Finished bag with lining and handles

This bag is ready to wrap. I tried to put the handles on the inside but belatedly realized that I needed to do so before the lining was stitched in place. Then I tried using velvet ribbon, which was too narrow, and then I tried grosgrain ribbon which looked sloppy ----so as a last resort I sewed them on using the yarn in the bag and this was the best outcome.
Knit and learn. This week I also made a face cloth for my husband from the Mason DIxon knitting book. He is happy that I made him something.
I have been reading the progress on another blog of someone knitting a sweater for their dh but it looks like one of those things that will never be done so I am going to knit a lace shawl instead....from one of the six books I recently ordered from Amazon which are slated to be delivered in September so there you have it, my winter plans..

The beautiful children(and proud mom)

A few pictures. I was not the best photographer. I wish I had taken more but!!! this is it:)
The wedding was wonderful and we are all happy. Life is good.
The two right bridemaid's are Katy and Bailey, my youngest daughters. Christy, the maid of honor is on the left, (Ali and Jen B are ,issing from this picture due to bad photography). The beaded bodice is me. Dad and Katy are enjoying the balcony. And of course Jason and Jen, who are now on their honeymoon in Europe.
The wedding was in the South Street Seaport in NYC, at the Bridgewaters, on a spectacular clear and cool night. The ceremony was perfect (we will overlook the humorous ring episode-who was supposed to bring the groom's ring from the bridal suite? it was a hoot to see the best man and the bridesmaid run full tilt to go and get it from the bride's room!) we laughed, we danced and ate and enjoyed the company. Jen and Jay are so lucky to have so many great friends and family to come together and wish them the best. Jay's brother and best man, Dan, giving the toast..

It is so hard at big parties to see everyone. I know I did not speak to all the guests and I hope they forgive me! I am socially challenged to be sure. And I was busy trying not to cry all night, heheh.

Later they kids will get the real pics and video from the professionals-I'm fairly certain they will be better than mine. I could hardly see, so misty eyed was I.

Assembled

Am I finished? I could do more finishing but I think they are happy the way they are. Of course they need clothes but that will have to wait till tomorrow.

The Dolls in Progress-Gail Wilson's Designs

Here they are still armless and legless, drying in their respective devices. Their heads are shaped a little different due to the stretching habits of the different fabrics. But I am not going to let that bother me. Well it did a little at first but I decided I quite like them each for their own distinctions. I do have a few finishing touches to add, highlights and some hair details-but for the most part the painting is finished.
For any one who is captivated, as am I, by these reproduction dolls, you can see more like them at Gail Wilson's website, by clicking on the title. And I do mean captivated.
I would wax loquacious but it is too hot. So hot that my camera lense fogged over and had to be cleaned and acclimated to the unaltered air of the main part of our little hut-which does not have ac except in the bedrooms. I really do not mind except on days when everything sticks-like today for instance, a scorcher if there ever was one. Ah but I do love summer, even on days when the sunflowers drop their petals and the cat sheds his hair in clumps as he slowly saunters through the house looking for one cool spot, one shaded place to plunk his fat self down to rest and dream of cooler haunts."...to sleep, perchance to dream.."

Weekend away

We had a restorative weekend in Greenport, located in the north fork of Long Island New York. We walked and swam and ate and took pictures and had a grown up good time. If we had not had cel phones it would have been perfect.
Just thought I'd share the view. I did not shop much or create. Just rested.

Bag update..

This felting stuff is too cool. I love the way this bag body turned out. Now for a lining and some embellishment and handles and who knows. I bought some tortoise shell handles and I have to dig up some stuff for lining.
Nappy bag is a gift. Pattern is by Amy Butler.I had some left over minke and a piece of denim from the bag so I made a quick little quilt to include in the gift bag.
I guess this was a very baggy day.

Finally a cool day

Although I am still headachy from the intense sinus pressure, the heat finally lifted and we can stop our excessive sweating for a while.
I went to Joannes today and bought handles and iron on interfacing for my projects, and Mike and I had some ice cream cake, from Trader Joes, to celebrate our anniversary. Belatedy. I also bought some patterns for clothes which I may attempt to get done next week. Or not. I have the fabric so it depends upon how crazy it gets around here.Tonight I continue work on the nappy bag.

Lack of lack

Self Portrait in 1980



Reading the posts in a group that I belong to called "everydaymatters". It is a wonderful group of artists, hosted by Danny Gregory, author and artist. There is a wiki page and a yahoo group also..
I mentioned in a previous post the little demons that keep me from my artstic endeavor and one more has revealed itself and its name is Lack. I am afraid to use up all of my precious materials. For most of my life I could not afford any.Or I did not allow myself to have them. Or I had too many kids-whatever...Now that I have become a lover of fine art suppies it is scary how much stuff I have and I love it all! Now I need to go and use it all up. Anyone else scared by the sound of this? Shudder.
Still sapped by this bronchitis scourge. Not feeling as bad but not really able to breathe either. Knitting is good when you are chair ridden.
Folded book made from watercolor paper, cover made with paper from Thailand. I read that the paper from Thailand is made from a plant that does not have to be killed in order to harvest the paper making pulp which is different from other methods that use the inner part of the plant.
Closed book
The idea for this book is from a book called "Making and Keeping Creative Journals" by SuzanneTourtillott. I bought the paper from ArtPaper.com
I went Yarn shopping this weekend.


The blue is the almost
ready to be felted bag mentioned
in a previous post. The green
wool and luscious
Malizia
is for my next project.
There is a wonderful place in
Greenport, New York called
Now and Zen Yarns.
If you love yarn,
you will love this store.
The owner, Christine Henson, is so nice and she
is excited about her work.
It is a blissful place to shop.
Her very nice mom was
there too.

Bailey goes to Columbia

Here she is on her first day, two weeks ago. She is having great summer, meeting people from all over the world and studyingliterature and art. I ask you, what could be better?

The Florence Griswold Museum

The Florence Griswold Museum
If you are ever in Southern Connecticut, and you are an art lover, you must stop here and see this enchanted place.
We were stuck in traffic due to accidents for hours and still it was worth the trip. I love these museums tucked away in the country side. They are treasures.

Fun change of course-felted bags

nonibags-felted bags
I am making the Felted carpet bag in the medium size in a solid blue. Need an easy hand work project with quick results.
I am allowing this summer self indulgence. I am enjoying it.
Click on links for pictures.

Dollink

Spent last night and tonight stuffing my little friend. She is filling out quite nicely. This body is done in a different fabric than the fabric which came with the kit from Gail Wilson. I wanted to make sure I could do it before I used the lovely doll body fabric which came with her kit. It is also ready to be stuffed.
While I stuffed I watched a movie that we borrowed from our library called"Everything is Illuminated". Wonderful film. I want you all to go out and get it right away.
I wrote a poem today filled with pain and anger so I probably won't publish it because I don't want to hurt anybody. But I have to say that I do like it because it said exactly what it was meant to say. I will have to think a while before I release it. Words are powerful and they cannot be unspoken, especially if you publish them on the internet.hahaha
Today was a busy day filled with errands and struggles with my daughter and I am glad I had time to sit and do some work on my doll. I am always amazed at how I forget about all of the troubles and cares I carry while immersed in any creative moment. Makes life bearable and even joyous.

Two gessoed dolls drying in cups.
Had to clear away all the doll making stuff to accomodate guests for the day. Using two different fabrics the bodies really did stretch to become different shapes. One is taller and more elongated.The other is more the shape it was designed to be. I like them both. Today I will re read the instructions for sewing them together. We may be heading north to a museum in Connecticut, The Florence Griswold Museum in Mystic. We are still having coffee, we have not decided how ambitious we want to be today after our weekend of birthday parties and bridal showers...

Cathedral of St. John the Divine

Looks like a quilt!

Ethereal~

John Lennon

The Peace Fountain

Noah's Ark

Our day in the city -Saint John the Divine Cathedral and the Peace garden next door. So hard to capture all of the beauty and creative energy.

Acts of Faith

I spent yesterday afternoon enlarging Bailey picture in order to put her on my easel. I will look at her for a week or so then take her down and do a painting on either canvas or wood. I will trace the outline--it will be big 45 inches!!- and don't know yet about what else paint wise, some oil some encaustic(if i do encaustic, I have to prepare the ground with hide glue and whiting, six or seven coats of real gesso, sanded between each application, an act of devotion) some pallette knife. I will paint her while she is away for the month of July. I used to think it was somehow cheating to trace but if I continue to listen to those voices I will not get anything done.
The faith part comes in because it is hard for me to believe that I remember how to paint. This comes at the beginning of every painting that I do-a panicky feeling that I won't know how to proceed. I am reading the book that Ted Orland sent me called "Art and Fear', By Ted Orland and David Bayles. I am absorbing some of it. Am I dense or is there just so much in this book.Both! In the book, they talk about perfectionism, "To require perfection is to invite paralysis."and "To demand perfection is to deny your humanity, as though you would be better off without it. Yet this ordinary (and universal) humanity is the very source of your work..." I do battle with the disease of perfectionism.... and also the fear that if I am a painter then I am like my mother, who is lost and crazy, and a painter. These are not fears that scream at me, but they are like a small trickle in the backround. Just enough for me to consider doing other things instead. Things that make more noise than the trickle, I cook or eat or shop or read blog after blog after blog.
If I just show up in the right space, ready to do the work, the faith part will work. I play loud music, too, in my studio , to obliterate the trickle of doubt. Dar Williams, Joni Mitchell, Indigo Girls, James Taylor-I refuse to call them oldies. And I invite angels to sing along.

The Clematis is blooming in my yard. I planted it and it was three years before it had even one flower. They do not like to be moved I hear. It was defiantly barren. I nurtured, I built a wall around it, I weeded and gave it a trellis. Finally one year, one flower appeared. And every year since there have been more and more and now it is a beautiful thing to behold. And so -faith indeed.

Redbirdwatch

The nest is in the lilac bush behind the fence. We have only seen one baby cardinal. The papa on the clothesline is guarding his offspring, making loud clicking noises to warn the cat. The cat on the ground is impervious.The bird does not know that the cat is too fat and lazy to hunt. Since this photo was shot, the baby has learned to fly and has been spotted in a bush on the other side of the yard so we don't worry about him so much.
I have been so sick with this damned bronchitis/sinus infection that I have been able to accomplish nothing at all. I have drifted from sewing room to studio to visit my works in progress but have no energy to do much more than think about them.
I hate being sick.
Today is my Katy's 16th birthday. Katy is my bi polar baby.Hers has been a tortuous path, fraught with peril. I don't write about her much, to protect her privacy, but sometimes I feel that I should share my experience more. I have asked her if I could write about her in my blog and she has replied,
"Let them read the book."
Funny girl.

Happy Birthday Katy

Basil Rex

How to burn your house down

I have not painted in a couple or four months. My studio is packed with stuff for painting, wax painting, stained glass supplies, paint thinner, and my husbands tools which also have some flamable items, different spray varnishes, glues--- ach du liebe!!
Any way I am in there, music is blasting, the sun is out and all is good and in order! Did I mention saudering irons, turpentine, varnish and a grill for melting wax--
I am on my third painting and I smell something burning: faint at first, my daughter couldn't smell it at all, but then it got stronger and i started feeling the saudering irons and the paint griddle to see if they were hot. Nope. Did I misplace a saudering iron or an encaustic pen-leave something plugged in?? Of course the worktable is in front of the electric outlet and the cabinet which holds sheets of glass in in front of that and all the leftover tiles from the bathroom are in front of that so I begin to move stuff--calling for help from my dd and dh to come and move the flammable liquids and help me move the boxes of tiles and the books and the table. And be quick about it! Panic!!!
But the smell was coming from the other side of the room.
Now if you will direct your attention to the model peonies which are precariously perched on my husbands workbench, you will notice a mirror to the right of the mason jar. This mirror was reflecting enough sun through the window to ignite the wood (which is a piece of a cabinet whose shape I liked, and kept) in the window. This piece was actually on fire.
Now if the house had burned down and they did an investigation, they would undoubtedly blame the flammable materials and/or the heated tools that I use. I doubt any one would blame the mirror.
Well the verdict is that I am going to rearrange my studio and get a fire extingusher in there and secure the chemicals. And the mirrors.
So now I will clean the studio, which I have been wanting to do for quite a while. And I will paint more to make sure nothing burns down.

Chaos and Order

I have moved most of my sewing stuff from my son's old room to the table in order to allow him to clear out all of his pre college crap, take what he wants and get rid of the rest. We have a tiny house. I am ruthless. It ocurrs to me that I did not have this to deal with when I got out of school because I had already been on my own since going to boarding school and did not have any place to go back to. So when it comes to my kids I expect them to take their stuff with them when they go. I haven't got the frame of reference which allows for them leaving their unwanted stuff in my space.
I moved a dresser full of stuff out onto the front porch for him to have and now he says he does not want it. Well it isn't going back into that room now ---no it is not---I am going to put all of my sewing stuff back into the room and it will be mine forevermmmmwwwhahahaha. There is also a bed in there and I want to move that out as well but I may leave it there for the occasional overnight traveller. Or maybe not.

My yard is peaceful and pleasant in June. The recent rain has made it so lush and green! I love bulbs and annuals because I don't have to replant every year. The only seeds I will plant are for sunflowers which will bloom in August and September before it all turns brown and gray again.This view is more than half of the back yard. Small and plenty.

rain and more rain

been a week of problems and I wanted to post a nice picture but blogger will not let me! anyway it was a nice picture of my yard which has been soaking up the rain and loving it even if the people who live here feel sun deprived. maybe later I will post some pictures. Any way I have been too beleaguered to do art. to sew, but i did cut out the pieces for a diaper bag that I am making for a gift. and i hope i can get it done this weekend.

Thirteen Moons Gallery Artists

Thirteen Moons Gallery Artists
And this one!
Also from Rayna's blog.