It's here!

The saga of the Janome embellisher went on for days and days and ended up arriving in my hands on Thursday. The house, as it turns out, is empty right now and I have no idea why I walked down two doors on Wednesday to check on the notice UPS left on the door, but it was still there. I felt certain that UPS would never be able to retrieve the machine and I was correct. A woman in a golf cart pulled into the drive-way as I was leaving and it turned out that she was the realtor who rents out the house and when it's empty she parks her car in the garage. She hadn't seen any strange boxes and the last renters moved out on July 29th. Oh joy!
UPS was just about ready to file a claim for Redlands Sewing Center when things strangely fell into place. The realtor, "M," phoned her client to see if he knew anything about a delivery. Yep, he'd received 2 boxes while he was out here and took them to his other house a few blocks away. He lives in Chicago. It turns out that not only did the UPS delivery man read the address wrong but so did my neighbor. The address label was correct. Why he took the boxes from one house to another and stored them is beyond any one's guess. And he owns 3 stores so you'd think that he would be more aware of misdirected packages! "M" was able to locate the boxes; I'm now the proud owner of an embellisher! As "M" said, "what are the odds that you would be at the house when I arrived and that I would phone my client?" Indeed!

This is a piece that I worked on today, needs a little more work, that I will most likely do free motion embroidery on at some point. The fibers are mostly from the Kool-aid dyeing session of a few weeks ago.

Quote: Painting gave meaning to my life which without it it would not have had. Francis Bacon

Fleur-de-lis

On June 29 I posted the before pics of this piece.

I can't remember when I started collecting Fleur-de-lis motifs, but right now they seem to be very popular! Wouldn't you know it?! The metal embellishments are handmade; once they were aged with black paint they told me where they wanted to go. I was blown away by the way the fibers from the left to right, lower area, followed a sweeping swirling motion, subtle, but perfect for placing embellishments. Wish I could say that I'd planned it that way, but I didn't notice that line of fibers until I put the motifs in place. Anyway, this piece was embellished for Dale's online workshop. Lesson 2 of 6. Talk about being way behind. A few students are caught up with all 6 lessons, I hate them!!

I think that my problem with this piece was that I fell in love with the gold foil on the black felt base and then the painted cheesecloth that was embellished on followed by a layer of distressed silk gauze. I've always had a hard time working with layers, but it sure makes a difference. In person the gold foil is a little more evident, nice shimmery effect in a few areas some of which can be seen in this scan on the upper edge a little right of the middle. At first I thought that this was a vertical piece but the direction changed to horizontal once I started adding yarn to it.

We're having monsoonal conditions here in the desert! Thursday night there was an exciting thunder and lightning show with even some rain! I sat on the patio under cover of the extended roof and marveled at nature! The change in weather is playing havoc on our allergies! But at least the temps have fallen from 110 + to high 90's. Yep, one can feel the difference.

I found a collection of poems by Emily Dickinson amongst mom's books that I was sorting out to donate. (She seems to read the same 3 books over and over again. I think that she's drawn to the covers. I'm not a fan of romance novels so I'm clearing out a huge portion of them.) I opened the book to the page with this poem on it.

Quote/poem: Pain has an element of blank:

It cannot recollect

When it began, or when it was not.

It has no future but itself,

Its infinite realms contain

Its past, enlightended to perceive

New periods of pain.

So hot that it hurts!

The temps have been excruciating! This is the second time in two weeks that it's so hot it hurts to breathe or go anywhere or play in the garage studio! I'm frustrated! Who knew that 107 would feel cool? When the temps creep up to 115 and stay there for a couple of days not only do the plants in the garden fry and die, but I feel like joining them. A dialysis nurse in ICU told me that it's much easier to deal with the heat if you say to yourself, "this intense heat only lasts 16 weeks." Who is she kidding? The AC has been on since March, but at least it was only in the 80's - 90's then and cooled off at night. The night temps are now around 91 during the night. Yeah, I know, it's "dry heat." That doesn't matter when the pores are dripping sweat!


The thing that might save me is my new-found love for embellishing with the felting adaptor. I'm so far behind, three weeks, with the lessons for Dale's workshop that I'm beginning to think that the only way to catch up is to combine lessons. The first samples above are: gold foil ironed on black felt topped with dye-na-flow painted cheesecloth heavily embellished on both the back and front sides. A bit garish! Fortunately, I ordered black silk gauze from Dharma that I was able to tone down the colors with; I also distressed the black gauze with heat. Sadly, the gold foil is barely noticeable after all of the layering, but there is a hint of it which adds a nice glow. The next step is to add stitches or something which is where I'm stuck!!

The second piece is dye-na-flow painted pellon. Yep, I love dye-na-flow! I just got my order from Dick Blick so I now have a few more colors to experiment with on cheesecloth, lace, pellon etc. I'm hoping to do some felting on the painted pellon but so far the direction is alluding me. I painted the pellon before Stacy's ICU visit and find that most of the ideas I had have vanished. So, if someone finds them please return them to me!!

Thanks for all of the lovely comments here on the blog and personally! Means a lot to me. Liz, I find quotes everywhere and have collected them for years. Lots of them can be found by googling "quotes for inspiration" or "quotes for artists" but my favs are by Sally Huss from the local newspaper.

I can identify with this quote: I have a promiscuous muse. My muse wants to own every color, work in many media, and in numerous genre. Mary Klotz

New Toy

Not a very good picture, but the felting adapter I purchased from Feltcrafts.com is pretty amazing. I had the metal plate cut to size by feltcrafts and that holds the foam into place. So, I decided to take the adapter for a test run today; the workshop I signed up for starts on June 4th.

I've decided that painted lutradur felted onto white felt might not have been a good choice, but I couldn't find any black. The colors, burgundy and lime green, were more vivid until they were toned down by the white felt coming through the lutradur, hard to explain! Felting happens when two pieces of fabric are meshed together by the punching with needles. Sometimes the back of a piece can be as interesting as the front because fibers are pulled through, not so with this one. Being that this was an experiment to try out the adapter I didn't have a plan in mind when I felted on yarns, a painted dryer sheet and finally black chiffon, so I'm surprised that the result is interesting. I love that the heat distressed chiffon allowed some of the background to show through. I have no idea why I added the white chiffon strip on the left, but this might become a journal cover.

I scanned my progress from beginning to end and the huge PDF is here:

Quote: Those who work only when the muse strikes them make little progress.

William Dunning

St. Patrick's Day

The charm on this 4x6 inch needle felted piece was a thank you from Patricia Winter for participating in the comfort doll project. It felt like a token of good luck to me.


Quotes:
St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time - a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic. ~Adrienne Cook


For each petal on the shamrock. This brings a wish your way -Good health, good luck, and happiness For today and every day.~Author Unknown

New Work

Finished?

I'm not sure that this piece is finished yet, but it's closer! Practically every fiber was felted onto lutradur. Nope, I don't own an embellisher, just felting needles. Some of the cording has been whipped stitched on.

Later: Now that I've photographed the mandala it's easier to see where some more work needs to be done.

The quote below reminded me of how this year unfolded. I knew going into it that there were going to be lots of bumps along the way, but what I imagined was worse than how things turned out. This year on Oct. 2ND. instead of waiting for a moving van to arrive with all of my possessions I'll be sitting in a chair at the dentist! Not the best way to celebrate!
Quote: I have been through some terrible things in my life--some of which actually happened. Mark Twain.

The last weekend in May!!

The last weekend of May?! I remain completely disoriented; the dilemma started last Oct. when we arrived here. Seasons? As far as I can determine there is only one season here; hot!! Plants that were struck by a week-long bout of frost in January have recovered better than I imagined they would. I don't remember the frost as being anything more than something that attacked many of the plants in the area including the bougainvillea and citrus; I simply don't remember being cold.

The latest fiber piece, Purple Passion, begged for soldering iron distressing. By the time I got the piece distressed I was in a state of distress! The temperature in the garage, even with the side door open, must have been over 100. I had a fan blowing on me to not only keep the fumes away from me but to dry the sweat pouring off of me, or is it glow? There are days when I can't fathom why we moved here! And then I remember: my youngest daughter lives a little over two hours away rather than eight long hours, my grandsons have "sleep-overs," I have a new house, mom is only a few feet away, (she fainted last Sunday when her BP crashed due to a side effect from a trial med. Happily, I didn't need to drive to her house to take care of her!) I don't live where mildew and mold are prevalent enough to cause the FM symptoms to worsen, and the sky is mostly blue rather than steel grey from thick fog. But, there isn't enough green, no ocean, no cool temps, the hospital is old without private rooms, the doctors are practically all from foreign countries which creates communication problems, and I miss my best friend! Yep, having a moment of self-pity!

A good Internet friend, what would I do without the Internet?!?!, and I decided to try a challenge. I tossed out an idea of felting or creating a fiber piece on a metal hoop. I know how to attach a warp to a hoop having created numerous mandala woven pieces but couldn't figure out how to attach either felt or ludtradur. I've now encased a 12 inch hoop inside of lutradur, my secret, and while I was waiting for some glue (a hint) to dry I worked on a piece I had put aside over a week ago. The piece is nearly done with the exclusion of mounting it onto a textured mat board and then framing it.

Materials: grey acrylic felt, fun fibers, raw wool that was blended by carding three colors and textures together, tufts of mohair and dyed fabric.

And now on to the mandala!

Quote: Happiness cannot be found. It can only be.
Sally Huss

Felted ATC

I can't remember the last time I made an ATC. This piece started out life as the one of my first needle felted experiments; it's one of the purple examples a few posts back. I did some more work on then then embellished it with a distressed dryer sheet and embossed metal.

There is a new residential community opening soon on the west side of Merv Griffin's Ranch not far from where I live. The ad reads: May 26th, Griffin Ranch will reveal eleven extraordinary model homes, each architecturally superb and furnished to exquisite perfection.

You are enthusiastially invited to attend.

Don't miss this much-anticipated event in the desert's new, world-class equestrian/residential community. The gates will open promptly at 11 am. Mark your calendar.

From the looks of the elegant wall and walking path surrounding the community I can only guess what the price of the homes might be. Is there such a word as enthusiastically? Spell check doesn't seem to think so.

White and Ivory

Well I finally did it! I tortured a piece of felt! I'm extremely cautious with materials that might bother my sensitive immune system so I had never melted plastic or felt. But now that I have a ventilated garage to work in I've started working on pieces to experiment on. Armed with a heat gun and wood burning tool I literally attacked the 8x10 inch felted piece. I really like how the edges of the felt burnt and curled. But then I'm very fond of the distressed/aged look. There is one thing I want to change, minor, but it bothers me and I'm positive that it's noticeable.

I seem to be a monochromatic mood lately. I wonder what that's all about?

We're on the second day of "triple digit" heat. The temp is holding at 103. At least the sky is clear and the winds have died down. I've been spending about an hour every evening working in the garden. I only stop when the light has gone from the sky. I do my best work by moonlight.

Quote: The only rule in art is what works.

Lee Fleming

Felting

Thought I'd post a before and after photo of a 4x6 felted piece. I find that felted fibers are a perfect base for adding embellishments. I created a lot of metal embossed items last year; nothing is ever a waste of time when it comes to "doodling." In this case a transparency of a couple on a small tag was first attached on the left side. Then I decided that the felted heart on the right wasn't bold enough. After auditioning a few hearts this one was the winner along with a scrap piece of metal resembling an arrow. I've since backed the piece with muslin and edge stitched it.
Available on www.seawind.etsy.com


It is better to error on the side of daring
than on the side of caution.
Alvin Toffler.

4x6 mini quilt

Can something 4x6 inches be considered a mini quilt? I found a huge stash of unspun wool when I packed to move and didn't listen to the logical who said, "if you haven't used it in 30 years you certainly won't now." Who knew that I'd discover felting five months after the move, certainly not me.

The background on this piece is felted from unspun wool both natural and onion-skined-dyed from a time when I knew how to dye fibers back around 1977. The embellishments are: a manipulated image transparency on metal and distressed distorted metal pieces.

BTW. The piece is straight, the photography is crooked!

Felting

The felting supplies arrived yesterday and with them some roving in, you guessed it, purple, brown, green, and white! Not colors I would have chosen but they do make an interesting palette. MMMMmm, the blue above should be purple! So much for scanners picking up the correct color!

Another day lost to low energy and pesky allergies! There is a wind advisory until tomorrow night at about 10pm , how do they know that the wind will abate then? The 40-60 mile an hour winds have caused some damage plus the dust creates havoc with allergies. And here I thought I wouldn't have as many allergies after moving here. Traded the miserable pine pollen one in for desert dust!

I did get the hem turned up on a shirt I'm making and now need to make a trip to a fabric store, not close by, to get some buttons. I was positive that I had a stash of buttons but I must have dreamt that I did. I played with painting on tin foil a couple of days ago, but have no idea what to do with the experiments. I imagine that a mixed media piece will be begging for them someday. Stashes are created by experimenting with lots of techniques and then storing them until needed; sounds like a recipe! One can never have too many hand-made embellishments.