The ultimate MS State joke

and unfortunately, it isn't a joke. This is a picture we took of the jumbotron during my oldest daughter's college graduation a couple of weeks ago. Six years of tuition to send her to a school where they can't spell "exercises." Sort of sad, isn't it?

As far as I'm concerned, State deserves every bad joke Ole Miss can come up with.

Gumbo and Jake

Gumbo (coolest cat in the world) and Jake the dog. It's pretty amazing these two get along as well as they do since they were introduced to each other when they were both a couple of years old. We got Gumbo (coolest cat in the world) as a kitten and didn't get Jake until a couple of years later, and he was already about 3 years old when we got him. Gumbo (coolest cat in the world) doesn't make any sound, he just makes the mouth movements that look like he should be meowing. He can also open the front door by himself, which totally wigs people out when they're sitting there and the door flings open and in walks the cat. We're working on teaching him to close it behind him but he's apparently a slow learner. We also have a black lab and 2 other cats. They're all pretty laid back and fight less than the kids ever did. One of the funniest things they do is that (my sweet baby) Boo Radley (kitty) will grab Jake around the snout with his little kitty arms and Jake flips his head up with Boo hanging on. That's great sport for them to do that, at least until they start knocking stuff over wrestling around. Boo is pretty entertaining all by himself, racing through the house and flopping around. He also comes on command, but none of that wussy "here, kitty, kitty" crap for him. I just holler "Boo Radley" at him and he comes flying and talking. If it weren't for the fact that he had long, jet black fur you'd think he had some Siamese in him for all the talking he does. He's very skittish around people, but very affectionate towards me. He also loves being a cat more than any other cat I've ever seen. The whole running and jumping and swatting and playing thing is great fun for him. He races me through the house (skidding on the wood floors) leaping over things on the way from my work room to the kitchen, and when he beats me into the kitchen, he flops (that's not an exaggeration either...you can actually hear him hit the floor) down in front of me like he's accomplished something special. He also spends about half his time on his back legs, like a squirrel. He comes to the side of my chair and sits up to be petted, sits up to swat at stuff, and sits up to play with his fox and rabbit. A real fox and rabbit, both from vintage stoles, that look pretty freaky to see him toting them around like trophies until you get used to it.

Ignore the fact that the rug needs vacuuming too.

Finally!

Some actual fabric-related content. Two finished tops that have to be quilted, but at least the tops are done. No idea what possessed me to make these, since I don't usually do fussy, pieced, precise measurement quilts, but they are what they are.

The one with the red is about 45x45 and uses a variety of commercial prints and a square of an African print on a background of Osnaburg. I'm thinking they'll both have very heavy quilting in a matching color and straight lines. Of course, that may change once I start quilting them, but for right now that's my intention. Lots of straight lines and angles for the quilting. You probably can't see it, but the WIDE borders are mitered at the corners, so at least the borders will probably be channel quilted in squares around the outside.

The one with the shiny insets is the Osnaburg again, with a beautiful gold/black block printed ribbon. Each piece of ribbon is surrounded by small black piping, and the small stripes on the left are more piping. The heavier vertical line is an even thicker piping. Top and left edges will have Osnaburg binding, bottom and right edges will have black binding. This one looks MUCH better in person than it does in the picture. It is about 36x45.

Merry Christmas!

HO HO HO! Or whatever sound flamingos make.

Life is........

"Good" is usually the end of that phrase and for the most part that's true, but occasionally, well, "life" interferes and other adjectives take the place of good. Interesting, expensive (in an emergency-visit-to-the-vet sort of way), funny, expensive (in a truck-that-crapped-out sort of way), exhausting, expensive (in a more-was-wrong-with-the-truck-than-they-originally-thought sort of way), exciting and expensive (in a daughter's-broken-tooth sort of way) are all appropriate adjectives this week.



My oldest daughter (not of aforementioned broken tooth fame) graduated from college Friday night in Starkville. She's not actually through with school, but she walked across the stage in the long black dress and got the empty diploma holder. I have no idea why they "walk" before they actually finish school, but I'm not complaining. I'm definitely pushing for the others to time their graduations for the Dec ceremony rather than the May one. Fewer people parading across the stage, less traffic to fight to get to the auditorium and plenty of seats. We got the obligatory pictures of her holding up the empty diploma folder (to be photoshopped at will later) with the tape measure and shots of full face and profile. Yeah, mugshot was the scenario on those. I'm just hoping my parents or sister got real photos instead of the silly ones we were taking. Not hoping for our sake, we're perfectly happy with the mugshots, but down the road somewhere she'll probably be glad to have nice pics of it too. Or not, knowing her. She wanted to dye her hair fuchsia to graduate but my mom stroked out so I caught the daughter and stopped her. Fortunately, I got to her before application of the neon dye, but unfortunately, I didn't get to her until after she'd already stripped and bleached the front of it preparing to dye it. She didn't look horrible with the bright yellow stripes on the sides of her face. Or maybe it wasn't horrible because the hat covered it up.



If she had decided to get a 3-toed sloth tattoo on her right cheek I'd have been OK with that too. She deserves it after all her hard work over the years. Way to go, baby!!!!!

Let it snow....and sleet, and rain, and get nasty....

Another reason I love the Kroger

This is a wall hanging I made for my mother yesterday. You'll notice that the red burlap backing is a different color in the second picture. Once I got it to her house and we decided where to hang it, the red was way too harsh so I mixed up a concoction of instant coffee and some wine colored Rit liquid dye and just sponged it on the exposed edges. A HUGE improvement on it. Of course, the original picture is pure crap since I just shot it on the way out the door and didn't look at it before leaving.

The piece is made with a paper grocery bag from the Kroger that I wet, wadded up and ironed dry. Then I used acrylics to paint on it, fused interfacing to the back and then sprayed with water, wadded and ironed again. I ironed from the front side this time to get the crackly looking effect on the paint. The whole thing was then painted with a brown poly wood stain and fused to the burlap.

Jute hanger, wooden clothespins at the top and 3 rust-colored bells with a little piece of greenery and a tiny plaid bow finish off the hanging loop.

She loves it and I'm happy with it, so it's all good. And I had so much fun playing with it that I think I'm going to do one for myself. Maybe a snowman so I can work some blue into it.

mystery solved!

The pattern is apparently called "peony" (some slight variations, i.e. pineys, paeony) and it is a variation of a Lemoyne Star block. Thanks to everyone who responded to my plea for help. It set me off on the right path to identify the block.

The Carolina Lily pattern that was suggested is very close, but it lacks the last 2 petals/leaves of a true Lemoyne Star/peony. The setting with the stems and vase are typical of the Carolina Lily, but the piecing is different. The leaves on the antique quilt are also pieced diamonds, not applique as most Carolina Lily patterns seem to be.

Antique quilt

The Craftsmen's guild had three antique (I'm using 'antique' in the generally accepted definition as signifying 100+ years old) quilts donated recently, and I'm trying to identify the specific pattern used on this one. It's obviously a tulip pattern of some description set on point and is hand pieced, with machine applique stems. Those are the tiniest machine stitches I've ever seen, too. Hand quilted in a Baptist fan pattern, and only one small area about 2x4 inches is missing the quilting stitches.

The green has faded a tremendous amount, based on the non-faded seam allowances, but the red shows very little change in color. The single-fold green print binding is completely worn through all the way around, but as a whole the quilt is in surprisingly good condition. The backing is maybe a homespun? So thin, with a such a loose weave, it almost looks like cheesecloth or drapery scrim at this point. There are areas of quilting where green thread was used but the vast majority of it was done with matching off-white. A couple of mends on the backing, a big round applique and a couple of smaller darned areas, but they are quilted with the original quilting so I'm assuming the fabric was repaired before being used. One pretty bad mildew-y looking spot towards the middle of it and some smaller rusty looking stains but all in all, a very pretty quilt. Total size is 78"x82".

Any information on the block pattern or fabrics or anything else about this quilt or time period would be greatly appreciated.

Finally! Pictures!

I finally got around to (finding the camera) (charging the batteries) (getting stuff together) taking some pictures of current stuff. These are 2 postcards and a quilt that I've done in the last few days. The first postcard is thread painting on batik, with tiny little Christmas ornament musical instruments. I love when Christmas rolls around so I can find all the cool music stuff. Miniatures and larger ones, although I don't ever really have a need for harps, lyres and French horns.

The second postcard is commercial print fabric with guitar strings and a pick. Both are 4"x6" and are intended as thank you gifts for friends.

The quilt is 28"x40" and I used a Loni Rossi commercial print and black. I'll win the lottery one day and buy a couple of bolts of the Michael Miller black too. I go through that stuff like toilet paper. You can still see the chalk quilting lines but I haven't washed it yet. This one has a facing rather than a binding because I wasn't happy with any configuration of any color binding showing at all. I'm using the facing more and more on my stuff and it's no longer the last option I consider. I don't like the pillowcase method at all and the facing gives the same effect with a different technique. 'Gye Nyame' got counted off for binding technique at the quilt show the year she won the big honking prize even though she also has a facing. Just one of those confusing comments that make you wonder if the judges are even looking at what they're grading. Or maybe if the scribes are a couple of quilts behind in the notes. My favorite comment this past show was "border needs more quilting." On a quilt that has no border. I've always thought it interesting that judges make comments like that to begin with, since it's a judgement call by the quilter for what effect they want to produce. It's about on a par with "I don't like that color" as far as useful critique. That partly explains why I tend to submit to art shows more and more rather than quilt shows.

Happy Birthday!

To me! Monday was my 49th birthday and I spent 3 absolutely wonderful days in New Orleans with no plans other than to enjoy myself. And I did! Spent some time in the quarter doing pretty much nothing, then ate, then hanging with one of my best friends and catching up on life and stuff. An incredibly relaxing, rejuvenating evening. Got up the next morning and checked out some of the prospect.1 stuff then off to the Rosetree glass blowing studio over in Algiers. Mark (the owner) was working on some large vases so I got to watch him blow glass for an hour or so, then visited with his wife for a while in the showroom. He does the most gorgeous work and I wanted one of each. http://www.rosetreeglass.com/ One of the best things is the studio itself. It's in an old movie theatre and it is so freaking cool. Go read his story (history link on the website) about getting through the storm too.



Katy and I spent the rest of the day screwing around on Magazine street window shopping in the rain, no less, and then a grabbed a bite to eat. Headed out to a bar eventually and avoided a fight with the pool league players then off to Frenchmen st to finish up the evening (morning?) before heading back to her place. I can't remember the last time I laughed that much either.



The weather was perfect, the company was perfect, and my batteries got recharged. Good to know that my muse still lives there. I came home with several ideas for designs and I'll let them sit in the back of my mind until they develop, but the NO inspired pieces are usually some of my favorites when they finally come to fruition. Something about the colors and line and movement really seem to wind up being good pieces. Everyone should have a specific 'trigger' like that for designing. It's my guaranteed cure for artist's block.



Now that I got the minication out of my system, it's time to get some work produced! I have to have new stuff to hang at New Stage in Jan and I mostly have pieces of pieces right now. Maybe getting a plan as to what to do next would help. Cut the fabric for a new piece or finish some of what I've already started, or quilt what I've already finished? Decisions, decisions.

Maybe at least one picture later today of a piece that's almost finished.

And more than 10 days!

I have no idea how time gets away from me like it does. I look back and think "where did the time go, and why don't I have anything to show for it?" I did manage to crank out a bunch of non-fiber Christmas ornaments to put at ARTichoke this week, and I got a quilt top done today, along with 2 more designs in my head. The ornaments were cute and I had fun taking a bunch of light bulbs apart to make them. Other than that, I've been pretty useless. We headed down to see Cassandra Wilson last weekend but after just a couple of hours it got a bit chilly so we headed home. I love her music so I hated wimping out like that.

When I took the quilt over to the casino, I stopped in at the Attic Gallery in Vicksburg and wound up leaving 4 pieces with them. One sold within just a couple of days so that was good. The gallery itself is so very cool too! I could spend hours in there just poking around at all the great art they have. Stacked, piled, leaned, puddled everywhere. I was in heaven for the 2 or so hours I spent just looking. Lots of local and regional artists and folk art, craft, outsider, all kinds of cool stuff.

My oldest child is so sick of the incompetence at MS State that she now says she's ashamed it will even have that name on her degree. For a child who loves learning and is going into the education field, it says a lot that they are so bad she feels that way about them. At least they haven't turned her off of teaching (yet) just student-ing. Who knows how the other 2 are doing. Our usual conversations go something like this:

ME: How are you doing in your classes?

THEM: OK as far as I know

ME: How do you not know what your grades are?

THEM: Well, I had a test a couple of weeks ago and I passed it.

ME: What about the rest of your classes?

THEM: Can you deposit some money in my account please?

Occasionally, there is some variation in the first 5 lines of that conversation, but the 6th always rolls around eventually. I'll just be happy for the day that one of them, any one of them, finally graduates.

If there is anyone in existence with a more mundane life than mine, I'm glad I don't know them. They're probably the most boring person on the planet.

10 days!

Time flies! I've been busy painting fabric and more fabric. I started out doing my own thing and then I was invited to an artist demo at ARTichoke next Saturday. I wanted to do a make it and take it thing so I asked if I could do some fabric painting with the visitors. Of course, that means I have to get a bunch of samples (and small things to sell!) ready. Hence my awakeness at 4:00 am. It takes a while for the paint to dry so I do a piece, set it aside to dry and start on another piece. I have 3 or 4 pieces in varying stages of paint/dry all over the house and as soon as I deem them done, I'll get started on the construction. I'm thinking checkbook covers, placemats, table runners and journal covers. We'll have small pieces of fabric and plenty of house paint available for the visitors to create their own masterpieces on this Saturday. If anyone is in Jackson and wants to come play with us, it's from 10-2 at ARTichoke on Fortification St, between Jitney 14 and New Stage.

I have to deliver 'Piano Tornado' to the casino in Vicksburg tomorrow so it will be hanging when the casino opens. I'm not sure when the grand opening is though. The weather has been so nice the last couple of days I'm sort of looking forward to the short roadtrip. I hope it stays nice through the weekend too, since I'll be working outside for the demo.

Another post!

Can y'all believe it? Two posts in three days! I've been having fun with the fabric painting stuff that (hopefully) will eventually become whole-cloth pieces. Or maybe I'll just keep painting fabric and then have a stack of painted fabric and no quilts. I'm sort of stuck on the graphic stuff right now, but I can feel the Jackson Pollack coming soon. I like the geometrics but I have to restrain myself from getting more and more non-geometric as I'm working on them. When I get to the point that I want to just do it freehand, I stop and call it finished. It's a bit hard to force myself to keep it graphic looking, but I think it's good practice to work on pure abstracts. Line and shape and color are much more important. Maybe another 1 or 2 of these, then it's off to the freeform abstracts. I'm looking forward to the comparison between the 2 styles when I get enough to compare.

I added a little more red to the first one, and did the second one this morning. I like the second one much better.

"Don't feel bad" I tell myself

Nobody else is updating their blog with any frequency either. But I do have pics today! My youngest daughter on the cover of a local magazine and a whole cloth piece that I just HAD to do. It's been rattling around in my head for a a couple of weeks and I finally just bit the bullet and did it. I like the process so well I'll probably do some more of them. No idea where the abstract, graphic sort of feel to it came from but I see great possibilities for different designs. I had originally intended to use some text on these, until the subject came up on the QuiltArt list and then it sort of felt like I'd be jumping on the bandwagon with it, so that idea may have to wait, although the lyrics and words I want to use are still there and still an option. White PFD fabric with acrylic and rust staining. Stamps, stencils, templates and masking tape shapes. The rust stained stripes are from the piano sound board in my front yard. Most people have garden decorations. I have a 400 lb chunk of a piano. I also rust stained stripes on a white linen dress with it the other day. Totally cool, and the dress only cost a quarter at the Salvation Army.


The cover shot is for a new magazine called Metro Teen and it's published by the same people who did the other magazine she was on the cover of. There are several pictures of her throughout the magazine too and they all look great! I might be biased.

like a bee

My poor blog looks so neglected! Maybe because it is. Too much drama and crisis in my life lately. 3 funerals in less than 2 weeks, all sudden and newsworthy, and nothing I want to talk about. Just say it's been a couple of weeks of rough going, so I sort of have an excuse for not updating.
Now that I am updating, I have news! I submitted for a corporate art exhibit at a casino being built in Vicksburg and I am officially one of their "inaugural artists" as of yesterday! The stuff hangs in Oct, reception in Jan, and hopefully sold! I've also got to get stuff made for the show at the New Stage Theatre in Jan and Feb. Trying to develop an outline for 2 classes, and I'm the new incoming VP of my 'home' quilt guild! I'm really excited about that, and will write more on it later. My brain is still sort of scattered from the last week or so.
My oldest daughter is on the cover of another magazine and we just got a stack of copies of it so I'll have to scan that and post it.
7 quilts off to the Pinebelt show next week and then a quilt/wallhanging/crib set thing for the sis-in-law's baby, which is expected soon!! Maybe after that I can take a break.

busy, busy

Hung a bunch of my quilts at Cups, a local coffee shop chain (better than Starsucks!) yesterday with my friend Chris. I wish she lived a bit closer to my regular orbit so I could see her more often, but it was fun spending some time with her, and meeting the owner at Cups. The work will be hanging through the end of Sept, then some of them are off to the show in Hattiesburg, and hopefully some will be off to the casino in Vicksburg shortly after that. No word on acceptances for that yet though.

An email the other day about putting together an exhibit at the local community theatre at the end of January in conjunction with their performance of the Gee's Bend play. No, before you ask, the exhibit won't be Gee's Bend-ish quilts created for the production but a variety of quilts to tie in with the quilting theme. I have to go down next week to see the space and how to hang them and that sort of thing. I love that the theatre has related art exhibits for each play too. They had an invitational for the current "Sherlock Holmes" and local artists created SH related work. The next production is To Kill a Mockingbird, so much a favorite that my cat is named Boo Radley.

Some other stuff coming up or already happened, but I've been up, glued to Ike reports since about 2:30 and my thinking is a little fractured, so you're getting stream of consciousness more than any real thoughtful posting. Hey! At least I'm putting a post up!

I had big plans to post a picture too, but I'm on the laptop so I can watch the weather channel so the pic will have to wait.

I'm off to a sew day today with a group of other quilters and I am inordinately excited about it. I know a couple of them, but not as well as I'd like to, am acquainted with a couple others and don't know a couple of them at all. Judging from the ones I do know, I'm sure I'll like all of them and would love to get to know them better. No idea why it's so hard for me to reach out and do the work involved to make friends, but I'm always grateful when others make the effort to include me. There's probably some deep psychological reason for that, or maybe it's just because I'm in the habit of being solitary and a bit isolated in my daily life. I do try to get involved with stuff, and don't mind volunteering and being active, but that's different than making friends.

Speaking of being active, another surprise the other day when I was asked to be one of the committee chairs for the upcoming quilt show this fall. I scribed last year and absolutely loved it! I can still scribe this year since my duties won't overlap the days of judging. We've also put together a very basic crit group and I'm hoping my scribe duties will expose me to some real critiques from the judges. I'd love to be able to apply some of that to my own work also.

After much angst (and laughter with Cindy) we have finally gotten the October gathering put together I think. We even got the info together for the newsletter, which Leslie got out even though she was in the middle of Gustav! The gathering is on the coast, and I'm hoping to get word on a training seminar in Ocean Springs I've applied for through the Arts Alliance that will be held the 3 days following the seminar. One trip to the coast instead of 2 would be nice since the following weekend is the Hattiesburg show, and that's halfway to the coast. Lots of driving (and gas!!) in a week and a half if I have to go down and back for each.

Big prayers for everyone in the path of Ike, and I am dreading the aftermath with so many people deciding to ride it out. I can't help but think of the hurricane party at the apartment complex on the coast during Camille, and the result of that.

"The Storm"

It's been a week of unbelievable tragedy and crisis for someone I love very much, so my posting and working has suffered. I've done some mindless piecing on a quilt sort of loosely based on one I saw earlier in the week (thanks Rosemary!) that was loosely based on one she saw in a magazine. It is morphing from what I started with to something a little more involved, but the base idea is still there.

The only piece I have actually finished this week is the one I did for the Breaking Traditions show. It's another Katrina piece using some more of my debris, and it was another one that was hard to work through. The storm pieces are getting easier, but still not (maybe never) easy. And now we're all on edge with Gus wandering around. This piece is 12"x12" and constructed on a commercial print cotton base using blue tarp, a scrap of Army fatigue, reverse appliqued Red Cross, scraps and bits and orts of MRE packaging, nails, a chunk of roofing, and a bunch of other stuff. A paint-covered screwdriver, a beaded cross, and some Mardi Gras doubloons from the 70s. Between working on this piece, the personal crisis and the nerves from Gus, I'm about wiped out emotionally this week.

OK, enough whining and on to the picture!

We're gonna give it a shot

Me and my big ideas! We're getting an on-line art quilt crit group together. So far, we have 7 people participating, and once the fog clears from my brain I'll be putting together the "official" guidelines and rules. Right now, I'm just sending out links to existing crit forms and info so everyone will have an idea of the direction we're trying to go. I'm actually sort of looking forward to it too. I've discovered that I can learn as much about my own work by analyzing other people's as I do by analyzing my own. It's almost easier to define and verbalize the elements of someone else's quilt. Maybe I just "know" in my head how I want to do something without having to put much more thought into it than "it looks better at the bottom than it does at the side" when I'm working on my own stuff. Looking at someone else's, I have to decide specifically WHY it looks better at the bottom and be able to put that into words.

Concentrating on the art aspect can only help and it's never a bad thing to be able to get some insight into how others perceive your strengths and weaknesses in design, color, etc.

A post!

Not an important one, or an informative one, and probably not even an interesting one. But a post nonetheless, which is more than I can claim from the last 2 weeks or so. Deadlines for three really big things that have all fallen at the same time. 2 show submissions with the gobs of inherent paperwork, and a newsletter deadline with a bunch of information and phone calls back and forth and emails flying to get complete and accurate info.

Both show submissions are going out today, then a couple of quilts to finish up for one of the shows and I'll get a break. I think. At least the kids are all back at school so I have the time for my own work. Having the energy and motivation is a different story.

My oldest daughter started her practice teaching yesterday to finish her degree to be a high school English teacher and she is SOOO excited. She's assigned to a school less than 2 blocks from her apartment so she plans to walk as often as possible. Her original assignment was 41 miles away and we were sweating the gas costs for an entire semester of that commute. She's thrilled with the teacher she's assigned to, and she has only Jrs and Srs and at least one AP class to work with. She's in hog heaven and can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! We're incredibly proud of her.