every-single-day

Long time gone.

I just recently met an awesome woman. We bonded really quickly and have hung out quite a few times. I will call her JJ. I never asked if I could write about her but some folks need kudos!
JJ lives life with love and respect. She looks for the good in folks and wants to live well among her fellows. She surrounds herself with positive people and laughs readily. She looks me straight in the eye when she talks to me, I love this about her.
She lifts weights, does stained glass, whittles sticks and gives prezzies like nobodies bizness! She can cook too!!!

So she made this stick for me!! And here is a detail shot:

I bet she will get bashful reading this public display of affection but I don't care. She is worth every word and more.
We took an awesome hike today. The sun filtered through the yellow, red and green leaves, the air was fresh and crisp. My lungs feel wonderful. We talked and laughed, JJ took lots of pictures and I got to use my stick.
I love my stick. Hiking with a stick is so much better than without one. It makes leaping over wet areas a snap. I feel like it became my helper!
Thanks JJ!

I know I have been missing from my blog for quite a few weeks! It has been good. Busy and good.
I am writing an article for a much loved magazine! It is about a surface design technique I use. It is exciting. challenging and fun all at once.
I have been working on The Man. Or rather taking a break from working on him and wondering how and what to do next.
Saturday I started this little ditty...

It isn't finished. I am going to finish whip stitching the edge and then do some machine embroidery over the right hand side. I have a beautiful dark brown thread that I recently bought. I want to try it. It is heavier than I normally use and shiney. It hardly has any twist. I am hoping I like it because I would like to use it in The Man. We'll see.

So I hope I still have some readers after this long lapse! Please leave a comment.

Go AWAY!!

We should all go away more often. Just think what we could do and get done if we were to honor our calling and go away on retreat in order to feed it!

This is Brienne! Brienne is incredibly creative, juicy and full of awesome ideas. She is working on a monster piece. I own one of her monster pieces! I will soon own another. We are working toward trading artwork!
I love her.

This is Kevan. Kevan is a fantastic woman. She is passionate, thoughtful and commited. She diligently made these fabulous little nudes and we all know how much I love small works.

I got the entire background of The Man quilted!! Now I have a wierd thing happening and I would love some help.

From this photo you can see that I am doing some heavy duty quilt stitching. My stitches cover the entire surface of the quilt and are about 1/8th inch apart, in long straight lines. This circle is part of the surface treatment I am about to embark upon. All of it is quite dense.
Saturday I practically sewed all day from 6 A.M. to 10 P.M., when my machine (a Bernina 1001) went bezeerk. Thread from the bobbin began to wrap around the stem that holds the bobbin inside the bobbin casing- making the thread break and impossible to continue sewing.
The group decided my machine had most likely begun to over heat. So I put the bobbin casing in the freezer, cleaned oiled, gave my babe a new needle and rethreaded the thing. I then decided to take a break and give Brienne a painting lesson. An hour later everything was fine.
Sunday I had no problems, either.
Today I began sewing at 7A.M. I stopped to eat an early lunch at 11:30 and when I returned, same deal. This has never happened before. Have any of you ever had your Bernina overheat?
I even packed her up and took her to the sewing repair person today! She wouldn't act up for him.

Ode to Ben and Other Fantastic Happenings

Ben is an oddly fantastic sort of person. He is fanatical about stuff, baseball, his family, and an orchard he works for. The orchard is his second job, maybe the one he loves most. He works with my Man and sends him home with flying saucer peaches, apples and carved pumpkins.
I bet not many people have a pumpkin with thier name carved into it but I do! And it is all because of Ben, he is a freak and he can't help himself; we love him for it.
Thank you Ben!

I have been working on the man piece (kinda nice to say the man piece in a sentence!). Now is it not difficult to photograph quilt stitches? Geez!
At the top of the head you can see a silhouette of David playing the guitar, below and to the left you may see the neck of a guitar that descends into the mans body. Then it gets all muddled. Geez Louise!
I sometimes hate the constraints of photography! So here are some close up shots so that you can actually see the quilting.

There are some threads that have not been tied in, but the top image is the silhouette of David playing the guitar, and the bottom is a fox.
I really like what I am doing with the quilt stitches and so had to show them off.

I am once again going away on retreat! I love going away on retreat! I feel lucky to be me, when I go on retreat! I thank Elizabeth for showing me the value in this! There is nothing in the world quite like allowing yourself the time, while surrounded by creative friends to do what your life is asking of you.
I hope to get further along in creating the man.