every-single-day

Happy in The Land of the Un-done.

As an artist, I am happiest while in process. I am content to be thinking about what needs to occur to make a piece feel done. When a piece is finished, I enjoy it, am glad I made it, but it has lost it's impedous. I am no longer compelled by it.
When I first joined my current quilt guild, I set up a table to encouage folks to participate in a surface design challenge. Each month I created hand outs describing surface design techniques such as, bleach discharge, stamping, dyeing, and foiling.
As I had not confirmed if setting up a surface design challenge was OK, I fretted when the president came to me asking what the end result of my challenge was. Boy-Did I fumble in answering that one! There was no end result. The idea was to encourage the process of surface design. I hadn't created a mystery quilt to assemble at the end of four differing techniques!
It was around this time that I labeled myself as a Process Person.
What about you? Are you at home in the land of the un-done? Can you stand ~~~ambiguity~~~? Is everything good in the world when you have a piece of unfinished journal art, quilt art, knitting?

This page isn't quite finished. It needs more patterning... Now I have something to think about while bored at work! :)

Update!

We think they grew by about 400%.

Stuff and More Stuff.

The BAD News:
So, I was happily knitting the back of my Must Have Cardigan, when I decided it was a good idea to make sure it was as wide as it ought to be...
I swatched. But. I am knitting tighter than my swatch, the back is two inches smaller than it ought to be. Two sizes smaller than I intended it to be.
I am beginning to think perhaps I am not a knitter after all. I dread ripping out. I am in holding pattern, again. Just like I was with the socks I put aside in order to knit this fabulous sweater.

The GOOD News:
This weekend was so much fun! We went our friends house, went out for dinner and had a party! We brought pin the tail of the donkey, pirate hats

and party favors.

These are supposed to get 600% bigger in water... (haven't heard an update yet).
We enjoyed our friends D-- and J----- and thier canine campanion Luke!
Then, on Sunday, we went to see Avenue Q on Broadway. Which was fantastic! I recommend it. Go find out what the fuzz it is all about!

Virtual vacation

Last night, we got our photos back.

This is what our feet (notice my Man's little red pinky toe!) looked like after hiking the Kaibab Trail...

You can see the trail faintly, meandering down, down, down. We saw beautiful blue birds, brilliant bluegreen plants, purple petals on terracotta earth and sweeping views of descending landscapes. Yum.

At the Zion Canyon I took this photo at the Lower Emerald Pools,

where we were reminded that the earth is truely female.

We're Back!

My Man and I just got back from vacation. We hiked, read, relaxed, ate and enjoyed ourselves tremendously! We visited Arches, Canyonlands, the north rim of the Grand Canyon, Zion and Kolob Canyons (which is two different sections of one park). Collectively we hiked about 40 miles and that includes cumulative elevations of more than 4600 feet.
We hiked to Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch.
We felt really accomplished to have done most of the trail to Roaring Springs on the North Kaibab Trail. Considering the elevation and our inexperience in this type of hiking, I think we did fabulously. We have decided our next trip will include a stay at the Phantom Ranch, which means that we will be hiking all the way down and back up again, a round trip of 28+ miles.
At Zion National Park we hiked the Angels Landing Trail. Because of my fear of heights I stopped at Scouts Landing, my Man went all the way up to Angels Landing. I am sorry I missed the experience but glad I listened to myself at the same time. The view from Scouts Landing
was so fantastic, that I didn't feel I had gypped myself too badly.
We saw lots of wildlife, lizards, turkeys, chipmunks, deer, bats and squirrels. It is a shame that they have been made so tame by being fed human foods!

Here is my journal entry from this last week, it's not quite finished- needs a few small tweeks. I am really not much for writing in my journal. I tried to say as much as possible without using too many words. I am happy with it, it was fun to do and very engaging too!
Because I had drawn so many plants, I utilized the nature centers at the different parks and spoke with many rangers. It was fun to meet and talk with them and it made me realize that it would be a good idea to learn something of plant classification and what the latin names refer to. If anyone knows an approachable beginners reference on this topic, please pass the info along!

Hand sewn Figure Drawing

Inspired by Bernie Leahy's work, I brought fabric, thread and needle to figure drawing class last night. These pieces are so small(!), I don't think I can make the pieces any larger just yet. It is no small task to get the lines down and proportional. This was a 25 minute pose.
I didn't use a hoop, maybe this would make it easier.
Here is a more tentitive drawing in thread: click here now. This was a 10 minute pose.

Our Three Graces

Today was my day to see my quilt guild's show. It was fantastic, made even better because I was an exhibitor. The Three Graces were shown as a group, and I was told they got lots of positive feedback.

I stood among a few of the viewers, watched a man photograph my piece, and listened to a woman who really understood Elizabeth's piece, discounting mine and Jeri's. I figure any reaction is a good one and took this as a good sign. She stopped for quite a while, talking about and viewing all three pieces. Strong reactions to art in any direction, are good reactions in my book.
I gave a half hour lecture on beading, which went well. I printed twenty hand-outs and needed about five more.
I got some loot too...

I am addicted to socks, and bought two pair. I got two spools of thread, a thread spooler, map fabric, and titainium embroidery needles for my machine.
I bet there is no turning back after trying these needles out. They are supposed to stay cooler and deter breakage of metallic and halographic threads. As these are my favorite type of threads, I use them often. They charged 5.50 for 5 needles. If I like them I will find a bulk supplier (could this company be it? I will email them and find out if these needles can be used on my Bernina 1001).
The Map fabric was a find because I use map imagery in my paintings sometimes (check out this old entry as an example). It is also great because it pictures the Arizona and Nevada area, where my Man and I would like to live some time soon.
I also took a great seminar in Following Your Passion, Marketing Your Strengths, by Hollis Chatelain. She was so uplifting and inspirational, I almost broke out in tears twice. I am about to seriously start marketing my art, and this three hour lecture was fantastic.