Self Portrait Tuesday but on Friday

Well, on Tuesday I wasn't anywhere near a computer, or mine specifically. I was alllllll the way around the world in the UK. And I did take a bazillion pictures, some of which were body part self portraits. So here is one that sums up the trip. A shot of my feet, from the position of lying down in my bed with my pj's on, after a very long day of driving around seeing and doing cool stuff.

Hike up to the head of the White Horse of Uffington? Check.

Pub Dinner at the Wheat Sheaf? Check.

Sunset ritual ceremony at Stonehenge right in amongst the stones? Check.

Feet tired? Check.

Ta for now...

I'm off on a trip and won't be posting for a while here.
I'll miss reading all your fun and inspiring blogs.
Hope you all are creatively productive during my absence.








And oh, one last thing! Here is how my "Tarot: Red Five of Wands" turned out. Can you see the five wands quilted in? They kinda look like cigarettes or dowels, not too wand-ish. TTFN! (TaTaForNow!)

New Work in Process

This is the new piece I'm working on right now. It is made with a selection of red fabrics I purchased at the Marin Needle Arts Guild Show a couple weeks ago. They all kind of jumped into my hands, saying : "Put me together, puhleeze!". Three are silk, dupioni and brocade, the rest are cotton. The plain white is actually my design wall showing through, and I will end up filling it in with a plain black fabric.

This is being made for the California Fiber Artists' show at PIQF, "In the Abstract". This is a quilt about the tarot card the five of wands. More on that later......

Dying to Dye More

Dyed up a bunch of stuff last week.
Including cotton doilies, some Pimatex, and teeny tiny baby clothes for a brand-new California girl that I know :)



Dyeing seems like such a pain, so much work just to get ready to do it (like cleaning up the kitchen so I can use the sink!), all that standing up which unfortunately exhaust me, but I can't stop doing it, I love seeing the magic happen, getting my hands and usually my feet colored by the drips and drabs. I count myself lucky and indeed blessed to be able to have the space, time and money to create in this manner.

Self Portrait Tuesday

Well, here it is, my first post for Self Portrait Tuesday.
This month's theme is body parts.

Surprised Inner Child

Don't know how accurate this is, but I suppose rather than being cynical I am sarcastic. I love seeing through the eyes of my children, that has been one of the best things my kids have given to me. And I certainly do cherish all the details of my life, which is my excuse for keeping every letter and card ever sent to me.

Your Inner Child Is Surprised

You see many things through the eyes of a child. Meaning, you're rarely cynical or jaded. You cherish all of the details in life. Easily fascinated, you enjoy experiencing new things.

How Is Your Inner Child?

I think we need to make a quiz about the types of people who TAKE these danged quizzes. Hopeless addict, dabbler, neverevernowaynohow, etc.

Monday's Child is Quizzical

Since I won't be here on Friday, I'm posting a quiz today, this one came via Gabrielle.
You are the Justice card. Justice preserves the
harmony of the world. Working with opposite
forces, Justice does not seek to criticize or
condemn but rather to accept. The idea behind
the card justice is that opposite forces are
complementary; you could not have good without
evil or light without darkness. Justice's
position is to make sure that if a thing is out
of balance, the weight of its energy is
realigned with its opposite force. This card is
also a card of humour, for it is in pointing
out contrary positions that humour is often
found. The attitude that is found in the
humourous person, being able to shift
perspective and flow with an instinct, is
important in the maintenance of good balance.
Image from The Blue Moon Tarot Deck.
http://www.themysticeye.com/pics/bluemoon.htm

Which Tarot Card Are You?

Monster in a Box

Just a weird picture I took in San Rafael. This was in the window of a trendy clothes store.

Feeling Blue Shown

Here was my "Feeling Blue, Again" shown at the Marin Needle Arts Guild 27th Annual Show. It got good comments from the judges, except for, as usual the binding. I was happy with how it looked hanging near Jaye's.

The show this year was smaller, but had a better group of quilts. It was the first year that they had a CD with pictures of all the entries done. It was wonderful not to have to take pictures of absolutely everything. You can buy one at online very soon, they're very well done, professionally photgraphed and all. No one standing in front of them, or signs hanging on them either! You can go here and tell them you're interested in one.
The vendors got a lot of my money especially the Bead Dude of Harlan Beads, who had a lot of unusual glass lampwork beads and was just a fabulously wonderful guy to talk to.

A Reminder From The Management

Bateman Short Films

If you like web animation you've got to check out Scott Bateman's Bateman365, where he has challenged himself to post a short animated film a day. He's up to day 27, the Subway ABC's, so you don't have too much to catch up on. One of my faves is on day 9.

Bags of Fun, Why not?

No, not the bags under my eyes.
Or the large collection of plastic market bags next to the microwave.
Or the bags of magazines I'm "saving for using in collage someday...."
But the Bags of Fun challenge hosted by Sharon B. over at her blog In a Minute Ago, emphasis on FUN. Three months to make a bag out of recycled jeans. She has a Flickr group set up for participants to share pictures, go check out all the amazing embroidery getting done, wow!

My first delay getting going on this was a decided lack of suitable recycled jeans around here. I didn't want to use any of my old ones, because, frankly I just don't need a bag quite that BIG thankyouverymuch. ahem. And then there weren't any to grab from the boy's drawers, since we just went through those and donated them. So off to St. Vinnie's (the closest Op shop/thriftstore) where I found a huge array of jeans in all shapes and sizes and colors, picked a smallish size in this nice gray. The sparkly thread looks pretty good on there so far.


I've been having fun with using all the zillions of fancy stitches on my Janome6500, with variegated threads, especially words. And embroidered patches that I've been saving for "something", guess this is something. And fusible patches made with fussycut images from conversational prints.




It's a total mishmosh so far, and there is a loooong way to go til' I'm done. But this is the start I've got on it. Including a good plan for making quilted,comfy shoulder straps out of the pant legs. I'm keeping the pockets functional (ie not sewing through them, at least on purpose!), and I'm going to create a pocket out of the zipper on the front. The more pocketses the better, right? Eventually it will be lined, with some sort of exciting fabric, and there will be a closure of some kind at the top. I bought a magnetic snap closure at PumpkinSeed Quilts, that is by Clover.
And lucky me, in the brand new Quilting Arts Magazine issue, there is an issue about "painting with decorative stitches", so that is cool, I'll practice on this! And, no I'm not doing it all by machine. But I'm doing as much as I can (grin). But I am planning on doing some Embeadery, (embroidery with beads) following along with the fabulous book by my Mav friend, Margaret Ball.

Mystery Picture

3 Clues to figuring out the mystery picture:
1. I did something for the first time on Saturday.
2. It wasn't hard, but it was scary.
3. I found more than I thought I would.
4. After I finished it, I felt silly for procrastinating and thinking it was scary.
5. I'll be doing it a lot more often.

Guesses anyone?
First correct guess will receive a fiber postcard in the mail from me.

Diversionary Threadszzzzzzz

Trying to avoid watching the news from New Orleans at all today. I'm listening to the radio, but I'm just yelling back and scaring the dog, I guess she assumes that I'm yelling at her!
Time to calm down and yack about something not related at all to this horrific catastrophe.

There are lots of comfort quilt activities going on, to give quilters one way to help. Here is one place to check if you'd like to make a quilt for one of the thousands of displaced families, Quilts for Katrina.

So. Onto the non disaster yakking....
I just got a bunch of new threads from Fabric.com, they are made by Spectrum, 100% Rayon, 1100 yard spools and I just love them. Especially at $2.95 a spool! They sew really well at high speed when I free-motion quilt.
Oh, and the red one has a great name: Red Velvet Cake. Had to put that in there for DebR, who loves making that particular variety of cake-y goodness.




I also ordered Minky (not Minkee,hmmmm wonder if there is really a difference?) from them to make a baby blanket for my first ever niece! It is pricey, but quite wide at 58"width, and verra verra pet-able.