Sewing companion

Nothing is sacred anymore....

He sits and watches the needle go up and down, up and down, up and down. I had to stop when he tried to grab the thread - I am so afraid I will sew over his paw. But he really is small enough that he can lie in this space while I sew. And I guess the sewing bed is nice and warm to lie on.

Ahhhhhhh, it's the simple joys, isn't it? Whatever I'm feeling, this little mite can make it better, with his huge eyes gazing up and his little engine purring away...

Yup, I'm in love.

Blue vessel again

Some time back I promised some better pictures, and I have been making some effort in this regard. I'm still puzzled over the focus of my camera, which is supposed automatic but then comes out blurred. I wish the focus was manual like in the old days - I took much better pictures then!!

I'm pleased with how this came out. It is all made from bits of scraps from other projects sandwiched between two layers of vegetable netting, which I saved from something I bought. You can barely make out the netting in the detail picture below - but it is even hard to see in real life.

And it's been useful. I save bits of fabric in it, or spools of thread or the wrapped threads I went on a binge of making.

I emptied it recently and put it next to me on the couch to refill with thread scraps from what I was working on... and when I looked again:

*BOTH* kittens had snuggled up in it...! {smile} (I suppose it is a compliment.)

Visiting BlogRing neighbours

So I popped in to Caity's blog today and she mentioned that Diane had challenged us to visit our "neighbours". I went to Diane's post and... since I am furiously trying to avoid work today, I went to visit 3 "Random" neighbours:

I saw Heidi from Georgia (in the USA, I assume although could be Russia) and saw some gorgeous felted bowls. What is it about bowls that make their shapes so pleasing?

Then I went to Dagmar in Germany(?) who had the most exquisite Nature-inchies as well as some very beautiful photographs she had taken on a photography course, that made me wish I had taken them so I could use them in my art! Language is no barrier when you have pictures of fibre art :)

And lastly to Fiona of Australia who had taken a hautingly beautiful photograph of waterlillies in the mist on the water. I followed a link to her website to see her work, and wish I could see it in person.

More about my "Previous" and "Next" neighbours in another post, but now I had better do some work...

New Kitty Joy!

Following the loss of our much loved Bobby and Smudge, we decided we needed more kittiness in our lives. I hereby present {drumroll, please.....!}

MICKEY: currently known as Mickey the Mite, since he's as small as a mouse, almost. He will become Mighty Mickey once he grows up.

SNAPE: mostly known as Snoopy for now, since he's also still little

and MATTHEW, also known as Tiger, since that was his previous name and is the one he actually responds to. When he feels like it. He's fully grown and was the rascal who just bewitched us at the SPCA and MADE us take him home. As you can see he moved right in and made himself at home. A real Thomas O'Malley, except that he is still sleek and only has one battle scar, a nick on his one ear. He has been singing duets with the other Tiger who lives next door, as they eye each other very suspiciously.

I fear I am falling in love with Mickey. He is SOOOOO affectionate and purry. I say "fear" because I know the hurt will be greater if there is more kitty-loss in our future (we've had a bad run), but it's better to have loved and lost and all that...

New books {grin}

I went shopping at kalahari.net again...

I'll post some reviews when I've had a better look at the four books I received. Meanwhile, here are web links to whet your appetite (do I get commission?) The name of the book links to the website of the book, or if there isn't one, to some place where you can read about the book. The name of the author links to that person's blog, or their website.

1: The Uncommon Quilter by Jeanne Williamson
2: Living the Creative Life by Rice Freeman-Zachery
3: The Soul's Palette by Cathy Malchiodi
4: The Creative Journal by Lucia Capacchione

Teesha Moore's fantastic site

Take a look at this great site!

No Photos :(

Alas, the USB ports are all broken, so although there has been much activity here, I cannot show you any of it :(

Nor can I show you the three new cats. Yes, three. I am becoming a batty old cat lady. We adopted two kittens, one from the local PicknPay notice board and one from the SPCA, and then while we were at the SPCA an adult tomcat SEDUCED us. I kid you not. He was ALL over us and so loving that we caved. He was neutered yesterday before we brought him home and he has been very grumpy ever since, and, I suspect, sore. Poor Matthew.

Mickey and Snape are the cutest and can't understand why the adult (cats) are so grumpy with them...

I have cut a gazillion strips and sorted through numerous old boxes of scraps, turfed out 5 bags, which will go out with the rubbish on Monday, and ironed all the ones that will be cut. A GOOD cleanout. The other fabric is stowed in the 3 lockers I bought at an auction once. They are open-mesh lockers, and my long-term goal is to reduce my fabrics to fit into these 3 only. I have way too much "junky" fabric (i.e. fabric I don't much like) and want to move it out of the way by making some scrap/charm quilts (possibly to sell).

At least that's the plan.

I have also made a few other things, but they will (sadly) have to wait until I can post pics. But I am Having Fun, which is a Good Thing.

Great fibre art blogs I've found

Fembellish Journal by N. Rene West

Layers of meaning by Serena Fenton

A bed quilt....??

I'm fond of reading the blog of Melody Johnson and she is currently busy PIECING a quilt. Suddenly this idea appeals to me too! (Sorry, I'm being such a copycat) The idea of cutting reams of strips and just sewing strips together sounds sooooooo soothing. And it would be fun to sort lights and darks again and work with tonal values. Melody, you may just have started something.... :)

The last one I did was with solid colours, but I have tons of printed scraps. Uh-oh.

Melody mentions Pie in the Sky Quilts which have some very yummy designs. I've also enjoyed this site, for designs: FreeSpirit although I've never made any of them. And for free quilt patterns you can't beat Free Quilt Patterns.

the reason why

I have been cleaning up, clearing old debris and organising papers, I found this piece I wrote about 12 years ago and since it relates to my art, I thought I'd post it here. It was written during my very long recovery from post-natal depression.

~~~~

I wandered around the exhibitions of art at the Arts Festival, reeling from the awe in my heart. The "high" art, the everyday art, the art that is a tribute to beauty and endeavour. I fearfully tried to let the beauty permeate; I tried to allow it inside, to feel it. I struggled with the fear; I wanted to run from it; I wanted to shut out the beauty and the light but I could not close myself, and then, at one moment...

... the beauty, the joy broke through my defences and touched my soul. At that point the tears arose and I felt pain. I stood, my heart tearing, joy and pain, fire and rain, mingled in a searing instant. I wanted pain, the familiar pain, not joy, but joy was not to be denied. And joy, once it came, did not come alone, there was no escape in the beauty, nowhere to hide from the pain.

... and I knew... the was the very heart of my life, the essence of my being, my reason why. The reason the cold tears run down my face while the warm blood runs through my veins. The reason why both must keep flowing...

... and I knew pain was not less than joy and joy not less than pain and that choosing life was to allow both, for in that, there is no choice.

Could it be...?

I do believe I am starting to feel better.... (she says cautiously and hopefully!) This is the time when I sing the praises of science, research and yes, pharmaceutical products! As much as I dislike the big profit-making machines of Big Pharma, I am grateful for medicines that enable us to have quality of life.
I have managed to make a few new things in the past few weeks, and at the end of the week I will get out the camera and get some pictures to post (and re-take some of the poorer shots that I posted).
Just two more days of work and then a 10-day Xmas break! Now that is one part of this "silly-season" that I CAN enjoy! :)

December

Halfway through the month already... have been cleaning the house, unpacking old boxes and throwing away junk. Not much to post, and not much to say :(
One of our cats was killed by the dog next door, and another went missing the following day, so we are not feeling very cheerful. I dislike this time of year, a time of seemingly enforced merriment, which is a challenge at the best of times, so the less said, the better...
Sorry about that.

wrapped threads

I've been unravelling. This is such a spectacular metaphor that it tickles me pink! I've unravelled a ton of fabric and am busy wrapping all the threads on my sewing machine. It's somewhat tedious and well suited to my current state of mind - at least when I feel better I will have a bunch of wrapped threads with which to create something.

Thread nests all over the place.

... and some of the wrapped threads:

Handdyes

I also did some dyeing while I was in hospital (lots of black humour associated with that verb, but let's not go there). The vessel in my previous post made up of hands, was made from one of those cloths and here are more: I used sun paints, mixed lots of colours, scrunched up the fabric to make lots of creases and submerged it in the dye, instead of pouring the dye on top, as I think one normally does with sun paints (since they're actually fabric paint, as opposed to fabric dye). When dried in the sun, all the cracks show up because of how the sun paint migrates to the areas which dry first. I just love this effect.

Back, with Vessels

Thank you, so much, Diane and Caitlin. I was touched by your kind comments on my previous post. I'm back again. I wish I could say I'm "all better", but it wouldn't be true, so let's move onto some on-topic content.
While I was in hospital, I received the latest issue of FiberArts, in which there were several vessels, which really inspired me. So here's what I produced:

Best practice in psychiatric treatment is recognised to be a multi-disciplinary approach - and so it was here too. Many hands, each with their own focus, joined together to catch and contain each person's issues.
I apologise again for my photography. Early dawn insomniac photography. One day, when I feel like I can face it, I'll learn how to take some better photos...

But don't hold your breath, please.

I'm away for a while

Not exactly a quilting post: but after much soul-searching, I've decided to follow the recommendation of the psydoc and go into hospital to sort out the treatment for my current depression. He estimates 2-3 weeks. I've packed fabrics, threads and will take my sewing machine. Hopefully, there are better days ahead...

Awesomely talented Fibre Artists

Outside our clinic is a huge tree in which a community of weaver birds have made their nests. They were not happy about me snapping pictures of them, and protested loudly. One even flew down and did a close fly-by in an attempt to frighten me off. (I retreated after that. Gotta show artists their due respect.)
Weaver birds are the most awesome birds - they weave these nests you can see in the pictures, that are really secure and very intricate. Once the babies have hatched and flown, the nests blow down and I have carried many of them home. I consider each one an absolute work of art.
Spring is so beautiful, I wish I felt happier.

Computers...

... can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em! I'm trying to upload photos, but none of the USB ports are responding.

Ok, I admit it. I am a digital dumbo. I have gone from Computer Literacy Teacher (I kid you not; this was back in 1989-92) to Clueless Computer Dunce. I used to be able to open the cover and point out the various bits to students and trouble-shoot problems. Now the USB port doesn't work and I don't have a clue what to check. I also don't know how my digital camera operates. I used to have a manual camera where I had to set the f-stops, shutter speed and focus before every shot - I managed an entire year in Israel with lots of great shots back in 1981, but now I cannot even take a photo that is in focus, because the damned technology has gone beyond where even a reasonably intelligent person can keep up unless they paddle like the dickens.

Phew. Sorry about that. Didn't realise there was such a rant in me this morning. {Deep Breath}

The USB port at work, works. I'll upload the photos later. (such as they are!)
----

It's later. I'm at work and here are the pictures: It's been a long time since I did a traditional bed quilt... but I'm enjoying the quilting of it. I had to wait 4 hours to see the doctor, and it seemed much shorter, as I had this with me. I chose colours and a pattern that my mother likes, as it's for her.
I stuck bits of paper label (the leftover bits after we printed labels for the blood tubes for the clinical trial) onto the quilt as guidelines for the straight line quilting. It helped a lot, they were easy to remove and left no stickiness on the quilt.
The backing is a Da Gama fabric I found some time back. Called "The Little Five", it has images of the Big Five as babies - very cute and my mom loved it.

Exhaustion

Having just finished another clinical trial (at work), I am ready to just fall over. It's funny how one paces oneself, holding out to make sure everything gets done, but then when it's all over, one just crashes. And I've crashed. Saw the psydoc this morning and he wants me to go to the "hopsital"(my daughter's pronunciation when she was little) for "2-3 weeks". Very big sigh. I muttered and muttered, so he said, "ok, think about it".

I'm quilting a huge double-bed quilt for my mother that I pieced several years ago, but didn't get any further with. It's great for my current state of mind, as it is just long straight hand-quilted lines, over and over. Will take pic and post it here soon.

Inchies

I was very excited to receive in the mail a pack of NINE inchies all the way from England! How did this happen? I was blog-surfing one day and came upon the blog of Kate North with a post about Paying It Forward. If you're wondering what this is, see my own PIF Post. I was very excited to see there was still a chance to reply to Kate's challenge, so I leapt in. And then the inchies arrived!

{Edited 24 Oct 2007, to add blurry picture, sorry about this, Kate}

THANK YOU, Kate! {happy dance} They are just GORGEOUS. I first read about inchies in a recent Quilting Arts magazine (I have a subscription); I had never heard of them before. Now I have these CUTE ones and want to mount them onto something - will probably use a fabric postcard - I have dozens of incomplete ones, so I'm sure I can find a suitable background.

It was SUCH a thrill to receive these in the post - I don't get many gifts anymore and have become pretty used to always being the provider, so it was a great thrill to receive an art-quilting-related gift, just for nothing. Do take me up on my own PIF challenge, if you happen upon this post, so I can perhaps pass on this great feeling.