Closure 101

I wonder if this is a 12 step type thing, this grief??   

The latest is sending mom's ashes off with my nieces this weekend.

Many of her  belongings went too, including what art she had saved.

I was telling one niece that mom had to have tossed out so much over the years.  First when they moved from the house in Berkeley, to the condo in Emeryville. That wasn't even their first move after college either. Just their longest stay of habitation. 

 

Did I think to be there as they packed? No. Dumb.

But would I have had the wisdom to save this or that? No. 

I could have wallpapered many rooms with the art from both of my parents.  But then it would have been left on those walls as I myself moved. Much of the work was simply sketches.  But it was theirs.

I have shed no tears. 

I had known for a long long time that mom would pass on to the beach with dad.  I have moments though, when I wish she was here to share with, or ask a question of.

One item I made sure the girls took with them was my brothers High School Diploma. How could he have done without it all these years?  1967.  I laughed, mine looked exactly the same in 1974...or was is '72?  It's put away somewhere.

Planets and Moon Faces

Stephanie was home again this weekend, so more tattooing was done.  I think you can figure out the planets, but the constellations are Aries and Cancer. For Megan and Dad-Lily, {who share the same bdate.}

The piece of lavender dyed batt now has a face!

Stitching and Family

 the part above looks totally different with the stitching...not sure I like it this way.

 I took 3 shots and didn't get a single full cloth shot. Damn.

 Now this one, above, I do like with the threads.

 I kinda felt I had to do this here, going around the holes....

 This lavender is cotton batt I dyed with the t-shirts.  I want to do a face on it.

 The moon shape was in the dye already....

3 of the 4

 Ashley wanted a family picture....Rhiley wasn't cooperating with mama, but she had no trouble with Aunty Steph....Sucks to be 2.

aunty and me...stephanie and rhiley

Small Cloths are Fun

This one is actually 2 pieces. {I am scanning as much of my work as I can now because it gives me a much better picture.  Now that I have a scanner.}

Anyway.  #1 is the Valori Wells print I have been snipping.  I liked the flower, but wasn't sure how to 'treat' it, until last night.  At the *'s you can see where I snipped and folded back the yellow to show the base fabrics behind. 

 #2 started out with scraps....that got lined up like a tree....then got fangs....and a yellow topknot.  #1 is not stitched at all yet, but you can see that #2 is basted. 

 I am doing the 'summer dye' of t-shirts and such. {Ben gets plain white T's for the girls, in multi-packs,  I dye them in fun colors}  I have also been tossing in some batt, string, fabric scraps, even a pair of shoes in the 'jeans blue' load.

Not sure if I showed you my black hole, on the larger cloth.  I also removed one of the 'drunkard path' scraps that I had above and to the right of the block hole.

Yards, Tatts and Babes

I forgot I had this picture of Ashley's front yard in progress.

 One of the latest tattoos Ben has done on a friend.

 and....well....my 2 youngest babes...

Rhiley, 22 months, holding Avery, 2 days. 5/24/2011

I Have Fun

Even though I had Rhiley all day yesterday, and her 22 months of energy, I managed to snip and sew this piece.  I folded the fabric sq. in 1/4's and just cut snowflake style, but straight lines.  Then folded them back to point out....what I don't know, but they are pointing it out.

5 inch square  5/24

 This is my bigger original piece that I started for this class [sunmoonstars with Jude Hill]. I used 3 strands of floss, 3 colors and backstitched around and around and around, go around again! [been reading go dog go]

painted batt sun

 This is a 'what if' below... cut out triangles and fold them back to form star rays.....

i found a moon in this piece, then i snipped out the points...

 Back side of the sun, which we see as we go around and around and around again.

the backside of the sun....hehehe

I added some flannel around [theres that word again again] the outside of this cloth because there wasn't a layer there and I missed it.  Stitching on one layer of fabric seamed so.....lonely.....

On the home front, Ashley and Danny signed the papers yesterday to make the house they built their House!  And then they moved into the house!!

That's why I had Rhiley.  I will have to go take pix of the house.

Snips

This sunmoonstars thing I [and others] am doing with Jude has got me going.  I decided to date each picture from now on to 'number' them. This one below is from a Valori Wells print I have had for a couple of years, but when I happened across it yesterday, it jumped into my hands and wouldn't let go.

front 5/22

So I snipped it here and there, following the print lines. A close-up version is last in line here.  Below is the back side.  These are scans hoping the stitching and such will show up better. The purple backing is just scraps for the moment, I may put this on a larger piece of the purple...or not....

back 5/22

front 5/21

These 2 shots are of the 5 inch sq. I snipped snowflake style and stitched to 3 different scraps I had handy.

back 5/21

close up of 5/22

My Newest Granddaughter

avery mckenna, may 22, 1:25 pm, 6 lbs 12 oz, 19 1/2 in long

So...after going to the hospital at 11:30 pm and then being given an ambient [sleep aid] and sent back home at 3 am...Ashley woke up at home late this morning in 'active labor'.  So off the the hospital...again....but this time she didn't get past the ER.  She was re-registering when she had a 'gotta push' contraction and her water broke so they zipped her into one of the ER rooms and 2 pushes later there was Avery! 

Ashley called me 20 minutes later.

I Missed It

she's here!  Avery arrived in a hurry in the ER.  I don't know any stats yet, they were still doing that when Ashley called.  But she has hair, Ashley was able to tell me that.  So I got my wish for the 22nd and it just so happens that Rhiley is now 22 months old today too. [Rhiley is Ashley and Danny's first child.]

Waiting....and Cutting

humph.....no baby yet.....they sent Ashley home because she wasn't progressing on her labor.  But that was at 2 am, she just called and said things have progressed....

In the meantime....I worked on this smaller 9-patch moon and stars.  I enjoyed it. But I still like the 'story' cloth I was working on.

 But then I was intrrupted to try this out.  Cut a piece of fabric like you would a snowflake.  That was fun!  

 But as you can see in this not very well photographed close-up that the small cuts I made were hard to stitch around.  So I will try again on a bigger cloth [this is a 5 incher] and make bigger and fewer cuts. 

Havin' My Baby...dododododoooooo

yeehaw.....looks like we might have this baby tonight...well after midnight....TTFN

My Mom's Art

prince  resting chin on trellis box

My niece will get this original, below, as she is another lover of Boxers.  Mom must have tossed out dozens of her drawings and such....but she didn't part with the boxer pix.  She really loved that dog, Prince, even though he was 'dumb as a stump', according to mom.

Prince

 speaking of stumps....below is one of moms starts. Not sure if those are exposed roots or ??

not finished

This one is signed with her maiden name, so it's from the early 1940's? I believe it's 'scratchboard'.

Kibbles and Moondance

My baby-day bag.  Packed and ready to go...hopefully the camera will get put back into the bag....

bag'o'tricks

 The hand work in the bag is this piece I started a couple of years ago...just random bits and bits.  It was once larger, until scissors made it smaller.

kibbles 'n' bits

 Christine gave me a piece of fish print for the Pine Lake Quilt and these were left over parts, so I used them here...the head, the body and tail, and the ruff.

here fishy fishy

 I guess I shouldn't take pix in the sun...will I ever learn?  Nope.  Anyway, this is moondance, or so I seem to be calling it.  This is the 9-patch I started in answer to my inner self.

moondance

 I basted the star shapes down then decided they needed more umph....so I stitched yarn all around and am couching it down...the middle right side is done.

couching yarn around the stars

 I found it easier to stitch the yarn onto the piece, vs. just laying it down and couching as I go. Kinda like the invisible baste vs pins everywhere, easy to handle.

behind moondance
This is the back, the silk scrap I am stitching it to.

Birthdays and Baby Prep

Mom's birthday today....she would be 90.  I am sure she and dad are livin' it up on their beach.  Happy Bday Mom!

Went to the doctor AGAIN yesterday, now the sinus infection is bronchitics.[the first doc visit I got a 4$ 'scrip that didn't do it]  But the doctor gave me samples of a super antibiotic and told me to call him if they didn't start working by the 3rd day....3 days!!  wow.  Happy to say they are working!

I even packed my bag to take to the hospital when Ashley has her baby....some needlework, some thread, a book and the camera!!

Playing With Goo

 Thought I would try a cornstarch/bleach solution for a discharge 'paste'....Weird Science is what I got.  Seen the Mythbusters where they walk on cornstarch?  Yup  Bleach-water does the same with the starch. The drawings are done with a crayon for a resist idea....the crayon went on great in straight lines, BTW.

pooling begins....then just STOPS

after washing out

humph

 The goo worked ok on the purple, just didn't do much to the others.  Not to mention my resist idea was BUSTED, as they say on Mythbusters.

So. Onward.

I was having fun with the first cloth with it's sun and drunkard paths, but I really wanted to go with the 9-patch idea, damn it, and not a 'storyboard'.

So on Saturday, with the girls here too, I pulled out some blue fabs, tore then up and pinned them to a piece of silk

the moon is a piece of felt to use as a pattern area to work around

 In the center square I put in a full moon.  After I basted everything down first.  I use Jude's invisible basting method, but I didn't go as heavy as she likes to do hers. I figured the visible stitching would take care of a lot of the 'becoming one cloth'....but it's really because I wanted to get onto the visible stuff!

The thimble is for Susan, in case she needs a more reliable ref for size, since my hand could be any ole size, right?

Oh and as far as sewing with a silk fabric base....yum...it makes the cotton fabrics more supple.

Interesting

seems all blogger posts from yesterday are gone. phitt. not just mine. check your own. damn. what did i post yesterday?

Starry Starry Skies....

So instead of the damn blog-o-versary widget staring me in the face, I dumped it. Gone. Phitt.

Susan...my foot is about this......big!

onto the fun stuff...i am taking a Jude Hill class to soothe my battered soul.....SunMoonStars.....thats what that bright ass yellow thing with my foot is for.

 my sun is taking the drunkard path because thats what one of the scraps is from. 

 I took the scissors to this drunk[up]....makes it kinda flowery, which is not what i want...this is not a flowery kind of thing....so now it looks rather space-capsule-landing sort of thing....hummmm

 this is the original drunk shape[up], with it's flowery cut shapes disguised by a circle and a sun ray.

 this batik fabric [above] reminds of a star nebula...

 the sun [up] is created from the batt i painted.  the painted batt behaves like felt, but i found it is not needle friendly unless you tear it up.

 this black 'cloud' shows a bit of the fluff [up]

 heres [up] the painted batt un-pulled. just like felt.

 another drunk [up]

i dug through some of  my silk scraps and found these starry looking pieces for the space behind the sun.