Hello,
I hope spring is knocking at everyone’s door.  Somewhere I read the line “ we live in an unending rain fall of images” and I can’t get that idea out of my head. It is so very true. This world is so full of visual stimulation! We have all learned to filter out lots of it however. I now set in my studio surrounded by, a lamp, a bookshelf full of boxes full of threads , baskets, jars and glue sticks.  There are cups of  pens, pencils and paint brushes marauds of other things, but due to my focus on writing this I really do not record any of those objects at this moment. How much else do me miss by our tunnel vision? Or is it just a learned self defense due to the over stimulation? I know that I approach my walks with an open mind and search out differences from day to day, but most of the time I just label what I see in my head and do not really look. There is a local grocery store that overwhelms my vision every time I visit. So many colors, shapes and textures that my self defense is to make a list and only purchase what is there. That is my intent when I go in but…..I still can not pass through the store in less than an hour as I always find something new that I did not see before and become distracted. It is a wild wonderful rainfall of ever changing images that we live in.

This week I had only two Zoom meetings and a visit from my daughter. Good to catch up on all fronts. Wendy came with some fabric that she wants me to turn into curtains.

I did make some new print blocks this week with fun foam and a wood burning tool that some one gave me.  I was in the 60’s out side so I took advantage of the temperatures and worked outside were the fumes would blow away from me.  I will print them tomorrow.

I continue to work away on the coral reef for the Textile Artist Stitch Club project. I think is is about a forth done now. I am enjoying the process although it is slow.

 

I did the final work on this stitch project from earlier.   I really like  how doing my hand work personalizes this type of project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Progress report- Black capped Chickadee This little 10″ X 10 “ piece is done now. I enjoyed working on it.

 

The leaves are commercial and from a friend.

 

 

 

 

Lap Quilt #6 This work is 37″ X 47″ . I enjoyed playing with lots of commercial fabrics this time.

 

 

 

 

 

Three Sisters -Rework In all the quilting and re squaring such this work shrunk a bit. It is now 36″ X 36″. All the black out lining really does help I think.   This project is my response to the Sisterhood of the Scissors Picasso Challenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scrap Happy I started a new one this week. I think it will go to my grand daughter as I have not made one for her in a long time.

 

 

Poppy Fields This whole cloth quilt is moving along slowly. I am getting really good at free motion circles though.

 

Daily Practice I am on my third piece of fabric for this project. It is going well.

 

 

 

New Work     I started a new pieces this week using nine different pieces of related fabric.    I wanted them all to be 20″ squares- but some of the fabric was not that large so I just added to the edges to make them that size.    I am now in the process of cutting the pieces and reassembling them.   This is pure play.

 

Childhood Memories- Summer School
Another big change that came at the end of eight grade was a summer change. We did not build a house or go spend the summer with the grandparents. Mom was working on her doctors degree and Dad was teaching summer school at Ball State. “We have to go to work and so do you.,” they said. So Gene and I both went to summer school at the lab school, Burris. WE were in school from 8 in the morning to noon. Gene was in the fifth grade class and I took typing and Industrial Arts. I did learn the location of the key and I don’t need to look at the key board when I type, but I never got any speed. For the last two hours I was in the industrial Arts class. I love the floor in that room as it was all made from 2X4″ that where set on end and all the little half circles were pointed up. I just thought that was cool. I started out the summer by working in the photo lab. I learned how to develop film and how to print my images. I also did a few mono contact prints. At the middle of the term I moved into the wood shop. There I got to use the lathe and I made three tapered candle sticks that Mom proudly displayed in our living room on the coffee table that sat by the front window.
The second summer, between Freshman and Jr. year I took Chemistry. It was a four hour class and we covered that same amount of material every day that was covered in a week during the regular school year. There was lots of homework for that class. It was also the first time in my life that I fainted. I recall getting a very warm feeling and my vision closing in from both sides. Then a blank and I sort of came too I was being carried down the stairs to the nurese office. I could feel the movement, and hear what was being said, but I could not open my eyes or talk. It was frightening. Mom came and picked me up from the nurses office and we went to see Dr Ball. No one came up with a real reason for the incident. Except to say they though it was heat and dehydration. The only other time in my life that I have fainted was when I was getting my wisdom teeth pulled at 21. I fainted in the chair and as a result I learned I was pregnant with Wendy.
The third year between Jr. And senior year I took Music appreciation and Art. Music was great fun as the class was very small, only 12 of us.The teacher taught us how to create our own little Mnemonic devises to recall the titles and composers of the works we needed to identify. It really helped and I can still recall some of them. I got to know one of the boys in the class well. Michel Sears and I went on a couple of dates too. He was a fascinating person as he was the first person I had ever come in contact with who was an orphan. He lived in the hospital dormitories with his older brother who was doing his internship at Ball Memorial Hospital. Michel was a real intellectual and he introduced me to Ann Rayn. I read Atlas Shrugged that summer and we had many conversations about that book. He and I were setting on the edge of the patio on sunny afternoon and playing chess when, after pointing to the grass and then the red squares on the board, he asked me. “ Are those both the same color?” He was color blind and that was a real shock to me. He carefully explained what he though he was seeing and I felt a bit sorry for him. Michel’s brother finished his internship in early October of my Senior year and they moved to Kansas. We wrote a few letters at first, but then lost interest or at least lost the connection. I wonder how his life turned out.

Stay safe and keep looking,

Carol