arbiter commune pollux

Of life's two chief prizes, beauty and truth, I found the first in a loving heart and the second in a laborer's hand. Khalil Gibran

Slowing Down?  What did you expect at my age?  OK, so I missed a day but I did manage to get to the studio finally.  I started doing some stitches across the Twins quilt-  the good thing is that they are nearly invisible.  The bad thing is that they are nearly invisible!  I'm using perle cotton and matching the background and taking big stitches and the damn things are just melting into the chaotic mess that's the quilt background-  certainly not what I'd expected, but joyously meaning that I won't have to do as much.  Anyway I'll continue along knowing it's at least 'attached through three layers'.  And if I do a couple of lines through it every day, I'll be finished by the change of the year...  If I three of four lines maybe I can make Thanksgiving.  I also did some moving furniture around thinking I need to get my sewing machine hooked into a regular wall outlet because in one of my 3 AM dreams I figured out that it doesn't like the 50' extention cord hookup. Of course in the light of day I laughed at this theory but the table is on wheels, so I tried it.  I turned it on and left it for a couple of hours and the computer didnt' revert to blank all that time, but I didn't have time to actually sew anything.  And here we are with the weekend again when I try not to go to the vacant industrial park!  Rats.  

TY is on the early flight back to Boston on Monday so I'll drop him off at 5:30 AM, grab an egg and bacon at my favorite truck stop diner on the way back, and head on over to the studio early.  Not many crimes happen at 6:30 in the morning, do they?  But you know by now that Sandy makes PLANS and God laughs, right?  

One of the 'things' I got for my birthday was an iPhone photo of a snapshot from my SIL. Its was taken in 1986, before I even had a computer I think because it wasn't taken AT a computer where I spent all my time after I got one!  Here we are, and no I absolutely did NOT recognize either one of us!

Now we have chins.

Here's our wedding:

it was lovely.

Right out of the gate, here's the sixth installment of

9 Ways to Boost Your Artistic Creativity

6. Quit (or modify) art projects that are boring

Look for the kernel of excitement that provoked you to begin the project, and re-work it into something new. Find the smallest speck of interest or quality in what you have created, and start another piece of art with those aspects instead.

If that doesn’t work, it may be freeing to just throw the piece away. If you can do this, you know you are learning to curate your work and to release attachments to things that are holding you back.

BUT, now to get on with some arty things I've found~  clothing for the artist!

If the artist is independently wealthy.

Here is a shirt by Le Bouton  (see French-Inspired Fashion from Freedom, Maine); Lisa Dorr's relaxed linen and cotton pieces have an artistic appeal.

Handmade in San Francisco, the Japanese Cotton Twill Work Smock is $360 at Mill Mercantile.

UK designer Margaret Howell's Artist's Smock (quick, you can get one too if you act fast; it's on sale at La Garconne for $106.40; down from $152.)

Yup, a rabbit 

Yup, (maybe) twins 

Yup, a squirrel 

 Maggy Rozycki Hiltner is a textile artist operating out of Red Lodge, Montana. She takes pieces of found textiles and stitches vignettes onto them.  “Fabric and stitching are familiar to most people: a comfortable and innocuous medium. We all have the experience of childhood in common, with its daily doses of beauty, anxiety, joy and pain. Common childhood events span socioeconomic class, race and gender differences. With these images I am trying to evoke recognition in others of the amazing oddness and commonalities of our individual and connected lives. I like the narratives to be ambiguous and interpretable."     Her earlier works combined the textiles with a classic style of illustration that created bizarre moments, all with a playful sense of humour.The works display great technique with a clever and effective blend of applique and embroidery.

With thanks again to Mr.Xstitch

A squirrel NECKLACE-  be still my heart.  This was for sale on FAB but sold out by the time I found it.  Drat the luck.