Got Spring?

When I was getting my morning sustenance; she crept in on these;



and bade me take my morning coffee outside; on the bench; under the umbrella where I could survey my backyard sanctuary. "Look around" she whispered... "The dragons are coming and there's nowhere to land... The Golden Bumble bees all ready patrol the honeysuckle. The mantid's will be here and need more flowers to protect than this don't you think?" I look at her askance at the Mantid remark, I mean, it wasn't long ago in her kitten hood I remember well, she had a green one on the carpet in the house & it was holding it's own against her. She was mystified how something so small could still be so fierce and not succumb to her velvet paws of death. I reminded her that it wasn't polite to mess thing things smaller than yourself. I explained about the poor hummingbird that got too close to a hunting Mantid and lost it's life! She has never brought another one in the house.

I sent her in to wake her girl so we could go run errands & maybe, just maybe find somethings worthy of our coming royalty (and our lovely birds all ready here!) that would fit into our tiny budget.

We got some of these:






Then, El said; "MOM!" and pointed to this:


and she didn't understand why I laughed. I explained that I've killed more of these than I could count; I don't water that often; we are in a desert; I explained why we needed to find drought resistant plants and while they weren't always so showy and beautiful and dripping with yummy color; we needed to be kind to 'our' environment. I have a tiny space put aside in my yard where I do water frequently in summer just to stand and relax and gaze at the pretty things and re-connect to that part of me. Other than that; the rest of the large yard front & back is on it's own.

So I reminded her we all ready had these colors:

Her hibiscus I planted for her two years ago.


The Clivia my boss gave me several of 5 years ago (guess I should divide them this fall)



And this lovely rose named "The Perfect Moment"


Not to mention, My mother's day gift from El when she was 8; a Double Delight rose


and the ubiquitous Azaelyas


El's Rose; I believe it's called 'Confetti', her favorite:


When all was said and done; we hadn't planted anything; but felt accomplished. Now it's off to make Chicken & Dumplings for dinner. She approves:

Because

Because I have the best friends evar... This was left on my doorstep today. A gift, in a lovely moss green bag with lovely pink tissue. A single leaf etched on the front. And inside... My hearts continuing passion of Cheetah. She knew of course; and I can't imagine more perfect timing from the most awful day! Thank you so much Miss Vickie! You are the best!

Sketchy Friday

This was me trying to be Judy Coats Perez drawing bugs. I have a looooooong way to go but it was fun. I'm starting to see the limitation of a solid black pen (meaning no variations in light)



This started as just the tree that I was going to put a falcon in; decided that bird drawings should be 'up close' like the owl to get the intricacies of the feathers; this one would have been too small with my limited penmanship would have lost much of the coloration. I struggle with keeping things light. Ended up attempting a background that proved much harder that if I would have just done the dang bird! Oh well. My book, my learning.



I am working on several fabric projects right now. One of which is a canvas journal book and some of these sketches may find their way into it some how. Judy did some amazing drawing on organza! I must try this. See her blog here: http://judyperez.blogspot.com/ She is definately one of my fiber artist heroines!

More Sketchlings

Happy St. Patrick's Day

4 and 20 Blackbirds...and a chandelier.

Wordless Wednesday

"Warren"

Wabi~Sabi

Just a quick post and a purging art quilt so my 'Art Quilter' card won't get revoked.

One of the quilt art groups that I belong to "Quilts on the Wall Fiber Artists" presented a challenge entitled 'Beauty in Imperfection'. This was my entry. Wabi~Sabi is the Japanese philosophy that 'Nothing is perfect, Nothing is finished & Nothing lasts" It's just returned home from it's journey that began back in 2007.



I painted the planets on muslin. then cut them out & appliqued them onto the velvet. The stars & detritus are made of Swarovsky crystals; seed beads & various other 'bead soup' as it were. I simply 'cast' them onto the velvet to see what would happen & really liked it so I painstakingly tacked them in place without moving the piece off my table and then attached them firmly with Silamide (double strand of course). The 'orbital lines' were done again just using holographic silver thread. I was amazed at how a couple added lines simply set the entire piece in motion.

'

You'll notice that Venus is the planet closest to you; she is full of pock marks and striations from all the abuse she endures. She is the ONLY planet that runs counter clockwise. Some other quick facts: Venus is the second planet from the Sun and the sixth largest; Venus has the most nearly circular orbit of any planet. Venus' surface is actually hotter than Mercury's despite being nearly twice as far from the Sun. Venus has no magnetic field.

And in case I forget; this piece is for sale. Piece is 33"H x 18 1/2" W.

What I made today~

Well, it's only taken two years to get back to this idea. I saw this in a friends book all about the nine patch. Fell in love with those tiny squares in the middle. Love how they just float there. So; I had just moved into the master bedroom; painted it; put up drapes, decorated it and wanted something for the bed. Cut all these as 2 1/2 strips two years ago; made 21 blocks & when they all turned out the wrong size I put it all away. The strips all hung on a pants hangar in the closet. There were LOTS of strips. There are still LOTS of strips left over but I'm not making this any bigger. Right now it will finish at 54" x 54". (Can you hear me say 'HOLY CRAP'! not another big one!) Anyhow; here are the blocks I made today; I'll start sewing rows tomorrow.

Would love to hear ideas for a border if necessary & binding.

Double Irish Chain

It is March after all, I'm Irish after all, and there's green in there... after all.
Posting this for Miss Lynn to see :) It measures 72" x 72". I remember why I don't do big ones now.

A view from my sketchbook...

in which we find the artist trying to grow...

Fair Warning: I am the first to admit that I can't draw. With that in mind I was really apprehensive about the thought of doing a sketchbook but all the fiber artists I admire so all have them; and swear by them: so... I bought one (ok; it was last year but I've been busy) and it terrified me. I mean really; all that white blank paper. I would sit with a pencil in hand (that was my first mistake) and try to think of something to draw (second mistake; of many so I'll stop counting now).

When I would try to draw in pencil it meant that I could erase. And I did; frequently, because any tiny stray line that was not utterly perfect would drive me crazy and thus; I could never 'commit' to the entire drawing because of many million mistakes. So I'd quit and reconfirm my belief that 'I can't draw'. I realized I needed a paradigm shift. So I went shopping... blogger shopping. Looking for tips & eye candy I desperately needed.

I was reading Pam Rubert's blog and would see that she only uses ink pens to draw. "Of course she does! She can DRAW!' I would lament. I checked out my friend Jamie Fingal's blog & she had sketch called 'doodling' and hers was all in pen. It looked immensely fun and the idea that you can just start with one shape (in her case a leaf) and then just do variations on that one thing somehow gave me the step up that I needed. Then I thought of something I hadn't before. What if I used a pen. What is the big deal? If I screw it up; then so what? It's my own sketch book; no one has to see my atrocites... So I started on night, very quietly in front of the fire place; to 'doodle'. I vowed that no matter what I wouldn't stop until the page was filled and if there was a 'mistake' or 'mistroke' then I would somehow turn it into something else or simply move on...

And I did;

Here's my first page 'a la Jamie Fingal' in doodling. I call this lovingly, 'Catnip Dreams'.



Couple nights later; some flowers; not happy w/Hummer but like the flower chain.



Later in the week; was really stumped & so went with a possible beading pattern.



This was two nights ago; I was sitting in my bed in my pj's & caught a silohouette of myself in the mirror (the far away mirror!) and I felt the need to accept my body as it is right now; no fretting over diets; excersize undone; blah blah blah. Apparently I'm not ready for the 'full frontal view' LOL but here was my thought & affirmation to myself.




Night before last; some fun with letters & my own handwriting ideas:



And then last night; inspired by my 'Big Birds of Prey Book' that is lovingly referred to as 'Bird Porn' by birders; my 'little owl'. I tried to sketch this tiny guy as a practice run for attempting larger things. My daughter Ellen encouraged me to put it up saying it was "something I want to use on deviant art". Wow! I made a deviant's page; how cool will that be?



Certainly it's not done; but I am confident that using a pen (a pilot 'needle' micro) is the way to go for me. I was trying to do the 'light/dark' thing and so he's a bit lopsided; but I think it has promise and it's recognizable as an owl and I'm really amazed that I drew it.

Thanks for stopping by & feel free to leave any comments; even critiques as I really don't know the first thing about drawing except that it comes from a different side of the brain that I don't live in.

Fun with the Family Corvidae

This piece was an off shoot of some play involving tyvek; ink; paper; and mixing textures like paper, velvet; beading; calligraphy; silk; cotton. Measurements are 19 1/2" H x 17 3/4 " W. I never get sick of working with complimentary colors. Incidentally, all the facts listed are true! Crows and the corvid family are a passion of mine.



The background fabric is a hand dye from two gals in my art group (Quilts on the Wall). They have amazing things it's fun to go out to the parking lot after our meetings & shop out of their trunk! Orange fabric by Emily Wallace & Carol Henke!

Quietly working

sneak peeks: thus far; aside from the branches; this piece is all done by hand.



shhhh....here he comes!

I'm 4 years old!

I just realized that my blog is celebrating it's 4th year. Thank you to everyone who's commented such nice things! And thank you to those who just thought nice things too:)!

Here's some Valentines Day Love from LOLCats! (no, I do not have a new kitten)



New kitten: adoption fee $50.00
Cat food and litter box: $30.00
Cat toys : Several Million dollars (annually)


100% unconditional love: priceless

Thank you LOLCats for always making my day brighter!

What's Not To Love?

Totally OT!

Here is who has come to live with us for awhile. His name is Aspen. He is a Snowleopard Bengal. A bit ago as many of you know (all my fiend friends from Fablo's blog); I went barking mad and decided to become a foster mother for the Bengal Rescue Society. After much encouragement from Lorraine; I decided I could do this.

I wish you could see his fur in real life; it's silver (literally shiny like tiny silver threads throughout) He is gorgeous and loving as all get out. He will head butt you so hard and meow and purr and chirp the entire time you are with him. He's just met us; but you'd think we'd had him since he was a baby. He's the most wondeful animal! He came with two beds and his own blankie. Anyone want to take him to their forever home???

Moondance part II

The gal that commissioned Moondance liked it so well she had me design a quilt for her neice. Very simple design incorporating the flag t-shirt that she wore to all this neice's softball games.



The quilt measures 4'H x 43"W. The quilt back was made entirely from a fleece jacket the woman wore on camping trips. It had special sigificance for this family member so I wanted to keep it tact as much as possible. I had to use fusible interfacing on each peice and resew it back together leaving the buttoned up sections joined.



She also requested 4 separate pillows 20" each. for additional family members. The Scooby fabric was required so for each pillow I tried to make them somewhat color coordiated. On the back she requested I write a saying for each person & include their name and use the 'tye dye' flag material we had left over from the back of her quilt.