Remember that art card I tried working on a few days ago, only to find out I was horribly out of practice? I guess there are a lot of things one needs to keep up on to keep good at - foreign languages, tennis, belly dancing, sketching.

I gave up the sketching idea, was gonna go back to a collage idea based on Dia de Los Muertos. I had a couple images set aside to use - oh, yeah, head slap, I lost them.

Yesterday I stumbled upon another idea and spent twenty minutes or so looking up background info on it, and then set it aside in favor of bed and book. (I finished Charlaine Harris' Dead as a Doornail - I love Sookie, she seems like such a real person.)

Woke up this morning and apparently the new idea had wandered around in my head last night picking up details from a recent community tragedy (which you can read about on Beach Treasure if you want, it's very sad and I've had to talk about it enough today, so I don't want to again just now). Yes, it wandered around and this morning it popped out of my head in a little bubble of completion.

Of course I mean the idea was complete. The actual application of the idea was not. If only. With the deadline spurring me on, I started to gather the images and make some initial attempts at how I could put it all together.

Damn, I hate learning curves!!! (I hate shopping for clothes too, except for when I don't really need to shop, but that's another story.) Doing something the first few times, or in this case the first time, is toooooo harrrrrrd! (There should be an editing button that would allow one to automatically add a whining tone to a post. Since there's no whine button, I'm pretending that turning words orange is a reasonable whine fascimile.) It took me hours and hours to do what probably should have taken half that time.

After some more bed and book (a new one, Danse Macabre by Laurell Hamilton), and if I'm lucky, eight hours of sleep, I'm gonna go back to work with the intent of finishing it. I think the key to success is to stop worrying about "how good" it should be and put my focus on "how done" it needs to be instead. That and to try to enjoy the process instead of being concerned with the result. That's all probably typical, trite artistic advice, huh? If I'd ever read any artist's inspirational books I'd probably know, but I haven't, so I don't. Are you following me? No matter if you're not, I'm not. I'm being distracted by Julie Walters on Craig Ferguson. Her voice - I looked up at the television screen because her voice was familiar and realized - she's Mrs. Weasley!

Along with working on this art card, I've gotten completely sucked into the world of ebay ACEO's. Did you folks know about this!? Little jewels of art all lined up with artsy puppy eyes that say "Buy me! Take me home!" Does anyone know what ACEO even stands for? Maybe tomorrow I'll go in search of the answer and report back. But now my p.j.'s are calling. The gray flannel ones with the little silhouettes of flying witches all over it - Old Navy. And a floppy tee. And my quilts. And my chihuahua. Undoubtedly several cats. Oh yeah - until tomorrow....

Daughter-in-law Lisa, aka Speedy Gonzales, went home, finished up the last blocks, and put the top all together!

I have an embarrassing confession. I'm rusty. I didn't know I was rusty. It was a surprising discovery. It shouldn't have been. One can't drop a skill for ohhhhh, a decade or so, and then expect to just pick right up where you dropped off. Though for some reason, I thought I could.

I'm in this ATC swap on an e-list. Hmmm, that's probably not quite right. I don't think it's exactly an ATC, it's more of a art card - 3" X 5". There's a theme, everyone makes original art of some sort, makes copies for everyone, and we all get a deck. The choice of medium is open - collage, computer art, textile, paint - whatever you're inspired to use.

Originally I had assumed I'd do some sort of computer collage thing since that's where the bulk of the participants were leaning. It's always safe to go with the flow, y'know. But as the deadline started looming closer I gave some serious thought to how I was gonna go about the whole computer collage idea. I couldn't use Photo Shop because I still haven't learned how. I could use Appleworks graphics but it's not like I have a lot of sophisticated tools in there.

I had some ideas for old fashioned collage work - you know - with paper, scissors, glue. I'd set aside some images I wanted to use but they were displaced recently. There's a whole story behind the loss of the images that involves an annoying spouse, but since I'm not currently annoyed at anyone, including a spouse of any kind, let's let that story lie untold. The important thing to note is that the images were not to be found and the deadline kept getting closer.

That's when I had this sort of "duh" moment. I could draw or paint my image. Why not!? I mean, I'm a woman of skills. Drawing skills. Painting skills. Numchuk skills. Oh wait, maybe not that last one. But art-eeeeestic skills, yeah baby.

So I pulled out some fancy schmancy paper. I looked for my oil pastels - they seem to have run off with the aforementioned paper images that had gone missing. I considered watercolors for a moment and decided to KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid. Colored pencils. That's the ticket. I settled down comfy on the couch, turned on the t.v., and picked up a pencil - a blue one - and.......

and.......

uhm, and........

realized I'd forgotten how to draw.

I suppose it didn't help that I didn't have any images to use as models. I not only thought I could just whip out a Picasso, I thought I could whip it out completely from my imagination.

SQUEEEEEEEE-AK!

Where's the oil can!?!?

I'm Rusty!

I'm finally getting some pics posted from my daughter-in-law Lisa's visit last week. We didn't have as much time as we'd planned, but we did get one full day of sewing in. Well, Lisa got a full day of sewing in. I got a day full of cleaning the sewing room, picking out a block pattern, and puttering about while she sewed.

Here's a baby quilt top she made and brought up to show me. It's pinned to the batting but not quilted yet. She made it with scrap material that had signifigance to her and Joe. I think it turned out rather cute.


She was orginally going to do the binding on her Halloween quilt while she was here - which I forgot to take a photograph of - dang. But I suggested she select some fabric for the binding, cut it out, and then leave that for when she was back at home so, instead, she could raid my stash and make something new, as she doesn't have a lot of disposable income for buying fabric. Below is what she picked out, as she'd decided she wanted to do the baby's room in Guns 'N Roses colors - black, white, and red. The first two photos are finished blocks and the third photo is finished blocks plus the other fabric combinations she picked out, cut, but didn't have time to finish. You have to click on that photo to enlarge it so you can see the prints on the smaller pieces.


I was telling an acquaintance about Lisa's plans for the baby's room and looking concerned she asked me if I was okay with my daughter-in-law designing a baby room, my grandchild's room, in black, red and white! Well, of course! Clearly the woman who asked the question doesn't know me very well, eh? Now I do have concerns about the idea of a baby needing their own room, all alone, sniff, sniff, but I figure they'll figure that one out quick enough. The need for a good night's sleep is a very fast teacher.


Here's the sum total of my efforts for the day. I know, what an accomplishment -Not! I also made a couple half square triangle blocks out of the Halloween fabric, they didn't get in the photo for some reason. I decided I didn't like the pattern, so I switched to a bigger block. What you do see is some 8"X 3" strips for a Halloween print rail fence in black, purple, and orange. To the right are the squares and hourglass blocks for two Ohio Star blocks for a bed quilt I want to make in scrappy greens, blues, and whites/creams.

I was gonna upload some pics of the sewing Lisa and I did the other day, but got sidetracked and didn't get around to it yet. Hubby is home on his weekend and we spent part of the day running errands. I was busy finishing up some tasks at home because the weather turned stormy (in a nice way, the windy, air smells clean before the rain sort of way) and so I had to get some things I'd put outside under cover. Then it was time to go to my writer's group. (I haven't made it to a meeting since April and wouldncha know it but I was the only one to show up. Well, me and the woman who hosts it at her house.) Anyhoo, didn't get the photos uploaded.

I did, however, finally go buy a membership for our local county arts council. I've lived in the community for over a decade. I regularly go to their events. And yet for some reason I never joined. I always felt I should, but just felt a bit hesitant to make the jump - I have no idea why. In fact for several years now I've actually meant to join, as I knew that the group lost a lot of their public funding, but still I somehow kept forgetting. I'm very pleased with myself for finally managing to get down to their office/gallery and writing a check. I was surprised at how inexpensive it was - and now I feel sort of foolish for having waited for so long.

I was rewarded for my efforts by a wonderful discovery - a rock garden in the garden of the arts council building. I've gone in and out of that building almost a dozen times over several years and yet somehow I'd never noticed the rock garden. And by a rock garden, I mean a garden made of rocks. Obviously someone's personal collection. Beautiful large agates, jade, crystals, fossils, geodes, and many, many unique stones that I don't know the specific names. I sat down on the sidewalk, the better to view them (old eyes - sigh) and crawled from spot to spot as I spied new treasures.

I was so excited I went back to her desk and asked the secretary if she knew who had gathered the collection. I wanted to know so I could ask where they had found some of the more interesting pieces - maybe I could find some new rock hunting locations that are nearby. She didn't know. In fact, she asked "What rock garden?" and followed me back outside. We spent some more time passing stones back and forth and then placed them carefully back where we found them.

Hmmmm, I think I'll finish up this post and see if I can google "rock hunting" for my local area. Anyone else love rocks as much as I do?

My daughter-in-law arrived on Monday for a far too short visit, but we've been making the most of the time we have together. I spent Monday night organizing the studio (after using it as dumping ground for the last month while working on the rest of the house), while Lisa worked on selecting and cutting out a binding for the Halloween quilt she made with the very first quilt blocks we worked on together (and her very first blocks ever!)

I've been focusing on decluttering tasks for weeks, planning on switching gears during Lisa's visit, and spend it all enjoying each other and being as crafty and creative as we wanted. Tuesday we sewed all day, except for a nice break for lunch out. I also took a break to make us all some dinner and to watch a favorite show (Eureka) and a show premiere (Men in Trees - I'll definitely watch more episodes - very "Northern Exposure"), although I had a light bulb of an idea during the second show and grabbed some knitting needles and a great "Halloween" skein I recently bought, starting on a new scarf for myself.

Despite my best efforts, Lisa got far more accomplished then I did. Of course, she didn't have the distractions of her regular day-to-day routines, but still, she's much more focused then I am. I had a hard time committing to a project and then got all waily waily about picking out a pattern.

I finally selected a modified rail fence pattern from an older quilting magazine that I thought would work nicely with my Halloween prints. I wanted to use all pumpkin fabrics, sort of a "pumpkins on a fence" idea. I cut out the pieces for a few blocks, sewing up the half square triangle bits, and set them together to see how they looked. Didn't like it. The pattern didn't really show up well. I decided to add another color and do it in a traditional rail fence instead. Cut out a few more pieces, auditioned the new pieces together, and Lisa and I agreed it was a big improvement.

But after cutting out a few more prints, I got restless and decided I'd rather work on the green and blue Ohio Stars I've wanted to make for a bed quilt for our bedroom. I managed to get the pieces cut out for two blocks and a few of the triangle pieces sewn together. So, allllllllll day and I don't actually have a single block completed yet. Sheesh.

On the other hand, Lisa selected a pattern, picked out the fabrics (given free rein in my stash - I told her that was real proof of my love and affection for her), ironed, cut, and sewed together almost all the blocks she needs for the quilt she's planning on making from them. I have mentioned before how she's Speedy Gonzales of the quilt world, haven't I?

I forgot to take any photos of our efforts. If I can remember to take some today before she packs up and goes on her way, I'll post them for you all to see. Wait until you see how cute her blocks turned out.

I wanted to share a photo from our trip to New York City this spring to acknowledge the anniversary of 9-11. Something appropriately significant and yet arty. I had a few photos I actually took at Ground Zero, but this photo seemed to best fit my mood this year. This is William looking out the windows of the Great Hall on Ellis Island, towards the Manhattan skyline. I could share my reasons why this particular photo felt right but I've decided it's best to leave you to experience it in your own way.

Except for this - At the last minute, impulsively, I decided I needed to add a poem. I walked over to my newly organized shelf of poetry books, picked a book at random and opened it up. This is what I read, and clearly I needed to search no further.

WITHOUT

the silence

of nature

within.


the power within.

the power


without.


the path is whatever passes-no

end in itself.


the end is,

grace-ease-


healing,

not saving.


singing

the proof


the proof of the power within.


- Gary Snyder, from his collection Turtle Island

Time for some more holiday photos - these go along with the ones I posted today on Beach Treasure. They were all taken while in Caernarfon, on the northwest coast of Wales. The larger pics of the castle are all at Beach Treasure, these are, of course, the more artsy ones of details while exploring inside the castle walls. I really couldn't get enough of the rough stones, moss, clinging birds and vines, and play of light. If I lived nearby of course I'd want to go back to capture things during different types of weather and times of day. These are all clickable, if you want to see them in a larger format.


The photo above is sort of Escher-like. Depending on which way you look at the photo, am I climbing up or climbing down? In fact, I was climbing up and this is a picture of the underside of the staircase.


This next photo is the result of not holding the camera still, but I liked how it turned out ghostly looking.



This statue, which clearly must be Justice, although she's lost her scales, wasn't in the castle, but across the street from it atop another building. I got a kick out of it. It must be very embarrassing, trying to look regal, with a seagull sitting on top of your hat.

First, some real sewing news. Nothing spectacular, but I did drag myself out of piles of dusty books and, at the last moment, went off to the studio to whip up a few flannel receiving blankets for my new grandbaby. I sewed late into the night, complete with a change of sewing machine and a Walmart run for the correct color thread. I didn't take a photo of them finished but I have a picture of some of the flannel I used here and another picture of more of the flannel here.

The baby shower for my DIL is Sunday in Redding. William, Rosie and I are headed over there this afternoon to visit and do some errands, spending the night with son Sam, and then attending the shower. I'd originally hoped to have the baby's "Grammy Quilt" all done for the shower, but that just didn't happen. It would have been nice to be able to show it off at the party, but, oh well. ("Oh well." That's my new saying. Very handy, useful as a response in many different kinds of situations, many different inflections.) I'll have the quilt done by the time the baby is born. And if not.... oh well! Let's not point out that poor Garret grandson is still waiting for his quilt to be finished. (I think the proper response here would be "Oh, dear!") But hey, I had a hard enough time finishing the receiving blankets yesterday, what with forgetting about the opening night of football activities for William, and a new episode of both Monk and Psych to lure me onto the couch.

I'm not worried about DIL Lisa seeing this post, because she and her mom flew up this weekend from southern California for the shower. She's probably somewhere over the Central Valley as I type this, sans her bottled water, liquid base make up, or yogurt snack. Hehe.

Moving on, here's a few more holiday photos, to go with the tourist pics I put up today on Beach Treasure.



Still up the wall in Conwy, Wales. Here is part of the wall viewed from a higher section. I liked the view through the wild trees. So much of the island we visited was domesticated.

I mentioned that part of the fun of walking high up on the town wall was being able to look down in people's courtyards and gardens.

I never tired of the way the stone walls aged, making homes for plants and birds, lizards and undoubtedly even a chipmunk or two. Do they have chipmunks in England?

Holiday photos to match the ones I put up on Beach Treasure today. As you may recall, I already shared a photo of some boats, taken while standing on the top of the city wall. The rest of these photos are also taken from atop this my-knees-were-shaking ruins of a structure.







Another view of boats from a window slit.





Here's another nice harbor view.

This was from inside one of the many turret corners. Originally these would have been roofed structures, rooms several stories tall. The walls and ceilings, made from wood, are all gone now, but the remaining circular stone towers are beautiful. It's really hard to capture the feel of them in a snapshot since you don't get that "surround sound" feel. I took a lot of pictures of the hardy plants that grew from any nook or cranny that would shelter a bit of soil.



This tower was the worse for wear. The only thing holding it together were the walls pressing it in from either side.

I loved the chimney pots found on buildings all over England and on top of this wall we got a bird's eye view of them. I'm not sure what their numerous uses were, or are - are they still in use or just remnants from the time when all the homes were heated with fireplaces? Regardless, I found them wonderfully whimsical. This crow (or rook?) obligingly perched, adding just the right touch to this photo.

Here are two sets that sat facing each other on back to back buildings. They reminded me of chess pieces. Here are the Yellow King's rooks and bishops.

And here are the White King's pieces. Anyone for a game of Wizard's Chess?

I decided instead of throwing more photos at you today, to create an art meme. When you're done reading about art in my head, feel free to tell us about art in your head on your blog. Are you an art snob? An artist or more of an art collector? Do you buy art that sings to you or matches or furniture? One medium or anything and everything is potential art material?

Art from Inside My Head

Favorite painters:

I have a lot of them. O'Keefe, Chegall, Gauguin, Van Gogh, pretty much all the Impressionists. I'm not much on Old Masters but now that I've had the opportunity to see a variety of it up close, Da Vinci is in a class of his own - I could pick his work out from all the others at a glance. It's all about his faces. Less historically renown, but I also really like Robert Duncan's country scenes and Brian Froud's fantastical fairies.

Favorite textile artists:

I love Pamela Allen's work. It always evokes an emotional response from me, makes me want to laugh or cry or hug someone. Well, except her fish. They just make me hungry. And although she's not famous or nuthin', Deb's work is always creative and fun.

Favorite any other artists:

I don't really know any names. Or more likely, I'll think of them later today after I published this. Oh! I love the whimsical world of Kipling West.

Favorite mediums:

watercolor, acrylics, textiles, photography, collage and oooooh, I'm having one of those sticky brain days - what do you call it when it's like a collage but you use 3-d items. How embarrassing. Someone please tell me so I can go "Duh!"

Favorite art styles:

Impressionism, Surrealism, Expressionism. Realism in more contemporary artists. I'm not big on abstract paintings, yet I really like abstract work in textiles. Most modern art - I'm kinda 50/50 on it.

Mediums you have personally worked in:

textiles, oils, acrylics, watercolor, pencil, ink, charcoal (like, from the woodstove!), charcoals, plaster of paris, wire, plants, mud, DNA (my babies were all beautiful works of art)

If you were given the opportunity to change all the artwork in your home for new, would you?

Nah, I get attached to pieces. But it would be tempting.

Have you ever won a prize or award for your work?

Yes.

Have you ever sold your art work?

Yes

Have you ever given away your art work?

Yes

Favorite colors:

I can't pick a favorite color for working with since it would depend on what I was making. In general, red and green always sing to me. Blues can be either calming or depressing, depending on the context. I like orange. I didn't like purple much at all until the last six years or so.

Warm or cool:

There's no doubt I'm first drawn to warm colors. Although...... I particularly like blue/green combinations.

Bright or subdued:

Bright, zany, wild. Pastels - pretty much blech. I like earth tones though, both the pale washed out colors of the desert or beach, and the deep colors of... well, earth, soil, deep woods. In fact I was just chewing on this fact. I'm redecorating my house and I have to make the bright zany artist and the earth tone primitive in me co-habitate happily.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Oh, EVERYWHERE! Other artists - although then I worry about it being a "copy". Other artists obviously influence one another, and yet you want your work to be unique. Nature inspires me. Light. I'm somewhat influenced by emotional experiences, but I think visuals trigger my art more. Emotional experiences, I'm more likely to express myself with in writing.

What are you currently working on?

Hmmm, ah, well, uhm, you see, hmmmm..... my house. But I have a purple challenge fabric piece halfway done. And another challenge is beyond the planning stage - it's ready for me to start cutting and laying the pieces together. Uhm, that's it. Sigh.

What do you want to work on next?

After my museum hopping this spring, I'm wanting to paint again after letting that fall away twenty years ago. I also want to do some collage and.... whatever the word is - 3-d work. I bought a collection of fabrics last year to use creating somewhat abstract beach scenes. And I want to start making dolls again. I love making dolls. I don't know why I don't make that more of a priority.

If you could own one famous work of art, what would it be?

It would probably have to be an O'Keefe. One of her flowers. Or Van Gogh's Starry Night. Or let's go completely wild here, how about the the Winged Victory of Samothrace. I could put her out in the garden. Hehehe. Well, she's kinda big. How 'bout a sculpture of The Three Muses.

Would you want to make your living as an artist, or prefer to keep money out of the creative process?

I'd be thrilled to make my living as an artist. Doubt I'm that dedicated, but if someone wanted to throw gobs of money at me, sure, why not. I wouldn't do it if it meant changing my art to become commercially profitable though.

What kind of atmosphere do you create best in?
Music is better then television. Unless it's mindless television. Soothing music is better then loud music. Loud music is better for cleaning, And it depends on what part of the creative process I'm in. I've not very good at working around other people, so classes and workshops, while creatively inspiring, don't allow me the privacy I need to do the actual work. I can work around crowds though - for instance, in a park or a cafe, then people become background noise.

Do you use/control your muse or does your muse use/control you?

My muse is definitely the one calling the shots.

Well, I can't think of any other questions. If you can think of anything I forgot to include, please add it. And let me know if you answer it on your blog, so I can come read it. Now I better get going. I need to get painting this afternoon. Very creative. I'm painting a wall.

I spent the entire weekend immersed in beauty and art. Well, not the entire weekend. But it was more then enough.

Saturday was our local Art in the Garden Tour. I know they have these in other communities, but if you aren't familiar with the concept, a group (in this case it's our local county art council and the Monticola Club, I think), gets 6-8 people to offer their gardens, hopefully unique or special in some way, for people to tour, like a home tour. Then they set up different artisans in each of the gardens, as well as different food stations. To take the tour you buy a ticket and they give you a map so you can spend the day going from garden to garden.

In our small community, it's not only a chance to see lots of art and flowers, but also a chance to see "that house on the hill I've always wondered about" and an opportunity to bump into lots of friends and social acquaintances. Also, a lot of my mom's friends and acquainances. She moved away from town two years ago and I still get asked "How's your mom!?" at least a half dozen times at activities like this.

This year's gardens, the theme seemed to be - amazing water features. One rambling garden had 4-5 different water features - waterfalls, ponds, fountains, scattered across an acre of different garden "rooms". I think that one was my favorite.

Another home, you had to climb up a very steep mountain driveway. Honestly, I thought the beauty wasn't worth the fact that they were living directly in the forest - lots of atmosphere but no defensible space against the inevitable forest fires we have in this part of the country. Their gardens were every child's fantasy playground. The family that lived there though, all the children were grown and the grounds were designed with grandchildren in mind. Wouldn't you love to have enough money to be able to indulge your grown families! My favorite part of that garden however, was a little surprise encounter with a ribbon snake in their vegetable garden.

Yet another home had one gigantic pond with waterfalls, "streams" and landscaping all around it. The rest of the yard was nothing more then sweeping green lawns. I guess that's all you really need however, when the lawns toe up to a completely wild valley and sweeping mountain peaks devoid of any other buildings. I overheard the owner explaining to another guest "this is why we bought this place" as she swept her arm across the view.

Yesterday I went up to Chester, a pretty mountain town nestled on the northern edge of Lake Almanor. It's one of those towns where the population more then doubles in the summer, when wealthy city folks come up to their second homes, settling into a smaller, closed-up-for-the-winter, locals only mentality when the snows fall. It was bursting at the seams with people yesterday however, as it was their annual Art in the Pines art and craft show, and the local guild's biannual quilt show.

I was very proud of myself, I didn't bring home a single piece of art or kitschy knick knack. I did spend a long time chatting about a lot of beautiful art with the artisans, but I explained that I couldn't buy anything as I didn't have "a single surface, horizontal or vertical, left in my house to display anything". It was surprising how many people rolled their eyes and laughed, admitting to the same problem. I also explained that I was "in the process of redefining my space". I didn't know I was going to use that term, it just sort of popped out and I realized that was exactly what I was doing. I could also say I'm "reclaiming my space", as that touches more on the feel of almost having to battle for every square inch. But as I keep going, it's feeling less like a war and more like an art project in and of itself, so redefining works. It certainly sounds better then "I'm getting rid of all my crap."

That doesn't mean, however, I came home from the fair package free. Alas, I was rather indulgent. But I ended up only purchasing practical things that I had already had on a mental list to find and use. Only, instead of finding ordinary versions of them, I found wonderful artsy versions! I bought myself some kitchen glasses and a cup. I posted photos over at Beach Treasure. Go, see. They're wonderful. At least I think so. I have a rather.... odd..... sense of humor. I also bought some raspberry vinegar and a jar of jalapeno/olive relish. Yum. Last but not least, I bought a hanging hammock chair for the back yard and another swinging hammock that I don't have a spot for right now but the price was right so I'll save it for some future spot.

The quilt show was very nice. Not a lot of vendors, which was fine, it's not like I need any more fabric. I bought a half yard of a hand dyed and three FQ's. There were over two hundred quilts. Mostly traditional quilts, although they were nicely done and a few of them were really lovely colors or were special in some small way. There were a generous sprinkling of wall hangings and art quilts. I took photos but, dang, my camera just does not do well in low light conditions. Here's a few of my favorites, blurred or not:


Probably my favorite - it was made for a challenge, I didn't catch the challenge theme. The quilter used gross grain ribbon for the top straps of the flip flops. Don't they look 3-D, as if they're gonna just fall off the quilt at you!?


This was stunning. It looked like stained glass. Here's another close up of it below:





This was a simple four patch with sashing and posts, but I really loved it. The sashing, as you can see in the close up below, gave it a wonderful whimsical mood.





Because this art quilt has black sashing and binding, and is hung against a black background, it's hard to see that it's not rectangular in shape. I want to do something like this. But with a different theme. My "sea" themed fabrics? My halloween fabrics? Even my fabrics similar to the ones used in this quilt. Hmmmm, the mind is a-churnin'.


The card on this one (my one criticism of the show, the cards were displayed very haphazardly, sometimes almost completely covering some of the smaller quilts!) said it was inspired by a banner used in a scene from the Lord of the Rings movie. Pretty, yes.


I walked up to this one and said to myself "Hey, that looks like Heceta Lighthouse!" Reading the description card, yep, that's what it is. One of my favorite spots on the Oregon coast.

Yesterday was a hu-u-u-uge score day. I did some thrift store hopping for the grandkids, found lots of goodies, and also found a glass door cabinet at a local antique shop, something I've been trying to find for a couple years. And if that wasn't enough, I came home to a package from my mom. I called her up and told her I had two things to say to her. "Number one, don't send me any more stuff - I'm trying to pare down on my belongings!" and "Number two, I LOVE THESE LADIES!" A mixed message to be sure, but I can't help it. Sometimes she just sends great stuff.

Aren't they adorable!? I don't know which one I like best. I think I need to give them their own names. Anyone have any ideas? This first one is really sweet, in a homespun wool dress and the cutest green hair, holding tight onto her little ghost friend. Hmmm, I think her name is Mossy, because of her hair.

The other witch is..... not grumpy exactly. I can really identify with her expression. A bit frustrated, a bit exhausted. She wants to get on her broom and fly away, maybe someplace tropical, but there are pumpkins to water and crows to be fed and she's head of the planning committee for the next full moon gathering and..... sigh, she'd fly away but, frankly, she's to tired to even try.

Here's a close up. See, she's not a scary witch, just an overworked one. She's a crone with soft gray hair and yet she's not afraid to flaunt her stuff - check out the flamboyant cape and feathery, bright orange cuffs on her dress. I should probably name her crow (and the ghostie above) as well.

More holiday photos - yah! Today's selection seem to be primarily water scenes. Boat scenes to be more specific. All but the last one which sort of.... isn't a boat scene.


I said we'd moved on from Bath, but I was wrong. One more picture. This image's middle name is peaceful. Yep, Image P. River. That's it's name.


Now, we're in Conwy, Wales. Their harbor was torn up, in the process of being remodeled, redesigned, reconstructed - whatever it is you do to a harbor. A number of locals apologized for the less then picturesque mess. And parts of it were indeed a mess - large earth moving equipment laying about, piles of broken concrete. But no matter, we found plenty of great images to try to capture and bring home with us. I adore the splotches of red in the photo above.

Here's another one with a nice red boat for focus, and lovely dabs of blue throughout as well.

I took this picture from high above on the city wall. Conwy is an ancient walled city, most of the wall is still standing and, if you don't suffer terribly from vertigo, can be walked. There's also a mighty fine castle, one of a string of them the English king Edward the I built along the northern Welsh coastline, the point being to rub it in that he had conquered Wales. It's actually much higher up then this picture would imply, I used the handy telephoto capabilities to get this shot. It was a lovely hodge podge of beached water craft and I had a difficult time getting a shot I liked, particularly with William restless and telling me to hurry up. If I had unlimited digital memory, I would have simply snapped off several dozen shots and sorted it out later.


Look, no boats. No water. This is part of the wall from the around the land side on the outside, looking up. This particular area was a sort of bike path and playing fields for the community, this abandoned apple orchard hugged the old stones. I doubt the orchard is as ancient as the wall, in fact it's probably not possible, although I suppose it could be the descendants of a line of apple trees that have grown here through the ages. How long do apple trees live? But I still imagined young maidens wandering through this orchard long ago when it was tended and tidy. Maybe picnicking, their embroidery brought along to work on while enjoying a sunny day. Maybe a clandestine walk with some dashing knight. While we were there, however, the only people we saw in the orchard were a couple of teens and a woman and her terriers.

I'm creatively frustrated. I want to be creative, but this heat wave has made me so ill and lethargic it's tough to do anything (have I already said this same phrase six dozen times?), much less something that requires making creative new synaptic connections in my heat soaked brain.

Still, there have been small moments.

I finished cleaning up my studio. It's not completely organized, but it's got empty flat surfaces on which to work, and all the fabric is accessible. That's saying a lot.

I spent an evening trying to decide on some new projects. Yes, I have old projects that are desperately in need of my attention, but let's not talk about those. No, really. Let's pretend I can't hear their pitiful cries. Let's ignore the guilt piling up in the to-do section of my head. So, anyway, as I was saying, la la la la I can't HEAR you, I was trying to decide on a theme/design for a new baby quilt for my newest grandbaby, due to arrive in late autumn or early winter. I was also trying to come up with some fun blocks to make using my Halloween blocks. I WANT TO PLAY WITH MY HALLOWEEN FABRICS!!!

I came up with a couple of ideas. Nothing I was sure enough about to actually start cutting fabric, but I'm getting close. What I really ended up confidently deciding after all that tiring pondering, is that in the last few years my focus has changed so dramatically that a lot of the fabrics I own are no longer the ones I want to work with - conversation prints and themed fabrics, no matter how perfectly wonderful they are, limit me to primarily traditional, or at very outside, wonky takes on traditional quilting designs.

I went to Reno on Tuesday to run some long put off errands and to hit the quilt shops in search of the new Halloween fabrics. Yes, I know, I just said I don't need anymore traditional fabrics. Do NOT ask me to be sensible and logical. It's too damn hot and I don't care if I'm contradicting myself and I just wanted to - OKAY!?!?

I did discover that I didn't really want or, as us fabric junkies are more apt to say, need all the new designs I found. I bought a few things. What's a half dozen more FQ's, eh? But instead of buying that print with cute pumpkins on it, what I really think I need is that great orange batik that I could use to make a pumpkin. As for all the cutesy stuff I've already got, I'm starting to think of uses other then quilts for it - bags, clothing, placemats..... anyone got any fast, fun ideas?

I came home all ready to start in on something, anything, but then felt sick again, partly from the heat, partly from a touch of food poisoning I think. Then a migraine laid me out yesterday. Nothing creative happening even in my imagination for the last couple of days.

Today is a teensy bit cooler. I think the high was only in the low 90's, quite a drop from our nonstop 100's. And after the weekend we're even supposed to drop down into the mid 80's! I can't tell you how exciting this news is to me!

Now, since I'm feeling well enough to actually get up and do something, I'm gonna. Get up and do something. It might be creative. It might be as basic as sweeping up the dead and dying piles of dust bunnies all over my house. Yes, even the dust bunnies have suffered from the heat - too hot for them to move quickly, many of them have been trampled where they've fallen in the middle of rooms. They may never recover their numbers after this weather catastrophe.

Oh, but before I leave you, my mom sent me a box of goodies, including a wonderful stack of scented, decorative soaps. I've got an orange grapefruit scented one beside the bathroom sink already, and a blue one with a wave design and silver sparkles in it in the shower. Only thing is, the sparkles are sort of scratchy. Not in a nice, grainy way, but in a slivery way. But it's pretty and smells good.

Speaking of sparkles, I went to Walmart today to buy some household items, including a new deodorant for myself, my old one is almost out. I couldn't find the one I normally buy, so I started sniffing new ones, testing for a scent I liked. I ended up getting a nonscented one, in case you have to know. Also matching citrus smoothie scented suave shampoo and conditioner. Anyway, I noticed they now have sparkle deodorant. You've got to be kidding me! I mean, I can totally understand sparkle make-up and sparkle hair gel and sparkle lotion. Fun. Cute. Silly. But does anyone really need sparkly underarms!?

And why am I talking about soap and deodorants in my art blog you ask? Well, because I wanted to show you the soaps. Aren't they pretty!?


Now I'm off to ........ uhm...... to...... DO SOMETHING!

This is a very lame post. I mean, really. I'm posting to tell you I did one very small thing. I finally got the armoir out of the hallway and all the way into the studio. I also got the armoir drawers out of the pile in the livingroom and slid into place in the armoir, which is now in the studio. I know, so very lame.

But I've been planning on doing this every day for a week. And every day for a week the heat just drags me down like zombies tugging at my arms and legs. I've had it in my head that if I could just get this armoir in there.....

I had a dresser in there, the drawers used as storage, the top of the dresser was where the television sat. Then I gave the dresser to Sam several months back. To use as a dresser - you know, to put his clothes in it. This was fine. I was thrilled to give it to him. He needed it, and I had this armoir that would work perfectly fine, sitting unused and dusty in the garage.

Then when I went off on my grand adventures this spring, I dumped a bunch of boxes, baskets, and miscellaneous stuff I didn't have time to deal with before I left, into the studio. It was already a mess from from all the stuff that had come off and out of the dresser piled on the floor. When I finally opened the door back up a few weeks ago, I discovered that the room was completely impassable.

I've had it in my mind that if i could just clean up the studio, at least make it so I could walk across the floor and have access to my cutting table (which is also piled high with stuff - blankets, bags, fabric, frames....) I could find the energy somewhere to at least while away the sweltering afternoons in that room, cutting fabric. The room should be one of the cooler ones in the house, being situated with cross ventilation from windows on two sides and being underneath the side of the yard with huge shade trees. This means that room should come down from 90 to a crisp 80 degrees or so. (that "crisp" is sarcasm, in case it's hot where you are and you, like me, don't have two brain cells still working. Apparently they're all taking an extended siesta, like any reasonable person should do in a hot climate).

Am I still making any sense? I doubt it. But moving on, I have this theory that I could do this, cutting fabric, because it is fairly mindless work yet fun enough to keep me interested. And I was thinking of playing with my Halloween fabrics, which will remind me of autumn and chilly winds and frost in the air and brrrrrr - almost as good as air conditioning, yes? Well, no. But I'm pretending.

Hmmmmm, something just occurred to me. Cutting out fabric involves ironing it. With a HOT iron. Oh, damn. I didn't think of that.

Well, nevermind then. I'll just continue to lay in the shade and read Harry Potter books.

But, for the record, the armoir is all slid into place. Next step is to put the crafting supplies back into the drawers. Easy. If it wasn't sooooo hot.

Here's a picture of me showing you all why I don't have anything else to show you lately. Yes, that's me. I look just like that. And I'm out there in my.... er, watermelon patch. Okay, okay, so I'm maybe out in the backyard playing in the dirt where watermelon could, if planted, be growing. If it wasn't too hot to actually be out there. But I WILL be out there. Tonight. When the sun starts to go down and the temperatures aren't in the 100's. I even went and got all sorts of compost and plants today and they're out there right now, sitting in the shade of the apple tree, waiting for me.

And hey, I made this doll. That's creative!

My friend Deirdre took a bunch of fireworks photos on the 4th. She enthusiastically encouraged me to to do the same. So I did. My camera didn't cooperate, alas I still haven't managed to find time to read the instruction manual in order to figure out out why my low light images are all determined to come out blurry. I know they don't have to be, that it's probably the setting I have it on or something, because my old camera took great low light images. I did enjoy a few of my failed attempts though!


Make sure you click this next one larger - the tiny swirls are really cool.


Here's a summer image I find somewhat haunting. This little guy was on my screen door late one night and the front porch light, shining down from the top left, made him glow like something unworldly. Do you think there are moths on alien planets? I wonder what they would look like? A moth's life is short, incomprehendable to me. I wonder what this small creature was thinking/feeling this night?

I've been back from England for over a month and I'm just finally finishing up sharing the last of the photos from our first three day location. And that's by showing only a small percentage of the photos I actually snapped!

I took this first photo to share with an art friend, Pamela. She has a real thing for eyes. Go check out her website and you'll see what I mean. But when I finally got a chance to see the photo, I liked it too. I like the way the sky disappears (well, it doesn't on the green background of this blog, but it does on a plain white background, making the image look irregularly shaped. And how it's only two colors - gray with small spots of blue. And black. Three colors. Four. Dark green. - Like, okay....NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! And if you don't get the reference - "I fart in your general direction!" Did you get that one? Before I dissolve into complete silliness, let's move on.



This photo was actually taken in the gardens of the first B&B we stayed at in Conwy, Wales. The owner of the B&B was sitting out by a small pond taking photos himself, so we went to investigate what was so interesting. This little guy doesn't look to thrilled about getting his picture taken, does he?


The last photo isn't all that remarkable, except I like the V-shape the lower walls make and the contrast of lighted areas with the black shadows and sky. There's actually 3 tiers of increasing light - the dark righthand wall, the lighter lefthand wall, and the lightest tower. Maybe that could be an analogy for something - striving higher? The three levels of awareness? Climbing out of ignorance into enlightenment? Or maybe, phbbt, it's just an interesting composition. Might be a fun one to play with in Photo Shop.


That's all. Just wanted to get something up here to look at. I'm currently busy being productive if not particularly creative. Unless you want to describe what I'm doing as a creative redefining of my living space. I'm actually working on decluttering my house. Paperwork. Being tossed by the bucketload. (Yes, actual bucketload. I've got an old bucket sitting by the woodstove to toss burnable paper in.) Children's books and old school books William has either outgrown or never used. Computer files. So, later folks. I gotta get my nose back to the ol' grindstone.

I don't have a button for it up on the website yet, but I want to let everyone know about an art/blog challenge sponsored by my friend Deirdre called Simple Still Life. There was another project by the same name, now defunct, and this new one has risen phoenix life from the ashes of the original. There are only a few of us playing presently, all the current participants have been pretty busy with summers and family, but hopefully things will pick up.

Basically it's a challenge for those of us who can't seem to go through life without photographing it. Participants contribute one or more photos each month that evoke a chosen theme. From the basic photo, folks can then play with the image artistically if they chose, anything from tweaking it around in Photo Shop to recreating it in another medium such as watercolor, fabric, discarded restaurant coasters - hey, whatever! Or if you like the photo just the way it came out of the camera, that's fine too.

I invite you all to would check it out and join in the fun. Or at the very least, take a peek at several photos I just put up on the blog that I might use for this month's theme - Summer.