My little redbud tree

I love my little redbud tree like it was a pet. I check on it almost every day. It was a gift from my family and I really appreciate their thoughtfulness in getting me something I’ve always wanted.

I was heartbroken when a large branch split off and could not be repaired.

Today I noticed something new. There are beautiful seed pods growing on the tree. This is the first year for these and I’m thrilled that my little tree has something new to offer.

I’m so glad I live in a place where I can have my little tree and enjoy it unabashedly! My abstracts may not readily seem like it, but nature does inspire my work. Just look at those lovely burgundy pods…

Always somethin’

Yep–you always see something when you take a walk.

Even if it’s only the rusty gear wheels at the dam.

Aren’t these cool?

Oh, this crazy life!

Sometimes life is boring. Same day after same stuff after same thing. And then we go into a phase where life is just crazy. Occasionally it’s a bad crazy and often it’s a good, busy fun crazy. I had both of those in the past week and today I am embracing the boring!

A little beading, a little piecing, a little gardening, maybe a little napping…just nice, peaceful boredom.

Watching the grass grow and the trees leaf out…

Of course, that means nothing to tell you about, so how about a little giveaway?

I always have fabric that needs to find a new home and today I am giving away a vintage set of the same fabric in different colorways. I’m not sure if I have ALL the colors in this set, but I have most of them.

Various sized pieces that I have not used up because I never found the “perfect” idea for them. I think there’s a yard of the green and 1/2 yard of the blue (which has stains along the fold), but only a little square of the brown. I think they would work well in a more traditional pattern and since I don’t use those anymore, this fabric should go to a new home.

Would you like it to be yours? I sure would! Leave a comment and I’ll pick a winner this week…when I’m done with nice, peaceful boredom!

Yes, spring indeed!

Are you tired of looking at everyone’s fabulous spring flowers? Well, then, just skip on ahead because I couldn’t help myself today! Sunny, warm, glorious spring! Finally! Maybe just a few more exclamation points to show how happy I am!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trees in bloom…

Love these little white beauties

A pile of freshly cut tree

Bleeding heart–so graceful

And my own baby redbud!!!

I stand corrected…

Quite a while ago I published photos of some of the painted leaf stamping I had done.

I called these leaves the largest maple leaves I had ever seen. Well, someone thought for sure they were sycamore leaves and I didn’t think there were any sycamore trees near where I got the leaves.

We walked in those same woods this afternoon and as I scanned the bare branches, I realized that there were loads of sycamore trees around. So, that ‘someone’ was absolutely correct and I was wrong. Not the first time, but I can’t wait until there are more of those leaves available for stamping with. I love them!

In the meanwhile, there was nothing exciting on the path through the woods…some lovely swans…

some beautiful periwinkle on the hillside…Wait a minute! This isn’t sycamore, too, is it?

Complementary Colors

Complementary colors are supposed to look very good together, aren’t they? Play off each other? Well, I moved another pile of stuff in my wreck of a studio and came across one of my little beaded samples. I want to mount it on a stretched canvas and thought I’d paint the canvas with the complement to the mainly green piece.

Then, of course, I had to try it on a green background. I often like to stretch fabric over the canvas instead of painting.

I am such a ditherer when it comes to what should be a simple decision! Wow–red or green? Make up your mind already, Kathy. This is NOT rocket science and no one will be hurt by your decision…

Wacky Quilters Today

Yes, I know, the group is really the Knot Even Quilters, but I still think of our beginnings when we were a tiny group doing wacky work! Not many people in the area were interested in art quilts, so we were really the oddballs. I’m not saying that we aren’t still oddballs, but there is a lot more interest in art quilting now.

We have been trying to inform ourselves of design principles and apply them to our work. Today we did a black and white exercise, to use just those colors, mostly lines, some shapes and curves and make designs. No color distractions.

I didn’t take pictures of everyone’s finished projects…just a couple, but I love the exercise!

So I took my black and white as far as I could…at least as far as I had fabric cut for! I happened to have 8 fat eighths of white, and I decided to just make them all up with black.

As I was making them, I decided that it was an 8 Day Week, either a series of little pieces or a set of ‘blocks’ for a larger piece. I’m fantasizing about what else I might want to do with them. Like screen print a design or pattern over the top of each one, in a single color or a different color for each one. Or add an identical ‘something’ to each one, maybe a fancy bead or a colored shape or perhaps the same type of stitching…for a simple little design exercise, this has given me a wealth of ideas.

It was a happy wacky quilters day!

Whew! Under Control!

Trying to get that fabric explosion under control was NOT a task I really wanted to tackle. I was very tempted to just put it ALL in a trash bag and never look at it again. But then I looked a little closer and saw some of the fabrics that I loved so much, just strips and scraps and oddball pieces left and I knew that I would have to sort and keep.

This is all that ended up in the trash…a healthy pile, for sure, but it is really teeny pieces or so ugly that no one that I know would want to touch, much less USE.

I had a slightly larger pile than this of fabric pieces that are useable, but that I don’t want to use, or ever even see again!

This will go into a bag and get taken to my quilt retreat in 2 weeks. There is a woman that loves to work with small, small pieces and she may want this. If not, it will already be in a bag and ready for the trash, ’cause it’s not coming home with me!!!

And just when I thought I had sorted all of it, I found another bag! Easy, peasy, though, ’cause it was mostly trash! Maybe I started a trash bag once and then accidentally added some other stuff to it…like some unfinished projects. I ended up with just a partial tub of unfinished, ‘special’ fabric.

And the rest is all good fabric and UNDER CONTROL!!!

Sorted by color—I know, some people sort by light, medium, dark, but sorting by color works better for me. Down to three small baskets again, but not overstuffed at all.

I’m thinking that perhaps I should work on creating something from these scraps. Like I said, I have a retreat in 2 weeks…

OMG! There’s been a fabric explosion!

I just barely touched it…it was an accident…really!! I was only reaching for a little piece of binding that was hanging over the edge. And then the next basket kind of slid off the shelf from the weight of all the fabric overflowing it…the basket in the middle stayed safely on the shelf but fabric seemed to jump out of it trying to join the rest on the floor.

Oh, my…how did all that fabric fit into those little baskets?

I think I can see a need to sort scraps and use some of them up.

And I’d better not go down there and find that they have multiplied in the dark! That would be really scary!

New Beginnings

Since I have not been extremely active in my studio for soooooo long, I almost feel as though I am starting a whole new chapter in my life. I’m planning on exploring in two directions, that may overlap in many instances. Just sitting here typing up my intentions gets me itching to go!

Series are often talked about and definitions debated, but I’m of the opinion that a series is any body of work that you feel is connected! That’s what I’m planning…a series using more solids, my normal improv techniques and putting them together with traditional designs. The other direction is to explore more surface design, painting, stamping, inks, hand stitching and beads, of course.

Now, just talking about this isn’t getting it done! But it does help me to define what I need to do when I get off this computer and get down in the studio. Ready, set, go!!!!!!!

How disappointing…I went through my stash to get all my solids and start working with them. THIS is what I found, including a few tone-on-tones and barely there batiks and two sets of hand-dyed gradations.

I just don’t have solids. This either means a shopping trip or a dye day. Hmmm….so for today I worked with paint and I’ll tell you all about that in the next post.