Jan 20
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Well, life has been busy, right?

I wanted something like a starburst, in celebration of the obvious, so I build this one from the inside out. That made all the subsequent layers overlap the inside and it looks like I built it outside in. Weird.

Jan 19
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I wanted something really light blue, so I wove thin strips of light blue with white, and then stitched the piece to emphasize the vertical stripes. It still needed something, so I tucked some circles into the weaving. I was thinking of the illusions where a horse or hunter is both in front and behind a stand of trees. I think some of these Impossible Columns are the same kind of idea.

Jan 18
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I was so captivated with the fringe on yesterday’s square, I made a whole block of it. But it needed something, so I added a couple circles to smooth out the edges. I like the way the striped fabric echoes the vertical lines of the tiny thin pieces of fabric.

Jan 17
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Squint a little, you’ll see it then… A little six square rug, with coils in the squares, and fringe on the ends.

Jan 16
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Friday – finished yesterday and blogged today.

I like the way the red/orange background makes the blue dots vibrate, and I love the way the grid holds everything down. Nothing is fused here – all the loose edges are loose and flicky. If I rubbed over it with a toothbrush, it would all ravel in interesting ways…

Jan 15
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I forgot I could use other colors. Now I remember… Blue and gold, always classic. I was inspired by jude's embroidered beads, little dot knots of bright color holding the corners of things down. Here I used them to emphasize the centers of circles. I like the way the threads tie the colors together.

As for cleverness, I found a file yesterday and applied it to my huge circle punches. Now they are shiny and sharp, and will cut lots of holes again, instead of making lovely, but useless, perfectly circular creases.

I am starting work on my background(s) for the Exquisite Corpse round robin – a kind of secret, dadaist, heavily embroidered and embellished round robin on 5 contiguous 7" squares. I thought I would start with a set of related backgrounds, and the next player can pick a background, add the next body part plus words, and attach it to the work to date. I signed up thinking I need to play more with others – it looks like fun. My group has two experienced players and three newbies. We have to make a figure; head on top, shoulders, torso, hips, legs, and add words (no less than one, no more than three) on each block. There are more rules than that, but unless you want to play you don't want to know.

Jan 13
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Yesterday’s blue circles. Some are holes, one is an attached dot. I’d like there to be more contrast between holes and dots.

Jan 12
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

My favorite color is blue. Most of what I wear, with some recent astonishing additions, is blue, and a large part of my fabric stash is, you guessed it, blue. I have been working on liking and using other colors, like pink and orange and brown, but I realized I have been missing blue. So I am going to spend a week (maybe two) rolling in around in my pleasure of blue.

Have some holes. They are blue.

Jan 10
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Inspired by Mr. Bentley of VT who took so many lovely snowflake pictures and the incoming weather. There is a poster of the shapes of snowflakes at different temperatures that is too lovely for words, and zipper pulls (I want one but Aerin says "spiky") and annual tree ornaments.

I think I may take next week to think about things with more color(s) than the January shy, although depending on time of day and direction of view there is a fair choice of color and complexity.

Jan 9
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Apparently I was feeling very whimsical this morning. Aerin couldn’t move out of her bed until she’d missed the bus so I drove her to school. On the way there, headed away from the sunrise, were these whale shaped clouds hovering in a completely clear sky. I was wishing there were things that swam in air the way fish swim in water; giant floating sky whales. Pink ones.