The New Iron

A new iron! hooray! The old one went wonky on me and was making a horrible noise (grrackkkk, grrrackkk!) when the standby light was blinking. It was also drawing down the power in my studio. Seemed like a candidate for a tragic fire happening. I gave it to DH who was thrilled, but I made him promise me not to leave it plugged in. Where he irons is in a high traffic area in the house, so that won't be likely. And THEN he ironed the clothes I wore to the 50th birthday surprise party we were going to. Is he awesome or what?!

Top Five Reasons I bought this iron:
1) I liked the name "EuroPro"
2) It is purple, I mean c'mon!
3) The handle felt just right in my hand
4) Wanted to try a non-silverstone soleplate
5) It was the only box not obviously re-taped in the store

Another Studio Confidante

Another studio confidante, got her at a garden accessories store. I just love her bemused expression, I feel like that a lot. She reminds me of the Goddess Flora.

Feeling Blue Blocks Together at Last

And now for your entertainment, playing with blocks and settings....

All the Feeling Blue squares together once again. This is just the "usual" setting. Kind of reminds me of the Bento Box pattern, but of course in that pattern there aren't any raw edges! These blocks we're working with are basically a BullsEye pattern done in squares instead of circles.

Here they are a bit mixed up, but still square-ish. Note the light in the center is just from my studio lights being on when I took these first three pics.

And this is a kind of center and pushing away setting.

And here is the maybe final version of that setting. Which one do you like the best? I made a couple extra blocks to get the size right. It is going to be hard to pick one of these settings and actually start sewing, playing around with these blocks is too much fun. And I can't wait to see what Adrienne and Jaye come up with for their quilts (my two swap buddies).

Thread up!

Put my Thread holder up finally. It took a year of having it fall over on my worktable to finally search up two suitable nails and the hammer. Oh and Something to measure with, hah! No problemo, got lots of rulers... So this of course entailed having to sort out all of my threads that were in my drawers. So far I had all my sulky rayons in a nice box which works, but now all these weird sized mini cones of thread (That came with the new machine) didn't fit and were making the drawer stick. Not good when you're desperate for the right blue! So this has all the big cones of rayons and some glittery or multicolored big spools. I hope they don't mind being near the window, usually the curtain is blocking the sunlight. It sure is nice to have more real estate available on top of my worktable. And the threads are pretty to look at too.

Isn't that lampshade nice? I got it at Wal-Mart of all places. I've only been in a WM three times. I really am out of the mainstream of American experience. Never ever been in an Ikea, although I have seen two different ones by the freeways in the Bay Area.

Oh and above the thread and lamp is one of my older pieces, an 8" abstract challenge on the subject of TECHNOLOGY, which I mounted on an acrylic painted canvas.

One Image Cards Received

All the One Image cards I've received. My original image was the Venus of Willendorf. Amazing how well they all go together, like a planned out quilt almost. Some are hilariously funny and some are beautiful, some are strange yet still cool. I love getting stuff in the mail that isn't bills!

What Mythological Creature Are You?

Apparently I am a Mermaid!
How about you?
Thanks ezabelle for this quiz.

You scored as Mermaid. Mermaid: Mermaids are also known as Sirens. These creatures were beautiful women who tricked sailors into becoming completely entranced by their haunting voices and found death soon after. Not all stories of Mermaids are about gentle loving sea people. They are mystical, magical, and extremely dangerous. They have a way about them that brings anyone they are around to seem enchanted. They are very mysterious creatures and to meet one... Would mean certain Death. Let the song of the Sea fill your soul, for you are a Mermaid. Mermaid 92% Angel 75% Faerie 58% Dragon 50% WereWolf 25% Demon 0% What Mythological Creature are you? (Cool Pics!) created with QuizFarm.com

Learning to Love You More

I was reading Keri Smith's Wish Jar blog today, and I saw on the sidebar, "How to Be A Guerilla Artist", and I of course had to read about that. Guerilla artists are anonymous, leave art in public places, maybe are controversial in their subject matter, and have a love of surprising people.
So, through the links there I encountered this really interesting site: Learning to Love You More , an interactive art/social experiment project, where you can take on an assignment, make a report, and then maybe participate in a group display. Some of these involve making short movies, sound recordings, photos, or doing something. Very cool!
I love what these ideas have sparked for me, especially as Keri Smith says "making art without attachment to the outcome. To do something that has nothing to do with making money, or listening to the ego."

Maytide Skies

Maytide Skies, the view from my deck. Wish I could upload the sounds of the bees.

Just got back from driving on a 6th grade field trip to the dump, actually the recycling part of the dump. Where in a few months they will be using the methane collected from the decomposing matter to generate electricity to sell for big $$ I love it! Instead of going into the atmosphere as an addition to the greenhouse gas problem, it will get used up and converted into a usable power source.

But the bad news was that the landfill is filling up fast, maybe it will last 20 more years and is located right on the California central coast city of Watsonville, in primo strawberry growing land. So that the land use, coastal commission and county supervisors have blocked expanding the landfill. So pretty soon, our county will not have a landfill? What the hell will we do with our garbage? Float it around on barges out in Monterey Bay? Hell-oooo people, think ahead...

But the takeaway message for the kids and parents was to use aluminum, then glass, and finally last choice plastic for food containers. Aluminum is easiest to recycle and there is a big market for recycled aluminum, glass is pretty easy too, but plastic takes more processing to re-use, and there isn't much of an end-use market for it...yet. So they recycle it, but can't sell it or even GIVE it to anyone! I think where the state and federal government need to get involved more is on encouraging the end user market by requiring recycled materials to be used when at all possible in new buildings, or furniture for government use, give tax breaks on using recycled plastics in consumer products construction.

I love recycling stuff in making my art, and have been in two fine art exhibits that were entirely composed of recycled materials. Hey, just think, everytime you reuse a Tyvek envelope from your mail to make it into something cool, you're keeping it out of the landfill!

Women of Biblical Proportions

Here is Dinah, my Women of Biblical Proportions quilt.

Dinah's eyes

Dinah's lips.

My Queen of Hearts

My Queen of Hearts, here she is...

Artful Decks Available

Hey! Now you can order a deck of cards of the Artful Deck quilt show. I did the Queen of Hearts.

And if you've never seen the book for Art Quilts playing with a Full Deck, the *original* art quilt/card exhibit at the Smithsonian, you can buy it for half off the original from Pomegranate Publishing. Somewhere there is an actual deck available too, not sure where, but the book itself is just great!

Studio Confidante, Rocks, Shoes

Red Rocks AND shoes, a two-fer picture! I have big size 11's, but then I'm tall, and most of the time when I'm hiking, I need all the help I can get to stay vertical.

Oh and how about another red rock from Sedona, AZ. I always see things in rocks, shapes that remind me of something, or maybe a face, so I take a picture, and darned if I can remember what the heck I thought I saw when I look at the picture later. Oh well.

And here she is again, just recently back from her photo session at Quilting Arts Magazine, my studio confidante. The webringleader Diane asked if we had a studio confidante/mascot/whatever.
So here she is, my Studio Guardian Angel, reminding me to Take Time.

Visual Poetry

Try this for getting a bunch of images that are generated out of a sentence you type in. Very cool!
Visual Poetry

Reading Assignment

Have you read the Downing Street memo yet? It was released just before the elections in the UK, but hasn't gotten much coverage in the US. You really, really must, please do, this is it here: http://downingstreetmemo.com

This all goes back to my reasons for making the 8th deadly sin quilt, Pay Attention America! This memo that we were not meant to see, is fact based, not opinion based, not spin. While the president was telling us he had "no plans for war", he was in fact planning for war, with our ally Britain.

We impeached our last president just for lying about sex, what should happen to this president for lying about WAR?? I think impeachment should be the least that should happen.

New Quilt on the Horizon

Here is a snap of a new quilt I'm working on, from a sketch I did years and years ago. I was having a hard time getting going on something new. So I spent some time laying about, paging through my sketchbooks. I marked a whole bunch of pages as possibles to work on next. This one had enough color in it to pull me right in. It is called "Colorbox" and I'm pretty happy with how it looks compared to how I originally sketched it out. It was one of those sketches that I actually jotted down construction notes and everything, making the *Making Process* mucho mas easier! Plus I got to go through all my dyed fabric boxes and fondle everything once again. Sigh, I loves my dyebabies. Yes, I dyed or painted all of the fabric (except the black).
The part on the left has the 1/4" fusible bias tape from Clover. The right side is raw edges out. I'm shooting for this turning out 51" square so I can send it in to the Husqvarna Viking Masterpieces show. I've sure got a long way to go til then, and only a bit more than a week to do get there.... Can she do it???? Stay tuned and wish me luck.

Another Row Bites the Dust

Another round of the Row Round Robin finished for CQFA. This time it is Virginia's, hope she isn't reading this! Hers is on the left, mine on the right. She said it was inspired by the book "Thinking Outside the Block" by Sandi Cummings. A cool book that is NOW on my list of books to buy.

Characters in Literature Tarot

I recently received my Characters in Literature Tarot deck from RedDog Scott (organizer of Capolan exchange inspired by Nick Bantock books). Ooohwheee is it ever fun. Each artist did an art card, digital, collage, painted, drawn, even one was beaded, whatever, and then an accompanying text card that gave an interpretation of the tarot card and how it related to the character from literature that they chose. That's 78 cards, wow what a big project for coordinating, thanks Reddog!
As suggested by Deb Richardson, who also has some of the cards up on her blog. **


From the James Bond series of books by Ian Fleming, James Bond as The Chariot by David Domanski. I read the whole series when I was a teenager, and frankly the movies are better. I also used to argue with my dad that Roger Moore was a better Bond than Sean Connery. But now I agree that Sean Connery really is the best. Except maybe George Lazenby who played in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", remember Diana Rigg played the *only* Mrs. Bond, so tragic. Bond was his most accesible and human in that movie.

Arthur Dent ("Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" by Douglas Adams), Four of Cups - by Susan Houghton. I loved this movie. I thought they caught the quirky Brit humour quite well. Sure they left a lot out, but it was kind of a sprawling book. Although the actor who played the prez, Zaphod Beeblebrox sounded waaaay too much like W for my comfort.

"House of Sand" by Andre Dubus III and Fog, Kathy Nicolo and Colonel Behnrani - Five of Wands - by Karen Wells. This is one of the most moving books I've ever read, I literally was sobbing crying, very powerful. The imagery on this card is really perfect. The recent movie is quite good too.

From "Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers- Professor Brendan Doyle as the Hanged Man - by Elizabeth Cherry Owen AKA eco. Now this one, I have to confess I have not read, but I know eco from some other email lists, and she's a quilty person too, so I had to include it. And now it is on my list of books to read! Which is getting longer thanks to this tarot project, how funny.

"The Subtle Knife" by Phillip Pullman, Will Parry as the Page of Swords by Me! Yes that's right, moi. "The Subtle Knife" is the middle book in a trilogy (which by the way was advertised AS a trilogy DebR, no surprise! Book is over, buy the next one to continue story which is a BIG pet peeve of ours). The trilogy of books is well represented in the deck as another artist did two of the other main characters. I think these 3 books are at the top of my best ever. Great story telling, excellent character development, multilayered story, thought-provoking and challenging to your basic beliefs.

"The Once and Future King" by T.H. White, Merlin as The Three of Coins by Ari Curyll . I really like the way she portrayed Merlin as the hawk in this card. Haven't read this book in ages, better put it back on the "read again" list.

"Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving, Owen Meany as Knight of Swords by Arnell Ardo. How funny that I just was blogging about this excellent Irving novel, and it pops up as the top card on the deck. Arnell got him just right!

"The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe, The Tower by Rob Hamilton. I love anything by Poe, and the Tower card is always one of the ones I judge a deck by, this one is great.

Ok that's enough for now, hope it all posts, and that you enjoyed seeing some more cards from this excellent deck. Thanks Reddog! For more online pics see DebR's Red Shoe Ramblings.

Hot,Hot,Hot

Here it is, entitled: Hot,Hot,Hot! Finished just in time for the Way to Women's Wellness Art Bra challenge.

And a detail shot of some of the beading. I did a huge amount of beading and embellishing on this, watching several movies, SFGiants games and SpongeBob episodes. It was fun to work with hot colors and sparkly stuff. I used some of my cheesecloth I dyed, fun to work with! And Tintzl underneath it, lots of stitching, long eyelash yarn, charms, glass beads, fake pearls.

Here's the little blurb I had to write for the entry:
Story:
Made for all women going through menopause!
She was hot, much too hot, all of a sudden, it came on like a flash. Like a hot flash. “Oh no! Menopause has struck, I’m not ready.” Well it was true, and she turned into a woman who would wear as a little as possible around the house. True, her husband did enjoy that, but she began to run out of things to wear. She began to talk to herself, “A bra, a bra that is special, that is just what I need. Something that is pretty and sparkly, and hot looking, why not? Doubt I’d ever find it in the store, guess I’ll have to make my own.” And it was perfect, she was cool, but hot at the same time.

The only question is, what the hell am I going to do with it if it comes straight back to me? I hate hearing that sound, ***eeeernghk***reject***!
It isn't like it would be appropriate to enter in any other show...

Anyone need an overembellished36C bra?? You could wear it for Halloween as the top part of a bellydance costume! Or add a skirt to the bottom of it for an elegant evening gown. Even if I peeled the fat layers off from around my rib cage, I'd never ever be a 36. I think I skipped from 28 to 38 in like a month in Junior high. I have a Big, wide, weight-lifting , weight of the world, he ain't heavy he's my brother kind of back.

Collageathon

If you like collage you must check out: Finest of Specimen: Designer Dan Tobolic. Besides the amazing collages he's got up there, the website is just a very cool design. Covetcovetcovet I must learn html and/or Flash!
Oh and speaking of collages, My picture trail website with more Book of Me gluey gluey gooey gluebook action. Only 6 more to go to finish the month of April. Whoops it is May already.

Also on there is some ATC (Artist Trading Card) work and collage from a great class I took from Rachel Kitterman through Artella called "Daydreams and Doppelgangers: The Art of Creative Self-Exploration".

8th Deadly Sin - Inattention

Here is my completed 8th Deadly Sin quilt done for the QuiltArt challenge.
It is titled: "Pay Attention America!"
Here are the words that go with it:
My challenge in making this quilt was to narrow down what I wanted to express. I had all kinds of upsetting imagery and words swirling around in my brain, so I did a visual journal over the last few months from the newspaper and newsmagazines. (More gluebooking!). I also did some writing, and what I boiled it all down to was "Inattention". Sins allowed to happen by a people (America) who, though basically good are NOT Paying Attention!


Detail of some of the words

Detail of the self-created US peaceful isolation from ignorance of reality due to Inattention. I almost made a child putting fingers in ears saying "I can't hear you, nahhh,nyahhh."

Inspiring Quote of the Day

"To begin to understand the gorgeous fever that is consciousness, we must try to understand the senses. The senses don't just make sense of life in bold or subtle acts of clarity, they tear reality apart into vibrant morsels and reassemble them into a meaningful pattern."
--Diane Ackerman

Warning~ Pentagon Rant Ahead

I can't believe these pictures that the Pentagon finally released (after being sued under a FOIA), here on the Return of the Fallen site.
They've redacted most of the faces of our soldiers! Big black boxes covering the faces. The reason given, that the soldiers in the honor guard ceremonies haven't given "permission". Uh huh, sure.
I want to see their faces damnit, and I'm sure their mommas would too. It looks so terribly wrong, and just plain macabre. Or like they were caught in a porno theater dealing crack or something vilely embarrassing. For goodness sake they are participating in a ceremony HONORING a soldier who has DIED for his/her country! Not removing the remains of a congressman who died shagging a stripper or something. Sheesh. This makes me so sick.
So what are we supposed to interpret from this? I immediately assume: That the Pentagon is embarrassed about the soldiers dying. This war was declared OVER a long time ago by Chimpy McFlightSuit standing underneath the "Mission Accomplished" banner, and I suppose that it IS awfully embarrassing to have to keep bringing home all these flag draped coffins. But come on people, show the whole thing, grim expressions and all.
The faces would tell us the whole story that I know I really need to hear. That there is actually SOMEONE who is honoring these soldiers who are continuing to give their lives up for a needless war of choice. The President certainly isn't!
For more ideas on the meaning of these photos look at BAGnewsNotes.

Color of the Year

Oh noooooo, The Color of the Year is an icky pastel, Tulip Violet.
But the color forecast for Fall 2005 are beautiful, and there's a purple (hooray!), and a beautiful blue called Moroccan Blue. I printed out the list, and I'm going to coordinate all my quilts to match these colors. No, seriously, I'm not going to do that, but I am going to use the colors as inspiration for something, maybe redecorating or new clothes.
And on that site I found a very cool combination of Pantone colors and astrology. What a great combo, very interesting! My colorstrology for my birthday was really accurate. Not too sure about the color, but, hey, it is worth painting a wall or something to see if it works!
Go find yours here Colorstrology

Isn't color fun to play with or just think about or hey, just look at? Oh and one more Pantone thingy, the Pantone Universe (can you spell h*u*b*r*i*s or is it just marketing gone wrong?)