Fiber and Pulp

Sunny Saturday

And then some! It was hot and summery (Baltimore style summer -- humidity of about 95% or so!) today. I had to work on the sales floor, so I got to the store around 9:15 a.m. (before it was too awful outside) and I stayed inside until we left around 6:30 p.m. (still oppressive, but less than earlier, I'm sure). :P

Although we had 41 checkouts today, it seemed quiet to me (traffic was steady rather than in the more usual spurts we see on week days). I started working on the quilt for the Quilters Quest this fall. It's a basket sampler designed by Jinny Beyer and I'm really excited about making this one. :)

Six of the thirteen blocks we received had to be re-sashed to bring them up to the correct size (11.5", with raw edges). I have decided not to use sashing or alternate blocks but rather to set the baskets side by side and on point. They are all bright and lively (our block is the quietest of the bunch, in my humble -- which is a true reversal for Seminole Sampler work!!).

I managed to get the six up to size and laid them out. Barbara and Robbyn came by to rearrange a couple of times, but I'm pretty sure we are happy with the current layout. I even managed to cut the setting triangles and start piecing the corners together. Here is a teaser of the blocks laid out for sewing. With any luck, I'll get the top finished tomorrow and then can think about borders and finishing.

Strange Friday

What an odd day today turned out to be! I had the day off work and I was feeling very, very weary last night when I got home from my store (around 10 pm), so I decided to spend as much time sleeping today as I felt I needed. I woke up around noon today, feeling creeky but 'slept out'.

When I stay home, I like to get up slowly -- eat breakfast, read my accumulated email messages, maybe check the online newspapers for updates, read the comics. I don't get the opportunity to lay about often, so I try to enjoy it. :)

Just as I was finishing my breakfast (and email reading), Hugh asked me to drive him to the Space Dude's hangout in Glen Burnie -- an online friend was in town and wanted to meet/play miniatures (I think they played Epic). So, I took him.

The car is full of outmoded computer equipment from the store that needs to go to the recycler so I thought I could do that errand with the same outing. Unfortunately, the recycling firm closes early in the summer and they had already gone home by the time I got there at 3 pm.

It was hot today (though not as hot as it has been here in Maryland, thank God!) and I was truly grateful that we had the air-conditioning in the car repaired yesterday. Expensive, but necessary to comfortable life (for me, anyway -- my northern European ancestors have given me a legacy of very little tolearance for nasty hot weather and very quick heat exhaustion responses).

I remembered on my way home that I needed a few more tidbits to finish the canvas I have been working on for so long so I detoured to the Queen's Ink in Savage -- a great, great mixed media art and rubber stamping store. Turns out that Friday evening is a bad time to want to park in their lot -- the resturant next door apparently has a lively happy hour every weekend evening. :P I managed to find a place in the shade to leave my car and hobbled down the hill (still a bit woozy) to the shop. What a nice place. :)

By the time I got home, I was really tired again so I laid down for an hour or so to read my magazines and rest. Friday evening I usually watch TV -- two of my favorite shows are on (Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis). Before they came on, Hugh called and asked for a ride back home -- soooo, out I went again, to pick him up.

This time, on the way home, I discovered that one can NOT get back onto the Baltimore Beltway when going north on Rt2 -- and we detoured through the south east corner of Baltimore city to pick up 95 south. Maryland generally has very good roads -- better than anywhere else I've ever lived (Kentucky, Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio) -- but the road through Baltimore was more rutted and broken than any I have driven over in years. Eventually we got home and I was deeply grateful to do so!

Between the active parts of my shows, I spent a little time fussing with the canvas and am now as finished with it as I think I will get. When it came to me, it had a beautifully colored background, some lovely printed-tissue flowers, and a small rubber stamped border of lizards. Here is how it looks now:

The picture is from the dust jacket of a book on the history of the pre-Raphaelite art movement. I believe it is a painting that depicts Ophelia (from Hamlet) before her suicide.

When I started working on her, I first did a laminate trasfer from the jacket (in person, you can see faintly through her body to the flowers behind on the background). She reminded me rather of the myth of Llew and the making of his sweet lover from flowers ... so I started adding flowers to her lap (to the ones already painted there) and got, um, carried away. :)

Now I think she is some kind of nature woman, surround by and perhaps made of flowers -- the very symbol of beautiful abundance and pregnant possibility. Here she is closer:

I received the next canvas to work on in the mail, so the Flower Lady has to go onward. I've been enjoying working on her, but it is time to move on. :)

Restless Resting

It appears that my cfs is acting up (over-exerted myeslf during the recarpeting, I think) -- silence for any period of time here is not a good sign, generally.

I had today off so I spent most of it horizontal, but I did manage to do a little light art work. One of the groups I subscribe to -- art explorations -- had a scavenger hunt exchange this month. Each of the participants gathered items from the following list and mailed them to assigned partners:
1. a photograph
2. a piece of ribbon/trim
3. one item of your favorite color
4. a piece of fabric
5. a piece of "unique" paper
6. a stamp/sticker
7. a picture from a magazine
8. one inspirational word or phrase
9. one rubber stamped image of your choice
10. one item not listed to send....or a blank postcard sized piece of cardstock,
or 3 blank ATCs
My partner was Lois Paulo in Illinois. I sent her an envelope of stuff and she sent me one. I neglected to take a photo of the goodies I sent her (I was happy to remember to send them to her at all!), but here is a picture of what she sent me:

Part 2 of the swap is to make a small piece of art using at least some of the goodies you got and send it onward to another person (I am sending to is Jennifer Neuman). So, tonight I sat and made this with some of what Lois sent me:

I wanted to use other parts of what she sent as well, but there is only so many thoughts I can squeeze into a 5"x7" space.

I also made a postcard to send back to Lois. One of the things she included in the package to me was a small piece of text that says something like 'what else should I have done?' The instant I saw it, I remembered a card I've been saving that I thought went well with it -- so I made it into a postcard:

The underlying painting is a pre-Raphaelite depiction (I forget the painter, date, and other details at this moment). I thought when I first saw it that the man on the right was just a bard, entertaining the ladies at the left. If you look closely, though, you can see that each seat on the stone bleachers is labeled with a different area of Ancient Greece ... I think the man is supposed to be presenting a claim or account of some kind to the regional governing body?

A little art every day is a good thing -- it keeps me from getting too crazy bored with being sidellined.

I watched a movie on my computer last night (it plays DVDs:) that turned out to be visually great but plot-line deficient -- Ultraviolet. The story tracks like to director changed places with someone else halfway through the filming. :)

I am supposed to work tomorrow -- yesterday I managed to unpack three boxes (including one really big one) in my office. Maybe tomorrow I'll make more headway. I took the fall newsletter to the printer on Tuesday morning so now I just have to cobble up a mailing labels disk. The quilt for the Quest needs to get made and a wild variety of business related things need doing ... never any end to the work necessary!

A Short Note

I am tired, tired to the bone. But, the store has new carpet (a nice blue-green tweed), newly painted walls (a nice warm white) and a nice new floor layout. We haven't had the energy to go back up the ladder a zillion times to rehang the samples, but that will get done soon.

I'm SO glad to have it all completed. Now to get back to the quilt making fun!!

:) Linda