, in Troy NY and this lil guy was hanging out above me, along with some other stone friends.  Creepy and cute at the same time.

 Now I'm home, at least for a little bit - going to visit my brother over Memorial Day, and then to Boston the end of June for a business conference.  I am working on some artist trading cards, for swaps, through ATCs for All to just play and experiment with drawing and collage. 

And now I leave you with another crazy cat picture... this is Sir Douglas Fir Tree exhausted and resting from the ordeal of shredding tissues and papers all over the bedroom floor...