Search Results for: Three graces fabric painting

While I was waiting for my photo program to update this morning, I walked around my studio trying to decide what to do next.

I looked at the box that Carole sent me with fabric in.  Every once in awhile I agree to do a commission. Much of my decision depends on how I’m feeling about the commission when I’m asked.

And this is just intuition really. It has less to do with the person and what they want and more to do with a feeling.  There are just times when everything inside of me screams no and other times when it’s a yes.  

But it also has to do with the person asking and what they’re looking for.

When I agreed to make a quilt for Carole, she reminded me that the last time she asked I told her it wasn’t a good time for me.  But today a box of fabric that Carole has been collecting sits on my studio floor waiting to become a quilt.

I also thought about sewing together the Potholders that I started making last week and finished up yesterday. And as I looked at them wondering if that was indeed what they wanted to become, I lifted the old red and white quilt that was on my ironing board and spread it out on the floor.

I have the beginnings of an idea for another wall hanging.  Another full-length Goddess on an old quilt top backing.

When I unpinned the piece of fabric that Colleen sent me with The Three Graces on it, that’s been hanging on my studio wall and placed it on the red and white quilt, it didn’t work.

So I began looking through the stack of old quilts folded on top of my shelf.  It feels like when I’m doing this, I go to another place, a different state of mind. I stop thinking with my head and start feeling from the center of my body.  It’s like I’m connecting to the space around me. Boundaries are dropped, my gaze, as well as my body, becomes soft.

Without using words, I’m asking what it wants.

As soon as I put The Three Graces on top of the old quilt, I had the answer to my first question.  And because I don’t know what the piece will look like when it’s done I also opened up an unknown amount of more questions.

I cut off a section of the old quilt the size that seemed right with the colors that worked best.   This is the first step in a new fabric painting.

I did a little bit of everything in my studio today. I worked on masks, potholders, my Three Graces fabric painting and my  Corona Kimono.

I began by finishing up the Muscle Woman Potholder for Julz that I started yesterday.  Then I made another potholder for her using dancing woman fabric that I got in India, thinking she may not want to actually use the Muscle Woman Potholder as a potholder.  But she cooks all the time and is also the owner with her husband of the Vermont Spatzle Company, so I know she could use a potholder.

(I didn’t put yesterday’s post on Facebook because I want the potholder to be a surprise and Julz might see it there)

Then I made a couple of masks for Jon’s sister Jane.  Jane works at Wegman’s grocery store so she’s exposed to people all day long.

I wanted to make her a special mask with a little mojo in it. So I chose the mask fabric that I got in India, thinking about the gargoyles on Cathedrals that keep evil away.  I also picked a fabric with a leopard on it thinking of protection and the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet who is part lion (another big cat)  and a healer as well as a warrior.

I also made a mask for Sue Silverstein, the teacher, and friend who works at Bishop Maginn High School and works so well with Jon to let him know just what the kids from the school need.  When she said she could use a mask, I immediately knew that the butterfly fabric would be just right for her.

The little doilies were sent to me in a flat white box.  So many of them in varying sizes and designs.  I kept them in the box on my desk because they seemed so special to me.  Like I know I’ll be able to use them but have no idea how just yet.

Then there was the  Tupperware container of red dye that I kept after using it to dye the lace for my Three Graces fabric painting.  Every morning I’d move it from its place on top of the cat food container to the top of the washing machine and back again.  I knew I wanted to use it before I dropped it and it spilled all over the place giving the floor a permanent pink hue.

It wasn’t a stretch of the imagination to dye the doilies red.  They were practically begging me to do it.

So I finally did.

I still don’t know how I’ll use them.  But I’m one step closer to finding out.

I guess if my studio was bigger I could have worked with the mess around me.  But it just came down to not having enough space.  It took me all morning to fold and put away the fabric.  Then since I was in clean-up mode I recovered my work table with a new piece of canvas.

I had cut a hole in the old one months ago and it was getting bigger and bigger.  It was also stained from the crocheted lace I dyed red for my Three Graces fabric painting.

Then, of course, since I pulled the table away from the wall, I could clean behind it.  And I was able to rearrange things so I could get my new roll of batting, which was taking up precious floor space, under the table.

I didn’t get to use it much today, but I’m looking forward to working on my new table top tomorrow.

This morning seems so far away.  When I saw that it was foggy, I changed my morning routine and before doing anything else, I opened the gate that let the sheep and donkeys into the pasture.  Then went with Fate to the back pasture to see if I could get some pictures or a video to capture the feeling of the fog.

The videos didn’t work, but I got a couple of photos that I liked.

Back at the house, Jon told me he had already fed the cats. That was unusual, but then he showed me the pictures he got of the fog from the back yard.  I knew he wouldn’t have been able to resist the yowling of a hungry Minnie and Flo as he passed them on the back porch to take his photos.

Soft was the fog.  And that’s how I felt most of today as I hand-sewed the last piece of trim and the backing onto my Three Graces fabric painting.

I started that piece over a month ago when the seriousness of the coronavirus was just sinking in.  I finished it too late, it was already dark,  to get a good photo of it.   But I’ll write about this grounding and fecund piece tomorrow and put it up for sale.

The fog was mostly gone, the sun, bright and warm by the time I got back to the house this morning. The sky was cloudless for the rest of the day.  It’s been so cold and rainy lately, I couldn’t help thinking that the fog brought the sunshine.

I had my second video studio chat with my friend Emily today.   I told her about the masks I made for The Mansion and the about the work I’ve been doing on my Three Graces fabric painting.  I couldn’t hold it up to the computer to show her because I’m in the middle of sewing it together.

Emily showed me some of the small collages and cards she made this week, then showed me the coloring page she put up for sale on her website.

I immediately knew I wanted to share it.

It’s called “Home”(something we can all relate to these days), and you can buy it here on her website papercakescissor.com for $3, download it,  print it out on your computer and color it in.

I know she found it relaxing to create (as I experience with my drawings) and she thought people could get the same feeling from coloring it in.

I think it’s a great way to focus, something I’ve been working on doing in my studio and out of it.

Emily also has cards, small collages, artist’s books, hand-painted tea towels and purses for sale at papercakescrissors.com.  And she’s a baker too, so you’ll see some of her tasty creations when you visit her website.

There are so many distractions and only one way to focus.  Which is to focus.

I was distracted today, I wanted to make some Happy Potholders, but my mind kept getting in the way.

So instead I thought about the Three Graces that I’ve been trying to work into a fabric painting.  They grabbed my attention and I finally found myself thinking of nothing but what I was doing at the moment.

Above is what I came up with at the end of the day.

When I stepped back and looked at it, the shape reminded me of a bird and then I thought of one of those plague masks that the doctors used to fill with herbs during the plague.

But, I think,  it also has a feeling of ritual about it.

I’ll sew down what I have now, then see what comes next.