Friday, October 16, 2009

Chaos as a Zeitgeist

A basic Black and White post:
Oh I know you are bored to death with this, but I finished another project yesterday. My fairly ugly sink is now a Sinkerella. Yup, I actually found my machine and set it up and did some quick repairs to a few things as well as an real sewing job here. Plus the learning curve of this machine I dislike so much! My synchronicity part was that I already had the velcro, the thread, the glue, and the fabric! Basically a free project. Also note I hung my sign, still haven't found the other one which is rolled up in a batch of quilts I think.

Long ago and far away I found a hideous bunch of smelly aged bear paw blocks. Some were brown and some were black.
Remember these ar only the leftovers from two quilts! There were many many blocks.
(iPhone photo, very fuzzie. I must shake like a hoochie dancer.)
I kept them in a shelf for years and years and didn't know how to use them without putting them together, plunk plunk plunk. Finally I was able to separate out the black bear paws from the brown bear paws and still had enough for two full quilts. And then a hunk of fabric presented itself that made me absolutely need to make Bar Paw Quilts. I made two full big pieces and still had plenty left over so I started collaging some of the cut up blocks (I had removed the white squares) to a piece of canvas I had previously stenciled. Added a few map triangles and then I went on a hunt for actual bears- pictures that is. It took me quite a while to find enough, I hunted through old slides from my childbood trips to the zoo (talk about faded!), a few off the internet where I could find the photographer and get permissions, and also some from a Very Olde Book. These were printed out on fabric and stuck into the centers. Well let me tell you, even though this puppy has rarely seen the light of day, my old printer inks had changed drastically. Any greens were changed to flourescent chartreuse, and the out of focus photos were now pale gray. Who ever heard of a pale gray bear? So, I cut it up. Here. I am now in the process of removing all the bear paws from the cut off sections and will dangle them from the edge points like big old bear footprints outside a cabin full of food. Whatcha think? Oh. Nevermind. I'll post the next photo later whether you care or not.

But the POINT, and there is one, is that I am DOING SOMETHING, maybe not serious something, besides moving furniture. And that is a celebration in itself.

In other news, last night I ended up in a local cigar bar- there are lots of them down here and it explains the way I smell today- where they had a big galoot of a guy who was a magician and card shark. He was fabulous! Tell me how this is done: He has a phone book from Jupiter and hands it to TY and tells him to find a page he likes. TY sits down and the phone book is open on a table to his page choice. Mike then picks up a sealed manila envelope and gives it to a guy at the bar. Then he calls me up to the phonebook and has me run my finger down any column I want slowly until another person in the audience calls out 'STOP!'. Mike the Magician then marks that phone number in the book with a paper clip so we can find it again and he asks me to read it loudly so everyone can hear. Then he tells the guy with the envelope (still sealed and lying on the bar where we all could see it) to open it. The phone number I had pointed at was written in large letters on a piece of paper inside the envelope across the room! SO- we were so impressed with that and other tricks that we are going to hire him for my Open Studio party coming up. That and the promise of a few beers should bring all my pals out to see what I'm up to! I'm getting excited.

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