Two Jackets

This knitting has been going on and off and on again for months, and I finally decided to finish up. I promised to knit this purple and red jacket for Nancy B. and the darker purple one below for Judy S.

Taking pictures of myself in two different mirrors. Not always effective.
Nancy's jacket is number 10,  made from Gina and Rastita, and is all wool.
Judy is allergic to wool and her jacket, number 11, is made from Kudo and Goshen, a combo of cotton, silk, rayon and modal.

 

And while I was rearranging my yarn, I found a started diamond using a combo of  Kudo and Taiyo.

I have no records of who this is for...maybe a jacket for me!

November Night

 November Night
Hand dyed cottons and silk, fused, machine quilted and hand embroidered. 12.5"x 24.5"
$300 Email me. SOLD

 

The background colors are quite dark and difficult to photograph, yet have lots of different colors in the mix.

Remaking a Classic

While I was mentoring Maddie, I dragged out cartoons of former work, to illustrate how to make a quilt from a full size drawing. One of them was the pattern for October Gift. 

Looking at the pattern got my juices flowing and I decided to tackle this design again. This remaking required that I come up with an alternate color scheme since I really don't have the same fabrics in my stash, making it difficult to match the original. I decided on nighttime colors.

And when I went to look at the silks I have (for the moon) I saw I was also out of moon colors. Since I have dyed silk yarn in the microwave, I figured I could do the same with silk fabrics. Yup. It worked. I used acid dyes and vinegar, painting the silks on a cut and opened trash bag. Then I folded it up and nuked it for 2 minutes. 

The dyes I used were food colors! But they work great and are a lot less messy than the powders. When I did the wash out, there was no color in the rinse water. It all stayed in the silk. I did two half yards, to soak up the wetness without it running all over the place. 

Presenting the Work #2

 

Tada! Maddie's finished piece, her first, quilted and mounted on the board. She very carefully chose the paint colors to match and contrast with the colors in the quilt.
For our second lesson we discussed planned designs, how to take them from drawing to fabric, and how to make a really big design. I don't think I have talked much about large designs in a while. but just for the record, here's the idea. While I often used my overhead projector and transparencies, not everyone has those at their fingertips. My suggestion is to get a big plastic shower curtain, clear or white and tape it to the wall. Using Vis-a-Vis water soluble markers, draw the design on the shower curtain. The drawing can be cleaned off with water, so it is reusable. The shapes are then traced and cut from the fabric, just like any other pattern.
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While looking in my storage room for examples of different finishing techniques, I found some work from other artists that I have carefully  lost stored and now I found again. Yay!!!

 
 These two pieces are by Marcia Derse and I have had them since the late '90's I think. Whenever I feel myself getting too tight in my design, I look at Marcia's wonderful work and just mellow out.
Of course I love the no binding finish on both of these pieces.

This tiny piece is by David Walker, 4x6". We traded tiny works while we were teaching...somewhere together. This one is from 2000. Where does the time go?

And this very folk-arty beaded and embroidered piece is by Andrea Stern. I couldn't resist it. Shisha mirrors! O my.

In the same vein I found a piece of my own work, from 2001. Needlelace Study #2, shisha mirrors, hand dyed cheesecloth bits and a little hand quilting. 9x12".

 
All of these pieces were mounted on plexiglass, which at the time was my presentation of small works solution. I don't like it anymore, and would rather mount these on painted panels. For one thing, they weigh less, and are easier to hang. Secondly they can be colored to enhance the artwork, and I think it adds more to the finished look.

Mentoring

 I have been out of the studio for a while, working in the garden, so I thought I would get my interest in quilting reignited by having a student. Maddie is just 22 and is very clever, and caught on to fusing immediately.
Her first lesson was improvisational design, and we worked small, so as to have a finished piece in two hours.
My cart of fused scraps was at the ready and that made designing ever so fast and easy.

How's this for a first composition? I think it's wonderful. I look forward to next week when we will work on a pattern which she will design. Woowoo!
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At Chez Johnson we have been tree planting and have replaced some dead trees with living ones. Now that our sprinkler system is working properly, I have no fear of losing the new plants. We now have two new pin oaks, six new redbuds, five figs, seven Cleveland pears, and three possibly still alive Kousa dogwoods. I am sure we have the most trees of anyone in the neighborhood.
Speaking of the neighborhood...we have suddenly got lots of new neighbors, and many new houses are being built on my dog walking route. I didn't realize when I bought this house that this would be a 'high class neighborhood' where people hire landscapers and designers to fit out their homes properly.
That would not be us. We are do it ourselves-ers. So it is challenging to make our place look as nice as the ones that are designed. Good thing we have a fence.
I'll take pictures...

End of Season Clean-up

It began innocently enough. I just wanted help emptying the water from the abandoned fish pond. Most of the water had been pumped out, but then it rained like the dickens and six more inches remained. Again I pumped and then Dave and I lifted the big round tub on its side to empty the last bit. I said it would be easy now to drill holes in the bottom for drainage, since this was going to become another garden container now that the fish have left.  We had three concrete blocks already so we placed the empty tub on those, drilled the holes and watched the remaining green slime drip out. Then we drove over to Home Depot and got 24 more concrete blocks. Why so many? Because we also had to move the herb garden off the patio. 

I made a big mistake ( I readily admit) and placed this narrow bin on the patio for the herb garden. Looks so lovely there, until I watered and then the dirty water drained onto the patio causing stains and algae to grow. What a mess. Dave tried to fix it by caulking the bottom rim. That sorta worked but it was in such a bad spot to get the rain, that things shriveled up. Now he will power-wash that area and we'll have a nice patio again. 

 We moved the emptied herb tub to the yard, but put its dirt in the round tub, along with the sweet potato vines and other plants. Over the winter it will degrade and in the Spring we'll top it off with a layer of new soil and be ready to plant.

 Filed under successes: The fig trees continue to fruit and are doing just great. They will be moved in closer to the patio where we can enjoy them, and the little shade they may bring.

We had been keeping the excess soil in these plastic bins, even tho we were warned they would deteriorate in the sun, which they certainly did. But they served us well with begonias, petunias and salvia all summer.

We still have work to do, but the backbones are there, and we have made a good start.

Being Indoors

 The big Goodwill truck came yesterday and took away my big red (mistake) couch. Au revoir.
Hurray, I am down to the bare essentials, which makes me very happy indeed. So today we decided...OK, I decided that I wanted to switch the living room with the dining room and make it cozier in that section of the big room. I moved the furniture while Dave was in the shower. Heh heh.

 This leaves lots of room for the dance floor. We'll enjoy dinner in front of the fire and have the stereo provide background music. The arrangement is working already. Chumley has found his spot on the couch, which is covered with a white bed sheet, which gets washed often since mud season has begun. Yes, the walls are still beige, but that will be changing in the future, she says. I have walls that need a bit of artwork, so I will be thinking of what will be hung, in the next few days.

The good dog.