Ginko

I haven't blogged about any of the wall art I have made recently so I thought it was time to remedy that. The fiber art group I belong to in Lafayette (FibR) decided to do a series of 12" x 12" challenges similar in vein to the Twelve by Twelve International Art Quilt Challenge. We ran three different challenges with the following themes:

• rust and gold
• blue and purple (with Tyvek™)
• neutral with one color plus texture

Other than these restrictions, and the fact that the finished piece should be 12" x 12", we could do anything we wanted in any medium.

This is my piece for the rust and gold challenge.

I started with a piece of canvas that I had gessoed then painted, splattered and stamped with acrylic paints.  Then I cut up the painted canvas and pieced it with  rust-colored hand-dyed cotton and golden-colored silk fabrics.  I embellished the top with hand-dyed cheesecloth for added texture and used some Shiva sticks to add rubbings of ginko leaves.  The rubbings didn't show up as much as I wanted so I cut and appliqued metallic silk organza ginko leaves over the rubbings. 

I layered the quilt with batting and backing fabric and machine quilted it using various motifs.

Then I used Sulky Solvy™ to machine stitch a large yarn and thread ginko leaf and machine stitched it to the center of the quilt top.

I zigzagged chenille yarn to the edges of the quilt to finish it.

This piece was part of FibR's recent show at the Tippecanoe Arts Federation entitled "Botanica".  The show ran from May 13 to June 17 at the Wells Center in Lafayette, IN.  Ginko is now at Gallery 510 in Decatur, Illinois in their consignment shop where I have some of my art pieces.

Until next time, keep on creating in your little corner of the world!

©Polkadot Possum (Cindy Harwood)

Surviving??

Okay, so the last month or so has been - er - shall we say difficult? First I had the cold from H*** which lasted over a week and then morphed into something different but equally evil and returned for an encore about a week after my so-called recovery. So a few uneventful weeks go by and my son gets a cold which lasted for over a week. We are just now coming out of it even though he still sounds as if he is going to bring up a lung at any moment. At the same time, my daughter is obviously trying to fight something off because she has entered the "WHINY ZONE".

What is the "WHINY ZONE" you may ask? (You are probably not a parent if you are asking this - but that's okay.) This is the stage that Shelby gets into when she is either (a) getting sick, (b) fighting off the onslaught (except for the emotional effects) of a virus or (c) very, very tired.

I hate the "WHINY ZONE"! I detest it! I'd almost rather she just get sick and be done with it. I, as a general rule, don't like clingy children. (Doesn't mean I'm not loving but I just don't like clinginess.) I'm more the "be independent" type - and my kids are basically very independent. But I can totally handle the I-want-to-sit-inside-of-your-skin-instead-of-just-beside-you tendencies of a sick child. I understand. They feel lousy. They need comfort. No problem. But the "WHINY ZONE" is something else altogether. The melt-down potential is astronomical - not to mention totally unpredictable. For example:

Shelby: "Mommy, can I have more juice?"
Me: "Why don't you drink some water first?"
Shelby: collapses on the floor in a weepy mass (not the typical reaction)

Me: "Shelby, you need to pick up your toys before you go up to bed."
Shelby: "I can't!" collapses on the floor in a weepy mass

Shelby: "I want to help cook dinner, Mommy."
Me: "Maybe you can help next time. This is very hot and might splatter on you."
Shelby: collapses on the floor in a weepy mass

I think you get the general idea. ANYTHING could cause this over-the-top weepiness. ANYTHING! And you never know when it will hit you. One minute everything is fine and the next you're tripping over the sobbing, huddled mass of your child on the kitchen floor

Now, I should tell you that my kids are not normally like this. They are, in general, incredibly good, well-behaved kids. Sure, they are noisy and boisterous, they don't listen or follow instructions very well ('cause it's not on their agenda), they fight with each other and they haven't figured out when enough is enough. But they are not tantrum prone. They never have been. A "tantrum" in our house is a foot stomp or throwing a LEGO block down when we don't get our way. (I know, I am truly blessed.) So this extreme weepy and whiny behavior is really out of character - and it really grates on the nerves. I truly hope I survive it.

Now for more artful content, I thought I would show you two of my older quilts.

Calypso Twist

Entropy

Sorry for the poor quality of the images. They are scans of photos that I had.

Someone emailed and asked if my quilts had won any prizes. They have won quite a few. I entered a number of quilt shows and multi-media art shows before I was pregnant and won awards in both. Hopefully the kids are getting old enough that I can start spending more time in the studio again . . .