CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON

My latest healing doll! He may appear fearsome, but if you recall the films, the Gillman was no monster, just a misunderstood biological anamoly who scared the living daylights out of Julia Adams' character along with all the teen girls in the audience back in the day. The Creature from the Black Lagoon movies have become cult classics in the genre of 50's B movie sci-fi. The Gill Man films have always been faves in my family, so when the need arose for a healing doll for my daughter, the Creature jumped first into my imagination. Hey, it was either him or a great white shark; she collects both. She has some surgery coming up, and I wanted to make something to cheer and heal. My choice was easy. I don't think Jaws could ever be considered benign, do you?

Truth be told, it was the fabric that brought on the idea. I found it while browsing a local fabric store in CA last month. As soon as I saw it I knew what it would be, and I started work on it that very evening. I cut the pattern freehand , a technique my mother taught me. The doll's head should not be as pointy as it turned out -- my mistake for leaving the turn opening at the top.

I sewed him by hand (next time I may try my mom's 40's era Singer, probably still works), not

the best thing for dolls, but I did try to reinforce in the curves. I covered the seam line with beads. He has seed beads to outline his mouth (I read that the actual creature costume had bright, bubble gum pink lips which for some reason gave the right effect when filmed in black and white) and olivine crystals for eyes. Of course I tucked a prayer and appropriate crystals,

purified and programmed for target healing and overall wellness inside the Creature. I think my daughter will be tickled when she receives her doll.

My thanks to Mai-Liis Peacock for introducing me to the joys of making and presenting healing dolls. I am already at work on the first project for her new angel class. Below is a peak at the fabric I will be using for the abstract flying angel (think Chagall!).

TWO NEW EXCITEMENTS

I'm back, relaxed and no longer mired in catch-up. If you'll recall I put previous group activities on pause and gave myself permission to quit as long as I needed to. I did manage to get in some creative time during my stay in CA. I knit. I started a doll. I made some floral arrangements. I got to do some sightseeing, pix of which you can find on my Flickr site .

Within 24 hours of my return I had signed up for another class. And maybe a day later I enrolled in another! I know, I know, your're already admonishing me for setting myself up to fall behind again. But understand, both teachers are wonderful instructors and the contents are such that I can work when and as I wish.

I have already gathered in supplies and started on Sharon B's Joggles course, Studio Journals: A Designer's Workhorse . I need this class -- desperately! Before I had a computer I kept art and craft ideas in manila folders. The ideas were magazine clippings or notes hastily scribbled on whatever was on hand while watching TV how-to's. On my lifelong quest toward organization I filed, sub categorized, made new files and labels and soon had a complete file cabinet filled with snippets of ideas now long forgotten. My current computer (#2) has two files with pix and notes for ideas I'd like to work with some day. One I called a visual journal and the other "Concepts".

Both are so long, they're taking forever to load and just as long to scroll down to find stuff. At the same time I've tried keeping journals for each interest one for CQ, one for knitting, beading, freeform crochet, embroidery -- the list goes on ad nauseum. Of course no journal was ever handy when I needed it, and if I travelled the idea of hauling these suitcase-filling journals was absurd. Like I mentioned, this class is a must .

In theory my artistic productivity could increase if I could just corral the ideas. If I could only wrangle them into one place... well, I'm already thinking two, a big one for studio use and development and a small one for thoughts on the go. Sharon told us to just start in the new book, get something on that first page. Mine happened to be a watercolor paper, so I dug out my watercolors to do a simple decorative wash and was aghast that I'd really forgotten techniques long ago learned. Since my overall premise is ideas out of sight are soon out of mind, I thought of lightbulbs to symbolize ideas. I soon got carried away and had makings for collages, stitchings and even dolls. Working the exercises from Lesson 1, I have more ideas in the development stage. So it's already happening;

creative concepts are replacing idle thoughts of a sedentary mind.

Speaking of dolls, I'm very excited about Mai-Liis's latest offering, the Angel Project. I took away so much more from her healing dolls class, I know I won't be disappointed in this one. There's still time to sign up for this very affordable course which is conducted via a closed Yahoo Group. I will shamefully admit that if you mention my name, I will receive a perk in the form of a squishy. That of course is not as important to me as learning ways to make dolls and embuing them with a spiritual essence or intent!

I LOVE LUCY

Lucy Nieto, a fellow Flickr user, contacted me the other day to ask if she could use my April TIFC design to create tiles. I agreed, not really sure what she meant until she sent me the results. Wow! I then asked permission to show the results here, and in the meantime she created another series with my Take a Stitch Tuesday #30 design, and I have to say her results are prettier and far more dynamic than my originals! Lucy tells me she uses a Kaleider software and sometimes FilterForge. Below are some of my faves, but you see them all together here.

It is well worth your time to browse Lucy's photostream. She doesn't just play with digital imagery toys, she is a wonderful photographer as well. You'll enjoy her macros, textiles, textures and a love of color that is truly inspirational. Thank you, Lucy, for sharing your creative world!

FINISHED? NOT QUITE!

I thought I was done, but I think I'll play some more. Meanwhile I want to share another Flickr pix that shares our January palette challenge. The photographer seemed intrigued that we actively seek inspiration for fiber art in nature. This picture struck me particularly because it seemed to portray strata of color and I had used a stripe for my foundation.
Lake in blues & yellows - Acadia, by Zombie37

MY FRIEND FLICKR

I don't recall when I started posting photos to Flickr but I think it was because it was an easier way to blog at the time, plus I had become dissatisfied with my previous photo hosting site. I came to appreciate Flickr's many upgrades, conveniences and greater efficiciency and eventually purchased a pro account so I'd have more space to store my photo collections. I started out just uploading pictures of my various projects, then sets of photos to be viewed by family and friends, finally pictures from my travel I left public for anybody to peruse. Beyond that I only used the site for show and tell and discussion within my limited groups, like CQ,
embroidered motifs, and those created in conjunction with Sharon B activities.

But one day my life with Flickr changed. It began when a comment was posted on this picture. It was one of many shots I took in the Badlands and I'd titled it simply "Strata". Imagine my surprise and curiosity when I was invited to join a geology group.

I checked it out (I really do have an interest in rock formations and minerology) and discovered Mark Willocks whose landscape photography is everything I wish mine could be. I take snapshots; Mark captures those creative visual essences I can see but never reproduce. I had just completed Density and Diffusion for Sharon B's Developing a Personal Library of Stitches class. Landscape, strata of canyon walls contrasting with water, memories of travel through the Southwest -- all influences in the back of my mind as I stitched. You can see how Mark's images of Yellowstone and other western venues just took my breath away. One look at his recent National Arboretum Pool Reflections series, you'll also see how Mark is equally brilliant with any subject.

Besides admiration for a photographer I learned more. I learned to truly make use of Flickr for artistic inspiration. I started searches by subject starting with geographical landscapes. When I came upon a Flickr users whose work I liked, I'd mark the pictures as faves for future inspiration and add them as contacts so I could more easily find their Flickr sites and see when new photos were posted. And if I want clues as to their inspiration, I read their profiles and take a look at their favorites, groups and contacts. So many of us credit nature as inspiration. How many design students are encouraged to look through magazines like National Geographic for ideas. I will never have to cut up another magazine!

Flowers were next. Looking through the flower groups (there are many!)or groups like on Flickr reminded me how much I love macro photography and wishing I had the equipment to do it myself. When I found the group Natural Abstractions I was elated, the moreso because I discovered Sue whose work is stimulating and consistantly view worthy. When I visited her Flickr site and saw her organization of sets, well, just see for yourself!

This morning I learned about Miksang with thanks to Arlene Barr's blog, and I must agree the concept transcends photography; it's about any way we see something and communicate it through artistic expression by any means. From my reading so far I'm gathering the idea behind the photographic Miksang has nothing to do with the grandeur of nature, but rather attention, awareness and appreciation of our ordinary surroundings.

If Flickr isn't my new best friend, it's rapidly becoming one of my best resources. I hope you'll take a moment to browse my favorite photos by other users . Here is the link . I'm always surprised when I stop in. It's teaching me a lot about my preferences in composition, color, line.

La Vida Laredo

La Vida Laredo, originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler.

When I first decided to try crazy quilting I had zero stash: no fabric, no threads or fibers, no beads, ribbons or embellishments of any kind. One of my first acquisitions was a wonderful fabric assortment from Karen South. The woven stripe you see in two of my patches caught my imagination right away, and from the first I knew I would someday use it in a Mexican theme, and over the next years I gathered embellishments suitable for such a project. A while back
I hosted a Southwestern swap followed by a round robin. The desert landscape fabric is one I contributed to the swap, but my most prized goodie from that exchange was the geometric patterned fabric that I immediately interpreted as a stylized desert landscape. And the colors! So close to my equally prized "serape" fabric! Instant color palette!

For the round robin I pieced two southwestern blocks, this one which I called Desert Sunrise (or was it Sunset?) and another in a completely different colorway I called Fiesta. It was the latter which circulated through the round robin and to which I am presently adding finishing touches. Desert Sunrise/Sunset I kept. I'd decided it would be one of two blocks that would represent a bit of family history. When I find the stash I set aside for it, I'll piece the companion; meanwhile Desert Sunwhatever has morphed into La Vida Laredo and represents the years my paternal grandfather lived there with his first bride (I descend from his second wife). Strictly according to family lore, she was from a wealthy family in Nuevo Leon, grand or greatgrandaughter of one of the original Spanish land grantees. In the pictures I have seen, she is a beautiful young woman, elegantly attired. One of the photographs was taken in Paris, where she may have been a student. Tragically she died young in childbirth in 1911. I've often wondered how they met.

I placed symbols on the block to represent my grandfather. There is the initial S for the surname we share, a button representing the railroad for which he was a conductor, and another button in the shape of a miniature Winchester rifle bullet to suggest his reputation as a fine hunter. There are two stars, one to symbolize his Texas birthplace, another tributes his special appointment to the Texas Rangers.

charro pantleg

charro pantleg, originally uploaded by Fiberdabbler.

An inspiration for the theme of my CQ block. Really. I googled to find the picture which I remembered from an article about Mexican silver in the National Button Society's quarterly

Internet as my Morning Muse

My morning routine involves exercising my dog. She wakes me for this event, and I know from experience her gentle insistance means I need to respond at once, so, however clad, I take her out, hoping sleepily that the school buses and job holders have already passed by. If the coast is clear, we'll go to the road to retrieve the paper. Then it's coffee and computer time.

I confess I'm on so many e-lists, I have a hard time keeping up. But there is nothing I'd rather do at my day's beginning than reading mail and exploring links. As previously admitted, I'm easily enabled. I share the thrill of discovery of a new pattern, technique, resource, and I am always inspired by the work of others. I spend a lot of time looking at pictures, reading blogs and checking out enticing, fiber related websites. Along with the coffee my wonderful husband makes me every morning, this computer activity really jump starts my creative thinking.

My creative joy is in learning a technique and planning the project. I spend happy a.m. hours virtually selecting just the right colors and textures for a pattern I like. I should mention I do the same thing in my head nights when I can't sleep.
Lately I've been consumed by a vest called Blazing Sleeveless Blazer which I found in the Fall issue of Knitters Magazine. Yarns called for are no longer manufactured, so I've had hours of fun going over possible substitutes. I use Wordpad as my design board, copying color swatches from online offerings.

I feel blessed in so many ways, and one of my major gratitudes, I now realize, is freedom from boredom.