My Gnome Has Inspired Me...

Well, I'm about out of thought mode...that is to say, I'm not stopping thinking, just coming up a few layers back to the land of create-and-blog!

My little gnome is taking shape quite nicely. Today or tomorrow I'll have him ready to anchor to one of my books. I've also got the backing for the one (You'll see what I mean when I post the pics)...can't decide on one for the other yet (does that make sense??!!).

OMG, I've missed our corner of the world!! Now ready to plunge into thought-related work!! Stay tuned!!

My Thread Gnome

I'm going to turn into my Thread Gnome mode for a couple days. I was thrilled that my Letter to the Editor was accepted and printed almost in its entirety in the April issue of the Quilters Newsletter Magazine! And I got some really lovely emails from my QA folks, so I'm feeling encouraged. It's on page 17, by the way (!!).

I even sat and had some thought time as to the direction I want to go this year, which, I think, is illustrated by my Letter. Connections Private and Public, Past and Present, too, I think. When my heart howled at the moon in the darkness, it was my connections that brought me back to sanity and to the meaning of fibrous and textilicious communication.

I am valuable. I mean something. I have contributions to make, and many many things to learn (thank god for all you wonderful 'net friends!!). So I'm going to take the place of my Thread Gnome and hide out in a thinking mode under my pile of threads and textiles...no mean feat if you ask me!! And I will let my Gnome have his home back in a couple days.

Deep thought is good, in a periodic sort of way, I think. I also have The Tao of Pooh, which I think bears (haha, no pun intended!!) re-reading.

My friends at Fabric Art Journals are doing wonderful things...I want to do a pop-up, perhaps of my Gnome!!

Regards for now from Your Favorite Pesky Textile Texan

Sometimes I feel like the Ever-Ready Bunny

Well, every once in a while I can easily spend a day surfing around, checking out sites, pics, narrative, blogs, pics, more pics, etc.etc. Today I still have a lot of work to do, but I find myself flitting around a lot, from my chair to the dining room table where stuff is laid out back here to the computer, surf a few ideas, back to my chair. Maybe for me it's like constantly lighting my pilot light, not that it ever goes off, but maybe adding wood to the fire would be a better analogy...either way, you get the picture! So don't ask me how I found it, but check this site -- wish my pics would come out that clear!!

Learning Never Stops...

One of the things I have tended to do is practice my stitches on almost anything else, and then consider turning it into something interesting. This piece is still in the practice-my-stitches stage, but may eventually be a model for a bookmark. The lighting is a little off, as you can see...the monogram is red on a darker pink moire background. It's done in backstitch. The tree is black on a cream background. I may just use this as a bookmark the way it is and keep adding stitches. On the bright side (hahaha!), at least my camera works even if the picture is a little ... ummmm...!!!!

And Still More!

Ok, I LOVE CQ. I'm NOT great at it, but I love it. However, I practice, and I've learned a lot. Here's a piece I did recently with a dragonfly and a vine. The blue flowers I like. The leaf on the left is stuffed, and I don't like how it turned out. The small green vine with the red things next to it was my first attempt at SRE buds. Feather stitch is one of my favorites, and also chain stitch. I participated in two RR's through one of my Yahoo!groups, and I learned so VERY much. There are a lot of really really talented stitchers out there. Plus, Sharon Boggon's blog has that section she calls "I Dropped the Button Box" which is absolutely awesome.

You're Only So Lucky (or, Count My Blessings)

I pushed my luck...I can't put two pix in the same entry. Well, I can but I don't know how yet. So we'll go pic by pic instead of one nice entry. Oh Well! Here is the pic for the Jacobean piece. I must say, I like the grapes. Each one is separate padded satin stitch, with a bit of thread change to make the highlights. I'm rather pleased. The cap on the acorn is French knots. The pale turquoise green I used on the leaf on the right (under the grapes) came out sort of blue-ish in the pic, but the veins are a darker green which turned out not too awful. As you can see, it's still in the draft stage, which means that all colors are subject to change; however, that leaf was a pain -- I did it in long and short, and the intensive curving is not something I'm used to. But that's the way the leaf is, so there you go!

The Tale of the Working Camera (Sort of)

OK, well, we'll see how this works. I want to include some pix here of what I've been working on lately, sort of the basis of the research or the quest. One of the things I like to do, besides learning the traditional methods for such skills as drawn thread work, pulled thread work, quilting and embroidery, is to try to apply them in various non-traditional environments, so to speak. So, here are some of my items.

This first one is technically a coaster. I let anyone use it as a coaster if they want to die an early death at my hand. It's an example of pulled-thread work, using the four-sided stitch, the eyelet stitch, satin stitching, and three-sided stitching as a finishing for the edge. The fringing was fun! I learned a lot on this piece, particularly how to take out incorrect pulled-thread stitches and re-do them correctly after having fixed back the fabric into place. Let me tell you how much fun THAT was...good thing my hair's already curly!!!!

I really like the patterning of pulled-thread stitches. In fact, several months ago, I ordered a book by Eileen Bennett called A Note Book of Pulled Thread Stitches. Eileen's site is The Sampler House . There she has a nice historical essay and some really lovely patterns available. Eileen also has two other books available, one on the evolution of samplers and one on reprints of articles. NAYY, just really like her site and have a great desire to get those other two books at some point in the near future.

I've just plotted out a small piece incorporating pulled-thread stitches on a "natural"-colored fabric...once I start it, of course, up will go the pix!

My next piece, and series for study, is Jacobean in style. For some reason, I'm absolutely fascinated with that era. So much was going on historically: Mary Stuart was faithfully (pardon the pun!!) doing her part to contribute to the needlework world, all these new ideas were being imported from foriegn lands, and it seems that a bunch of ideas in all kinds of areas rather exploded upon the hapless heads of the 17th century bunch! On this piece, I drafted several plant types together in a nonsense sort of theme (note grapes and acorns on the same plant -- artistic license strikes again!!!).

Never Enough Time...

Well, there just aren't enough hours in a day. How many times have I heard that, experienced that, wished with all my heart it weren't true!! Getting this darn thing set up is a major pain, especially since I am NOT fluent in HTML. I'd rather be dealing with Russian. or French. or German. or shorthand, even. My next post will be picture-crazy -- I've got so much going on that I want to share, to get opinions on. And I've got more setting up to do. As you see, my sidebar is way down where it's not supposed to be. How to do it, how to fix it? humph. The other saying I hear frequently is "one step at a time", or "baby steps get you there". Dismayingly true!!

How Cool Is This?!

I love poking around the 'net finding different thoughts and ideas...it's sort of like the legal research I used to do, taking a word and re-thinking it and running with it. Here's one -- check out www.fabricorigami.com and click on their gallery for some neat sights!


Here's a thought for you! I live in Texas, and our State Flower is the bluebonnet. I'm trying to recreate its image in needlework, with moderate success. But one of the most talented stitchers I know lives in Turkey and has completed an outstanding rendition of Bluebonnets -- http://cqmagonline.com/photogallery/photo00024663/real.htm shown at CQMagOnline in the Readers' Showcase. Check out the index for CQMag (click on 'Current Issue', then, on the left, click on Readers' Showcase for some outstanding eyecandy!!)

Treasures from the Past

Over at In A Minute Ago, Sharon's other (better?! nooooo...!) half, Jerry, found a book on Project Gutenberg about English Embroidered Book Bindings in history. The pics are fabulous and the text although a bit 'Jane Austen' (that's meant in a nice way) is incredibly clear and detailed. I'm still not great at links, but if you click on inaminuteago.com you can get to Sharon's Sat. Jan. 28 2006 post and check it out for yourself...I've had my sketchbook out all afternoon trying to keep up with my pencil!

Happy Friday!!

Happy Friday!

Humph. I spent the bulk of the morning running errands, etc. Yucko bucko! I hope to enter a couple more posts as the day progresses...I'm even going to try (don't hold your breath, please!) to post some pics of what I [hope to] accomplish this afternoon.

One of the things that has convinced me of the worth of keeping my own blog is that (eventually) others in the fiberart field will stop by and see my work. I hope for some really educational critiques. This open type of forum gives me a much greater chance than I would have in a more traditional aspect of learning.

So, stay tuned! More later...

Lots to Learn and Do...

It has been an interesting day. I have spent the hours being a think tank. KT (my teen-aged princess) is out of town for four days, Ron (long-suffering DH) isn't due home for another week. The dining room tablecloth needed washing. As an aside, I don't really have a studio, or even a workspace per se. I have one of the living room chairs and 3 of those big wicker baskets from Michael's filled. Well, the chair gets filled with me, the baskets are filled with learning projects (1), all my different types of threads (2), and ideas sketched out either w/pencil&paper or drafted on fabric samples/swatches. So, like preparing for an eclipse, the wonderful line-up of DH gone, DD gone, and bare dining room table was too perfect to pass up. As I'm sitting here now, every square inch of the dr table is covered by seven piles of stuff to get done tomorrow. Uh-huh. But, I have 'til Sunday evening...

Something To Aspire To Create...
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Day the Second

Well. It was a lloooooonnnggg First Day!! But it surely has been well spent. I have been busy learning, being the proverbial sponge, making mistakes, learning lessons, trying new things, and generally enjoying my life.

First, I had a LOT to learn about the technical side of this. And I still don't have it all quite down, as you can see by the lack of pix. But I'm getting there. So I decided not to sacrifice time for content; I can't keep track as nicely of what I'm learning if I don't keep a record.

I joined a couple Yahoo! groups, and learned a lot from them, too. In addition, I've sort of had some really obnoxiously serious health issues rear up their ugly heads, and one of the things I thus learned is that I can't plan by more than a day, if that, so I have to stay away from time-sensitive projects like RR's and some swaps. I embarassed myself a bit with that one, but it was a lesson well learned, and I was graciously forgiven my lack of learning curve at the time! Actually it was more like a painful realization rather than a lesson, but, oh well!

Good lessons learned so far -- I prefer to call them Expanded Horizons --

• I have seriously improved my crazy quilting skills, both seam treatments and motifs. In fact, I was VERY PRIVILEGED to be able to participate in the "Sleep with the Angels" project, which was announced through CQMagOnline , to which I subscribe. As soon as I can figure out how, there will be links to the final pix...all the ladies, and we had quite a few, not only from the States but also from Turkey and a few other countries, did just a wonderful wonderful job. I was honored to be a part of that project.
• I am conquering some white work stitching skills with which I have always wanted to become more familiar. I have a friend who graciously answers all my emailed questions with aplomb and patience. Once I get her permission, I'd like to post a link to her site.
• I learned how to tat with a needle!! A lady towards whom I have the highest respect and affection, Barb Engle, helped me...when I finally got the hang of it, I called her up in glee, and, completely forgetting to say "Hi" or anything, I happily shrieked, "I GOT IT I GOT IT!!" Fortunately she recognized my voice and laughed at me, but her steadfast cheering on has me hanging in there. Sorry, I'm not good enough to post pix of THAT particular effort, but give me a little while!

Anyway, that's it for now. I hope to post now rather more often than every six months (red face here!), so stay tuned!

Day The First -- July 17, 2005

Wow . . . I've got a blog! This is going to be quite a learning experience, but thank goodness there are some FABriculous examples out there. And really, learning is exactly what I'm going to be doing.

It feels odd to be, in essence, writing to myself. I have to learn about blog embellishment, links, and everything. Wow. Slightly overwhelming, but I know I can do it. I never thought I'd be good enough in my needlework to participate in swaps or Round Robins. And I have, and the person receiving the item had good things to say, so I know my skills are not too awful. Besides, one thing I've learned about folks in needlework is that they are always encouraging, but if it's just not that great, ya find out real quick! But that's good, cuz constructive criticism or gentle encouragement is how one learns the best -- from your mistakes, so to speak.

So here goes.

I will always welcome constructive criticism, gentle encouragement, and friendly feedback. I just hope I'll continue to do well.