This is Whats Up...

I am in my space this morning to start a shawl I had counting difficulty with last night and unfrogged. The softness in the air and the quiet while everyone remains sleep I am hoping will allow me to concentrate more.  I am using a foundation single stitch which is one I haven't used often.  My plan is to also do a little piece work from Piecing by Ruth McDowell.  Once I work through a book as part of my Karoda School of Art I am also deciding if the book will remain a part of my arsenal.  I want to streamline, reel in, what I create over a long swatch of time.  I want to have more command over what my resources are and should be in order to do what I do.  You know  there is that tendency to be a grasshopper, jumping all over the place and trying out every knew tool and trend that comes out.  And that is all cool for awhile, but I'm longing for a more distinct look in all that I select to keep, whether it is encaustics or quilts.

Yesterday I spent some time working on a Mojo.  I usually do these in painted papers stitched and embellished, I do them in down time to relax my mind.  This one is fabric and has been hanging around for two years. I plucked it off the board and began adding hand stitching.  I love everything going on so far with this small piece. Here I am auditioning the porcupine quill.

This study below I did previously last year...I want to revisit it in a larger quilt.  I made a small adapted version of it that was part of a collaboration.  It is about commanding spiritual transformation.

Every Friday Mo and I have lunch.  It is her day off.  Last Friday was our next to last Friday lunch date.  She will be going to a different shift at her job so we will have to come up with another way to connect.  Maybe she can be persuaded to take up a knitting class with me in the evenings.  Here we are at Long John Silver's.  Summer means we are a foursome instead of a twosome.

I hear footsteps upstairs, so I'm going to get this shawl started.  Peace.

Tea, You Are Not Coffee

8:00 o'clock and I'm in the studio with tea in hand.  Although it is a black tea, so far it ain't doing the trick. Might have to make that pot of coffee.

I've started my studio time by watching videos on stencil making particularly katazome.  My mulberry papers has been gone several moves ago.  (one of those if I haven't used it by now, give it away moments).  Katazome uses mulberry paper.  I woke up thinking about turning my face sketches into stencils this morning.  I have used file folders, acetate sheets, and stencil sheets in the past.  I can only recall using one on a small graffiti quilt named "Do Not Fear the Intellectual".  It was a journal size quilt and I have no clue where it got to.  Hopefully it was one I sold from the Mellwood studio as that is the last time I recall seeing it.

Anyways, I'm back to my School of Art activities.  Here is my curriculum: (links will take you to Amazon)
Zentangle A Day, Mixed Media Portraits, Crochet Workshop, Piecing and Creative Strength Training.  I have yet to find a consistent rhythm for days and times so I snatch time daily even if its just 30 minutes.  Mornings seem to be my best time now.  Here is the sketch I'm returning to in just a bit.  I'm also going to start another side sketch.

I'm going to do another side view sketch before I advance to the next chapter in Mixed Media Portraits.

Naw, this tea ain't gonna do it.  Peace.

Trying It On for Size

So we are moved in and progress has been made.  Most of the boxes are unpacked.  The boxes which remain hold decor, books, toys, etc. and are pushed into corners until I decide where things will fit, hang, and so on.

My studio is set up and functional and today I piddled in it for about 5 hours trying to get comfortable with where items are placed and how to move in the space.  The new shared arrangement with Peter is nice.  He was doing some technical stuff with the computer/tv connection.  I didn't know when he was in the room or out unless he said something to me.  With what I was doing today, the only time I couldn't hold conversation was when I was crocheting.  Overall, it was a fair run for trying the space on for size.

I did a zentangle to warm up followed by a face sketch and ending with exercises from the workbook on crochet.  But in full disclosure, a lot of time was spent browsing Facebook on my phone.  Discipline is the word for the rest of the month and must be had to get a groove going.

studio music was Regina Carter's CD, Southern Comfort

A friend asked me about dyeing fabric in ombre and that got me excited.  It has been 2 years since I had my dyes out.  We're working out a Friday that she can come.  This will give me the opportunity to to try out the set-up in the garage.

Trying to describe to myself what I feel like is going on with me as a creative person, I feel like I'm forever waking up from a slumber.  The closing down of my Mellwood studio and the year dealing with breast cancer and 2 moves in 18 months created an alternate reality that I'm trying to shed or bloom out of the pod.  But one thing I know is God is here in and of it and I'm trusting the process!