smell spheric palo

"If you ask me what I came to do in this world, I, an artist, will answer you: I am here to live out loud."

Emile Zola

A warning about Spoonflower!

When you  receive any fabric you order, PLEASE test it before you use it!  Then send it through the wash too.  I ASSUMED it was wash fast, silly me.

Yesterday I finished up the last side of binding on the baby quilt and as I was sewing I noticed a tiny spot of what was probably lipstick from holding the thread in my mouth.  I took it to the laundry room and hit it with some Tide pens I have and the spot disappeared quickly.  I know I need to rinse out the Tide stuff, especially because it's for a baby, so carefully wiped away over the wet spot on the white background.  Suddenly that line of stitching became damp and the whole line wicked dark blue!  Then the blue started running along the edge and iI swear it grew like mold in a damp room.

The fabric in question was this:

Dull picture, it's actually very saturated bright blues and greens.

It's fabric I had printed at Spoonflower back when it first started up, and I loved the way it looks, dark intense blues.  Little did I know it wasn't fixed!  AT ALL.

Here is the original fabric next to the faded block

 Yup, that dirty yellow and gray is what it faded to.  Because the quilt was essentially ruined and I didnt have anything to lose, I threw it in the washer with a couple o color catcher sheets and let it go.  When I pulled it out there were blue splotches on the white background so I hit those with some bleach and sent it through again.  Most of those came out if you don't look too closely.  Here is the finished, washed and dried and puckered up quilt. Near the centers of both sides is the 'yellow' fabric that was supposed to be brilliant blues.  The block next to it that shows pea green WAS some cyanotype prints I made that didn't run, just bleached out from a similar intense blue-  the package said it was color fast..  Baby Snooks is going to get this anyway because every mom needs a strictly utilitarian blankie to change a kid on or take to the beach or leave in the car.  This is it.  And I seem to have just plain lost my mojo in baby quilt making.  With apologies to my new grand baby.  Today I am going to the store to buy him something pretty and non controversial.

wahhhhhh

 These are the gladiola I bought Friday-  looks like my finger was across the lens for all these photos, sorry.  The flowers are quite spectacular and I spent $4.99 on this huge bunch.  My grandfather used to have gladiola fields behind his house in Berthod Colorado and I remember seeing them there for the first time on a visit.  I remember the flowers and playing trucks in a drainage ditch with a kid my age named Sparky. I was hauled out of the ditch unceremoniously by my mother and Sparky was sent a' packin'.  I was all of about 5 but I can remember how upset I was to be hauled off and how mad my mother was.  I still don't know why, and before she died I asked her but she didn't remember the incident OR Sparky.  OK, there are two stories for the day

Sparky?  You out there?  Did you grow up playing trucks in ditches in CO in the late '40's, early '50's?  Call me.  

Colombian artist Miler Lagos      creates beautiful tree trunk forms composed entirely of sheets of newspaper, densely stacked together and sanded at the edges. The exposed cross section of each tree trunk reveals fragments of photographs and half-legible headlines from a Colombian daily called "El Tiempo". Gallery educator and freelance curator Ben Street explains, "What the thin lines of text most strikingly evoke, though, are the rings within tree trunks - which, of course, point to its age. Time, here, is measured not in organic growth, but in the reception of information. Set against the impassivity and quiet nobility of natural forms, this is a quiet critique of a contemporary world drowning in unprocessed information; little wonder there’s a sadness in these idling forms, scattered in our path." - See more HERE 

Yesterday's Banksy Offering

New York City based artist Klaus Enrique constructs portraits based on painter Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s 400 year old work that features human figures with features represented by images of plant, fruit, or other organic elements. Enrique was inspired to create these portraits while photographing a human eye peeking out of leaves. He thought he could use leaves to construct facial features or masks. After some research, Enrique discovered Arcimboldo’s paintings and decided to recreate the images. This project has also inspired him to recreate other portraits, like those of Darth Vader, Gandhi, and The Terminator.

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No squirrels today, sorry.  I'm tapped out, racing around trying to get ready to leave here, get things packed, prepare house, dogs for the next 2 weeks, canceling appointments, etc. Today has a first-thing service appointment for the car and after an hour of knitting they sent me away in a loaner so I have to go back later.   Posts may be short for awhile but please stick around, I am aiming at 2000 posts before I quit and wander off into the mist.  Gotta run-  today is last day before the Arty Bra Auction and I want to see them hanging!   Hope I can take a picture without my finger involved.