Today

I didn't get the freezer addressed but that's ok John has Friday off from work, a four day weekend together he plans to take the new photos of the iceberg to the dealer to see about getting it fixed properly. It's still under warranty so why fight the thing, and I suspect because he's a guy that he'll be able to get the job done right this time.

I spent most of the day updating blogs and have applied for AdSense with Google, could be interesting. The rest of the evening was spent cleaning the kitchen, pulling out the fridge and vacuuming behind it, something that should be done at least once a decade right???

We did decide on putting hte maple flooring in the kitchen, will have to take a picture of the bare plywood, and I'll paint it whence it's in. I've plans to paint the floor in a black and white pattern. the walls will be painted Medici White ~ Sherwin Williams Paint, and the cabinets lettuce green, an nice soft green color ~ Dutch Boy Paint, and the ceiling Friendly Yellow ~ Sherwin Williams.

And since I didn't spend any time in the garden today here's a picture of last years marigolds, which turned out quite pretty.

Peacock Feather

Today's Inspiration!

Silk Cloth 3

This is my cochineal sack cloth, silk chiffon, I filled it with cochineal bugs and used it repeatedly to create red dyebaths over the span of two months. This is how the fabric looks untied.

Garden Day 2

Dh whose rather bothered by my need to snap his photo, he was stretching chicken wire onto little posts to, hopefully, keep the rabbits and stray dogs out of my garden.

Bell Peppers in front of the cattle panels, there will be pole beans growing on the panels and hopefully soon! The area right in front of the peppers I plan to fill with rhutabegas (sp?), beets, and turnips.

Some tomatoes, I've put coffee cans around them to protect them from the high winds we get during the spring and from birds, which love snapping off the young plants. To the left of the tomato cages are cattle panels on end I've planted pole beans, Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake, around the perimeter of the garden.

Mystery Bundle

It's in the washer now who knows what it'll look like when it's done! The fabric is silk chiffon.

Wild Flowers

I've been spending a lot of time in the woods of late, getting inspiration, photo journaling the native plants throughout the seasons. When I'm not in the woods I've been in my garden, it's starting to warm up here and we are in the throes of creating a new compost pile - just in time for dye season!

You can see what I've been up to at my nature blog Thistle Quill, and over at my home blog Survival Kitchen and of course some artwork pieces on my art blog

Wood Anemone and Blue Violets

Freezer Issues

I've had the upright plugged in for about six weeks now, and it needs defrosting already. The repairman has informed me that it does NOT need a new seal it's my issue! I've plans for a meeting with his employer tomorrow! It's bad enough my 50 year old freezer died and took a quarter beef with it but dealing with this three year old freezer is just insane!

Cherry Tree in Bloom

Beans Beans and More Beans

I'm off to set up my panels and plant pole beans, more pictures later!

Some Plants

Baby purple cabbage plants - hey I'm a childless wonder so every plant is officially a baby!

Jerusalem Artichokes coming up everywhere, very yummy to eat btw.

Leeks they winter over here really well.

Garlic that is in desperate need of thinning.

Garden Scenes

A view from my porch my two gardens are pretty well shaded making a lot of vegetables a real challenge to grow.

Garlic, leeks, onions, summer herbs, tomatoes and purple cabbages in the east garden.

Mullien, Phlox, Blue Vervain, Plantain, Bee Balm and Echnicia

Creeping thyme, bloodroot, solomon's seal, false solomon's seal, and some other plant that have no idea what it is and can't seem to get rid of!

I'm trying to make the most of my law, here is my butterfly garden that also doubles as a native prairie plant and medicinal garden.

Garden Space

Dh got the new garden space tilled up today, I'll take pictures tomorrow. He also planted the new asparagus roots, which the chipmunks, hopefully, won't eat! Tomorrow it's Hosta and Iris transplanting, composting the new garden and maybe even get the rest of the tomato plants in, and here's praying it doesn't freeze again till this fall.

We set out a bunch of blackberry bushes on the curb - posted to freecycle - and they've found a new home already. Seems the blackberries produce more vines than berries so hopefully the new owners can get some berries out of them.

Moss WIP

Moss In Progress

This piece is going to take forever and a day to complete, well in order for me to be happy with it it'll take some time. I love hand stitching but it can be quite time consuming! With each layer I add I realize I need to add more layers for the effect I'm wanting, that's my inspiration photo to the left of the felted project.

Weathered Cloth

Here it is after washing, now I have to figure out what I'm going to do with this piece, might do some auditioning tonight.

It didn't develope holes which is a real bummer as I thought it might there are some very "thin" areas where it had been folded.

Weathered Cloth.

The small piece is a piece of white searsucker fabric that I found out in the garden, it had been out there for two years.

Admittedly I'm finding the weathered clothes pins I used for creating the fabrics bound resist to be a lot more interesting than the cloth itself. Said cloth is currently going through the washer and we'll see how weathered it is in an hour or less. I'm thinking of puttng it through an indigo vat as well.

Rain Rain Go Away!

Dh and I went out morel hunting this morning and found a couple pounds, and I discovered that my waterproof leather boots are not so waterproof anymore. They are five years old and I'm sure the coating has more than dried off by now. Since the boots are still rather new I'll be working on waterproofing them once again.

New Wool and Silk Batts

I posted some new batts to my etsy.com store tonight, here's a group photo that turned out quite nice. I didn't get far I have morels on the brain again!!! I have a lot of blues, reds, and yellows with green, not sure why they didn't get photographed tonight - but there is always tomorrow!

I hand dyed the fibers myself, the batts are a blend of merino, lincoln locks, some romney, silk bombyx, and angelina fibers. These will be wonderful for spinning or needle felting.

I have an progress felted piece called Moss on my art blog, I needlefelted it with the Janome Expression and am now hand stitching the surface.

Moss in progress

I couched some hand dyed jute down with my sewing machine using a zig zag stitch. Now to add some bullion and french knots, beads, and more to the surface. This is going to be a LOT of stitching and work what was I thinking!

Before

Comparison

Upside down but it definately has appeal in this orientation as well! The piece tells a different story when oriented in what I consider the upside down position.

Right side up, bottom needs more quilting, looks like an abstract of a barn with the sun setting behind it, which is what I had intended. Now I'm not so sure ;-) Moral of the story be careful when hanging your artwork so as to not give yourself more to think about.

Passion

Well I think I might be getting my groove back, after being royally screwed over this spring! I've been spending a lot of time out in the woods, mostly identifying native prairie plants, getting new ideas for cloth, artwork, etc. When I'm not in the woods I'm in my garden pulling weeds or trying to get the plants into the ground. You can see what I've been up to at my nature blog Thistle Quill.

Tomorrow, if the wind isn't blowing I'll be cleaning fleeces of burrs and other vegetable matter and preparing them for washing. I may even start some fabric to rusting and composting. It's that time of year again to start thinking about dye pots, solar dyeing, and the like. Summer does has it's usefulness after all, I think it goes without saying I'm a winter person.

Tis the Season

Picked 20 morels this morning, good haul after last nights gully washer - one tornado that went north of town a piece yet. Most places got two or more inches of rain last night, we got 1.6 inches in less than an hour. Heard tales while morel picking of some places getting five inches, tis a lot of rain. Too many people walking around in the woods, the place is getting to be really trampled.

Horizon Scarves

Compost and rust dyed (natural dye processes) silk crepe de chine.

Well I was going to sell these scarves and decided it needed to be turned into artwork instead.

The bottom scarf reminds me of a photo my mother took of the lake a long time ago, the water was so still you couldn't tell the lake from the sky.

FFAC Collage Mania

The Fiber Art for a Cause Collage Mania Sale begins today! Virginia Spiegel is raising money for the American Cancer Society, and there are many many artists participating in this wonderful cause!

And remember I will be donating one third of the sale of any artwork sold on my Etsy.com store now through the end of May!

Spring has Sprung!

The magnolias are in bloom here, a sure sign that summer is definately on it's way, finally!

FFAC Collage Mania

Ghost Tree No. 6

Ghost Tree No. 5

Ghost Tree No. 4

Ghost Tree No. 3

Ghost Tree No. 2

Ghost Tree No. 1

The Fiber Art for a Cause Collage Mania Sale begins today! Virginia Spiegel is raising money for the American Cancer Society, and there are many many artists participating in this wonderful cause!

Collage Mania

Ghost Tree No. 6

Ghost Tree No. 5

Ghost Tree No. 4

Ghost Tree No. 3

Ghost Tree No. 2

Ghost Tree No. 1 by me the artist Kimberly Baxter Packwood. These collage pieces are available through FFAC Collage Mania all proceeds go to the American Cancer Society

FFAC Collage Mania

The Fiber Art for a Cause Collage Mania Sale begins today! Virginia Spiegel is raising money for the American Cancer Society, and there are many many artists participating in this wonderful cause!

What do I blog about?

Angel, standing still long enough for a picture! I think she was wanting to know what I was doing to Thomas, which was taking his picture.

Well me I blog about everything of course and here is one prime example, the loves of my pet life! Here's a shot of Thomas I woke him up last night when I turned on the bedroom light he has that sweet dopey "what did you want" look on his face.

Fiber Art for a Cause

The auction for Fiber Art for a Cause is coming up! You can see the six collages I made here:
http://www.virginiaspiegel.com/CollageMania0816.html

And if you were interested in owning a piece of my artwork I am donating 1/3 of the Sale to Virginia's FAFC, that's 1/3 of the sale, as she's trying to reach a goal of 30K for this year! Available artwork can be viewed over at my etsy.com store or click this link here:
http://www.kbaxterpackwood.etsy.com I will be adding more collage pieces throughout the week so check back regularly.

Writing this reminds me that I really need to get my art website back up again!

Brainstorming!!!

Well yesterday wasn't exactly the best day for me intellectually and artistically speaking! I'm blaming it on the weather that's my story and I"m sticking with it! It does help from time to time to brainstorm with others and get some feedback on a piece which many people gave me both online by posting a comment or by emailing me directly.

Feel free to post a comment still I have yet to make a decision but now have some serious thinkig to do about these pieces. The caramel colored piece I'm thinking of adding fabric paint to, I know it looks orange on a lot of monitors but it reality it's caramel colored. So it should be interesting what comes out of the studio today.