Wet dog

A filthy little cute puppy

got a warm bath in the kitchen sink
this weekend.
He's growing way too fast,
please make it stop! :)

Things I Love

Thread schmutz


(The threads that hang off the edge of fabrics after they've been washed, dyed, rinsed, soaked, washed again... well, you get the idea. Yes, I actually save this stuff... the birds love it for their nests and as often as not, some of it will end up in my quilts, too.)

Cheapest Alter-able Tool Ever:


(A wallpaper seam roller with sticky-backed fun foam shapes attached to it to create a continuous roller stamp. The plastic rollers are about a buck in the hardware store and the heavy wooden-handled ones, which are my favorite, cost about 6.00 but they last for years. The sticky-backed fun foam shapes can be bought in craft stores by the bucket, in the kid's departments. Each bucket is about four dollars. Use the shapes as-is or cut them up to alter them. My favorite way to "ink" them is to squirt paint/reinker/dye/textile paint/dye-na-flow/etc into a small polyester sponge- the yellow ones they sell in the grout or automotive departments that don't get stiff when they dry- work it in a little with a craft stick to even out the pigment and then roll the stamp roller onto the sponge. It's just like using an ink pad- which also works, btw.)

Over-Flowing Stamp Drawers


(This one contains as many of my favorite tribal stamps as it can hold. I've been carving stamps for years... can you tell I'm a little obsessed with it? These work great on fabric or paper.)

A Size 90 Topstitch Needle


(With ANY thread.)

Rain



(After months of drought.)

فضل شاكر يعتزل الغناء

أكد الفنان فضل شاكر في حديث اجراه مؤخرا اعتزامه اعتزال الغناء نهائيا بعد انتهاء عقده مع شركة روتانا الذي تبقى منه 4 سنوات.

كما اكد الفنان اللبناني ان قراره هذا لا رجعة فيه ولم يفصح عن الاسباب التي دفعته لهذا القرار، ولكنه اشار ان راحته فوق كل شئ مع كامل تقديره لجمهوره.

كما اكد فضل في برنامج تاراتاتا الذي يذاع على قناة دبي انه لا يوجد اي خلاف بينه وبين شركة روتانا وان الامور بينهم على ما يرام.

ولكن اكد بعض المقربين من فضل ان السبب قد يرجع الى كثرة الخلافات والصراعات التي مر بها فضل في فترة احترافه الغناء ، الامر الذي يتعارض مع شخصيته المحبة للهدوء الكارهه للتوتر.

يذكر ان البوم فضل شاكر الاخير "بعدا ع البال " قد شهد نجاحا باهرا وخصوصا اغنية الدويتو مع اليسا : جوا الروح .

فيديو هجوم فتاة على كاظم الساهر في حفل الاردن

على غرار تامر حسني ، اصبحت موضة هجوم الفتيات على المطربين اثناء حفلات الغناء منتشرة حيث وصلت هذه المرة الى الاردن في حفل كاظم الساهر الاخير حيث قامت فتاة او سيدة بالصعود على خشبة المسرح واحتضان كاظم الساهر وكالعادة .. قام كاظم الساهر بابعاد الحراس الشخصيين الذين حاولوا انزالها بالقوة مشيرا اليهم بالتوقف ...



يذكر ان تامر اخذ شكلا جديدا في حب الجمهور له حيث اقدم شاب مؤخرا على السجود بجانبه واقدم اخر على تقبيل قدمه كما قيل عن حفل الاسكندرية، الامر الذي قوبل باستنكار شديد من بعض المتابعين.

More Gradation and Odds and Ends

Mornings around here are quiet and soft. I'm an early riser and I like to hit the ground running... It's the perfect time to get a lot of work done before the heat really cranks up and while my energy is at its highest. But yesterday morning I woke up feeling restless and unfocused. I couldn't settle in and decide what I wanted to do. I wandered from space to space- the studio, the sewing desk, the garage- and nothing leaped out at me. I was on a slow build to a cranky day.

And then I noticed the terrible, mangled living room curtains. For various reasons (I have cats- 'nuff said), these sad, limp little sheers, which I had loved when they were new, have seen their last fabulous day and have been in a slow decline for a while. Looking at them made me crankier... until I flashed on that three-yard expanse of white cotton in my stash, begging to be turned into curtains.

Suddenly, my energy spiked and I forgot about how grouchy I was all set to be.


So, another gradation, this one intended to match the decor of my living room. Now, understand- my walls in that room are yellow . That's right, yellow. Stop laughing, they look great! The accents in the room are in rich browns and reds. So it made sense for me to do a scarlet ~> lemon yellow fade.


The colors turned out even more vibrant and beautiful than in the last batch, but this run had some difficulties. The two darkest pieces somehow wound up with small spots of a dark dye on them- I suspect the green dye from earlier in the week. I'm not sure how that happened because I had totally cleaned out the dye area before starting this new batch (even the tarp had been laundered). Nonetheless, there they are, little irksome spots. I hope I figure out where they came from before it happens to another batch. It doesn't matter in practical terms for this batch- it's just curtains for the living room and those spots will be easy to conceal- but it would be good to understand what happened, for future reference.

When I get the curtains stitched and hung, I'll snap some shots and post them. It's going to be all ragged edges for these babies... no tidy seams, no cut edges. I'm going to "collage" curtains. Sounds like fun, yeah?

That's the good news. The bad news is that we're now officially in a drought situation. We haven't seen rain in months and our city has clamped down heavily on water violators. Even if they hadn't, my own conscience would not allow me to continue using as much water as I have been in these last couple of weeks. So no more immersion dyeing for me for a while- at least not until this drought breaks.

In the coming weeks I'll use all these wonderful fabrics to print and screen onto, for experimenting with discharge pastes and soy wax batik, and of course, to make art quilts.

Odds And Ends

- The International Quilt Festival/Houston catalog arrived yesterday. It will take me the whole weekend just to read through it all and decide which class(es) I want to take. There's a three-day class on dyeing and constructing art quilts with silk (a fabric that I must admit intimidates me somewhat) which has me drooling into my bra, so that could be the winner.

- The hummers have returned. It's a little early for them so this could just be a lone rogue but I put one of the feeders out, anyway, and will keep it maintained until they migrate back across this area in the late summer/early fall. Wish me luck snapping photos- they're quick little guys who fly like they're on rails. The odds are in my favor, though... by September we'll be knee-deep in hummingbirds.

- I started a new quilt with some of my hand-dyed fabrics. It's not large, maybe 22" x 26".

This is a down and dirty photo of it in its planning stages. I take these photos once I'm satisfied with a layout, so I can disassemble the piece and then reassemble it properly with fusing, stitch, spray mount, or usually a combination of all three. The photo quality doesn't matter at this point- it's just a visual map.



This piece consists of a hand-dyed background in green, fused to Timtex for stability. It incorporates more hand-dyed fabrics as well as a dyed paper towel. This is a detail of some of the stitching:



(P.S. I hate knotting threads at the back of the quilt. Yeah, I do it anyway, but you can't make me like it).

- I've written an article about revitalizing your creative muse and have submitted it, along with a few photos, to the magazine Cloth, Paper, Scissors in the hopes that they will want to publish it. If not, I'll post it here, instead. Wish me luck!

- I've also decided to enter into The Eye of the Quilter: Inspiration contest, sponsored by Quilts, Inc., the amazing folks behind the International Quilt Festivals. This is a photographic contest- you submit three of your best photos (they don't have to be quilt-related), the ones that you feel inspire you the most. I've only just begun taking photos but what the heck? I'll never know what it's like to try these things if I just sit and watch them pass me by!

Have an awesome week and happy creating!
- Judi

رسائل مسجات رمضان

رسائلة رمضانية .. كل عام وانتم بخير :

الله يزيد هالوجه المنور نور

ويعطيه من حلا الحور

ويبلغه رمضان وهو مسرور






اهديك عطر الورد والوانه

وارسل جواب انت عنوانه

واه*** بقدوم رمضان وايامه





لأحلى قمر..

عطر وزهر..

مع كرت.. يقول :

رمضان مبارك قبل كل البشر





عسى رمضانك مبارك..

وكل لحظاتك تبارك ..

وجنة الخلد داري ودارك ..

والنبي جاري وجارك ..






ابعث سلامي مع الطير..

واسبق الكل والغير ..

وأقول لك :

((كل رمضان وانت بخير))





قبل الشوربه والسنبوسه ..

* لك ألف بوسه *

وكل رمضان وانت بخير

قبل الحوسه





يا طيور الحب زوريهم ..

وعلى الخدود بوسيهم ..

وعلى قلبي وصيهم ..

وبقرب رمضان هنيهم ..





يهل الشهر يا غالي ..

وانا اه*** بقدومه ..

عساك يا طيب الغالي ..

بخير وصحه تصومه ..





باقة ازهار وورود ..

وسلة بخور ووعود ..

وكل عام وانت بخير ..

ورمضان عليك يعود ..





يسعدك ربي يا سيد الكل ..

وكل رمضان بالفرحه يطل ..

وتهنئه خاصه لك قبل الكل ..





أمانينا تسبق تهانينا

وفرحتنا تسبق ليالينا

ومبارك الشهر عليك وعلينا





يارب
يارحمان
يامنان

بلغ قاريء الرسالة رمضان

واجعلة يزهى
حسنأ وسط الجنان





بريحة العطر والمسك والعود

رمضان علينا وعليكم يعود

شهر الخير والكرم والجود

تهاني لكم من قلب ودود





بشعور ملؤه الحب

اجمل التهاني

بحلول شهر رمضان المبارك

كل عام وانت بخير





بنسيم الرحمه

وعبير المغفرة

وقبل الزحمة

اقول كل عام وانت بخير





اللهم بلغنا رمضان

واعنا على الصيام

والقيام وقراءة القرآن

انشره تؤجر





الله يتقبل صيامك وقيامك...

ومبارك عليك الشهر....

ويعود عليك بصحة وسعادة وعمر مديد ....إن شاء الله...





كل ساعة...

كل يوم...

كل اسبوع...

كل رمضان...

كل عام وأنت بألف خير.....





في قلبي حطيتك....

وبالتهاني خصيتك....

وعلى الناس أغليتك....

وبقرب دخول رمضان هنيتك....





أمانياً تسبق تهانياً

وفرحتنا تسبق ليالينا

و مبارك الشهر علينا وعليك





أنتظر هاليوم.......

تعرف ليه.....؟؟؟؟؟؟

لأني أبي أقولك.......

كل عام وأنت بألف خير يالغالي.....





قبل الزحمة.....

والرز واللحمة......

حبيت أقولك.......

كل عام وأنت بألف خير يالغالي.....





كلها أيام وليالي......

وأمنعك من الأكل يالغالي......



المرسل:
~~(رمــضــان)~~

§¤~¤§------------------§¤~¤§

Tiny Book of Art

People always ask me if I ever sell my originals...

I do occasionally,
but I'm mostly saving them for my boys.

They might be worth something
when they're old men ;)

Anyways...
I made this accordion book that holds 12 tiny originals
& it will be for sale at my Etsy shop
as soon as I'm finished with it.

I still have to make two tiny originals
to complete the collection of 12.
They were painted
on handmade Twinrocker paper
and measure 1.5 x 2 inches.