My Birthday Present Arrived on Tuesday ...

... just a tad early, and it was supposed to be a surprise from my wonderful husband. His birthday was Tuesday, and thanks to the wonderful mention of Ashes and Snow on the QuiltArt list, I got him the two books of elephant photos and they actually arrived on time! I also got him flowers. Men deserve flowers too.

But back to my birthday present. This year is one of those *big ones* - f i f t y. Five-O. Anyway, when we expanded the restaurant/gallery, we had the piano moved up from the house. The idea was that we'd have entertainment at least one evening a week. The entertainment thing hasn't gotten off the ground yet, and the piano has been sitting here languishing and desperately out of tune. Steve kept asking me when I was going to have it tuned, and then customers started asking. So apparently he asked around and called the piano tuner with the intention of having it tuned as my birthday gift. Unfortunately I answered his cell phone when the guy called back so the surprise was spoiled.

For those of you who don't really know me beyond my life as a fiber artist, I started playing the piano when I was 5, and eventually headed to college with the intention of pursuing a degree in music education. No, I never wanted to teach, but I wasn't good enough to be a performance major. Steve was a voice major. We met at a party, and he needed an accompanist for upcoming juries. That was over 30 years ago. We'll be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary in May.

The thing is, I hardly play the piano any more. The last time I played it seriously was when our daughter, as her high school senior project, gave a recital. She has a beautiful voice. I accompanied her on a couple of show tunes as well as one she sang with her dad. That was 4 years ago. Last night I couldn't resist - I was in the restaurant, alone, and didn't have to worry about anyone else hearing wrong notes, bad syncopation, or any of the other *mistakes*. You know I'm a recovering perfectionist, right? After about 45 minutes, I was really getting into it, and now can't wait to get my fingers back on the keyboard! Who knows, maybe I'll even do some practicing!

Transparencies I

I don't really have a title for this piece. Last spring I took Laura Cater-Wood's Idea to Image workshop and created 3 pieces over the course of two days. Well, at least I *started* 3 pieces that I wanted to finish.

This one has been almost finshed for a while; I was in a big quandry about how to finish it off. Well, I finally found staples for the staple gun and now it's mounted to the stretcher bars and ready for the finishing touches. I'm going to couch some fibers along the edge and stitch it all down with a blanket stitch.

I've also uploaded a high-res image; if you're not concerned with download time, click here.

Islands take shape ...

Yesterday we were supposed to go down to the house to do some cleaning/packing. We were both exhausted and in desperate need of a day off, so instead we just lounged around. For me, that meant sketching and beading! I've only just begun, but I already love the looks of the beads on the silk fusion.


It was an absolutely gorgeous day - it's been a beautiful week. In the 50's, sun shining, snow melting, and the river is once again showing its face. Where there were only tiny crevaces in the snow, large swaths of open water are now visible. Today it's raining - hard. That should mean some serious white water tomorrow that will push the ice and snow around leaving magnificant formations in its wake. I have to remember to take the digital home with me so I can capture the scene.

Click here to see the high-res version.

Pemi IV - machine quilted

This is the piece that began as silk roving. I finally got up the guts to free-motion quilt it. Not that I'm chicken or anything, but it's been awhile since I've done this and I wasn't quite sure where to begin. Once I started, it was a piece of cake.

There's two different areas - three or four sections are covered in tulle; this is supposed to represent islands in the river. The river is quilted using Superior Rainbows; the islands with Madeira FS/2. Here's a couple of detail shots:

I don't think you can tell the difference in the pictures.

If this was a high-res image (well, it is, but I scaled it way down to speed up download time) you'd be able to see the royal blue stitching vs. the multi-colored yellow/blue/green stitching. The royal blue areas are the islands.

If you click here, you can see the high-res image. *warning* it may take a while to see depending on the speed of your internet connection. What's next? No hand stitching. But probably beads on the islands.

More Pictures ... Finally!

Some things just take a while to get around to. Usually I think of taking pictures too late in the day - it's night, the lighting is bad, I'm tired ... Right now I'm procrastinating from working on something else so I thought it would be a perfect time to take pictures!

This is Pemi I almost finished:

Here's a closeup. The gray rock is silk fusion. The seed stitching is all that stuff in the water that you really don't want to think about - especially if you're going swimming. The silk organza was machine appliqued as a whole piece, stitched from the back, and then the excess was cut away. Susan Brittingham calls this "upside-down applique."

Here's another:

And another. In this one you can see the appliqued water drops underneath the silk organza. It was a piece of Mickey Lawler's Sky Dyes. After I sewed it down I decided it was too light. So I did what Laura had wanted me to do a long time ago but I was too chicken. I picked up some fabric paint, thinned it, and painted it on!

I have to finish the seed stitching in the upper-left corner and then I want to add a few bead strings to emphasize the currents. I have no idea how I'm going to finish it off ... facing? binding? cording? I'll have to wait and see what it wants. And now that I learned how to create a link to a picture, click here to see a high-res version of the work. *Warning* it may take a while to appear on your screen depending on the speed of your internet connection.

Sunday ... again?

Well I spent a good part of this week suffering from a nasty head cold. Didn't get much of anything accomplished. Yesterday I went down to the house to do some more thinning/packing/cleaning before it goes on the market next week and that just about put me back under. Today I'm achy and sore all over and just want to go back to the condo and sleep. Maybe that's what I'll do. But while I was at the house Friday night, I watched Dangerous Beauty. You see the DirecTV was disconnected months ago, and the stereo is now in the restaurant. There's no internet connection available. Thankfully my daughter had left a few DVDs around!

I kept focusing on the shots of the sunlight/moonlight on the canal and made yet another sketch. When I showed my husband last night, he couldn't believe that I drawn it. He said that only someone that's completely anal/retentive could draw something like that. I took that as a complement :-)

Maybe you'll see it soon!

It's Working!

I'm so excited! It's been weeks since I started working on the gallery site and I've finally figured out how everything works! Part of my problem was that I was trying to do a lot through the user interface rather than just checking out the sample html and editing my files directly. Ugh. I should know better.

The worst part was figuring out how to get the pictures to come up in the preview window when selected in the scrolling viewfinder. I had no idea. That is, until I looked at the source html. All I had to do was search for the filename and voila!

Now I can concentrate on taking some really decent photos - have to remember to bring up the tripod on the next trip home. The new digital takes fantastic pictures, but I don't have a steady hand at all. I'm not going for slide quality; just something that looks nice on the web.

Anyway, check it out! The Gallery at King's Corner Cafe

Pemi IV

Here it is - Saturday again. Since last writing I've managed to come down with a terrible head cold. The good news was that they really didn't need my help in the restaurant today so I got to spend time with my Pemi pieces. Here's Pemi IV:



It doesn't show up in the picture but I've added some tulle on top. It's just the beginning. I'm planning on leaving the ragged edges top and bottom. It would've photographed better on a black background, and it makes the colors look a bit washed out.

After leaving the studio I went back to the condo and continued working on Pemi I. Most of the seed stitch underlayment is done, and now I have to get busy beading.

It's Been Busy But ...

I was actually able to create a nice-sized piece of silk fusion on Saturday! I ordered a complete set of the Salt Island silk rovings and they're absolutely scrumptuous. This piece is about 13" x 15" and will be the base for another Pemi piece. I'll try to take a picture and upload. I did discover that making silk fusion in a larger format isn't as simple as something 4" x 6"; this resulted in some holes. But I love them and they're staying. You'll be the only ones to know that they weren't intentional!

The other thing I need to do is to get to the hardware store to get more staples for the staple gun. I have 3 pieces just waiting to be mounted and finished; I finally got everything I needed and the staple gun ran out after just three tacks. I'll be returning the Apres Ski pieces in a couple of weeks and need to get something new on the walls. I'd love to have a couple of the Pemi pieces ready to go!