My Office Assistant

Thomas in his summer coat, can't wait for winter to come so that he will be all fuzzy and adorable again.

Oxidizing Fabric

Three four yard plus pieces of fabric that have been sitting out all winter and spring in the garden area waiting for me to do something, anything, with them.

Can't wait to see what this piece looks like after the washing machine, am hoping for some serious deterioration!  After a run through the washer then it's off to the alum pot and then time for a dye bath, am planning on something using walnuts and cutch for these pieces.

Queen Anne's Forest No. 1 - Finished

I'll work on getting a better image tomorrow.

Detail shot.
Available in My Shop

More Studio Organization

John moved my thread boxes into my studio this evening and I spent the better part of the evening organizing the contents.  Tomorrow I will be moving the rest of my studio supplies in while the temps are still bearable in the house, and right now it's downright pleasant!!!

Boxes of beads.

WIP - Queen Anne's Forest

Queen Anne's Forest (lace) No. 1
4x6 inches
Painted Timtex, Machine Embroidery

I will be adding indigo dyed silk organza to this piece later this evening.

Swamp Milkweed

Swamp Milkweed or Asclepias incarnata

Queen Anne's Birds

Queen Anne's Birds.
8.5x11 inches.
Digitally Printed Cotton Fabric, Painted Timtex, Machine Embroidered/Stitched.
Finished matted and framed to 11x14 inches behind plexi for shipping!

I will be listing it in my store tomorrow after I've matted and framed the piece.

Bird Bath

I put a fat brick into my bird bath so that the smaller birds could have a place to stand and still get to the water.  The crows just stand on the board and lean over into the pan, but the smaller finches now use the brick as a perch for drinking from.

Bird on Wire

Trumpeter Swans

The trumpeter swans have moved from the marsh over to the USDA pond, which doesn't have near enough water.

Drought at the Marsh

This is the lowest I've ever seen the marsh before.

Umbrels

I have more umbrels on my other blog, where I accidently posted my creativity process posts!  I am working on digitizing some fabric for these pieces and for a much larger piece I will be creating for an upcoming call for entries.

Wild Turkey

Wild Turkey looks to be a hen, I really had to work to get this shot as she was a good 300 yards away, so if it's a male well my apologies!

Doe

A young White Tail Deer, somewhere in Story County, Iowa.

She was running like she was injured.

Yellow Coneflowers - Ratibida pinnata

Making Hamburger Patties

John making hamburger patties using our LEM hamburger press, I really prefer my mom's old three piece tupperware press but alas that was the one thing I didn't get after she passed.  Dad says he has no idea where it made off to as  he really liked it as well.

Waxed paper is a must or you'll never get your patty out of the hamburger press.  John makes 6x6 inch pieces of waxed paper, he says it also helps to keep them seperated when frozen, and he's right they are WAY easier to seperated.

Thirty one five ounce meat balls waiting to be pressed into patties! A ten pound tube of 85% yields about 32 patties more or less.

And this is what they look like before they are put into freezer bags.  If you wanted to keep them a very long time then I recommend vacuum sealed bags, instead of freezer bags, to prevent freezer burn.

WIP - Queen Anne's Birds now with more stitching.
It's now cool enough I can stand to be in my studio for more than five minutes to get some work done

Studio Assistant

My studio assistant, Angel.

WIP - Hands 070412

Now with machine stitching.

I will be adding more surface embellishment to the piece once the heat wave passes, right now it's just too hot to do much of anything.

Dog Gates

This

Keeps this...

Confined to the front porch!  She weighs 12 pounds and unlike most dogs she hasn't figured out that she can actually move the gate out of the way.  Tis ok we like her dumb that way, likewise she hasn't figured out that she can actually get onto one of the kitchen chairs and then onto the kitchen table.  Yes there IS a place in this world for clueless dogs!

The neighbors keep commenting on my gate, they like it which is good because Angel sure doesn't like it!  Actually it's NOT really a gate it's my fleece skirting table, that I built back in 1996 for sorting and skirting fleeces on, but I needed a gate for the front porch, so that Angel could go leashless but not have access to pedestrians, etc.

Make sure you put the zip ties every six inches or so so that  your pet doesn't get caught up and strangled in the netting, and make sure those zip ties are on there and really tight!  Also I used regular mesh netting NOT the wildlife netting which is much thinner and easier for a small dog to break through.  Finally I don't recommend this type of gate for agressive dogs or for large dogs.   This type of gate really works only for dogs that are totally clueless, like mine!!! VBG

WIP- Hoodoos

A new piece for my canyonlands series.

Madder lac on silk fabric, wool batting, cotton backing, machine stitched. 
Approximately 12'x14"

Hand Prints

Experimenting with hand prints.  Cutch dyed natural muslin cotton fabric. Machine Stitched.

Redneck Bird Bath

Or shabby chic bird bath either way it's WAY hot outside right now so don't forget to water our feathered and winged friends along with your plants!

Umbrels

Now with umbrels!  I'm still thinking about how I want to incorporate the indigo dyed silk organza net into this piece.

WIP - Queen Anne's Birds

Some detail shots of the stitching thus far.

Queen Anne's Birds!

Now with some stitching, I used a varigated thread in blues.

I have yet to decide if I want to include the indigo silk organza net layer.

Corn No. 51 - On it's Way

Corn. No. 51
Matted and Framed. Finished to 11x14x2 inches.

WIP - Untitled Corn

Experimenting with different thread colors and thicknesses.
4x6ish inches. Natural dyed cotton fabric.