31.8.10

I´m dreaming...













... of my own private autumn flower garden...













No such luck - so, as a substitute for the time
being, here´s a September Sun fabric pack...

29.8.10

April in August

Lot of rain here, with sudden bursts of sunshine
in between, at 15 degrees...













Well, I asked for it I guess, despising the heat,
constantly being in a somewhat stubborn stay-at-home
mood anyways...













One gets things done that way at least...
Yesterday I came up with this fringy border solution...
























No, that´s not an installation - it´s my wardrobe in
it´s usual overloaded disarray (inside it´s half empty,
though...) under the influence of April in August
weather and a rare bit of luck in finding, without
searching, two affordable stone grey cotton cardigans...

26.8.10

Birds birds birds...













These are made with illustrations from an old,
lovely, yellowed bird book I thrifted...













And they just flew into the shop...













The silk with the golden oriole is also a preview
at my next fabric pack - September Sun...

24.8.10

Leaf blues

So it´s leaf season again...
























I always find it touching (used to make me angry,
but no more - ennui I guess, spiced with a drop of
insight...) when the moth-ridden chestnut tree in
front of my window gets into it´s premature autumn -
only to start all over again the next year, in new
yet already doomed glory...
Brave thing, that tree, singing away at the
moment with a cheerful rustling sound that
has a rather consoling bye-bye summer swing to it...













Found these leaves I made two years ago in August...
I had just begun stitching then. Seems longer...













Beautiful, aren´t they...

23.8.10

Rainy monday afternoon













Finished this small long cloth...
























The chestnut leaves are falling rapidly...


21.8.10

18.8.10

Figures













Still busying myself with drawing figures (by hand
or machine), I made these three mixed-media pieces,
with pages from an old copy of R.D. Laing´s
The Politics of Experience I thrifted for 50 Cent
- but refrained from reading more than one chapter...
(I kind of like his writing, though, with its
Gertrude Stein-like fondness for repetition - reminding,
too, of the late great Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard...)
Anyway, that´s why I used the pages, with female
figures from magazine photos as models, taking their
faces off, and most of their clothes, but adding some
arm muscle, for good measure...
They´re in the shop.

16.8.10

A good weekend...

... must, of course, contain considerable amounts
of stitching and reading...













This one is growing (more about the birds on the
left soon...)













I´m using some hand dyed mottled beige pieces along
with the house coat seersucker, which gives the thing
a nice additional vintage touch I think - and all kinds
of brownish fabrics bought, found and given (here
some from Karen)...













For the reading part, I´ve been equally well equipped
with this fabulous book I found second hand...













The Quilt Pox warning sign came with it...













It´s from 1984, it´s focus is on quilters and
quilts from the US´s Southern Appalachia region, and
it´s inspirational, moving and downright wonderful...
Let me give you a quote, from the chapter Visiting
Old Time Quilters: "All quilters emphasized the great
joy and consolation which resulted from their quilting.
Interestingly, most of those who expressed such
enthusiasm tended to quilt alone (...) Much of the
basic satisfaction of quilting comes from a successful
effort to use imagination, ingenuity and hard work to
create something of one´s own. The writer didn´t talk
with a single quilter who didn´t seem happy and content
(...) Quilting, like gardening, is great therapy.
Psychiatrists might do well to study quilters with regard
to the relationship between their art-craft and their
exuberance for life and living..."













Among the dozens of quilters shown and interviewed
are several man quilters - tough and hard working
country men, not ashamed to admit they like to quilt
- what a role model they could be to many a man out
there today...


12.8.10

Cover story
























New home for stray magazine clippings - with old
home coat (see previous post)...
























And, still to be finished, new cover for collecting
small quilts - made from this old, relatively speaking,
piece, made from an (really) old shirt......
























Must be some pre-autumn storage urge...

10.8.10

New life, animal life













Started something new yesterday, intending to make
a feel-good-quilt... The grey seersucker is my old
housecoat, worn to exhaustion - but far from
retirement yet, nevertheless - and a small moon
piece from a while back found it´s place in
life, too...













Ladybugs in the yard...













... and a second-hand lizard - pleased I found him,
he´s really heavy, for a little guy, and he does love
cloth...

8.8.10

2 for 1

























Have been sorting through my things.
Amazing how much accumulates in a relatively short time...
So, as I don´t want to suffocate in it, I ´m having a
2 for 1 summer sale...
There are six pairs of things in the shop right now, and
I will be adding some more over the coming week or so.
Have a relaxed start into the week...!

5.8.10

Thursday
























Avocado pip + brazilwood dye...













Giving mauve the eye...

3.8.10

Mauve + gray

Well, I might use a bit of mauve - even if it means
contradicting myself...













Mild and cloudy 20 degrees, ahhh.
Couldn´t manage in "O the land of cloudless day,
O the land of an unclouded sky..."













What I want is a climate which allows to be swaddled
in gray - my favourite form of existence (bit more of
it on top, too, lately)...


"Gray hairs are signs of wisdom if you hold your tongue,
speak and they are but hairs, as in the young.”

(Rabindranath Tagore)

1.8.10

Fabrics

Have been busy dyeing - mainly with logwood,
and added three new fabric packs to the shop.
This here is the Mottled Mauve Pack...













A very pleasant colour, mauve/lilac - not to use it
in my own stitching, I readilly admit, but to look
at...




































Blurred, I know... Looks good, anyhow.
But here are some more...

























Okay, so there´s the Mottled Mauve Pack, the
Mild Blue Pack, and a kind of grown up Pink Pack -
the Muddy Pink Pack...

I also added two bigger pieces of fabric, which I
didn´t want to cut.

P.S. Not only the fabrics in the Mottled Mauve Pack
are more or less mottled, but in all three of them -
what fun is there in dyeing unmottled...?