Hello,

As this picture shows I got a new camera.   When it took the broken one to the only shop in town, I was told it would be $25.00 just to look at it before the repair started. What with the cost of new ones be as cheap as they are now days, I decided to go that route.  It is a  Cannon Power shot and I am quite pleased with it.  I would have gone for the same type of camera as my old one, but as the local photo store did not carry Sony’s, I did my research and selected this one instead.  There is only one camera store in town now and I am sorry about that.  When I was teaching photography there were four shops as well as all those  funny little booths in parking lots were you could take film to be developed and get yur pictures in an hour.   Times have changed. 

I did a few house hold things in the studio this week.   I covered my rolling chair back and seat as it was looking a bit shabby.  Then I got busy and made a hanging waste/pin cushion unit for next to my machine.  It is made  from the scraps of the chair- the other side of the fabric.   The pin cushion part is filled with sand to give the unit the weight it needs to stay on the desk top while I stuff the thread and fabric bits in it as I sew.  The sand helps keep the pins sharp too.   There is a hand bag handle in the front of the bag to hold it open. That is also why the shape of the unit on the desk top is arched; it fits over the opening if I need to close and transport it.    This is not my idea- I saw it some were and made up my own version.  

The third bit of housekeeping was a altered box.  I needed a place to store the Daily’s.   I took a substantial corrugated cardboard boot box I had and glued it all over with bits of old lace.    Then I painted it with black gesso on the out side and white gesso on the inside .  When that was dry I applied green Lumiar paint to the surface to highlight the lace.    I now have a very attractive box for the storage of the Daily’s. 

Progress Report: Ebb Tide- Foundations V   As the new title suggests I now have a name for this work. I am having a delightful time with this piece.  I have tried lots of ways to add texture to this top.  The first shot shows  roving and yarns that I stitched to the surface.    Then I tried using a course sort of thread(the sea green).  There is also some chennelle yarn (gray) that I chrocheted to add more texture in this close-up.   By using the buckram as a foundation there seems to be no limit to how much sewing machine work one can add on top and  I really love that.

The third close-up shows organza that is wadded as well as old lace.   Some is captured under the organza and some is free.

There is also some orange trim that I cut and added to the surface shown here.    All the textures come from the images I saw in  a second photo of a tide pool that I took in Maine last summer.   This piece will surely be finished by next week.

 Cascading -Foundations VI    This little piece is also near completion.  I mixed silk paper and an old silk shirt and a failed silk scarf  in this work.  I think is needs only a little more free motion work and then I can paint the back.

Splits  I started this top this week.  It really flew together under my fingers- almost had a life of its own.  I had premade the diagonal cut blocks before and have tried twice to lay out an effective arrangement. I am delighted with how this finally came together.  I will need to think carefully about how to quilt this one.

 Daily’s   I can not believe I have nearly finished my fourth mouth of Daily’s.   There are only a few more pieces with black circles and red triangles in the box.  I will need to plan my next layout this week.

Keep Creating

Carol