Gerdiary

Dyeing reloaded

2012-01-28T18:19:00.002Z

As you may have noticed, there hasn´t been much
dyeing here for a while...
Didn´t feel like it, with that scaff*** hassle...

But now I´ve been busy for days, mostly with
stuff from the kitchen to start with...

Yesterday in the mail: some previously unexplored
substances I ordered, to experiment with till
dyestuffs can be found outside again...

Fabrics waiting in soymilk...

Just started, and there already are pinks, again.
Can´t help it, it seems...

As you might have noticed, too, the link to my
Bigcartel shop has vanished from the sidebar.
For a while I thought I might prefer to offer
fabrics and my textile/mixed-media work separately
- but then didn´t see the point of it any more
(and can´t effort two shops anyways...).

So - the new fabrics will be on Etsy, too.
Several packs/selections of beige/browns (with
clamp marks and such) and with a little pink,
and a soft yellows selection will be ready
first and go into the shop in a couple of days...

Writing on the wall...

2012-01-25T12:58:00.001Z

Here´s a little fabric-and-paper quilt thing I made.
It certainly is pleasant to stitch through paper -
by machine as well as by hand...

P.S. Blue sky today...

Rainy weather and a winner

2012-01-23T22:16:00.001Z

I´ve been thinking of black and white photography
lately, and how I´d like to do it again - well, neither
time machine nor computer machinations needed for
that today...

Booo...

And the pincushion goes to:

Thanks, everyone...

Good intentions or: a Give-away

2012-01-17T14:36:00.000Z

I´ve been in a stuffing mood...
Do you remember my "therapeutic" pincushions
of last year?
Here´s a new version: a "good intention" pincushion.
I made 4 different ones - 3 are in the shop -
and one I offer as a give-away...

The winner´ll get this pincushion, together with
a small bundle of hand dyed fabrics - so, if you´d
like to have it, please leave a comment here till
Monday (Jan. 23), sharing a good intention or two...

New fabric companions

2012-01-09T15:06:00.001Z

Meet Scorsese...

...and Coppola

They´re in the shop.

Almost...

2012-01-06T17:01:00.000Z

Hello to the new year.
Feels like March though. Almost.
Still possible, I heard on the radio, for a
"last minute winter" to come.
Even for me, a capricorn, a first minute spring
seems preferable to a bargain winter...

Note tied to the blogknob...

2011-12-30T16:06:00.000Z

"Letters swallow themselves in seconds.
Notes friends tied to the doorknob,
transparent scarlet paper,
sizzle like moth wings,
marry the air.

So much of any year is flammable,
lists of vegetables, partial poems.
Orange swirling flame of days,
so little is a stone.

Where there was something and suddenly isn’t,
an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space.
I begin again with the smallest numbers.

Quick dance, shuffle of losses and leaves,
only the things I didn’t do
crackle after the blazing dies."

(Naomi Shihab Nye: Burning the Old Year)

Winter wind

2011-12-20T14:18:00.000Z

A wind person...

Eyecatcher

2011-12-16T15:54:00.000Z

Eyes caught...

And eyeballs...

Winter wind

2011-12-12T13:47:00.000Z

A wind box...

Several wind wheels...

And a bit from an old treasured shirt, mended
once, but torn again - and now: gone with the wind...

Back to normal (almost...)

2011-12-06T18:06:00.000Z

There´s an end to everything, fortunately-
after months of unpleasant and unsettling
construction hubbub, things are showing a
tendency of moving back to normal (if such
a thing exists...) - scaffolding´s still
obscuring the view at the outside world -
not much to see there anyways than a slice
of old grey Berlin - but at least the noise
is gone. Poooh.

So, back to some serious stitching.
There´s quite a heap of wips to deal with...

For example this patient piece of long time
project, which started as a whitish scrap
collection which developed a somewhat oriental
flair, and which somewhen I´d decided to pair
with a big piece of brown linen...

Or this one, which I call Eyecatcher. It began
with a piece of fabric on which I had been - not
very successfuly - printing with an Indian wooden
textile stamp...

And this one. Which is intended to have
something to do with winter and wind - but, as
I realized after putting it together, in fact
more or less resembles that scaffolding
(last time using the word, promise to self)...

The grey-brown stripes are made of rather
wonderful, frail silk sari ribbon from Lisa.

For the rest of the year, I´m planning to show
here, without much words, some of the progress
I´ll make on the above pieces. Till then...

Red and white

2011-11-29T16:42:00.000Z

Sewn and stitched...

Drawn and painted...

Found and bought...

Creature comfort

2011-11-23T17:25:00.001Z

Yes.
Still
Construction plagued.
(photos taken through blue foil
covering the windows...)

Stitching...

2011-11-14T22:22:00.001Z

Drawing...

2011-11-09T12:53:00.000Z

A fabriclet

2011-11-06T14:25:00.000Z

I like it when I see my fabrics being used
in creating things of beauty, such as this...
Quite often, though, they´re not used at all,
but just kept, and sometimes looked at, and
fondled... that´s nice, too, I appreciate it...

Here´s a little fabric booklet, or is it a
fabriclet?
It´s just for keeping...;)

"It is very stretchy.
We know that, even if
many details remain
sketchy. It is complexly
woven. That much too
has pretty well been
proven. We are loath
to continue our lessons
which consist of slaps
as sharp and dispersed
as bee stings from
a smashed nest
when any strand snaps —

hurts working far past
the locus of rupture,
attacking threads
far beyond anything
we would have said
connects."

Kay Ryan: The Fabric of Life

Saturday snapshots...

2011-10-29T16:43:00.000+01:00

Shop revival...

2011-10-24T20:39:00.000+01:00

So...
I´ve dusted off the shelves at etsy and put some
wares in - for example her (can you see her face?
nice, when this happens all by itself...)

Plagues und pleasures

2011-10-18T14:55:00.002+01:00

Still construction plagued...

But there are advantages...
Someones thermometer landed right beneath my
window - which comes rather handy, as the Berlin
October cuts some unpredictable temperature
capers...

And, of course, there´s beauty everywhere...
Or is it: in the eye of the beerholder (K.Friedman).
No, not me, as I´m a known teetotaller...

There are some new fabrics in the shop.
As you will notice, it looks different. I´ve decided
to offer fabrics and my other things separately from
now on.
So I´m going to reopen my Etsy shop in the next days,
and there you´ll find my textile and mixed media work...

Bye-bye leaves...

2011-10-06T17:53:00.001+01:00

Using a torn-off bit of machine writing here, with what
I thought where no-sense words, I realized that in fact
they make a lot of sense.

Well, it´s time to say bye-bye to the leaves, indeed...

The following ones were photographed through a double
window, hence the dreaminess...

Me, I´m not dreaming. Still too much construction noise
around here for that. But I´m thinking - about a shop
reorganization, for example... More soon, take care!

Saturday snapshots...

2011-09-24T16:21:00.000+01:00

Bundling off...

2011-09-09T20:35:00.002+01:00

Almost a pity to unwrap them, isn´t it...

This one´s my recent September Leaves in the making.
Lotta over at Inleaf is doing a weekly bundle project
(2. week already), and I think it´s a fine idea and am
going to go along with it - there are several experiments
on my agenda, for example with these...

And isn´t this lovely, too...

And here´s something which turned out rather nicely
I think: tea, iron, grapes on natural silk...

Less impact on white cotton, but nice, too...

A piece of the natural silk is in my latest fabric pack
- September Sun and Storm

As I said: I´m going along with Lotta and her bundles -
but not on a weekly base, really, because...

I will be reducing blogging considerably from now
on - I´ve come to realize that I´m loosing interest
in it, and that it takes up too big a portion of my
time and energy...
So, expect to find something new here about twice
a month in the time to come. Fresh wares in the shop
will be announced between posts in the "New in the shop"
photo and link in the sidebar - and I might be offering
a newsletter - there´s a mailing list concerning new
fabric packs already, but I´d like to expand this
into a broader means of communication, if some of you´d
be interested. More about that another time - for now:

THANK YOU
and
CHEERS
and
HANG LOOSE...

September leaves

2011-09-06T21:22:00.001+01:00

Bundle dyed with vine leaves, and - helping nature
along, in another kind of mixed media approach one
might say - machine embroidered with leaves...
They´re in the shop.

Saturday snapshots...

2011-09-03T19:23:00.000+01:00

August drawing to a close

2011-08-29T19:31:00.000+01:00

Monthly hanging for August wip - No. 12, this
one is. Featuring - without me meaning to, funny how
that works - a very unwelcome addition to daily life
at the Gerdiary dwellings: scaffolding...

Urban patchwork

2011-08-23T19:55:00.000+01:00

Feathers

2011-08-20T15:13:00.001+01:00

For the magic feather project
and
a shop update...

On the kitchen wall...

2011-08-17T10:54:00.000+01:00

Slowly growing: monthly hanging for July (centre)
- but first of all...

Under the moon...

2011-08-14T15:31:00.000+01:00

With a little help...

2011-08-13T17:47:00.000+01:00

Sometimes just a little something is missing, before
a piece can be called finished...

And here it came, in a wonderful envelope of fabrics
Marie sent me...

It´s one of a few small take-it-easy summer cloths
I´m making...

Another one of them received a fitting addition too
in the mail this week, when a beige extra came with
some delightful oyster grey silk ribbons I bought
from Lisa...

Urban patchwork

2011-08-10T21:58:00.000+01:00

Not so white any more...

2011-08-08T21:00:00.000+01:00

More white (plus red + apricot)

2011-08-02T13:05:00.001+01:00

Still stitching at my white cloth...

That fondness for pure white - it´s when I´m dyeing
fabrics...

Well, almost pure... - adding bits of dyed silk I have
from Kaite - and some red will be in order later on,
obviously...

And here´s something else I made: some new "tiles".
They come in pairs. For one - I call it Eye Echo -
I used two hand stitched nine-patches in whites and
neutrals, painting some of the patches red with
acrylic paint. They´re in the shop, together with
a new fabric pack - August apricot...

I´m dreaming of...

2011-07-29T13:23:00.000+01:00

... a white August...

No, not really...

But less rain would be nice.
Have a good weekend...

Urban patchwork

2011-07-27T20:44:00.000+01:00

Plant footprints...

2011-07-25T18:21:00.002+01:00

Thanks for the appreciation of my garden prints -
they were gone in no time...
One pair I kept for myself, and here is what I did
with them...

Hand written in the background, on white cotton
and mostly hidden, are thoughts about gardens and
how great it is to have access to one (I´m sharing
an allotment lately, which is a very good thing...),
and on top of some machine embroidery of the plant
images is written in white thread "though stepping
very lightly plants do leave footprints did you know?"...

They seem to get along quite well.
Nevertheless, it´s in the shop...

Garden prints (and more...)

2011-07-21T13:32:00.001+01:00

A pleasant occupation on two warm Berlin summer
afternoons (cool and rainy now...)

The result: nine sets of Garden Prints, to use in
stitching, or to enjoy just as they are - which are
in the shop...

Also new: a small fabric pack, dyed with avocado
and madder...

And, among other things, a visitor from outer space...

Sky stitches...

2011-07-19T23:00:00.000+01:00

Saturday snapshots...

2011-07-16T14:55:00.000+01:00

A good read

2011-07-13T17:12:00.001+01:00

My two-faced cow is honoured to be featured once
again in the print summer issue of HAND/EYE magazine,
with Wendy Golden-Levitts`s article "Hope arrived
yesterday"...

And its sibling, still living here with me, shouts:
Read it! - the whole issue, of course. Its focus is
on tradition related, woman and man made textiles from
all over the world, which it´s - as the editorial says -
time to buy, treasure, make, collect and talk about,
because otherwise they might vanish from the face
of the earth, leaving everyone dressed in one and
the same globalized "fashion"...

News from...

2011-07-11T11:32:00.003+01:00

...the monthly hangings wip

The new one, for June, has scraps from one of
my late fathers´s old flannel gardening shirts
(using the back), pieces from old shirts once
worn by myself...

...and a bit of vintage quilt fragment, while May -
well, you see what happened there...

A good July week to everyone...

Gaily coloured...

2011-07-08T15:06:00.002+01:00

... but it´s me, nevertheless (grey sleaves...!)
It´s a blouse I´m making (or try to, at least...)
for a 9-year-old friend who kindly agreed to
assist me in an attempt at dressmaking by being
pattern model and recipient of this first garment...

But for now, off into a Berlin summer weekend.
Take care...

About time...

2011-07-04T13:05:00.000+01:00

"The purpose of art is to stop time."
(Bob Dylan)

Sunday afternoon: Second life...

2011-07-03T13:47:00.000+01:00

... of old pyjama pants

On the kitchen wall...

2011-06-30T11:23:00.000+01:00

Hi there... I´m back (though it´s still June) -
and here´s something I´ve been making meanwhile...

"It is better to be a young June-bug than an old bird
of paradise."
(Mark Twain)

C, D, E...

2011-06-18T19:08:00.000+01:00

Composition...

Dialogue...

Experience...

Going to be offline for a while - see you again
in July...

Bye bye berry blue

2011-06-14T16:35:00.000+01:00

Her forehead and belly used to be light blue,
but aren´t any more...
The fabrics I dyed last summer with berries
someone gave me slowly fade into beige when
exposed to the light. I just realized that...

And I hope it isn´t frustrating for those who
bought the fabric pack. Sorry. But I had no way
of knowing...

Whit wips

2011-06-12T20:31:00.002+01:00

Looking at you...

2011-06-08T13:06:00.001+01:00

Did I ever mention I´ve been a vegetarian for
decades - following the doctrine: don´t eat
anything that has eyes (can´t keep to that
any more lately, for health reasons...) -
but obviously that credo pops up now and
then, in the variation: don´t stitch anything
that has no eyes...

There are a few new things in the shop -
and most of them do have eyes...

There´s a considerable Blogger disorder I´m sorry
to report (to anyone who might not be suffering
from it all along...) - they seem determined to
turn things from smooth to complicated and unnerving -
an additional click needed here, another click
required there, optics changing without no good
reason I can see...
Also, I hear from people they are unable to comment
here lately - as I am myself at a lot of blogs.

So, looking at you, silently...

On the kitchen wall...

2011-06-04T17:48:00.003+01:00

My Monthly Hangings gallery is growing, a bit hesitantly
now and then, but not coming to a standstill after all...
I have nine of them now, starting with September of last
year - and quite a few of them still wips...

The one for March got some more blue patches...

... and the new arrival, for May, a bloom that is
supposed to pass as a peony...

Mending

2011-05-31T18:47:00.004+01:00

"The rain does not cool and is a sticky one
to the present and the place.
Is it a weakness, yours for narcotics?
The trees levitate and become mountains.
You stand in the water inside a melancholy boulder.
Now you're a flying sandwich."

(Lesle Lewis: The Menders and the Breakers)

Saturday

2011-05-28T18:42:00.005+01:00

I´m having a guest at the moment.

She likes things handmade...

Una pumpa...

2011-05-25T19:45:00.005+01:00

Here´s a rare sighting of guerilla knitting - at least
for the part of town where I live, there might be more
elsewhere...

A bit droll, perhaps...

After I´d taken the photos, a group of tourists came
by, stopping at the pump and, ignoring the knit,
shouting "una pumpa, una pumpa..." with delight,
starting to pump away, wasting water...

No, that´s not them. It´s a photo of some other
street pump enthusiasts I happened to find today
while rummaging through my mess. Strange coincidence -
didn´t even know I had it. It´s one of a few loose
book pages, so I can´t say who made the photo and when,
1920s or 30s I guess...

Good words

2011-05-23T14:18:00.004+01:00

A while ago a friend asked me to make something for
her as cushiony as my "therapeutic" pincushions, but
with "good words".
I liked what came out of it, so I made another one...

And a mixed-media card too.
There will be more of these I think...

They´re in the shop, together with some other new
items...

Saturday

2011-05-21T17:23:00.002+01:00

Urban patchwork

2011-05-19T11:41:00.002+01:00

Monday mirrors

2011-05-16T13:12:00.002+01:00

A wip, made mostly from pieces of cancelled projects
(three cheers to the roundabout ways...)

Pretty enough, that little mirror - but not as pretty
as the ones on my old indian bag bolster...

More about The Nature of a Mirror here...

A green rush...

2011-05-13T18:34:00.003+01:00

Sumatran jungle views?
Green tea intoxication?
No.
A chestnut tree in Berlin in the rain.
Just moved the camera a bit while triggering -
and had fun doing so, obviously...

Thoughts for the road

2011-05-11T14:42:00.007+01:00

Almost forgot to introduce you to this...

... after having shown it here only in the background...

It´s made from an old, timeworn kitchen towel, a piece
of hand dyed cotton, and bits of paper, "artificially"
weathered - and it has hidden messages (of which I´m
kind of fond lately - the use of paper in cloth, as
well as the messages - soon more...)

I´m rather pleased with it. Despite the paper and the
narrrow sewn lines it´s still very soft to the touch.
I call it "Thoughts for the road"...

And today I like
this
and
this
and
this
and
this...

A dancer...

2011-05-09T17:27:00.005+01:00

A while ago I made a dye try with hibiscus tea, which
didn´t satisfy me - but I kept a few empty tea bags
and pinned them to my notice board...

And here finally found a way to use one...

She´s in the shop, together with two other female
thread personalities, and some silk scraps...

Imagine

2011-05-06T15:16:00.006+01:00

That´s my monthly hanging for April, finished in
time - almost...

The chestnut image is from an old hankerchief...

"Men are more moral than they think and far more
immoral than they can imagine."

(Sigmund Freud, born May 6, 1856)

Urban patchwork

2011-05-01T16:55:00.001+01:00

A textile art installation (almost...)

2011-04-28T13:19:00.002+01:00

They´re just two pieces of fabric I unearthed while
sorting through the mess - one nicely garment shaped,
the other one had the writing already on when I bought
it - so I pinned them to a wall, for further consideration,
while attempting to get some order...

... achieving quite the contrary, as usual...

Never too late...

2011-04-26T12:47:00.005+01:00

... for a few stitches (here: on my monthly hanging for
January, hmmm...)

... and for a few new ideas, as this lady says she has
about "this thing called living" (who cares about a
white hair or two... shake it loose and let it fall,
whoo...)

One more...

2011-04-24T15:35:00.002+01:00

A holiday collage...

2011-04-22T18:07:00.003+01:00

The tender touch of time...

2011-04-19T18:54:00.008+01:00

One thing I like about tea dyed fabric is how it...

.... ages and yellows ever so softly...

... as paper does...

And today I like

this
and
this
and
this
and
this

Urban patchwork

2011-04-17T17:46:00.001+01:00

On the kitchen wall...

2011-04-14T14:23:00.002+01:00

Two Mixed-media wips, and a photo from...

... one of these Propyläen World History volumes I
rescued from the wastepaper bin...

Unfolding...

2011-04-13T12:12:00.001+01:00

Cool, calm, clips

2011-04-10T16:41:00.003+01:00

Do you remember my Calmers?
I did, and made two new ones, mixed-media-style...

They´re always about the same size - I use the lid
of a stone container where I keep paperclips as a
template...

Miles and tiles...

2011-04-07T19:35:00.004+01:00

I´ve been enjoying some long distance sewing lately...

This is a piece I call "Morgen" (German for morning as
well as tomorrow) - there´s a scrap of an old book in
it with that word.
It shows handwritten (only partly visible now) and machine
written words in English and German I improvised around
that word "Morgen"...

And I made three mixed-media pictures on small, tile
like canvases which I also covered with improvised
text fragments before attaching the layers of cotton
and paper with the drawings, and so partly hiding
the words again...

"Pleasure" this one is called - and that playing with
words is a pleasant thing indeed. Hiding some of the
meaning (if there ever was...) seems to give things
an additional breathing and thinking space (or so I
hope...)

Urban patchwork

2011-04-04T12:37:00.002+01:00

Soft step...

2011-03-31T11:44:00.000+01:00

Pinpoints

2011-03-29T13:08:00.002+01:00

After having parted with one of my pincushions that
I didn´t like any more, I attempted to make a new
one - and out came these...

I call them therapeutic pincushions - useful as well as
curative…
While holding pins and needles, they offer the opportunity
to voodoopin unfavourable feelings and vices such as -
machine skribbled just as they came to mind, in English
and German – grief, Großspurigkeit, grumpiness, sorrow,
Frechheit, faintheartedness...

All is in flux...

2011-03-25T12:33:00.002Z

The monthly hanging for March (right) startet kicking
about in its eggshell yesterday evening...

... and has now joined its companions, still very much
unfinished themselves...

And a thank you to Lisa and Deanna...

Take a hop on the wild side...

2011-03-24T12:03:00.002Z

Moon cloud

2011-03-20T13:15:00.003Z

What a moon last night...
Made me finish this small piece, started March 28
of last year, under the impression of another moon.
Time brings it all...

Saturday afternoon, in a rank + file mood...

2011-03-19T17:19:00.003Z

Good advice...?!

2011-03-17T14:53:00.003Z

They are one each in the shops...

Spring flowers...

2011-03-14T13:53:00.003Z

... of the city asphalt variety...

A winner, and more buntings...

2011-03-12T16:49:00.004Z

The bunting goes to...

Deanna...

These buntings are fun, so I´m making some more...

Cheerio - and thanks to everyone who participated
and shared amazing, often altruistic, astute and
altogether alluring 500-wishes with me and others -
a pleasure to read them...

Post 500 = a Give-away

2011-03-08T15:42:00.006Z

Half a thousand posts - well, that´s...

... something

... to be celebrated with a Give-away

If you´d like to win this Mixed-media bunting, please
leave a comment here (= click post title) till Friday,
answering this:

A fairy grants you a wish, but (it´s a wholesale fairy...)
you have to take 500 of it - what would you choose?

Looking forward to the answers...

Saturday afternoon, in an electric mood...

2011-03-05T18:19:00.002Z

Second life of a pillow wip...

2011-03-02T12:51:00.001Z

Growing a gallery or: For the time being...

2011-02-28T13:31:00.006Z

The months fly by, don´t they...
So, at the end of this short one, there´s at least
a fledgling February hanging to present - next to
a still in progress January one. I don´t mind - I
just add one to my gallery each month, unfinished
or not, and work on them when the time seems right...

The time seems right just now, with post No. 500
approaching, to do things different for a while -
in March, for the time being, this blog will be a
more or less wordless one - a photo diary, with
the occasional quote or poem perhaps, we´ll see...

And I´ll remove the links - there are so many
interesting blogs, and not enough time to keep track
of them all, so I don´t feel comfortable any more
with that huge hotch-potch selection as it is now,
but don´t want to shrink it either. So I will store
my list of favourites elsewhere, for the time being...

Batik bungling...

2011-02-24T15:31:00.006Z

Some first results with batik...

I decided I want to take that up - for creating patterns,
additional to dyeing - and as a means for writing on
fabric...

My new fair trade cantings from Indonesia, which
came in a nice fabric covered box...
I thought I might be able to put together some freshly
batiked fabric pack by the end of the week - but this
definitely takes longer than anticipated...

Printed matter

2011-02-21T11:13:00.004Z

This week I´ll busy myself with printing and dyeing...

Ages ago, long before the textiles took over, I bought
an old indian stamp, because I liked it just as an object.
Then I gave it to someone who wanted to try some wall
decoration with it, and forgot about it...

But now it´s back where it belongs.
This print (thickened walnut dye) looks better here
than in real, and it washed off too much, and I don´t
like brown anyways...
The first photo shows a card I made yesterday, with a
sponge rubber print.
More soon...

Silent saturday...

2011-02-19T11:41:00.005Z

Weaving

2011-02-18T12:29:00.007Z

Some weeks ago I thrifted a little loom. After it had
been standing in the way for a while, I gave it a try
with the wool still in it - no fun...

So I thought: why not use fabric strips instead?

Aahh, better...

Much better actually...

Spring catchers. Now I´ll lean back, on a cold and
grey Berlin February day, and wait for things to come.
What will be will be...

Passionate people

2011-02-16T16:15:00.004Z

Here´s a new tribe...

...very recently discovered in the urban canyons of
Berlin...

And what have they to do with helping spring along?
Well, they´re quite a sensuous and passionate lot it
seems - and thus well equipped for it.
Papes I call them, short for: passionate people...

And what happened with the green silk...?
This...

... and this

Helping (the possibility of) spring along...

2011-02-14T18:04:00.003Z

Personally, I´d prefer to hang on to winter for a
good while longer - and it´s cold enough around here
to make one believe it is winter still - but there are
snow-drops and bird-twitter, too - so I thought I might
as well make my peace with the unavoidable and open
up the windows of my mind for spring...

My weekly focus therefore will be: helping spring along...

And here´s what I tugged out from the (still way too
big and too chaotic) fabric heap for that purpose...

Saturday interlude

2011-02-12T11:27:00.008Z

This is a thank you...

...to Wendy Golden-Levitt for including one of my
two-faced Creatures here and in her fascinating work.

And I just asked this little chap to take off and join her
and the children too...

Tackling the scrap-heap...

2011-02-09T09:50:00.010Z

A little scrap gatherer in the making...

Too many baskets of scraps, too many piles of paper,
too many projects and wips around here - so some
serious sorting, straightening, simplifying has to
be going on...

Which doesn´t keep me from thrifting fresh supply
for the scrap-heap...

I´m rather rapidly approaching post No. 500, can you
believe it? So it might be time for some blog reform,
too...
Anyways, there won´t be another post here this week
I guess...
Take care!

"I try to teach my heart not to want things
it can't have."

(Alice Walker, born February 9, 1944)

Sunday afternoon...

2011-02-06T14:46:00.003Z

Eggheads

2011-02-04T18:25:00.008Z

Sitting and sketching, my eye fell on one of the
Creatures residing on the window sill, so I thought:
he might as well earn his stay once in a while -
and took him as a model for a little drawing...

And here´s a mixed-media collage I made, using
one of my drawings from earlier this week.
On the left is a strip of hand dyed cotton I ripped
off elsewhere, and the handwriting comes from a print
a friend gave me of some of his non-word calligraphy
experiments...

Both far from pure form, I readily admit - but even
very different levels of skill sometimes somehow might
lead to similar results...

"When you start with a portrait and try to find
pure form by abstracting more and more, you must
end up with an egg.”

(Pablo Picasso)

Drawing...

2011-02-02T11:38:00.000Z

... silver-haired figures

Hanging on to January

2011-01-31T14:03:00.004Z

This is my monthly hanging for January...

Still wip - won´t be able to finish this one on
schedule, which is quite as well - don´t feel
finished with January, novemberly and pre-spring
at the same time as it has been, unwilling to
slip over into a February which threatens to turn
out the same: a stretch of life without a climate
of its own...

As I turned 56 in January, which means 8 x 7 years,
it´s a sort of time-ladder, on which I´m stitching
the 7 chakra symbols...

And I´ve just herded last week´s Creatures into
the shop.

At the end of a week...

2011-01-28T22:11:00.006Z

So, here they are...
Please meet:

Lady Po - elder stateswoman of the kangaroo
penguins (rare species!) - mild mannered, shrewd,
loves jewelry...

Big-eyed dog - vigilant, loyal, but a free spirit...

Specs - smart, ambitious, well organized, but still
a romp...

Bird-catcher dog (or is it a cat? up to you...) -
passionate, single-minded, sweet-toothed and, well,
predatory...

Melo - a muser, melancholic, misantropic, mellow,
musical...

Rain or shine - acrobat extraordinaire...

... world-wise, wiry, well aware that

... into each life some rain must fall...

They will be in the shop next week...

Gerdiary

Dyeing reloaded

Writing on the wall...

Rainy weather and a winner

Good intentions or: a Give-away

New fabric companions

Almost...

Note tied to the blogknob...

Winter wind

Eyecatcher

Winter wind

Back to normal (almost...)

Red and white

Creature comfort

Stitching...

Drawing...

A fabriclet

Saturday snapshots...

Shop revival...

Plagues und pleasures

Bye-bye leaves...

Saturday snapshots...

Bundling off...

September leaves

Saturday snapshots...

August drawing to a close

Urban patchwork

Feathers

On the kitchen wall...

Under the moon...

With a little help...

Urban patchwork

Not so white any more...

Blogroll

More white (plus red + apricot)

I´m dreaming of...

Urban patchwork

Plant footprints...

Garden prints (and more...)

Sky stitches...

Saturday snapshots...

A good read

News from...

Gaily coloured...

About time...

Sunday afternoon: Second life...

On the kitchen wall...

C, D, E...

Bye bye berry blue

Whit wips

Looking at you...

On the kitchen wall...

Mending

Saturday

Una pumpa...

Good words

Saturday

Urban patchwork

Monday mirrors

A green rush...

Thoughts for the road

A dancer...

Imagine

Urban patchwork

A textile art installation (almost...)

Never too late...

One more...

A holiday collage...

The tender touch of time...

Urban patchwork

On the kitchen wall...

Unfolding...

Cool, calm, clips

Miles and tiles...

Urban patchwork

Soft step...

Pinpoints

All is in flux...

Take a hop on the wild side...

Moon cloud