Amber Madonna

Well, it has taken a little longer than I thought, but I am pretty happy with the result. I think I am done, but will stare at it a bit longer to see if it needs anything else. I think I will mount it on a bit of velvet, perhaps a deep blue or gold, with some stitching or overlay. After a rough day, it was so nice to sit in front of the tv and stitch and bead. Something mindless!

I have been creative!

I

have been working slowly but I have been making samples for my Surface Design series of classes. I am doing textures next, and needed to update the samples. I got Lesley Riley's newest book, on using Lutradur. Since I pestered our stores buyer until she got us some, I better make sure people buy some! So I am expanding the Lutradur portion. In the past I would color it in the first class and burn and distress in the third class. So, using it in mixed media pieces requires techniques to tie it in. I also want to use it more to raise the surface of the embroidery substrate and add in that great pitted texture. I am not through yet, in fact in both pieces I have much hand embroidery yet to do, but since I haven't posted much lately, I thought I would post an early pic or two.

The first photo is of a small Indian blockprinting bit, one I used on the second photo's work. I sponged the block with expandoprint, heated it, and then rubbed gold and black paint over it. The corner bits are Crystalina and the Lutradur is in back of the photo transfer of an icon. I used acrylic paint to color it, and will use stitch to blend it all in. The third photo is a piece using a layer of cotton on top of a little cotton batting, with a layer of acrylic felt beneath that. Over the cotton (batik dyed) I stitched a layer of nylon/poly organza. This was heat distressed, and then machine stitched to blend the pieces together. I added lots of handwork too, and have more yet to go. I am working on two more pieces, and will post more on Saturday, I think. I feel good! Art does indeed wash away the dust of the world from my soul.

The Rain....

Two and a half days of rain. Yes, we always need the water, but it was so raw and cold, and I needed some sunshine. We did finally get some, but then I didn't have my camera. I had it in my car to take pictures of it for the construction company that managed to hit about 2/3s of my dark blue car with white overspray from painting the parking lot lines. It looks like the car has chickenpox. My car repair shop says it can be rubbed out and then repolished, but it will take most of the day. What a pain. It is bad enough having all the noise of the construction, all the dirt and inconvenience, when you add this, it is pretty irritating. Hopefully the company will pay without too much hassle.

Sigh...

Well, I hoped to have the files returned by now, but not so. I came home last Friday, and found my dh on the steps, looking despondent. Turns out our desktop was dead. Two hours on the phone to India was no help. Well, okay, a little help. They said it is a systems problem,and we needed to scrub the harddrive. Sigh. So we took it in to Geek Squad, and just got back the files and drive back. Tonight I will reload programs and files. Hopefully I will have photos tomorrow! In the meantime, we needed a computer, and so I bought... hold on now those of you who know me, I bought a LAPTOP! Okay, deep breath, thats better! Me, a laptop! So I am trying to learn how to load it up and use it. This one is so cool, I could learn to like this type, but mine will do just fine! It is a Dell Studio XPS13, very powerful, and just the right size. I love it!

I was hoping to get my fleeces washed today, but only got to do one of the three. I washed the icelandic hogget, a nice white (or really cream) fleece about 4-6" in length. It was really dirty, so took longer. No tags, just really dirty. I sure hope it doesn't felt, I tried to keep the water temp constant and just gently squeezed the water through it, but icelandics felt so easily. I am not satisfied that it is really clean, I will probably wash it after spinning too. That leaves the alpaca and east friesian yet to be washed. Tomorrow!

Ah it is a tiring life,

being the rodent and insect controller for a whole household! Though if a rat appeared, I am not sure what Trouble would do. When faced with a squirrel up close and personal, he looked... astonished!

The day began very foggy, and threatened rain all day but except for a little spattering on my drive home, never developed. Tonight though, it should rain good and hard. Since we need it, I can't complain, and since it is coming at night, even better. Spring is in sight, and there's warm days acoming. Too warm, before too long, I imagine.

I got lots of spinning done this weekend, though I won't say much for the quality. I wasn't necessarily trying for even thread, but I would like it to hold together. Some of the stretches are pretty thin, but most of that should be evened out by Navaho plying ...plying onto itself through a loop. This plying style yields a three ply yarn, a wonderful yarn for socks since the 3 plys make the yarn symetrically smoother than 2 plys. I am not too unhappy with it, since it has been years since I spun cotton, and I only ever spun cotton a tiny bit anyway. Can't get better without practice.

I have been reading my BIL's new novel, about paleogenetics, sort of. Well, it is an action story, with a little love story and some (easy to swallow) science, and a little mystery too. A rollicking good read!

I have also been sewing this weekend, and will post a pic when I am done. I have a couple of garments on line, and a stuffie too. I went thrifting, and got a wool blanket in a pretty shade of rose for $4! Nicely felted too! There just aren't enough hours in the day, or enough days in the weekend to do everything!

Too Much Time on Blogging!

It seems like I have spent too much time on the blogging highway, and not enough time either creating or organizing. I have gotten a bit fyrther on the cross-stitch knit scarf, and had a wonderful time with my husband visiting Woodlawn Plantation Needlework Exhibition, and organized my studio spaces so I could fit my little loom in to weave on it, and finally, spun recycled denim.... ugh, love the color, but it is really HARD to spin. I want to work on making the yarns I want to make rather than the ones the fibers seem to want to make. Sounds funny, but it is true, fibers seem to spin easily into some forms, and be sticky and lumpy when forced into others. I will conquer this issue, but I think not easily!

A Cup of Tea and a Sit-down...

That's just what I need! There is construction going on right outside the shop, they start early, before we open, and knock off by 330pm most days. They run motors, generators and big construction vehicles the whole time...my word it is noisy. I didn't really realize how much it bothered me until the noise stopped. My neck and shoulders must have been tensed, because I had to un-hunch everything. So I had a cuppa and a sitdown. Whew.

The scarf is a really cool crossstitch-like pattern. Usually I can just cruise along on autoknit, but this is like lace. If I mess up, I have to rip all the way back, because I haven't figured out how to repair a problem, or even rip back a little and recover. I had to rip out at row 4. And row 7. And row 14. And one where I was so far along I didn't count. Sigh. But it really looks cool, so I am forging along pretty well for the present. Crossing my fingers. And toes! The warmer colored photo is closer to the true color. Well, here's to another row!

A Purse's beginning and a totally busted cat!

Not to mention a really yummy steak dinner! As to busted and cats, Trouble loves to chew on dead, dried up plants... but always looks so innocent when he is caught. This time, I caught him with his face buried in the lavender!

I am looking for a good lining for the purse... you would think in a huge fabric stash like mine, there would be the perfect fabric... and there probably is. I just have to find it! The m

essy shelves are symptomatic of the problem...

Weekends Are Wonderful...

Don't you think? I look forward to it all week, but never get all the things done that I want to do. I am learning that it is okay to sometimes do something just for fun, and sometimes nothing at all. I watched tv and knitted for a significan part of my weekend. I also am making a purse for a blogging friend... I like the design, and am just trying to avoid my wrist locking up on me. If I vary what I do, not doing hour after hour of the same thing, I can usually avoid more than just normal tiredness. I do tend to knit for longer than I should, but oh well. Can't be disciplined all the time! I knitted a little cozy for my coffee cup, and sewed two more. I am knitting on a scarf using a new stitch, looks like a cross stitch. I will take pics when there is more to see than a few rows. I also made some knitting stitch markers, with little beads... hope they work. I sat outside for a while, it was a warm day, not too sunny in the afternoon, but still pleasant. We opened all the windows and kept them open until our neighbour started smoking cigars outside under our bedroom. Ugh.

The kitties were in 7th heaven outside. The squirrels sat outside the yard and chuffed at us! I sat and spun up a couple nice ounces of shetland moorit fleece. I usually spin pretty fine, but want to spin a more woolen and thicker yarn when I do my icelandic fleece, so thought I would see how it went... boy it is harder to spin thicker and fluffier now than thinner and semiworsted. I had to chant slow slow feet, fast fast hands! I will let it sit tomorrow and reel it off and ply it Monday.

Mmmm, today is wash and spin fiber... but only after I have cleaned more in the studio...

Ah, the Jays...

Some

t

imes when we toss out the peanuts for the squirrels, we get a bluejay diving in to share in the bounty. Today there were three! They are swift, sure and accurate in their flight, landing and grabbing a peanut, then taking off in a short second. To capture them I had the camera aimed at a particular spot and waited til one showed up. The pic in flight was a serendipitous one, and in the meantime the squirrels didn't hesitate to take their own shares. I do love to watch the little bandits, and they seem well fed, so we are not the only ones feeding them! I am told there is a shortage of acorns this year, but the squirrels around here won't have a tough time.