a visual aid

this picture was in our local paper this morning. it's a shot of the intracoastal.
essentially you are viewing it from the west, heading east...i put a yellow dot up in the left hand corner about an inch or so down from the top...which is where we live. and why, tho i never worried about flooding before....after katrina/rita, it has become an issue. the article is about a proposal to relocate the intracoastal further south, to both avoid the chance of flooding, and also to attempt to lessen the occurence of salt water intrusion this far north, which is one of the reasons for coastal (and not so coastal) erosion.
interesting proposition. the way governments move, IF it ever were to occur, i'm quite certain it would be far into the future.
fwiw.

post game

the postcard has been made and will be mailed tomorrow.

while we didn't win the game, it was hard to stay down for longer than a few minutes.

it's been wonderful (finally!!) to be a saints fan again, and it was a magical season.

so as much as i'd rather be receiving a postcard, rather than sending...it's been a good ride .

and while i was at it i made a few more postcards as well...

and the rest are available for purchase...

email me!

SOLD

GEAUX SAINTS

switching gears here.....

gettign ready to make some bears voodoo dolls ....from the pattern that was on the front page of the lagniappe (arts) section of the friday paper: ( ya gotta love it!)

and here's a photo of our son when he was @ 3 .....

in training to become a rabid, wild and crazy SAINTS fan....he's 21 now!

the atmosphere is ELECTRIC down here.

and to get you in the mood.....click here!

i had hoped to have my saints postcard made by now...

the one that sharon rexroad will never get, cus I am going to

win this bet.....

got sidetracked by the events of the last week....but will post it as soon as it's done... this is as far as i got: the background; will create a larger section of painted and printed canvas then cut up for cards..

I FOUND IT~~

the shower cartoon that we've been looking for every waking minute for the last 4-5 days.

i can breathe now.

it was right where it should have been , only buried under so much other stuff that we overlooked it the gajillion times we opened that closet door.

this is a cartoon he drew after my dear husband flooded our house manymany years ago (1983 to be exact...) a few weeks before they got married...in our home... why we thought we needed to repair the shower before the wedding is beyond rational explanation. obviously it started a family trend... check out nov. 7: art imitating life

and here it is.....

it was the best of times...it was the worst of times

dickens said it just perfectly.

very big sigh.

as a 40 year saints fan, it's the best of times... no words can convey the thrill of finally being able to ENJOY an entire season + of games.

as a 30 year friend, it's the worst of times.....as one of our best friends will be laid to rest tomorrow...

all i can say is heaven has got to be a happier place right now... one of our most shining lights has made his way to the pearly gates...and the image i have is of him up there telling stories like no one else could....

below is one of the cartoons he drew for us many years ago.

for some completely unfathomable reason, the best cartoon he ever did, one that we had framed, has gone missing. we have torn this house apart from top to bottom- more than once - looking for it. it was here a minute ago.

will put the best of times in another post.

calming pregame jitters

note the attire!

i figured it was ok to paint black while wearing my saints black and gold...just in case i got messy. it was probably the only thing that kept me from bouncing off the walls. i'll have to do a repeat performance for next week's game....

we had friends over to watch the game....including this idiot who showed up with an eagles jersey on. i covered his face to spare him.....he was actually a smart ass saints fan in disguise.

and to make this art related: here's the piece in progress: note the printed image beneath. it's a photograph i took last year that i've been wanting to play with. this is the first of many renditions i think.. it's about 30" wide and @ 70" long...some of it was cropped

many thanks

i'm grateful to have received a special award for my quilt "prayer flag" that is currently on exhibit in "Form not Function" at the Carnegie Center for Art and History, ( New Albany IN -- just across the river from Louisville KY.)
this is the announcement that kathy loomis made on quiltart last night.

"As many of you long-time quiltart readers know, I have a theory that I like to rant on, namely that I think the art quilt world is too nice, that we tend to avoid darker emotions and edgier subjects. I have speculated that one of the reasons this occurs is that we fear (rightly or wrongly) that dark quilts won't get juried into shows, or that they won't win prizes.Well, today I got to put my money where my mouth is.I served as a juror for Form, Not Function and today my job was to shut up and take notes while art quilter Penny Sisto judged the show. After she made her choices, I decided to donate an award for social and political commentary, and I plan to do this in future years as well. At least in this show, we are going to reward people who make quilts with an ax to grind.
I am thrilled to report that the winner of this award is our quiltart friend Claire Fenton. "

if you're in the area, visit the exhibit: it will be up through March 8. The opening party is Friday 1/12 from 6 to 8 pm at the Carnegie Center for Art and History, 201 E. Spring Street, New Albany IN -- just across the river from Louisville KY.

and if you do, please take px!

last night's insomniac moment

which was created from this original photograph :

i think this might need to become a fiber piece.....

one way i use thermofax screens

in working on this baby quilt, i wanted to carry the inner border fabric to the outside edge as a binding. i tried other fabrics but nothing else looked good. unfortunately i didn't have enough of the original fabric left:

so i searched around in my stash for a fabric that was close.....i wasn't concerned about duplicating it but rather bringing in similar qualities....the green, blue and black.....i found a batik that was fairly close, then got out 2 screens i've used often, some black ink, and blue paint and this is what i ended up with.

with those 2 screens i was able to add some black and blue into this batik that was primarily green and yellow.. since it's going to be binding, only a small bit will show, and the designs that were printed on are fairly irrelevant. i then tucked the printed piece under the quilt with an edge showing to see if i had achieved the look i was after....and i think i did!

now...back to the sewing machine to finish this and get it in the mail.....

weird weather

i was going thru some old photos last night, and came across the ones i took on our one and only white christmas down here...which happened 2 years ago. i did a little editing and ended up with this photo which i just love.....since this winter season seems to be one of weird extremes (ok....too spooky... as soon as i typed that another deluge began here!!) i thought this was a timely photograph to post! for those of you in the northeast who are winter-less, here's a little reminder....

persistence!

is what it's taken to get into my new "improved" blogger account this morning. is it just me? or do the words new and improved signal here comes trouble to you too? i seem to be on a technical downhill slide so far in 2007. first, i had trouble creating a coallge in picassa...finally got that done days after the first attempt. second, the new universal remote i got for my tv up here has ceased to work after 2 days. don't ask me why. third, i have ended up in log in hell everytime i've tried to update my blog. i am hoping that i am getting all of 2007's glitches out of the way in one fell swoop and the rest of the year will flow seamlessly.....(one can hope!)

so. i've already forgotten who's brilliant idea this was, but here is my 2006 collage. (postcards excluded...)

there is a definate theme there isn't there? rust, circles, hurricanes...with a bit of red creeping in...

and here is the first piece of 07: VERY different!!

the first baby quilt i've made in i can't remember when! my husband's niece had her first baby a couple of weeks ago and auntie claire decided it would be her job to introduce the little sweetie to color! we haven't met her yet as they live in st. louis, but hopefully we will before she starts school!

it had been so long since i made a traditional quilt, i wondered whether or not i'd even remember how! i had 9 patch blocks leftover from swaps i did in another lifetime, so had fun using those.... in fact it was so much fun i have taken out all my dad's shirts and pajamas i've had tucked away for the last 6 years since he died and it may be time to do that quilt....it feels sort of like *cleansing my palette* before embarking on a new year of art quilts.

i've thought about making goals/resolutions and about all i definatly know that i want to do is at least make Some work that is Big. (anything over 45" qualifies as big in my book). there are those that say the space you have to work in influences size. since i am blessed to have a huge studio, with an 8 foot square design wall i don't think i fit in that category. the simple fact is i just naturally tend to work smaller. after hearing WORK BIG for a week last summer at qsds, i have decided to make a whole hearted attempt to do just that.

we'll see!

hope we all have a wonderfully productive and succesful 2007~!