Luna's Baublebilities

It has only been a little crazy here.

You know - broken ankles, new cows and all that.

But it's beautiful. 

These apple trees are done blossoming and have hard little green fruits on them.  This photo of them in the mist really got my gears turning - I'd love to do an embroidery with multiple layers of hand dyed organza for the misty background and thousands of tiny french knots for the blossoms,  maybe when I'm 80 and have time to sit around long enough to get it done!

This Spring Holiday visitor would be fun to embroider, too. 



All that texture!

And those gorgeous golden eyes.
















.....

It has been hot and stormy here for the past few days.  It feels like we have gone straight from early April to mid August.  The leaves are about 3 weeks ahead of schedule and if it ever dries out, Bry will have to mow the lawn.  I'll post outdoor photos here or at the Beorningstead when I get a chance to take some.  Right now I have a little niece and nephew keeping me busy today. 

In the meantime - here's a photo of my daughter's new color.    The purple goes well with that orange Zombie Prom shirt, no?















And here are some photos of my needle case in progress.  My photography table is still buried in junk (see messy studio photos below) so I took these under halogen lights.  NOT a good idea for getting accurate colors.  I adjusted the color temperature as best I could but it's still not quite true. 


I've got a lot of trapunto and embedded objects going on in the midst of all those french knots and seed stitch.  I'm really enjoying the process and am eager to experiment with it some more.

Tomorrow my goal is to get my studio cleaned up a bit so I can get photos of some beadwork I've been working on - some really gorgeous and sparkley Right Angle Weave bracelets, a sample bracelet for my upcoming Herrignbone weave bracelet class and a few bead strung necklaces.  I also want to do some silk screening and I need to work on some cotton voile scarves for summer - a new line I'm trying.

So wish me luck- this is what I'm contending with right now.  But we've built some new storage and re-thought our se of the pantry space behind my studio so mavbe I'll be able to organize better so I can work smarter in the future.  Or maybe I'm just always going to be a slob!














.......

I love conference weekend.  Our family traditionally goes out to the chapel on both Saturday and Sunday to watch conference in the "Cry Room" (aka the Relief Society room) where Maxx can stretch out, color and play a bit without being disruptive to those who want a quiet conference experience.  Molly and I bring a craft project to work on - some people think that's irreverent but honestly I HAVE to keep my hands busy.  I used to take copious notes with marvelous doodles in the margins but since the arrival of Maxx, I have been unable to engage in note taking.  As soon as I have a pen in my hand, he wants to be involved.  Maxx involved = mom fails to process anything beyond her own frustration.




So this conference, I started work on a needle case to match my lovely scissors case.  It has two layers of dyed muslin with buttons and yarn caught between in a sort of faux trapunto.  I'm really liking how it is shaping up so far but I think I've got just a few more hours to go before it's really done . . . .

O.K.  First day of school went amazingly well.  Everyone got on the bus without tears or drama and everyone came home alive - tired and over stimulated but alive and well.

Here are some photos of recent projects: 


One measly photo of my teal velvet Tarrot pouch. It really is gorgeous but I don't have a good photo set up here yet and getting a good photo of velvet is hard enough - throw in some matte gold lined aqua seed beads, some disco sparkle carmine roundelles and sweet milky almost-white aqua table cuts and I'm lost.  I'm lucky this one came out as well as it did. 


I'll try again as soon as I've got some lights set up.



Here is my new scissors case.   It has been languishing in my WISP box for a couple of years now but is finally finished.  I got the basic idea from this article, Jennifer Rochester's A Mermaid's Chatelaine from the Embroiderer's Guild.  Obviously, I strayed from the suggested color theme a bit. 




I didn't follow the directions very well and I don't intend to complete the entire Chatelaine but I love the little scissors case and I'm currently working on a cover for a needle book using the  techniques from the scissors case.  I will use a nice, thick flannel for my needle pages and the same lightweight linen/cotton blend as the scissors case for the decorative cover. 


Can you tell that I really love French Knots?  I just discovered that I like seed stitch, as well.  Don't know why I avoided it for so long.

Off to make dinner - whatever that turns out to be!














. . . . 

We attended Conference at the Chapel this weekend.  Sometimes, we watch the Saturday sessions at home but this spring, we knew it would be too much of a temptation to go over and work on the Beorningstead in the beautiful weather - 89 degrees.  (That's just wrong, by the way.  That's mid-July weather, not April.)

So I worked on some embroidery.

Remember this post?  I've gotten this far.  I'm making grape leaves for a multi-dimensional embroidery piece that I will probably finish sometime in 2050.  I got as far as tacking the wire down and whip-stitching the middle vein down.  The edges require some sort of buttonhole variation and I wasn't up to trying to parse the instructions for that stitch while also trying to hear what was happening in conference.  (Lots and lots of discussion about the importance of teaching children and strengthening our families.)

I have a sort of half-baked plan for this piece that is marginally related to the Beorningstead and Burnett Hollow.  The further I take it, the less pleased I am. It is a bit too iconic.  It started as a non-trad Asissi work piece.  I guess it's working as far as that goes.  The sky and ground are covered with hand dyed variegated cotton thread.  More embellishment is planned, I just need some bravery and a bit more time.  Maybe in October.  ;)   (Edit - May 3, 2010 - This weeks TAST 2 stitch is Cloud Filling.  I haven't had time for TAST the last few weeks but I was tickled to find that this week's challenge stitch is something I'm already familiar with!  I used Cloud Filling on the Peacock above - the green ground area is mostly that stitch.  You can find out more about TAST 2010 and see how to do Could Filling yourself at Pin Tangle.  Sharon is one of my fiber heroes.)

And I had a chance to try Portuguese Border Stitch from TAST 2.


I removed the unfortunate border I had here earlier and replaced it with  Portuguese Border with teeny seed beads tucked into the openings.    I'm not sure that it might not be a bit heavy-handed for this piece right here?















Maxx played ball between sessions and had fun playing with pattern blocks with Melanie.  He's convinced that he will marry her someday - just like all the other older girls who are nice to him.  (he's got good taste, though, all of his "girlfriends" are very sweet, intelligent and good with younger kids.)

Conference rarely falls on Easter.  To make the day more special, the branch had a Ham dinner with potluck between sessions.  Then we visited Meemo in the evening.  The Easter Bunny has agreed to visit over Spring Break for a Spring Holiday event over at the grandparents.  More about that next week.  
     




. . . . .

So.  I have determined 3 things that have a direct impact on my eczema.  It has nothing to do with lotions that I may or may not smear on my face.  It's all about Zinc and  B vitamins.

And stress.

When I feel like I want to tear my face off because it is itching sooooo much I could scream, that means it is time for Luna to sit down, take a few deep breaths, refrain from clawing at her ears and eyelids for a minute and just breathe.

Good Lord.  Is this what my life has come to?

Guess so.

Right now the blood pressure raising, tension headache causing, itch inducing factors in my life are; 

Maxx's CSE meeting at 1:45 this afternoon.  I'm almost sick to my stomach.  1st grade is coming.  THEY are going to expect my rambunctious FAS baby to SIT at a desk and do worksheets - a LOT.  It is going to be very hard for him.  I'm pretty sure that most of the staff are not on board with the realities of FAS.  I don't want my kid in an endless cycle of detention.  I don't want him relegated to a Special Ed classroom. 

Molly's Opening Night.  Friday - we're all gonna be toast by then. 

NYS sales tax.  I have to go through a years's worth of sales and figure out what items I shipped to adresses in  NYS, figure out what tax district that address is in and calculate to the penny the tax that I have to send to NYS.  BY MARCH 22.   I simply haven't kept good enough records of these transactions this year. I'll be able to re-construct it but it will take time and I'm too chicken to just fudge it.  Oh - and I have to go back through my purchases and determine which items that were shipped from OUTSIDE NYS are subject to NYS sales tax - basically anything that doesn't get re-sold or become part of something that I sell.  By March 22nd. 

IRS tax return.  I haven't even started.  Really.

The housework.   The budget.   Bryan's job or not-job next year.

The other house.  The Fort Jackson Bridge is going to close next Monday for repairs.  Our other house is about to get about 10- 15 miles further away.  We debated about trying desperately to get moved over there this week but we have no water yet and very few electrical fixtures installed and the living room isn't ready for the woodstove yet. And we have soooo many demands and obligations on our time right now.  Bry is trying to make up at work and at Church for being relatively out of commission for over three weeks in February as it is.

O.K.  I'm getting itchy again.

On a happier note - I've got a project I want to take a stab at in the midst of all this stress.  SLC Arts Council is planning a special gallery exhibit/sale to benefit our multi-arts center project.  The exhibit will be called Limited Space and all proceeds will go toward our fund for renovating Damon Hall to house classroom space, galleries, a performance space and several specialized studios for glass, ceramics & jewelry.   We're acepting works in all media that are no larger than 40 square inches for this benefit.

I've been pondering this project for several weeks and it finally appeared on paper last night.  I'll use techniques from Embroidered Flora and Fauna - I bought it with a coupon at Joanne Fabrics many months ago and have been 'itching' to try some of these techniques for a long time.

I think the image of eggs in a nest is appropriate on a lot of levels right now.  The Arts Council is growing rapidly.  We won't fit in our little egg much longer.

On a personal level, I feel like I really need to transform into a more productive creature.  I desperately need to learn how to fly.  Lately I feel like I just keep falling out of the nest.











 . . . . .

It is turning out to be a very low key vacation.  We had expected to do tons of work over at the Beorningstead this week but Bry has been down with a cold for well over a week.  He took two days off work last week, missed two Sundays in a row at Church and has been just plain tired and sickly for a long time.  The kids have both got it, too.   I'm the only one not sickly.  That's a bit of a change.

My Umbrella Swift (aka Umbrella Fish - Maxx is great!) and all of my various yarns arrived last week.  They have been pre-washed are now drying.  I'm pondering color palettes and record keeping. 

I started out my dyeing career with keeping records.  I used to have a nice home made swatch book that had a 2 small squares of fabric - one cotton and one silk - for each dye color I had.  That fell apart years ago.  I don't even know where the swatches are anymore.  I don't usually dye for specific color outcomes.  My process is much more intuitive than that.  I've learned enough about how colors overlay and how they may or may not shift on silk as compared to cotton that I just throw things in a bucket and know that the result will be pleasing - or at least interesting. 

That will all change with this new line of threads.  I need to develop reliably reproduceable colorways and learn how to dye with procion on wool blends.  Wool is usually dyed with acid dyes but some of my wool has rayon or bamboo blended in and acid dyes won't touch the plant fibers at all so I have to use procion for those blends.  I also want my colorways to "translate" across the line of threads I've got so I'll hav eto be using the same dyes and colors.  I will have to do several swatch tests to learn how colors interact on the wool and wool blends before I jump in headfirst and dye up all this yarn.  I'm a little intimidated, but excited, too. 

This is a good thing.  On Thursday, Don Mandigo stopped into the Arts Council to do some Valentine's shopping for his wife and he asked if I was creating anything new.  We chatted for a minute and our conversation reminded me that one can't grow as an artist or a person if one is too comfortable, mucking about doing the same old thing all the time.  

Well, I won't be mucking about with the same old stuff all year this year!  I also got a shipment of acrylic felt to cover my print table with last week so I'm all set to play with breakdown printing , too.  I'll be setting up my printing screens for that when I prepare my first test batch of wool fibers. 

Gearing up for these two new processes feels a bit like jumping on the swing at my Grandmother's house.  The monkey swing swooped out over a big drop off where the driveway was.  If you planned your swing just right, you could swoop around the tree, spinning out over the driveway, swing back and wrap halfway around the tree on the way back, landing on your feet.  If you planed badly, you could slam against the tree or scrape bits of skin off your knees or elbows or fumble your landing and end up in the dirt.  

Sadly the tree and the house are gone now.  I took this photo on the last morning of the house - it was a very rainy and sad morning.

I just bought an Umbrella Swift.  I know - pretty strange, right?

Maybe not.  I recently ordered some silk and silk blend yarns and threads from Aurora silk and Dharma Trading Company.  I plan to start a line of silk, wool and cotton embroidery threads.  I'm really enjoying my adventures in Crazy quilting but I hate the fact that I can't easily get my hands on really great threads without breaking my hobby budget.  I dyed some DMC cotton pearle about a year ago and I liked the result but I'm ready to play with some new textures and it feels like a good time to experiment with a new, but related, product line. 

The first package of silk threads arrived last night.   Oooooohh!   They are so soft, so shiny, so perfectly wonderful!  They are also impossibly slippy and full of static.  Silk has an electrical charge which makes it particularly susceptible to static cling - that is part of the magic in a silk dress, the fabric has a life of its own as it simultaneously clings and flows around the body.   Last week, my friend Suzy showed some impressively tidy and tiny weaving she had done with sewing weight silk thread.  She had a great deal of trouble with her thread while preparing her project and now has a leftover mass of tangled silk thread - thanks to slippery, staticy silk.  She was told this weekend that she needed an umbrella swift to avoid the problem in the future.

Those of you who work with fiber are nodding your heads knowingly. 

An umbrella swift is a curious contraption that expands to fit the width of you skein of thread or yarn and spins as you pull yarn off to load your warping board, fill your shuttle bobbin, make a ball to stow in your knitting bag or, in my case, make smaller skeins for dyeing.  I was going to try to do without one, making my ids or my husband hold the skein apart for me, but I found a Lacis umbrella swift for under $40.00 online today. 

It is on its way and will probably arrive just in time for me to start experimenting with new colorways.  Yay!




. . . .

I discovered Mimi Kirchner's dolls through another blog that I follow.  I love her work. 

Maxx wants one of these amazing tatooed man dolls but with a price tag in the hundreds, and considering that both of his Pocket Monkeys were discovered mangled in the sandbox last summer, I don't think that will be happening soon. 

They are impressive and you have to admit - using skin tone dyed toille for a tatooed torso is incredibly clever. 

She has tatooed ladies, too.  And kittens and patterns and teacup pincushions in her Etsy shop.


This blonde guy looks like he is related to my brother-in-law, Rich.














. . . . .

Remember when I wrote this waaaay back last year?

"I hate always failing at my New Year's Resolutions. Often I pretend not to make any but end up keeping a secret mental list of untrackable and therefore unattainable goals. This year will be different. I have just a few main goals and I'll be blogging about them so hopefully I'll be able to keep track of my progress and actually succeed at something."

HA! 














Take care of my body - Fail
Manage all aspect of my business without allowing it to overtake my life - Fail
Post regularly about my shops and my creative endeavors - Fail.



I'm going to get back on the horse and try these again in 2010.  Maybe I'll get it right this time - or at least earn a C.  A C would be better than an F.

I can at least post these photos of my most recently finished (?) crazy quilt block.  I am particularly proud of the grape clusters.  Those were fun.  You can see this block in person right now at the SLC Arts Council's Fiber Arts Showcase exhibit at 51 Market Street Postdam.  It's not for sale, though.  Crazy Quilting is strictly a Sunday Sanity activity for me right now.

Speaking of grades and goals.  Molly is going back to school.  I am waiting for the guidance counselor to call back this morning.  I'm so conflicted.  I have really been enjoying putting together her curriculum but it is obvious that she is not working hard enough. We have reached the mother-daughter stage where I cannot push her any further without unleashing the full force of my fury some days and that's not a happy place for either of us to be. 

She also wants to participate in the drama program - apparently the district has hired a top-notch music educator who is doing really wonderful things with the kids.  Have I mentioned that Molly has an incredible voice?  I have a fairly sweet little voice that blends well in the choir (when I'm not croaking sick) and I am a "Twinkle,Ttwinkle Little Star" virtuoso, it having been the lullaby of choice for the last 15 years or so but I've never had the range, power or confidence that MB is developing.  I think she may be taking after her Uncle Jonathan and she should get more vocal training than I can provide.  And have you seen her dramatic recitation of the Highwayman?  Holey cow.  Where did she come from anyway? 

She also talks abut Doctors Without Borders a lot lately.   It is an agency she would like to work with.   BOCES has a nursing program for juniors and seniors that would give her education and experience in health care early on (read - before obtaining enormous college debt) so she could decide whether or not medicine is a field she can really manage. 

I worry about social drama.  So Much.  I worry a lot about Math.  And homework.  I worry about how on earth she will catch the bus every morning.  (I fear that it will involve me getting up at 5 and pelting her with ice cubes and threats until she is dressed and out the door.  I'll probably have a stroke).  I worry that my unbelievably enjoyable teenager will turn into a miserable mean girl who hates her mother by imperceptible degrees.  I worry that she will hate the whole High School Social box.  Neither Bry nor I fit comfortably into the expected mold back when we were in school and I'm sure MB won't fit either.  (Strangely, I don't worry about that with Maxx.  He seems to be creating his own mold already, becoming the class clown in Kindergarten.)

Maybe Molly will prove to be tougher than I ever was.  Maybe staying home and studying in her own way and talking about what sort of person she wants to become has given her more courage than my parents were able to give to me.  Maybe she will make friends who help her learn to laugh at herself and the stresses in her life.   (Thank you John and Liesl and Kim and Lee and Laurie and Angie and Bill and the list is really too long when I sit and think about it )  Maybe she'll finally learn that Math won't kill her.  Who knows.  She lookslike a survivor to me - see how she rocks this retro '80's hair thing?










. . . .

Finally some photos! Here are pics of three scarves I painted this weekend.


I had a deadline getting them out and my house was full of static this weekend so I didn't get a chance to get big shots of them - but here are some details.

The first 3 photos are of two blossom scarves in blue - a very pale blue with subtle ripple lines for one and a slightly bolder palette for the second. these were pleasant and peaceful to paint. Very simple, no complicated blends or fussy resists. The blossoms have been accented with a pearlescent white textile paint on one side to add some texture and extra shimmer to the silk










The next 5 photos are of a Color Theory scarf - probably the best one of my career so far. I love to blend colors on silk and the Color Theory scarves allow me to really play with that process.





I start with a blank white scarf, doodle on some swirley lines, including lots of spirals, and a few circles and other closed shapes. I fill my palette with bright primary and secondary colors and start painting. Using lots of sumi brushes (one for oranges, one for purples, one for greens, one for just yellow - you get the pictue) to avoid mud, I begin at one end and apply pure washes of color along the resist lines that shift from one hue to the next, following the full spectrum of my dyes.

I have to pay attention to the curves, spirals and open spaces around the area I am painting so that I can plan to have a complimetary color on the other side of the resist line.








Spirals are really excellent as the color blend happens so beautifully and naturally within the curve. A sumi brush already loaded with magenta, dipped into yellow and brushed along the curve of a spiral will lay out a gorgeous blend beginning with pure yellow, becoming yellow orange - orange and then finaly a bright, warm magenta. It's like magic.


















Finally, Molly has been bitten by the Chicken Scratch bug. She worked up a few samples that really impressed me. She's so cool - she was able to take fairly rigid stitch structure and morph it into something that is still recognizeable as Chicken Scratch but is also new and inventive.

I'm so glad that I'm participating in this challenge!

Yesterday was a miserable day. I'm struggling with long term exhaustion, Seasonal Blues, an overwhelming list of tasks that I'm consistently not getting done, a recalcitrant homeschooler and a constant level of domestic stress caused by the cold, this old house and my husband's job & church calling demands. All of that peaked yesterday and I was feeling like I just didn't have anything left for anyone or anything.








So I played with January's Stitch explorer stitch yesterday and today I feel a bit renewed.

I really need to get my hands on a copy of Lifting Depression, a book by neuroscientist, Kelly Lambert. Lambet's work shows that there is a direct correlation between our state of happiness and performing physical labor to accomplish a task. The labor may be something as small and detail oriented as stitching, knitting or beading or as large and vigorous as stacking wood or tending a garden. Regardless of the exertion required, the act of working with our bodies in these ways triggers a series of chemical processes in the brain that lead to a natural state of happiness. Brilliant!



I got to take part in a little of that yesterday. This month's stitch is Chicken Scratch. I played with two variations. I did not have any gingham, which is the traditional backing fabric for Chicken Scratch, but I did have a red and white checked fabric with large red squares and teeny white squares.

I worked large stars & tiny circles in both black and white.






Then I worked lage circles (squares) and tiny stars in blue. I love them both. The stitch works up quickly and easily into a vintage look pattern. Check out Sharon's January Stitch Explorer challenge post for links to instructions.