I’m not that great at drawing the human figure, but I guess I’m getting better. A while ago I bought some artists figurines (here, at Dick Blick). I posed the female into the positions I wanted for the naiads and sketched them. I then outlined the sketches with dark pen, taped them to a work surface, placed plastic over (acetate sheet), placed PFD (prepared for dyeing) white cloth over that and painted them, minus hair (which I’ll do with free-motion threadwork).

My first attempt, using Tsukinenko inks, was a bust. Somehow I can never get the blending I want with those inks, whether using the sticks or a brush. So I tried So Soft paints, from a kit put together by Bonnie McCaffery. They WORKED! The paints are very creamy and soft, leaving a fairly nice hand to the fabric afterwards–not stiff and board-like! I ended up appliquéing the figures to the quilt by hand, and it looks good! In the interest of keeping things sorta secret, I’ll only show you part of one of the ladies, appliquéd and with thread-lace-hair:

Eli loves his pug SO MUCH!

He is really pretty darn good about taking care of him, too. Recently, we were having a major rain, and Widgeon (the pug) really doesn’t like getting wet. So Paul decided to make a temporary rain coat for him out of grocery bags (that hairy mop in the lower left is Yeti’s tail….)

Here’s Eli delightedly showing Joshua Widgeon dressed for rain:

Later on, as we were having the first fire in the woodstove for the season, Widgeon decided to play cat and stretch out.

It got really hard to keep the eyes open,

and finally, impossible to stay awake a moment longer:

and just because he is SO CUTE!!!!!!!!:

A bit over a year ago, I was dumbfounded and elated when Larkin Van Horn invited me to participte in an art quilt show she is curating to be titled “It’s Good to be Green.” All quilts are to be 18×45 inches, and please, no Kermit the frogs, she said. Almost instantly I had an idea to do a quilt about the water spirits that inhabit the streams and lakes. My first thought was the ruselka from Russian mythology, but after doing a bit of research, learned they aren’t such nice creatures, so I amended that to Naiads.

The show will open in March (In Tillamook, Oregon, I think), and we’ve been asked not to share the finished products until after the show opens. Best of all, Larkin will be producing a CD catalog of the show so you can all go see it, even if just “virtually.” However, Larkin did say it would be OK to share pictures of in progress, so here you go. This first picture is of a very rough sketch for the overall piece (the left white paper—use medical exam table paper!), some sketches for the naiads, batting cut a bit larger than finished size in the center with an extra bit of batting on the left for the tree, and on the right, possible fabrics for the background:

It’s kind of interesting since I initially thought the entire quilt would be green…green ladies (remember the “green naked ladies” from my Tree Spirits 2 quilt?), green hair, green water, green sky. But after having made Windows of Hope for my Journal quilt this year, I felt the need to add color! I also decided not to crop out the sides of my design wall…I’m always curious bout other people’s studios, so thought this would be “honesty in blogging”…teeheee… lots of stuff gets stuck up there!

A while ago, artist and art quilter Thelma Smith surprised me with a box of manna from heaven, aka hand-dyed fabrics! I was so thrilled! This glorious piece had a perfect spot for the banks of the river (that’s the part that is missing), but before I cut it further, I wanted to take a photo. Isn’t this a glorious piece of cloth? Thanks Thelma!!!!!

I got the background together, fused to the batting; the stuff pinned to the lower right and left are sheers that will go on top of the water, which is made from the fabrics I worked on during the dye workshop with Carol Soderlund (check my blog entries for October 2007):

I’ll post about the naiad figures in my next entry on this piece….

Eli’s soccer season ended well, with a 3-game round robin up in Waterville on a warm and sunny late October Sunday. Here’s the happy team at the end of the three games…they won two of the matches.

Eli lost his good new school shoes, and we had incredible ice cream at John’s in Liberty on the ride home. Before that, Eli (number 17, in the middle) was his usual scrappy, go-for-it self on the field:

He had a couple of amazing saves as goalie during one game (securing a victory for his team!), and after the game Coach Gross gave all the boys medals for being great team players:

The team had a fun bowling party to celebrte the end of the season and thank their coaches. Eli helped Kienan’s littlest brother, Cam (in the green) with his first attempt to bowl:

Now Eli’s back to his regular schedule of karate, until wrestling starts in December, at which point he’ll split his time again. He’s doing really well in school, and reading way above grade level (types his proud mama!).

Oh my goodness! I downloaded pictures yesterday from my camera, and it has been TWO WEEKS! I don’t think I’ve ever gone that long without downloading since I got a digital camera years ago! Well, I guess I’ve been busy. I’ve been working on the manuscript for my book (still not done, of course… and every time I look at it, it seems as though there is more to do, not less….sigh). I’ve been working on a quilt for an invitational show called “It’s Good to be Green.” (If you read Gerrie Congdon’s blog, you’ll have heard her mention it, too….). There was Halloween, teaching quilting, and Joshua’s surgery, then Joshua’s 14th birthday. Egads! No wonder I’m tired. And oh yeah, the Coastal Quilters holiday bazaar!

I can’t share a lot of the “Green” quilt, but can share some so will do that tomorrow or in a few days I think. In the meantime, some updates on the family. As a teen, Joshua is too old for trick or treating, but he did go to town and have fun with shaving cream with friends:

Here’s Joshua getting ready to have all the hardware removed from his leg…

And a last shot of the hardware–we got the pieces (after they were sterilized) back in a bag, and I want to put it together and make Joshua a windchime or paperweight out of it LOL!

And here’s what was on the ceiling of the pre-op room—fun!

Then there was the birthday. He LOVES pumpkin pie, so guess what he always wants instead of cake! I started buying number candles for the boys (each has his own set), with 1 for the first (duh) and adding the zero when they hit 10. Now I just grab the appropriate numbers from the candle bag (they borrow their brother’s “1” for age 11)

Next post: Eli and the pug!