it's 5:00 somewhere

So it's cocktail hour in my sewing room cum office cum home studio cum MESSY CATCHALL room. I actually think I like it this way, although you're not hearing that admission from me.

Yep, working at home today - but not doing what I really should be doing.  Instead, I mixed up some print paste and my screens are drying on the deck   It is cool and windy and there is no sun in the back, but one of the screens is almost dry and another is done. 

The one on the left is still gloppy and of course, the wind blew some newspaper on it and the globs printed on the newspaper, losing some of the print paste.  Oh,well. It probably won't matter by the time I print.  This is before it got messed up. 

Earlier today I was stitching a piece that I started months ago and which you have seen in several incarnations as I worked on it.   The straight line stitching on the strips is atypical for me, and doesn't feel like my work. OTOH - I was in a rush to just finish the damn thing, which has been sitting around for too long on the sidelines.  I am stitching the top part of the piece free-motion and sloppy, which is much more my style.  But I'm not done yet.  However, I put it up on my wall (which is sitting in the front hall, blocking the heating duct and the door to the garage) and here it is, in both the uncropped and cropped versions.

 

I think it needs to be cropped on the sides.

I originally had trees in mind but it didn't work out that way - LOL. This was really therapy sewing; I sliced and sewed these strips last January when I was in West Palm Beach for two not particularly easy weeks.  The guest room,where I set up my horrible used sewing machine, had dim light and I was working on a bridge table at night, with a piece of batting taped to the wall. It was truly depressing. But I am happy with what came out of it.  Go figure.

Yesterday, Marty and I went to get our flu shots. The farmer's market was open right outside the town library and I went a little bit crazy.  I bought freshly-dug potatoes (purple, yellow, and white ones - none of them very pretty and all of them good - and small).  Ditto for peppers: red, yellow, purple.

A gigantic head of lettuce and the most delectable tiny raspberries, yellow baby watermelon - and green tomatoes, which are impossible to find in the supermarket - or even at my local farm.  

I will fry a bunch of them tomorrow, before they - god forbid - turn red.  This morning, though, I cut one up, added a small red tomato, some scallions and herbs and goat cheese and had a really good omelette. Tasted better than it looks in the photo.  There are lots of recipes for green tomato this and that but I'll just fry 'em for a treat.

This whole blog has been an exercise in procrastination. It is only 8 pm but seems much later. I didn't go to bed till 2 last night because I was trying to get Mail Chimp to work so I could send out a newsletter.  But it is a big pain because it doesn't work with the browser I am using these days, which is Camino - a Mac browser from the people who brought you Firefox (which does not work any more with my blog).  A plague on all their houses!

Tomorrow, Jessica and Emma (who now has 2 teeth on the bottom and is standing) will be here for a minute or two.  They are sleeping at Jessica's father's tonight but I will drive them back to Brooklyn tomorrow -- a task I am happy to do.

Shall I turn in early, like an old person?  Not sure I am ready for Early Bird Bedtime.  Maybe first, a cuppa tea.

sewing and reaping - or ripping

The High Holidays are over and the year 5771 is in full swing.  Happily, the weather is gorgeous and I did my early morning walk and came back energized to work.

I put these two pieces on the wall to get them out of the way of something else, but now I think they might be interesting together: a combination that would never have occurred to me otherwise. No time to do anything with them now, but worth exploring at some point.  I have had both of these sitting around forever, so it is probably time to do something with them. But when?

I have some challenges for the new year. One huge one that is taking over my life.  And a few small ones:

1) A 12x12 piece that's a nano-micro too small to be stitched to a 12x12 canvas unless I don't face the edges.  But I really don't want to raw-edge stitch the thing...ugh.

2) A large piece that is bugging me. I have to figure out how to fix it because it is supposed to be in a November exhibition. Particularly annoying because it is already stitched.

3) Finish everything I have to do before I leave for San Jose, California on Wednesday morning.

4) Write a description that will make a new workshop sound as terrific as it actually IS.  Considering that I am a wordsmith, I don't know why I am having so much trouble.  Well, maybe on the plane or between flights as I sit in Houston, my brain will kick in.

5) Survive without seeing Miss Emma for a couple of weeks. To make things worse, Jessica and Tommy have misplaced their camera and can't even post pictures of her. Waaaah - I'll have to make do with this one they took on Fire Island last month.

We are off to an art opening this afternoon and then to the movies and dinner with friends.  That should save the day.

be careful what you wish for

As I mentioned the other day, they are redoing our driveways and replacing the rotten railroad ties with stone.  There is lovely orange construction fence all over the place and I asked the foreman who cut my phone line last week whether I could have some.  Next thing I knew, he rang my doorbell with a gift.  Good grief - I could fence in my own construction site with this amount of stuff.  I guess he was feeling guilty.

Here it is, all rolled neatly.  If I ever worried about running out of it, my worries are over.  But I really need to move it away from the front door.

The other thing near the front door is a 4x8 piece of Celotex. My sewing room is so crowded that I had to move part of the design wall out into the hallway.  That's where I have been working while my STUDIO sits idle.  Meantime, while I am supposed to be finishing three other pieces, I am auditioning fabrics instead for something I need to make - at some point -- for myself.

 Yes, it's part of a series; a series which rears its head,unbidden, every montik and donershtik. Translation: every time I turn around. It is something which informs my work and I can't get away from it or get finished with it.  I guess that is the nature of a series. Bah.  I'm putting together a lecture on "what is a series?"  What, indeed?

As of October, come hell or high water, I will be back in my studio.  In any case, I am teaching an advanced Thermofax class there on October 6 and it is already full.

I am seriously thinking about teaching a Deconstructing the Screen workshop sometime this fall, so if you would be interested, e-mail me. I have room for 4 people -- I want to leave plenty of room to print...and there is enough construction fence for everybody.

Saturday in the park

The weather has turned hot here and Sat afternoon was too gorgeous to stay in the house, so we headed up the street to the park.  As Marty and I walked around the upper part of Verona Lake, we passed this bird-statue. And then it moved. Looks like something I saw in Florida but I don't know what it is called. An egret?

A little further along we spotted this guy - his color seemed appropriate to the scummy stuff on that end of the lake. I wouldn't go out with him.

When we were home again, I got busy cleaning up this sewing room.
Look at this wonderful collection of European quilt exhibition catalogs!  I have not had time to sit down and peruse them, but at least I got them into a neat pile.

In a bold move, I took the printer from the floor and put it on the bookcase.  Now I have a place to pile the catalogs. Brilliant.

I got rid of two bags of papers and old files, although it is hard to tell. Then I had time and room to sort the fabrics and look at the ones I brought home from England.

 These two are Marlene's.  We split them as a challenge.

And here I am already auditioning to see what works.

I put a sleeve on a quilt I am sending off to a gallery in Kansas and I am in the throes of finishing the stitching on this small piece.

I have stopped, however, as I wait for a fabulous box of threads to arrive. And since Blogger is being pissy tonight about letting me upload more pix, I shall say goodnight.

still at it

Not to beat a dead horse, but you asked how these chocolate-tahini things turned out.  When I got home today, Marty was in the process of demolishing one.

 

 He loved it, and he is not a dark chocolate person. Last night when I tasted it right out of the oven, it tasted too sweet to me.  I told Sandy that next time I will either use half the sugar (1/4 cup instead of 1/2) or use bitter chocolate instead of bittersweet.

BUT - tonight, my leftover bit over had settled in and was less sweet.  Some things just have to sit for a day.  We still have one left and I'll let the other member of the household have it. HE is the one who needs to gain weight around here!

Choc and tahini is a lovely, subtle, combo - although you could substitute peanut butter if you prefer.  And you can use regular flour or some kind of gluten-free flour instead of whatever it was in the recipe. Seems that almost anything will work.

Tonight's dinner was moules marinière (white wine, garlic, onion, bay leaves, thyme) over linguini, accompanied by a lovely fennel and celery salad, courtesy of Mark Bittman.  I am addicted to Mark Bittman: his recipes, his Minimalist columns for the NY Times, his blog...   My copy of How to Cook Everything is in shreds, literally because I use it almost every day (although why did it break at the page for braised stuffed squid, which I have never made?)

I love this book so much I gave one to each of my children. And then they gave me How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, which is also terrific. I have never seen a recipe for choco-tahini yummies in either book but you can't have everything.

Back to art...
When I started working on this piece and had something else entirely in mind, it was on this background.

 

Then I wanted to see what it would look like on a different background; by the time I posted it, this is what you saw.  Tonight, I am back to square one.  They both work for me, but the ambience changes with the background.

I wanted to look at overall value so I took photos of each in black and white. There appears to be more contrast in the darker piece, but not necessarily - and it depends on where you look.

In the end, this logical/analytical way of working is very interesting but it doesn't make me happy. I cannot make decisions based on logic because they are always wrong and I invariably regret not having gone with my instincts.  Of course, if my instinct doesn't tell me, that means neither choice is the right one and it's on to plan C (whatever that might be).  Or, either choice could be right. Yawn.

And with that yawn, I am off to bed. Was up at 3:30 this a.m. worrying about something (don't you hate that???) and we have an 8:am medical appointment tomorrow, which means getting up at 6:00. Not my favorite time of day.

ahhhhh

We took a walk after dinner. After three days of heat so intense we could not leave the house (you know what they say about elderly people not going out in a heat wave), a cool breeze is wafting in my window and the air conditioning is actually off.

It rained a little bit last night and we are expecting more tonight -- good, beause my poor flowers are thirsty.  Mums are doing better, albeit in the wrong season. I don't get it -- they are autumn plants.

And the few daylilies that are left were blooming this morning when I went out to get the papers.

The pile of small pieces waiting to be finished includes one that is already sold, so I am not going to post it.  Here are a couple of others standing in line.  I finally decided it needed the black border and decided to leave it alone.  It just didn't look as good stretched.

This one hasn't been stitched yet -- although I did put some in last night and then unpicked them.  Shouldn't quilt when I am tired.  Once I sit down to do it, it doesn't take that long -- it's finding the time to sit that is the problem. My friend Victoria advises taking just 15 minutes a day at the sewing machine.  Sounds like a plan for me: I can do it on my coffee break.

There's one more 12x12ish but I couldn't get a good picture of it -- and then a big one that requires thought before I stitch it; something I am short on these days.

This has been one long weekend - from one end of the week to the other, probably because I have been working at home.
Next week, hopefully it will be cool enough to go to the studio.

Thursday check-in

One of the on-line lists I belong to has a Thurs. check-in, which is good because even if you don't post any other time, you poke your head in once a week. It's so late that it's already Thursday so I'm checking in with you before I call it a day (or a night).

You'd think I would stop leaving my camera in the studio - but no-o. Anyway, I was there today and it was amazingly relaxing.  Imagine that!  My daughter-in-law Nancy stopped in and we had lunch, surrounded by Thermofax screens, paint, and who knows what else.  By the time she left, I was feeling mellow enough to get something done.

The piece I've been working on for myself I will not show you, but here's some other stuff that was on the wall.  I brought it home with me and played further tonight.  I am still futzing around with this thing as a diversion.

And I'm auditioning stuff for this one, which started by accident. Really!

That's all, folks.  Early appointments tomorrow - we have to be up at 6, so I'm outa here now.

Saturday post

After a quick trip to the dentist this morning, followed by a not-so-quick trip to Chico's, I am home and had better catch up before the deluge of children and grandchildren arrive later.  Todd Gillman is stopping overnight with the 3 kiddos; we are the halfway point en route to camp. Jeremy, Anne and the kids are coming over to see them and will, I hope, be here for dinner.

My son-in-law Tommy has gone home to Wisc.for his sister's funeral on Monday, so Jessica and Emma are in NJ this weekend. They will be here later - hooray--and are staying over. I have not seen Miss Emma in a few weeks, so you will no doubt be deluged with photos ad nauseum after this visit. I'll try not to be too boring about it.

The other night, we attended Josh's "moving up" ceremony from 5th grade to middle school.  Good grief -- before we know it, he'll be driving.

Below, the requisite picture with one set of grandparents.

Sorry about not posting for the last few days - I would have to invent things to keep it lively and my creativity is being all used up on other pursuits. Nevertheless, I am still working on the purple, very unchararacteristic-for-me piece I was playing with the other day in the studio.

Neither of these works for me, so the saga continues till I get tired of it and throw the pieces into the scrap box.

With that, I shall return to the next set of tasks awaiting me.
I will try to be more diligent about posting.  Hang in there.

art saves lives

While I normally hate bumper stickers, I love that one because I believe it is true.  It is saving mine these days.  Today I got a few hours in at the studio and while nothing momentous came of it, I had fun playing around with some "what ifs."

This is a start...

 

                     

  So much fabric, so little time!  Tomorrow is a nonstop day: early doctor's app't for me; late afternoon one for Marty and in between, I have scheduled lunch with a friend I don't see enough of, these days.  Then at night, Josh's "graduation" from elementary to middle school.  Friday I hope to get back to work.

a quickie post

before I leave for Brooklyn to see you-know-who. Pix later. Meantime, Friday's experiment on the studio wall - I think it might make a nice little 12x12 if I ever need one. OTOH - maybe it should be larger.  We'll see.

On another note - remember when I posted those vintage propeller blocks that I thought were mistakes?  I rearranged one and here is the variation.  Not as interesting, I admit.

Shelley, one of my readers who commented on the block (and found out what it is called  - Propeller) - was so captivated by the block that she used up a pile of half-square triangles she had sitting around and made a quilt top of the pattern.  She hasn't quilted it yet but she did send me a picture. I love it! When I first saw it, I thought it was an antique - but it's a new one - inspired by my blog post. Ya never know...

Ok - off to fight traffic -- will check in later. It is beautiful out -- enjoy your Decoration Day - now called Memorial Day-
weekend (am I showing my age? Yep)