Christine from Redux Art & Antiques has already begun to hang some of the posters for the Creative Union Show at her gallery. Jon also passed a few out to some local businesses. I’m kinda shy about asking people to hang the posters, and since Jon is so good at it… I’ll probably let him do most of the work. I’ll do the driving.

I’ve begun working on the potholders for the show. Most will be limited addition potholders. See a preview of the unfinished “Horseman Potholders” on my Events and Appearances page. There are only 4 of the Horsemen Potholders, they are made from a small piece of Vintage 1970′s Colonial Revival fabric.

I’ll also have some cat and dog potholders and some non-animal potholders, using unique vintage fabrics. I’ll be posting them as I make them on my Events and Appearances page, so check it out and join us on July 24th in Dorset Vermont at the Redux Gallery.

Yesterday Jon came home from Saratoga with a fish tank, filter and 2 fish. He said he thought I would like the company in my studio. We set up the tank and I brought in some rocks and shells from my collection of rocks and shells, washed them off and set up a little home for them.

When I came back from collecting rocks I saw that one of the fish was stuck in the filter. Half of her was sucked up into the plastic tube. I pulled her out and she swam to the other side of the tank. When I saw her stuck I thought ” Oh, no! Sophie is stuck in the filter” I had no idea her name was Sophie until that moment.

We realized that a part of the filter was missing, a longer thiner part of the plastic tube. As a quick fix we placed the net over the tube so she couldn’t get sucked into it.

When I came back to the studio from lunch, there was Sophie again, this time she was stuck by her side to the bottom of the tube, the net preventing her from being sucked into it. I pulled her off and again she swam away. At this point I decided to turn the filter off when I wasn’t in the studio until we got a new filter. I thought of putting up some yellow caution tape, but I have a feeling Sophie isn’t that sophisticated.

The other fish, Iris, (how I chose her name is to personal a story to post) doesn’t seem to have a problem with the filter. She’s orange with black spots and looks pretty serious, but I have a feeling she has a great sense of humor.

Two bags, too tired to write more.

My first day back in the studio after coming home from my honeymoon (must be the June full moon) my iron died. I bought that iron years ago for $10 in Kmart. It lasted longer than I expected. About a year ago a spider drowned in it and I watched it’s body floating in the water inside the iron and was never able to figure out how to get it out. One day it was just gone.

It’s as if the death of the old iron marked the end of an era. A new life for me in a new marriage, marked by the death of an iron? Not very romantic, but practical.

Luckily I had another iron waiting under my desk for just such a day. I got the new iron about 6 months ago when I bought some fabric that had been cleaned out of the house of a quilter who had recently died. Her sewing machine and iron were also for sale . I bought the iron, again for $10, a much better buy , a serious iron. I’m so glad I did.

The interesting thing is that the person who cleaned out the quilters house was the husband of the Minister who married Jon and me. I didn’t know Mary (the minister) and met her for the first time when I went to her house to buy the fabric.

What does it all mean? I guess it’s about beginnings and endings. Letting go and moving on. Upgrading the iron.

A friend gave me the shirt I used to make the flap on the bag on the right. It was around the time the movie “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” came out. I loved the shirt because it reminded me of the scene in the movie when Vermeer shows “the girl” his paint pigments. I think I actually drooled when I saw the indigo. I also remember Vermeer’s indigo jacket. I searched for that color in yarn and fabric for months after. I wanted a jacket like Vermeer’s. The shirt was the closest I ever came to finding it. (my photo is a poor representation of the true color) It is linen and has shrunk with many washings and I loved using most of it in this bag. I’m glad it lives on.

I have pawed through my button basket so many times and yet, this time I found all these fabulous buttons I had never seen before. How could it be that before today I never noticed any of these. Maybe I’m seeing with new eyes, or looking for something different or maybe they weren’t there before.

Although I didn’t use any of these today, I couldn’t resist pulling the out and placing them together and looking at them. I thought about doing something with them, but in the end just took a picture and put them back in the basket.

At least now I know they are there, unless they really weren’t there before today and will be gone tomorrow. Maybe they’ll move on to someone else’s button basket or box or tin until they used again.

I’m going back to work in the studio on Monday to catch up on sparkybag, potholder and cellcase orders. I found that I couldn’t work the week before the wedding and chose not to work the week after. But on Monday (Sundays I work all day at my part-time job at the WWARC) I’ll start my day by blessing my studio. I’m not sure exactly what I’ll do yet, but I know I’ll open all the windows and doors to air it out. Maybe vacuum, set up a new alter, light a candle, read a poem, or flap my wings opening myself up to whatever may come.

Got married (a wonderful day! the best so far), went on a honeymoon (wish it lasted longer), started a new quilt (based on one I saw in a dream)

I left this orange poppy petal to dry and found in it a beautiful sunrise.

From “The Quilt Maker” by Angela Carter

” In patchwork, a neglected household art neglected, obviously, because my sex excelled at it – well, there you are; that’s the way it’s been, isn’t it? Not that I have anything against fine art, mind; nevertheless it took a hundred years for fine artists to catch up with the kind of brilliant abstraction that only ordinary housewife used to be able to put together in only a year, five years, ten years, without making a song and dance about it.”