Day 232. Binded to Binding

Day 231.

In homage to Yoko Ono, I'm presenting you an artistic performance.
My instructions are as follows:

1. Disregard all the rules you have outlined for yourself today.
2. Be free.

Spring, 2011

Day 230.

This is me if I was a ghost, haunting my favorite place

Day 229.

I don't know what came over me...I was having a great time watching Dirty Dancing with my hubby (who had NEVER seen it)  I was overzealous with enthusiasm remembering the little girl I used to be who lived to dance and ran out of the theater striking pirouettes and glided over to the jeep wagoner on cloud nine.  The little girl who listened to the soundtrack on repeat until she had memorized every word to every song.  How much fun is that?  I was elated, on cloud nine once again.  Then I shimmy over to my computer and sit down ready to make some kind of artwork to express the fullness of my heart-my cup spilling over.  I turn on one of my ALL time favorite bands, Dr. Dog and get into a groove.  Then I don't know why, but this stuff pops out.  So weird, I am So Weird!

If you stare at this photo, does it make your eyes hurt as if you were staring at the sun?  Is faux sun as damaging as the real sun

Still working on this still life.  I kind of like the one on the left, but then again maybe I can make the one on the right work out a little better? Hmmm....

Day 228. A Real Lazy Lump

Earlier today I was a motivated, energized human being capable of all kind of increadible feats.  I made a list a mile wide of the things I was going to do when I got home from work.  Laundry, bills, dinner, art projects, quilting, taking a walk, ecetera.  And then I don't know what happened.  Somewhere along the day my energy was squeezed out until I was lacking most of the energy I had cultivated.  I was in it's raw-ist form, a quintessential, undeniable, very large and unmovable lazy lump.  In fact, it was a downright miracle that I managed to get in a walk at all, but as soon as I got home from my short walk, my butt hit the couch and it was all she wrote, my future cried out loudly, lazy lump.  I also did manage to get up and make dinner, but that's not saying much since without food I would have surely died of hunger and well let's be honest, when have you ever seen a lazy lump wither and die of hunger? Nope doesn't happen.  Instead they nibble and inhale and snack on whatever food is within grasp and grow and grow into LARGE lazy lumps.  They sometimes get so big, they refer to themselves as "Beached Wales" so of course I had enough energy to make dinner. Duh!
Anyway, here's a picture of myself as a lazy lump.

Day 227. The unraveling knot

Tonight I finished tying a quilt for charity.  Turns out though when I cut the string ends down in size the knots came out..BOO! So guess I'll have to start from scratch on that one.  Maybe I'll do some internet research for a better way to tie the knots...

Day 226. Finished mini-vacation and mini-video

Day 225. More with the video

Due to some internet issues, I was unable to upload this yesterday, but I'm back home now, so upload complete!

Day 224. Addition to video photo album

I've been having some uploading issues with the internet here in Michigan.  I've started a video yesterday and added to it today.  But I'm having troubles uploading the video to show you.  Tomorrow I'm going to try some extreme Internet measures and try to rectify the situation.  If those measures work and you're seeing these posts from the last days with video, then you know it worked...If not...well, I can always upload the daily exports when I get home.

Day 223. Trip to Michigan = Travel Art Project

Tonight we left after work on a train to Michigan.  I love train travel, there's no driving to do, it's comfortable, relatively cheap, and lots to see out the window.  I had fun with our new flip video camera. It's the first time in a long time that I really picked up a video camera.  Then I was poking around on imovie and saw these cheesy intro projects and thought it looked like a photo album.  I was reminded of how people used to take photos of their vacations and put the pictures in photo albums and then pull them out for friends to see.  It made me think that I could make one too.  I'm not going to take video of all the touristy sites, but of what I love about tripping to Michigan.  Since my eyes are usually drifting over to nature and the abstract, my photo album might not be so typical, but it may be pretty, like this lolling image of watching the tracks go past.

Day 222.

Today I began finishing one of the charity blankets that was started at the Quilting Bee.  The person who started this quilt (not me) made a beautifully bright top piece with bold colors.  Tonight I looked around for a back fabric that was all one piece but couldn't find anything that would quite fit.  So instead I found a large yellow piece that seemed to match the top piece and a strip that also matched and sewed them together.  Then I cut the batting to size, pinned them together and am about to start tying them together with colorful embroidery thread. Here are some pictures of the back and top piece.

Day 221. Finished 2nd Quilt for Charity

Yesterday I started the binding, tonight I finished it.  I'm going to cut those tying strings a little bit shorter and then will call it done!

Day 220.

Today I hand stitched 1/2 the binding of a quilt for charity.  Too tired to take a picture though.

Day 219. Took a break from quilting to work on this

What a nice relaxing Sunday. Got a letter writen, made breakfast AND lunch, worked on some art, read some of my awesome book Art and Soul, and found time to veg out in front of the old boob tube!  There's still the night ahead of me - time to do some much needed chores.
I'm making some process on this still life but it's slow going, haven't hit my big breakthrough yet..

Day 218. Quilting Bee for Charity

Lindsay's Batman and Dinosaur Quilt

Pam, Lindsay and Cheryl

Rebecca

Stacey and Elizabeth

Sarah and Henry

Cheryl

Andrea

Well the Quilting Bee for Charity went off without a hitch! It was a great success, we have 11 quilts in process, most of which are close to being finished and 1 completed.  There was a bunch of fabric and batting donated for future quilts.  Thanks to all the ladies who came by and helped those beginners out and thanks to all who made quilts. It doesn't seem like a lot of people were there by my photos but in the most attended moments, there were about 30 people all working together.  Thanks also to The OpShop who graciously housed our little bee.  Tomorrow I'll post pics of my completed quilt and the other one which is almost finished.

Day 217. Almost done, Almost done...

Today, as promised, I cut the binding to size- sewed it into one long strip and then sewed it on to the blanket.  I then flipped it over, ironed a clean edge into it and pinned it down. Tomorrow morning, I will hand stitch the other side down and then I'll be done.  In case you're curious, the hand stitch is a button hole stitch which is invisible to see and moves pretty quickly, its only the corners that are somewhat tricky.

Tomorrow is our quilting for charity workshop, where we're going to try to quilt as many blankets for hospital patients as we can.  Come if you want, no experience necessary.
The Op Shop
1001 E. 53rd Street, Chicago IL 60615
Saturday April 16th 1-4pm

Day 216.

Tonight I machine quilted the stripe and orange blanket.  Tomorrow I will cut and put the binding on - the final step.  And then I will have one completed quilt for charity under my belt.  I was going to take a picture, but I''m beat. time for relaxing for a few hours.  More mañana.

Day 215. Still Quilting for Charity

Cut the batting and back piece fabric to size, only two steps left

I was taking pictures to show my process, but then I saw how beautiful and bold these photos were. Love these last two

Day 214.

Day 213. Worked on the tulip still life