Lee Thomson

Quilt show mosaic
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Yesterday I biked to Amherst to join friends for lunch and the Hands Across the Valley Quilt Show. The lunch was fabulous, even though I was having one of those scrimmagy days where, although nothing goes horribly wrong, a series of small things are not quite right. I forgot a bike lock, couldn’t wedge the bike into a friend’s trunk, knocked the chain off the gears and wound up (finally) at lunch greasy and sweaty and disgruntled. Except everything was fine after that! Lunch was great and the quilt show was pretty spectacular.

However, I demonstrate for you here why I am not to be trusted with details. I took pictures of a bunch of things I loved, and completely failed to get the names of the people who made them or what they are called. So have some gorgeous things I saw, and I’m sorry I can’t tell you anything further. Except I just looked at the mosaic and the squares in squares are really the images that caught me! I didn’t even see that when I was drifting around taking pictures…

The piece I was finishing over the weekend is melting overnight. I used some meltable stabilizer, and it is insufficiently melted, and needs a good soak. Then it needs to dry. The whole process is taking far longer than I expected.

I am going to go be horizontal. I rode the red horse in the woods and got lost, and finally got home an hour later than I meant to. Then I rode the other two for good measure, and then I had to go clean my teacher’s barn. It was a little colder than I was wanting, but I was prepared, and just fine. Even getting lost in the woods wasn’t bad, just frustrating.

16 things about me
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

There are a lot of “n Things About Me” memes going around, and while I am amused they haven’t spoken to me much. But then one of my Flickr friends tagged me for a photo version. And i had 16 nice pictures of things about me to share with you. So here it is today, because the thing I am thinking about it going to be hard to finish in time to post about it tonight before we go away for supper.

I wanted to find a picture of the white horse on the hillside. The Bronze age one. The one that Terry Pratchett mentions in Wee Free Men. I found this one, which is the one I was after, but not until I had also found this one and this one (with added pranksterism) and this one which were all created much more recently than the Bronze Age.

I also discovered that there is a word for these: leucippotomy is the art of carving white horses in chalk upland areas – particularly apparent in southern England and presumed of prehistoric origin (copied directly from Wikipedia, which explains the random links to things you know perfectly well)

But anyway – how awesome is is that there exists a word only and precisely for carving horses into the chalk downs?

March 19
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Another nine patch sort of object. There are pieces of this one I love so much! The tiny stitches inside the orange squares, the way the green beads lok like eggs in a nest, the subtle differences of greeny-yellow and yellowy green in the 4 pieces, and the variations in oranges across the corners and center.

I feel like I am starting to get a grip – on the machine and the results.

Even the back looked cool on this one. See?

March 19 back
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

March 18
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I keep being caught by these squares in squares. I wove regular polyester felt strips to make the grid, then (aggressively) needle felted wool (red) and cotton (light green) squares into the resulting squares. I love the way the applied squares seem to melt into the backgrounds. It makes me think of using anchovies for flavoring in spaghetti sauce, which is nicer than it sounds because they really do melt into the sauce leaving mostly salt and a hint of dark and brooding flavor for the tomatoes. Anyhow – It all looked a little more wispy than I wanted to I cut more light green cotton squares and stitched them down to the red felted squares to give some harder edges.

On the whole I am pleased, but I still have some more square in square ideas.

March 17
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I think I am done with these people.

I am very pleased with the way I figured out how to make their hair stand up (thread beads onto it) and I rather like their faces. I toyed with the idea of making small papooses for them each to hold, which i might still do and might not, but another idea has caught my fancy and I have to explore it tomorrow.

March 14
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Two of the three figures attached, waiting for their third. I put a bunch of embroidery on the second, and then took it off again because it didn't line up across the bead boundary. I am a little proud of myself for being willing to take out, take off and redo such a lot of stuff on these pieces. Maybe I am picking my battles better – what is noticeable, what detracts from the piece, and what is less of an issue.

The face for the third one looks like this: 

face and hair
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I am absurdly proud of myself for figuring out the beads to make the hair stand up.

And lastly, I present my version of a laptop:

laptop
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I needed a way to bring my work on the road when I was sewing tiny things, and after looking at a bunch of things that were for sale at the time I decided I could MAKE one, because I am clever. This one has worked well for a series of things, from making tiny jointed bears during gymnastics meets to sewing tiny dolls waiting for circus classes to finish, to (now) holding beads and works for these figures.

Typepad tells me this is my 600th post. I am shocked. Pleased, but shocked.

Pi(e) Day – 3/14
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Today, 3/14, is Pi Day (3.1415etc)and you should celebrate appropriately.

With Pie. Lots and lots and lots of Pie.

I
am going to the (relatively) local farmstand this afternoon and
purchasing one of each that doesn't have nuts. Friends are coming for
supper. We will taste all the pies. I was trying to think of potential pies
for supper as well as dessert – pizza, chicken pot, meat – I'll see
what I can find.

Remember: Pi(e) Day= 3/14

NB: I am
realizing this is a pretty American thing because others of you put the
day/month however since there is no month 14, you may want to adopt
this formation for the day so as to be able to eat Lots Of Pie.

March 11
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I have undone almost as much work as I have done today – I was poking a lot of different ideas and very few of them panned out.

This is one of three figures I am working on simultaneously. It isn't done yet, but all the things I tried on it after this point I took off again, some with much cursing. I think I know where to take it next. Until I hate it and have to cut it out again!

I made a lot of felted background as part of the mad experimentation. The trouble with the felted background is that it is only a beginning, interesting to me maybe but less so for you, gentle reader. I would rather show you actual things than beginnings. That was the giant advantage of the four inch square for January and February; it was an actual, single, object, done every day (give or take a little). For March, I have want to use the felter every day, but there is no real reason to subject you all to the results, unless they are pretty spectacular.

So I am working on using the stuff from the felting experiments in projects, and I will (happily) show you those projects. With luck and perseverance, they will show up here on a regular basis.