Studio Tour

Well, it hasn't been quite a year since we moved and at last I have photos of my new studio. I'm pretending that this is like wedding presents--you have a year to do it before you're really a social pariah.

So . . .

First is my shelves covered with zip-off white shower curtains. Lightens the place up a little and gives me a place to pin things I'm not actively working on but am actively thinking about You can also see my classroom tables (that double as more workspace, of course):


And my sewing area with one table that can be either countertop or table height--where I do most of my needle felting (since the bins with my wool are behind curtain #2 above:


(In theory the wall behind my sewing machine will be my design wall, but don't like the close quarters there, so might move shelving there, move sewing machine farther into the room, and use the long wall. Researching design wall materials for now, enjoying having my studio put together, and will probably wait until the fall to tear it up again. Besides, the shower curtains work well enough for now!)

Then there's the little alcove where the TV and comfy chairs are. Hand sewing of all sorts, come computer work, etc. happens there, and hubby can join me in the evenings (since it's the only TV in the house):

And last but not least, my current project storage and office area. The bathroom and laundry room are in this corner as well, and an outside door, so the studio can be completely separate from the rest of the house when I have students here.

Having the bathroom and laundry room is handy for dyeing and felting, too, of course. Boy, I love having all this convenient space--and not having the stuff all over the rest of my house!

And that's about it. The wall you haven't seen has two more storage shelves for the kids' craft stuff and will (hopefully not too far in the future) also have LOTS of bookshelves for our library. We still have eight boxes of books we haven't unpacked as well as an entire bookcase double stacked. (DH's hobby is collecting excellent fantasy and sci-fi, which I happily enable and enjoy.)

Well, now that I've given you a tour, it's back to ripping stitches, then quilting up the orange field in my newest piece (on curtain #4). Have a fabulous day!

Nearly a year in Tennessee

Well, we've been here nearly a year and feel very at home. We've made the transition pretty well, the kids are thriving, DH loves his job, and I am in heaven in my studio. The weather is warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer, there's almost always a little wind, and the clouds (and thunderstorms) are way more impressive.

One of the hardest things to get used to is that things like pita bread are considered exotic here and only show up seasonally in most grocery stores. I haven't really figured out what the pita season is, but that's what the lady at the deli counter told me.

The other unexpected oddities are a couple of expressions.

A friend of ours is a physician's assistant (also a transplant to the area). When he first moved to the area he'd ask a nurse or an orderly to do something and they'd reply, "No, I don't care to." He, of course, was a little taken aback at this challenge to his authority, but figured he just had to earn his wings as the new guy and do it himself. But when he went to do it he'd find it already done. Turns out that in NE TN, "No, I don't care to," means, "Sure, I don't mind."

Folks also use this expression in a statement, not merely as a reply. For example, DH got a message asking him to "Please give me a call back if you don't care to."

And then there's "Bless his heart." You can say anything and add that at the end to make it all right, like, "That whole family has enormous heads, bless their hearts," or "He just can't hold a woman or a job, bless his heart." Now if anyone blesses my heart I wonder what they really mean. :-)

Northeast TN doesn't have a lock on strange expressions, though. Took us years to get used to the dual meaning of "Are you all set" in Western MA. If you're in line at a sandwich counter in western MA and the wait person asks "Are you all set?" . . . it's not a yes or no question.

If you answer "yes," chances are good the waiter will walk away thinking you have already ordered.

If you answer "no," chances are good the waiter will walk away thinking you need more time to decide.

And in Pittsburgh "City Chicken" is pork or veal. Go figure.

Cross Blogging

Just received notice that this great new blog in MA (my former habitat) posted an article on me. Thanks, Marcia! What a wonderful thing to come home to.

Just got back from a great great few days in Asheville, NC, (a few pics coming soon) with my mom and I'm getting ready for a birthday party this evening for Bernard Kaiman, the nearly 90-year-old force of nature in international folk and Scottish country dance in this region.

Work, as you might imagine, is still taking a backseat until tomorrow, when I will plunge in up to my elbows and wallow in fiber! Mmmmm, lovely!

Verb of the Day

Last weekend (with considerable muscle power contributed with a happy heart by D.H.) I feng shuied my studio--and I mean "feng shui" in the sense that I generally mean "kleenex"--as a generic descriptor rather than the discreet name brand.

I had one nook in my studio all put together. It is full of light and has lovely views, and I even had inspiration up on the walls. and my sewing machine and cabinet with current projects fit in there perfectly.

But I just couldn't move forward, so I decided radical change was in order. Because it is the only out-of-the-way space in the studio, sort of tucked around a corner, it is now the T.V. nook where D.H. can join me in the evenings and where I can watch good old movies (or chick flicks) while doing handwork in the daytime.

Now the studio looks HUGE. and I can see how to move forward. (A more flexible mind than mine probably would have figured this out a couple of months ago, but I love that nook and wanted to sew in it. However, now I love the whole studio!)

And apparently it worked because I unpacked most of what was left this week and dyed a load of fabric for a commission that I've been stalled on. Woo-hoo! Still no photos, but that is mainly due to the holiday rush and a whole slew (sp?) of appointments--we're nearly there!

In the Saddle Again, Again . . . Again

Seems like all I'm doing is trying to find a pace and routine in the new studio. You'd think it'd be easy what with this great new studio with space and light and all. Somehow it still feels a little odd, though--perhaps I need a little feng shui. Whatever it is, I gotta get my groove on!

I do have loads of floor space cleared out and am nearly ready to post photos of the sstudio, but in the meantime, in order to get all inspired, I flung my largish (about 3.5 feet per side) works that should be in progress all over the floor yesterday. That banished my sluggishness and inspired me to make that last sprint to get the studio done so I can send out press releases and advertise my Spring 2009 studio classes and maybe even throw a studio grand opening in January.

They don't look like much yet, but I can see where they're going and (mostly) how to get them there. It will be interesting (at least for me) to see how different these look when they're done!

Anyhow, once the studio is all done and I've got my groove on, I promise more interesting and frequent posts. (Or at least better titles!)

Felt is yummy!

Made some more nuno, including this piece that I'll use on my piece for the New Focus exhibit at the Coos Art Museum:

felt side

silk side

I started out with a piece of china silk 28" x 24 1/2" and ended up with a piece 11" x 9". Bob declares this, like all my artistic exploits, to be highly inefficient, but he admires the end results anyway (because he clearly has good taste).

This was just the thing I needed to start me moving. I wasn't ready to jump right into the piecing or applique process, but as long as I could tell myself I was just fooling around I managed to keep moving--it's hard to get back into the swing of things when you haven't had a real routine in months!

This lovely bunch of cotton/silk satins and three lovely variegated threads are helping, too. Compliments of my MA Round Robin, they have added color, shine, and inspiration to my studio. I have another quilt in mind for them--want to combine their lovely shimmer with the lush matte of wool roving. Mmmmm, mmmmm good!

One of my favorite things . .

. . . about our new home in Tennessee is the cloudscapes. The sunsets are beautiful any day it's not raining, but the daytime offers awe-inspiring sky vistas as well. Pictures say it far better than I, though, so . . .

(These last three are taken from my back yard in suburban Kingsport.)

For a while I was taking photographs all the time--until I realized that this is par for the course and that inspiration frequently is only as far away as stepping out the door. It lifts my soul, sends it soaring, exhilarated, joyous.

Back in the saddle--mostly!

The studio is nearly unpacked--I can now imagine what it'll look like once the boxes and extraneous furniture are gone.

I have missed my fabric and find myself caressing favorite tools and materials as I put them away. Ah, the secret life of quilters!

So, since I have a deadline looming and a commission I should be working on (and because I NEED TO WORK!!!), I played hookie from unpacking and spent a couple days working.

Did a few very small painted studies (including these two):

(clearly haven't made it out of my color rut yet--
so I've decided to embrace it)

And made some faux nuno, including this piece:


Now that I have the new process down, I'm making a felted piece for a new work--woo-hoo! Never thought I'd resent a long weekend. (Well, not really. Or . . . well, only a little. :-P )

I'll end on a note of apology: A great many people made our last days and weeks in Massachusetts memorable and smooth and uplifting and wonderful, and I really haven't mentioned that--or them individually. Everything just caught up with me at once and I had to let it go to remain sane.

I hope I did manage to thank you all in person, but if I missed you in the blur and rush please accept my apology and know I appreciated everything you did for me and for my family. You all rock and we are tremendously blessed.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Community Garden
by the 2007-08 third-grade class
P.E. Bowe Elementary School, Chicopee, MA
with Cindi Huss

Didn't the kids at P.E. Bowe Elementary School do a great job?! They designed the foliage, fruit, veg., and flowers on paper then translated them into fabric. The fringe at the bottom is made of 199 wood joining biscuits with words the students came up with about what it takes to make a community and/or a garden grow and thrive.

The kids also made design desisions, such as where to "plant" their creations and what to quilt in the background. Some of them just fell in love with quilting and sewing and all of them worked hard. These kids and their teachers rock and it was a privilege to work with them this year! (Click here to see some of the other things we did together.)

Timna Tarr (Q Tailored Quilts) rocks, too. I called her in a panic in June because the end of school was fast approaching, we were getting ready to move, and I couldn't figure out how I'd get the quilting done on this piece in time without crippling myself (it is extremely heavy and quite thick in places).

Found time in her very busy schedule and quilted this in a day! Woo hoo! Thanks, Timna, for putting up with my unreasonable requests for all these years!

Seat-of-the-pants wrap-up--Part I

I'd love to create a long post about favorite places in the area (Pioneer Valley in Western MA), but that would require heights of organization and planning that I, frankly, am incapable of --aside from plans for our (very) impending move, so I'm going with a much more seat-of-the-pants approach . . .

Today I had lunch at Judie's in Amherst, MA, with my friend Cindy--fellow quilter, fellow dancer, fellow ex-Pittsburgher, fellow office supply junkie, fellow Belchertowner (for a couple more weeks anyhow), and fellow foodie and Judie's devotee.

And while my sister is the queen of photographing beautiful food before digging in, I apparently am the queen of gluttony.

I dove right in to my lovely, velvety bowl of seafood bisque. I excavated all the best bits of my decadent lobster salad and enjoyed them with Judie's scrumptious creamy onion dressing. And . . . well, the key lime pie with creme brule cheesecake top (pure culinary genius) boggled the mind and I savored each bite in between sips of a perfect cappuccino.

Then I remembered I was supposed to be taking pictures. So here's the one photo I did get:
Guess this is why I trained as a journalist, not a photographer.

More as I can . . .

New Heights of Domestic Insanity

Well, our house is finally up for sale. Check it out.

Isn't it cute?!

We kicked it all off with an open house last Saturday. After our Memorial Day bash the floors, including the throw rugs, were trashed. The amazing Alicia Murphy took care of the floors and DH took care of the rugs.

If I had been thinking I would have done the rugs and used Synthropol so the red didn't turn everything pink, but I can live with that. However, they didn't come out of the dryer flat and that was a problem.
I had the iron out for the tablecloth, so I, who avoid ironing at all costs unless it involves a quilt, ironed the rugs. With lots of steam. And it worked! And I'm a nut. Ironing rugs.

I've become a lunatic, obsessing about the kids tracking dirty footprints across the floor and messing stuff up. I've taken to being out of the house as much as possible so I don't mess it up. I am much happier when I can be more relaxed about housekeeping. Oy!

But the house looks great!

Disaster Area

I've been doing so many things around the house and trying so hard to keep it moderately tidy that I have done almost no work for the past three months. However, I must finish the mural I worked on during my 10-week autumn residency with third graders from the P.E. Bowe Elementary School (Chicopee, MA) before the end of the school year (just after the middle of June).

Since we have had to delay putting the house on the market (long boring story) I took the opportunity to create a little temporary chaos in the living room. You can see what it has looked like here. And here was its state last Wednesday:

However, it's all in a good cause. All five panels are done (except the extensions where the tree branches will continue into the neighboring panel). Now I must quilt and mount them.

For the mural part of this program (we explored several quilting techniques and traditions) the children (three classes of about 25) drew vegetation then translated it into fabric and designed the three middle panels ("Spring," "Summer," and "Fall"). They also decided that the 200+ words about community they came up with would be written on "seeds" (carpentry biscuits) suspended from the bottom of the quilt and "rain" (method and materials TBD by me).

When it is done the piece will measure just under 4' x 10'. Hopefully I'll be done with the bulk of the work by the end of next week.

Anyhow, I have completely enjoyed myself (other than stressing slightly about the mess I made and how short my time is) and can't wait to finish this up. The process demonstrates, however, why it was important for us to find a house with a large, dedicated studio space somewhat removed from the rest of the living space in our house. Apparently my creative process requires chaos to thrive!

My new studio (and house)!

We have a house in Kingsport! Woo-hoo!

It's a ranch with a big yard in a family-friendly neighborhood in Kingsport City proper, so the kids' schools will be great.

It also has a great BIG studio space--the entire finished basement! Imagine this space with a whopping stash, racks of thread, rolls of batting, a big design wall, and a large space for felting and dyeing (and pay no attention to that woman sticking her tongue out--it's an obscure counting ritual practiced by overwrought house hunters.)

On our first visit we saw deer in the backyard.

My youngest's favorite feature--the laundry chute:Definitely some super spy possibilities here!

Anyhow, it's a lovely house in move-in condition with discrete spaces for living and working, so I think we'll all do very well here.

I already have plans to update a couple of things (like the matchy-matchy pink toilet, bathtub, and twin sinks in the master bath and the dark, dated kitchen) but overall it's a pretty great house. And the housing dollar goes a lot farther down there than it does up here!

Work in Progress

Haven't had much time for my variety of creative work lately but we have been working long and hard on the house--cleaning out the old, packing up the things we don't absolutely need for the next three months, etc. So here's the before and after--our living room a month ago, the main staging area for the great clean-out, and the same room (really?!) yesterday afternoon.















Impressive, no?!














A little disconcerted that the up-and-coming stagers (I'm letting them take pictures of whatever they do to build their portfolio, they give me deadlines and advice) decided that my thread racks should be the over-the-couch art, but different strokes, I guess. Anyhow, Alicia the wonder cleaner was amazing, Bob has done a HUGE amount of work, and the kids, though grumbly, have really stepped up as well.

Next Step From Felt Workshop

Sharon Parker was a generous instructor and a delight to spend the weekend with. She hails from North Carolina so gave me some pointers to fun fiber and art destinations in the TN/NC area, too.

Anyhow, my piece felt a little (a lot) frenetic--think it has something to do with my current state of mind. Instead of throwing my hands up in despair, thought, I added more. It's still a work in progress, but I'm glad I ventured beyond my comfort zone. As my mother always says, it'll build my character.

My lovely variegated roving (mixed from three different colors).
LOVE Sharon's drum carder, and since felt seems to be a new, intrinsic part of my art I think I'll have to invest in one. Hers was an old Cleres & Cleres, which are no longer being produced, but I think I'll look for a used one, so that's all right.

The felt I made from my lovely variegated roving.

The flames I made from the felt I made from my beautiful variegated roving.

Have become resigned to the fact that until I'm at the SAQA/SDA conference in Philly (early April) I'll have very little time for anything creative. But at least I'll have the conference to give me a hit. Packing and cleaning (and, apparently, Lyme Disease) have taken over my life!

Oh, the joy!

So here's the dancing part of "Dancing Threads"

Last night we went to Balkan Music Night in Concord, MA, and it was amazing! We crept through driving rain for two hours to get there and it was well worth it. First was the concert.

Divi Zheni (Wild Women), an American-based Bulgarian chorus/band conducted by Tatiana Sarbinska. Very theatrical in their presentation.

Hye Fusion, a brilliant American-born trio comprising Malcolm Barsamian (clarinet), Brad Perch (oud), and Charles Dermenjian (darbuka) who played amazing Turkish classical and folk music. All three were consummate musicians.

Baščaršija, a fun Boston-based group that sang Bosnian torch songs with great attitude and style.

Turli Tava, creating down-home Macedonian dance music of the best sort, musical soul food like the stew from which they take their name. Walt "Vlado" Mahovlich, Sašo Dukovski, and Seido Salifoski were great, and the accordian player/vocalist had a beautiful voice.

Then came the dance party to end all dance parties (except for the Zlatne Uste party in NYC, I suppose). One fabulous band after another in both the main dance hall and the kefana.

Speaking of ZU, here they are in the middle of it all, Balkan brass blasting away.

It was a total crush of concentric (sometimes eccentric) circles, loud, excellent music in the semidark (hence the questionable quality of the photos), and a wonderful variety of great food (that almost kept up with demand).

My youngest was pooped when we got there (only half an hour before bedtime) but couldn't help but dance whenever we were in the dance hall. We left long before the 2:30 a.m. closing because we had tired kids and a long drive home, but I am so glad we made a point of taking this last opportunity to go--feeds the soul!

Ah, the joys of compartmentalization

Went away for a lovely, relaxing weekend of good friends, good fun, good food, and good (at least on their part) conversation with our friends (and tons of snow--just look at it all!) last weekend. There was yoga and strong coffee, loads of fun kids, calm music, sanctioned coloring on the walls, a new (to us) game called Niagara, and a recently un-snowed hot tub. There was also a gorgeous full moon making fascinating shadows and the warm glow of kitchen windows on the snow (below).

Everything was great--so great I literally forgot all about the rest of my life currently, which is, I suppose, what a really great vacation does for you. When I say "forgot," however, I really mean forgot. Like it didn't even cross my mind until I was getting out of the car that the next morning four guys were arriving to paint all the trim as well as the dining room, the kitchen, the hall and the bathroom ceiling. OY! I almost turned right around to drive the three hours back to our friends'!

Instead Bob steadied me and we raised all sorts of dust and used all sorts of muscles moving furniture to the middle of rooms, clearing off surfaces, packing up boxes, etc., so that when the guys arrived we could turn over the house to paint and mayhem, capped off on Tuesday by the guys, who were highly competent in every other way, leaving the refrigerator unplugged.

Small Pleasures

So both my beloved sewing machines were packed away for a month.

During that time we have been emptying the house by the boatload, Freecycling and carting off to Goodwill furniture, toys, clothes, old computers, etc., in an effort to make our house look roomy and perfect despite the fact that we still live here. All in the service of getting the best price on this end so we end up with a lovely home with a great studio space in Kingsport or Johnson City, TN, where we will move at the end of June.

Well, let me tell you, a month is a very long time, and I was in serious sewing withdrawal. Such serious withdrawal that very simple things I generally despise, like mending my youngest's fabric headband and pants and my oldest's favorite skirt, gave me a fix. And making one of the two Round Robin projects currently on my plate nearly sent me into raptures.

There is something intensely liberating about having the sewing machine up. Available is nice, but up means at any moment I could sit down and take off. The potential is so great. And it seems my brain is hard-wired to that availability. With the sewing machine in its case and the table put away I was totally focused on the practical and the mundane and was feeling very disconnected from my creativity. But since putting my machine back up (even though I've had very little time to use it) I am awash with ideas, with possibilities that need to be reality.

Potential.

I even started what I hope will be a new series of small quilts called "Words to Live By." I began with a wonderful photo of my friend Anoushka and created an abstract image:

When it is done this will be entitled "Insight Joy."

Let It Snow

We had lovely snow over the holidays and are getting a little "retouch" now.We'll be moving sometime in the next year or so, and I'll definitely miss the snow, as anywhere we go will almost assuredly have less snow than we get here. I'm sure there will be something lovely to offset that loss--I'll just have to recognize it when I come across it!

8M8VPQ6MHR5V

Today is the first day of the rest of my blog. I've been blogging in my head for years, now it's all out in the open. However, as it is after midnight and I'm a little punchy I think I'll wait to create my first real post until I've had more sleep and am more coherent.

Next time: What the kids at my residency have been up to and how my life is about to dramatically change!