June
2003
Saturday,
June 28, 2003
The Wedding Quilt
Ah... some sizable progress made on my sister's/brother-in-law's
wedding quilt for their wedding on August 9th. Burgundy said
to either make it purple, Mike's favorite color, or natural
colors, since they were eventually going to decorate their house
with those colors. I opted for naturals, designing something
with contrast.
Here's the center of it, a basketweave pattern. I had the strips
sewn together but was reluctant to iron them flat in the summer
heat. Today has been nice and cool. Just perfect.
The plan is to make the whole quilt about 100" square. The next
step is to make a concentric square of black and white 8 pointed
stars. After that a border of fabric than another concentric
square of log cabin blocks. Assuming that bring it about 100",
I'll add a couple more borders and Ta Da!
I'm hoping to have the quilt top done by the wedding, and then
get it machine quilted. The joy of quilting, for me, is the
fabric selection, design and piecing. Purists may scoff at my
disinterest in quilting, but so be it.
posted on 6:30 PM
Monday,
June 23, 2003
White Elephant!
Here's my newest collage. This time a white elephant. Again,
9" x 12" paper with ink, gouache, sequins and acrylic on masonite,
topped off with a ribbon on his tail. If you'd like to purchase
him, he's $200 - click
here.
Posted on 4:22 PM
Friday,
June 20, 2003
Bridesmaid Bracelet
Thanks to another great, prompt bead order from FireMountainGems.com,
I made my bracelet for my sis's wedding this afternoon. The
dress is in the background, and I think my safety pin creation
compliments it well. I made a second, smaller one that'll go
in the store soon. And I'm making a few single strand bracelets
with the remaining beads.
The Bridesmaid To-Do list is getting shorter, especially after
going to MN last weekend, and getting the invitations squared
away. What's left: hem dress, make wedding quilt (no small task),
bachelorette gift.
Oh, and in this photo you can see my tattoo pretty well - it
says perspective.
Posted on 7:52 PM
Road
Trip Documented
I just finished my gallery of images from my road trip last
weekend. *whew* I always forget that if I want to document
a trip, it's going to take at least another day to get the
gallery in shape. There's 64 images there, and I'm quite pleased
with it. Enjoy!
posted on 2:49 PM
Thursday,
June 19, 2003
Portraits of Imaginary Women
Yesterday I finished two more imaginary women. Left: No. 3
Ms. Birdhair ($200) Right: No. 4. Nurse Verruckteaugen ($200).
Both are mixed media on masonite 9"x12" On Ms. Birdhair, I
was going to use a photo of a sky for the background. Finally,
yesterday I just sat down an painting clouds. At first I was
really sucking at it and thought, "How had can painting clouds
be? How out of practice am I?!" I was much better off when
I put down the brush and used my fingers. Lookin' better.
Once I glued Ms. Birdhair on the masonite I was quite enamored
of the clouds. As for Nurse Verruckteaugen, her surname means
crazy eyes, for obvious reasons. I felt compelled to make
her more details, like the others, but she felt done just
like this - bold and graphic.
Click here if you're interested in purchasing any
of them.Click
here for the series archive. Hmmm...who's next...?
posted on 5:14 PM
Tuesday,
June 10, 2003
*WHEW*
Here's one of the finished wedding shower invites (for my sis's
impending nuptials). I mentioned in my last post. Boy, these
35 invites gave me lots of little snafus. But now they are done.
I am charmed by them and I hope the recipients are charmed too.
Yes, I know handles don't have holes. My hands were freaking
out at all the cutting and time was running out and I liked
their looks without me punching the centers out. Design on the
fly, baby.
Posted on 12:44 AM
Monday,
June 09, 2003
Boots No. 1
Ok, so, now I want to make collages of boots every day. So much
fun. Here's the first one. It's paper, ink and acrylic on masonite.
9 x 12". Wanna buy it? It's $150. I've got to get it over in
the store, along with Ms. Redrider. And lots of other stuff.
But it's much more fun to make stuff than it make store pages.
Worked my fingees (fingers) raw on my sis's wedding shower invites
today. Came up with a very complicated, very Brandy design.
Cursing myself a bit. I'll post one when it's fini.
Work on Ms. Birdhair is going well, and No. 4, which is an so-far-unnamed
nurse.
Posted on 1:13 AM
Friday,
June 06, 2003
Portraits of Imaginary Women
Two done! Left: No. 1 Miss Lonestar (NFS), Right: No. 2 Ms.
Redrider ($200) Both are mixed media on masonite 9"x12" Finishing
Miss Birdhair and a wild-eyed nurse are next. I've
started a permanent gallery here.
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Black
and White
I'm starting another series of collage/drawing recycling
cardboard boxes and using the brown/gray of the cardboard
as a middle tone - adding white and black to it. Here's
the first one I made last night, a woman in a white dress
on the inside of a flattened Rykrisp cardboard box (7.75
x 12.5", $50).
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posted on 2:49 PM
Wednesday,
June 04, 2003
Little Pillows
Last night I finished the Art
of Living basic course. To oversimplify the course,
it teaches you powerful (in Brandy vernacular: completely kick
ass) breathing techniques and a whole lot more. Check out the
site for more information. Our teacher, Tanuja, asked
us to all bring a gift to Tuesday's last class. Monday night
I started sketching an idea for a pillow on the train. Got home
and refined the design.Then thought that I should make three
of the gift - one to share with a classmate, one for Tanuja,
and one for me to remember the experience. I started cutting
felt and sewing pieces together. I added the "breath dots" before
I went to bed. Woke up and added the sequins and sewed and stuffed
the pillows. I wrapped two and headed to class.
We exchanged gifts and I peeked at who got my gift - Mina looked
puzzled by it. After class, I gave the box to Tanuja. When she
opened it she asked, "What is it?" I thought she was asking
what it was made of, so I said, "felt." But Mina came up and
asked too. Then I realized that both couldn't tell what it was,
what was on it. I was so caught up in making them, that it totally
threw me off. I sort of answered them briefly. I suppose pulling
a strange little pillow out of a box was odd - and then to figure
out what green and blue felt and white dots were making?
I designed it to be a body in a circle with the breath going
through the body and surrounding the body. First, I picked green
for the body because it was bright and non-race-specific, but
then pairing it with the bright blue made the body look like
land against water on the Earth. The body was put on a circle/oval
to represent wholeness and the surrounding environment. The
breath is represented with white dots that looped through the
lungs, limbs and head. I added sequins to the corners just for
pizzazz.
I hope that if Mina and Tanuja didn't see the shapes as images
that they'll look again and think "aha!"
posted on 11:55 AM
Monday,
June 02, 2003
Jim's Squirrel
Here's the squirrel I made for Jim
for his birthday on Friday. He's made out of felt and fuschia
(front) and maroon (back) felt at that. Why not brown? These
colors were snazzier than the browns I had on hand. There's
something so satisfying about working with felt. I love to super
saturated colors and the sewing machine needle going through
has an ineffable oomph. Here's
how I made it. I've got more felt ideas brewing.
Posted on 3:20 PM
Rabbit Cuff
The lovely and talented Amihan, of Madison, WI sent me all
sorts of supercool African fabric scraps last week. All fantastic,
but I was most smitten with the rabbit fabric. It was a scrap,
not very big, so I had to think of something to make with
it that would allow me to look at it lots. So, I made this
cuff. I'm always most happy with projects that are made entirely
from stuff I have on hand. This was made with some black cotton,
the rabbit fabric, black thread and two black snaps recycled
from a dress I made long ago, long gone, except for the snaps
I cut out.
It was super easy. First I sewed two pieces together to get
the width and length I wanted (that's where the ears touch
in the picture). Then I cut the two fabric rectangles, one
rabbit, one black. Sewed them wrong sides together, minus
enough of an opening to turn right side out. Clipped the corners
and trimmed the excess. Turned it right side out and poked
the corners with a knitting needle to make the corners sharp.
Ironed it flat. Added some top stitching. Hand sewed the snaps
on. Ta da! The finished size is 8 3/4" x 2" and my wrists
are just under 7" (there's overlap for the snaps).
posted on 12:06 PM
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