Stitch in Time - July 2012

[EvaJ]

Well I put the dress aside and don't know if I will work on it or not. Yesterday I got all those knits so cut out 8 shirts last night. Today I sewed them and then decided I would go retro seeing I had also got a paisley print yesterday. So I also made 4 pair of pants. Two paisley and two in bright flowers.

Here are my groovy girls.


I am done sewing for the day. Tomorrow is another day and maybe something completely different will be made.

[poochemio]

Eva those are some groovy girls.

Jen how did the goaty car trip go? Those goats look kind of sheepish to me. Congrats on the spinning wheel, is a loom in your future too?

Waving at Bonnie, Ruth and Debby, and any others.

Spanish Market was absolutely fabulous. Possibly the most fun new thing I've done in a long while. We didn't get there until late on Saturday, we had to take my Jeep to get some new carpet put in, the passengers side has been missing for a while. It gets very hot on the ankles. The place I took it did a super job and it looks great and better still so do my ankles. Not only did I finally get to see my friend Roberto's paintings finally but I got to bring one home with me. The man bought me a bag from my friend and teacher Beatrice to haul my treasures around in. There were so many beautiful things it was truly hard to make up my mind what I couldn't live without. This coming from such a jaded art show goer that I more or less quit going to all of the shows in Austin, they were so predictable and had very little to do with art. One of my favorite furniture maker, and Santos carver lives just a couple of miles down the road from me and invited me to call and come by. I shall, his pieces were some of the coolest things in the whole market. We also picked up the last 3 paintings from my friends gallery that were framed so it's back to hanging art this coming week. Now that is a fun chore. The Man enjoyed the Market as much as I did, said he'd even volunteer with me for the Winter Spanish Market. I didn't volunteer at this one didn't think I could stand it if I got trapped in the sun, it was very bright. Winter Market is held inside the convention center though.

Well...it's past my bedtime and I didn't sleep well this weekend, when I'm that excited about things I rarely do. Tomorrow girls.

[DrDebby]

Eva, very cool. Like your retro girls.

Margo, what a fun time you had. It's always great when the man in your life falls in with what you want to do.

Sometimes, tho' it's the other way around. DH wanted to go cut wood today. So off we went to the woods. He spent the first hour, once we got there, stopping the truck, looking at a log, taking a sample cut and moving on down the road again. Finally he found what he was looking for. I sat in the truck and stitched on my money box. (My hands are rather tired right now. Mostly because I didn't take a break.) The first several pieces of tree that he cut are lost in the ravine on the other side of the road. He was rolling them down a slight incline to the road, and they just kept going... Good thing I was safe in the truck.

[EvaJ]

Debby and the adventure into the woods. Good thing you were in the truck and not in the way of the logs.

Margo that all sounds like so much fun. You are really getting to know a lot of people in the short time you have lived in NM.

Today had to make a trip to post office to mail a couple of orders. Sticky out as there were storms all around us. We finally did get a light rain a couple of hours ago. We were up a couple of hours during the night as the wind was blowing pretty hard but that is all we got out of those storms.

Came home and cut out and sewed 6 more pair of doll pants. They go so fast but my heart was not into sewing today so it took me longer than usual.

Think I may make some skirts tomorrow. They go pretty fast too. Suppose I will have to make some blouses to go with everything. I made 8 of the long sleeve knit ones yesterday but probably need to make some cotton ones. We will see what I can come up with.

[poochemio]

Debby the firewood search and cut sounds interesting. Lots of that going on up mountain from me, and we could get the permits too...but my man is not really the outdoorsy grab a chain saw and go type. The local guys who earn a living do that come driving down your road with a load and ask if you want to buy it, so I don't get the amusement of the search. You should take a sketchbook along and practice sketching, do some gesture sketches of your man as he works. That will hone your quick sketching skills and get you oh so used to sketching the human body in clothes! Also I'm curious, what is this money box thing you seem to be working on a lot of late?

Eva, sometimes sewing is fun and sometimes you just need some outside stimuli to keep going. I feel myself going stale if I don't get out and about and chat with someone occasionally, and the funniest things start my creativity down a new or more colorful path.

I've always found art shows a good place to meet people who interest me. Artists like to talk about what they do just like everyone else and my enthusiasm knows no bounds when I'm exposed to something new and different. I've been interested in the Santeros art form for a few years but have never been exposed to so many delightful images in one spot. If this perks your curiosity and you just feel like googling something, google Charles or Charlie Carrillo. The man is a master, utterly amazing works, I was fortunate to get one of his pieces.


Today I attack the chaos of clutter yet again. I also need to prepare some more ikat panels for hand stitching. I signed up to do a group fiber arts show in December and therefore need to get some pieces ready for that. Time to dig quilt tops out of the trunk and pin baste etc. I haven't done a show in years, I always find manning a booth rather overwhelming, this way we all pitch in a work a few hours and everyones items are spread around, we'll see how this works for me.

[EvaJ]

Wasn't feeling well this morning, don't know if it was something I ate yesterday or what but the whole system was out of whack. It has been cloudy, humid and have had a couple of rain storms over the last couple of days and that may have been part of it. I love my dry, sunny days.

Did get in the sewing room for a bit and digging through a pile of fabric I found a few small pieces of country print and decided to make a dress and then a white apron with the country print trim. Didn't turn out too bad. Hubby likes it.

Margo, I still do a couple of shows a year. Like to get out and talk to the people and see what they have to say about my work. Personal feedback is always good. When I am sitting here and making the stuff up I never know and even through I show part of the stuff on the internet, it just isn't the same as talking face to face. Doing shows for us anymore is hard but I still want to keep my hand in it. I have an Art Guild meeting tomorrow and maybe I will even take a few pieces with me. They always have a show and tell at the end of the meeting.

[DrDebby]

Margo, the money box is a box (obviously) that I am constructing out of the plastic sheets used for counted cross stitch. I am cross stitching each panel. The box will be used for my paper money when I'm at a show. I already made one for quarters (since all my prices are even quarter amounts, makes my change easier ) And I made one to hold my business cards. I've shown both of those in the stitch before. Maybe I should post a new thread when the last box is done and show all three? I'd planned the set about 3 years ago. I haven't been working on them on a consistent basis, so it's been in fits and spurts. I'm coming up on the end of the last (and largest) and will be glad when I'm done.

As to shows. I've cut down on them myself. It's a lot of work to put everything up and out for anywhere from 4 to 6 hours of showtime. I do enjoy interacting with my customers tho' so don't want to give it up entirely. I've got one coming up this Sunday. It's usually a pretty good show, but I expect it not to be as good as the last 2 years. When it's hot, people don't buy food. Drinks, yes, ice cream, yes, not regular food or candy. I'll get decent sales, but not the overwhelming sales I get when it's cooler. It's actually been nice here for the last several days, but the forecast is for 10 degree higher on the weekend.

Eva, sometimes the sewing muse isn't paying attention. Even so, it sounds like you got a lot accomplished with the dress, apron, and doll pants.

Today is a bummer. I opened up my ice chest where I store my candy and found that most of my lollies are deformed and slightly melted. I'm now, at the last minute trying to make up more lollies. Of course I'm still having problems and cannot figure out why lollies aren't going smoothly anymore. It was my first foray into candy. I know how to make them. But, time after time, I'm having them burn or not get hard enough, or stick in the molds. Today was leak out of the molds as I was pouring the hot sugar syrup. Ah, well, gotta go get the candy out of the pot and try again.

[rue d'oak]

Hello all!

The Goat Trip was GREAT! Not a peep out of them. They just settled into their animal carriers -- the big ones for dogs -- and road the trip out. At one point my sister-in-law opened the door between the two cages, and naturally they shifted around, snuggling all together. I am SO very impressed with the breeder, Lisa of Hawks Mountain Ranch. Passionate, knowledgeable, reassuring. The ranch is in a beautiful spot and impeccable in organization, cleanliness and heart.

And as part of the trip I enjoyed two days in Portland. My wonderful and crazy sister drove down from Seattle for dinner and to meet the goats. It was terrific.

It was a long, straight drive home. Outbound we managed to get a flat, so that made our start a little tiring, as we had to drive 5 hours on one of the little spare tires. Akk! But coming home was smooth and easy, if you don't count getting home in the wee hours.

I have been practicing for the first time today on my spinning wheel. What is the saying, "Easy to learn, a lifetime to master?"

I can see that you each are up to the usual no good Dolls, firewood, keeping healthy, sewing, sales and clutter!

Jen

[EvaJ]

Glad your trip went well, except for the tire. Have fun learning the spinning wheel. From the two ladies I know who do this, they say it is fun and relaxing.

I have wasted my day. When to an Art Guild meeting this morning at 11 and didn't get home until almost 1 and sure haven't done anything since. Our weather is wearing me out. It is super humid and hard to breathe. We just are not use to this type of weather. I want my dry days back but we could have to wait 6 weeks before we get them.

[poochemio]

Jen, sounds like a stellar trip and who would have thought goats would travel well in dog carriers. The spinning bug is kind of hounding me but...it would have to be a drop spindle, no room for a wheel here. It might be fun to spin some colcha yarn. We'll see, it won't happen until the cooler months that is for sure.

Our humidity is up here too Eva. It's not as stressful for me though as I spent my whole adult life in the oh so humid south. My skin is drinking it up, so perhaps I won't end up looking like The Divine Miss O'Keeffe this summer! It does work on cooling the daytime temperatures a good bit and with only fans that is preferrable. So far we have just gone to town on the few days the adobe and fans haven't cooled us enough. The casino air conditioning is always turned on!

Not much accomplished today other than filling 8 hummingbird feeders and a bit of sketching of said delightful creatures. I had one of my summer nights where I stayed up until 5:30 am, watched the last 3 episodes of Foyle's War on Netflix, I highly recommend that show by the way. Great period clothing, superb acting, and great character actors to sketch when you pause the frame for a moment. I did a number of sketches with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pen on one of my books that had abstract ink painting on the pages. Helps me to overcome fussiness in my drawing and makes for a very fun image.

Time for me to cut some more of my ikat scraps and then stitch them together on the machine so I can do some embellishment and quilting, I'm thinking of including some of my gemstone pieces on some of them, it's really time for me to be playing with some of my jewelry again, that's a way in the backdoor for me I think.

Plus the county fair begins today just down the road and I would like to go sketch some farm livestock ala Roz. The State Fair here is supposed to be lots of fun and it would be a good warm up for that. So later my friends.