The Gift of Friendship

Thanks to Anne Huskey-Lockard at http://elmilagrostudio.blogspot.com/ I have received this award. I am honored by her gift and the friendship she has extended to me for all these years. We have never met IRL but I feel that she is one of my most trusted friends. She is always there to listen to my petty problems and my big ones too, offering sound advice or just a shoulder to cry on. Now I will need to consult her as to how to put this award in my sidebar! I have much to learn about blogging yet. Anne outed me on her blog today. I had not told anyone that I had started a blog, just wondering if people would discover me on their own. Finally I did tell her, and this is the thanks I get;-)

Now I have the privilege of passing this Deborah award on.

First I want to award it to all my friends in my creativity group, Stitch 'n Bitch, aka S&B. April, Mary, Pinky, Karen and Joan are all members. We have been gathering nearly weekly for over 8 years now and Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week because of these gifted and compassionate friends. Mary started a blog to keep track of all our doings, check it out here: http://foxontherunarts.blogspot.com/. These gals are all so full of creativity and always supportive, I don't know what I'd do without them. Seriously.

I would also like to pass this award on to another friend who I have never met IRL, Martha at http://glitterbones.blogspot.com/ . We met through Internet connections nearly 2 years ago and have become fast friends and mutual supporters. This award really tells it like it is, "Friendship isn't about who you have known the longest, but who came and never left your side." I have a feeling that Martha and I will be friends for a long time. She creates some beautiful, whimsical, very colorful creative items. You really ought to pop over and take a look. She has a couple of other blogs too, one is about her farm life in Pennsylvania where she raises horses, cats, peacocks, chickens and soon a dog with any luck.

All these women are such a positive influence in my life and I am grateful and fortunate to be able to call them friends. After all, friendship is the best gift of all in my book. Thanks to all my friends.

One last thing, thank you all who have become my new followers today. I have tried to send private messages to you all but I don't know if you will get them or not so let me thank you here and now. My followers have doubled in one day and I appreciate the support. It makes it just that much more fun to have the blog.
Be well.

Hawk visitation

I've had a noble visitor today, this Red Tailed Hawk. I first discovered it in the yard upon stepping out the door but it flew up and landed on top of the chimney of the studio. My camera was in the studio so I couldn't snap a photo of it there. The fire was going and the smoke was billowing around the hawk. I was surprised it would stand there on top of the metal chimney cover, I can only assume it was not hot. Finally I took a chance and went down the stairs to the studio to retrieve the camera and the hawk flew away, only to land in a nearby locust tree.

The pictures taken from that location were not so good. He stayed there until finally I got tired of watching him and went off for a walk. Saw an Eagle flying overhead but it was too high to get a photo. When I returned I had forgotten about the hawk until I was standing outside again and heard a strange sound. I looked up to the roof and there he was again, perched on the TV antenna! Snapped a lot of photos then, he seemed to be posing and even turned around, the better to keep his eyes on me I suppose. I just looked, he is still perched up there. The regular birds in the yard don't seem to be alarmed by him, I wonder if he is feeling sick or something.

While I had the camera out I thought I'd record this further evidence that spring is indeed on the way. My snowdrops have come up and here is one brave little flower. My grandfather (the Bulgarian one) gave me these snow drop bulbs and I always remember him when they come up every year. Lots of daffodills are raising their green heads up too. Won't be long now.

Be well.

Red River progress

It doesn't look all that different but I thought I'd post the progress on The Red River. I have stitched on lots of sequins and beads and tiny rhinestones, plenty of fibers couched on. I have just applied some glue and will iron on some metallic foil after it dries. I'm thinking of trying some little pearls on it too, on the light side. We'll see. Hopefully you can see the sequins brightness by clicking on the photo to enlarge it.

Listening to Pandora radio today, my station I named Dave Matthews Band, it's now playing some Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Be well.

Postcard backs

These are the backs of some of the Bulgarian postcards. I love the handwriting. Note the address on the ones in the upper section, someone's name, Portland, America. There are no stamps or postmark so possibly they were enclosed in some other package.

Romantic postcards

My Grandfather emigrated from Bulgaria to the States in about 1920, leaving his sweetheart behind with the intention of soon returning to marry her and bring her to a new home in the USA. It took him 5 years but return he did. I like to imagine that these postcards with the romantic themes were ones that he and Grandma wrote to each other during those 5 years of separation. They are all written in Bulgarian so I have no way of knowing.

Who are those Viking looking fellows lurking in the background of the above picture? What is this liaison all about?

I find these to be such lovely cards and I hope you enjoy them too.
Be well.

Rocky

My poor Rocky boy has been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. He has been coughing and having very little stamina lately so I finally took him to the vets yesterday and got the bad news. Rock is 10 years old and still seems quite healthy in most aspects but this is not good news for his longevity. I wonder if there were some bad genes in this family. His parents both died young from cancer, his sister died at 6 and his brother died at 9. I made this little quilt of Rocky last year. I didn't want to wait to make it as a memorial to him, but instead made it while he was still a healthy boy. I hope to keep him walking with me past his 11th birthday. Now he is taking a diuretic and a heart pill. I need to have him stick around a bit longer.

Be well.

vintage postcards

I recently came into possession of a stack of postcards that had belonged to my Grandfather. He was born in Bulgaria in 1899 and emigrated to the USA around 1920. I cannot read the writing on these, it is all in beautiful Bulgarian handwriting. These are some of the stranger images.

Look closely at the image above. You can see "Death" holding his scythe, hovering next to the ill looking person.

What is going on here? It seems to me that this is a portrait of some writer, with his characters and stories lurking around him, as though we are seeing into his brain, into his thoughts.

Is this one some old soldier on his deathbed, saying farewell to his faithful charger?

I hope to add more of these postcard images in the future. I find them fascinating. I will show the backs on some too.

Be well.

Cherish finished

I finished this piece a couple of days ago. I quite like the bright contrasting colors and the lettering and beads and bits and bobs. It doesn't have a back on it, just the back of the fabric paper that is the base. I'm keeping it for now so will just pin it up somewhere where I can look at it. Will have to get that book out again and see what else I can get inspired to make from following it. The book being Mixed Media Explorations by Beryl Taylor.
Listening to an old Roger Miller CD today. I haven't heard him in years! Such catchy funny lyrics. My mom was a fan so we kids heard him growing up. My sister bought this CD and played it all the time when her kids were growing up, to their dismay. After they were grown up they suddenly wanted to hear Roger Miller again, they like all that old stuff my sister listened to. She can hardly keep her CD's, the kids are always borrowing them. Now I have borrowed it and will make a copy for back up for her. They also are big fans of Jim Croce and Elvis. I guess all these guys are dead now. So much great music out there, I'm going to try to always write what I am listening to when I post to the blog from now on.

"Kansas City Star, that's what I are!" They don't write lyrics like that any more. Good thing, heh heh.

Be well.

Rocky

Here is my tough guy Rocky. He is a Pit Bull. See the poor little teddy bear in his vicious jaws? Rocky likes to take his teddy bear on walks, carrying teddy all the way to the river and part way back. I usually have to bring teddy home. Once I left him in the woods where Rocky had dropped him and the next day he was gone, never to be seen again. I think a coyote took it. Maybe that teddy is in a coyote den somewhere, entertaining the pups.
Be well.

Roosevelt Elk

As I was driving to town a while back, I stopped to take some pictures of these noble Roosevelt Elk. Beautiful beasts, nearly as large as a horse. You wouldn't want to hit one with your car, you might come out worse than the elk would.

Be well.

Autumn Joy

Here is my little buddy Charlie. He is such a help in the studio.

This is what he was helping me with. It is about 12"x12". I used fabric paper for the background, some dyed lace and paper beads. No birds were harmed in the collecting of the feathers, I found them loose on the ground. This one is titled Autumn Joy.

Be well.

Cherish

I took the plunge and gave some lettering a try. First I wrote on the top and bottom pieces before I attached them to the main piece. That went so well that I went ahead and wrote on the pieces that were already attached and am satisfied with the results. I think I will try outlining the letters with black to make them stand out more. I didn't use ink, instead I used dye-na-flow paint. Not quite as saturated or vivid as I would have liked but I didn't have any liquid colored ink to use with my calligraphy pen. I used a metallic gold pen on the edges of the top and bottom pieces before I attached them too, wish I had used that on the side pieces before attaching them. Now I'd have to try to mark between my stitching lines. Live and learn. I like this.

Be well.

New piece with fabric paper

Yesterday I was wanting to work on something other than the Red River colorwash piece so I pulled out some fabric paper I recently made. If I'm going to be blogging I suppose I will have to start taking more pictures of my process. I neglected to do so this time so I don't have any pictures of the fabric paper before I began adding to it. I learned about fabric paper first from Beryl Taylor's book Mixed Media Explorations. I love that book, it is one of my favorites. More recently I bought Kelli Perkins book Stitch Alchemy and she really takes the fabric paper ball and runs with it. It is another book I love, she has filled it with so many wonderful ideas and great tutorials and fabulously colorful photos. Making fabric paper can be rather addicting and Stitch Alchemy gives lots of ideas as to how to use it. I took a piece that I cut down to 18" x 14". I hand stitched colorful scrim (cheesecloth), more fabric paper, and some fleece bits.

It isn't finished yet, not sure what I will do to it next. I wish I had done some kind of writing on the long rectangular pieces of fabric paper that I stitched on. I still can but if I make a mistake, they are on there already. Fabric paper is very stiff and thick, not easy to hand stitch through. One can machine stitch on it but I didn't want to. Probably I will write on something else and somehow attach the words if I decide to go in that direction. This is coming along really well for a quick bit of color play. I love the red on the dark pink scrim. Scrim takes dye so well and I usually will throw some pieces into the dye pot whenever I am dyeing fabric so I have lots of it. Found a whole bolt of it at a garage sale once, it was free. Free! A bolt of scrim! What a deal!

Be well.

Inspiration photo

This is the photo that I took inspiration from to begin the Red Road/River colorwash piece. Not sure where I found the photo, I didn't take it myself, so I can't give credit where credit is due. I'm not planning on selling this piece, so I guess no one is going to come after me.

Today is raining again. I'm in the studio listening to Guy Clark right now.

Be well

ATC Workshop

I went to my friend April's house yesterday where she was hosting an ATC (Artist Trading Card) making workshop. Some of us had made these before and some of us had not. The photo shows April's table covered with all the bits and bobs that can be used in making these cards. Everyone had a great time, there was much laughter and good natured teasing going on.

This photo shows the results of a few hours of play by some very creative women. ATC's are so addictive, I'll bet you can't make just one!

Progress

This is what the Red River looks like today. I have the dark and light sides stitched to the center red chenille piece with lots of fibers couched down on it. I will be continuing to couch and will also add beads to it eventually. I like to let these things develop on their own so will wait to see what else happens to it. Still liking this one!
Be well.

Red Chenille

Did you see the previous post? When I finished fusing the right, light half of this colorwash piece, I pinned it up on my design wall. I already had this unfinished piece up there

so I just pinned the fused piece on top of it. I so much liked the way the red faux chenille piece looked next to the line of red color wash, that I decided I must put red faux chenille in the middle of the colorwash piece. So I did. I had some left over pieces from the red chenille thing (I still haven't finished it nor have I named it) that filled in nicely.

Above you can see the two fused pieces with some faux red chenille between them. Yes! I love these serendipitous happenings! Further progress will be shown tomorrow. So please come back!

Be well.

Red River beginnings

Happy New Year! It has been raining solid for the past two days although I did get a reasonably dry walk in this morning with Rocky. He tried to get me to take him out again this afternoon but I said no.

Lately I have been working on this rather large project. It is approximately 45" X 35". Creating these color wash pieces is enjoyable but haven't made one in a couple of years. I like to leave all the one inch pieces with raw edges so I build it on a piece of fusible interfacing on top of a piece of cotton batting. After I have all the pieces in place I iron it and then can pick the whole thing up and take it to the sewing machine with no pins. Almost no pins, I do stick a few in there because the interfacing is only fusible on one side, so the batting isn't fused. Oh, and take my advice, don't iron this with your cutting mat underneath.

The camera is a good tool to use in viewing the quality of the wash of color. You can see the difference in the above photo, which I deemed was not blended well enough, and the one below, which is what I changed it to.

After I was satisfied with the placement of the colors to the right of the red strip, I cut the piece in half, following the line of the red strip. I ironed it and was able to move it to my design wall, out of the way. Before it was fused I was afraid that Charlie cat would jump up on the table and scatter fabric bits everywhere. He's a good cat, and never did jump up there. It is a high library table, I guess that helped deter him.

In my next post, I will show further development of this piece.
Be well.