The Reveal

Okay, so I was going to reveal the piece tomorrow; but I just posted it on the Quilt blog so I might as well blog today. Do check out the fabulous quilts on the Quilt blog!

What I didn't mention of the Quilt blog is that the text on the transparency is definitions of Mentally Challenged, my daughter, Alzheimer's, my mother, and Strokes, my guy. The Puzzlement is why a triple whammy? (click on the image in order to read the text.)

The backing is white canvas fabric that I painted red and stiffened with GAC 400; I have no idea if or how I'd hang the piece, but the fabric is stiff enough to stand up on its own on a display shelf. And yes, the red backing is attached off-center. I used black canvas fabric for the middle layer with the rusted Hope sign on it. The challenge word is puzzle so the first thing I did was to make a puzzle piece stencil that was used for both the discharged shapes on the top right layer of black fabric, the blobs, and for the painted pieces on the left side. The line drawing of the brain was PSE manipulated. The twisted cording is torn strips of fabric that were adhered to the piece with a painted piece of junk jewelry. Additionally, there are painted puzzle pieces and two more painted pieces of junk jewelry. The red lines resembling veins are a rubber stamp.

Being that my quilting skills are nil I used paint as a needle; straight and satin stitching were used to sew the fabrics together. Black felt was used for batting.


Quote: Anne Lamott nailed the way I've been feeling for the last four months.

"And I felt like my heart had been so thoroughly and irreparably broken that there could be no real joy again, that at best there might eventually be a little contentment. Everyone wanted me to get help and rejoin life, pick up the pieces and move on, and I tried to, I wanted to, but I just had to lie in the mud with my arms wrapped around myself, eyes closed, grieving, until I didn’t have to anymore."

In the Studio

The reveal for the first challenge on Three Creative Studios is Monday. These two images are of sections of my piece. The challenge word is Puzzle.

I'll provide the details about this piece on Monday.

I will say though that working on this piece was interesting in that it decided how it wanted to be created; I followed along even though I had a completely different idea in mind. On Jan. 21st I blogged about an early version of this challenge piece.

Quote: This was posted on a friend's blog after a family member took her own life. A teenager who decided that life was too difficult. I've read this quote before but the book isn't cited amongst Anne Lamott's quotes from her books. 

"You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp."

In The Garden

Before the garden make-over.

Last Sunday I tackled the planting. At night a garden light shines on the derrick/tower and a few cactus on each side of it. Nice!

Many of you know that my mother has Alzheimer's so if you can please go here and light a candle. Many, many thanks!

In the Studio

A Nugget of Joy! This is the best photo I could get of this magnificent Monarch; posing for photos wasn't what it had in mind. The joy it found in my yard and plants put a smile on my face.

Last Sunday I reorganized and cleaned up the garage studio so that I can start having marathon fabric dyeing sessions. Roger's car and belongings were picked up that day by his oldest son and I needed to work off some steam. It seems that the leased car needed to be returned, okay, but Roger's belongings? I dumped some of his things in the trunk and called it a day. Roger's progress is slow and it seems that he's having run-ins with gangsters and robbers plus his left foot keeps falling off. It's his left side that's paralyzed. My dad hallucinated about gangsters and robbers too, what's up with that? The brain is a puzzlement.

This piece is more of a patch than anything else; I don't have anything in mind for it yet. The background is a used Olay daily facial and how grand is that they can be recycled? The price of them alone prevents me from tossing them after they're used. The circle is a cosmetic pad, I use my finger tips to apply makeup so I had no idea how cheap the circles and square pads are. Once they've been dunked in water they happily allow Golden Fluid acrylics to flow all over them just like the Olay facials do. The squiggly thread is a frayed edge off of a dyed piece of fabric. All three components were attached together with gel medium and can be stitched on. The idea for this piece came from Sherrill Kahn's latest book, "Creative Mixed Media," paint, print, stitch, stamp, and embellish. Yummy!

Quote: Let nothing stand in the way of feeling good. Sally Huss

More Nuggets of Joy

Don't you just love the close-up feature on digital cameras? Two years ago I bought a tiny cactus at the .99 store. The tag said that it was a spider web variety. I now have six plants of this fast spreading low plant.

Tomorrow seems to be the day that the gardeners are going to come and pull out the remaining ground-cover so I can get that area planted.

Seth added my tip to his Sunday Secrets, nice surprise and thanks for stopping by. I think that I'm proudest of my 52 projects that I did last year. They can be found in the Labels category on the side-bar.

Courageous is another embossed metal piece stitched onto needle punched fabric.

Quotes: Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. — Henri Nouwen

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. Coco Chanel