Life as we know it

How things have changed.  The internet is full of artists reveling in the time that has come available to them, with being confined to home.  Two things have changed the way I'm approaching the next few months.  First, there is no doubt that the gallery show, scheduled to be hung April 26 for a month, that I've been sweating over for the past while will be cancelled.  Secondly, I appear to have caught the "plague", and have been out of commission for the past week.  I have "come to the surface" today, to realize that I have no energy, nor interest in doing anything ambitious,  I would be quite content to sit and play on the internet for the next few weeks.  I've been following Sketchbook Revival 2020 with Karen Abend, and quite enjoying it.  I've also started a much more in depth sketchbook workshop on Design Matters TV, that will take quite some time to deal with properly.  So I'm going to give myself a break.  But I know that I would not do well without being able to fondle fabric.  So I will content myself with doing putter-y things in the studio.  There are several of these tasks that have been put off lately, and now is the time.  There is a whole laundry basket of narrow strips of cotton waiting to be pieced for another improv pieced quilt.  Mindless work that could well be done while listening to audible books, if I knew how to access audible books.  So I'll have to content myself with cd's or the radio.  Then I want to pursue the batik that I've been teaching myself over the past while.  There is also a need to find some sort of hand work that I can take to group meetings, once the world returns to normal.  I have two projects in mind to set up.

Sounds like I'm set to go, if only I could get off my butt and head for the studio.  Maybe after another cup of coffee.

Another "Just Do It" day

We've been talking about  moving some of the items in my studio area into the rest of the basement area, so as to create a little more room in the studio.  This week, for the second time, I tripped over an extension cord in the studio and fell. Leading to a trip to Urgent Care, x-rays ( nothing broken) but a lot of very sore muscles and joints over the past few days.  Today, I decided that today was the day that we would do something about it.  This involved moving four major pieces of furniture, two of which required emptying first. The other consideration was that, because the studio was so small, every little space and cubby hole has been used for storage.

First step was a lot of measuring, and then emptying of a wardrobe. This was quickly accomplished, and then it was moved out of the studio area and into the main part of the basement along the west wall.  Our measurements has shown us that, if  it was moved about 24 inches beyond an inward corner of the foundation, there would be room for the corner cabinet, holding a huge collection of beads, to rest against the West wall beside it, just out of its old position in the main studio.

But first all of the beads had to be taken out.  I was not sure of the integrity of the home made cabinet, which I had bought 30 years ago at a garage sale for $10.  It was a very old cabinet when I bought it. Here they are, side by side, just out of the studio.

And here are the beads spread all over the studio.

 The next step was to move a big heavy hand made cedar chest from against the east was of the studio, onto the West wall of the basement beside the wardrobe.  First we had to move a storage unit from on  top of the cedar chest, down to the far end of the basement onto a different storage chest.  You can see it here, under the far window, and the cedar chest beside the wardrobe.

The final step was to move a small computer desk holding my tv set and computer into the space formerly occupied by the wardrobe and corner cabinet. 

You'll note that there is a much smaller corner shelving unit where the bead cupboard used to be, and I've snuck a rolling shelving unit in to the other side of the computer desk.  This required some adjustments to the way everything had been hooked up to power.  This meant no more extension cords taped to the floor for me to trip over.  Yay!!  As well, all of the items that had been stuck into any empty space, have all been relocated quite nicely, and probably safer as well.

Next the work table was swung 90 degrees from its former position and snugged up to the computer desk.  Sorry about the garbage front and center.

I can't believe how  much extra space I have.  Had I know this would happen I would have pushed to do this a long time ago.

A birthday Gift

I had a significant birthday last week, and my Dear Husband knew that I was feeling my age, when thinking about the event. The dear man had been putting away a few dollars every week for about 3 months, toward a short vacation we had arranged, that then got cancelled with the Covid19 problems.  So he gave me the cash, to use as I chose. 

There were a lot of things I could have spent it on--food, clothes, a spa day etc, but I finally settled on taking a comprehensive sketchbook development  and use workshop, offered over the internet by Design Matters TV.  This will be only the second, in depth, internet workshop I've taken.   I have most of the supplies, and others are included in cost of the workshop. The workshop comes in 4 distinct modules, and I can take one or all of them, in my own time, with a fair bit of support.  

I'll keep you all informed of my progress.

What's going on at my house

This will be the third time I've written this post. The first time, I didn't realize, until it had been posted, that some of the photos were so out of focus that they were useless to a viewer.  So I reverted to draft, and tried to figure out how to improve the quality of the pictures.  (Lately, I've noticed a slight hand tremour, the type that sometimes comes with age.)  So, a couple of days later,  I managed to haul out our tripod.  It's a good tripod, purchased for a fire sale price ( final sale) that turned out to be a video tripod, not a still photo device.  Still, it gives me something to rest my camera on to take a steady shot.

The piece, that has been giving me grief, is the one I've titled "Frazil Ice: Fall 2019".  It is the third of the three hand-made batik pieces I am working on. It had reached a point where I felt it was not worth pursuing.  It had just had far too many problems, and I was ready to declare it part of my "crap quota".  ( We all have them, we just don't talk about them --much)

As a last resort, I took it to The Fibre Art Divas meeting last week, and they felt that it just needed more work--that the white areas could be better, with just a bit of persuasion. 

I used my stiletto to adjust the white fabric, and stitched it in place, using a programmed stitch, and an old hand embroidery thread called Accentuate, that is no longer manufactured.  I absolutely love this thread, which came in many colours, fur use in my machine, despite the 50 yard spools.  I certainly miss it, and have not found anything to replace it.  Then I went to the flatter areas and used a line of the same stitch as an accent.

Here is the result.  I plan to exhibit during my gallery show in May ( Fingers crossed!!  It might not happen, given the current covid19 situation)

At the same time, considering that we haven't left the house in days, I've also been working on FMQ'g the second of the three batiks. When I started on these three pieces, I mentioned that, if nothing else was accomplished, I could use them to practice my FMQ'g.  Believe me when I say it needed work!  Well, this piece is not my best work.  The need for practice is obvious--to me.  Will a viewer notice?  I don't know.  I will need all three of them for my exhibit, so this one may just be exhibited as "Not for Sale".  I don't think I would dare put a price on, what I see as, poor quality work.

 I plan to link this with The Needle and Thread Network.