3 X 3

I rarely do traditional quilts anymore, although I still love the process of working within a set pattern, seeing the pieces of fabric come together into a bigger pattern, and then adding the texture of the quilting stitches. Creating a traditional quilt is restful and relaxing. Creating an art quilt is dynamic and energizing, and often surprising and/or frustrating. Still, there are ways to work the familiar patterns of traditional quilting into a number of fiber arts projects. And I find the pattern I am most fond of is the hardworking 9-patch. It's simple to put together, can be played with in numerous ways, and has that nice, appealing tic tac toe grid.

In between some other, numerous unfinished projects I decided to take some samples of lovely cloth I had ordered online (see my link to Marsha Derse Cloth in the side bar) and make a basic hand stitched 9-patch.
But never one to resist embellishing I decided to employ the philosophy of Slow Cloth and add some hand embroidered accents.

From there I sat and stitched a few more 9-patch samplers while watching a movie on Netflix, all about 7" square. Once again, enjoying the process without a goal in mind. Eventually a goal will appear on the horizon.

And for those of you who participated in voting for your favorite cat painting the winner was Goth Cat with 5 votes, followed by Ginger Cat with 4 votes, Constructivist Cat with 3 votes, and Minimalist Cat with 2 votes. Blue Cat received no votes so I am taking him back to the drawing board, although I did play around with colour alteration in my Corel Draw program and Constructivist Cat was the easiest to manipulate.

Who's your favorite kitty?

Here's my good buddy, Stickers, the neighborly cat who has appeared in a recent blog post along side my dog, Penny. He's a cool guy, friendly, unflappable (I've seen him stroll through a barrage of angry blue jays with nary a twitch of his whiskers), completely at ease with himself and the world.

He can usually be found lolling in the grass under a shady bush, or rolling in the gravel on our driveway, getting a little shiatsu massage. I recently used this photo above as the basis for a series of  cat paintings, all 12"x 12" done in acrylic. I sometimes give myself these 'assignments' to create a small body of work. In this case, I hadn't done any painting in awhile so I needed the practice. Below are the five interpretations of Stickers, although he is really a model to represent a universal cat.
If you read this blog, just for fun, please vote for your favorite version of Stickers and let me know either here or in e-mail or Facebook. I will let you know who the winner is. Stickers is also dying to know. Penny does not care.

1)  Basic ginger cat (the colours probably represent his sunny personality).

2) Russian Constructivist Cat

 3) Goth Cat

4) Blue Cat

5) Minimalist Cat

You know, I forgot to pay my model. Maybe a nice sardine is in order..........

Vote now!

The Happy Wanderer

This is me at age seven riding on a train between Salisbury (Harare), Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and Cape Town (still Cape Town) South Africa. I was seven and we were on our way to catch a ship back to England, then on to the United States. It was this train trip that still inspires in me a nostalgia for trains, and for 'the journey'. If you've seen any older British films, like The Lady Vanishes or Strangers on a Train,  or even A Hard Day's Night, then that was the type of train I rode on. The ones with the side corridors where even thin people had to suck in to pass each other, and the separate compartments where one sat, reading or gazing out of the window, (or looking out for spies) until it was time to stroll down to the dining car, where crisp linen table cloths set the mood and courteous waiters brought your food. Come to think of it, it was like riding on the Hogwarts Express without random outbreaks of magic.
  I also liked sailing on ships in the hey day of ocean liners, after the Titanic but before jumbo cruise ships starting having outbreaks of mysterious viruses and crashing onto reefs. There was something liberating about being adrift in the world, not attached to a country, but just boundless and free on a floating hotel. The ocean was both calming and terrifying at the same time, so overwhelming in its' vastness.

1957 was the last year I was on a ship, or a train, so maybe I have turned them into nostalgia. Since then it has been cars and planes, and lately not so much planes. I enjoy the road trip but not the plane trip. I think it is the confinement, the droning noise, the sense, in a different way than on board ship, of not being anywhere. In a train, on a ship, there is still freedom of movement within the limits of your environment. In a car you can pull over and walk around, stretch, eat, stop and sight see. On a plane you are all basically in a tube in the air, and there is no room to even casually stroll about or stand up straight.
My son is in Scotland and England right now, being a happy wanderer. He has been traveling alone for a week seeing Edinburgh, visiting Hadrian's Wall, soaking up the damp air and the history, sleeping in a bunk bed in a hostel, checking out the local pubs, and eating at McDonald's (hey, that's Scottish, right?). Today he takes the train to London to join up with friends and go farther afield, seeing more of England, then Amsterdam and Berlin. In my mind I am traveling with him, envying his wanderlust. My mother told me that she would be terrified to be alone in a strange city, in a strange country, but I have an almost romantic yearning to be just like that, at least for a short time, just jumping on a train, wandering down a quaint street, into a charming shop, sitting in a cafe reading a book over coffee, or sketching the sights.
Ian sent a number of photos from Edinburgh and I liked this one of a Close, or alleyway, with stairs leading upward and beyond to somewhere else. It invites you to walk with him to see where it goes.

Maybe here.

When Glenn and I were in New Orleans once, he was attending a conference and I had the luxury of just wandering about while he was in sessions. I found a lovely little photography gallery on Royal Street, sat in a cafe sipping tea and doodling, and then I caught a trolley and rode it out along St. Charles Street until I randomly got off and saw a park to stroll through. It was a damp, rainy day and I was just footloose in the city with no agenda.

 Sometimes we just need to lose ourselves in the moment. I don't wander as much these days, although I love a good road trip, and I intend to ride the rails again as part of my bucket list. It's good to have those adventures when you are young, though, and I am happy Ian is doing just that. Bon Voyage!

Being and Doing More (Bees)

I'm on a roll with my bee theme. My small quilted square will be submitted to a contest/challenge in Quilting Arts magazine involving a single colour theme and why we picked that colour. I usually look blank when asked something like what my favorite colour is. As an artist I pretty much adore all colour. Of course I go through phases: my Santa Fe turquoise phase, my tangerine orange passion (I hear that's the IT colour this year), my current periwinkle blue fondness, but when I drift into the golds my preference is not for the bright sunshine or marigold hues, but the soft honey tones of beeswax and candlelight. So here above is that quilted square again, this time on a copper background. I received a gift awhile back wrapped in a honeycombed cut cardboard so I just spray painted it copper, out in my back driveway, like a graffiti artist. I know, I know....the Ozone! I swear it only took a few spritzes to coat it.
And here is another piece I played around with yesterday, then mounted on a rice paper collage background that was turning into a huge mess so I covered most of it up.

And finally, I had a  20"x20"canvas just sitting on an easel in my studio that I had painted first a bright chartreuse, then that honey gold, so eventually I decided it needed a GIANT bee in the middle of it. It's not quite finished but I am at that stage where I don't know what to do next without overkill. Such a delicate moment.

 My friend, Lisa, wrote in her blog about naming days after a significant or inspiring event, so a few days ago I saw my first and only bee of the season hovering near the pond, waiting for our Russian sage to bloom. And for Lisa I named that The Day of the Lonely Bee.

Being and Doing

I'm enjoying the softness of Spring right now. As of yet, no dust storms, thunderstorms, tornado warnings, or freak blizzards. Just the slow, warm greening and blooming of the neighborhood.

 Penny and her friend, Stickers are also enjoying the morning, wandering through the Iris beds.

I am following one of my current favorite subject matters: the bee. The marvelous bee and it's marvelous product, honey.

A bee has made its' way into a larger quilted piece I am doing for a show  in June. And as a busy bee myself (certainly not doing Spring cleaning or raking the  dead leaves from the garden beds) I have recently been painting and printing  on Lutrador. Lutrador is a stiff, non-woven fabric, like an interfacing or a very  thick fabric softener sheet. It can be treated like paper and fabric at the  same time.
Here are a couple of my handmade stamps:

And here are some of the Lutrador squares I have painted, stamped, and stitched, looking all ready for Spring:

Sometimes I enjoy the process of doing, without any idea what I am doing it for. Many bits and pieces of drawings, or stitched fabrics, or collaged papers lie around for months in my studio before I have an Aha! moment and add them to something else I am working on. Hence the little embroidered bee at the top of the page has now landed itself in a larger quilt.

I did make a few small coin purses out of some my Lutrador experiments.

And I turned one of my squares into a finished piece I am entering next month in a Quilting Arts magazine challenge. For some reason the photo will only load sideways even though it is upright in my files. I do not have full control of my own blog  :-b  Please twist head right and get a good neck stretch.

I also remember how important bees are to our ecosystem and how I love to see them hovering over my Russian sage blossoms near the pond. A little Google search reveals fascinating sites about the history of beekeeping, poems and stories about bees, and some incredible photos of our fuzzy little friends in action.

House Beautiful

I'm in a lull right now. My mind is quiet and I do not have the need to verbalize. So while I recharge here are some pictures of my sister-in-law Carol's house in Houston. Glenn and I visited over Spring break for a nice family get together. Carol and Gordon live in The Heights neighborhood and have renovated and remodeled this 1903 house. It looks almost too perfect to live in but we did cook and eat and spend a lot of time around the kitchen bar drinking coffee and talking.

Glenn and Carol ponder the absurdity of the human condition. Or maybe what to have for dinner.

The home has been featured in HG Magazine, on the cover of a Houston magazine, and right now Carol is preparing it for a home tour event in April. I secretly suspect she has a giant underground storage area with all her clutter stashed away, and an army of house elves who whisk it clean while everyone sleeps. Maybe.....