WIP Sunflower

Sunflower over Black Birds in Tree Stencil with some sequin waste dots using craft paint on baltic birch panel.  I'll pull the Black Birds in Tree back out after I'm done with the sunflower and other embellishments.

Detail of Sunflower and Black Birds in Tree Stenciled image.

WIP - Sunshine and Roses 061713

It should be finished tomorrow sometime, this piece has been a break through piece for me.  Break through in that while beading and stitching I resolved some issues I had with another piece I constructed way back around 2001, Big Blue Stem.

Big Blue Stem - Earth Pigments, Natural Dyes, Cotton, Cheesecloth, Stitch. 

This piece has been languishing in my studio for about twelve years.  From time to time I trot it out, hang it on my wall and alas nothing, nada, zilch, zip!  And then late Saturday night, whilest I was stitching on Sunshine and Roses it occurred to me to experiment with overlaying digitally printed silk organza fabrics onto the right hand panel.  More coming soon...

Beading Resumes

Was starting to make mistakes so decided to take the rest of the day off from writing and started beading instead.  Am working on the branch portion now, trying to integrate it as part of the whole piece.

More bead soups, this time greens, browns, and brownish purples so as to look like an actual branch in my crabapple tree.

Ok I know I've shown this last one before, multiple times actually, but I sooooooo love this color combination!  The only colors that make me even more happy are sage greens, purple sages, and golden greens.  It's hard to explain... except to tell you to go hang out on the open prairie in the fall.

Bjorkboda Marsh

Went out to the marsh this afternoon for a much needed infusion of inspiration!!!

Now to spend some time in the studio this evening working with a fresh mind!

Stitching Details

More stitching coming later this afternoon, had to take a break from sewing.  In the mean time I'm thinking about  the direction of this particular piece, of rivers, cottonwood trees, marshes, and the difficulties early settlers faced in settling this wild wet often boggy land called Iowa.

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.

No. 45 Redux

Corn No. 45 - Redux, I didn't like the original grain bin so I undid some of the stitching and turned it into a short fat silo, I'm much happier now!

Prairie Seeds Fabric Packs

I'm listing some natural dyed silk fabrics, and hand painted silk fabrics in my shop, enjoy!

New Harvest Pieces - WIP

Two almost done four more to go!

What to do???

I started picking the flowers off and am now debating removing the corn as well, it's flat and does nothing for me.  An option would be to hand couch some more yarns onto the piece to make it more dimensional... or maybe not.

WIP - grumble grumble

WIP - starting somewhere, anywhere, am determined that I WILL produce completed works this year!

Down to the Wire!

One corner cleaned and ready to go!

The junk gone and soon the studio table will be in place!

John and Keith trying to figure out how they are going to get my six legged sewing/work table back into the house!

Prairie Potholes Past and Present No's 1-8
It's time to go rearrange and fluff before the collector arrives, he'll be here in less than 45 minutes!

Iowa - Inspiration at 55 mph!

Iowa - Inspiration at 55 mph!  Whenever I'm not driving I like to take advantage of the situation by snapping tons of photos, photos that are in motion.  Every once in awhile I make a squealing noise indicating I really want to stop and take more photos of whatever that has captured my attention at that moment, but by and large images taken at 55mph intrigue me!

Sandford Museum Solo Show

Installed, was hard to get a good picture of the entire set up.

Final Leg

The final leg towards my solo show, finishing up four pieces in the Prairie Series.

Prairie No.'s 9-12
Natural Dyes Cotton and Silk Fabrics.
Machine Stitched

I cut each of these panels off of their canvas stretched frames and cut them down to size, which varies, as I was unhappy with them.  With the addition of more stitching, and in some cases more silk fabric overlays, and then binding off the edges with zig zag stitching, they will then be re-mounted to 18x24 inch stretched canvas.  More pics later.

New Bits and Pieces in Progress

Prairie No. 11

Prairie No. 11 - 2010

Natural Dyed, Compost Dyed, and Rust Dyed Cotton Fabric.

Machine Stitched. Mounted to canvas on stretcher bars.

16x24 inches

WIP - Prairie

WIP - Prairie

8x8 inches

machine stitched/sketched natural dyed fabrics on canvas

Exhibition Update - 6 of 8 pieces almost finished, these will be matted and framed. John is making the deep frames for me out of poplar which will then be painted black.

Prairie at Dawn - WIP

WIP

Painted Interfacing

Machine Stitched
3 Panels 48x20 inches

Prairie - Past and Present

Prairie - Past and Present
New solo exhibition coming up at Cafe Diem in Ames, IA
March 15th - April 11th, 2010