Piddling...its what I do now.

Art and Fear...the book that has been recommended again and again...some AQ bloggers where reading it together a while back.  Well, I picked it up yesterday while hanging out at B&N until it was time to take Mo to work.  While reading it I can hear a very good sistah friend, Estella, say "its all process, one word at a time, one page at a time".  She was referring to writing but when it comes to getting anything done, its all the same...it is all about process.  I'm trying to absorb this book so I'm reading and re-reading and when I'm ready to comment, will do so at My Eyes Have Seen the Coming of the Word, my book blog.

Seamless Skin has lacked activity because my process just ain't and hasn't been working for me but I didn't want to bitch, moan, and complain unless I thought it would make me feel better and it wouldn't.  Not really.  I'm still piddling around...playing around with applique, test driving light weight sewing machines (the Janome Platinum Gem has my vote should I ever invest in a carry around machine), beading on fabric just for the heck of it, taking bubble baths, watching a lot of FSTV, DIY, HGTV Food Network, Public TV---it goes like this, I watch Democracy Now, BBC News, Charlie Rose and other liberal-minded documentaries and then not to stay so pissed off I turn it over to DIY, HGTV, and Food Network and delight Weekend Warriors, Design on a Dime, B. Original, Paula Deen, etc.  Just call me an arm chair philosopher who can remodel a bathroom in 48 hours and then rush into the kitchen to prepare a seven course meal!!!! Its so obvious that the home/craft/cooking shows are geared toward selling; and pretty effectively I might add because I am desparately feeling the urge to buy a full cache of power tools!!!! 

Part of my piddling resulted in discovering that Hobby Lobby carries Robert Kaufman Kona PFD!  And with a 40% off coupon I paid 2.43 a yard.  Unfortunately, the 2 stores here didn't have much on the bolts but I managed to get a little over 20 yards between them.  I'm gonna piddle again tomorrow by looking at studio space at The Hop Scotch House...its a retreat space for Kentucky Women Artists that is about 10 minutes from where we live.  I don't vibe with the space as much as I do at the Mount but I've never seen the visual art studio which is fairly new I think. 

I think I need a cup of tea.  Gonna sip from my new cup gifted to me by a friend...I'll have to share a photo of it very soon...it makes me sooo happy! 

   

Morpho Didius

  It seems almost bad manners to attend a quilt show and not purchase a single thing! A few weekends ago I attended the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show for the first time.  I expected it something akin to the size of Paducah but that is not the case.  It was smaller than I imagined but it was a great show quilt wise.  The biggest treat for me was the Men of Biblical Proportions exhibit in what I think was it's entirety.  The interpretations in cloth where interesting to study and figure out.  I would love to see men quilters interpret feminism in a quilt.  I don't know where this wish comes from other than womanism/feminism has been on my mind for a few weeks plus wondering about the impact of international images of African American Black Men and how Urban life could be portrayed in cloth.  It all relates in my mind but don't ask me to explain how.  My thoughts where further stretched when I viewed the podcast link provided by Sonji Says... of Kehinde Wiley.  I wondered what a quilter who defined herself/himself as hip-hop artist would do?   I could ask my brother but he is now of the age where people under 30 are referring to him as "your generation" and its typically not a compliment signaling some sign of "has been"...I remember the first time my brother said that to me referring to the music of Stevie Wonder.  ahhh, what goes around comes around,eh!

This is my purchase from the Indiana Show. (I wanted to show good manners)  I use to say I didn't like marbles but I find myself being drawn to them now...I think what it was is that I don't like commerical marbles.  The non-marbled off/white/grey piece and the firey piece are actually silk...nothing specific is planned for them but I'm itching to return to a studio at the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts soon.

Do you see this block...take a good look at it...its about one of the easiest traditional blocks one could make, right?  but it caused me great anxiety! I put it off until the 12 hour. The fear of points not matching up and having to rethink how I approached sewing for accuracy was just intimidating! The bottom point came close to being chopped off but I reworked it enough to get a A-.  It was for a group project for Quilter's Day Out.

I finally cleared up my table of all the altered book making supplies and have set up my sewing machine! (The angel Ella Fitzgerald is bebopping to that!) And I'm in the process of going through my sketch books (believe me, my sketch book is only for my eyes...I've see all those fabulous coloured drawings and sketches by some of you, I'm not daring to show mine) to find something new or I might do another Negotiating Territory but I that calls for some more fabric dyeing. 

Do you see the blue in this blue butterfly?  It is magnificient and this butterfly has held my imagination for over a year when I first saw it in a shop at Mellwood Arts Complex. Its the blueness of the blue and seeing it in the animal kingdom that awes me!!! God amazes me!!!!!  I think if Alice Walker had seen this before writing The Color Purple...ya feel me?!?!  If this butterfly flew past me, a prayer would be in order if not an outright spirit dance!!!!

This past Monday I was given good news on a Right Breast Biopsy that I had on Friday prior and this butterfly was the image that came to me after I hung up the phone.  I immediately got dressed and went to get it.  Its encased in glass so that both sides can be viewed but handling it isn't a good idea because one of the antennas has fallen off.  Here is the back side.