New Pillows!!

My sis, Allison made me a pillow (seen above) for my birthday. She created some of the pieces while still in Florida, and finished it while she was here at Christmas. The crazed pink young lady was "free -stitched" with her trusty Bernina. The message "Everything was fine until my sister moved to Florida" was transferred onto the fabric. Some of the smaller pieces with the black background were created with screens and silk screen paint/ink. She (the pillow girl) is still very distressed, but feeling better now that she is living in New England.

I was then inspired to make a pillow for Sue who

has been doing ALL tasks around the house in addition to going to her regular job since the beginning of December. I returned from a week in Florida, and have been almost useless...so she has cooked, taken care of chickens, rabbits, snow issues, bills, laundry, on and on and on... I managed to sit at my sewing machine and do a bit of hand sewing. The girl on the pillow was created from a gelatin print on fabric. I used my beloved Bernina Stitch Regulator to draw around the girl and write the message.

Linda was just here and we have been working on the details for our Fabulous Fiber Weekend that is coming up here pretty quickly. Working out details for food, goodies, projects etc. It is coming together!! Better take a rest!

The Holidaze!

 

Well, it has been quite a ride since our very successful and entertaining Studio Sale at the beginning of December. It was off to Florida to surprise the sisters, which by the way was a complete success...the surprise that is!! The weather was of course better than the great north east, but cold...icicles on the palm trees!

Midge, Allison and I took a weekend collage class from Derek Gores. Worth checking out his site. The work is amazing! The room was filled with women madly tearing up magazines and transforming them into portraits.

 The piece on the top above, is Allison's. She had started it at home in fabric, and mixed it up with paper during the class. I used a photo of my son Don to do the piece below. Still have work to do on my piece, but it is coming along. An amazing two days of hard work, squinting and learning.

 

We had a great time guiding sister Beth with a potholder project, did some gel and screen printing! I also got to meet some of the Florida creative friends with back to back luncheons. 

I think i had pizza every day! Watched bad tv, watched Al patiently knit a sock using her ipad as a teacher, did a bit of stitching and more eating! It was somewhere in there that my belly started to feel "full".

I returned home, plopped down on the couch and slept for 4 days, downed a couple of laxatives, had waves of abdominal cramping for the same number of days, no appetite. Finally went to a clinic, more laxatives and set up abdom ultrasound. Two days later...the blessed Solstice...Linda drove me to our new clinic right down the street...the next docs favorite lax, gatoraid, lab work and piece of pizza for Linda. We toasted the Solstice! 

Next day, my blessed B'day, lab work showed something going on and the doc sent me to the ER for an ultrasound. By 9 that evening, i was tucked into my hospital bed very grateful to know that i had a blown appendix that had collected itself in a magical pocket in my belly!

Midge and Al showed up to be on the patient support staff. Midge ended up driving to NYC very early Christmas morning, so we didn't see her until late in the week. By New Years Day the extended family was together here enjoying each other and a wide variety of snacks!! 

 

So now, the "pocket" is drained and i will have the pesky thing removed on the 25th! I consider myself very lucky and grateful to be here!!!!!

Al's New Heads Above!

Back to the Basement to Sew. Pics very soon!

Studio Sale on Friday December 3rd 5-8!!!

We decided to join forces with our little community store and another local artist to help celebrate the upcoming holidaze!! Mills Creek Market will have maps to get to the other spots. Please pread the word. I know that that is a big job for all 26 of my followers and one of them is in Cambodia!!

Putting product together like the olden days...cleaning, decorating, cooking etc.

It is a good way to get the house cleaned and organized!!

Now off to the dump and the library and then back at it!

Stay warm!!!

First Freeze and November!

We had our first frost last night, so with that knowledge in mind, Sue and I picked the rest of our eggplant, peppers, and green tomatoes. We took the last of the plants inside, covered the outside lettuce, and jammed the green house with more lettuce, and tropicals...

Now I have a large basket of eggplant to whip up into something yummy and freezable.

The tomatoes can go into a bag and may ripen up! Lots of beets were pulled and the garlic still has to get put into the ground. Pronto.

 Last weekend we extracted honey and now the jars are in the dishwasher and we have another 4 gallons to jar up and label, trying not to get little dribbles of honey on the outside of the jar!

THE STUDIO 

 

In the studio, I have been playing with my gel printing. Have been playing with faces and thought about trying a doll body. I the photo above, you can see a couple of examples of the fabric print (the first print) and the paper version (the second print).

Not only is the paper version very cool looking, but it also helps to remove the paint from the gelatin, making it ready for your next print.

I added a piece of batting to the fabric version and did free motion stitching around the edges and features of the doll, adding stitched hands and boots. I cut out the shape, stitched her up with a backing, stuffed and closed up the edge. Took my embroidery floss to her and love how she is coming along.

Got to go and get straw, bunny food, chunchies for the chickens and saucers for the plants.

Mid October Already!

 Last week at this time I was teaching in Conn at Art-Is. Linda and I packed up...(well, Linda was the "packing bitch" of the day) and we drove home Monday after my class. We were pretty tired and grateful to be back in little rhody. She dropped me off and blasted the last few miles on her own.

We both had a great time, great classes, students, and lots of laughs!!! I met lots of peeps and was glad to actually be teaching this time. Looking forward to next year already!!
These are just some of the very amazing people teaching. You may know some of them and some may be new to you!

Michael deMeng
Sue Pelletier
Diana Trout
Jane Davila
Judy Gula

Also check out the most amazing tiny tiny fimo cupcakes!
Oh my I have been checking out blogs as I got those links...how time flies!

 So Linda showed up on Friday with a pan of plain set gelatin, paints, and goodies that would act as resists. Plus she had soup and blueberry crumble. What's better than that?!

I had heard about using gelatin as a base for what would basically be mono printing.  Linda and the Florida girlz were at it when she was visiting Cocoa Beach. Judy Gula was kind enough to let me laze around her class at Art-Is so that was my first live and in person view of the process.

After letting a pan of plain gelatin set, we plopped it out of the pan and flipped it over so the flat side was up. We then applied acrylic paint with a variety of brushes and a brayer and proceeded to make designs in the paint with wire, stamps, leaves and twine.

Fabric and papers were used to pull the paint off of the gel and and infinite number of images were achieved. I almost liked the paper better than the fabric.

I have the gel block sitting in the refrigerator just waiting for another round. 

Packed the Day Before!!

 

It is a rainy day here in little rhody, but warm and dry here in the pit surrounded by my stuff! Just a few more things to pull together for CT and a pile of eggplant and cooked pumpkin in the kitchen!!

Have packed up my "Roll-Ups" to sell at the big event! I made a pile of these as Sue and I plowed thru all seasons of "Lost". There may be some cosmic, where in the world am I energy stitched into these babies!! 

Off to shine up my little old Bernina...no computer chips...to take with me. It is the perfect on the road warrior! I bought it in California around the time I was making this piece. I think that was 1988. Back in the hand quilting daze...

Preparing for Classes...

Spent 4 extra long days at the Co-op in Wakefield this week painting the interior! The ceiling collapsed about a month ago creating a food retailer nightmare! Everything needed to be weighed, logged into a computer and then thrown away. It was one major mess after another. Demo and rebuild. With lots of scrubbing and cleaning help, the painting was finished yesterday!! So onto where I left off last week...

Preparing for Art Is...You ( I don't think that it is too late!) and classes at Quilts and More in Westerly. Making samples, putting kits together, making piles, looking for bright new ideas to share.

Bracelet parts for Art Is 

I made up this bag with our "patchy fabric" and a quick color wheel on the front. You never know when you will need that reference!! October 23rd at Quilts and More. Then onto dolls and the Holidaze!

Rag Dolls on October 30th

Stockings November 20th!

Back to my class organizing, shelling piles of beans, harvesting eggplant and honey!

What are you up to?