No Fair!!!

This seems to be what Angel is saying to me, she sure doesn't like having her picture taken right after a bath. Poor baby she's been very ill all day, so she got a bath because she was starting to smell like she's been on a three day drunk.

If she's still sick tomorrow I'll take her to the vet, yes she will ive hat long. Based on what I'm seeing (do I really need to give details here? I think not) she's got a super bad case of worms, I wormed her this morning we'll see how it goes.

Needless to say I haven't gotten anything done as I've spent the entire day either cleaning up after the dog, or cleaning the dog herself, she's not as neat and tidy as the cats when it comes to getting sick, I've never seen a dog get itself so messy before.

Anyway, back to the grind.

Table Dimensions

Btw my screen printing table is 9'l x 4'w x 3'h. I'm going to do some serious thinking on this piece over the next hour, it's definately going to be a whole cloth experience, with lots of layers of goodies piled onto the surface, ala my style. I just need to get the logistics of how I'm going to assemble it down first. I really wish I had access to my old design wall it was 12 feet long, now my office lives on that wall space. I guess there's always the clothesline outside.

Holy Cow Batman!!!






That's gonna be one huge piece! I have to go read the rules for a few upcoming compeitions but I"m thinking that two layers is suffecient enough. Both layers are compost dyed, top layer is silk organza, bottom layer is cotton lawn/batik.

Ok my table is 9 foot long and is 3 feet high in most places, and the end of this quilt is haning off of the table somewhere around 30 inches, it's also over 54 inches wide, I'm still not sure how I'm going to handle all of the stitching, maybe some hand stitching will be required.

The lighting sucks in these pics, I need to get my daylight bulbs out and put them into the photo lamps. The piece is mainly purples, mauves and light oranges, you'd never know that by looking at the pictures.

So my mission tonight is to get this bad baby together, along with another super sized quilt, and put everything back onto the table and get ready for tomorrow. Yeah right and who needs sleep right.

New Cabinet - Sorta



This was hiding in our attic, well it wasn't hot pink when it was in the attic, it was varnished, now it's pink! It'll get two more coats of primer, cause I have lots of hot pink primer for some odd reason, and then two coats of lady bug red semi-gloss paint. It is going to be hung in the kitchen, I'd rather have it in my studio, and I"m going to put all of those pill bottles we seem to collect in there. I'm not sure why it happens but it would seem that as a person ages the number of pill bottles also increases in number. Why???

Btw hubby doesn't know that I painted this cabinet, he will when he gets home from work and I"m wanting him to hang it on the kitchen wall!

Also a new - sorta kitchen cabinet/counter top. We're removing the enamel table top from the metal table base, it has casters on it, and DH is mounting the table top to a wooden cabinet, two doors behind which lives two shelves, just under the top three smaller utensil drawers for his thermometer collection, and the little graters for spices and cheese. Finally I'll have a place for my cast iron skillets to live, they will no longer be out in the open collecting dust. It'll be painted lady bug red as well, the wood was all curb side salvage! Gotta love a man whose more than to willing to stop by a pile of junk and pull out primo wood.

Silk Bag - Partial


Now that the tomato bag is resolved I'll finish this bag. Silk thrums machine stitched. I have more embroidery to put on the surface, silk threads, and then I can attach it to the body of the bag. I may add some seed beads as well. Deciding on the style/type of strap or handle is always the biggest obstacle towards finsihing the bag.

Tomato Bag Again

The threads I used for stitching are wool threads, glass beads sewn down with a waxed cotton thread.

Oh yeah another important lesson learned, do all of your hand stitching first, then put the fringe onto the bag! I didn't tear up the fringe, but it was difficult pulling threads through for my french knots, because it was there.

The bag doesnt' look so bad now, it was pretty lifeless looking in the beginning, but there are better cuts of leather to work with, cuts that have more soul to them.

Tomato Pouch






So named because the recipient loves tomatoes and gardening, and because of the tomato green button.

I learned some valuble lessons, even on a scrap practice piece use good materials! I used commericial upholstery leather, yuck! What can I say I didn't know any better, but I do now. The piece is much nicer than when I started out.

I have a few beads to put on the flap, and maybe a few more french knots, and then I need to add the strap, which I still haven't figured out yet.

Radio Stations

If you know of anymore "different" radio stations let me know. I really enjoy the smaller stations, they have a strong hometown flair to them. Smaller stations are getting harder and harder to find, the big corporations are gobbling them up like bass eating minnows. The big canned stations don't do much for me. And unfortuantely I cannot figure out how to get some of the Iowa stations (especially public radio), that are online to play on my computer, though I have all of the right programs.

Oh well it's their loss I guess, though I'd really like to listen to the Wild Rose Cafe in my studio, and there's just not enough space in here for a real radio, I'm doing good to have space for my computer speakers!

Quill Sizes



Here's a close up with a ruler for a better evaluation of the quill sizes. The bulk of the quills are 1.5 to 2.0 inches in length, with a good chunk of longer fatter quills thrown into the mix, it's going to be a LOT of fun seperating these - NOT. I actually like the long thin ones that are more hair like, they are fun to play with.

What I notice about the quill color, and I'm getting much better at dyeing them, is many of them look blotchy, but when you put them together as a group they blend in and the blotchiness disappears altogether. Very interesting to say the least.

I'm using an alum premordant, I clean them with hot water and soap, lemon joy. I may need to use Dawn instead, the blotchiness may because I'm not getting enough dirt off of teh quill surface. I'm starting to think it's a lot like dyeing wool, the quills can handle more than you think, but there's a magical threshold between beauty and mush in a pot. I haven't been willing to push it too far to see what that threshold is, I've heard stories though, as the quills were expensive and the place I was getting them from went out of business.

Quill work


I've decided to take the plunge and am going to start working with the quills. I'm hoping this week to get some greens and purples dyed up as I'll be renewing my indigo vat, probably on Monday.

I have two pieces of braintan, I"m not sure if it's deer or cow to be quite honest, one is smoked - the tan stuff, the other is not, the white piece. Anyway I'm wondering which piece might be a bit easier to work with for the first time. The white piece while quite thick is very soft and supple.

Problem Solved


Well sorta. With two studios the invariable storage issue always arises, and more often than not, needing a free or very cheap solution to the problem. Mine was accessibility to my color pencils t hey were stored way back and I mean way way back in a cabinet so you can imagine my excitement when I found this old tobacco tin to store my pencils in. In my other studio my other set of color pencils, yes I have two sets, lives in a flower pot - a square flower pot.

Now to just figure out where to put all of the fabric and the very very large sheets of paper, while they are waiting for the next surface treatments.